“…sometimes I may seem unsure or timid but I do know that I am smart and capable.”

“You’ve given so much more confidense in math and in life.”

Ladies and gents, I am 3 days from the end of school and 2 posts from finishing this thing.  Hold on.

A supportive department?

A quiet office?

A home separate from your work or an office at home?

A best friend or partner?

Someone to make your lunches?

A clean house?

What do you really truly need to be in the right mindset to do your job everyday?

It’s okay.  You can totally read this.  I don’t write secrets on here.  In fact, if I did, it would be silly as our head of school knows about it.  You can talk to me about it if you want or not.  It’s cool either way.  You can comment or not.  My teacher friends will think that is super rad if you do.  

And since I know you will ask, no, I am not going to change this to my real name not because this is some huge secret but instead because I have no need to be googleable.  

Two last things, first, if you want to write a post on what it’s like to be in my class (although only one of you has) or what it is like at our school or anything else please do. I will post it.  Second, you are not responsible for anything up here.  Meaning if I am sad, grumpy, or tired you do not, and in fact should not, try to fix it.  Trust me when I say I am happy just getting to be at our school.  

Anyway feel free to keep lurking or not read this at all.  

Now go study for finals!

So here it is, Batman on Scooby Doo:

Anne is Not a Cartoon Dog

by Kate Nowak

Remember when other cartoon characters used to show up on Scooby Doo? I LOVED THAT. You turn on Scooby Doo and expect to see the gang solving a mystery and engaging in hijinks and BAM, the entire Addams Family! So in this scenario, I declare that Anne is a Daphne/Velma hybrid (stylish AND smart) and I am Batman. Or maybe Phyllis Diller. Or Captain Caveman.

Anne has been writing about whatever is on her mind. I admire her commitment to a month of posting every day. It’s hard to do anything for a month every day. Here is the complete set of things it is NOT hard to do for a month every day: {breathe, sleep, drink coffee}. But Anne is exhausted, people. It is May and she is a teacher. On top of that, she has to move, and we all know moving is the worst. I mean, THE WORST. Anne, please be lying down with a cold compress on your head right now. This is my hope for you.

Here are things that are on my mind today:

I have made appearances on various webinars lately and today I made the mistake of watching them and DEAR GOD MY VOICE. WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY VOICE? I swear, it doesn’t sound like that in my head. I think when I’m a little nervous, and thinking carefully about what I’m saying (which is 50% “um”, beeteedubs) all the air in my body gets pinched and constricted and I only let it out in shallow threads through my nose. Must investigate how people do this and sound normal at the same time.

I think about all you teachers and I am not-jealous and jealous of you at the same time. Not-jealous because, my current job’s pretty neat, and I’m digging it. I am jealous when I think about stressed ninth graders huddled around my desk, and I knew I could give them exactly what they needed. That’s the power of May. You know those kids. They’re so lucky. I am jealous when I read all the great things you are doing in your classes, and I can’t steal them and make teenagers think I’m a genius. I am jealous when I think about the sprint to the finish, exhausting as it was, and how good it felt to be done with that year – the mighty purging of all the extra photocopies, the locking everything in cabinets, the cleaning up all the eraser crumbs that were under everything. And the week or so of the gorgeous nothing of sitting and staring at a wall that followed.

The ever-quotable Elizabeth Statmore and I are tasked with coming up with some problem-solving sessions for #TMC13. In trying to find something suitably wicked and accessible, I have been doing some really hard math. It’s fun. It hurts. I’m not going to tell you what, because, spoilers. The hardest part is focusing on a few things. Holding a few things in my attention long enough for them to click together. The most delightful thing so far was counting up something unrelated, and the Fibonacci sequence popped out.

I read this really lovely thing today: “Suppose we are looking at the ocean. On the surface we see waves rising and falling. From the point of view of the waves, there is birth and death, high and low, rising and falling. There are distinctions between waves. But each wave is made of water. It is a wave, but at the same time, it is water. Concepts such as birth and death, higher and lower, rising and falling apply only to the waves, not to the water itself … You know very well that the wave does not need to die in order to become water. It is water in the here and now. … The wave can live the life of a wave, but it can also do better. It can live every moment of its life deeply touching its nature as water. If the wave realizes that it is water, its fear disappears. It enjoys its rising and falling much more. Rising is joyful, and falling is, too.” (Thich Nhat Hanh, You Are Here)

Okay, then, sluggers. Go make a difference out there

Note from me: Thank god for Kate Nowak, cause I am totally in bed.

Also, if you didn’t know my real life name is Anne.

It’s not enough to be a good teacher. You have to want to be better.

So for the next few days I will spend time working on the first part, which I am quite excited about.  I really could use less stuff. 

Sometimes on long days where things play out in ways I don’t expect I have to remind myself, I really am grateful. 

Just a little Algebra 2 for your day.

You’ve made it to Tuesday.  In fact, if you are on the east coast you have made it to end of the day Tuesday.  It may not seem like much right now but this means that you have only 3 more days of work this week.  This means that you have survived Monday.

Making it to Tuesday, is worth a deep breath and a glass of wine (if you don’t have dorm duty).  So congratulations friends.  You have made in to Tuesday, in May, and you have made it to May.

Happy almost Wednesday, basically Thursday, and therefore pretty much Friday,

Soph.

1. Unions and intersections!  Man I didn’t really get these until I started teaching here but now I LOVE them. I just taught one of my classes how to play set (which if you aren’t teaching you should) then we did unions, intersections, and probability using the deck.
2.  Trig and the unit circle. Trig is just amazing, how simple and useful and cool it is.  I have convinced about half my students that radians are better than degrees.  BAM!
3. Projectile motion and graphing calculators.  Seriously, I love a kid who adjust a window properly.
4. Combinatorics.  The fact that I get to teach this is making my life better.

Lastly, I love how smart math makes my students feel because every kid should feel that way everyday. (sappy ending)