Here’s the list I’m working on, but I’m sure it’ll grow over the next month.

Expectations:

What can you expect from this course?

• This course will hopefully teach you what you need to know to pass the course, to survive subsequent years of mathematical study.
• Does not teach you how to be a good mathematician!

What can you expect from your teacher?

• I will always attempt to be prompt and reliable.
• I will always be available to help; before school, after school, at lunch and recess.
• I will always do my best to help you learn the content and to get the best results you can.

What do I expect from you?

• I expect you to be polite.  You should show respect to your fellow students and your teacher.
• I expect you to not waste my time. This sounds selfish, but if you waste my school time, you’re not taking it from me, you’re taking it from other students who need it.
• I expect you to not disrupt the learning of others.  Everyone has the right to a hassle-free environment.
• I expect you to use the feedback on tests and homeworks effectively.  This is what I do it for.
• I expect you to take advantage of my availability.
• I expect you to do work at home above and beyond what is called for by the homework*.

Homework is a bit of a separate issue, and I’ll be making my expectations of homework submission clear at another time.

Does this sound fair to the students?  Would you have liked it if a teacher made this clear when you were at school?  Should there be more expectations in any category?

Mathematics contains much that will neither hurt one if one does not know it nor help one if one does know it.

- B. Mencken, 1715

In order to get my students to think a bit more about what they’re studying and why they’re studying it, I’m going to ask them the above question… Why do we study mathematics?

And I’m going to get them to really think about this. First individually, then in groups, but not in the way that can be brushed of with “Because its important”. However, if I’m going to ask my kids this question, I’d better have some idea about what the answer is, so I decided to do some research and discuss the results here.

It is my belief (though I can find no factual evidence of this) that 90% of careers and occupations use no maths higher than Year 8 level. Beyond addition and subtraction (which cash registers and calculators can do anyway) how much maths do you really need to survive in society these days? Why do we force students to study maths beyond this level? Sure, there should be maths classes covering calculus and algebra and trigonometry in highschool for those students who WANT TO BE THERE, and these should be wonderful, happy places where students creatively solve problems and learn about the world, like Lockhart envisioned.

Mathematics is looked at by society at large as a “necessary evil”. Why is it necessary? Do schools make Mathematics a compulsory subject because society sees it as necessary? Or does society see it as necessary simply because “everyone has to do their dues” in the mathematics classroom as a child. Parents expect their children to study maths because they themselves studied maths as a child. But if they’re not going into a career that requires maths, why do they need to study it?

The SIN rule
The Mode of a dataset
The Volume of a right prism

When will people ever need to use these things unless they get a job in a field that requires it? The only reason to understand these concepts in maths is because they’ll need to build on their understanding next year. It’s a repeating cycle. “You need to learn [x] because it will help you learn [y] next year”

Cut The Knot’s manifesto – http://www.cut-the-knot.org/manifesto/need_it.shtml – has a great collection of quotes on this issue from throughout the ages, for both sides of the argument. Here are some interesting ones that I’ll be showing my kids to start discussion on this:

J. B. Mencken, De Chralataneria eruditorium, 1715 (quoted in C. Fadiman, The Mathematical Magpie, p. 256):
Mathematics contains much that will neither hurt one if one does not know it nor help one if one does know it.

Has anything changed since 1715? I think many people would agree with this statement today.

Fran Lebowitz (b. 1951), Social Studies, “Tips for Teens”, 1981.
Stand firm in your refusal to remain conscious during algebra. In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra.

Phwoar, no such thing as Algebra!? But what about… oh. How about… hmmm. Surely… no, ok. Maybe you’re right.
Algebra is a great mathematical tool. It’s great for solving mathematical problems and it is a fundamental building block for many subsequent mathematical concepts. But if someone doesn’t learn it, or doesn’t understand it, will it affect their ability to contribute to society?

R. P. Boas, Jr., If This Be Treason…, Amer Math Monthly, 64(1957), 247-249.
When I was teaching mathematics to future naval officers during the war, I was told that the Navy had found that the men who had studied calculus made better line officers than men who had not studied calculus. Nothing is clearer (it was clear even to the Navy) than that a line officer never has the slightest use for calculus.

So now, perhaps, we are approaching the crux of the problem. Why is this so? Why does studying calculus help in an occupation that has no use for calculus? I can think of a whole bunch of possible reasons, but I don’t really know. Hopefully this is where my research will lead next.

There are lots of great quotes in Cut The Knot’s manifesto, and I encourage you to check them out. Many have anecdotal evidence about how studying mathematics helps develop the mind in ways useful for many careers. I shall leave you with one of my favourites. Benjamin Franklin, in 1787:

It seems to me, that if statesmen had a little more arithmetic, or were more accustomed to calculation, wars would be much less frequent.

But this week something special has happened, and I thought I’d tell you all how I feel about it. Last monday, 20th September, my TUC team (Bread) won the championship. The highest level of Ultimate played in Tasmania, and it was a wonderful game. Everyone gave it their best, everyone played awesomely, and it came down to Golden Goal at the end, which we won. Whether it was good luck or good management, who knows?

Then, last Sunday, my team (Gender Across) took out the premiership of the Indoor League. Again, a stupidly close and hard-fought game. It didn’t quite come to Golden Goal, but the pressure from UTAS was on right until the end, and they really forced me to step it up and play my best ultimate. To top off this excitement, we won Spirit. That truly is what I strive for in a league, so to be able to win Spirit and the league makes me really, really proud of a team that was randomly thrown together.

And last night, The Workers Party (a team I coordinate and captain) won the Uni vs Workers challenge, twice-a-year challenge game. Once again, Golden Goal. Once again, there was so much luck in a game like that it’s impossible to take credit for it. But the feeling of having won all three finals/challenges that I’ve played in this last week is exhilarating. I’m feeling like I’m playing my best Ulimate ever at the moment, and I really hope, pray and cross my fingers, that this good streak will continue to the Two-Hat, in 10 days time.

Special thanks to Jase and Maz, who shared all these victories with me, and special commiserations go to Huddy and Eliza. Huddy is definitely one of the “good guys” in Tassie ultimate, and I know it’s very frustrating for him to play in so many finals and walk away with nothing. But the UTas team has come along in leaps and bounds, and that’s all thanks to Huddy. We’ll miss ya, boyo. Good luck in Launceston.

Finally, I’m about to think about other aspects of the sport, specifically the volunteering/community aspect. There’s no doubt there’s a lot of dissatisfaction around at the moment with various admin/committee/management groups. I’m not sure what I can do to change that, but I can’t let it affect me do what I can for the community. Rule-Of-The-Week has been great, and I’m looking to build on that for Spring league. Last I heard, we were still looking for a Spring League LO, so I’ve just put my hand up for that too.

I’m really looking forward to a great summer of Ultimate!

We all know boys and girls are different. An inconsistent generalisation is that girls are much better at paying attention and following instructions than boys are. When teachers complain about classroom behaviour, it’s usually about the boys that are goofing off. Here’s a different perspective.

“I’ve never been brave enough to try to publish this, but I’ve long wondered if boys develop better problem-solving skills because they aren’t paying attention in class. Girls who listen carefully to instructions and take notes always know exactly where to start because the teacher told them. Boys who goof off during instructions spend a lot more time and effort sorting out the aspects of a problem for themselves, and that practice pays off in the long run.”

Food for thought. I suggest reading the full post.

Enough excuses about teaching a curriculum I haven’t taught before, or being only new to the profession. If I’m not innovating then I’m doing something wrong. Right?

*sigh* If only. Last week I posted about my survey, and hopefully I’ll get some more responses there. That will sit and gather data for a while. This week? Reports.

Reports

How do you find reports? I’m new to this game, I’m not good at writing them. Combine that with being a bit of a perfectionist who agonises over the right choice of words at the best of times, and this week I’m feeling like a zombie. Every spare minute I get, write a report. 8 hours at school a day, and then four hours at night writing reports.

I’ve just finished my 50th one (out of 95 I’ve got to write). Word tells me that I’ve written 4,682 words so far. That’s 93 words per report. 93 words to sum up each precious cherub I teach, what they do right, what they do wrong and what they can improve, plus a few little motivational ones in there too. I know it’s an important part of the job, and parents value this information like diamonds. But by crikey, I’m tired.

Five students, Huh?

I have one Year 8 class that is specifically modified to give attention to those students who need it most.  Five students in the class, with modified content that is supposed to be “within their grasp”.  These are students with identified difficulties in learning mathematics for various reasons.

Although there’s only five students in this class, there’s still a larger range of learning styles, abilities and personalities in this class than in a normal-sized class of 24.  I have to diversify teaching methods and content just as much, if not more, compared to my other classes.  But the biggest problem of all is motivation.

Motivation?

Yeah, motivation.  It’s hard to describe how these students look at the mathematical world, although I’m sure anyone who’s taught a similar class will understand. There’s nothing you can possibly do to make it interesting (not even the WCYDWT suggestions I’ve tried) because a probable response will be a shrugging of the shoulders and a “who cares?”. They’re all awesome kids, and I love them all, but I know I’m not reaching them. Just going through the motions and teaching them what I can. Anything they do pick up is a bonus. It’s a sad state of affairs.

A lack of motivation leads to other problems.  Organisation was an issue, with many students not even bringing anything to class most days.  Absenteeism was high from this class at the beginning of the year.  General refusal to attempt anything asked of them

But over the last four weeks, I have at least got them to look forward to coming to Maths class, which is something that 4 months ago I would have thought impossible.

The Mathematics RPG – Making the entire course into a game

I started awarding XP to students for things that would benefit their learning (re: Behaviour I wanted to see).  These range from “Turning up to class on time” to “submitting homework” and losing points for things that interrupt the flow of conversation.    I started out by giving each student a list of these instructions, with a list of things they can earn and lose points for. Get the sheet here: 8 Modified Maths – The RPG (if you want an editable doc, just ask).

As additional motivation (since points just aren’t enough) I needed a levelling mechanic and a way to specialise their character.  I designed these fairly simplisticly initially, as I just needed something simple I could run with.

The Effect

I had no idea if this was going to work, but anything was worth a try.  Here’s what happened.

The kids didn’t care.  It just seemed like a boring idea, and they thought they’d have to add up their own points or do some maths or something, and it looked too much like Maths.   But I had an excel spreadsheet ready to go to keep track of their score, and had it on the screen during the first lesson I implemented.  Kids started earning some points anyway (just by paying attention) but no one seemed to care.   At the beginning of the next lesson, everyone who was there on time automatically got 10 points, and something surprising happened.  The two who showed up late were UPSET that they didn’t get the points.  Thought they were disadvantaged by not being early, so they worked harder during the lesson to catch up! I’ve never seen these two kids contribute so much in class all year, but all of a sudden they cared about the game.

And from there it’s built and built and built.  Kids have suggested things that should be worth points (and even some things you should lose points for).  If I really want to get attention I can say that participating in this discussion will earn you 20 XP.  They are really excited at the idea of getting to level to choose a specialisation (none of them have it it yet).  They are eager to come to maths to earn more points to get ahead, or to catch up, it’s really exciting to see.  As a side note, they’re getting better results too, but that’s academic.  They’re enjoying coming to class, that’s the important thing.

What would I do differently?

Nothing really.  Starting simple and building on it makes it easy to get to grips with early.  I plan on adding extra mechanics as we go along, when the novelty wears off (it shows no signs of that yet) The only downside is that it’s manageable precisely because there are five students in the class.  I track scores for everyone, I put the leaderboard up on the screen I can see easily who’s got all their gear, etc.  In a class of 24, this could get pretty damn tricky.  I haven’t decided if I’ll attempt to bring a stripped down version to my larger classes or not, but for the moment it’s working.

If you’re a fulltime teacher, it would be great if you could fill out my survey here:

http://bit.ly/9a5E4M

It should only take 5-10 minutes of your time.

It would be even better if you could tell other teachers you know to fill it in too.  If they’re from another country, awesome, but even if they aren’t then hopefully it will help the word to spread.  My goal is to get at least one response from each continent.

I should point out that this research isn’t for any greater purpose.  I will not be writing a paper on it, or using the results for my own nefarious needs.  This is something I’m interested in after discussing the issue with a few international teachers over the last few months.  I do promise to make all the results public, and to discuss any observations on the results.

Cheers

Remember, pass the link on to as many colleagues as possible!

So, I’m going to pose a questionairre that I’d like responses to.  I’ve got three weeks Winter Break coming up, so I’ll be able to collate the results if I get enough information.  First I’d like feedback on my questions though.  Don’t answer these questions, just tell me if you think I’ll get valid data, or if I need to clarify things before I publish.  I’ll post a Google.Docs survey when I nail down the questions.

A Survey for Full-Time maths teachers around the world

Country:

Ages Taught*:

How many different class groups do you teach?

Per week, how many hours are you in class, teaching students?

Per week, how many hours are you at school for?

Per week, how many hours do you spend on Pastoral Care?

Per week, how many hours do you spend in staff meetings?

Using keywords, what else do you do in your school time not covered above?

Per week, how many hours do you spend at home marking or preparing?

Per week, how many hours do you spend reading/writing/contributing on the Internet with other teachers?

Any parts of your job that you feel important that aren’t covered above?

Any other comments?

*The Primary/Secondary schooling divide is different for countries, and “7th grade” means different things in different countries, so I’d rather get the range of ages taught as a more comparable metric.

I’m absolutely amazed at Strogatz’s ability to explain complex mathematical topics in a way that is understandable by most adults.  The links he provides in his notes sections go to incredible websites that provide hours of enjoyable and informative perusing.  The sort that makes me feel happy about reading about Maths at 10pm at night.

I really wish I could find a way to make my kids read these articles and understand them, but I’ve realised that’s impossible.  By definition, if I show my students an article, they will think it’s boring maths and switch off straight away.  Maybe if I print them out and get the students to paste them to the back of the cereal packet?

I also had the honour of being the MC for the reception, and it was indeed a great honour. Determined to make it memorable, I decided to do the entire thing in verse. After several months of working on the speech very sporadically, I had a poem written that I was quite proud of, so I’m going to post it here. Some things came up during the night, so some of the verses had to be written rather rushed, but I think the whole thing came out well. Tell me what you think!  I don’t think I did as good a job as Ange and DSL did at my own wedding.  Nothing can top the safety speech.

For Matt and Trace

Welcome, everyone, to this day of fun
Set-up in this delightful marquee
Today it’s my pleasure, to make this party a treasure
for the afternoon I’ll be your EMCEE

My name is Joe, I’m a teacher you know,
Is this job the same? We’ll see.
So don’t muck about, or I’ll give you a clout
And I’ll make you sit here! In front of me!

I’m already aware of you three over there
I’ve got my eye on you,
And I’m going to track you four at the back
Don’t make me separate you from Stew!

But the reason we’re here is to drink lots of beer!
No I’m kidding, it’s for Trace and for Matt
To help them celebrate the fact that fate
has thrown them together, along with a cat.

The wedding today was a grand display
of the love that these two share.
we’re all lucky to be acquainted to the
bride and groom, what a beautiful pair.

But the business is done now it’s time for the fun
as we party on into the night
There’ll be dinner and speeches. Lyons might lose his breeches
and I’ll try to do this right.

Enjoy the Red and the White, and the beer is alright,
And now lets talk about loos,
Gents go round the side, ladies your toilet’s inside.
The bar is here, if your table needs more booze.

There’s no seating plan, so just sit where you can,
Just chillout and chat for now.
Help yourself to finger food, but please don’t be rude,
There will be plenty to go all the way round.

Matt and Trace will come by, just to say Hi,
And to have their photo taken with you.
So if you move about, you’re going to miss out.
And then you’ll be in the poo.

But first it’s time to toast to those we love the most
And we’ll all say “To Tracy and Matt”
Just say that last line And please keep in time
Together now… “TO TRACY AND MATT”

(socialising and photos)

If your ears are keen, then you will have seen
that I couldn’t resist the temptation
to MC in verse, it could have been worse
I could have used zero punctuation.

If you’re hard of hearing,, or been too busy beering,
You might not hear me through the fog
This poem will be available to see
Tomorrow I’ll post it on my blog.

Now we know they’ve got preferences for pop-culture references,
and rather than sprinkling them through
I’ve decided to cram as much as I can
Into the next verse or two.

Matt loves Master Chief, and Altair the thief,
And Governor Elaine Marley
The cake is a lie, but I’m still alive
“We’re off to Candy Mountain, Charlie”

“Can I has cheeseburger”? Oh Em Gee ZergRush!
Raw Took, More Work and Zugzug
Matt and trace came, through the fire and flames
But they should have been washed in a jug (in a jug)

Their tastes are contrary and even get literary,
Crivens, the coo beastie went moo!
The Golden Arrow’s a man who does all he can
while he thinks “What would Batman do?”

We all love Matt and Trace, while they love comics and space,
And Trace is a Joss Whedon junkie
And now I’ve run out, so to distract you I’ll shout
“Look behind you, a three headed monkey”

If you didn’t get, anything I just said,
You’re not alone, don’t let it hurt your pride
Lets hope the first speaker shows me how to be meeker
Welcome Don, the Father of the Bride!

(Don’s Speech)

That speech was great, it was well worth the wait
And dinner will be ready soon.
Let’s move right along, to the next speaking gong
This time it’s Matt, The Groom!

(Matt’s Speech)

Give it up for Matthew Smith, he will go down in myth
He’s made everyone here a fan.
One more speech before dinner, and it’ll sure be a winner
Please welcome Brett, the best man.

(Brett’s speech)

Congratulations Brett, were you starting to sweat?
Have that beer that you’ve surely deserved.
It’s dinner time now, there’ll be plenty of chow
One table at a time will be served.

You’ll just have to wait, before you grab your plate
Please don’t be impatient or rude.
To each table I’ll come, send you up one by one.
Don’t worry, there’ll be plenty of food.

(Dinner)

What a great spread, do you all feel well fed?
The chef certainly makes the grade.
Dessert will be a treat, but first someone more sweet.
Please welcome Jules, the Bridesmaid!

(Jules’ Speech)

Well done Jules, that speech rules.
You had the attention of everyone in the room
Dessert will be soon, but hold on to your spoons
Because first it’s Tony, father of Groom.

(Tony’s Speech)

Well done Tony!  He’s the one and only.
You spoke with passion and zeal.
Dessert’s in a mo, and the system will go
Just the same as it did for the meal.

One table at a time, in an orderly line
But first there’s a presentation to make
For we all need to see, Matt and Tracy
Cut the beautiful cake.

(Cake cutting, then dessert)

Before we end the day, there are a few more words to say
From Tracey’s brother, Sam
He gives me his word he’ll keep it above board,
So please welcome him to the stand.

(Sam’s impromtu but short speech)

It has been a grand day, and a fine display
That the ways of LOVE are many
My job is done, though the night is but young
Let’s make this party LEGEN…wait for it… DARY!