Kid Day

When I was leaving Lucas’ birthday party this evening, I said, “Happy Birthday!”  He said, “Thank you for coming!  Am I 4 now?!”  I said, “No, you’ll be 4 tomorrow.”  He just sighed.  He’s been waiting to be 4 for a long time.  Here are a couple of photos of the birthday boy, looking so grown up.

And here is the birthday boy’s cousin Ben, now almost 6 weeks old and on the verge of smiling on purpose!  So adorable.

And so, summer begins

At about 2 o’clock this afternoon, my summer finally began!  This has been such a crazy week, but with teaching done and my advisor’s board meeting done (which involved 15 hours of meetings the last two days!), there are less busy and less stressful days ahead.  My work load for next week looks easy peasy — four days of work, three days off.  That’s the life.  *smiles*

I seem to equate summer with childhood, as my list of summer wishes often includes things like snow cones and sprinklers and zoo trips!  I invoked an early summer treat on Wednesday by going to a Shrinky Dinks class — talk about a blast from the past, and that was great fun!  I’ll be spending a morning at math camp in a couple of weeks.  My drama class starts soon (yay!).  I have two trips planned to the northern parts of Michigan.  Summer is upon me!  Let it be full of fun and rest and happy days.

Teaching Thursdays #91

My teaching semester was all too short but what a great semester.  I quickly adjusted back to the role of instructor, remembered how to lecture, remembered how annoying chalk is (markers are worse though…), and remembered how much fun it is to watch students succeed.

I push my students pretty hard.  I wouldn’t let them use calculators much, and I had them graphing exponential equations by hand (which isn’t really required until their next course).  As the semester went on, I demanded explanations from them during lecture — an answer is not enough, you must tell me how you got it and how do you know it’s right.  It was like algebra boot camp some days, and I was proud of them for how much they learned and could explain to me.

In education, one of the big questions is how we measure success.  Some people are all about test scores, and some people are all about more qualitative measures (attitudes, goals).  I had a student who only missed one point (out of 400) the entire semester, and I had a few other students who weren’t far behind her (one missed 1/2 point on everything – I kept telling him he was breaking my heart for all these impossibly tiny mistakes!).  And we all feel great about those students, and they are a joy.  No doubt about that.  But, the students who always stand out for me are the strugglers who worked their tails off even though math is so hard for them.

One of those students introduced himself to me on the first day of class by saying his name, followed by the statement “…and I’ve failed this class three times before.”  He was pretty ticked off about that too!  It wasn’t a call for pity; the tone in his voice was undeniably one of outrage.  I promised him he’d get through it this time if he stuck with me.  And he did, and he asked questions and answered questions and came to all but one lecture.  On Monday, when I met with each student individually to go over their review packets and check that they were understanding the material, he didn’t have perfect answers on everything but he had done all the problems, and he took my corrections with a great attitude.  As I left his desk, I gave him his cumulative grade going into the final exam (which was an A), and I said to him, “Don’t let anyone ever convince you that you can’t do math.”  He got a little choked up and said, “Yeah.”

Those are the students I’ll remember forever.  The ones who came in a little bit beat up and who left with some wind in their sails again.  It is amazing to watch them grow.  That’s a big part of how I measure success in teaching mathematics.

Baby #4 of 5

Another new baby in my family!  Baby Kathlyn arrived in North Carolina early this morning.

I will, yet again, get to say, “We have a new baby in my family!” when people ask what’s new at school tomorrow.    That will be the third time in five weeks.  I think they are starting to doubt that I’m telling the truth!  Like the little boy who cried wolf.  *laughs*

One more 2009 baby to go, and she is due on July 10th!

Semester ends

My students took their final exam at 5 o’clock.  The exams are now graded, final grades tabulated and entered in the system, and I’ve sent e-mails to all my students.  And it’s not even midnight yet!  Woohoo!  *high fives all around*

It was a good semester.  I loved teaching again.  Loved it.

Appassionata

All I ever need to get very involved in playing piano again is a piece that I’m dying to learn.  And very often, I’ll hear a piece of music in the background of a TV show or as I’m walking through a store or something that catches my interest, and I have to find out what that piece is.  More than once, I’ve used a tape recorder to tape pieces directly from TV, and then carried around the recording until I found someone, anyone who knew what it was.  Of course, that was before the internet.

Yesterday, I was watching season two of Everwood (finally came out on DVD) and fell in love with a piano piece that one of the main characters plays at the end of the episode.  It was a piece that was familiar enough but I couldn’t quite place it, and I know it’s not something I ever learned.  So I did a quick search online.  Aha!  It was part of Beethoven’s Appassionata.  Thank you, internet.

So today, on a very busy day during a busy, stressful week, I had to find time to get to the music store and pick up the piano music for Appassionata!  This could not wait!  So now, I’m at home with the music and no piano to play it on.  Sigh…  But I have access to pianos on campus daily…and at my parents’ house and church (though both are across town and not in my normal path except on Sundays).  I will carry the music wherever I go for as long as it takes to learn at least the andante movement of the piece (which is gorgeous).  So Beethoven and I will do some bonding through music this summer.  It will be good to play again.

Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day to my Dad, and to all the other Dads, Grandfathers, Godfathers, Uncles, and other special guys!  Guys are important in a kid’s life.  They are the ones who let kids get dirty, play with tools, fly through the air, eat unbalanced meals!  They let us live just a little dangerously and push boundaries, and we’re all the better for it.  Rock on!

Teaching Thursdays #90

We’ve had some silly moments in class this week, as the semester winds down.  We had a seven year old sit in on class the other day, and she was a riot.  And we’ve joked around a lot.

I was teaching logarithms this week, and some of my students wondered what professions use logarithms.  So I — not really fully knowing the answer to that (does math have to be useful??) — was trying to think about that.  Maybe engineers use logarithms.  One of my students piped up.

Student:  Pirates use logarithms.

Me:  Did you say pirates use logarithms?

Student (very cheerfully):  Yeah!  Pirates!

Me:  Really?!

Student:  Yeah!!

Me:  You mean, like, Johnny Depp uses logarithms???

And the whole class erupted in laughter!

Doubt

I have been catching up on all the movies from the last year that I want to see.  I am on waiting lists for several at the library, including “Seven Pounds,” “Australia” and “Last Chance Harvey.”  Looking forward to seeing all of those.

A couple of weeks ago, I got the movie “Doubt” and I’ve been singing its praises ever since.  But I’m getting really frustrated with that process because, without exception, every person who I’ve mentioned the movie to has said, “Isn’t it about child abuse?”

For the record, “Doubt” is not a movie about child abuse.  The content is dramatic but not disturbing.  It is a movie about suspicion, accusation, and — get this — doubt!  And yes, the accusation is about child abuse but it’s not ever clear that anything happened.  I’d say that anyone who enjoys mysteries or shows like Law & Order would probably enjoy Doubt.  I had it from the library for one week, and I watched it in its entirety three times and watched half of it two or three other times.  I then bought it, and it wasn’t even on sale (gasp!), which is high praise from me. 

When I sat here watching ”Doubt” the first time, I thought this movie is quite good.  And at the end, during the very last scene, I thought, no, this movie is brilliant.

Go forth and assert

Four years ago, I took a 2-day assertiveness course through the professional development program at work.  It was great timing, as I was finishing my first year of teaching and feeling really drained, in part because I tended to let my students be the boss.  (You need to take an exam early/late/at midnight on Saturday?  Why sure, I can accommodate that!  Ugh!)  (Much to my students’ chagrin, they weren’t the bosses after I took that class!)

The course was just what I needed in a lot of ways, primarily because it gave permission to take care of yourself.  Not in a selfish way at all, but in a way that protects your well-being and energy and values.

The instructor shared an example that hit home with a lot of us.  She said… Suppose you have been working long hours and are feeling worn down, and you decide to take a Wednesday night off.  You plan to unplug from the world, take a long bath, read a book, whatever helps you recharge.  That evening, you get a call from a friend who says, “I totally forgot that I had to bake cookies for little Susie’s dance recital tomorrow, and I’m in a bind to get them all done.  Can you help?”  The instructor then stopped to get our thoughts on this scenario.  We all agreed we’ve been in that situation before (not the same details, but basically the same scenario).  We also all agreed that we, and probably most people, would feel compelled to help and many of us said we wouldn’t feel like we had a choice.  The instructor said that that’s where the assertiveness comes in, realizing that there are options here.

She said, “Realize, first of all, that this is not an emergency.  Cookies are not an emergency.  Nobody is going to die or even be harmed if the cookies don’t get made.  Second, realize that someone else’s lack of planning or forgetfulness is not your responsibility.”  Aha!  We loved that!  She continued, “Everyone has the right to refuse any request, even reasonable requests.”  She repeated that statement several times and had us all say that outloud.  We all breathed a huge sigh of relief!  She said there isn’t a right answer to the above scenario, but that it’s so important for each person to realize their choice in the matter.  If you say you’ll help, then do it and accept that you made that conscious choice (that is, don’t complain about it!).  If you refuse, just hope your friend is a big enough person to honor your right to take care of yourself.  A good friend will, and they will often be more respectful of your time and space and values too.

It’s been four years since that course, and I still remember all these details, and it comes to mind often when I have to make a decision related to someone else’s requests or plans.  When I’m stuck, I think, “Oh, but Miss Jackie said…”  And she’s right.  The important thing is to realize that you have a choice.