This week is important because it is essentially the end of the year. As much as I’d like to say kids are going to show up to the two days next week, they might not. Just in case, I need to give them all enough work this week to keep them busy over the whole break. The kids who do show up on the last day get to work together on the task from the week, and perhaps get to hear me sing a spirited rendition of the Christmas song at our school’s “Milk, Cookies, and Karaoke” next Monday and Tuesday.
I’m able to roll into the week with a surprising burst of energy from the #nycmathtweetup last Friday. It’s surprising because, despite being excited about the meetup until I was a block away from reaching the West Village building where it was held, I was somehow overcome with two weird feelings. The first feeling was “I’m a fraud, this was a bad idea, and they’re all going to laugh at me!!”, followed by the second feeling, which was really just the urge to go home, curl into a ball on my couch, and feel safe. This feeling didn’t go away as I entered the downstairs lobby of the building which felt as warm and inviting as the detention level of the Death Star.
Then I ran into @kellyoshea and we shared an elevator up to the 6th floor and started into a little conversation. I was naturally able to talk with all the other people we met once we got inside. Suddenly I felt like I was catching up with old friends, friends who I just met, but friends nonetheless. I got to meet @nicoraplaca, @wkmukluk, @bkdidact, @mrburkemath, and many other people who up until know I had only known through their tweets. We hung out until @DavidWees and the rest of the wonderful people at New Visions had to kick us out. Afterwards a small group including @jacehan, @j_lanier, and @Mr-I-Don’t-Use-Twitter (Ben Blum-Smith) and a small group of people headed out to trendy NYC bars in the West Village. It was quite nice that @absmarie was able to find one that was not excessively loud, nor excessively expensive. It was excessively crowded, enough that we were about to leave, but then a large group left seconds before we did, allowing us to sit down and hangout. It all was really positive and really cool. And just like hanging out with any group of old friends, it was really hard to say goodbye at the end of the night. I really look forward to seeing everyone again at the next one!
What I’m teaching this week
This week I am going to teach the elimination method of solving systems of equations, and I’m going to try to find some context to anchor this discussion in a way that isn’t contrived. Wish me luck.
I’m also really excited about the economics lesson I’m teaching called “In The Chips.” In searching for ideas I came across this lesson and realized it was my favorite lesson from when I was in high school. If it goes well, it will lead towards using the Dunshire Project that I did last year.
What I’m blogging this week
Hopefully something. I’ve been trying to get two blogs each week, so I’m going to hope I can get two posts, and we’ll see what I can do.
What I’m thinking this week
I just found out that I am going to be a father to a baby girl this summer! It’s hard to think about anything else but that, but it does make me wonder about how children develop quanitative literacy/numeracy at a young age.