Halloween

The past few years the majority of our department has dressed up with a common theme for Halloween. In 2016 we were "Pi-Rates" and 2017 we each were a digit in the Fibonacci Sequence (and ordered by height from least to greatest). We also dress up for Spirit Days and Pi-Day.

Halloween 2017

Halloween 2016

This year we started early in deciding (like mid-September) what we wanted to do for Halloween. One of the members, jokingly I think, mentioned Crayons. Well, that'll teach him because a few just took it and ran with it. Each member picked a color and made it math-y, like Radical Red, Exponential Emerald, or Octagon Orange. And one lucky member gets to be the Box.

Here is my journey: I got he cardboard from a co-worker that was perfect. I spent about 2 weeks working on my Box. I had to get the shape right; make the cuts for the head and arms; made a trip to Home Depot for finding just the right paint colors; measured out the stripes so they were as close as possible to being proportional; had a student draw out and color the crayons; sprayed, painted, and touched up until it was nearly perfect; added details until I ran out of time. Below are pictures at various points in the process.

Here is the completed front and back!! I'm thinking it looks really good. I'm also thinking I spent WAY too much time on it. When my husband mentioned a month ago to just buy one... I should have! But I also know if I had purchased one, this wouldn't be as cool and customized as it is.

Front!!

Back - look closely :-)

I plan on posting pictures of our Department after we take some tomorrow. And, if I'm lucky, I'll get some photos of my family. See, my daughter (whose 3) heard me talking about a crayon box and decided she wanted to be a Crayon too (Orange). I wasn't sure what my husband was going to do, and then a co-worker suggested a white t-shirt to color. So I'm the box, she's the crayon, and he's the paper. It's pretty good.

UPDATE:

Here is our Department.

Learning over Grades

Finals was last week! Well, we call them midterms, but it's the end of the first semester so I will be forced to give a transcript grade for my classes. Yup, already! We just finished our 8th week of instruction, so on our 4x4 that means midterms!

Last spring I had started Standards Based Grading for my Integrated Math 2 class. I liked the idea of it, but I wasn't happy in the end with how my system translated to a semester letter grade. I refined a little this summer and stared this school year with a modified system. So far, I am so much happier! It was a little difficult at the start since it was something new for the students, so they had some trouble comprehending and understanding. But with constant communication, I feel students are getting it. Some are working hard to improve. They are coming in to ask questions and clarify misunderstandings, though I always wish there were more doing this. Several students have commented that they feel less stressed about math and they are "happy your teaching style stresses learning rather than memorization." Students take an assessment and are provided feedback over points or a grade. The hope is that students are looking at their mistakes and learning from them.

I've tried really hard to focus on the concept and skill, and students learning it- both conceptually and procedurally, and having the ability to explain it. The "explain it" part is where some students really struggle. But, I think it is a vital part of understanding and I will continue to push students into doing it.

I have not perfected this! Heck, I've been teaching 13 years and will never perfect that. But it feels good to be constantly improving and working toward improving. I just wish more appreciated the learning over the grade.