I might not be the big thinker.

I had a really lovely conversation with Tiffany about mathematics education as a whole.  What we are teaching, why we are teaching it, and Rochelle Gutierrez.  It made me think, as talking with Tiffany always does.

Here’s where I’m at:  I love math.  I love teaching kids math but mathematics education is not my passion.  I don’t have a deep drive to examine math.  I don’t have a grand desire to delve into why we teach the math we do in the way we do.  Do I think it’s important?  Heck yes. Is it my life’s work? Nope.

I think, and I reserve the right to change my mind, that my life’s work is kids.  Possibly at an individual level, certainly on a relational level.  Don’t get me wrong I am in no way implying that thinking about math education on a large scale is not beneficial to kids or hugely important.  I am so glad there are people who want to do that work.  I am even more glad that there are people like Bryan Meyer and Tiffany who are willing to talk to me about it because I trust both of them to make me think about things that are important. But for me it’s different.  I don’t want to say I don’t care because that’s untrue but it doesn’t excite me.

For me it’s success for the kids I have now in the system I am in. For me it’s each scholar I have a relationship with.  For me it’s helping my school build in systems of support for LGBTQ students and students of color. For me it’s smaller? Maybe I’m a small system thinker?  Maybe I’m not as progressive as Lawler would like me to be but I am doing the work I love, in a place where that work matters, with people who make me better, and kids that know they are important to me.

So, I think I’ll keep thinking small for a while.  Focus on my interests and learn more about them because I think that might have been Tiffany’s point all along.

Advertisement

102.3

That is my fever.

This is my third MTBoS post.

This is a haiku.

comments in the same

will be appreciated

by this dying girl.

30 days.

I apparently told too many people I was going to do this and now I have to. Because actually, Fawn already started.

Today starts of #MTBoS30 for me. I am going to try to post everyday for the next thirty days.  If you want to join use the hashtag or tweet at me and I’ll check out your stuff. Good Luck!

I drove 70+ miles to have lunch with Fawn yesterday.  I realized how deeply I had missed her.  She is not who I want to be when I grow up.  She is who I want to be right now.  It’s not that she’s perfect it’s that her sense of self is so solid.  You just get the impression that Fawn can tell the difference between the big stuff and the small stuff.

We talked about the lovely humans in the #MTBoS. The value of a few more years in the classroom before you are an expert.  When to speak truth and when to shut the hell up. (Something I am terrible at.) We talked about our lives and our families and our values.  We easily filled 2.5 hours.

Tomorrow I start the last month of my 6th year of teaching and everyday I feel the value of that time more and more.

So I guess I’ll share it with you.

 

Happy day 1 friends.

An old test question I like.

This is an estimation problem.  You should estimate the angles. Janie starts at the home (the origin) and goes 12.45 meters west and 17.11 meters north, describe her position relative to the positive x-axis in terms of a (a) positive angle,   (b) negative angle,   (c) reference angle.

 

Just a little Algebra 2 for your day.

 

 

What do you do while your students take tests?

Mine are doing this right now.

So far I have: 

1. Written a thank you note.
2. Sent 5 emails.
3. Grade some tests.
4. Wrote this blog post.
5. Edited my final class paper.

 

But mostly I am just bored. Testing is super boring.  Do you do anything good?

(Next year, Sam, when you are looking for examples of short unnecessary blog posts… this is a good one)

 

14/30 (I am championing this bee tee dubs)

One post. Everyday. For the next 30 days.

At the beginning of this year, I gave myself a goal: post 52 posts.  So far this year I have done no more than 5 and it’s April people! This is bad.  So for the next 30 days I will post something everyday.  Something small most days but hopefully it will lead to good reflection.

Today is just this:

If I were to teach a professional development course it would be called, “Why I do everything wrong” and it would focus on my lack of belief in bell ringers and seating charts and my strong belief that 5 minutes about favorite books is often more valuable than 10 about the quadratic equation.

1/30