Skip to main content

Incognito

Oh my... I have operated under the radar for the last year. There are so many things that have happened. For one, my post from winter quarter disappeared. Can't remember everything, so here goes... The picture you see is of my daughter being ready for summer camp before I left her for the week.

 I realize that I will yet again be teaching college now algebra (this was ladt fall). . Based on my last experience I was not excited to do what I had done the previous year. However when the school year started, I then realized how sweet a schedule I actually had.  Actually this year's college now class was very concerned about their learning. There were a few, of course, that tried to command my attention, and I reminded them of course, this was a college-level class which required college level expectations.

There was also a question whether or not I would return the following year and if so what capacity would I be teaching. It made me look for other possibilities well still studying methods and tips that I have learned with my colleagues through #MCTMduluth.  But then I found out that not only will I be returning but I will be teaching a new class which was to be college now trigonometry.

Amazing, I also got to take a grad level class I actually liked: proportional thinking for conceptual understanding.  I like this place a lot because it helped reinforce skills that I taught myself when I did not understand my teachers when I was in school. I admit when I went to this year's College Now workshop I felt I have actually been doing right by my students, listening to other teachers' stories.

 Long story short I have yet to get ready for my daughter's wedding, do paperwork and administrative tasks as the local unions president, and to study some curriculum ideas before the school year actually rolls out. One of my resources just provided me some homework to do. It's at MCTM's Mathbits. Sara Van Der Werf challenges the math teachers to check the sites listed to brainstorm as we prepare for our year.

Oh, and I get to take another grad class, Probability and Stats for teachers (yes!)

Til I chalk again,

Mr. Shel


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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 competitive environment.   If you

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 from their previous school exper

New Stress-old story

Photo by Kristine Lewis via Flickr This year marks my first in long time of having a struggle class be THE struggle class. Normally I like to do an activity with them I got from NCTM in the first month called “A Matter of Survival,” and the students usually play it out prettty well. This class could not focus for more than 2 minutes! It took me at least 20 minutes to tally their data. (October). Now they have been struggling to focus enough to understand the concepts...it almost borderlines dyscalculia.  Dyscalculia, according to Wikipedia, is " is difficulty in learning or comprehending arithmetic, such as difficulty in understanding numbers, learning how to manipulate numbers, and learning facts in mathematics. It is generally seen as a specific developmental disorder." Wikipedia reference They've been a distraction to themselves for so long, they missed capstone learning moments to solidify their number theory from the 6th grade before coming to the high