Mentoring Through a Different Lens

I need to start this post by giving a shoutout to Tina Cardone and David Coffey for this conversation:

I think I've quoted David's reply about a dozen times whenever I think or talk about my experience with my current student teacher.  This experience is unique for me for a few reasons: (1) she knows what I'm like as a teacher when I've taught the same course half a dozen times and I have it down to a science and (2) now she's getting to experience what it's like for me to teach a course from scratch and the planning, questioning, wondering, winning, and failing that comes along with it.

The last two weeks have really helped me reflect on my previous eight or so student teachers. Maybe I haven't allowed some of my other student teachers to "peek behind the curtain" to make that planning visible. Student teachers normally spend the first two weeks watching us walk in (seemingly without prep) and teach our lessons flawlessly and effortlessly. Does that image set an unrealistic impression of the planning and preparation we did the first time we taught the course from the beginning?  Are we giving the impression that "teaching is easy and doesn't require much prep" when they see us do this? 

So I’m approaching this mentor experience from a different lens than before.  I guess you could say I’m trying to Zager-ize it as a learning opportunity for both of us: 

  

(Shoutout to Tracy for writing this book! Go buy it here.)

My wonders:

If I could put applicable tools in her hands for what she’ll need to be able to do in August, what would those tools be? What planning strategies would she need that she might not have had access to in her education courses? What does “purposeful planning for understanding” look like and how to we monitor that understanding? How do we maintain honest reflection of our teaching when they don’t? And what roadblocks do we face when planning for multiple courses?

And those are the things I keep in mind every day and in every conversation we have.  However, that takes a HUGE amount of vulnerability on the part of a mentor teacher.  Am I going to look like I don’t know what I’m doing if I honestly say, “I think I’m going to teach (insert topic) this way, but I’m not sure if this will be something they will understand in one class period because I haven’t taught this before”? 

Then again, isn’t that the type of conversations we should be having with our colleagues on social media and our school/district PLC’s? How can I expect her to take a risk and be vulnerable with her current/future colleagues if I am not willing to risk modeling it myself?

So we brainstorm together A LOT and I’m as honest as I can be. I tell her when I’m not sure how something will go over.  If I feel like something I taught didn’t go well, I ask her for her honest feedback on what I could have done differently or where we could readjust for tomorrow.  And this has worked well for us because she has become voracious for feedback on her own teaching in my classroom. She’s honest about where she feels a lesson did and didn’t go well and begins “rough draft talk” about next steps. 

My student teacher was already checking out blogs of #MTBoS before she really understood what #MTBoS was, which is a great sign.  It’s difficult for me not to overwhelm her with all the awesome in our community, but I am trying to model/introduce it a little at a time. I have been extremely impressed with our collaboration so far, and I would like to start showcasing some of our work together over the next few weeks.  She lives for feedback and suggestions, so please give her a shout in the comments of our future posts. 

Mental Math Application: Archery, believe it or not

Confession: I drank too much coffee around 8:30 pm or so and my brain is going 90 to nothin'. So this isn't like a "profound blog post" or anything, just a "you might be able to work this in somehow (or maybe not) but if you do, holla and let me know how it goes".

Confused?

You should be. You're reading MY blog and you know how my brain works (or doesn't work - I know you're thinking it, I'm sayin' it). Basically, I know what I MEAN, but it might not come out of my brain that way. But if I don't blog it NOW, I'll forget later and then I won't do it at all and.... Anyway.

Here we go:

Archery in a nutshell = shoot 5 arrows at the target. Quickly calculate your score, remove your arrows.

Lemme show you what the target looks like with scoring points:


So, if you're shooting 5 arrows, the highest you can score in one round is 50 points.

Let's say Billy Bob Joe Mack (BBJM, from now on) shoots 5 arrows and goes to the target line to score. He may see something like this:


You can see that BBJM, has two 9 point shots, a 7 point shot, a 6 point shot, and the last one (far right) is also technically a 6 point shot (because it hit the border, so you take the higher one). Figuring out what each arrow scored isn't the issue - IT'S THE SUM (yes, that's in all caps, if you don't like it, STOP READING MY BLOG) that takes forever during practice. Students try to take their phones to the target line to use as calculators. I'm like, "No, sweetie. Your coach is also a math teacher. You're gonna need to do this in your head quickly." Another reason: at some tournaments, they make students put their phones in a secure location so they don't accidentally get shot while texting (because they didn't realize they walked right into the live range).

So BBJM has 18 + 7 + 12, so here's where you can show students where commutative property is beneficial by mentally adding 18 + 12 + 7 to get 37. Or your students might think a quicker way to calculate this round would be to use negatives. So instead of 9 + 9 + 7 + 6 + 6, it could be thought of as (-1) + (-1) + (-3) + (-4) + (-4) because of the loss from the bullseye. Therefore it's -13 + 50 or 37. You could also get them to calculate their percent score (out of 50). There are several extensions to this, and you could even do some more advanced questions: What percent of the circle is yellow? Blue? Red? Concentric circles are pretty freakin' cool. :)

Anyway, I'm getting off track (as usual).

When BBJM competes at a meet or tournament, he shoots 6 total rounds: three at 10 meters and three at 15 meters. So you could ask your students to figure out what the total possible score would be for BBJM (and it is, of course, 300).


So each time BBJM shoots and scores, he must fill out an official scoring card. His card at a local meet looks like this:


Problem: most schools don't have a scanner yet. Coaches have to score them all quickly by hand. The way I score and the way Coach Birdbrain scores may be completely different but, because it works for us individually, we can score at approximately the same rate*. So you might give your students a sample score card in groups and ask them to come up with strategies to quickly calculate the total score for BBJM. Coaches are allowed use of a calculator, but efficiency and accuracy are a must. If you have 3 schools competing, you may have 72 student scores to do by hand before the schools can leave competition so you gotta BOOK IT and it has to be LEGIT. :)

*Possible rate problem: If Coach Hedge can score 8 students in 5 minutes and Coach Birdbrain can only score 6 students in 8 minutes, how long will it take them to score 72 students if they're working together? (By the way, none of the coaches I've met are dumb - they've all been awesome. I'm just making stuff up.)

However, BBJM is just one student on the team. Your team's score is determined by calculating the scores for all students and then taking the sum of the top 12.
There's another nice mental math question: what's the total possible team score?

Here's a real problem I deal with every day at practice:
"Hedge has ______ students come to practice. She only has 9 targets, so only 9 students can shoot at a time. Each student needs to be able to shoot at least 3 times before the end of practice, which only lasts 50 minutes. How many groups will she have? How much time should each group be allowed to shoot?"
I have anywhere from 20 to 32 kids of my FIFTY FIVE show up for practice every day. Ermahghersh - it's crazy sometimes.


If you teach AP Stats, that might be a cool random variable problem with an application to normal distributions... Hmmmm. That's a good idea for my quiz. Sorry - A.D.D. brain. Refocus, Hedge - refocus.

Where was I going with that.... I dunno. There are probably several dozen other applications of math to archery, BUT it's 12:20 a.m. and I need to sleep... at some point. If you use any of these ideas or have more, please let me know. That would be cool - I miss teaching middle school a lot, and this would be one of those things I know my kids would love to use. And you could tie in the Marshmallow Guns with this and make your own targets.


For those interested, the "official" score cards (to use in your classroom) are HERE.

If you'd like to start a competitive archery team at your school (hint hint), you can check out more information HERE.

Cheap Shrinky Dinks (for math or just cool to do with your kid)

I used to teach middle school and I LOVED it. Something about kids who haven't hardened their hearts about math was just really cool. This was one of the things I used to do with my students and, since most of us are stir crazy at home with our kids, I figured you could try it out on them and see what you think. Originally got it from an AIMS article back in the 90's.

Before you give me excuses about why you can't do it, let me say:
If your kid is old enough to DRAW, then he/she is old enough to do some of this.
So at least try it.

So the first thing you need is PLASTIC and not just ANY plastic. It needs to be "Grade 6" plastic. I used to use the salad plates from the school cafeteria. I'd pay the cafeteria manager ahead of time for them (ridiculously cheap), and she'd order what I needed or give me what she had.

You're looking for a recycle triangle with a "6" in it AND you need to make sure that the plastic is completely CLEAR (not foggy or anything). Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

Notice that there is a "1" in there instead of a "6". So I would NOT use this.

Once you get your plastic, just cut it up into whatever pieces you want. Here are the main supplies you'll need:

Mainly:

• plastic
  
• sandpaper
  
• pencil
  
• ruler (if you want straight edges)
  
• scissors
  
• color pencils
  
• hole punch (if you want to make it into a keychain, necklace, earrings, etc.)
  
• a piece of paper (this is important)

Later you'll need:

• oven
  
• spatula
  
• tin foil

1. Go ahead and set your oven to 450 degrees. I've used toaster ovens in the past (about $20 from Wal-mart - VERY MUCH worth the cost if you're doing this in your classroom) and I'm more familiar with that. Today's the first time I ever tried it in an oven. It worked, but not as well as the toaster oven.

2. Take your sandpaper (cut into smaller squares), your first piece of plastic, and a piece of paper. SAND ON TOP OF THE PAPER. That piece of paper will keep you from sanding your desks, table, etc. (not that I've EVER done that before... *cough cough*)

3. Start sanding - we're only going to do ONE side. Over the years, I've found a method for the madness. Sand your plastic top to bottom in one direction (ex: left and right). You gotta put your elbow into it, so don't do this in a prissy manner. Imagine the face of someone you don't like on that plastic and GO TO TOWN to scratch the crap out of it (not that I've ever done that before... *cough cough*). Then rotate the plastic so that your strokes are perpendicular to the ones you were doing before. Trust me, when you think you're done, you're NOT:

I can still see the clear plastic shine when I tilt it in the light. You've gotta make sure that sucker is completely sanded. It shouldn't take that long, though. If you've spent more than 10 minutes sanding and it's not finished, you're not putting enough force into it. Once I'm sure that I've sanded every part of the plastic using those two strokes, I start sanding in a circle. This isn't necessary, but if you look below, you can see that the difference between the perpendicular strokes (at the top) and the circular strokes (at the bottom). It's easier for the color pencil to hold onto the plastic the better it's sanded.

When you're finished, it should look something like this:

Again, tilt your plastic in the light and see if it reflects. If it does, sand that part down. 4. If you're doing this for math class or you're just anal about it looking pretty (and I mean that in a non-judgemental sort of way), I use the notebook paper to help me line up my straight edges and I mark it in pencil:

5. Once that's done, I cut it out. OPTIONAL: I always had my students trace the original on a piece of paper and measure it (I didn't simplify one of the fractions, but if you wanna, go ahead - knock yourself out). I also made them do the diagonal, but that's just an extension.

6. Now for the fun part. COLOR IT! I use color pencils. I haven't tried markers (but I don't really remember why right off the bat... oh well). I was in a hurry so I did this for my classroom keys:

NOTE: If you're going to want to do this for a keychain or a necklace, punch a hole in your plastic BEFORE you cook it. I know that's a "duh" thing, but afterwards you can't do much about it so make sure you plan:

-------> Side note: after I baked it, I realized that one hole wasn't big enough for the keychain I wanted to use. So for bigger keychains, be creative and make a slightly bigger hole.

7. So between me and the kid, we ended up with 2 each in about 15 minutes:

8. Now for the fun part! Transfer your plastic onto a cookie sheet COVERED IN ALUMINUM FOIL (you'll thank me later).

See how they're all spaced out? There's a reason for that.

When they cook, they do this rolly-poly belly flop kind of thing and they, well, DANCE. Every time I do it, the dance is different. Some times it's very fluid, and sometimes it's really choppy. Sometimes they flip completely over, sometimes they roll completely up. Doesn't matter, JUST WATCH. It is the coolest thing and kids will go CRAZY for it. You wanna make sure they have plenty of room to do their thing, though. If they "touch", then those two pieces will probably bond together and you don't want that. The cooking process doesn't take long. I put the kid's shrinky dinks in first to make sure the oven was at the right temperature. Here's a video of mine going in (and YES, I burned myself - wouldn't be ME if I didn't):

9. When they come out, VOILA!! Mini-me's!

Here's the mini-version in the same rectangle as the original:

And in case you NEED to know, here are the measurements:

And here are the finished products:

It honestly took longer to blog about it than to do it. But you can do just about anything with this - gift labels, Christmas ornaments, keychain with your kid's artwork on it, earrings, necklace, bracelet, etc. Be more creative than me. :)

One year my MathCounts crew set up a table for a fundraiser. Kids paid $1 to create one in assembly-line form OR up to $5 to have one custom made by our more artsy math nerds. We even mass created some with our school name in our school colors and sold those for $3. Just a thought.

I have the docs I used in my classes (7th grade math) SOMEWHERE around here, but it will take me a day or two to dig them up. Once I find them, I'll post them. I used it to teach percent of change, but you could do just about anything with it. I suggest doing it as instruction and then again maybe the day after a state/standardized test as stress relief. Or maybe as a stats activity, you can have kids collect the data on the original and mini-me versions and see if they can create a regression equation to predict the length of the mini if given the length of the original piece. OR, even cooler, take that regression equation and have them use it in a "backwards" way. In other words, if they want the mini-version to be a specific length, what size original would they need?

If you DO this, I'd love for you to link to a picture in the comments or e-mail me (approximatelynormal dot stats at gmail dot com) and let me post it.

That's all I've got for now, but I'm working on a post for mentor teachers with Chris Hill (@Hillby258) that should be ready today or tomorrow.

Until then....