relearning math

Tonight was the first how-to-teach Math course of my credential program. I left the class floating on cloud 9 (or, in prime factors, cloud 3x3).

The professor was, honestly, a little scary at first...she made it very clear what her expectations were without ever spelling it out to us (never acknowledging someone speaking out, always asking for a quiet hand to answer a question, staring people down) but she quickly won the class over with her amazing flair...and all around math!

Math was always a subject I thought I really rocked in school (until Calculus II in college). But I'd come to realize that what I was really good at was memorizing tricks (carry the one, punch numbers in a T1 graphing calculator).

Conceptualization. That's what I've been missing. My professor started the class with the difficult concept of understanding magnitude. What does a million feel like, a billion, a trillion, 10 trillion (like our national deficit....it turns out, if we were to pay $1 ever second, it'd take us over 30,000 years to get out of debt).

I am completely psyched to relearn all this math. Nerd alert! But seriously....I am psyched.

Brainbuster: One activity we did (and stop reading if you're not that interested in math) that I still have trouble with had to do with fractions. The professor wrote (1/2) / (3/4). What does that look conceptually? (no clue). Here is my version of what she drew on the board:
So essentially, how many three-fourths can you get out of one-half? If you cut the whole piece into four, you can only get 2 pieces out of the 3 you'd want to make 3/4 (shown in blue), so the answer is 2/3. I have no idea if this will make sense to someone just reading it, but this whole thing blew my mind because I'd never seen this type of problem drawn out for me. I tried other harder fraction problems and my head hurt (plus I didn't activate my brain buttons beforehand).

I could go on and on, but it's now time for my post-dinner walk. If you're digging this math stuff as much as I am...


...call me!

pushing my buttons...my brain buttons!

Whoops! Haven't blogged much lately. I'm back in school and some good changes are at hand.

One change that we will be making to the classroom is to tweak the format. One thing I love about the class is that it is not a sit-silently-while-you-do-work kind of environment. Students are talking and socializing, which is a huge part of their education. But, especially with 27 students in one room, it's not surprising that it can get noisy. So we are changing the layout of the room so there will be more areas for quiet, focused work but still maintain a designated area for partner work/discussions.

This change coincidentally comes at the same time the school's learning specialist gave a presentation on accomodating varying degrees of mental alertness. And with that was the concept of Educational Kinesiology (Edu-K), which is basically physical movements that enhances whole-brain learning.

One that I thought was pretty fun was what Brain Gym calls Brain Buttons. The name alone lends itself to winning people over.

SO! Follow along as you read this:
* Place thumb and fingers under clavicle to the left and right of the sternum where there is meaty flesh. These are your Brain Buttons.
*Activate Brain Buttons by massaging them.
*Simultaneously, massage belly button with opposite hand.
*Stimulate these points for 20-30 seconds, or until tenderness is released.
*Switch hands and repeat.
(here's a sketch I did after the meeting while on BART)


Doing this supposedly (I'm still looking into it) increases oxygen, works on right and left brain communication, corrects number and letter reversals, and could help with Dyslexia.

If nothing else, it's soothing.

languages

Quote from my Second Language Acquisition class:

"There are a lot of language we don't teach in schools, like, basically all of them."

This was during a discussion of Ebonics and school, responding to another person's comment about the need to teach Ebonics if society is going to acknowledge and value its existence. But it would be nearly impossible to be able to teach every language that walked through school doors.

they be nice

An "I'm Thankful For" letter that a student gave me this Thanksgiving

addendum: kevin henkes

I was going to take out Julius: The Baby of the World from the library today. But, I was already taking out too many books and walking home, so I decided to sketch my own rendition of the scene I mentioned.

I know I don't do Henkes justice, but you get the gist:


(Lilly, the one behind the tree, isn't supposed to be quite so big. Hey, I said I wanted to be a teacher, not an artist!)

squeaky wheel

I am quite privileged to be living with a person who is not only extremely thoughtful but is also an educator. So you can imagine what a lot of our conversations revolve around (aside from whether or not we should go eat pho. The answer is always yes.).

One great thing that I get from talking about my day or about teaching in general has been the mirror that M will hold up in front of me to help me gain clarity on a particular issue.

Most recently, I've been noticing how negative I'd become. I'd been stressing out over the kids in my class who are disruptive and require a lot of my energy. How do I engage them? What am I doing wrong? How do I convince them that what we're doing is something they'll gain satisfaction from and ultimately enjoy doing?

Not easy questions. And while I'm not saying that these aren't important questions to ask, I found them to be all-consuming. I came home frustrated and disappointed in myself. Nothing kills your mood than having spent the whole day shushing kids and putting on a stern, serious face. Not very satisfying.

So this past week I'd decided to harness my energy elsewhere. Why let the squeaky wheelers get my attention? For each kid who is acting up, there are five who are engaged, are being respectful, and do have fun.

My switch in humor became abundantly clear one day when I was waiting for students to line up to go to lunch. A number of kids were horsing around, talking, and not paying attention to what I was saying. I decided to use a line one of my lead teachers often uses: I am feeling disrespected. Upon saying this, one student exclaimed, You're respected, Miss Vi!

Oh man! The moment this student said that, I realized my big mistake: By concentrating so much on the bad, I was missing the good.

Also, I felt icky after making that statement that centered around me. I don't want them to do things to please me. I want them to understand how their behavior affects the class and that yes, it is disrespectful to disregard what I am saying, but not as a teacher but as an individual.

In my hand little notebook that I try to carry around with me, I've been writing the positive things that go on around me...and there are plenty of them.

Some examples:
- Seeing new and unexpected friendships begin to bud.
- Student M and N are playing on the playground. M does a split and touches her head to the ground. M asks N if she can touch the ground with her head. N says yes, picks up woodchips in her hand and dumps them on her head.
- D, who began the year hating the concept of school, walking away from one activity saying, "I love reading."
- K skipping around the blacktop chanting, "I'm a beautiful pony"
- Banana tag! I love this game. Everyone is it and you chase anyone down. If both people tag each other at the same time, you roshambo (rock paper scissors). The loser sits down and can't get up until the person who got them gets tagged. Kids love it too.
- Doing yoga in a reading group. One book described how animals influence yoga poses. Nothing's cuter than five 1st graders lying on the ground doing the fish pose.

List goes on and on...which is why I wanted to become a teacher! I just needed the reminder.

kevin henke

This author is brilliant. Kevin Henke has a series of books that have the same mouse characters (I'm not exactly sure why mice are so endearing, but hey...it works). Some of his stories feature the heroine, Lilly, who is badass. She is a really strong girl mouse that is unique, creative, fun, a bit cocky, and stubborn.

His stories have a lot to do with kid angst. It also have a very Simpsons feel to it - it's a children's book that appeals to adults too. The adults in the stories are edgy and sarcastic. Very witty.

The one that was the most laugh-out-loud for me was Julius: The Baby of the World. In one scene of the book, Lilly expresses her dislike for her new baby brother by hiding behind trees and warning pregnant strangers against the "lumps" in their bellies. You just need to check it out. Brilliant.

"Julius is the baby of the world," chimed Lilly's parents.
"Digusting," said Lilly.

p.s. Turns out he also wrote Kitten's First Full Moon. Even more brilliant!