When my own children were little, I hated teacher workdays. The school being closed meant that I had to find a place for them or take off work, and being a teacher myself, it drove me crazy. I can understand why parents hate teacher workdays.
Teacher workdays fall into a bunch of categories. Some of them truly are work days in which I sit at my desk and plan, grade papers, and handle the mountain of paperwork, both literal and virtual, that comes with the job. Other workdays are a series of meetings where we set policy, learn computer programs, strategize on student issues, and meet with parents.
Today we have a teacher workday and this time most of my colleagues and I will be attending the Florida Council of Independent School Conference here in Orlando. There we will hear a series of talks that are some combination inspiration, educational philosophy, and pragmatic lesson plan ideas. If this goes well I will have had some deep thoughts about what I am doing as a teacher, and what my school and department are doing to make the education we provide better. I hope to gather some tips to convey content more effectively or consider some interesting games or lessons to inspire students to learn more.
I have been fortunate to attend conferences where I had a transformative day. Afterward I could not wait to return to my classroom and share and implement what I had learned. I have also attended conferences when the information simply reinforced what I was doing. There was nothing new, but at least I knew I wasn't doing it completely wrong.
Days like this remind me how fortunate I am to work at an amazing school with great students. This may be a reaffirming or a transformative day, but either way, I'll be back at my desk on Monday ready to rock. There's no place like home.
Photo Credit
A few times a year we have a "dress up day." We ask our gentlemen to wear pants, dress shoes, dress shirts, and ties. Our ladies are asked to dress modestly and nicely in skirts, dresses, or dress pants. The students look wonderful. Wednesday was one of those days.
On Tuesday I had the following conversation with two seniors:
Senior 1: I hate dress up day.
Me: But why?
Senior 2: It's so much effort.
Me: But both of you are wearing lovely dresses right now. You need do nothing more than you are already doing.
Senior 1: Yeah, but it's dress up day, so I feel like I need to do more, to look REALLY nice.
Me: But you both already look wonderful.
Senior 2: Tomorrow we'll look AMAZING.
Photo Credit
Yesterday we were looking at problems like the one pictured in College Algebra. In most cases, the students were able to clearly explain what to do, but could not actually solve the problem correctly without making little mistakes. I have some questions about these types of problems and welcome your thoughts.
1. What is their purpose?
2. Does their length and detail oriented nature do more to discourage students than help them?
3. Are there other ways to assess these concepts?
4. What does the inability to complete such a problem tell us about a student?
The solutions shown are correct, but there are several mistakes in the intermediate steps that make the student's work incorrect. You are welcome to offer corrections in addition to your thoughts in the comment section.
Today in calculus we were practicing substitution, a procedure by we which we are able to convert seemingly complex functions into simple ones in order to do integration. If you haven't studied calculus for a long time, or ever, I just spewed out a bunch of gibberish, but no matter. I have included a problem here for your perusal. Whether you understand it or not, this problem and others like it often result in the need for fractions.
A student commented, "I hate fractions. Why doesn't math only use whole numbers." It was good that my back was to him as he said this, or he would have seen my fiendish smile.
"But there is such a math," I replied. "It's called discrete math. Would you like to try a problem?"
Of course he agreed and so I promised to post it online and offered a little prize to the first student to solve it. You may recognise it.
There once was a city through which flowed a river. At the center of the river were islands. The citizens had built 7 bridges so that they could cross these rivers and move from one part of the city to another. The map shows the layout of the city, the river and the bridges. The land is green, the river blue, and the bridges gold. The problem was to find a walk through the city that would cross each bridge once and only once. The islands could not be reached by any route other than the bridges, and every bridge must have been crossed completely every time; one could not walk halfway onto the bridge and then turn around and later cross the other half from the other side. The walk need not start and end at the same spot. Can you find this path?
Be careful what you wish for...
substitution photo credit
7 bridges photo credit
Homecoming week ended with a bang up weekend. Friday was a school-wide lunch on the lawn followed by a pep rally. That evening we had a carnival for our alums and their families complete with bounce houses and face painting for the kids, snacks and drinks, and free admission to the game. Our football team played well and won 21-7. The next day was the homecoming dance and by all accounts, the kids stayed and danced right to the end. As far as I know, everyone got home safely.
I work at an Episcopal school. Part of our mission is to foster spiritual growth in all of our students, regardless of faith. As a result, we have a diverse population of not just Christians, but also Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Atheists, and a host of other faiths and plenty of kids still trying to figure everything out. Every week we have chapel, and we say a prayer at the start of each assembly, but there are very few other times where we pray, and we certainly are not in the business of conversion. I like that about our school, our willing acceptance of all members of our community, no matter their faith.
Not all teams are the same, but at the end of each football game, our head coach says a prayer over the team, win or lose. As the parent of a player who has suffered broken bones and strained tendons due to the sport, I'd like to think they give thanks for the opportunity to play and the safe conclusion of the game.
This past week was an eventful homecoming. I loved watching the joy it gave the students, the memories it built, and the safe return of my scholars on Monday.
That's not really a prayer. Just my gratitude.
Yesterday I assigned 10 problems to my College Algebra class and gave them a class period to work on them. Anything that was unfinished became homework. Each problem had 5 parts and the section they cover ties up a bunch of ideas that we have been focused on for months. It was good cumulative work that cemented some important ideas for my students, and these students have struggled with algebra for a long time.
For a few, you'd have thought I asked them to move a mountain one stone at a time. Such whining... such complaining... finally some of their friends told them to pipe down.
I could be mad about this, but I just have to laugh. These students that cannot bear 45 minutes of math work are the same ones that can play a mindless game like Flappy Birds for hours. Focusing on homework for hours on end is destined to be a part of their future should they want to succeed in college. Sometimes I think I should give them more work, just to get them ready for the future, but I don't think endless assignments are productive or useful. Instead we do a little bit of work most days.
It's interesting. I actually am asking them to move a mountain, a mountain of algebra. We do it one day, one small stone at a time. It takes all year.
Day 4 of Spirit Week was Super Hero Day. Always a favorite, lots and lots of students joined in the fun by simply wearing a t-shirt, but some students went all out in full costume. Choices ranged from Flash to mild mannered Clark Kent, full out Superman in tights and a cape to Bubble Girls, the Fearsome Foursome, and of course a host of characters I never knew about.
The most common character was Batman, as the popularity of the movies has spawned a dozen different t-shirts from old school purple to true dark knight. A couple hundred wore just the shirt, myself included, but a few donned masks and utility belts. Our school became the poster child for Hollywood marketing. I concluded that Batman's super power must actually be cloning himself, thus creating the hundreds of Batmans walking our campus today.
But then my colleague Jeff Wilson reminded me of the facebook meme that has been so popular and explains the many Batmans.
We took this advice.
We were all Batman.
When my own children were little, I hated teacher workdays. The school being closed meant that I had to find a place for them or take off work, and being a teacher myself, it drove me crazy. I can understand why parents hate teacher workdays.
