A New Road Taken

Photo Courtesy mdmarkus66 flickr cc

   With the end of this school year I will not be teaching high school mathematics any more (at least for a few years).  That's a strange feeling.  It was my wife who said to me "well, you have always wanted to be a math teacher and a baseball coach."  That was around 1989.  I was on active duty in the Navy and was planning on getting out.  But what would I do?
    Since 1994 I have taught in Newport News Virginia; Sasebo, Japan; Portsmouth, Rhode Island; Brunssum, The Netherlands; Gainesville, Florida; Round Rock, Texas and now Manor, Texas.  I have taught math at every level from 6th grade to college and every course in that range except Calculus (including college Statistics and 3 levels of college algebra).   This coming school year I will suddenly find myself teaching in the engineering world.  I have a couple of irons in the fire so I'm not sure exactly what I'll be teaching but it won't look like anything I have taught for the last 16 years.
    As I look back at my time teaching math to students (from age 10 to 60) there is a common thread.  Most students fear math and all students appreciate someone who will try and explain what is going on in as many ways as possible.  So how should math teachers approach these two, important, lessons learned?  First,  and most importantly, show students multiple ways to view a problem.  At the younger ages (through middle school) you might require a certain procedure for working problems, but show them other ways too.  Show them how it can be completed using technology.  Explain to them what is going on graphically.  Draw them pictures.  The more ways you can present the math to a student the better chance we have with them grasping what is going on behind the numbers and symbols.
   We will never totally rid the world of math anxiety.  However, we can (and should) give the students tools that help them become more successful in the math classroom, on a standardized test, and in their lives after they leave formal education.  As I venture forth in the engineering world I intend to ensure all of my students are comfortable with the mathematics that is sitting behind the drawings or is embedded in the CAD program.  Engineering should be fun and having a certain comfort level with mathematics can help that happen.

That F-ing Word

If you teach high school you hear it all day. Oh it may or may not be in your classroom but you hear it. They say it in the hallways, in the cafeteria, in the bathrooms and in those classrooms with the "young teachers" or the "cool teachers."

Quite often it's heard in the gym, in the locker rooms, on the playing fields, and (unfortunately) in many health and PE classes where the coaches themselves feel free to use it.

Now, before you say, "You are such a prude," I want you to realize that I did 20 years in the Navy and sailors use that word as a Noun, Adjective, Adverb, and 4 or 5 other parts of grammar. But the day I walked into my first classroom that word left my vocabulary. And, there are a lot of places that people are employed where that word is just not accepted. Teachers get the added benefit of being suspended or even fired for using that word or any other word considered profanity.

Here's an example of what happened to me because of using profanity: I was teaching 6th graders in Newport News VA. The class had done poorly on a test and I was starting the day by handing the tests back. I made the remark, "sometimes I worry that there are some of you who don't give a damn about this class."

That was at about 8:15. At about 2:15, after the students had left, I was summoned to the principles office to explain what had happened in my first period class. I had to think back but I knew that my remark was the only thing that could have been bad. Sure enough he had been called by the superintendent. The superintendent had been called by 2 board members. The next morning, before school, I was apologizing to one of my students' grandmothers for my profanity. She responded with "the next time this happens I'll see that you are fired."

So how do we get students to stop? Calling parents helps in about 1 in 10 cases (maybe less). A discipline report, detention, or other disciplinary action stops it for today. A talk to the student body from the principal helps. But, the most effective way is to get EVERY adult in your school on board with the importance of eliminating it from your school. If you are reading this and saying anything other than "that's what we need to do," then getting rid of profanity won't succeed at your school. Heck, it might not even be a big deal to you. Even with my total disgust with the F-word I fail to get my students to stop saying it.

Bottom line? I will continue to make remarks whenever any of my students say any of the following: Suck(or any variation of the word), Bitch, Bastard, Ass(or any variation of that word), Damn, Gay, Retarded, Shit, The C-words, The F-word, Dick, and probably another 5 to 10 words that escape me right now. I would appreciate you doing the same. Together we - oh heck who am I kidding. We'll never get rid of these words. But, we can educate our students on the importance of using appropriate words. Isn't educating students what we are supposed to be doing?

Hurting Your Fellow Teacher's Brains

Whenever I am on twitter I try to find interesting articles, cool websites, or people who have great blogs to add to my rss feed. Then there's the blogs I already have filling my rss. They routinely provide bits of information, applications worth checking, or other people to read and/or follow on twitter.

Then there are the things I have added to my Delicious account that I want to read. Of course it doesn't stop there, on Tuesday night, when I get the time, there's Edchat on twitter to participate in. Periodically there are education related conferences with live streams to watch or audio to listen to. Oh, and lest I forget, podcasts that I subscribe to.

What this all means is that I am surrounded by lots of information related to my profession. And, since we should never stop learning new things (right?), I end up going through these things 7 days a week, 365 days a year. What that means for my fellow teachers is that if I find something interesting and it's Saturday afternoon, I'm going to send it out. If it's Sunday morning at 7AM, I'm going to send it out. And, if it's Christmas Eve, I'm going to ...well, you get the picture.

The reaction to my sharing isn't always "gee, thanks I can't wait to read/try/upload this." And, I used to be offended that there weren't more positive; even effusive, comments about my generosity. Finally someone pointed out to me that not all teachers have the time to check out these things I send. In fact, some teachers get a bit overwhelmed by adding things to their list of things to do on their weekends or days off. It's not that they are angry with me; it's more like their brains hurt from all of the extra information.

So when you see something new and cool that you want to share with your coworkers, remember to pause for a moment. What is the current state of affairs at your school? What kind of stressful things might be going on in your friends' lives? Is that person you are adding to the address line even interested in what you are sending? Your brain will be less stressed if you take the time to make sure you are not over stressing their brains. Now, let me share this one thing with you...

PHOTO FROM UCUMARI Flickr Creative Commons

Crowd Sourcing a Project

After participating in Ben Hazzard and Rodd Lucier's session during Educon 2.2. I realized that this might be an interesting way to create a math "reference book" at our school. The premise of their presentation was to allow the audience (both physically and virtually) attending to have a part in creating an e-book. So, how would that look in my classroom, or yours?

First, you will want to have an outline of what you want from the perfect book. This will most certainly contain some images, page descriptions, or prompts. The amount of items and depth of information will depend upon the students you are working with, but I would lean towards less information so that they discover what works best for them as they explore the topic(s).

My first attempt at this would be to create a reference book to prepare 9th and 10th graders for our state standardized math tests. I would make sure that I list the topics that are most missed by our students and by students throughout the state. I would have suggested headings for each topic such as how our state words the required knowledge to be deomonstrated on the test. Other essential headings, for me, might include example problems from released tests, problems solutions (with steps to solve), and comments about why this is missed by most students.


With that much guidance and a little Google Apps I would send them off to be fruitful and multiply. But, as with all projects being completed by 9th graders, there will be much to monitor. Are they including images or text from online that need attribution? Are they, in fact, solving problems correctly or will they need to have a workshop (our school's term for direct instruction) so that they fully understand how to do this? Are they filling space with nonsense or improper words and ideas?

If you decide to take this on before I get around to it I'd love to hear how it went. Leave me a comment.

PHOTOS CARE OF OCCHIOVIVO Flickr Creative Commons