Math Crafts Day

Earlier this year some of my IB students were surprised to learn that our classroom was actually my own room (many teachers at our school use different classrooms on different days/periods).  If that was the case, then why didn't I decorate it?  I tried to explain that I am a math teacher, not an artist (haven't they seen my terrible word problem illustrations and Escher-like 3-D drawings?). 

On Thursday, since half of them were out taking another IB exam, I decided to take advantage of their creative abilities to make some classroom decorations.

 Origami plus sign

 Icosahedron, octahedron, tetrahedron

 

Helicopter

A couple of the girls wrote a great spoof of our school lunch prayer:

Prayer Before a Math Test

Gracious God,

Before we partake of this test,

we thank you for the teacher who has taught us

and the books she provided us,

the nerdiness that binds us,

and the blue [IB formula] sheet that saves us.

In Pascal's name we integrate,

AMEN

I too thank God for the nerdiness that binds us! :)

Lightning in a Bottle

This is the kind of thing that teachers love - students getting excited about something you are teaching and just running away with it.  I was teaching them how to find the derivative of x^x (do you use power rule?  is it exponential?  aaah!).  After we found the first derivative, I showed them how taking the second derivative was easier.  Then some of them thought they noticed a pattern and away we went - taking derivatives that ended up looking like this -

- trying to predict what the next one would be.  Then someone noticed a pattern when you evaluate the derivatives at x = 1 and we started trying to figure that one out as well.  We were all disappointed when the bell rang and we hadn't come to any conclusions.  By the time we return after spring break the interest level will be gone but for a while there we were really DOING math.  Not just learning about it, not looking for patterns that we already know exist, not proving things that we already know to be true, but just playing with something because it looks interesting.  It was awesome and unfortunately there's just no way to plan for that kind of thing.  I can throw stuff out there but the best investigations happen when they question something I would have never considered.

It's the most painful time of the year...

Every March I rediscover that the end of the third quarter is the worst part of the school year.  Then I forget about the stress until it hits me again a year later.  I don't know why this is always the worst - some combination of hitting the toughest material, students being out for field trips/retreats/college visits and not making up the work until the last minute, and early onset senioritis.  This week is particularly bad because it's the end of the quarter, many classes are trying to get in one last test or paper, and it's also tech week for the spring musical.  My poor IB juniors have been hit very hard and although I've backed off on their workload, I'm still trying to get them to do related rates and optimization word problems (if you've taken Calculus, those words probably bring back bad memories - sorry!).

Today students were struggling to complete their word problems and one student had his head propped up on both hands, just staring at his paper.  I walked over and said, "How can I help you?  You have a look of despair - I know that look well by now."  Some other students heard me and started laughing.  One said, "this is the best class!"  I wasn't aware that "causes despair" was a positive quality but if I am going to cause my students mental anguish, at least they are happy about it!

Five Fives

Just like last year, my IB junior class meets every day for an hour and a half.  At the end of a full five days of classes, their brains are filled to capacity so I try to reserve half an hour for "Friday Funday"/"Fun Friday" (there's some debate about what to call it).

Last year with 10 students we played games such as Mafia, Psychiatrist, and Three on a Couch.  Some of those games don't work as well with 17 students, so I need to come up with some new ideas.  Out of desperation last Friday, I wrote the numbers 0-20 on the board and asked them to create each number using exactly five 5s.  They could use any mathematical operation but no other numbers and each of the numbers 0-20 could only be created once.

I didn't know if they would be interested, particularly because I didn't have any prizes for the person who made the most numbers.  However, as soon as I said "go" they started racing to the board to claim the "easy" numbers.  They never got frustrated on the tough numbers (like 17) and finished 0-20 with ten minutes to spare.  I suggested they work on 21-30 but figured they would be bored by now.  Nope - they finished those numbers too and even requested to work on four 4s sometime!  These kids genuinely love math and watching their faces light up when then solve a problem (even ones as simple as these) is one of my greatest joys this year.

Note: I've had some questions about my 1990 outfit in the last post.  I was wearing my exercise pants, so those weird streaks on my legs are from the flash hitting the reflectors!

Something Positive

I realized that most of my posts lately have been fairly negative.  I don't seem to have as many funny stories this year as in previous years.  I'm also having a more stressful year than last year for some reason.  So I decided to think of something happening at school that makes me happy.


Here it is: my IB juniors have a nickname for me - they call me "Senora."  Now I know that isn't as dramatic as "The Mullenator", but I like it because it conveys a special relationship without being inappropriate.  It amuses me when some of their friends who I see elsewhere call me Senora too. 

On a related note, one of the teens in my parish youth group started calling me "Miss Mullenator" after hearing the story of my costume earlier in the year.  On Friday she shorted that to 'Smullenator, which has a nice ring to it as well!

"I'm Confused"

Just two little words, but oh how I've grown to hate them.

Lately I've been pushing my IB juniors to do more problem solving without me, which causes a chorus of "I'm confused."  I think what drives me so crazy about the phrase is the inherent "I don't immediately understand so I want you to tell me how to do it."  I've tried to explain that being confused in math is okay and that not every problem will have an immediately obvious solution.  I've explained that my goal is to give them the tools that they need and then let them solve the problems.  In fact most of them do eventually solve every problem that I throw at them.  However, some students are just extremely uncomfortable with not knowing how to do something.  I need to keep in mind that these students have never before been pushed in this way and hopefully they will gain more confidence as the year goes along.

In the meantime I should teach them a new phrase.  I think "I'm pondering possibilities" has a nice ring to it.

Red Badge of Courage

Some of my IB juniors have been struggling lately. It's tough to go from always being the best math student in a class to working hard just to get B's. I give them a lot of credit because they are rising to the challenges that I set for them and learning both math and problem solving. I can see a big difference in their ability to explain what they know, which is often very difficult for gifted kids who intuitively understand things.

To commemorate their completion of Precalculus on Tuesday, I decided to give them an award. I printed out this image onto 3" x 4" mailing labels to make giant stickers. I wasn't sure if they would think it was a dumb idea, but earlier in the year I had made them unit circle stickers which were a big hit, so I figured it was worth a try. I thought they might stick them to their notebooks, but half of the class immediately put them on their shirts! One kid claimed that "this is the nerdiest thing I've ever worn." (I should hope so!) I figured they would take the stickers off as soon as they got in the hall, but at least a few minutes later they were still wearing them. I'm so proud of my little nerds! :)

Celebration

Tomorrow my students take their midterm exams.  Historically our students do very poorly on their exams (across the board, not just in math).  So before the potential downer that tomorrow may bring, I thought I should take a moment to celebrate the good things that are happening in my classes.

- My IB juniors are getting better at problem solving and explaining their solutions, which was my goal for the year.  Last week I gave them a bunch of very challenging problems and it was a pleasure to watch them bounce ideas off of each other.  It was hard not to give them help but it was worth it to see their delight when they figured it out by themselves.

- One of my Precalc students memorized the unit circle.  (If you don't remember, the unit circle contains all of the basic trig values like sin 30 = 1/2.  You probably once had it memorized too.)  We don't require our students to memorize the values because it would be impossible for some of them, but anyone going on to Calculus needs to know them.  So I made it an extra credit opportunity for students who could take the test without their circle.  Only one student took me up on it but it was a pleasure to see her figure out all of the patterns and grow to a deeper understanding as she figured out how to commit it to memory.

- Another Precalc student has turned around from barely passing first quarter to getting A's on every test.  He attentively takes notes and asks excellent questions.  His parents and tutor get all of the credit on this one, but I get to reap the benefits.

- My students were quiet and focused during our review day for the exam.  Typically these days have been a disaster for me as some students just don't care enough to pay attention and end up disrupting the students who want to learn.  This year I am really blessed with studious kids - maybe the exams won't be so terrible after all!

Factorial Fun

Today my IB juniors were learning about factorials.  (As a reminder: 5! is read as "5 factorial" and means 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1.)  Several said that they loved the exclamation points because it made the math more exciting.  For the rest of the period whenever the answer called for a factorial they would shout the number to account for the exclamation point.  So 10!/5! would be "TEN divided by FIVE."  As their hilarity grew it got a little difficult to tell the difference between "TEN" and "ten" but I have to agree that it did make for an exciting class.

Tomorrow they want to learn math that uses question marks...I think that means we're going to be inventing something.

Junior IB Class

Every day for an hour and a half I have the pleasure of spending time with 11 gifted juniors. They are taking the first year of the IB* higher level math course, which covers Precalculus in the fall and Calc I in the spring. This is my second year teaching this course and I love it. Of course I love that my students are capable of doing advanced math problems and of asking questions that often teach me something new. But the main reason I enjoy this class is because we spend so much time together that we get to know each other very well. After three weeks of school I know next to nothing about the students in my other classes, but we are already sharing stories and joking together.

I also give these students a lot of credit for how they are handling the difficulty level of this class. Most of them are used to putting in minimal effort and getting A's on tests whereas now they could easily end up with a B even after studying. We have one question quizzes every day that could be on any topic that they have ever covered in math. We have a unit test almost every week. For part of every test I take away their calculators. Yet they still have a positive attitude and most seem to be thriving. I guess they must really love math!

* The International Baccalaureate program is a worldwide diploma program in which students take advanced courses in all of their subject areas. The emphasis is on applying and synthesizing knowledge. Based on their aptitutde, students pick which subjects they can master at a higher level (at our school most students go standard level in math - the higher level test is tough).