Happy Thanksgiving

Two days off... I'm not complaining!



Mirror, mirror, on the wall...

I read in a book on teaching middle school that narcissistic adolescents like to look in the mirror.  (No surprise)  Several of the students (usually girls) have frequently asked to use the bathroom over the past couple months.  One student told me, "You know, they just go so they can look in the mirror and fix their hair."  The book suggested putting a mirror in the classroom.  I was shopping over the weekend and bought a mirror.  I put it up today at the students' height...  Sure enough!  I caught one of the girls who often asked to go to the bathroom admiring herself in the mirror.  She smoothed her hair, smiled at herself, and bounced away.  Perhaps there will be benefits!

Report Card Pick-up

Today was report card pickup (parent-teacher conferences).  No students!  We went from 11am to 6pm with 10 mins/student scheduled.  Parents of all but 3 of my 36 students attended.  I spoke to some through a Polish or Spanish interpreter while the rest of the parents spoke in English.  The principal told me participation in report card pick-up is well over 90% for the school.  This is a definite strength of the school! 

Do we have to do this one?

This was a question from a student today.  She was referring to a "word problem."  Actually, it was more of an exercise posed with a few words.  With the student asking this question, it showed how deficient our textbook is with respect to any sort of contextual exercises or problems.  It also showed that I must not be assigning enough of the few quality problems so that she expected that would be something she would not have to do. 

One Student Missing

Sad to say, but it is nice when "that one student" is gone.  Today two students who are both "that one" was gone from two of the classes.  It made for such a relaxed day!  Not only did I not have to keep my eye on those students, but they also weren't there to distract the students around them.  Wouldn't it be nice to teach only the students who wanted to be there?  (Wait, that's kinda what I do when I teach college students!)  A solution would be to remove all students who distract from classroom learning... but then how do these students learn?  Are there resources for this?  It is unfair that a few students demand and require (and, unfortunately, often get) more than their share of the teacher's attention even though they don't often put forth the necessary effort toward learning.

National Anthem

Every day the US national anthem is played over the school PA.  Students are expected to sing along.  As you might expect, after mindlessly repeating the words for several years, they have morphed into something different...

The correct lyrics:

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

The lyrics according to students:

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hail by the twilight last gleaming?
Who brought stripes and bright stars thru the perilous night,
Oh the ramparts we watch are so gallantly singing?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the fight that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet sway
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

I'm thinking I will have the students write out the lyrics sometime... I'm sure I'm missing many things!

Number Theory Games

This week:  Number Theory Games!  It has been a good change for the students and me.  These are part of "Prime Time" and "Accentuate the Positive" (CMP).  I wish this school had CMP as the adopted text.  We can do the class activities but without photocopying many pages (probably against copyright law) we can't do the homework followup.  I was surprised at the positive reaction of the students to the games.  In addition to the change of pace, it showed (at least to me) how a more problem-based classroom diffuses some of the behavior issues.

Factor Game - this game allows students to practice finding factors to numbers through 30.  It also requires students to think about the relationships of the numbers and encourages faster recall of basic multiplication facts.
Online version:   http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=12
Paper version:   http://illuminations.nctm.org/lessons/6-8/factor/handouts.htm

Product Game -  This game encourages students to develop a better understanding of the relationships between factors and multiples. 
Online version:  http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=29
Paper version: http://illuminations.nctm.org/LessonDetail.aspx?ID=L272

Integer Product Game - This game extends the product game (above) to include work with integers. 
Online version:  http://connectedmath.msu.edu/CD/Grade7/IntProdGame/IntProdGame.html
Paper version:   http://blog.wsd.net/anholtry/files/2012/09/Integer-Product-Game.pdf