Nonsense & Foolishness

I have heard the principal use the terms nonsense and foolishness to describe the students' behaviors.  They are often the best (and only!) words that can describe students' antics.

Today a girl took a post-it note from my desk and wrote "Press the Button" on the top.  Below, she drew a circle and shaded it in.  She then put it on her forehead so it extended down, nearly covering her eyes.  When other students walked by and touched the "button" she would say loudly, "Honk, honk!"  Is this nonsense?  Is this foolishness?  Is there some mathematical value to this exercise that I clearly missed?!  (No, she didn't get in trouble because it was at the end of the school day and more annoying - to me - than disruptive to hear her honking!)

World Metrology Day: Measurements in Daily Life

Today is World Metrology Day!  WMD (?!) celebrates the signature by representatives of seventeen nations of the Metre Convention on 20 May 1875. The Convention set the framework for global collaboration in the science of measurement and in its industrial, commercial and societal application. The original aim of the Metre Convention - the worldwide uniformity of measurement - remains as important today as it was in 1875.  The theme for this year's event is "Measurements in Daily Life."  As luck has it, we're working on a measurement unit so there is a perfect tie-in.  Believe it or not, there are careers in the science of weights and measures!

Class Size

News Report:  50,421 Chicago kids in homerooms over the class size limit
Data obtained by WBEZ show 18 percent of elementary school homerooms in Chicago Public Schools have more kids than they are supposed to.

One of the biggest challenges I've had this year is the large size of the classes.  Each of the Grade 7 homerooms at my school has 36-37 students.  These homeroom groups rotate through my room for math during the day.  "The district’s own guidelines say classes should be capped at 28 kids for younger students, 31 for third graders and up."  While it is difficult having so many in the upper elementary/middle grades, I can only imagine what it is like for the younger grades to have just as many.  I admire the younger grades teachers who have classes exceeding the caps (which are also high) and maintain their sanity!

Scaffolding Tasks

As the end of the school year approaches, it's clear (to me) that project-oriented lessons are going to be necessary to keep the kids engaged.  They (and me!) are not in the mood for working out the textbook.  I have been drawing on things from Connected Math Project and opted for the project:  Package Design Contest.  We hadn't done all of the lessons that preceded the project in the CMP Filling & Wrapping unit.  Still, we had touched on several of the ideas and had worked extensively (for us!) with pentominoes and hexominoes.  After "launching" the task with the first class - reading through the description and requirements and my asking some questions to be sure students understand the intent - I set the students off to begin working.  It was clear few students had the ability to focus on a project of this magnitude without some support.  It turned out to be a successful start after I wrote several questions to support the students as they first worked on the small package.  I will continue with other sets of questions for the other packages as we work through the project on successive days.  I wonder:  Is there value in giving this project to future teachers and asking them how they could scaffold students' learning/progression through this project?  What are some of the key questions to focus on completing the project?  What are some key questions to focus on the ideas to be understood in the project?  What are some key questions to develop and extend all students?  What are some additional questions to help struggling learners without taking away opportunities for mathematical thinking?

Another (Faux) Context

This is one of the student worksheets that comes with the textbook I'm using.  I can understand having differently sized boxes for paper clips.  They seem small enough that they can fit into a variety of packaging.  But pens and envelopes?!  Isn't there a missing context here:  pens and envelopes have a fixed size!  Would the pens (#2) in the 4x5x3 box fix in the other boxes?  How long are they?  Likewise, what size are the envelopes (#3)?  Are they a standard size?  It seems that any link to reality must be omitted for a student to be successful with questions. 

A Typical Day

What do CPS teachers do all day?  The articles linked below let you know!

A Chicago Teacher’s School Day: It’s Already Long (At Least for Teachers) - Chicago Magazine


Chicago Public Schools Teachers Regularly Work Nearly 11-Hour Days, 58-Hour Weeks: Report - Huffington Post

Chicago Wants Longer School Day; Foes Want Details - NPR

The biggest waste of time (in my opinion) is collecting lunch money and sorting lunch tickets every morning.  That, along with waiting for the attendance system to boot on the computer, easily takes 15 minutes each day.  

Teacher Appreciation Week

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!  There is a little "goodie" for teachers at school each day this week:

• Monday:  Breakfast Treats
• Tuesday:  I Heart Whiteboard Day (markers for teachers)
• Wednesday:  Teacher Luncheon
• Thursday:  Donuts Day
• Friday:  "Orange You Glad It's Friday?"

I think the teachers are more appreciative of the other teachers than some of the students are of the teachers!  (Or is that just the feeling I get from a few of my "darlings"?!)