The Mrs. Badge of Honor

"This is funny, because we call each other Mrs. even when we are out drinking cocktails. I guess it's a habit."
(ecteach, 2012)

How many of us know the first names of our children's teachers? How many of them actually told you their first names and asked you to use them? Better yet, how many of them call other teachers by their given names?

This may seem a trivial, unimportant question, but how we introduce ourselves to each other says much about the relationships we intend and maintain (not to mention whether the plane we're on plummets to the ground). Even when out for drinks.

Why Math Class is Harder than English Class

Most students complain that math is their hardest subject.

Many adults agree.
Including teachers.
Students’ scores on quizzes and tests and their class grades seem to bear this out.
Why?

Poetry, that’s why.
Well, poetry and polynomials.

Factoring & Versifying

A couple years ago I had a gig tutoring Fiona, a 12^th grader, in algebra, specifically in the area of factoring polynomials, and I gained insight into why students come to believe that math can kill you while English class is a breeze.

Fiona was failing Algebra 2, but together we found ways to transfer her strengths in understanding English literature and interpreting poetry to math, thereby successfully navigating the last semester and avoiding disaster and insanity. It turned out that poetry and polynomials have a lot in common!

The Poetry-Polynomial Connection

At that level, polynomials come in three general flavors—two-term (binomials), three-term (trinomials), and four-term (four-term polynomials)—and Fiona was having trouble mastering the six methods used to factor them, as well as identifying the patterns that cue her as to which method to use when. Teachers typically spend a month on the topic, taking up about ten 90-minute blocks of classroom time of extended torture for many teenagers.

Despite Fiona declaring that she “hates math and math hates her,” we began working on factoring by Greatest Common Factor (GCF), Grouping, deFOILing, Difference of Squares, Difference of Cubes, and Sum of Cubes methods.

Is High School Math “Useless Nonsense”?

You're in the merge lanes exiting from Route 28 onto 7 West on your way back to Leesburg. Progress toward home is being measured in fits and starts of inches and sighs; engines and tempers verge on overheating. You've already merged left toward Route 7's lanes when a car zooms by you on your right, shooting up the empty lane to nose into the long line of waiting cars at the last possible moment. Another goes by. Then another. You reconsider your decision to be considerate. The exhaust-enclouded line suddenly seems endless, and you ask yourself, "Should I 'cheat' too and get home sooner?"

Well, should you? Is it worth the dirty looks and gestures from the "considerate" drivers to be one of the line budgers? Or do you become one of the "vigilantes" who punish the "sidezoomers" by blocking them? So many options to choose from, so many decisions to make! What's a "non-math" person to do?

The World is Divided Between “Math People” and “Non-Math People,” Right?

"So even if you dislike math in high school, you might end up needing it [in college]," Steven Howlett states in his article "The Glories of Math! Or Not ..." in an issue of the student newspaper at the high school I work at. In the same article, co-author Michael Fackelmann concludes – after surveying his parents at the dinner table and teachers in school – that high school math is “useless nonsense,” and that no one ever uses "complex formulas and problem solving methods ... in real life situations."
Not ever.