$1 Store

This week was my first week back after taking paternity leave. When I got back I was surprised to see a room that was decorated/trashed (in a friendly way...nothing broken). One thing about my room that went unnoticed until my last block of the day was this congratulations sign.

Flabbergasted by Final Exams

It's the end of the year and I'm currently grading final exams. I have a love / hate relationship for wrong answers that have made me laugh. The one that I just read goes like this:

Q) Histograms and Pareto charts are both bar charts. What is the significant difference between the two?


A) Histograms come from data collected in the past.

While I'm sure this is true, it's not quite what I am looking for. I think he saw the Hist part and assumed that it was like the Hist in History.

Another one that made me chuckle was the following:

Q) Distinguish between qualitative and quantitative data. Give and example of each.

A) Qualitive data is of great info and quality while quantive has more data then qualitive because there is quantity.

An Effective Blog Post (Challenge #2)

For Challenge #2, I have decided to pick the topic which states 1.Provide a link to an effective post from a blog you have found (preferably not a post you have written). What is it about this post that makes it effective? What characteristics do effective posts share?

One blog that I regularly read is the Math Teacher Mambo, since the posts are usually helpful and she writes in such a way that it is easy to follow. The post that I am evaluating for this challenge is Inspiring Words of Study Wisdom.

The reason that I think this post is effective is because it's to the point, yet concise. There's not a lot to read, which makes reading her posts not time consuming or mundane. I also like how her posts are bulleted and well organized. By posting like this, the reader is able to see the main points of discussion, since everything is organized.

10 Things You Should Know About Blogging (Binary Edition)

In this post I will give my 10 Thing You Should Know About Blogging. Of course, before you start reading this you should know that since this is the last week of the quarter and things are a bit busy, I decided to regard 10 in binary form. So Here We Go!!! 

1) Get personal, but not too personal. You want to be able to tell stories and share your experiences, but you got to be careful. Whenever something is written online, it is important to ask yourself two questions: "Will people know that it was me (John Doe) who wrote this?" and "Can the information hurt me in any way?". A friend of mine started his teaching career and decided to record his experience in a blog. Unfortunately, within his first few posts he wrote about an anger issue that he has dealt with his entire life and how he is taking steps to overcome this issue. What he didn't account for was that one of his student's parents would be reading his blog. To make a long story short, the parent felt their child was endangered by being in the presence of the teacher, the principal stepped in and removed him from his position, the union stepped in and the issue remains unresolved, while the teacher has no class to teach.

10) Use Google Reader. The best way to get to know other blogs and what you like and don't like, is by looking at what other people have to say. This can be tough if all you have to use are hyperlinks, as they don't keep you informed as to when new posts are added, and they don't provide a quick link to these sources in one convenient location. I believe that writing posts is important to becoming a successful blogger, but I also feel that it is just as important to read what others have to say and make comments and ask questions to the posts that interest you.

If you have no idea why I skipped from 1 to 10, then you might want to check the following link on binary numbers.

What's That You Say?...

So, apparently this isn't anything new, but it's new to me. One of my classes was talking about this annoying sound that they could hear, but adults can't. I was a little hesitant to believe my class, for I didn't feel like being the butt of a practical joke this morning. So when one of the students played the noise on his phone and everybody could hear it but me, I began to think that this may have been a pre-planned routine to mess with me.

As a skeptic, I of course went online to see if I could find any information about this phenomenon. As I typed 'high pitched sound adults can't hear' into Google, I came across a news report from CBS News. The article was written on June 12, 2006 and it includes a sample of the sound. To test whether or not I was being lied to, I decided to turn up my computer speakers and play the sound. Once again, I couldn't hear it; but as soon as I turned it on I got people complaining for the sound to be turned off. The cool thing about it was that they thought it was coming from the kid's phone that previously played it, which meant that even though they could hear it, they couldn't track the source of the sound.

As a math enthusiast (math teacher) I would like to see if there is a cut-off point in age for those that can hear the sound and those that cannot. I also wonder, if I were to have listened to this sound when it was released on June 12, 2006, would I have been able to hear the sound then?

Pop Goes Witkowsky

Today my morning started off great. Things went smoothly in my first class and I got a lot of work done during my prep period. It all went sour after lunch today.

After a 3rd block fiasco where the power went out and all planning for a computer based lesson went out the window, how could 4th hour get any worse? The answer starts with a girl who walked in late with a note and some cupcakes. Knowing that I would forget to un-mark her absence on the computer, I sat down on my exercise ball that I use as a desk chair (for I've found that at the end of the day, my back feels great) and fixed her attendance. I then sat up straight waiting for the possibility that I was going to get my hands on one of those cupcakes that she strolled in with. It was my lucky day, for she started walking over to my desk, and right when she started to extend her arm with the goods, "BLAM," my exercise ball popped.

I wasn't bouncing, there weren't any sharp objects underneath, and my jeans didn't have anything protruding...it just popped. As I lay on the ground not moving, but just thinking about what happened, I heard comments from the kids "Mr. Witkowsky's Balloon just popped" and "Where did Mr. Witkowsky Go" and of course all of this was either accompanied or followed by laughter, I can't remember how it went.

Finally, I got up and the students asked if I was OK, in which I replied that I was. I then pulled up my original desk chair and sat looking at the class. In a very serious tone, I told them "Now nobody is to hear about this." Of course everyone started cracking up, even the girl that never says anything or has no reaction to anything. I then picked up one of the pieces (of which there were 3), stretching it out, then commented that "now my bigger, taller, older brother finally has a swim cap to wear". Again, more laughter.

This continued on for about half an hour in which the kids recapped what had happened and told jokes about the situation. I, of course, found the situation to be funny as well, so I laughed along with them. As you may have guessed, we didn't do very much in class today.

At 2:45 there were 28 students that knew the story of my ball popping. Now, an hour after, I'm guessing that this number has multiplied so that about half the school knows about it...fantastic.

Bling Bling One Dollar Rings

Today we had seminar and I had the kids bring in one dollar bills, so that we could make Bling Bling One Dollar Rings. Some kids obviously forgot and had to work with other dollar bills (which seemed to work out ok, for the most part) and some kids didn't have any money with them, so they worked with someone that did bring a dollar and helped them follow the steps. Even though seminar is only 20 minutes long and some of that is announcements, we were able to finish, although we did have to leave a few people behind that were having some serious struggles. If I hadn't left them behind, then there would have been no way to see the finished product.

I like the idea of doing something interactive and fun with these kids. During today's activity everyone was enjoying themselves and participating, even if they didn't have their own dollar bill.

After sharing my success with a neighboring teacher, she revealed that they celebrate birthdays in their class with cookies and milk. They then sing to the person and have a great time celebrating their special day. After our conversation I went onto my computer and looked to see who has birthdays, and next Tuesday will be our first. I've had this girl in my class before and we have a pretty good relationship, so I think I might surprise her and the class by bringing in cookies and milk.

Also, next week, I need something fun to do with my seminar kids so that they don't look down upon this time and think that seminar is boring and a waste of time. One mission of seminar is to build relationships, and by finding entertaining and bonding experiences, I can do just that. So, I've decided that it would be fun and relationship forming to play a game of "Never have I." Since this game is popular at alcolhol related parties, I will have to set a few ground rules first:

• All questions are to be school appropriate. If someone (the teacher included) feels that this is an inappropriate comment, that person can say "stranger danger" which means that a new question needs to be asked due to inappropriateness. 
• The class will form a huge circle in the room, leaving an empty space and a container to shoot for in the middle. Each person will go around the circle and share something that they have never done, "I've never gotten a speeding ticket," and then all those that have had this happen to them will throw a chip into the middle while trying to aim for the container (this will hopefully avoid crazy tosses).
• All students will be given the same number of pennies, chips, beans, etc (I haven't really decided which will work best) and the person with the most at the end will win a prize.