I’m not sure how itB becameB my testing shirt, but I faithfully wear it on every day that my students test (including every day of CST). Students and teachers across campus know that it’s a test day when I wear this shirt.
And occasionally, they dedicate works of art to the shirt.
(Occasionally, they have forgotten and they remember when they see the shirt. “Awww, we have aB test today?”)
At Ross my first year teaching, this shirt was just too awesome to turn down. I’ve definitely gotten my $8 worth over the years.
Man! My life has been a blur the last 2 week! A few things before I start:
I’m unaccustomed to writing math-centered posts (which you’ve noticed if you read anything prior to the Mullet Ratio). Though I’m still pretty green, I’m thrilled to be involved in the “mathblogosphere”, for which, there must be a better name.
The Barbie Bungee lesson was planned in way less time than the Mullet Lesson, which was in the works for weeks. I was saving pictures, constructing the worksheets, planning my own mullet since April, and it still makes me a little embarrassed to know that people are downloading it. I would have changed this color, updated that picture, or tweaked this font. And the Barbie Bungee lesson was largely planned the morning of. Polished and perfect, it’s not.
In the last week, I got a few thousand hits on the Mullet Lesson, a few dozen tweets about it from people I’ve never met, and it’s been taught in Orange County, the Netherlands, and maybe some places in between. Plus, I got tagged to teach an iPad class with digital textbooks next year and I finished BTSA. Now I’m writing this post, finally. Again, polished and perfect, it’s not.
So, like a proctologist about to scope, I ask that you keep #2 in mind. Remember that teaching and learning are both about improvement over time, and this lesson will likely improve.
Prologue
Saturday, for the TEAMS grant at UC-Riverside, a couple teachers talked about Barbie Bungee and I figured I could call the ante and raise the stakes. I sketched some schematics for a bungee platform and began testing prototypes a few days before the Bungee lesson (Thursday/Friday). I finished up building 9 more of them last night.
It’s not too hard. It’s exactly how it looks. Those angles are 45 degrees and each one hooked onto the chain-link fence outside my class so students could raise and lower the platform to various heights.
Students’ only homework this week was for their group to bring in a doll. I advised them on size, weight, and clothing (one student gel-painted a bikini because she couldn’t find Barbie’s shirt), and stored them in class, tagged by period.
Late last night, I wondered in a panic, “Do I have enough content to fill the 90 minutes for two days?”
I turned to my teaching advisor, Google. It turns out I’m nowhere near the first teacher (as I found out via Twitter) to try a Barbie Bungee lesson.
…and many of them more epic than my plan.
NCTM’s Illuminations had some good questions for students. The Math Lab obviously planned their blog post, with pictures and stuff. Mr. Pederson filmed his class doing the bungee off the bleachers. Fawn Nguyen has been doing it for years, and even planned hers for the same day as me! Talk about being born under the same geeky star! I hope someday my Barbie Bungee lesson will be as involved and pointed as hers. You nailed it, Fawn! Fabulous work.
Seriously, teachers. If you’re interested in this lesson, go to her page first. I guarantee it’s worth your time.
Day 1
After the warm-up, announcements, and whatever, I show these two videos:
Purists will note that the second video (a Russian Missile silo) isn’t technically bungee jumping; they’re using what rock climbers call static rope, which doesn’t stretch. Meaning that they fall about 15-20 meters and are yanked at the bottom. Russians have a different meaning for fun, I suppose.
This is the front row at a KISS concert in Moscow.
But back to Barbies.
I started a discussion first (low-entry point, everybody’s involved).
What do you think the world’s first bungee jumpers thought about?
What makes a bungee jump exciting?
What are the dangers in a bungee jump?
I framed our plan for the day, passed out the pink papers (attached below) and set them to work.
This part was pretty easy. They began building bungee cords, threading their platforms and heading outside to bunge. The GATE (Honors) students finished fairly quickly, some even wanting to go higher (which I saved for day 2).
Memorable quotes:
“What if they don’t hit the ground on the first try?”
“It’s okay to smash their face a little bit, right?”
And my favorite:
“Can I tape her dress down? She’s flashing the goodies with every jump.”
Day 2:
Students were notified that Barbie was to jump 203 centimeters today.
Before we go further, here’s what yesterday’s pink worksheet looked like (Attachment below):
Mathematicians, you’ll note that this is a good time to talk about Ceiling Functions (because you can’t have a 6.3 rubber bands), but I glossed over that for this year.
Students, predictably, added the 60 cm to the 140 cm “then added a little more” to plan for the 203 cm jump. Okay, fine.
Then we took them outside to video as the Barbies jumped 203 cm.
Some classes were very successful, pushing the limits of how close they could get. (and getting frustrated when their doll’s skull cracked the ground).
Then, back inside to answer questions on the back and make calculations for the roof jump.
The janitor had agreed earlier to climb up to the roof and toss the dolls off, two at a time. Of course, I had to build a separate launching platform for the Pavilion roof.
I must really love my job, because I hate drilling pilot holes.
We also taped two yardsticks to the wall, so we could play back the footage and see who “won”. For the more cautious classes, it wasn’t really necessary. Here are all the jumps put together.
Bundle the rubber bands in 20s, then make sure to get all 20 back. (Way easier than counting each group.)
Show that the 60 cm jump is the distance downfrom the ledge, not up to the fence.
For heavy dolls, double up the bungee
Go very slowly to show the class a slipknot for Barbie’s legs.
All told, it was an excellent activity, but not yet a great lesson. Check out Fawn’s post on this. It’s awesome. Mine can get close, but for now it’s just a good year-end activity.
I admit, I would love for my 8th graders to remember a sweet lesson about Systems of Equations (when we used math to convince my wife to buy skis rather than rent them) or something more mathematical than what we did yesterday. But this will probably be the one they tell their parents about.
Mulletude: Just How Mullety Is It?
I was browsing Mr. Piccini’s blog a few weeks ago and came across a simple question: “Who has the more Mullety mullet?”
We’re done with state testing, so why not explore it? Here’s how it went down.
Prologue:
I gave myself a mullet. It was totally worth it; every student came into class with a smile, already curious. It also felt good to say, “Good morning! We’re studying Mullets today.”
A student, certain I was lying, exclaimed to her friend:
“Omigod! Look at the Agenda! It’sB allB about Mullets!”
Part 1: Warm-up
To get them thinking, I started with this mullet question (#1). No numbers, no right answer, just taking a risk and interacting with a foreign subject.
One student said, “No solution. They’re both terrible.” I loved it.
Part 2: What is a Mullet?
I previously discussed the lesson plan with my teammates, and discovered that some of them didn’t know what a mullet was. After the usual start-up business, I went to this slide.
I threw these two beauties on the board and asked, “Which is more Mullety?”
The best part is that students immediately began using the terms I introduced.
Kelsey: The hillbilly has a little too much Party in the back, even though his Business is the same as the cute guy.
Susy: I think the cute guy has the better mullet because it’s more even.
John: Yeah, his Business and Party are moreB B proportional.
“Hold on to that word for later.” I said to John.
Part 3
I then started introducing different mullets, asking which is more Mullety. I knew I’d baited the hook when a student said, “Can we rank their mulletude?”
Yes! Yes, student! Yes, you can! High five!
Part 4: The Mullet Ratio
Students already recognized the vocab from before, so this transition was very smooth. And (here’s the best part) they all jumped on the math with no groaning. Students lunged for their calculators like they were bagels at a hunger strike.
As a sample, I guided the class as we calculated my mullet ratio on the board (See above; it’s 4.73).
“Show me a thumbs up if you got 4.73… okay, good. You’re ready to go.”
Then I took a seat, moved through the slides with a clicker, called on students (using my random cards), and let them discuss.
The above slide (Lionel Richie vs. me in 1989) led to a great discussion on the differences between mullet, afro, and Jerry Curl.
With calculators, they weren’t afraid of large numbers, and they realized that the ratios were still comparable, even when the units were nanometers and miles. After a few slides, we got into a groove, and I could start asking key questions:
“Mark, you calculate the hockey player, Dariana, you get Uncle Jesse”
“Does that answer make sense?”
“Why do you think his ratio is so much higher?”
I also wanted to emphasize that the measurement doesn’t matter; it’s a ratio between two things. This slide and the one above it really drove that home. The Mullet Family caused a fit of giggles in every period, but who cares? It was fun for me.
Highlights: “This is the best homework we’ve ever had.”
“Where did you find all of these?”
Part 5: On Your Own
Then I passed out pipe cleaners and rulers, along with copies of this worksheet:
Students fit the pipe cleaner along the hair, then straightened it onto their rulers to find the measurement of the Party. The Business was usually pretty straight.
Ryan: Jeanine’s is more like a ponytail, is that okay?
Bree: How do I know where the Party ends and the Business begins?
Jose: My uncle has a haircut just like Miguel.
Highlight: For Big Daddy, one student used 0.0001 cm for the Business, and got a mullet ratio of 2.5 million. This led to a great discussion of why that happened. What made the ratio so big?
(Also, I managed to make it the whole day without giggling at “the length of Big Daddy’s Business”.)
Part 6: Your Own Mullet Ratio
After students finished, they found their own ratio, which led to another great mathematical revelation for some of them:
Sara: I don’t evenB have a mullet!
Vaudrey: No, but you do have a Mullet Ratio. So find it. And find the Mullet Ratio of four other people, too.
Students worked for a few minutes, finished up their worksheets, and found each others’ ratios. Now here’s my favorite part of the day:
The Discussion
Oh, and some of them calculated the Mullet Ratio of photos on my Wall of Fame. Joe Jonas isn’t really in my 3rd period.
I quickly recorded all the student ratios into Excel and ranked them, then put it on the board and we had a discussion.
“What does it mean to have a Mullet Ratio of 1.0?”
“What does it mean to have a Mullet Ratio of less than 1.0?”
“Why can’t you have a negative Mullet Ratio?”
Student: “If my hair is longer, how come Karla has a higher ratio than me?”
“What’s the Mullet Ratio for Mr. Krasniak (the bald science teacher)?”
That was my favorite question; the initial yells of “One” and “Zero” turned into “No, wait…B undefined!”
B How I Know It Worked
Look at the Excel chart. Students in other periods got Mullet Ratios in the 20s and 30s, even 40s.
…meaning they falsified their data for a higher mullet ratio, and they knew what they were doing.
Wow. Thank you all for the gushing, I’m humbled.
Thanks to dozens of Twittizens (that’s a real word, right?) who linked this page, to Dan Meyer for his review and kudos, and to Peter Price for his ‘Atta boy.
I got an excellent extension from Mr. Bombastic:
I would like to see some additional questions on this day or the next that do not involve measuring and calculating the ratio (just estimation and mental math). For example, sketch a person with a mullet ratio about half that of Barry; or sketch three different looking people with about the same ratio; or a person whose hair is half as long as Barry with a ratio three times as large; or sketch a person that has a mullet ratio ofb &
Also, from Dan Henrickson:
9. Tom has a Mullet Ratio of 6.2. His party in the back is 19 inches. Find the length of his business in the front.
10. Joe has a mullet ratio of 1.7. Find two possibilities for his hair lengths.
11. Write an equation that models all possibilities for Joeb s business and party. (define the variables used)
12. Graph all possibilities for Joeb s business and party:
Wicked. I’m definitely working those into a warm-up this week, though I’ll probably use the names of students in the class.
You know what’s a goofy number? 365.
It’s not even an accurate way to measure the movement of the Earth.
Birthdays happen ALL the time. If you’re in a room right now with more than 23 people in it, chances are better than 50% that two people have the same birthday.
I had a sub on Thursday, and the students’ assignment was a Valentine’s Card using math vocabulary (and the math terms underlined).
Here are some of the all-stars. Click on the first one to see a slideshow.
So, I stole a few lines, and here is a letter to my wife, the lovely and talented Andrea Vaudrey (with the math terms underlined):
To my Valentine:
Our love is like an irrationalequation; it can’t be simplified.
You are a factor of my life.
If we distribute our love, we can be together forever. Together, we make a perfect square.
I love you like a coefficient loves its variable.
You are the square to my root, the solution to all of my equations. The slope of my love for you is ever increasing.
We fit together like coordinates on an axis.
You are the solution to my New Year’s resolution. Our love is a slope that increases with all my hope that is so dope.
I less thanthree you.
For my love, like pi, is neverending.
Happy Valentime’s Day.
~Matt
UPDATE February 20, 2012: Thanks to Scoop.it for featuring this post, and for opening my eyes to what a fabulous online magazine you are.
UPDATE February 11, 2013:B And here’s the B Math Valentines Card GuideB thatB I used. I’d give credit… if I knew where I got it.
Well, Thursday, Ib m taking a day off and going to an Exponents and Polynomials workshop with my team, then I go to Palm Springs on Friday and Saturday for a Math conference. I plan on spending three days of my weekend factoring and graphing.
Typically, most my b work lifeb is considered pretty boring. Not many would ask follow-up questions about the Math conference and even fewer about Polynomials.
More people are interested in me driving 80 minutes BACK from Palm Springs on Friday night for a CD release party at my house, then returning to the conference in the morning. (Click Here to get a taste of Scott Ryan’s new album.)
One aspect of my weekend at the conference, however, bears mentioning, because it got me jazzed.
Ib ve been math-crushing on Dan Meyer for over a year now. While I don’t want to clumsily re-hash his talk, the video above and his blog paint a pretty clear picture. His desire to give math a makeover has blossomed into an obsession, leading him into a doctoral program at Stanford to reform mathematics.
That’s a short blog summary of a dynamic 85-minute presentation to a full house in the middle of the Palm Desert. Midway through, my colleague turns to me and says, b I think I have a crush on him, too!b
Aside from Meyer’sB inspirationalB lesson, the conference was pretty regular. Four 90-minute math lectures a day, 30 minute passing periods, and a lunch. It was similar to high school, but if everybody was the Honors Student.
True story: in a session, one guy got visibly upset about how the slope is notB an attribute of the line, but rather a property between two points.
Picture somebody getting close to tears about how Snookie is getting a bad rap, but everybody in the room was there to talk about how pop culture is the downfall of society. It was kinda like that.
In addition to taking home several pages of good math ideas and enrichment activities, I ran into my old Teacher Mentor, Kellie [Webb] Medley. I hadn’t seen her in 3 years and had miles of compliments to give. I babbled for about a quarter-mile as we walked from our conference room to the lobby, thanking her for investing in me and supporting me during the hardest job I ever had.
Here are a few great ideas (and quotes) she gave me during my first year teaching.
You know how to tell when a teenager is lying? When there’s words coming outta their mouth.
James, you were talking again, go sit over there. “I wasn’t talking.” Let’s not have an argument about it, let it go.
Maria, you’re staying after class to finish that assignment. “Pfff. Whatever, I’ll just walk out.” Ha!. You gonna run me over? Siddown!
(During lesson planning) What do you want students to do by the end of the lesson? How is this making that happen?
(After a lesson) What do youB think when wrong with that lesson? What can you change for tomorrow?
There are dozens more good ideas that I stole from her, including one that made its way into my Master’s Thesis.
Between Dan Meyer, Kellie Medley, and Tiffany (colleague) I had a great time and left very fulfilled.
Now on to enlighten and stretch young minds.
Don’t get me wrong, some blue-collar jobs are great. I was a janitor for 4 and a half years and I loved probably four of them. It’s incredibly gratifying to work with your hands and immediately see results. I left that job due to a sense of typical entitlement: I’m about to get a college degree; I can do better than this.
I am currently a Geometry teacher at an arts school and I have found a medium where I’m able to interact with students, enlighten supple minds, and quip fun facts about Latin words and Religion. No job is perfect, but while I may voice my concerns to my wife and close friends, I am still bursting with gratitude that I have a job that doesn’t suck. It’s also in a field that I actually like. I’ve seen dozens of aging Baby Boomers working the Returns counter at Wal-Mart and none of them are too happy to be doing it.
To back up my claim that the recession is good for our kids: here are a few direct quotes from the internet:
Play unnoticeably on your browser at work!
Today, my co-workers decided to play a round of “Who can piss off the boss the most?”. I didn’t play, but I still won. FML
Check out this video! NSFW!
There are 37 million Google results for “kill time at work”, including this article on ehow.com, which gives “productive” ways to piddle away the weekday. I had to look up NSFW a few weeks ago, while I was reading an article online (It was during my break period; don’t judge me).
In the movie Office Space, Jennifer Aniston laments “Everybody hates their job”. Unfortunately, this sentiment is a poor sampling of Humanity and an even poorer sampling of the United States. An individual can make $9 an hour testing video games; our country is awesome.
Enter the recession.
Suddenly, those who hated their jobs are wishing they had it back. Suddenly, $40,000 a year isn’t a right, it’s a privilege, and you may have to actually… *sigh*… apply yourself and earn the paycheck. Suddenly, if you hate your job, you aren’t “everybody”, you’re an ungrateful douche, and probably a little arrogant also.
Hence, the growing “Get a College Degree or Live with your Parents Forever” movement gains more steam as even Wal-Mart employees have 12 years experience in retail and a law degree.
Now, the entitled American teenager who plans to work as a receptionist with his/her high school degree must get some experience, get a degree in Administration, and most likely have a skill set.
You know, other than texting and hiding gin in an Arrowhead bottle.
Like, can I help you?
Further, college students who have accepted allowances from their parents during college in the past must now compete for Starbucks and Albertson’s jobs and… go to work often. I recall sleeping through at least two shifts at Subway when I was in college, in addition to arriving late and leaving early. If I were to do that now, there would be a dozen other collegiates looking to earn $7.50 an hour to sling pressed turkey. How else will we afford EasyMac?
Yup. It appears that the United States will be joining the rest of the world in budgeting, saving money, reducing debt, raising productivity, and planning ahead.
Except that 67% of us are obese while we do it. Happy Hanukkah.
I gave you my vote in 2008 and I am still 100% glad that I did. Ib ve never doubted you in your 14 months so far and I think youb re fabulous. This is a letter commending your triumphs because you are an easy man to criticize; people love to throw stones at the TV screen knowing the President wonb t yell back.
As an American, Ib m fan of Healthcare reform. So committed, in fact, that I find myself in the minority for the first time in my life. Ib m a White, Protestant, Middle-class male with a Masterb s degree. Ib m from an upper-middle class family and so is my wife.
Ib m in the minority for this reason: Ib m prepared to pay more taxes for the same health coverage so that medical coverage could be provided to those less fortunate than I am. Ib m sure if everybody thought this way, web d have a bill already, but Ib m prepared to wait until we find a bill that people quit complaining about.
(And Ib ll tell any Republicans I know to put some of their energy into building bills instead of tearing them down.)
Unrelated to health care, I support several unpopular ideas and I figured that youb d like a voice in the trenches. So here it is from an educator:
Merit Pay is a great idea if properly and concretely implemented. I wonb t suggest what that system will be, but I can say from my own experience that teachers who stink are kept in the payroll way too long. Exciting and motivated teachers have little incentive to do a good job when tenured teachers get paid more to sit behind their desk and hand out worksheets. Itb s depressing.
NCLB is hated universally among teachers that I know. We all agree that the students in our classes need better skills and that a great way to measure that is test scores, but to claim that all schools reach an API score of 800 by the year 2014 is ridiculous. If you donb t know much about API, then you can trust me on this; itb s ridiculous.
We understand that the White House has bigger fish to fry than No Child Left Behind reform. For now, we teachers are fine to just b & not talk about it.
Itb s also pretty apparent that youb re not a big fan of people applauding you; I respect that and empathize. I giggled when Michelle motioned for the house to b sit downb during the standing ovation for her obesity plan.
All that to say that I think youb re great and I will support you until you do something crazy, like invade Canada
b & and probably even after that. They’ve been asking for it, eh.
