Poised and Polished

“What an amazing experience.” Those were my thoughts at the end of Thursday’s Culminating Event.

During his Skype call, Joe Tanner cited several spinoffs our students had studied and written about and I could see those particular students were excited to have their spinoff mentioned.

I was so impressed with our scholars as they presented their projects to the hundreds of adults in attendance. I visited every room, listened to the speeches and spoke to scores of parents. 

I heard fantastic feedback from parents and others. To quote one parent: “I was blown away by the presentations, the research, and the magazines.”

Another parent said she appreciated being able to share her memories of the Challenger Disaster publicly by writing on the whiteboard in the cafe. “This is a great way for people to share and honor Christa McAuliffe and the crew.”

The eighth graders were poised and their speeches were polished. What an evening.

I am so proud of you!

“We Penetrated Deeper and Deeper Into the Heart of Darkness”

Many say I’m not fair. 

Some accuse me of being cruel. 

A few say I expect too much from them.

One or two insist that my heart is a dark and cold place.

These are my students. They have leveled these charges with great passion.

Ask them. They will not contest that they have hurled these accusations at me on a regular basis. No, they will only repeat their ernest allegations in greater detail.

They will tell you that I hide extra math problems on my worksheets. 

They will insist that I sneak in extra questions on their homework.

I am confident many of my charges will insist that I do not play by the rules, that I am fundamentally unfair.

And, to a degree I have to accept their accusations.

I do “hide” extra problems and “sneak in” extra questions on their homework. 

I am so devious that I have hidden them in the most clever of all places. I have intentionally placed all this extra work where they would never think to look. It is a place so dark and unexplored, so mysterious that they might rightly fear it. 

How have I succeeded in deceiving them so perfectly?

Where could I hide all that extra work?  

Where?

The only place they never think of…..the back side of the paper.

The Object of the Game

I have been using a phrase that my students do not understand. I begin each class by reading the learning target for the day. Sometimes instead of saying “learning target,” I will say “The object of the game is…..”

This baffles my students and today I figured out why. 

They didn’t play board games. 

When I was young, back in the Cretaceous period, we didn’t have all the entertainment options that our students have today. 

We didn’t have video games, computers, cell phones, or 250 channel HD TV’s. We didn’t have Redbox, DVRs. or iTunes.

In fact, the only electronics in the house was the Radar Range, the TV and Dad’s Hi-Fi (Which we were not allowed to touch…ever).

What we did have was four or five channels of black and white TV. 

We had playing outside. 

We had board games. 

And that’s where my disconnect originates. Each board game had a set of instructions

printed on the inside of the box top, or on a folded up, flimsy paper. Among the first sentences of the instructions:

“The Object of the Game.”

Since this generation don’t play board games - read that bored games - they have no idea what I’m talking about when I use that phrase to begin my class. 

Not that I’m going to stop saying it, but now I know why they look at me funny when I say those words aloud. 

The More Things Change...

I was walking into Target the other day and a 7th grader in front of me pulled out his ginormous iPhone 6 Plus. Watching this child with his phone got me thinking how much the world has changed since I was a middle school student.

“What was the most important thing I owned when I was in middle school?” I wondered.

It was my bicycle.  

For my generation the bicycle was essential. I wasn’t alone. The bike racks at school were full when the weather was nice. 

Everyone owned a bike. It meant freedom. It connected me with my friends and allowed me a broader circle then just the few kids who lived in my neighborhood. Owning a bike meant I had more control over my social life than my parents, and that was a big change in my life.  

Owning a bike meant being able to be out and about on my own. 

I wonder what percentage of McAuliffe scholars own bikes. My guess would be a pretty small number. 

I bet the percentage of students who own a smartphone is very high. Based on what I see after school, everyone has a phone. 

For this generation, the phone is essential, the backpacks and coats are full of phones.

Everyone owns a phone. It means freedom. It connects kids with friends and allows a broader circle than just the few children who live in their neighborhood. Owning a phone means young people have more control over their social lives than their parents. For most kids that’s a big change.

Owning a phone means kids can be out and about on their own. 

Now, that I think about it…maybe things haven’t changed all that much, after all.

When Am I Ever Going To Use This Again?

“I don’t understand why I have to learn this. When am I ever going to use this again?” is a query

students frequently ask their math teachers. It s often delivered as a whine.

I’ve had this question rolling around in my head during this winter break. I’m been trying to mentally note when I used math in my everyday activities. Frankly, I’ve lost track because I literally use math every day, usually every waking hour of every day.

Two examples:

Out to lunch

My wife and I went to lunch with two other couples.

We added 20% to the total bill, then divided by 3 to figure out how much each couple owed. Pretty straightforward, right? 

Yeah, That’s algebra.

The variable X represents how much each couple needs to pay. Y represents the total amount of the check. Here’s how that looks in algebra-speak:

You might not think about it in terms of X’s and Y’s but they’re just placeholders for real numbers in this example.

Family vacation

My family is planning an international trip. We’re looking at the cost of flights, meals, hotels, ground transportation, tours and more. Our trip may include stops in two different countries. We are dealing with exchange rates from dollars to two different currencies.

Here’s how that process looks when written as sixth grade common core state standards:

• Fluently add, subtract, multiply, and divide multi-digit decimals using the standard algorithm for each operation.
• Understand the concept of a ratio and use ratio language to describe a ratio relationship between two quantities.
• Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problem.
• Find a percent of a quantity as a rate per 100; solve problems involving finding the whole, given a part and the percent.
• Write, interpret, and explain statements of order for rational numbers in real-world contexts.

And this is why you see so many word problems in your math classes. Life is just a series of word problems. When you buy lunch at Chipotle they don’t hand you a worksheet so

you can figure out how much change you have coming back, they just hand you your change. Is it correct? Did they give you back what you were owed? How do you know?

Like it or not, you will use math in the “real world” all the time. It doesn’t matter what you want to do for work. Whether you’re an engineer, nurse, poet, artist or plumber you will use math. LIfe will be easier for you the better your understanding of how to use math to figure things out.

And that’s the way it is.

Even Rudolph...

Bullying is a serious issue in our society. It’s an issue that has garnered a lot of attention over the past few years. Legislation has been enacted by our governments. Schools have done extensive training for their staff and students and now have strict policies about bullying. Many, including McAuliffe, have anti-bullying clubs.

But, I don’t think I really understood how deeply ingrained bullying is in our culture until recently. In at least one respect, we celebrate it in song and if that’s not actual condoning of bullying it is at least passive acceptance. You doubt me? Please join me in song:

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Had a very shiny nose

And if you ever saw it

You would even say it glows

All of the other reindeer

Used to laugh and call him names

They never let poor Rudolph

Join in any reindeer games.

Think about that behaviour toward Rudolph...his “friends” laugh at him, call him names and exclude him from playing with them. That’s bullying and I can prove it.

Here’s the definition of bullying, according to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education:

“The repeated use by one or more students [aggressor(s)] of a written, verbal or electronic expression or a physical act or gesture or any combination thereof, directed at a target that: (i) causes physical or emotional harm to the target or damage to the target's property; (ii) places the target in reasonable fear of harm to him/herself or of damage to his/her property; (iii) creates a hostile environment at school for the target; (iv) infringes on the rights of the target at school; or (v) materially and substantially disrupts the education process or the orderly operation of a school. For the purposes of requirements related to this law, bullying shall include cyber-bullying. See section 5 of the legislation for more details on the definition of cyber-bullying and more.”

See what I mean? Rudolph’s peers have created “a hostile environment at school for the target.”

It’s enlightening to see how deeply ingrained the passive acceptance of bullying is in our society.

This may seem like a silly observation about a popular holiday song, and I certainly don’t want anyone to think I’m minimizing the seriousness of bullying -

I am not.

I was bullied in middle school and I’m still pretty mad about it.

In 7th grade, Brian Doe (not his real name) was in my math class and one day he threatened to beat me up if I did not hand over my lunch money. He was bigger, stronger and much more aggressive than I was, so I meekly handed him my money and went hungry. This went on for about two weeks.

Finally, I decided I was not going to do this anymore. I felt ashamed that I was afraid of him and I'd let him take advantage of me. One day, I screwed up my courage and said “No.” I refused to hand over my lunch money. I was prepared for the consequences but I could not go on giving in to him anymore. It just made me feel so bad about myself.

I was fortunate. He did not beat me up. He just stopped asking. I stood up to him and it felt good. I guess if he had not stopped bullying me or if he had beaten me up, I would have gone to one of my teachers but that was my last resort.

McAuliffe is a very different place than was my school. We work really hard as a community to ensure that students don’t bully other students. We strive to create a supportive, safe community here where bullying doesn’t happen - but we have to be prepared if it does.

Students should always feel safe to bring any form of bullying to the attention of any of the adults at school. Standing up for yourself is great, but not everyone can do it and it doesn't always solve the problem. 

There is nothing wrong with asking for help. 

We all need a little help sometimes...and, apparently, that even includes Rudolph.

Reflections

“What hurts more, 

the pain of hard work 

or the pain of regret?”

That question is posted on the wall the Boston Celtics locker room. I have considered posting it in my classroom. I think it’s a valuable and important question to consider, especially at the end of a trimester.

Times like this are a natural break point to stop and think. I know we do a lot of reflecting at our school, but often I think it is an activity that students don’t really take to heart. You do it because you’re required to when we end a unit or prepare for an SLC, but I’m not convinced there’s a lot of sincerity in many of the reflections I read.

If you were to consider your work in the first trimester, can you think of things you could do better in the next trimester? Are you satisfied that you did all you could to master the topics we explored together?  Are you proud of your hard work or do you have regrets now that the grades are finalized?

Next week, when you get your progress report, remember those grades are a reflection of your work. Those are the grades you earned. Your teachers do not give you grades, we reflect your work and effort back to you in the form of grades. 

If you’ve worked hard and done well, you should be rightly proud of yourself. If you’re going to have one of those uncomfortable, awkward conversations with your Mom and/or Dad, maybe you should really take that question from the Celtics to heart:  “What hurts more, the pain of hard work or the pain of regret?”