In the time that I knew Rich I’ve found there to be a predictable sequence of events that would happen whenever I needed to talk to him.  The reasons for our conversations may vary.  As advisory department chair I would have to talk to him about whatever new initiative or whatever came out of the advisory department meetings.  As a fellow teacher, we’d talk about matters relating to my students, or his (although his students rarely had issues).  Also as a conference-attendee.  As a new teacher, I didn’t talk to Rich very often until we went to the New Tech conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Throughout all these times, and across all of these contexts, there have been a few constant events that would happen as we had a conversation.

1) I would instantly realize that school issues aren’t that serious

Usually within the first 5 seconds of our exchange Rich would say something, or nothing, that would completely disarm me. Just his tone of voice, would remind me that if he can be pleasant, then I should be too. Our interactions always began with this as he must have had an endless reserve of pleasantness.  Then I would bring up whatever task or issue, or so-called problem that was on my mind.  Usually this was delivered with that tone you say when you feel bad about putting something on someone’s plate. Regardless of the task, he would reply with the exact same level of pleasantness.  No matter how crazy the question was, he would say “alright, tell you what…” and describe his response with the exact same pleasant tone that he had before. He knew in the long run that whatever we were talking about wasn’t THAT important.  Don’t get me wrong his responses were carefully thought out and showed that he took the issue seriously.  He just made me question whether or not my task, or issue, or so-called problem was worth becoming unpleasant.

2)  I would realize how important teaching is as a profession

No matter what was brought to Rich, he would approach it with the full attention and focus it deserved.  He would do so in a manner that exemplified what it meant to be a professional.  One time I mentioned that a few of my advisees wanted to do an art project in seminar. I would have been satisfied with 3 boxes of markers, but what I got was a full lesson plan complete with examples of how we could create an advisory t shirt. He was even willing to come in to my class to get them excited, and the following week spend another of his preps in the art room to show them how to burn the screen and make the shirts.  When OK would do, Rich would deliver great instead.  These encounters made me proud to be a colleague of Rich’s, and proud to be a part of this teaching profession alongside him.

3)  Finally, I would inspired to become a better teacher

So as we finished talking about whatever other minutiae brought me to Rich that day, he would then have something really interesting going on that I would have to ask about.  Maybe it’s the box of ping pong paddles that he used in advisory, or the folders that kids used in his art class, or the stickers he used during the last registration.  “Oh, this…” he would nonchalantly begin as he described to whatever new project I was pointing too.  His nonchalance would always ramp up to infectious enthusiasm as he explained the new tweak he is introducing to keep students engaged.  By the end of the conversation I would walk away with the wheels in my head turning over what I could do in my classroom.  I wasn’t always interested in copying his ideas, my mind would be working because a new idea would start to germinate in my head.  “Man I should be doing something like that with my math class!” or “Why didn’t I actually trust my kids, and myself, with the idea that I had?”  His willingness to tinker with his practice would always leave me looking for things to tinker with in mine.
I can honestly point to those three things happening every time I talked with Rich. From the first time I talked with him, two years before I started working here, when I was shadowing Toni as part of my principal program, until the last time I talked with him after the awards ceremony, as he was surrounded by all of his student art.  His death is tragic, and my words cannot summarize the pain and loss felt by the City-As-School community.  Hopefully recalling my experiences with him can help to keep his memory and presence alive.

Whew!  It’s been quite a week.  One in which I have not had time to blog, but also one in which all sorts of interesting things have happened.

What I taught this week

Each of my classes had less than 5 meetings remaining at the beginning of the week, which my students had 5 chances to earn credit.  Roughly 50% of all conversations I had with students included some form of the phrase “I need this to graduate!”  At a transfer school where kids graduate when they finish and not necessarily with their grade at the end of the year, it is easy for teachers to forget how important June graduation is to students and their families.  The importance of finishing “with my right grade,” drives a lot of decisions for students, including some poor ones.  Certainly next week students, who realize they are not going to finish one thing, will throw up their hands and give up on everything.  We have some students who were so upset last June, that they don’t really get back on track until January, April, or this June.

At this time of year, my class time is mainly spent working on projects, so the biggest thing I “taught” this week was how important it is for students to persevere.  Most of what I did was sit next to kids, listen to their frustrations, and remind them how far they’ve come.  Sometimes I think these are the most important lessons I “teach” all year.

What I blogged this week

Nothing, unfortunately.

Ok, maybe I did more than that.  I got to meet up with @trianglemancsd and @j_lanier.  I took them on a brief after hours tour of my school and talked about the life at our school.  We went across the street to eat a couple pizza’s at Spunto, including one with ‘Millionaire Bacon’.  I’m not sure how this bacon is different than regular bacon, but we certainly didn’t start shopping for monocles or demanding Grey Poupon afterwards.  Instead we had nice conversation about the different places we’ve worked, the different things we have on tap, and Justin’s idea for a math terminology machine that can allow students to create their own math terminology.  After that we walked down the street a little ways and took a picture.

@Trianglemancsd @j_lanier, the Empire State Building and I after dinner in NYC! http://t.co/IJqa2mq4yk

— Carl Oliver (@carloliwitter) June 12, 2014

What I thought this week

It’s been hard to think about anything other than the San Antonio Spurs turning the NBA finals into a masterclass on teamwork, preparation, and execution in basketball.  As the school year slowly draws to a close, it makes me think about how we as a teachers, departments, and as a school should think about planning for next year.  Last night at Happy Hour with my colleagues we decided we were going to start a round of “Lunch Time Conversations” about the school in hopes to hear ideas around key areas, get everyone on the same page, and foster some of this San Antonio-esque teamwork.

As this school year comes to an end, what things do you do to prepare for the next school year?

Blogging has been a lot of fun, especially right when I got started, and also the parts where I say “this is what I’m going to do.” The hard part for me has been writing about what I actually did. You know, the part where actual reflection on my practice is supposed to happen. Yeah, that part. I realize I’ve been launching off diatribes about student relationships, tutorials about technology, and other stuff because I’m side stepping the hard part. Well no longer.  Here is a write up of the final project I used with my Equations and Patterns class, which I talked about earlier.

What I Planned

My original plan was to teach the same casino carnival project that I have been doing for the past few years. Here is a brief description:

Role: The kids in this project are the owners of a casino planners of a school carnival and they have to plan games that make a profit while appearing to provide a fair chance for players to win (1 winner for every 3 players).

Content: For each game students will find the probability of winning, as well as the expected value of winning each of the prizes they chose from a provided list. The students were then supposed take the expected value of the overall game and predict the expected profit they would make off of 1000 visitors. The three games are all related to casinos carnivals:

1. Dice Game – Players roll a pair of 6, 8, or 10 sided die and win a prize based on the result
2. Three Spins Slot Machine – Players spin three wheels and win a prize based on the result
3. Card pull – Players pull 2 cards from a standard deck and win a prize based on the result.

Each game had successively more expensive prizes that needed to be won.

Products: Students produce these 3 crazy long grids that detail all of the calculations.  For each prize they would win they would fill out one row of a table that asked for number of ways to win, the price of the game, the cost of the prize.  Next they have to do a little calculating to find the of the profit or value they make from that prize, and the probability of that prize winning, as well as the expected value of that prize (Profit times Probability).  Each game would have 4-9 prizes, including the “losers.”  Here’s an example of row of a grid from the 2nd game poster which would be won if you spun a wheel with six slices and landed on either the A, B, or C slice on all 3 wheels:

Additionally, for students who need to include this in their graduation portfolio, students have to write a written description of what they did, and what they learned in the class.  Students who just need credit can draw posters about each of their games that they think would convince players to play the game.

What I liked

Well, after doing this for the 4th or 5th time, I’ve gone from liking to hating and back to liking a lot of things about this project.

• One thing that never gets old is when kids do all of the math correctly, and make no profit at all, and have to go back and have to think about how to fix it.
• To help students with the games I had a series of Do Nows and pre-activities that really got students into the context.
• I always like the way students really engage with the context and the project while still having genuine interest in figuring out how to make a profit.

What I would change

For this, I would figure out a way to let the students have fun while they use math to make a profit.  Usually what happens is that a few kids figure out the “trick,” that having cheaper prizes occur more often is how you win, and once they finish they go around and help everyone else.  The “helper” role could be more formalized to encourage more students to do it.  I also don’t like the card game, there are so many probabilities with a deck of cards, the kids have to work through an onerous number of situations to come up with 1/3 of the people winning.  Maybe I’ll make the deck smaller, and have kids think more about the conditional probabilities that could arise when drawing cards out of the deck.

What I’m wondering

My big question about this project, is if it has enough math in it.  Kids spend so much time doing these basic calculations of profit and probability that they are missing out on thinking through the high school level content.  Is this not enough mathematical thinking for a high school algebra class?

This is a particularly bad time of the year for the transfer school population.  It will be immediately followed by the best time if the year, but the final weeks before graduation always involve the worst heartache for struggling students and the heavy burden of high standards.

The reality of our population is that they were most likely unsuccessful at their previous school, often for academic reasons.  If students were successful academically, then they probably wouldn’t have looked to transfer.  We know this but we are confident that the students who begin with us will be able to overcome. We make promises to families and potential admits about the success they will have in late June, knowing we will have to support kids through the stress of late May.

The problem is each kid deals with the stress of late May in different ways.   Many kids stay up late. Perhaps they are watching Netflix and procrastinating, or trying to finish big complicated project completely on their own because they are too embarrassed to ask for help .  Either way, this doesn’t leave students able to come to school on time and be successful, putting them behind and leading to more stress.  Without some kind of intervention, these kids will spend these crucial weeks in bed, and look to try again in the fall with a clean slate.

Obviously, Netflix is probably not the most unhealthy thing that students could use to escape stress.  There a number of students who use drugs, self-harm, or other damaging behavior as a coping mechanism.  Others have no choice but to watch their bodies fail them, as they succumb to migraines, panic attacks, insomnia and countless other issues. Being healthy is more important than making sure they can get to college in June, and it is important for these kids to take the proper perspective on their bodies, and perhaps realize that maybe graduating in the fall is the best option.

Teaching at this time of the year makes a walk around the classroom fell like an episode of ice road truckers as we try to understand how solid each student is emotionally, and what flavor of motivation they need to block out the stress and make that day’s progress.  Each student has a different mental and emotional state ahead of class, so each child needs to be handled individually.  As kids get this close to what they believe is the end of their childhood, the supposed need to decide the rest of their life, and potentially dramatic shifts in responsibilities and relationships at home, it’s actually quite hard for them to show up and do work with so many undecided things in their life.

Sometimes you can figure it out.  You see what a kid is doing, intervene appropriately, and get them on track.  These appropriate interventions involve pulling kids aside, or calling them out in class.  Buying them lunch or calling their mom.  Going across the street and getting them out of the park, or letting them go for a walk to collect their thoughts.  And sometimes, after all that, the kid still fails.  Often spectacularly.  They turn in a blatantly plagiarized paper, they get in a fight, they start some crazy new independent study/job/art project and all of a sudden everything falls through the cracks.  Regardless of the shape it takes, these situations are heartbreaking. 

Yesterday one of my favorite kids got kicked out of his internship. She needed that to graduate, and she will turn 21 at the end of the school year so she is going to have leave school immediately to get into a GED program while before the end of the year. It is rough having to deal with her empty chair, but hopefully I can find a way to motivate the live body who sits their next period.