Today, we had an exercise in hype and entertainment, and it didn’t even feel like work.
First period, I taught this:
Figure 1: INSTANT engagement for students
The prescribed curriculum has me teach this way:
Angles 1 and 2 are supplementary angles, Angle 2 = 40B0
Angles 2 and 10 are alternate interior angles, Angle 10 =B 40B0
Angles 8, 9, and 10 make a straight angle, Angle 8 = 60B0
Angles 8 and 11 are alternate interior angles, Angle 11 = 60B0
Oooo. Ahhh.
Instead, we did this:
Pass out a ton of triangles, all different shapes. Students cut them out and label the angles. Colored paper helps. Shading the angle helps also for students who have a hard time identifying the vertex.
First, tear off angle A and align its vertex onto the vertex of the straight angle, then the angle side on the side of the straight angle.
Do the same thing with angle B.
Students now have a little gap, as you can see here:
Now, the next part is very important, so I’ll explain it step by step:
1.) Clap your hands loudly and jump on a desk. Sweep your hand over the class and declare, “Magic has arrived!” in a triumphant tone.
2.) You likely have the students’ attention now.
3.) In the same majestic voice, announce, “At this point… every page in the class has a different triangle* with angles labeled differently. All of us have a gap between the two angles.
With my magic powers… I predict… (roll your Rs; it really sets the mood) B that your one remaining angle will fit perfectly between the other two… go!”
4.) Students fit the third angle between the first two, then exclaim with wonder and throw roses at your feet. Third period gave a standing ovation and asked how long I was in town. One girl is bringing her parents to the matinee tomorrow.
5.) Explain that they can perform the same trick at home, and you’ll give away your secret right now: The sum of all the angles inB any triangle is always 180B0, just like the straight line upon which they are perched.
See? Wasn’t that better than this?
Figure 2: Reading an owner’s manual about magic.
To be fair, we went actually tackled the above problem after the magic show, but–and you can quote me on this–it’s way easier to hold students’ focus when there is magic involved.
*There were only 12 different triangles, but I didn’t tell them how to label the angles, so the odds are one in 144 that two students had the same situation.
After 11 weeks, 15 class periods, 3 software updates, and 5 topic changes, the 20% Projects were finally presented to an audience on November 15th. In attendance were Ms. Fay, the Principal; Ms. Garcia, the Assistant Principal; Ms. Smith, the science teacher; Ms. Zipper, the instructional aide; and Mr. Cumbow, the network administrator for the district. Add to that a couple dozen parents, and you have all the makings of a large–yet respectful–audience.
This project started here, with the help of several other teachers across the country that are doing this same project.
My favorite moments:
The crowd’s “whoa” when Andrew showed his own drawing.
Dylan’s encouragement to “Be grateful for the little things”
Two female students changed their topicB the day before, and still nailed it.
Jerel chose to research Dodge because “the car represents muscle and speed… like me”.
Victor, Herson, and Ramiro using carbon-fiber cleats “because they’re cheaper”
Malea looked up what a Popshield was, so she could explain how it’s used in the studio.
Next time:
Have more formal declarations of topic and guiding question. Many questions changed during the course of the research, and they would be closer tied to the topic if they had tattooed it somewhere.
Put a sign on my door that says “Please wait for applause before you enter” or just prop the door open.
Turn down the brightness on the projector so it shows up on video.
~Matt “It was actually more like 27.3%” Vaudrey
P.S. This is the first post in which I use students’ actual names. In the past, I have used (and will use, in the future) pseudonyms, and confirmed with Ms. Fay that it’s legal for me to use their names here. Parents, please call if you’d like your student’s name removed.
It’s short for Web-Log, but nonetheless, the term is a poor approximation for the amount of good stuff happening online.
Kate Nowak–at least 20% of the brains behind Mathalicious–asked for some input on Teacher Blogging, so here it is:
1. What hooked you on reading the blogs? Was it a particular post or person? Was it an initiative by the nice MTBoS folks? A colleague in your building got you into it? Desperation?
Desperation. During my first year teaching, I found myself regularly journaling, “There hasB got to be an easier/better/more fun/cheaper way of teaching this concept”.
After exhausting my master teacher (and getting plenty of good ideas from her), I took to the internet and found teacher blogs: people who were not only sharing their successes, but also their failures and shortcomings. I would find a cool lesson and read about a teacher in Mississippi whose 6th period was just as unruly as my 3rd period.
As a first-year teacher, that feeling was like being back in the first grade and finding out that Jeremy struggled with chin-ups, too.
2. What keeps you coming back? What’s the biggest thing you get out of reading and/or commenting?
The collection of math teachers online is like having a staff lounge with only trustworthy, non-grizzled, innovative veterans, all of whom will happily share all their secrets for free.
If such a thing existed in the automotive business, all cars would run on tap water and get 400 miles per gallon.
In commenting, I get to share my own [limited] experience with teachers, many of whom are new to the gig. It feels like giving back.
And it’s real humbling to see big names in Education commenting also, or people giving comments much more astute and helpful than my own. It’s good to be humbled sometimes.
3. If you write, why do you write? What’s the biggest thing you get out of it?
I love running my new lessons through a checkoff of sorts. Through blogging (and Twitter) I can ask teaching questions to a specific audience and get only the advice I want. Example below; read a few of these:
I asked people across the state about a project my class was doing and got all those responses within 24 hours. Not bad.
4. If you chose to enter a room where I was going to talk about blogging for an hour (or however long you could stand it), what would you hope to be hearing from me? MTBoS cheerleading and/or tourism? How-to’s? Stories?
A few things:
Tier your instruction (eh? Get it?) so that you can address both the non-bloggers and the established bloggers. Do that by describing what blogging is in its ideal form. That will inspire a beginning in those that don’t blog yet, and an advancement in those who already do.
Emphasize how easy it is to join. When I spoke on Twitter last month, I called it “a wide rushing river that is full of chatter and intimidating to look at, but dipping your toes into it is easy.”
On your blog, you mentioned “written, public reflection”. Touch on how the worst employees in any profession are those accountable to no one. Written, public reflection provides a respectful vulnerability. There is something powerful in two parties saying, “I’m imperfect and I need help,” and “So are we, here are some ideas.”
There’s a lot happening in and around my class, specifically with regard to the students’ 20% Projects, so how about I just tell you what I told him.
The TED talk notes on Stage Presence were in conjunction with prepping my iPad class on their 20% projects. I got the idea from Kate Acker, who had her seniors watch TED videos on mute, making observations on stage presence only.
As you may imagine, about 20% of the notes were potent (a fitting ratio), but it led to a good class discussion with a few students declaring their intent.
“I’m gonna make sure to look at the audience!”
“Can I walk around the room? Sweet!”
What I neglected to mention to Robert (until now) is how the shared Note-taking thing worked (and how it worked out).
Shared Note-Taking
1.) This class has 1:1 iPads. They had previously downloaded the Google Drive app and logged in with one of my Gmail accounts (created specifically for this purpose).
2.) All students open Google Drive and open the spreadsheet that I had previously created for them. As you can see, student names run down the left, name of the speaker runs across the top.
3.) With 17 students all active on the same spreadsheet, it gets a little glitchy. Toward the end, some students are getting frustrated, insisting “Franz deleted my note!”.
4.) Only 17 students (out of the 22) are participating on their iPads, because two students have theirs confiscated pending a parent conference. One is absent, and one is lazy; she sits vacantly at her seat until I poke her with a pencil, at which point, she mumbles, “I can’t log in.” Super.
5.) The resulting notes (spread over a couple days) give us fodder for a class discussion on stage presence. I highlight a few boxes that interest me and we talk about them. Hopefully, they’ll take them to heart when we do a rehearsal next Wednesday.
As long as I’m hoping for things…
~Matt “100 by 100” Vaudrey
*It’s also notable here that I first heard of shared note-taking at the CUE conference in a session by Bill Selak.
…whew!.. all those links… I gotta catch my breath.
This post is actually more about Productivity, a math game that I acquired my first year teaching and still use every year.
Productivity:
Each pair or trio of students gets the worksheet and a deck of cards, and we walk through the first one together.
…and I stack the deck so there’s a face card in the example.
on the board, it says something like this:
It’s a fabulous activity for a sub (once they’ve done it before) and a great way to get some math done on a minimum day or the last day before a break.
Extensions:
EveryB n minutes, change the green numbers.
After a group finishes one side, they are slow to do the same thing. I tell them, “Now you can change the order of the cards before you write them down.”
This will be short. I’m spending every waking minute prepping my presentations for conferences at CLMS South and CMC South (featuring John Stevens), so blogging has fallen by the wayside.
This morning, I was driving to work listening to Tony Danza’s book on tape (which I highly recommend for teachers and gentiles alike). He was talking about the Haiti crisis, and I was reminded of where I was on that day in 2010.
The Charter School where I taught was taking donations to fund the relief effort. Some of my students scoffed as the ASB representative came in to collect. Others in the back where chatting about the upcoming dance. One was drawing.
I took all the change out of my drawer and some cash from my wallet and stuffed it in the jar. At this point in the year, my students knew that I wasn’t flaunting, but trying to model for them. I could have stepped outside to donate privately, but… whatever. They need to know that it’s important.
Angel was a quiet first-generation English speaker who had recently been revealed as ROCKET, the graffiti artist terrorizing books and bathroom stalls.
“Mr. Vaudrey!” Angel calls from the back row. “DoB you think we should give money to Haiti?”
All at once, the class falls silent.
All 31 sets of hands immediately stopped what they were doing and 31 pairs of eyes were fixed on me, still standing at the front of the class after the ASB rep left.
I took a deep breath.
“IfB I were hurting,” I begin, my eyes unexpectedly filling with tears. “I’d want somebody to come toB my rescue.”
I’m getting choked up now just writing this and thinking about what an awful day that was for the hundreds of thousands of Haitian people.
Today, I took a risk. I’ll present it to you in the same way I told my 6th period (who all have iPads).
The Intro
“That was the bell. Sit. Fergie; you didn’t ask if you could get water. Sit. Maria, eyes over here.
[Dramatic Pause] Today… you will begin… for the first time… ever… your Twenty. Percent. Project.”
A couple “huh?”s, a chuckle, then a few started clapping. The whole class gave a round of applause for something they knew nothing about.
This is clearly a safe class to take risks.
Accustomed as I am to a class full of adoring, applauding adolescents, I waited until their awe subsided and I said, “Go ahead. Ask me.”
In unison, they chimed, “What’s a 20% project?”
Akin to Kate Petty, I said, “You’ve got iPads. Figure it out. Do some Googling.”
So they did. After about 12 minutes, I killed the mood music and asked, “Okay; what did you find out?”
Belinda: It’s a Google thing.
Louie: It involves 20% of the time.
Kathy: No kidding!
Harrison: [reading off the screen] Employees will dedicate twenty percent of the work day toward–
Vaudrey: BORED! Somebody else, who isn’t going to read it.
Robert: Research?
Destiny: Like… um… you look up stuff that isn’t part of school.
Vicki: [reading] Students will create a proposal and a presentation–
Vaudrey: BORED! Somebody else, summarize what you’re reading.
Vicki: Hey, you didn’t say ‘summarize’.
Louie: We research anything we want?
Vaudrey: Let’s watch a video.
I had previously searched YouTube and–what luck!–found Kevin Brookhouser‘s video showing 5-10 second chunks of his students’ 20% presentations.
Vaudrey: Okay, what did you see?
Fergie: Novels.
Vicki: Cookbooks.
Nadia: Music.
Vasily: Raising money for cancer.
Buzz: Tutoring.
As veteran teachers will tell you, there’s a fine line between baiting the hook and stringing them along. One of them gets them interested, the other gets them frustrated. This group was approaching the threshold. Time to bring it home.
Vaudrey: For 20% of our week–every Friday–you get to learn about whatever you want. You get to pick something that interests you and learn about it.
Kathy: Anything we want?
Vaudrey: Anything that is interesting to you… and school-appropriate.
Two idiots: Awww!
Vicki: Like… what do you mean?
It’s notable that Kate and Kevin executed this project with 16-18 year-old students. My students are 11-13 and in a Math Support class (with iPads as part of the strategy). Developmentally, it was unlikely that they would understand the concept without some prodding and leading.
Vaudrey: Okay, Vicki. What’s something that interests you?
Vicki: Soccer.
Vaudrey: What about soccer?
Vicki: Um… the cleats.
Vaudrey: Keep going.
Vicki: Like… how are they made? Some are made from carbon fiber.
Vaudrey: That sounds like something that you could research and then teach us about.
Louie: We have to present this?
Vaudrey: Yup. At the end of the Trimester to parents and teachers.
[Cries of distress and gnashing of teeth]
Vaudrey: …but the final product isn’t graded. You’re graded on your work along the way.
[Blank, confused stares. I’ve hit the overload. Time for some exploration.]
Vaudrey: Take the next 15 minutes. Do some research on something that is interesting to you. What do you want to learn about?
And they were off. After checking with a couple groups, I was stoked. Photography, engine design, taking risks as a professional athlete, anime, sound engineering, art therapy; they were diving in, and it was pretty sweet.
Also, there were a couple of these:
Vaudrey: What do you have so far?
Anna: Nothing.
Vaudrey: Okay. What’s something that interests you?
Anna: Nothing.
Vaudrey: Okay. What’s something that you like?
Anna: Nothing.
[I wait and stare at her until she cracks]
Anna: I donno… like… music?
Vaudrey: Okay. What about music is interesting?
Anna: I don’t know.
Vaudrey: What’s on your iPod right now?
Anna: Songs.
I’ll have mercy and spare you the rest, but there’s probably a reason that this project is done with high school students instead of middle-schoolers.
Same reason that we let the dough rise for a while before we make pizza out of it.
Questions I Didn’t Expect
Beatrice: Are we allowed to change it up?
Vaudrey: Uhh… sure.B Because you’re probably having a hard time committing to one thing and you’re more likely to lighten up if it’s temporary in your head.
Vicki: Some of those students were in pairs or teams. Can we work in teams?
Vaudrey: Once you’ve decided what you’re researching, you might pair up, yes.
James: Mark! Me and you!
Vaudrey: Nope. That’s not how it works. Stop. Stop pointing at each other. If two people are interested in the same thing, then I might group you together.
Anna: We can’t pick our own groups?
Vaudrey: No.
Anna: Why not?
Vaudrey: I forget. Whose class is this?
Students: Mister Vaudrey’s class.
Vaudrey: So who is the boss, the divine ruler, the king?
Proletariat students: You are, sir.
Louie: Can I do SpongeBob?
Vaudrey: What about that is interesting?
Louie: Uh…why’s he so happy?
Vaudrey: Well… that’s a silly question. I could answer that with 4 minutes of searching on the Nickelodeon website.
Louie: Awwwww, What?
Vaudrey: Also, if you pick an easy thing, I’m going to make sure that you still have to work hard.
Louie: Oh. I’ll pick something else.
Vaudrey: Good idea.
Recent days at work have been great. The first month of school was tough; within the top 3 frustrating Augusts of my teaching career, but recent developments (and freedom to do whatever I want with 6th period) have freed me from the chains of canned curriculum, and given my tethered wings…
Much like when I was in college, the online courses don’t command my attention unless I pick time during the week to dedicate to them.
As a result, I’m a little behind in the How to Learn Maths course by Stanford professor Jo Boaler, though it’s not from lack of solid material.
(Truth be told, I had a busy weekend and had a lot on my mind.)
To that end, I’m posting here my Concept Map (not really) for the discussion of why students are averse to maths education.
As you can see, the Easy and Practical maths (Quadrant I, top right) are brightest because they’re easiest and quickest to consume. While I can’t speak for the U.K. or other areas, the United States is very interested in quick consumption and disposal with no lasting effect.
…this extends to their math as well.
Quadrant I holds maths that are quickly calculated using simple formulas and requiring no greater understanding of mathematics. These are especially appealing to American teenagers; the Big Mac of maths, if you will.
Quadrant II (top left) is math that is easy to grasp, but not typically applicable to real life. Many of the 3-Acts fall into this category, and that’s okay.
Quadrant IV (bottom right) is math that is easy to do, but won’t be used often in real life. If it can be done easily in Excel or Google Sheets, it goes here.
And the student interest fades with the colors as we travel to Quadrant III (bottom left) where math is difficult, uninspiring, and never used again after the course.
I asked my (physician) father if I should take Calculus 2 and 3 in college. He responded, “Only if you want a job as a very narrow form of geek.”
