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By Kyle, November 17, 2011 9:58 pm

The Cars – Just What I Needed

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There’s much to be frustrated in education policy these days, from media outlets muddying the waters of actual reform (the LA Times just asked for all of LAUSD’s teachers’ AGT data) , to simplistic data being touted in overreaching ways (48% of voters think charters provide “better” education…unfortunately, we’re not exactly sure what the term “better” means).

Thank goodness for satire.

A blog I’ve recently been following, notyetlausd.blogspot.com, has provided some much needed levity to the situation, and in so doing, actually speaks some truth that at times, is a bit uncomfortable. The latest? Viewing the Wasserman’s $4 million grant to LAUSD (directly to teacher projects) as….get this, reparations for Public School Choice.

Amazing.

And yes, after a long night of parent conferences were a wonderful chance to meet and interact with my students and their families (but nonetheless went 30 minutes over time because of my amazing horrible fluency in Spanish), this is just what I needed.

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By Kyle, November 11, 2011 8:40 pm

Today was rather momentous.

11/11/11, and I was actually awake at 11:11am (and 11 seconds).

As I told my students earlier this week, they should be sure to relish the moment. After all, there will only be one more day like this within our lifetimes – 12/12/12.

And yes, I’ve already looked, it will be a school day. Major planning for the milestone starts tomorrow!

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By Kyle, March 27, 2011 1:55 pm

As a child, I hated documentaries. In my mind, I could never rationalize why on earth one would want to spend upwards of two hours watching a movie with no good guys, no bad guys, and often, no loud explosions.

But truth can be stranger than fiction, not to mention more entertaining (NSFW), enlightening, inspiring, and enraging. As in other genres, the documentary film has the ability to enhance its content by the method it uses to convey its story. How else could one endure a movie about a font? Simply put, you can make a compelling case for just about anything.

Now in my 7th year of teaching middle school, I continually realize that my most difficult task is not delivering math instruction, or even making math exciting – I find a class discussion about child leashes and restraining orders to be sufficient for motivating algebra students to master inequalities containing absolute value – but rather making the notion of learning to become a successful student compelling.

Like the documentarian, whose narrative greatly influences the viewer’s attitude toward the subject matter, our narrative to our students about what it takes to be successful greatly affects how they view school, how they act in school, and how others act around them. In this manner, one of the greatest things we can do – and something I think we’re beginning to do well at Cochran – is to visibly single out our successful students, encouraging them to continue along their pathway and also influencing their peers who are watching and wondering themselves what to do.

A colleague of mine often quips that, at heart, all kids want to experience success. She’s right, but the larger task at hand is figuring out how to harness student success and use it to build momentum school-wide.

Documentary filmmakers have figured out how. When will schools?

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By Kyle, December 14, 2010 9:57 pm

Bon Jovi – Livin’ On a Prayer

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The following is yet another example (as if you needed any more) of how painful it is to be enrolled in Mr. Hunsberger’s 7th grade Algebra class.

Today’s objective was that students would be able to solve systems of equations by elimination. Rather than boring my non-mathematical readers with the gritty details, suffice it to say, that you are solving for two variables (usually x and y).

Now teaching my students the method of elimination to solve for one variable usually takes quite a bit of time, and there is not a little bit of satisfaction when a correct value is finally identified.

“x = -3” they will correctly tell me, with quite some definitiveness. Yet, as their teacher it is my job to remind my students that, although we’ve solved for x, in actuality, we’re half-way there…

(…groan…, some of you immediately see where I’m going with this…)

“Whoooooa-oooah!”, I call out. Looks of astonished silence from 26 faces. Again.

“Whoooooa-oooah! We’re halfway there!”, pausing to ask them about why we’re only halfway there.

While the correct answer is that we’ve still got to solve for the variable y, I tell them I would also accept as correct, the sung phrase “Whoooooa-oooah! Livin’ on a prayer!” (Interesting enough, they all know this 1986 song. Thank you Guitar Hero).

Ah, the pain of being subjugated to the awful humor of an algebra teacher. Hopefully these kids won’t be scarred for life.

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By Kyle, November 2, 2010 3:21 pm

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – Hand Covers Bruise

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I just came back from the polls, voting for a governor that will hopefully be the lesser of two evils. What California needs is really a breath of fresh air, and in that light, I officially invite Jimmy McMillan to move to California, establish residency, and run for some public office in 2012.

Please.

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By Kyle, October 30, 2010 9:54 am

John Phillip Sousa – Nobles of the Mystic Shrine

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Not sure what the best part of this picture is… Stephen Colbert’s ridiculous pants, or the fact that there’s actually a Sousaphone as a part of the stage band.

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By Kyle, October 24, 2010 11:13 am

Spoon – My Mathematical Mind

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One of the greatest side-effects of the internet revolution of the last decade is that it has democratized and validated strange combinations of characteristics, such as “geekiness” and “humor”, which have now been inexorably linked by some extraordinary websites. Tomorrow, I’ll be using a graph from GraphJam to review an algebraic conversation about independent and dependent variables. Additionally, the webcomic XKCD often provides a fantastic starter to our math department meetings with its darkly cynical take on math, life, and love.

Once again, the internet has utterly transformed our lives into something much, much better.

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By Kyle, September 25, 2010 9:39 am

From Thursday’s season premiere of The Office:

Yep, this is why we teach kids math. So they don’t turn out like Michael.

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By Kyle, September 23, 2010 8:00 pm

Jay-Z – Hard Knock Life

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Today’s “Warm Up” as students entered my class was as follows:

Write down three examples of when negative numbers occur in real life.”

I was expecting the typical answers of football teams losing yards, freezing temperatures, and bank account withdrawals.

Yet today for your enjoyment, I submit to you one of my students’ three responses to the prompt above:

1. When I get mad
2. When I don’t listen
3. When I don’t do what they tell me to do

Sigh…..another long year.

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By Kyle, July 19, 2010 8:13 am

MGMT – Flash Delirium

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“At least they’re running a stable OS”, he said as he wandered past the flight departures display.