Comments for Between Me and the Door

Comment on Floundering by Marshall Thompson

Marshall Thompson — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:09:57 +0000

I am finding myself increasingly compartmentalizing in order to find time for cooler things. There’s the time we spend learning rote procedures and then there’s the other time where we do real math.

I might be at the point now where I would support showing a kid every calculator trick in the book if it means a week or two to do something cooler. I used to cringe when a person would use the math>frac button or use a calculator program to find the roots of a quadratic. Now I’m thinking, who really cares? Want to find the solutions to a polynomial equation? Graph it and see where it crosses the x-axis. 30 minutes max in class as opposed to a week or two talking about the rational zero test, DeCartes’ rule of signs, synthetic division and the like. This is only one example, but there are many spots where we subject a kid to much more than she needs to know for the state tests.

This is becoming my philosophy for an at-grade-level or below-grade-level Algebra 2 or Geometry course. I still believe those who are advanced in high school are helped by deeper discussions of algebra. They appreciate the beauty of working within that world more and are more excited about pure math problems without the bother of context.

Comment on Just when you think you’re winning by Scott hills

Scott hills — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 04:45:55 +0000

Been there seen that. Your choices are clear, take the hit and retake the test. Let the students know the previous test was a disappointment ( blame them) or say they weren’t ready(and accept the blame.

Either this or assign a project to alternately assess the skills…( which would likely be my choice). If so let them know a traditional assessment of these skills will happen at some time.

Scott hills.

Comment on A Day in The Life by Tina C

Tina C — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:56:56 +0000

Thanks for participating! What a complicated triple balancing act your life is- school, store and family all at once. I’m impressed.

Comment on You just never know by David Wees

David Wees — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 04:12:28 +0000

When I run into an issue where students obviously don’t have prior knowledge, I try not to make it obvious, I teach it as an aside during the main lesson (or prepare an activity which allows students to explore the idea, without being obvious that they are doing older material) or I teach it specifically in small groups to the students who really need it.

It doesn’t always work, and I sometimes get push-back doing it this way as well, but it seems to work a bit better.

Comment on First Reflective Writing by Fawn Nguyen

Fawn Nguyen — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 05:02:50 +0000

My favorites are “If math was a food, it would be Chinese,” and “If Math were a food there would be lots of missing textbooks.” Here’s one: If math were a food, Mrs. Nguyen would weigh a ton.

Comment on First Reflective Writing by Pam Wilson

Pam Wilson — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 14:11:27 +0000

have to admit – the creme brulee is my favorite! math – decadent…who would ever describe it that way?!?! so glad it went well – very entertaining!

Comment on First Reflective Writing by Carby

Carby — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 07:21:58 +0000

I love the taco metaphor! Good perspective! Nice activity!

Comment on The Mark by Exit Interviews « Between Me and the Door

Exit Interviews « Between Me and the Door — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 04:30:17 +0000

[...] as a quick follow up to my previous post, I decided against giving students the rough guidelines for marks. No one brought it up again after [...]

Comment on The Mark by Fawn Nguyen

Fawn Nguyen — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 05:41:10 +0000

“… be prepared to defend their choice of grade…” I tried this [informally] with the kids one year and found that they were refreshingly honest and were actually tougher critics than I would’ve been.

I’m thinking through your NM, B, M, and E ranges with my students right now, and I can almost “slot” the kids into each of these based on everything we’ve done. Your post gives me more to think about. (I dread grading more than sin, so any idea to make this a more honest, fair, worthwhile, student-owned process, then I’m all ears.) Thanks!

Comment on The Mark by park_star

park_star — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 00:53:02 +0000

So the students currently have NM, B, M, or E on all the course outcomes. To help them I’m going to give them an overall unit summary since all outcomes are not necessarily equal within the units. Since they are in grade 9 and not as familiar with percentages as older students I’ve done this with, they have asked for brackets around the NM, B, M and E.

I’m not assigning marks, the students are deciding their own marks based on their evidence. It’s way easier