Math(s)

 I think nature may have been my best teacher.   To be fair to all my human teachers, I have had some excellent ones, as well as mentors in the teaching profession and in life.  However, none of them is quite as extraordinary as the natural world around us.  If one pays attention, like Davinci, there's not much it cannot teach us or inspire us to do.  If one examines root structures, for instance, while weeding the garden, we might start to notice similarities between those and our lung brachii.  Fish and bugs have curves that are adapted to their survival, but also turn out to be great for hydrodynamics and all sorts of other things.   When I learn things from nature, the challenge is to describe these things to others, or use them for something that makes sense in my life.  But if we watch, and listen, we can learn.  

 Good morning, I've been a Math Teacher for the last 18 years.  I liken that to selling a product that no one seems to want to people that can't afford NOT to have it.  We live in a society where not having math knowledge just gets you taken advantage of.  If you don't understand compound interest, credit card companies will be all too willing to give you a free card in college at 0% and then change the interest rate to 22% after a few months.  This works for cell phone companies, mortgages, bank accounts, investments, financial advisors, car loans and a host of other things I didn't think to mention.  Knowing the math can keep you out of those scenarios, and allow you to argue with the "final boss" of a car dealership, the finance guy.   In addition, we are bombarded with information and graphics that can easily lie to us with statistics if we don't do our fact checking.  But how can you determine if they are making valid claims if you don't understan

 Good morning all, I've been working in schools but not as a typical educator this year.  We generally are told in education to prioritize standards, retention and knowledge, and hope for rapport and that by modeling how much we love our subject, students might see it and start to love it too.   Lately, I've been working with Gear Up and Upward Bound as a math tutor and teacher.  They seem to start with rapport, and once the students start to believe that you care about them and their future, they start to listen to what you have to say about your discipline and how it can help them achieve it.  They start with they why they should care, and then work backwards to the how.  I've been really impressed by how hard students will work once they believe you are on their side, helping them overcome whatever subject they are struggling with.  In short, start with their dreams and aspirations, and help them figure out what they have to do to get there.  

 Good morning all, I woke up this morning to the news that today is a "traditional snow day" instead of a distance learning day.  I can't tell you how indescribably good that feels for me as a teacher, or how excited I am for my students to go play in the snow.  I know that it is something that only happens in cold climates, but to me, this is a rite of passage for students and a really nice break for both teachers and students.   When I was young (back when the earth was new LOL) we used to pack ourselves into my dad's subaru and go to work with him, and ski all day, with breaks for sandwiches and sometimes learning how to be a mechanic or weld from him.  He was a maintenance worker at a ski area, and I loved every second of that snow day life with him.  Some days we stayed home and snowshoed, or did cross country skiing or sledding.  But either way, we got out in the snow and played.  This is something that I believe my students need.  Just the change between their

 Good morning all, I'm a philosopher, at least I'd like to think I am.  One of the things that always intrigued me was the tragedy of the commons.  It is the idea that if someone is owned by no one, it is abused by everyone.  The best example is the ocean, for example the cod fisheries outside of Boston.  No one owned the cod, and everyone fished (because when it's the commons, the best thing you can do is to use it faster than everyone else because no one owns it).  This leads to the cod fishery being depleted and the whole fishing industry grinding to a halt.   In this incarnation, I want to talk about insurance and the litigious nature of our society.  We have a culture of "something for nothing" and the idea that if  you sue someone huge (like an insurance company, a school, the government, McDonalds) you aren't hurting anyone.  You are getting something for nothing.  But no one considers that these lawsuits are the death by a thousand cuts to everyone.  W

 Good morning, I hope you all had a lovely weekend.  I noticed math in a few different places, per usual . . . but I'm wondering how to bring them into my classroom.  The wind blew around my kayak a bit, so the math of that (hydrodynamics vs aerodynamics) could be interesting.  However, I'm not sure (yet - growth mindset) how to make that accessible to 7th graders, since it is calculus based physics.  I also saw several ripples (well, every time I cast my lure).  I'm still wondering how to present it, but I love that I can see it.  Maybe I can show my students first that it is there, and ask them to find it themselves and describe it.   Anyhow, I like fractals and curves - and in the context of nature they are better.  Math is too often seen in the absence of context, and what it actually is is the language of the sciences.  The language of what happens in the real world.  If my students could see this, at 7th grade or in college, they might love what I teach instead of (mo