The focus resolution for today is the second one -- avoid yelling.
8:15 -- This is homeroom. I show the class the announcements.
As is usual for middle schools, there is a rotation today, and it starts with third period. And at this particular school, students report to third period for homeroom -- and so homeroom just flows directly into third period today. This is an honors English class. The students begin with a Warm-Up based on Latin roots (micro- in "microscope" means small, "mega-" in "megabyte" means great, or by extension, a million). Then they read the short story Rikki Tikki Tavi on Chromebooks. (The story takes place in India and is written by Rudyard Kipling, the author of Jungle Book.) The students also answer questions about the reading on the Chromebooks.
9:15 -- Third period leaves and fourth period arrives. This is another honors class.
10:10 -- Fourth period leaves and the short break begins.
10:20 -- Fifth period arrives. This is a special English elective. The students are learning how to gather evidence and form arguments to support their points. (No, they don't learn how to use logic or anything from Eugenia Cheng's book.)
11:15 -- Fifth period leaves and sixth period arrives. This is another honors class.
12:05 -- Sixth period leaves and lunch begins.
12:50 -- First period arrives. This is a regular class. As is the norm at this school, it begins with silent reading, and then these students also do the Latin roots and Rikki Tikki Tavi assignments. Some of the students are a bit noisy during this period.
2:00 -- First period leaves. Second period is the teacher's conference period, but I'm supposed to cover an eighth grade P.E. class. As it turns out, I end up taking attendance only, and then another P.E. teacher actually runs the class. The students can either walk laps or play kickball.
2:15 -- This is essentially the end of my day, as soon as I finish taking P.E. attendance.
Fourth period is the best class of the day. Sixth period is slightly more talkative near the end of class, while third period (the second best class) is talkative from the start (due to announcements). Third period becomes quiet once I start walking around the classroom.
Okay, so now I'll evaluate my classroom management and the ability to follow the second resolution to avoid yelling. Since third, fourth, and sixth periods are the better-behaved honors classes, we'll take a closer look at fifth and first period -- these are the classes when I'm more tempted to yell.
The fifth period class is somewhat talkative. The regular teacher has me use the projector to show the students a blank copy of the workbook, and then I fill in answers below the document camera. (A few math teachers use this same technique when having students take notes.) Some of the questions are identifying transitions such as "evidence shows..." and "for example," while other questions are more open-ended, as students use these transitions to construct a paragraph. The topic is whether video games are beneficial or harmful to children of their age.
By now, I know better than to place names on a good or bad list for the regular teacher based on how much of the work is completed. Some talkative students might just copy the answers, while quiet students might have trouble coming up with their paragraph. In the end, I place one student on my bad list for talking too much -- but once again, I wonder whether I waited too long to do so. It's all about writing the name once they've "crossed the line" -- but as usual, this is hard to tell. (Indeed, Eugenia Cheng writes about line crossing, and this applies to classroom management as well. It's not a solid line between "so minor that only strict teachers would punish" and "so major that only lax teachers would let it go," but a fuzzy boundary.)
One student in fifth period does try to ask for a restroom pass right after snack break. I require the student to wait until the midpoint of the period.
In first period there are a few more behavior issues. (Some of the students from fifth period are also in this first period.) Some students do try to sit in incorrect seats during silent reading. Not all of these students are talkative, though -- in some cases, it's a loud student switching with a good student. This time, I don't wait to write names -- I begin writing names on the bad list during silent reading time.
I follow the regular teacher's suggestion and take attendance during the Latin Roots Warm-Up (which is a logical time to do it during the other periods that don't start with silent reading). This is when I realize that students are in the wrong seats, and so I require them to move to the correct seats.
We've seen that changing a student's seat is often an effective management strategy. But notice it assumes that the students are already sitting in their correct seats -- which isn't always the case on days when there's a sub (as in first period today). Otherwise, "moving students from incorrect seats to correct seats" and "moving students from correct seats to other seats as a punishment" get confused.
But as you'd expect, some students switched seats in order to talk. Each group contains four students, and at the most talkative group, two students (a boy and a girl) are in the wrong seats. So returning them to their correct seats is already separating two of the talkative students.
The other two (both guys) continue to talk throughout the period. This means that writing down their names isn't enough to get them to change their behavior. Of the two students I moved, the boy talks a little more at his new seat but eventually stops. The girl continues to talk, but she also keeps asking me questions about the assignment.
I am able to keep the Chromebooks out all day for each period to use. But because first period is the last class this teacher has today, at the end the laptops must be collected to be charged. I take the last 12-13 minutes to do so in order for me to get to the second period P.E. class. At the time, I don't know that I'd only have to take attendance so that I'd be free to finish putting laptops away during the conference period. Instead, I must assume that I wouldn't return to the classroom.
Hmm, rushing to put laptops away so that I can head out to P.E. sounds familiar. Yes, it's exactly the procedure I needed back when -- oops, ixnay on the arterchay IXL-ay! (I mean IXL.)
Today, I follow the regular teacher's procedure for passing out laptops in third period and collecting them in first period. The laptops are numbered, and so are the slots to place them in to charge. I call out numbers, not one at a time, but four at a time. They're set up so that Chromebooks 1-4 belong to the same group, laptops 5-8 to another group, and so on. So I call a group, and then one person from that group brings the laptops. I place them in the slots, and the student plugs these four laptops in.
But now some of the students start throwing small objects (like pencils) at each other. This includes the one boy who earlier tried to move to the wrong seat -- he's throwing at the two he was incorrectly sitting next to (which, by the way, is the group numbered 1-4). Originally I've been considering removing his name from the bad list since he's quiet for most of the period, but throwing objects makes me change my mind. The other two tossers are already on the bad list. Luckily, the talkative girl doesn't throw any objects at anyone.
And fortunately, I resist the urge to yell at anyone, so at least I fulfill that resolution. But still, I believe that I could have managed this class better. When the ideal manager is in charge of the classroom, students don't necessarily behave perfectly, but once the ideal manager punishes them, they change their behavior. Today I write down the names of the quartet who is the most talkative and separate two of them, but it's not enough to get anyone of them to change their behavior.
It means that even though I improve my management today, it's not enough. I need to do more to establish control of the class from the beginning. Meanwhile, I'd like to compare collecting the laptops today to how it went during the "ixnay" year, but I promised I won't (hence the "ixnay"). So instead, I'll compare it to collecting group projects from a seventh grade science class I subbed in a few weeks ago (and involves many of these same students).
In both classes, I collect something from the students (either a group project or a Chromebook), but in each case, I'm afraid that the students won't turn in the objects correctly. In the case of the group projects, I feared that the students would fail to write the names of each group member in addition to the period number (and indeed, many failed). Today, I fear that the students won't plug in the laptops to be charged.
I assume that the regular teacher has taught them the procedure to put Chromebooks away, which includes charging them. And yet if I don't pay close attention today, the first period dismissal bell would ring and at least half of the laptops would not be plugged in. Then I'd have to hurry to P.E. (and again, at the time I thought I must spend the whole period there), so they don't charge. Then the regular teacher returns on Monday, she sees the laptops not plugged in, and then it reflects poorly on me because she clearly told me to make sure that they're charging.
Anyway, in both science and English, the students start throwing objects, because I'm more worried about making sure a regular teacher doesn't see group papers without a name or uncharged laptops than checking student behavior. (Actually, in that science class there were Chromebooks too. So that day I had to check for names and laptops.) This is something I must worry about the next time I sub in a class with laptops.
Chapter 15 of Eugenia Cheng’s The Art of Logic in an Illogical World is called “Emotions.” Here’s how it begins:
“Emotions do not lie. They are never false. If you feel something you are definitely feeling it. If someone tells you that you are not justified in feeling it, that doesn’t help.”
Human beings are emotional creatures – there’s no getting around it. In this chapter, Cheng shows us that it’s impossible to be completely logical – and how we can deal with it. She writes:
“Sometimes people try to argue that we should only use logic and scientific evidence to reach conclusions. However, if we then meet someone who isn’t convinced by logic and evidence, how are we going to persuade them to be convinced by it?”
Therefore, Cheng concludes, emotions are more powerful than logic. This doesn’t mean that we must choose to be either emotional or logical. In fact, this is yet another false dichotomy:
A: Using emotions
B: Using logic.
And in fact, Cheng draws yet another chart which illustrates the needless antagonism between intelligence and sympathy:
UL: using emotions
UR: being unfeeling
LL: being illogical, thus stupid
LR: using logic
There are false equivalences on the left and right, true dichotomies on the top and bottom, no disagreement between UL and LR, and needless antagonism between LL and UR.
Additionally, Cheng draws a Venn diagram. Here “logical” and “emotional” are interlocking circles inside of a universe, allowing us to be neither or both logical and emotional.
Cheng admits that there are times when it’s good to be completely emotional:
“This might be when enjoying sensory experiences, allowing ourselves to be open to art, or just when supporting another person through a difficult or a particularly joyful time.”
The only region of the Venn diagram for which Cheng sees no use for is the outside, when we are neither logical nor emotional.
The author compares being logical to being able to make long term plans, or make short-term goals for long-term gains (often referred to as “future time orientation”). She explains:
“At least, this is one of my personal axioms; at the other extreme, there are some people who strongly believe in only living in the moment, or living entirely emotionally.”
Some catchy slogans tend to override logic. Cheng’s examples include “weight is just a number” and “age is just a number.” But as she points out, medical risks go up with weight and age:
“You might as well say ‘Medical risk is just a number.’ Or even when you’re running a dangerous fever, ‘temperature is just a number.’”
The author tells us that emotions can be persuasive, especially when dealing with language. For example, she disagrees with Shakespeare when he tells us that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet:
“Would you be able to sniff a rose seriously if it was suddenly renamed ‘diarrhea’? It might take some mental effort.”
And she repeats a contentious example from earlier in the book:
“If someone supports ACA but not Obamacare it is painfully clear that they are not evaluating things by their merits but by their names.”
I can’t help but think of another author, JK Rowling, who said it best: “Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.”
Again, I remind you that Cheng writes about race and politics throughout her book. If you prefer not to read this, then I suggest that you avoid this blog for the next week and skip all posts that have the "Eugenia Cheng" label.
(Cheng also repeats the example of how men are more willing to admit to forced intercourse than to rape, even though these are the same. I don’t know whether this has anything to do with the current hearings in DC.)
Cheng continues:
“Some people accuse others of conflating feelings with facts, especially if they seem to be convinced by something other than logic and evidence.”
And now the author makes a suggestion:
“Instead of denigrating emotions in a quest for more rigorous discourse, we should acknowledge their truth and seek to find the sense in which there is logic to them.”
Cheng tells us that feelings aren’t facts – just because we feel something is true, that doesn’t make it true. But then again, it’s true that we really do have those feelings. In that sense, then, feelings are indeed facts.
Feelings, for example, shape our opinions on climate change:
“Those who do not believe the evidence are typically not afraid of climate change and so don’t do anything about it.”
A few chapters back, Cheng discusses analogies. Now the author informs us that analogies can be used to get others to feel differently about a subject:
“The power of the analogy is in doing this via emotions, without having to appeal to anyone’s understanding of the logic involved. Unless you are talking to someone already proficient in abstraction and logic, this might be the best you can do.”
Cheng now draws another chart. In this chart, “logical example” and “emotional example” are linked together by “powerful analogy.”
And her next powerful analogy is all about power – in relationships, that is:
“Some people argue that this means men making rude jokes about women is worse than women making rude jokes about men. Or to push it to a greater extreme, that men sexually harassing women is worse than women sexually harassing men.”
Cheng draws a chart to illustrate this. “Men mistreating women” is linked by “privileged people mistreating oppressed people,” which in turn is linked, along with “women mistreating men,” to “people mistreating people.”
Now she moves on to another example:
"There is a definite problem with power differences here, which is why even if an interaction appears to be consensual, it is illegal between a teacher and a pupil in some countries, just as between an adult and a minor."
Cheng draws another chart to illustrate this. “A teacher asking a pupil for sex” is linked by “a person in power asking someone in their power for sex,” which in turn is linked, along with “a pupil asking a teacher for sex,” to “a person asking a person for sex.”
She continues by making an analogy with how power differences lead to structural racism.
The author recommends that we should uncover another person’s fundamental axioms and basic beliefs:
“Our analysis does not tell us how to do that, but at least if we have reached an understanding of why someone really feels something, we are in a better position than if we just think they are stupid.”
Therefore, Cheng ends the chapter with review and preview:
“I believe it is therefore incumbent on more logical people to invoke emotional means to make sure logical thoughts are conveyed. This is the subject of the closing chapter of the book.”
And we'll get to that closing chapter in my next post on Monday. Technically, the book is due back at the library tomorrow, but I'll read and write about the chapter tonight and save it in drafts so that it can appear on Monday.
OK, let's get to the U of Chicago text. Chapter 3 is one of the two shortest chapters in the text -- it has only six sections. All the other chapters from 2 to 6 have seven sections, and we've seen that with seven sections, there's time for two review days rather than one.
But providing a third review day for Chapter 3 is awkward. It's one thing to review on Monday for a Wednesday test, but it's another to review the previous Friday for a Wednesday test. It's more logical to study two days before the test than five days before, unless it's a big test like the final (or the state test, or the PSAT, or the bar exam, and so on). With a mere chapter test, studying the previous Friday is counterproductive as students may forget over the weekend.
Oh, and by the way, earlier I mentioned the PSAT as an example of a test for which students may prepare five or more days in advance. It has come to my attention that many schools will be administering the PSAT on Wednesday, October 11th -- and this might affect the day on which the Chapter 3 Test can be given.
Originally, this was going to be my plan for the last few days of Chapter 3:
Friday, October 5th: Activity Day (Day 37)
Monday, October 8th: Chapter 3 Review Day 1 (Day 38)
Tuesday, October 9th: Chapter 3 Review Day 2 (Day 39)
Wednesday, October 10th: Chapter 3 Test (Day 40)
This follows the pattern that we've established earlier this year -- Chapter 1 Test on Day 20, Chapter 2 Test on Day 30, and so on.
But Day 40 is exactly the day that the PSAT will be given. I've said it before on the blog that it is cruel to expect students to take the PSAT for four hours and then give them another test the same day.
Furthermore, notice that this is Day 40 according to the district whose calendar I'm following. As it turns out, the high schools in this district will actually observe a minimum day on Wednesday. The students will take the PSAT four hours, eat lunch, and then are dismissed to go home! All freshmen will be taking the PSAT 8/9 on Wednesday, and all seniors will have special activities that day. And so no student will attend any classes that day. So I couldn't give the Chapter 3 Test on Wednesday even if I wanted to.
Other districts might still hold classes after the PSAT, but it would be inconsistent for me to follow the day count of a district and not follow all of its testing days -- including finals and the PSAT. And besides, it's absurd to insist that students test on Wednesday when we have an extra day anyway due to the short six-lesson chapter.
And so instead, we take advantage of the shorter chapter to have two review days for the test (just like all the other chapters from 2 to 6), since the spare day will be used for the PSAT:
Friday, October 5th: Chapter 3 Review Day 1 (Day 37)
Monday, October 8th: Chapter 3 Review Day 2 (Day 38)
Tuesday, October 9th: Chapter 3 Test (Day 39)
Wednesday, October 10th: PSAT Test (Day 40)
Now for Chapter 2, we used the first review day for the worksheet and the second day for a special activity based on Geometry teacher Shaun Carter's blog -- but that was when the test was on a Wednesday and review days were Monday and Tuesday. With a Tuesday test, it makes more sense for the review worksheet to be on Monday (again because of the weekend).
And so today I post Shaun Carter's lesson. This looks like interesting way to teach parallel lines and corresponding angles. But unfortunately, he doesn't provide a worksheet for this lesson. Instead there is only a Twitter post:
https://twitter.com/theshauncarter/status/910927986542686209
I created a worksheet for this lesson based on what Carter has on his board in this Tweet. I like the idea of using color-coded Post-its just as Carter does. Notice that this lesson serves as review not just for Lesson 3-4 on parallel lines, but also Lesson 3-2 on linear pairs and vertical angles.
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