Geometry

If you are like me, you have a giant collection of “stuff” saved just in case it will be useful someday for one project or another. Hot summer days are the perfect time to pull out this stuff and let kids go wild. How can you be sure they will do something productive with those old cell phones, paper towel tubes, and lovely containers of various shapes and sizes, though?

As I sat here choosing resources about real world math, I thought about "the" question students ask every year: "When will I ever use this math in my life?" As a student, I’m sure I wondered the same thing, but when I think about it now, I have a hard time thinking of a part of life that is not touched by one form of math or another. Math has a funny way of sneaking into every corner and crevice of life, and good math teachers make sure their students can recognize the math in the world around them.

It’s always fun to do something unexpected in the classroom, and to watch the kids’ reactions. It’s especially gratifying when the event furthers a curricular goal, or makes subject matter more palatable to the students.

For the past several years, a survivor of the Holocaust has made an annual trip to our intermediate and middle schools to speak about his experience at Auschwitz. It’s an intensely powerful and moving experience for our sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, and it’s meant to be. The presenter – now 90 years old – has told his story so often that he’s able to describe life under the Nazi regime and at Auschwitz quietly and without much emotion. The students, however, sometimes gasp, sob, or seek the comforting hand of a classmate beside them. Though the details of events at the death camp are often difficult for the students to hear, they are ultimately grateful for the experience, and many cite it as one of the most profound events they’ve ever attended.

This week on The Gateway we are focusing on two very important basic 21st century skills: reading and ‘rithmetic (Read Across America and fractals, if you want to get specific) We spend a lot of time planning, discussing, and implementing ways to improve our classrooms with technology. As important as this is, I feel sometimes we need to step back and be sure we are covering the basics as thoroughly as we can. Math and reading are essential skills, and teaching these subjects in a way that will encourage children to really enjoy them is very important.

March 2 is Read Across America Day, the annual tribute to the pleasures and importance of reading founded in 1998 by the National Education Association. Across the U.S., schools, libraries, community organizations, and other entities will celebrate the joys of reading and observe the birthday of Dr. Seuss, whose endless creativity inspired the event. You can find resources to help celebrate the day here, and additional classroom ideas here. Happy reading!

What was your favorite subject in school? Was it one that had a really cool teacher? One you could sleep through without getting caught? One that was very challenging? One that you still actually remember what you learned? When I asked kids and adults this question, I was surprised to find out that many people’s favorite classes are the more challenging classes, but only when the classes relate to their own lives. Through my years of working with students of all ages, I have been constantly impressed with how well students of all abilities rise to meet our expectations. If we can create classes and assignments that are a lot of work, but not purely busywork, students might surprise us by showing more potential than we ever knew they had.

Geometry wasn’t my best subject in school. In fact, I pretty much loathed it at the time. Perhaps it was because the class was scheduled after lunch, in an overly-heated room that induced a mouth-slackening torpor within minutes. The geometry teacher had the unfortunate belief that lectures were the only effective teaching method, and he obligingly droned on daily from his desk in the corner. Occasionally, to vary the lesson, he’d stand up. My classmates and I – usually excellent students – struggled against waves of drowsiness, our heads bobbing like too-heavy flowers on thin stalks as we’d start to drift, then jerk awake. Occasionally, one of us would lose the battle and doze off.