Sad loss...

In the education field.

Jaime Escalante was one of those inspirational souls who got teachers to realize that kids will rise to the challenge.

So sad that he passed. He will remain an inspiration to us all.

Comfort in the...comfortable?

So I went old-school with my two afternoon classes today. We ran far, far away from constructivist teaching (what I'm working on this year) and went back to what I'm best at: the 5 step lesson.

Oh TFA, how you helped me so much with the 5 stepper. I grab your attention. Then, I model what to do. We do some together, then you do it alone. Sometimes, I add in some interesting stuff: you practice with a partner....we use a timer...you do your problems on the board for everyone to critic...etc.

AND LIFE WAS SO JOYFUL WHEN ALL WAS QUIET AND I WAS IN CHARGE. SO JOYFUL FOR ME.

But not worthwhile in the long term for my students.

And I was so bored....because I was telling the kids what to do. They weren't figuring it out themselves. They weren't learning...they were doing.

None of this is going to stay with them...because their little brains didn't grapple with it. They didn't work in groups. They didn't construct an idea. They didn't have equilibrium rattled.

Damn it, with all my professional development and my love of teaching the kids what to be problem solvers and my guilt when the kiddos don't develop knowledge. Damn my guilt.

But sometimes, I need that. I need them to be able to answer standardized test questions so the administration can get off my back. So the federal government can get off my back. So my kiddos don't see more than 5 lines of text on a math question and give up.

AHHHH its a double edged sword.

Dear Onion,

I heart you.

You write such witty material.

And this rings so true to some students and parents. But it was really funny.

Bump...

On a log.

Or logarithm.

Or basically shit I don't understand. I also thought a "six-figure" salary refers to the fact that someone makes between $100,000 and $999,999 makes six digits of money. There are six figures in that number.

WTF if I actually use logarithms in daily life? That shit blows my mind.

Some kids...

Are so mean.

So mean, in fact, that it led to a suicide. It is SO sad.

But good job for pressing criminal charges. Kids can be so cruel sometimes. You even say things like, "would you want someone to do that to you?" and they cannot even FATHOM how their actions make others feel. It really frustrates me how much bullying goes on.

And I have NO idea what to do to stop bullying. Why do some kiddos spend their entire lives trying to destroy others? How did you, the bully, get so insecure that you have to treat others like crap?

Race to the Top....

Or race to a tiny state?

Delaware and Tennessee won the first round of Race to the Top grant funding, according to the Wall Street Journal.

I'm jealous. They get millions of dollars to overhaul their education department.

I'm jealous because I want to be one of the people making decisions about how students are best educated, and frankly, I'm just too young. I don't have enough experience. I look bright eyed and bushy tailed. I'm generally a harsh critic and I would make good decisions.

Not that I don't love Arizona. And would love to overhaul the education system here. Because clearly we are not doing so well according to RTTT. So let me work on the committee. I promise I have good ideas and make good decisions for the kiddos.

Just because I'm opinionated doesn't mean I don't know what's best for kiddos.

My friends keep me humble....

Or something.

Here is an actual g-chat conversation had with one of my favorite college friends ever.

Vet Lady: Do NOT show your students TFLN
me: i won't. but it is PERFECT for teaching inferencing

Vet Lady: Yeah show hi risk kids lots of drug and pregnancy refs

U crazy lady!

me: HAHAHA. they already do drugs and have sex

Vet Lady: Your middle schoolers r cooler than u

At least I know who can keep me humble. I miss you, midwest peeps!

Did that actually just happen?

Sometimes, while working in the school I do, you have to ask yourself the question, did that actually just happen?

Yesterday, at the back gate after school, we were trying to shoo the kids home so that we could finish parent teacher conferences (Read:the smart ones who finished the conferences before Friday could lay by the pool).

Ivy and I were shooing away the kids when we look at the giant field behind our school and see a circle of 7th grade boys. We immediately begin walking towards the circle, because a circle means only one thing: potential fight. (Oh how I wish it was for duck, duck, goose.)

I start running, thinking, crap crap crap I hope they don't fight and look in the middle of the circle. THERE are 2 FIRST GRADE boys in the middle. I sigh with relief, and then see the FIRST GRADERS start kicking each other's asses. They were punching, throwing each other to the ground, and generally beating the shit out of one another.

I yell, "STOP." They all look around, see me, and one of the first grade perps BOOKS it across the field. I break out into a full out sprint, trying to chase this boy, while Ivy goes after the other one, and all of the other boys stare at me as I'm sprinting across the field. (Think giant park. Like a football field.)

As the first grader is running away, he throws up DOUBLE MIDDLE FINGERS at the kid who he was fighting, then at ME.

WHAT? Shut the front door. Oh no you didn't just throw up double middle fingers at me and another kiddo.

So I run faster. And as I'm catching up with him, his older brother picks him up and sprints into the neighborhood. I lost him. Crap.

But as I walk back to the other boy who didn't run, we found out these things
a) the boys really didn't want to fight
b) the 7th graders pimped out their brothers to fight so they could watch

I'd like you to re-read b. That's right. They made the boys fight each other.

Did that just actually happen?

And please imagine a sweet first grade boy throwing up double middle fingers. I couldn't stop laughing. Although it was inappropriate.

Sometimes you just have to laugh...

Oh my gosh. This week was conferences, which made the week super stressful. By the time Friday rolls around, every teacher is fighting tooth and nail not to be completely spent. I admit we were a little giddy this morning.

Mostly because I haven't gotten much sleep this week. But then again, who puts a Spring Training night game AND March Madness on school nights? For real. You know you've become a "veteran" teacher (as opposed to a rookie) when you can spend your school nights doing non-school things and still be able to function in class.

So, today, I may have been off of my rocker.

Grenade exploded in class today, threw some stuff at kiddos, swore at me and her peers countless times, and so she "got" to leave.

Then, I'm helping a sweet, completely non-spatial kiddo try to fold nets into 3-D figures, really seeing lightbulbs go off in his head as he makes connections between 2 and 3 D figures, I look up, and two of my BOYS ARE FIST FIGHTING IN THE FRONT OF THE ROOM.

I'm pausing at this point in the story to tell you that there are 3 adults in the room. Myself, Mr. Guitar, and super colleague TOFTT (take one for the team). So Guitar is helping some of my stubborn kiddos do their work (he's a special education aide), and TOFTT is explaining some of Shiny's IEP goals to him. AND THE STUPID BOYS START FIGHTING.

I yell, "STOP. GET OUTSIDE." And they meander outside, I slam open the door, put one at one end of the hallway, one at the other, and go, "I'm SO PISSED OFF RIGHT NOW I MIGHT SWEAR. WHAT THE (long pause as my mouth formed words) WERE YOU THINKING?"

Then they left to go to the office. I was done.

So I have many less kiddos in my room. One of them walks up to me and TOFTT and says, "Mario says he's bringing a watergun to field day and squirting water at all the girls who are wearing white."

What do I do? I laugh. Hysterically. I cannot stop. Neither can TOFTT. It was just too much. So much so that Shiny came up to ask us a serious question and I respond with, "Shiny, are you trying to grow sideburns? Because its not working."

I was done with the week.

Best. Rule. Change. Ever.

Good job, NFL. I love this rule change.


I may be biased. One of the worst professional football games I have ever attended was when the Steelers lost to the FRICKEN LIONS on Thanksgiving Day because of the stupid coin toss.

I'm not reliving that damn experience again. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you NFL. (Although its only the playoffs. Soon, I think it will be the regular season as well.)

I understand that this may not be about education, but think about these things.
1) I love sports more than I love my job
2) I love the Steelers
3) There was math in the article

Blow. Your. Mind.

Okay. I have a confession. Complete honesty right now: I'm admitting I'm not good at something. (Mallard, you should get me to sign a confession or something. This shit NEVER happens.)

I find three dimensional geometry difficult. Like, as in, I have very little spacial relation skills and find three dimensional objects hard to teach because I don't fully understand them on a deep level. Tetris blows my mind. Put it in three dimensions, and I'm fricken screwed.

(On a completely different note, I'm a master packer when it comes to moving vans or trunks. But that has less to do with spatial relation skills and more to do with learning from my Dad the countless times we had to drive across...the country.)

So when I have to teach surface area of three dimensional figures using their nets, we have multiple problems.
a) A net implies that you can actually take a 3-D figure apart and make it 2-Dimensional. WTF! I'm the girl who always has to re-cut wrapping paper because I don't have enough or trim it after I tape because I used too much. (Legit. This is the truth.)
b) Then you have to calculate various lengths based on your geometrical knowledge. OR THE KNOWLEDGE derived from a 3-D figure. Shut. The. Front. Door.
c) And then, there are cylinders.

CYLINDERS. Like, combine what you know about circles and you know about 3-D figures and put it together and create MAGIC. (Did I mention that when I wrap presents that are cylinders, I just put paper around it and tie up the edges with ribbon so it looks like a tootsie roll?)

Imagine the net of a cylinder. Wait. Don't imagine. Look at it.

Okay let's say that the radius of the base is 3 cm, and the height of the cylinder is 4 cm. One may think that there is not enough information to find the surface area of that cylinder. Boyfriend, you are wrong. Do you know what the length of the rectangle is? ITS THE CIRCUMFERENCE OF THE CIRCLE! That shit blows my mind. BLOWS. MY. MIND.

You may say to yourself, "Ms. L is partially retarded if she did not know that." This is not true. I'm not partially retarded. I'm just spatially retarded. But if this blows my mind, imagine getting 7th graders to fully grasp it. SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT. I'm doubly screwed.

This picture may capture my mood better.

Protected speech....

Or just hate?

This case is REALLY crucial in the Supreme Court on so many levels.

When is protesting not protected by the First Amendment even when you follow all of the ordinances?

But on the other hand, can we really protect hate speech?

Oh how this case is decided is going to have major repercussions when it comes to hate speech. And really, for this schoolteacher, I would love if hate speech were not protected. Especially this kind of hate speech. My kiddos don't believe this is hate at all...at least now I could show them that it is. And we won't tolerate it in America.

Love these ideas....

I love this discussion on the ten big ideas of school leaders.

Think about these things: yes, your decisions should be about the kids 100% of the time. YES YES YES. As long as you can say its about the kids, then yes, you should do it.

OH and you should take responsibility for the good and the bad. YES YES. Hmmm...take responsibility and don't blame? Oh what an interesting concept.

I may or may not have fallen in love with this website, by the way. Oh how I love learning through the educational blogging community.

Here's a hint....

Don't be stupid, teenagers.

This article is talking about "sexting" and being charged with distributing child pornography.

Now, I understand that sending a picture of you in your bra at the age of 15 should not make you a felon, but, honestly, we need to have a different conversation.

Here is how it should go:
"Hey, idiot. Do you really think the person you send that picture to is the only one who is going to see it? Have you ever heard of Kim Kardashian and her videotape? Oh, wait, friends can see it? Oh, and think about when you BREAK UP WITH THIS SKEAZY CHARACTER? How would you proceed if you had a picture of him or her on your phone? Oh you'd try to ruin their lives? Right. So don't send those stupid pictures. Seriously. Do you want to see yourself naked on the internet? DON'T BE AN IDIOT."

Even Degrassi has taken an opinion on the idea of sexting. And if Degrassi says not to do it, why then, youth of America, do you not listen?

I heart vacation

Friends,

Let me explain why teachers need vacations. I know, I know, the argument is that we hardly ever work and all we do is go on vacation (thanks, Dad, for the words of encouragement) but really, vacations to us are like gold. Or as I like to say, necessary for my sanity.

Let's just say that you non-teachers are having an off-day. You don't feel good, your brain isn't working, you are in a general funk. You can go to work, sneak away in your office, spend the first part of your day on email or generally avoiding coworkers, and sit in a comfy chair and maybe listen to some calming music before your day begins.

If I have an off day, it effects EVERYTHING. If my tone is off, then my first period goes crazy and I lose them. They emulate my mood, and thus, I have 30 little 7th graders cranky, crabby, and generally badly behaving. It gets worse from there. I get snappy, they get snappy, and we don't learn anything. I try my best to give the lesson but it gets too confusing, or I don't anticipate questions, or I get cranky when they don't understand.

Basically, my off days are an epic fail. And we have just lost learning time because of my general disposition.

Let's just say that off days happen more frequently when we haven't had a day of vacation. Weekends are not vacation. Weekends are spent catching up on sleep and planning lessons. This spring break is necessary so I don't a) have any off days or b) generally give up on teaching 7th graders.

:)

Oh Pythagoreas

I spent a few days last week teaching the kiddos about the Pythagorean Theorem.

It was the first time all year that my algebra kids were at the same point as the geometry kids in the next room.

I was thinking about teaching the kiddos like this article shows...you know, with the proofs and the pictures.

But, I said to myself, I didn't understand that proof until I saw it when I was an adult. An adult obsessed with mathematics.

I feel like one day I will introduce these squares to my algebra kiddos. But not until they have to use the Pythagorean theorem for anything other than distance.

Teachable Moment :)

Yesterday was a good day. Well, albeit we didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but its almost Spring Break and if they don't kill each other than I'm a happy teacher. They are almost clinically insane right now.

So after school, I walked into Super Colleague Ivy's room, and one of my most challenging kiddos from my first year is getting a lecture from her. We'll call him Horse. (A long story that I can explain later about him and a song by America).

So Ivy asks me for my opinion about Horse's work that day. He legitimately had only done two problems, but claims to have mastered the material and been ON TASK THE ENTIRE TIME.

Oh, my friend, I have played this game with you for 3 years, Horse. You are never on task. You get distracted by dust particles in the air.

So I took over the discussion because Ivy looked at about her wits end with this kid. (Ivy, I've been there. This kid has the street smarts of an adult and is quicker with his words than most people I know.)

So we go through some questioning where I a) see that he actually has mastered all of the material b) can actually explain in explicit detail why everything is happening in each math problem and c) basically finally admits that yes, he was distracted and not on task most of the time.

Somehow, with my teacher magic, I convince him that we had decided to move his seat to the corner of the room alone where he can concentrate and he can earn his privilege back to his old seat after showing me mastery for a while. (I don't think there was a choice. He just did it.)

After this, I went on my merry little way and did my tutoring, basically forgetting the conversation.

But you know what made my week? Ivy came up to me before she was leaving for grad class (sucks to be you, Ivy) and thanked me for having the conversation with Horse. She told me she loved seeing how I got through to the kiddo.

I FELT SO APPRECIATED AND LOVED.

Oh the little things in life. A simple thank you that is heartfelt (cough cough the Queen cough and PT cough cough) would go SO long in boosting morale.

Grad Students

I read this article and at the end, I thought, why do grad students have so much time on their hands to come up with this crap?

I would NEVER have time to think of this.

Which led me to find this clip. Love it.

Good in theory?

Good in theory. Sometimes.

I was all excited about the common core standards until the NY Times told me this:
"Seventh graders would study, among other math concepts, proportional relationships, operations with rational numbers and solutions for linear equations."

THIS IS UNREASONABLE FOR MY SEVENTH GRADERS. THIS IS WHAT I TEACH TO MY ADVANCED STUDENTS AND WHAT CHILDREN LEARN IN ALGEBRA.

I took advanced algebra like this in 7th grade, but the KEYWORD was ADVANCED.

Seriously? Solve linear equations in 7th grade? Dear super colleague in 8th grade: have fun reteaching!

Ubiquitous

AKA Super colleague part deux.

So this super colleague deserves an entire blog post. Why? Because the best email of life was just exchanged.

Super colleague, we'll call him Mallard, (long, long story that has to do with ducks. And sixth graders) was a phenomenal teacher. An inspiration, in fact. We started teaching together the same year. We were actually hired together (in the same interview. Which we have very different first impressions of each other. But I digress).

He worked relentlessly during his two years teaching. He was brilliant with 7th graders. (I took his job. The kids are still bitter about that.) We may or may not have gotten into various shenanigans, including coaching a sports team together (I'm a sucker) and trips to multiple states. We spent a lot of time together, and I think I may have annoyed him with my (somewhat) pompous attitude fresh out of my college days. Apparently, I sound stuck up when I say the word "thusly." He hated it. He believed it was unnecessary, because the word thus served the same purpose. He would ALWAYS give me crap for saying it...writing it...emailing it...etc. Anytime that word came out of my mouth, it was like he had "thusly" radar and would never let it go.

Well, let's flash forward to the present. Mallard is following his dream which does not involve snotty students telling you to go f&^$ yourself and the like. (Funny. I didn't know my dream involved this stuff, either...) He's in another state. Thusly, our main form communication is via email. Here is the best email I have ever received from him:

"The word "thusly" is used in my GMAT prep book.

Thusly, I am angered."

And my reply:
"YESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I. win."

My ubiquitous knowledge is astounding. :)

Thumbs up....

To my favorite news magazine. For researching some awesomeness. Read it here.

Yes. TFA works. Yes. KIPP works. Yes. Schools need some serious reform.

But let's be honest. Until we can get rid of the politics and crap, some "good teachers" will be fired under the veil that they are "bad teachers." Just because
a) They have opinions
b) They have principals who don't like them
c) They say things that are unsavory

So we must learn how to protect those good teachers too. Because, let's be honest, my ass might be on the line because I generally tend to piss people off. But I'm so good at doing it....

Super Colleagues...part one

So, sometimes I complain. Well, most of the time I just tell stories that actually happen and make you make inferences about my feelings. (read: understand what CAPITAL LETTERS and periods. after. every. word mean in my vocabulary).

But really, I actually teach every day because I enjoy it. I'm good at it. And I come to work every day because of my (bum bum bum) SUPER COLLEAGUES! (Imagine trumpets.)

So here's a selection of tributes to them. I'm going to tell everyone why they are so super. (But consider that I'm giving you a pseudonym)

Part one:

Brilliant 8th grade math teacher. We will call her...uh...Ivy. She's from the East Coast. She went to an Ivy League school (much jealousy...let's be honest) She's generally terrific. Case in point:
Today she was teaching about rotations and showed her class a video of Michael Jackson doing a 45 degree rotation on stage during Smooth Criminal.

Let's talk about how EVERY ONE OF HER STUDENTS will ALWAYS remember what a rotation is. (Or at least can hum smooth criminal during the high stakes test.) She does this EVERY DAY. She connects the learning to something that the kids can latch on to, can remember, every lesson that she gives. She's downright awesome. Yay Ivy. (Being TFA doesn't hurt, either.)

Genius 6th grade science teacher. We'll call him Bill. (For Bill Nye the science guy). He has taken on the role of getting the 6th graders extra prepared for high stakes testing this year by integrating a math remediation program during science class. To teach graphing on a coordinate plane (how many different ways can one say, you go in the elevator and then up or down on the elevator?) he has them make these cool drawings that turn into the BATMAN SIGN or SPONGEBOB or generally awesome shapes they all want to make.

ALL WHILE GRAPHING WHICH IS GENERALLY THE MOST BORING THING EVER TO TEACH EVER. (Other than simplifying radicals. Which never needs to be discussed ever.)

Mmmmm....the brilliant things my colleagues are doing make it possible for me to do my job daily.

Just wait....more super colleagues will be discussed soon. A girl has more things to do than just blog.

Roots of joy?

Here's what I love.

This whole series of math opinions.

This one goes into imaginary numbers. Ahhhh....imaginary numbers. My kiddos can explain that i is imaginary and imaginary is the opposite of real numbers.

Because if you have real numbers, you must have unreal numbers.

But I have one slight problem with the opinionator's mathematical argument for why the square roots of negative numbers are imaginary. He discusses it in a purely "integer rule" sense. When you multiply two numbers together with the same sign, you get a positive sign.

Now, I've thought about the roots of negative numbers for a while. And I've thought about teaching the square roots of positive numbers to young children and have come to realize that you must have a visual representation for all of math if you want all kids to have the chance to understand.

Now, we think about square roots as the side length of squares. Think about it : 2 squared is 4, the area of a square with side length of 2 is 4. 3 squared = 9, hmmm...I wonder what the area of that square is.

Thus, you have a visual way of teaching squaring numbers and finding the square roots of numbers using area.

And here is where my argument comes in. The square root of a negative number has to be imaginary because how would one draw a square with a side length of -3? Side lengths are positive. Check out the distance formula. You know, absolute value and stuff.

Hmmm....so I have found another argument for the reasoning of i. ahhh....I'm a math nerd.

Really?

This actually happened.

Really? I want to know exactly what everyone was thinking when they made these choices. Everyone. The teachers. The administrators.

I fear a new directive for the rest of our lives about "appropriate" vs. "inappropriate" role models.

One of those times

Now is one of those times in my life when I am being pushed in a direction I don't know, don't understand, and don't want to go in.

Apparently I need a new path.

Or as my mother put it, "It hasn't been your week, has it?"

I'm going with no. It really hasn't been my month.

But after the great evening of scheming...I think we've found the new plan.

What do you make?

I make a difference. You?


One day people will understand what we do...one day.

Passive Aggressive..

At its finest. For sure.

This woman doesn't like Teach for America. How do I know? She passive aggressively calls them out at the end of her article when she is discussing whtat to do with Central Falls HS in Rhode Island. Really? If you don't like them, say it out loud. Don't be so passive-aggressive about it.

I don't think this article likes TFA much either. I do find it intriguing, though. What does make good teaching?

Oh the controversy. Oh how I'm going to spend my life wrapped up in it.

The allure of algebra...

is seductive.

According to this. Which was written by a math nerd.

Who is awesome. Read all of his stuff.

But when I'm teaching algebra to a bunch of middle schoolers, it is anything but seductive.

Although they do groan a lot...