Clearing cobwebs

Let's face it. It's summer. No one wants to think about a class of 15-35 students who may or may not be excited about your class.

So what's your passion? Is it cleaning the cobs? But that's exactly what you do when something in your house hasn't been used in ages. What's the point?

I recently did a clean house project where I recycled the wood from my basement storage and turned it into shelving throughout the house. Why did I do it? I'd like to have an extra study away from the crowd. What you see is a reconstruction of that shelf at half the width and 2/3 the length. On Facebook I called it my lean manufacturing skills put to use. I like to build! I like to repurpose!

A contractor said it right when he told me it's more work to DIY as opposed to geting new. I'm not an Earth Day conservationist. But it taught me I can do it in small pieces. It gives me something to talk about when I bring up measurement, planning, and error.

Can you imagine that this was just storage? I might pop the wall (off left) out and make this room bigger. Why? To improve my house AND to create a chance to talk about math with my kids (not just measurement, but critical thinking). They even gave their own design ideas!

What are you doing to make you and yours pause and think of the possibilities you come across? After all, that's Global citizenship 101, and that's why I teach.

Til I chalk again,

Mr. Shel

Comments

Hope for the next standards....

Though the picture represents a different reason for my mug smile (taken in May 2022), it makes me feel the same way to try to continue to hope for the future of math standards. Currently we are working underneath the 2007 Minnesota Math Standards, and version III of the new standards have been out for comment by the public. Before, there were general ideas what was supposed to be presented to Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry, upper standards (advanced data and statistics), but yet did not account for the College Now or other preparatory math many schools have implemented to be competitive. Here's a case example of hope for improvement. Currently I teach Algebra 1 to the eighth graders in our district. The curriculum we have is very rigorous (that is to say, the book focuses on rational exponents), and gives students little practice with integer exponents to build their confidence. This gap, paired with a low numeracy and low fraction exposure fr...

Incognito

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Times of Transition

I used to DESIRE to dig into research and to experiment and try a hypothesis in my classroom. Since COVID I have felt complacent and unsupported to try anything. This is the danger of not just the pandemic, but ANY major situation. Then I also became involved with MCTM and worked with people whose desire was to make math more connected again. There were several feeling the same way as I did, and for once that gave some comfort. I've discovered through personal study and investment in my thinking habits, (as mentioned in previous posts) that I am an Architect. Not by trade, but by mindful construction of the "Big Picture" and commanding the tools, resources, and assets I am connected to make it happen. Not to brag, far from it, for Architects also are behind the scenes people, and some have the opposite of superiority complex; that is to say, an inferiority complex. This is a dangerous feeling to have, especially if one is in a competiti...

Blackboard Notes

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