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.
Thursday, June 16, 2016
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?
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.
Thursday, May 26, 2016
"It's okay to make mistakes as long as you learn from them."
Wise words from one of my theology students today. We were discussing the new apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, and those words were what she took from Pope Francis' message.
It was a beautiful sort of "worlds collide" moment to see that the message I have pushed so hard in the math classroom this year has transferred over to other courses (and is reinforced by the Pope himself).
It's also just a good reminder for all of us. It's okay to make mistakes. It's life in fact. Just be sure you learn from it.
It was a beautiful sort of "worlds collide" moment to see that the message I have pushed so hard in the math classroom this year has transferred over to other courses (and is reinforced by the Pope himself).
It's also just a good reminder for all of us. It's okay to make mistakes. It's life in fact. Just be sure you learn from it.
Friday, May 20, 2016
What I've learned
I've been reflecting more and more over the course of the last year about what learning actually looks like - and how it's related to what we do in schools.
Earlier this week I was asked to create a small piece about my classroom as part of a much larger project. It took me a few days to track down a student to record the audio portion, but once I did, the entire movie (only 24 seconds) came together in under five minutes. I sent it off to the person in charge without a second thought.
Later in the day, as I was walking through the building, I realized how far I have come as an individual in terms of technology use. I only truly learned how to use iMovie last summer. Now I can import, edit, record and include audio, and be finished within minutes. The project I had completed would probably not have been possible for me (or at least taken significantly longer) if I had tried to do it a year ago.
It struck me how unaware we can be of our own progress in learning. I don't know why I stopped to think about how far I've come, but I'm glad I did because it is yet another remind of how important metacognition is for the learning process.
Earlier this week I was asked to create a small piece about my classroom as part of a much larger project. It took me a few days to track down a student to record the audio portion, but once I did, the entire movie (only 24 seconds) came together in under five minutes. I sent it off to the person in charge without a second thought.
Later in the day, as I was walking through the building, I realized how far I have come as an individual in terms of technology use. I only truly learned how to use iMovie last summer. Now I can import, edit, record and include audio, and be finished within minutes. The project I had completed would probably not have been possible for me (or at least taken significantly longer) if I had tried to do it a year ago.
It struck me how unaware we can be of our own progress in learning. I don't know why I stopped to think about how far I've come, but I'm glad I did because it is yet another remind of how important metacognition is for the learning process.
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
"It's like the boat that takes you to Magic Kingdom"
I had not one but two serious fights in my class today. It was thrilling, invigorating, and made our entire journey to this point seem more than worthwhile. I had students arguing, in multiple classes, for 15+ minutes at a time, about math.
To be honest, I didn't see it coming. We were working on an estimation task (http://www.estimation180.com/day-159.html) like we do in every single class. They had done the previous day's estimation in the last class without much excitement. Today though, everything changed, I had girls jumping out of their seats and running to the board to try to convince everyone of their reasoning, trying to get them to take turns was chaotic because they all wanted to share their thinking. I had students who have NEVER spoken in class (we only have three days left...) raising hands to chime in.
First the argument was that children's life jackets are 2/3 of the size of adult's - or is it half? And if they're smaller, then do more first in the same space or less? That generated a good bit of discussion, but then, the mother of all questions came out, are the benches the same size? Each size was so passionate about their argument that they actually formed arguments! It wasn't just "because I think so" or "it looks like it" - they were coming up with ways to convince the others. This WAS the moment I had been working for us to get to all year long. It was awesome.
I think my favorite part though, was when the door opened and a member of the Buildings & Grounds staff came in. I thought he was there to take care of an issue, maybe repair the chair I had submitted a work request for earlier, but he just watched us. When I asked him if he needed me for something, he shared that he had seen the photo and question through the window and was curious about the answer himself. I asked his estimate, and thinking he had something better to do, ran over to him to whisper the answer. But he stayed. He stayed for 15 minutes while my girls argued with each other over the size of the life jackets, how they could possibly be arranged, if the benches were the same or not, why there might even be different benches on a boat. I was amazed by my girls, their passion, and the arguments they were constructing - but I was even more in awe at how their excitement and the question itself could spark the natural curiosity of a passerby. It was a really beautiful experience at the end of outstanding year in this crazily re-designed course we know as Algebra 1 in the iLab.
To be honest, I didn't see it coming. We were working on an estimation task (http://www.estimation180.com/day-159.html) like we do in every single class. They had done the previous day's estimation in the last class without much excitement. Today though, everything changed, I had girls jumping out of their seats and running to the board to try to convince everyone of their reasoning, trying to get them to take turns was chaotic because they all wanted to share their thinking. I had students who have NEVER spoken in class (we only have three days left...) raising hands to chime in.
First the argument was that children's life jackets are 2/3 of the size of adult's - or is it half? And if they're smaller, then do more first in the same space or less? That generated a good bit of discussion, but then, the mother of all questions came out, are the benches the same size? Each size was so passionate about their argument that they actually formed arguments! It wasn't just "because I think so" or "it looks like it" - they were coming up with ways to convince the others. This WAS the moment I had been working for us to get to all year long. It was awesome.
I think my favorite part though, was when the door opened and a member of the Buildings & Grounds staff came in. I thought he was there to take care of an issue, maybe repair the chair I had submitted a work request for earlier, but he just watched us. When I asked him if he needed me for something, he shared that he had seen the photo and question through the window and was curious about the answer himself. I asked his estimate, and thinking he had something better to do, ran over to him to whisper the answer. But he stayed. He stayed for 15 minutes while my girls argued with each other over the size of the life jackets, how they could possibly be arranged, if the benches were the same or not, why there might even be different benches on a boat. I was amazed by my girls, their passion, and the arguments they were constructing - but I was even more in awe at how their excitement and the question itself could spark the natural curiosity of a passerby. It was a really beautiful experience at the end of outstanding year in this crazily re-designed course we know as Algebra 1 in the iLab.
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