Here’s the backstory:    And I was overstressed by situations not involving my students.   My goal for the day was to not take my undue stress out on students.  A student in one of my classes finds what most would call odd (like satanic sheep) to be particularly amusing. I’m sure you’ve had many of these cherubs in your own classes. This day, it was the sheep, horns, fire, a devil’s tail, the works.  I was mildly intrigued at this point.  This kid then made a rather punny joke about his creature having steel wool.  This exchange of oddities had me forgetting about my tough day and laughing at the cleverness of a 9th grade boy.

Since this event, the student has stepped up his math game tremendously.  He has demonstrated over and over his intuitive numerical abilities as well as his persistence in solving difficult problems.  He adds his own creative edge to my class as well as strives to thoughtfully engage in the activity at hand.

I kept the picture and put it in a prominent place on my desk as a reminder that what first comes across as outlandish and tough has soft bleating heart underneath.   I think a lot of people don’t see past the satanic sheep and miss the creative, caring, hardworking problem solver underneath.   My challenge to you: find a “satanic sheep” in your class.  Show them you appreciate the creativity they add to your classroom mix.  You may be pleasantly surprised at what comes next.

I had intentions of scouring the internet for the perfect Earth Day activity. Luckily, I came across this:
I saw Beyond Traditional Math’s lesson on the Pacific Garbage Patch, and more than anything, I was impressed with his work and inspired to learn more about this floating mass of plastic-y mess twice the size of Texas floating in the Pacific Ocean. His focus on this Plastics issue made me examine where this permanent substance permeates our lives.  In short, every single piece of plastic that has ever been manufactured is still on earth today. Every. Single. Bit.

I showed this video from the blog post in my classes today:

I supervise the lunch room each day for about 30 minutes and I was in awe as I watched student after student empty his or her tray into the garbage.  Each time, I watched at least one plastic utensil fall into the trash.  One, after another, after another.  I inquired with the cafeteria staff how many of this flatware was disposed of each school year at our school.

Stop for a second:  1500 high school students.  How many plastic tableware do you think we toss out every year?

According to the super-helpful cafeteria staff, we started the practice of using disposable forks, spoons, sporks, and knives after it was discovered that much of our metal silverware was ending up in the trash.  (The pig farmer that collected the compost for feed was not too keen on metal spoons ending up in his pig feed.)  I was informed that we go through as a high school, about 3 cases of forks, 2 cases of spoons, 2 cases of sporks, and 1 case of knives each week.  That’s 8 cases, 1000 per case, every week, for 40 weeks.  320,000 pieces of plastic, every school year, in the trash.  And that plastic lasts forever.  In the trash.

Now, I didn’t want to go about suggesting to a hardworking group of school cafeteria employees that they should change their utensil type because I’m on an Earth Day mission.  But, I thought it was an interesting question to pose to my 5th hour Algebra class:  which would be better to use and why?

I was very impressed with the detail and consideration they applied to the question.  How much metal silverware would be needed to supply the entire school for a day?  Is there time to wash them between lunches?  Between breakfast and lunch even?  Should we consider that extra labor and water cost in the price of the metal tableware?  How would we estimate that?  How can we condition the entire school to stop tossing the silverware and throw it into a separate bin when returning trays? Wouldn’t the metal utensils end up in the trash, costing more money?

We found out that there was definitely a financial savings when purchasing metal utensils of approximately $1500 per year.  I asked the students to weigh in on whether this was worth the hassle of the switch.  I love the interesting answers I get from questions like this.  I didn’t necessarily know what to expect, but I got some very thoughtful answers which considered many of the variables in play in this situation.  The discussion seemed to indicate that the students recognized that even a small switch like plastic or metal utensils requires careful consideration and precise implementation and wouldn’t operate like an on/off switch.  A good day.

I wanted to quickly share an awesome activity that is usable in a variety of classes.  A website I use occasionally to browse teacher resources is TES.  This UK based site is a treasure trove of shared lessons and activities.  This gem, Amelie’s Fashion Mystery starts with a simple question:  Will Amelie make it to the catwalk in time?   Students work through mathematical clues in order to determine if this supermodel makes it on time to the fashion show.  The task requires students to utilize a huge range of math skills and is differentiated with two versions.   Thank you Jake Mansell for a great activity.  Here are the files:   AmelieFashionMysteryintroslideandvisibilitygraph AmelieFashionMystery(visibilityfromgraph) AmelieFashionMystery(visibilityfromformula) (1)

I often wonder if my daughter will view the occupational status of her parents through eyes of appreciation or resentment.  Will she loathe the fact that teacher parents are more aware of the goings-on of their child’s academic life? Or perhaps she will more often appreciate that math homework help will be easy to come by at home?  Both of these scenarios have the potential to have a positive impact on her achievement.  However, I had a profound realization today that what actually will help my daughter be successful is maybe neither of those things.  While she may not be able to get away with teenage class antics as easily as her peers whose parents are not teachers, I do not think that what my husband and I provide for our daughter’s intellectual growth is something that only teachers can give.  ANY parent can engage in rich conversations with their children and see a growth mindset at work.

I want to give proper credit to Christopher Danielson for his Talking Math with Your Kids website and book that drew my attention to how I was interacting with my child mathematically.  As a secondary teacher, I am grateful to have gotten a better understanding of how number sense develops in young children and how I can help foster that development.  Danielson’s website, Talking Math with Kids has been invaluable in recognizing the everyday math conversation opportunities to have with my daughter.

Her preschool days have been spent at a Montessori school.  Although the noodle necklaces, punch cards, and snips of paper are an everyday treat, I was particularly excited when Maria came home with this gem the other day:

Of course my immediate excitement was over the fact that the correct number of squares were colored for each number.  But then I realized that there might be a rich math conversation potential involving that worksheet.  But, I had no idea what to do with it.   I threw it out on Twitter and got many great ideas, including:

Friday was Parent Day at Montessori Central, so I took this as an opportunity to talk some math with my kid.  Luckily, I talked her into this same worksheet.  We explored all kinds of great number-driven curiosities:  which ones make squares, which ones make rectangles, which ones make neither?  How many squares are left over after it’s colored?  How are the rectangles for 2, 4, 6, and 8 alike?

I realized after that experience the limitations of the number worksheet.  For instance, the numbers at the top, while providing an opportunity for “tracing,” don’t allow the learner to explore a particular number any further.  I wanted Maria to explore more ways to color 6 boxes, but her 3.5 year old brain saw the “7” above the next 10-block and would not allow it.  Some worksheet surgery might be in my future.

I do not think that being a teacher makes these conversations natural.  I saw something was mathematically correct, but I didn’t have much experience with turning that into a real mathematically rich conversation with my daughter.  I’m thankful for both the math teacher and parent twitter community for throwing ideas my way.   Any parent is capable of taking something they like and turning it into a teachable moment.   When interacting with our kids, we need to do less showing and more asking; less telling and more listening.  She seems happy about it, doesn’t she?

The brilliant Diagnostic Questions website has been live for a few months now.  After using it once, I’ve completely convinced of its profound positive potential in my classroom.  Craig Barton and Simon Woodhead really have outdone themselves in creating a database of diagnostic questions.  If you have struggled with anticipating student responses or identifying sources of errors, this resource is a total winner.  The site allows teachers to quickly create quizzes that identify student misconceptions.  For example, here is a question from the ‘Probability – Experimental’ section:

All of these answers are carefully crafted so that the teacher can see what students aren’t grasping. Here is an example of student work:

Now I’m able to see how this student got 13, rather than just marking it wrong and moving on.  Obviously this isn’t a new phenomenon to have students explain their answers to multiple choice questions.  However, two key features of this website make it noteworthy above other sites that feature multiple choice questions:

1.  The deliberate multiple choice answers chosen to manifest misconceptions

2.  The easy-to-use format of the site allowing teachers to quickly create, administer, and grade these quizzes.

Thank you, Mr. Barton and Mr. Woodhead for this tremendously helpful tool.  I look forward to contributing questions to your database in the near future.