This is my "A Day in the Life" post for the special day "Open House." But as I've mentioned before, Open Houses at high schools have morphed into Future Freshman Showcases.
8:30 -- First period arrives. This is the first of two Math III classes.
Chapter 8 begins in earnest as the students learn about polynomials. In this lesson, they are given the graph of a polynomial and must find an equation for it. First they inspect the roots (x-intercepts), which provide the equation up to some constant multiple a, then use the y-intercept to determine a.
On DeltaMath, all of the roots have multiplicity 1 or 2. But the lead Math III teacher wants to include triple roots as well. At the Math III meeting last Monday, he showed us how to copy his DeltaMath assignments in which he wrote his own triple root problems. It also provides us with a new way to present the material to our classes. The 15-question assignment contains seven problems that are common to all students and can be used as classwork, while the remaining questions become HW.
But there is one question that I can't quite reach today -- it's on identifying polynomials with even and odd degrees, number of relative extrema, and so on. Fortunately, this is a simpler topic that can be taught on the minimum day tomorrow. (In other words, on the minimum day, the students will learn about local minimum -- and maximum.)
Today is Fiveday on the Eleven Calendar:
Resolution #5: We sing to help us remember math.
In all classes today I perform the same song that I played yesterday in fourth period -- "Count the Ways" from Square One TV and the Judds.
9:55 -- First period leaves for nutrition.
10:15 -- Second period arrives. This is the first of two Math I classes that meets today.
This is the same lesson that fourth period got yesterday. I ask the students a few questions from Lesson 5.2.2 of the CPM text and have the students answer in their notebooks.
I could have done VNPS today, but this class has fallen behind in the quiz corrections. But as it turns out, we don't really get to do quiz corrections or VNPS in this class, because some students decide to start arguing with me. And the topic of the argument is pencils.
It is my policy not to give pencils away when students ask for one. A few years ago, I used to, and then the students would complain when I tried to give away pencils on holidays. After all, what's so special about something they can get all the time? And of course, making the students bring their own pencils is meant to foster a sense of responsibility in them.
I've struggled over the years with what to do if a student asks for a pencil on a non-holiday. Ever since Resolution #2 (the one about avoiding arguments), I decided just to say "ten cents please" when asked for a pencil -- the student won't want to pay the dime and will look for another way to get a pencil. And even if the kid mutters "I won't pay that much for a cheap pencil" or something of the like, I could just ignore it. (Again, I don't mind if the student gets the last word -- I just want there to be a last word.)
But as usual for this class, it doesn't end the argument. The two students asking for pencils then accuse me of disrespecting them for ignoring them -- in other words, they don't respect any teacher who doesn't first respect them. And they keep talking during what's supposed to be quiz corrections, meaning that the corrections don't fully happen today either (after being delayed from Tuesday due to yet another argument attempt).
These students have a valid point -- respect is a two-way street and must be earned. But from my perspective, it is arguing with the students that's disrespectful, and that the only real way to respect them is to avoid arguments. But as they implied today, nothing short of just handing them a pencil would silence them (and even then, these two would likely just whisper during corrections instead).
The real problem, of course, was that I argued early in the year before writing Resolution #2, and so I have a reputation for argument that the students seek to exploit. If I'd avoided arguments the entire year, the students likely say nothing after I tell them "ten cents please."
The kids claim that they can't afford a ten-cent pencil, yet they can afford a $1000+ phone. I don't say this in class or respond to their claim, since there's no answer that would avoid further argument.
Then again, this is the sort of thing that Malcolm Kirkpatrick (mentioned on the blog during winter break) addresses in his theories. Students who are willing to pay $1000+ for a phone but not ten cents for a pencil are saying that entertainment is that much more important to them than education -- and markets are supposed to respond to what people want.
(This is why his plan allows students to graduate early and start adult work. They'd have no problem spending a dime for a pencil if doing so helps them learn faster, pass the GED, and earn the wage subsidy that's much more than ten cents. And as for teaching them responsibility, he'd claim that they'd learn responsibility more effectively at a job that they wish to keep, rather than in a class that they really don't want to take.)
11:40 -- Second period leaves and fifth period arrives. This is the second of two Math III classes. (Once again, I don't have third period conference on Thursdays.)
Lately, in fifth period I've been using a Promethean board to display the DeltaMath examples. After giving each graph, I randomly choose a student to go up to the board and enter the correct polynomial into the Promethean.
And believe it or not, some students are still making transfers for the second semester. There is a new guy in my fifth period today.
1:15 -- Fifth period leaves for lunch.
2:05 -- Sixth period arrives. This is the second of two Math I classes.
Sixth period is much like second period, except that the quiz corrections were done yesterday. So we do get to answer two questions on VNPS (a table and a graph). This class does struggle the most on the written questions where they must solve a multi-step equation for x and find the slope of a line.
3:30 -- Sixth period leaves.
5:00 -- The Future Freshman Showcase begins.
Here's how the showcase works -- all teachers save for those who coach a sport or sponsor a club must go to their department booth out on the quad. Then we must answer questions from any students and parents who visit our booth -- especially middle school students (as in "future freshmen").
Most eighth graders who visit our booth are interested in the summer honors program. They are either current Math 8 students who wish to take Math I in the summer in order to reach Math II in the fall (the equivalent of Steve level, except that SteveH opposes Integrated Math), or else current Math I students who wish to take Math II in the summer in order to reach Math III in the fall (Bruce level). And so they end up speaking mostly to the teacher who says that she'll teach the summer Math I and II courses.
Recall that a decade ago, I tutored students who were trying to accelerate to Bruce level. The summer Algebra II teacher assigned so much work that one student was unable to keep up -- and then I actively discouraged another kid from attempting the same jump the following summer. Likewise, the Math II teacher says that she'll assign about thirty problems per day in her class, but the teachers primed to teach Math III and Precalculus are likely to assign double, if not triple that.
During the showcase, I decide to sing a few math songs, just as I did for Parent Conferences. I begin with the official song of the day, "Count the Ways," and then proceed with Weird Al's "Patterns" and "Function Rap" (which one of the other Math I teachers wants me to send her). I don't get to sing the song that one of my neighbor teachers says he likes -- "No Zeroes" (the "No Scrubs" parody). All of these songs are vocal, since I leave my guitar in the classroom.
7:00 -- I sing my final song of the day as the showcase ends -- The Fat Boys' "Working Backwards." I intentionally choose this one because the final verse of the song takes place at 7:00.
Day 109 is tomorrow, the minimum day. And Monday is Lincoln's Birthday, and so my next post will be my usual Tuesday post on Day 110.
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