Last but not least...

I've waited to write a post about my IB HL senior class, hoping that it would start to gel.  This is the class that only had 2 students last year, so I knew it would be quite different with 11 students of varying mathematical abilities and interests.  It has been a struggle for me to figure out how to present the challenging material in a way that will improve their problem solving skills so that they can be successful on the very difficult IB test at the end of the year.  I think that I lost some of them at the beginning of the year and still have not gotten them back.

The other problem is that half of the class had me last year every day, so we know each other quite well.  They are also well-prepared for this class because they were in an IB class that was specifically geared toward success on this test.  The other students, though supposedly more advanced because they took Precalculus as sophomores instead of juniors, are at a bit of a disadvantage because they took AP Calculus last year.  They don't remember Precalc very well and they are not prepared for the IB way of doing things.  Since they don't know me as well, I don't think they trust that I am preparing assignments that will help them be successful.  This leads to increased stress for all of us and at times a very negative atmosphere.

Hopefully things will improve as the year goes along (though I shudder to think what will happen in January when senior-itis sets in!).  And hopefully we can figure out a new course sequence that will ensure that all students have the same skills coming in to this course.

Precalculus 2010

I don't know how I managed it, but this year I ended up with two awesome Precalculus classes.  One class is filled with excellent students who also possess reasonably good math skills.  Out of 27 students, only 3 earned below a B for the first quarter, which would be a great outcome even for an honors class.

The other class is a bit more challenging because almost half of them have ADD.  Somehow this class of 22 feels bigger than the class of 27 because their personalities are much stronger.  Thankfully I enjoy being around them, even if I do occasionally lose control of the class discussion.  For example, this conversation occurred right in the middle of the lesson one day -

Student 1: John has a new kitten at home.
Student 2: I hate kittens.  I wish they would all die.
Student 3: I love kittens.  They're so cute.
Me: Great, thanks for sharing - so what about the domain of this function?
All students start talking amongst themselves about their feelings regarding kittens.  Once they finish sharing we can finally go back to the lesson!

Never a dull moment!

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!

Resurrecting My Blog

So...we're two weeks from the end of the first quarter and I'm just now writing my first blog entry!  It's been a busy and tough year so far (details to follow) and I haven't felt much like thinking about school in my spare time.  But a combination of the high spirits induced by the start of a three-day weekend and the nagging of some faithful readers led me to finally get on here and write something.

I thought I'd start by sharing some photos of me from Homecoming Spirit Week.  These costumes aren't quite up to the level of the Mullenator, but they're still pretty good/embarrassing.  Every day that week my students starting laughing at me when they walked in the room, so I think that's a sign of success.

Decade Day - If only I had been able to find a scrunchie and my old globe earrings, I would have looked exactly the same as I did in 1990.

Teacher-Student Swap Day - The teachers got way more into this one than the students.  The teens dressed as gym teachers so that they could wear sweats.  We raided the lost and found, borrowed clothes from our students, and wrote ourselves fake shoe passes for not having the correct uniform shoes.

My favorite part of the day was accidentally sneaking up on students who would jump out of their skin when they realized that the person standing behind them was a teacher and not a student!

Is it prom or a wedding?

The senior boys at my school have been going all out this year in their efforts to ask a girl to prom.  In many cases the lengths to which they are going seem more on the level of a marriage proposal. Here are a few of the techniques employed...

• Candles in the girl's driveway spell out "Prom with me?"
• Sticky notes completely cover all of the windows of the girl's car and the question is written on top of them
• Signs going up the road into school pop the question in the form of a poem (like the old Burma-Shave ads)
• An elaborate rose ceremony in the middle of class ends with the big question.  A student got 11 male friends to each bring a rose into the girl's class, spaced a couple of minutes apart; then the boyfriend brought in the last rose.  (He did get the teacher's permission first!)

I feel kind of bad for the rest of the senior boys who had an awful lot to live up to! 

Teaching and Sisyphus

As I reflect on the end of another school year, I realize that teaching has a lot in common with the curse of Sisyphus (or Syphilis as my oh-so-mature juniors like to call him).  Just when I finally get my students to some level of mathematical maturity, the year ends and they move on to another teacher, while the ball rolls back down and I have to push another group up the hill.

I don't really consider this to be a curse (if I did, I'd be in the wrong profession!).  It is just that the contrast between August and May is particularly clear for my IB juniors who covered two courses in that time span.  Their final papers are generally excellent and reflect a variety of skills that none of them possessed at the beginning of the year.  I am thankful that I will get to see the fruits of my labor in the 5 students who are going on to the senior IB class.  And I am thankful that I can see such growth - it is far more gratifying than reaching the end of the year and wondering if I accomplished anything.  (Seniors who drew pictures on your final exams, I'm looking at you!!)

I'll post a few more stories from the last 2 months of school before I head off on vacation.  Thanks for reading!

And You Thought Math Teachers Were Weird

A couple of the science teachers were flipping through catalogs in the conference room after school and we heard one of them ask, "Do any of these companies sell fungus?"

Now there's a niche market!