In my Algebra 2 class during long band (double period), we circled up at the start of class and did “story time.” Kids read a children’s story that introduced them to imaginary numbers. The kids were funny as they read the story and we laughed at the images, and it was a nice bonding moment. This is also the class that the kids like to do something called “just dance” after our break halfway through the double period… but today we instead did kareoke. In honor of Justin Bieber’s recent cochella concert where he got on stage, pulled up youtube, and played old videos of himself while he sang along live with his younger video self, we pulled up a kareoke version of Justin Bieber’s “Baby” and we all sang it out of tune. It was so dumb, but in the best way. So that’s my “one good thing” for today.

My Algebra 2 kids did a great job collaborating and talking through their homework problems. I think I assigned too much, and it was a bit more challenging than other homeworks I’ve assigned. And I think there were a lot of tiny errors and misconceptions in their thinking. So in class today, I told them to spend as much time as they needed to go through the problems with their group, seeing what they agreed and disagreed on, and come to consensus. Then I checked their answers. I put this down as my “one good thing” because I saw a possible problem, and I structured class in a way that seemed to work well to address the problem, and it worked!

I also reached out to a few students who had some challenges on our last test, and asked them if they wanted to set up a meeting. And I had three lovely meetings with students today to walk through their tests. I was proactive, and I hope the implicit message to the kids is “I care and I’m here for you!” Even if that didn’t happen, I enjoyed the student meetings. So I’m putting this down as another one good thing.

I have a headache! It just came on! But my one good thing for today is I got to have lunch with three people (who I never get to eat with!). Okay, now to go home and rest.

At the end of the day today, a colleague in the math department came into the office dressed in athletic gear. They were going to play for the faculty in the senior-faculty volleyball game. I had math club during the time of the game, but when I went to mathclub, I convinced the kids to go to the game instead. 🙂 It was so much fun watching the game. And it was a close game! The faculty were down at the start, and then they caught up, and then the game was tied at the end at 24-24. But the students scored the next two points and won. Womp womp. But what a fun afternoon!

In my Adv. Precalculus class long block, I asked kids to work together to sketch what they think the polar graph r=|4cos(theta)+1| would look like. (Those are absolute values around the equation.) I was curious how they’d do, and they actually got the graph — but had a small error in how they drew it (as they increased theta from 0 to 2pi). But I was impressed with their work!!!

I got my other Algebra 2 class to see that (1+1/x)^n [for large n values] starts looking like an exponential function… and when we graphed y=a^x and varied a to see what exponential function it could be, we saw it was y=2.718^x. I was trying to show them how that 2.718 number keeps on showing up in unexpected ways. And it made me happy to see one kid make a “mind blown” hand gesture! A small moment but it kept me going.

Most importantly, it is Friday and I’m very ready for the weekend.

For my intentional act of kindness, I have a colleague who called in sick. And so I went into school a bit early to get some photocopies made for their sub to help them out.

Today I had a conversation with a student who said “last year in English class, I looked out the window and one of your classes was putting their calculators on the ground in a particular way, and there was a taped line on the ground… it was around this time of the year… are we going to do that?!” It was fascinating what kids saw and remembered. (And the answer to the kid is “yes, we will! But you’ll have to wait a few weeks…”

The activity I did yesterday in one of my Algebra 2 classes also went well in my other section this morning.

We also had our math book club, where we finished discussing the remainder of Edwin Abbott’s Flatland. This is just such a lovely group of kids, and I feel grateful they wanted to do this. They even wanted to have one more meeting to start watching the Flatland movie, when I told them a couple years ago we did that after reading the book.

We had our “poetry chapel” where both middle and high school students get in front of the whole school and read their own poetry, or someone else’s poem. I think for me the “one good thing” was that kids — especially the middle school kid — gave thundrous applause for kids before and after each poem. And there was a student sitting behind me who had made a poster that they held up, which had encouraging words for kids who were reading poems. I was so floored by that. What a good friend. What a good person.

I met with one of the deans about something, and I was happy with the support I got. Fundamentally they are helping me with my own bandwidth.

Lots of good things today.

A couple good things from today…

In chapel (a place where kids and faculty make announcements), a teacher gave a beautifully written talk, about their name and identity. It was a lovely piece of writing that I think struck a chord for people listening, enraptured.

In my Algebra 2 class where I was introducing the number “e” for the first time, I have a game we play. And then kids do a Desmos activity that seems unrelated. And the same mysterious number (about 2.7) pops up in both. And I was hoping for a what the whaaa? moment… And it happened! (Sometimes it doesn’t hit in the way I hope it does…) I was glad it did hit… it gives me some hope that it will hit in my other section tomorrow.

I did an intentional act of kindness… I went to dinner with some teacher friends yesterday and one of my advisees came up. And the teacher friends of mine told me some really lovely and glowing things about them…. and so (with their permission) I pulled my advisee aside and told them… and they started glowing as I told them!

Today I gave tests in all my classes. And although I was feeling a bit of ennui, I still was able to start grading some of the tests! And unfortunately I had to give a test during our double period. BUT the kids were troopers… we did our regular Just Dance tradition that this one class inaugurated (so we all danced to this video for 4 minutes). AND I sat down and had lunch with people in the cafeteria today (something I haven’t done in a while). So all good things!

I also did an intentional act of kindness… I made an answer key for a placement test that a couple of teachers were giving…

I’m giving a test in one of my precalculus classes today. And I was about to tell them to flip the test over and begin, when kids said “WAIIIIIIT! Aren’t we going to do the PRIMAL SCREAM?” (It’s when we all scream before they start a test to get out some of the jitters.) I love that the scream has become a classroom tradition in my precalculus classes.

I started to post yesterday (Friday) but then I left school to walk home because it was so nice out and so I’m doing it today. Yesterday was a great day. All my classes went well. In one of my precalculus classes, kids shared their polar graph contest entries with each other. Watching them oooh and aahh over each other’s work and feel proud of their creations was awesome. I told them not to spend more than 30 minutes on it, but some students got obsessed and spent longer on it. One student came to me earlier in the day to ask me a question and then before leaving took out their laptop because they simply had to show me their polar art creation! And then afterwards, kids worked on a polar investigation I created to help them understand why polar graphs look the way they look. And they were making great insights and having great conversations about “why.”

So all day I was in a positive mood, and I ended the day with a fun class.