Starting a Math Wiki

The following are some student responses I had when I gave these stubs about math. I think it's really interesting to see how students respond to such high-level, broad questions, especially with regard to a subject that is often so focused and skill-based.

Geometry is…

- A type of math (Jordan)

- That lets us know names of shapes, angles, and sizes (Kymani)

- It is important in life, because it shows you what angles or sides that you could say for triangles’ names. (Jordan)

Geometry is important because…

- It shows us how we can say different words for shapes, sizes, angles, and so forth. (Ahmad)

- It helps you see shapes in the world. Geometry helps you visualize. (Jordan)

- If you go to college and you want to study it, you could become a mathematician. (Justin)

What is math?

- A specific study of shapes, sizes, and numbers. (Sayeed)

- Math is hard to describe! (Sayeed)

- A language that helps us understand relationships in the world (Mr. Stephenson)

- Math is a study of different things, and it will help you in life when you need to learn how right angles how they are different from other angles, and what they are. (Malachi)

Math is important because…

- It’s like chemistry. It tells you physical properties or hard properties to describe things in the world. (Jordan)

- Math is important because it can help you in life. I want to be a surgeon, and math is going to help me when I need to decide how to operate on a person, by telling me exactly where I need to make the cuts. (Kymani)

The Failing School Diet

Norman Atkins, from the Foreward to Paul Bambrick-Santoyo's new book, Driven by Data:

"If you've ever taught in an American public school, you know the drill. The principal alerts you to her upcoming annual trip to 'observe' your class. You sweat the preparation of what you hope is your best lesson. She jots notes in the back of your room. Your kids muster their least disruptive behavior, perhaps on account of the rare presence of two additional humongous eyeballs on their necks.

A few weeks later (if all goes well, not a few months later), there's the post-observation conference. The principal slides a standard-issue form across her desk. She's rated you 'satisfactory' in most of the boxes, 'needs improvement' in a few. Should you dispute the recommendations in the space allotted on the bottom of the template or smile and pledge to do better? Best-case scenario: the principal supports you, knows her stuff, and shares helpful feedback on your craft--for example, how you can be more engaging in your delivery. More typically, she encourages you to pick up the pace so that you can 'cover' the required curriculum by year's end of urges you to 'integrate technology' per the district mandate to modernize. You sign your review, close your classroom door, and resume teaching, relieved you won't have to relive these rituals for another year. As both professional development and accountability, this has been our education system's losing playbook for as long as the oldest teachers you can remember can themselves remember."

berlioz says it better.

I was listening to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's recording of Hector Berlioz's 'Symphonie Fantastique.' Directed by Paavo Jaervi, this is probably the best recording of the piece I've heard yet. With a set of Verdin Co. bells for the Dies Irae, I think we can all officially tell AC/DC to suck it up and listen to the real deal. The jacket of the CD included a quotation from the composer that I saw once and chose to promptly forget, primarily becauase it seemed contrived at the time.

"Which of two powers, love or music, can elevate man to the sublimest heights? It is a great problem, and yet it seems to me that this is the answer: 'Love can give no idea of music; music can give an idea of love.' Why separate them? They are the two wings of the soul."

As a side note, my dad's new receiver and revamped speakers probably didn't hurt the experience. I love it when music sounds like it really should.

christmas day.

I'm home for christmas once again this year and enjoying every minute of it, although there are elements and people in Rochester that I miss more than usual this time around. The poem I received was described by the sender as cheesy, but amidst all of the other unfortunate trappings of this time of year, this poem reads beautifully. I'll share:

Calm on the Listening Ear of Night
(1834)
Edmund Hamilton Sears (1810-1876)

CALM on the listening ear of night,
Come heav’n’s melodious strains,
Where wild Judea stretches far
Her silver mantled plains.
Celestial choirs from courts above
Shed sacred glories there;
And angels with their sparkling lyres,
Make music on the air.
The answering hills of Palestine
Send back the glad reply,
And greet from all their holy heights
The Day-spring from on high.
O’er the blue depths of Galilee
There comes a holier calm;
And Sharon waves in solemn praise
Her silent groves of palm.
“Glory to God!” the lofty strain
The realm of ether fills;
How sweeps the song of solemn joy
Oe’r Judah's sacred hills!
“Glory to God!” the sounding skies
Loud with their anthems ring:
“Peace on the earth, good will to
men,
From heaven’s eternal King.”
Light on thy hills, Jerusalem!
The Savior now is born:
More bright on Bethlehem’s joyous
plains
Breaks the first Christmas morn.
This day shall Christian tongues be
mute,
And Christian hearts be cold?
O catch the anthem that from heaven
O’er Judah’s mountains rolled.
When burst upon that listening night
The high and solemn lay,
“Glory to God; on earth be peace.”
Salvation comes today.

❅ ❅ ❅

Often sung to:
“St. Agnes” (1866)
John Bacchus Dykes
“Bethlehem”

I earnestly hope everyone is having a joyous and relaxing holiday.