Thursday, June 16, 2016

The Two Options

Yesterday was the EUTELSAT & ABS launch. Anyone who knows me knows that I love space. When SpaceX landed their rocket for the first time in December, I cried. I stood in my kitchen and cried thinking that I had just witnessed an incredible moment in history. It was even more amazing in light of the fact that an earlier launch, in June, had literally exploded in the sky. SpaceX is back, or so the storyline went.

One of my primary focuses in my classes this year was having a growth mindset, constantly working to improve, trying to be better than the day before, for my students and myself. As I watched the launch yesterday, something that the SpaceX engineer said on the webcast caught my attention. In referencing the landing attempt, he said, "We'll either have successful landing or another opportunity to gather data." He did not say that they would succeed or fail; he said that they would succeed or learn something about how to succeed in the future. That is a growth mindset. As it turned out, the rocket crashed, it exploded on the drone ship. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX tweeted, that it had an "RUD = Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly."  They take the setback in stride, an opportunity for learning. That's a lesson from which we could all benefit.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Summer Reading

Inspired by Twitter a few weeks ago, I quickly grabbed four new books from Amazon. It continues to amaze me that I can order them at night and find them on my steps when I get home from work the next day. Life in the future...

As much as I'd like to re-read Mindset from last summer and Mathematical Mindsets from the fall, there will be different books in my backpack this summer. Interestingly, traveling with bunches of books for school makes for some unique conversations, and I get to share their content with people far outside the realm of my day-to-day at school.

So what am I reading this summer?

  • A More Beautiful Question, Warren Berger
  • Make Just One Change, Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana
  • Intentional Talk, Elham Kazemi and Allison Hintz
  • Weekend Language, Andy Craig and Dave Yewman
Truth be told, I started Intentional Talk on the very same day that it arrived. My only let down so far is that it's very elementary-based - and I specifically bought it because a review said that it was the book of its type that most geared itself towards middle grades (sadly, nothing exists for the high school level, at least to my knowledge).

As for other summer activities, I am super excited to be going to my first Twitter Math Camp! I have been wanting to attend this annual for teachers, by teachers PD since its inception. I actually stalked the TMC Twitter account for hours over the couple of days that registration was supposed to open. I've been through the program schedule multiple times, and I can't wait to actually meet the amazing people of the #mtbos. And, it's in Minneapolis! I've never been to Minnesota so I'm excited for that as well.