Today I subbed in a high school English class. It's actually in my old district -- so it really is Day 117 at this school. Since it's high school but not math, I won't do "A Day in the Life" today. Notice that this school does have block schedules, but it's Monday, an all-classes Common Planning day.
This teacher has one AP English Lit class and three junior classes. The AP English class is currently reading Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Today they watch part of a video on the novel (the 2005 TV version). Meanwhile, the juniors work hard on Chromebooks to prepare a slideshow presentation.
This teacher also has a Drama class in the theater. As it turns out, both AP English and Drama also have assignments on Shakespearean sonnets. (What did I say earlier about English teachers giving Shakespeare during the Big March?) While the AP kids have a written assignment, the Drama students must memorize and recite one of the Bard's 14-line poems tomorrow. They are also reading and preparing to perform the Scottish play. (Since I'm in the actual theater room today, I'll follow the superstition and avoid naming the Scottish play here on the blog.)
For today's song, I originally planned on singing "Solving Equations" -- one that I originally associate with this time of year at the old charter school. But then I read the news and find out something that causes me to change my mind.
Katherine Johnson, the Hidden Figures NASA mathematician, dies today at age 101.
As soon as I learn this, I change my song to "Runnin'" -- the Pharrell Williams song that is featured in the Hidden Figures film. Three years ago, I sang "Runnin''" at the old charter school -- but I didn't write much about it on the blog. Recall that back then, I didn't blog everyday, and it just so happened that I performed "Runnin'" on a non-posting day -- the day before the Hidden Figures field trip.
Three years ago, I sang only the first verse, but this year I get the entire song from YouTube (since it's already set up for watching Their Eyes Were Watching God). Indeed, here's the video:
I now realize that I like the second verse more than the first -- and regret not singing the second verse at the old charter school. The first verse is just about the story taking place in Virginia, but the second verse is about what Katherine actually does in Virginia.
In fact, I know what I did wrong that year. First, due to the MLK weekend, there was only one full day of school between the announcement of the field trip and the outing itself. I was busy trying to choosing what song to sing that day, and I decided that it should be related to the field trip, parallel to "Meet Me in Pomona" before the trip to the fair. I saw the "Runnin'" song, but instead of posting its lyrics or writing them down on paper, I saw the YouTube video in my classroom and then wrote the lyrics directly onto a poster. Since I left the classroom, I no longer have access to those posters, and I never bothered to write the lyrics anywhere else. This is why I haven't performed them since.
So let me rectify this problem right away. I'll cut-and-paste the lyrics right here in this post:
https://genius.com/Pharrell-williams-runnin-lyrics
[Verse 1]
Summertime in Virginia was a oven (oven)
All the kids eating ice cream with their cousins (cousins)
I was studyin' while you was playing the dozens (dozens)
Don't act like you was there when you wasn't
[Refrain 1]
Runnin' from the man (man) runnin' from the badge (badge)
Don't act like you was there when you wasn't
Runnin' toward our plans (plans) in the judge's hands (hands)
Don't act like you was there when you wasn't
[Pre-Chorus]
I know they say you crawl 'fore you walk
But in my mind I already jog
If I stand still I cannot get far
They want the Moon, I'm on Mars
[Chorus]
Sometime my mind dives deep
When I'm runnin'
I don't want no free ride
I'm just sick and tired of runnin'
Some nights I cry
Cause I can see the day comin'
Together we'll fight
Oh, but no more runnin'
[Verse 2]
You and I are not different from each other (other)
Shut our eyes, when we slumber I see numbers (numbers)
Black and white, we're computers, I ain't colored (colored)
Don't act like you was there when you wasn't
[Refrain 2]
From runnin' to exams (exams) two jobs for a man (man)
Don't act like you was there when you wasn't
In the law of the land (land) the women were often banned (banned)
Don't act like you was there when you wasn't
[repeat Pre-Chorus and Chorus]
Then I'll copy these lyrics into my songbook (that I never purchased until after I ended up leaving the old charter). Now I'll be able to add this song to my repertoire and sing it more often.
Today is Nineday on the Eleven Calendar:
Resolution #9: We attend every single second of class.
Even though I alluded to the ninth resolution twice last week, today is the actual Nineday when I focus on this rule. And it's the second consecutive Nineday with a shortened bell schedule, and so there should be less excuses for excessive restroom passes today.
Today's teacher specifies a strict restroom policy -- students are supposed to present their printed restroom passes, and then I exchange it for a blue "outside pass." They are given four restroom passes for the quarter. The teacher also specifies that students spend no more than five minutes outside.
A grand total of five students go to the restroom today -- three from Drama. Of these five students, only two (both from Drama) actually show me a pass -- the others claim that they've lost them. So of course, I inform the teacher that these students insist on going without a pass. I catch only one student spending more than five minutes out of the room -- it's the Drama guy who doesn't have a pass.
For a while, printed restroom passes caused problems at the old charter school as well. Students asked to go, but didn't have a pass to present me, now even when I knew that I've given them passes that they hadn't used yet.
After seeing this play out, I'm now wondering whether -- if and when I ever return to the classroom as a teacher -- I implement a restroom policy that doesn't depend on the students keeping printed passes that they'll just lose before the end of the quarter/term. This means that I must somehow keep track of how many passes have been used.
I can also just use a participation points system that I recently mentioned for the ninth resolution. For this system, there wouldn't be a fixed maximum number of passes per quarter/term. Instead, they begin with a certain number of points and then points are deducted every time they fail to attend every second of class without reason -- restroom/water visits, tardies, truancies, and so on. I like this system because I might deduct more points for more severe infractions -- going to the restroom on a block day isn't as severe as asking to go on a shortened Monday, especially during the first few minutes after snack and lunch. Likewise, tardies on a Late Start day (at schools that have them) are more severe than being late on a regular day.
(By the way, mentioning restroom passes on Katherine Johnson's death day reminds me of the NASA great's struggle with restroom as depicted in the film. Her restroom visits lasted much more than five minutes, because she had to walk so far to the black women's restroom!)
Speaking of tardies, it turns out that lateness is a worse problem than restroom passes today. There are seven tardies to first period today, nine to fifth period, and a whopping ten to third period (which is fully half of the students present today)! The other two classes have one tardy each.
Third period tardies are often tricky since this is the period of announcements/Pledge of Allegiance, and I often don't take attendance until after announcements. But just like last week at the middle school P.E. class, there's a seating chart, and so I know the names of tardy students. (It's likely that without the seating chart, I mark no one tardy because I wouldn't know their names until I call roll a few minutes into the period.)
Classes where students continually trickle in the first few minutes always annoy me -- especially when it's not the first period/block of the day. When I was a young student, tardies of even a few seconds weren't tolerated. I myself have been marked tardy (and sent out to "tardy sweep") for being a few seconds late -- but I can count on one hand the grand total number of times that I wasn't in my seat before the bell rang (during all four years of high school).
Of course, I don't bring up my own past, since that convinces nobody. Instead, I invoke the fifth resolution and point out that in 1955, tardies were punished more severely -- and I plan on following 1955 tardy rules, since at no point were the school rules ever changed from the 1950's. (I didn't use the exact year 1955, but instead used the year of the school's founding, which was slightly later.)
By the way, I clearly count Katherine Johnson as a hero. She was born well before 1955 -- and in fact, you might wonder, what was she doing in that special year?
Actually, she was working for NASA's predecessor, NACA. She was also married to her first husband -- the father of all three of her daughters. Thus it might be possible that one of her daughters was born in 1955.
But I doubt it. I admit that while I've watched Hidden Figures the movie, I've never read the book from cover to cover. A few glances at key chapters reveal that Katherine's first husband became sick in 1955 and died the following year, so it's likely that all three girls had already been born by then.
Meanwhile, Katherine married her second husband -- Colonel James Johnson -- in 1959. I read that the colonel passed away last year, so I wonder whether the couple made it to their 60th (or diamond) wedding anniversary. According to the book, the Johnsons married in August, but I don't know what month the colonel died.
Here in Southern California, there was a big celebration of life for basketball star Kobe Bryant held at the Staples Center (where he played most of his games). Of course, famous athletes are heroes, and they definitely inspire youngsters in P.E. classes and on sports teams. But to me, Katherine Johnson is just as heroic as Bryant. Her memorial ought to be as large as Bryant's, held at a similarly large venue where the tickets sell out in seconds. Just as Bryant's memorial was carried live on all local channels here as well as nationally on ESPN, Johnson's memorial should be carried locally on all Virginia stations and nationally on, say, the Science Channel. And of course, famous performers should be at the Johnson memorial, just as they were for the Bryants.
Of course, that's all just a pipe dream.
This is what I wrote last year about today's lesson -- which is based on something that I found in a math class I subbed in the year before:
I also find a copy of a Performance Task, similar to what students may find on the SBAC. There's a hole in my U of Chicago pacing plan since Chapter 11 has only six sections. And I've never posted a Performance Task before, despite this being a Common Core blog.
And so I post this task as an activity for today and tomorrow. Actually, I create my own version of the problem rather than the district copy. This is to block out the name of the district since I don't post identifying information (and to avoid any issues with SBAC, which might mistake this practice question for a real test question). Also, I changed it from one day to two days. On the actual SBAC, students are typically given a two-hour block to complete the Performance Task, so they should have two days to complete it.
The question is about the coordinates of a square. It fits perfectly with Chapter 11 of the U of Chicago text -- and indeed it's similar to the Lesson 11-1 activity from two weeks ago.
In the Glencoe text, the Performance Task fits with Chapter 6, on quadrilaterals. Glencoe Chapter 6 is similar to Chapter 5 in the U of Chicago text (and Chapter 6 in the Third Edition), except that coordinates appear early. Indeed, I lamented three years ago that the Distance Formula appears as early as Chapter 1 in the Glencoe text!
Traditionalists probably won't like the explanation required for Part III of this task. They'd say, just graph the quadrilateral and classify it. There's no need for students to explain anything.
RIP Katherine Johnson.
END
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