Finally, I Know When I Will Use This

My mother never allowed me to play organized sports. It's a regret that I will carry forever.  However, She could not stop me from playing intramural everything. Ultimately, the benefit of intramural soccer was dehydration and smooth flowing beer after kicking around a ball for an hour. These days, as I have turned assisted fast pitch and baseball coach I mow the fields for a dugout ticket and this year state playoff tickets were included for both teams.

Prior to two weeks, I would never have imagined being a coach on a state playoff baseball team, let alone a team that included the boy.  Remember this post from several years ago and now we are together on the same high school team.  The playoff series proved to be too much for our start-up 9-5 (conference record) team and in the end Coach put most of the freshman in the to get some playoff experience.  

The boy played 3 innings in the field at second base and had no chances.  When he came to bat, I got to coach third.  He faced the oppositions closer and fouled off the first pitch. But he was over match by the pitchers 87 mph fast ball and struck out.

Perhaps the pinnacle of teaching high school math is Calculus. As soon as I began teaching calculus, I remembered how much I loved the subject in college.  Only now, I see it through 9 years of teaching experience.  I taught the class twice this year in the fall and in the spring.

There have been an incredible mix of students in those classes:

8 student athletes (4 baseball, 2 boys soccer, 3 girls soccer, 2 swimmers and 1 basketball player)
5 musicians
1 cheer leader
4 sibs of kids I taught prior to this year
2 sisters (1 first semester and 1 second)
28 seniors
26 juniors
1 sophomore
and
the Math High School 2011 valedictorian and today he gave me this letter:

Dear Mathman: 

Thank you for such a wonderful semester in AP Calculus. From constantly correcting your mistakes, your odd jokes and your quirky personality, it has truly been a pleasure finally being able to take a class with you.  I know we were unable to cover much math in class, but I understand why and I sincerely appreciate all the time you put forth for the class. Honestly, I have never seen a teacher put more effort into their students than you.  It is no wonder so many students find you to be their favorite teacher. Thank you so much for an enjoyable semester and for being an excellent teacher. 

The letter actually brought a tear to my eye and I realize that it is time to end the blog because I know "When I Will Use This".

So long everybody...

When the Migraine Nearly Made an Appearance

Educational cuts continue to cause pain.  I have done my best to separate myself from these serious, ridiculous and unbelievable issues.  In the fall, I resigned my chair position. It was a spur of the moment reaction that I had been thinking about for several weeks.

I was called to the principal's office and I knew I was in trouble, not for I did but for what several math teachers did not do. In the past, I was confident that I could convince my colleagues to try new ideas.  But that had changed - it was a directive. I had no power to sell the idea and they had no power to discuss it.  Before my boss could ask me why I did not..., I said, "perhaps, I should resign.  I am obviously an ineffective leader."

For a while, I thought I was off the hook - some called me the "Peoples Champion". It seemed as though a replacement would be hired.   People actually thought I was no-longer chair.  But my bubble was burst when the heir- apparent pulled me aside and asked me if I was still chair. Finally, in April the boss decided to fire all the chairs and solicit applications from the entire staff.

This morning, I could feel the onset of a migraine - my head and stomach were transported to 1995  at Radio Shack.  Pain set off by having the responsibility for solving problems for which I have no control or authority to take action.

I Have Nothing to Say

The way it usually goes: I write a post and then never finish it.  I have two from this week.

I've been reflecting about the last year at Mathman H.S. and educationally speaking it has be terrible.  That view comes from my current ineffective lame duck department chair position.  Our new principal spent all of 2009-10 sitting on his hands, mean while the school lost focus.  As he said, we are not changing anything from the previous administration and he didn't. There was no change with no focus and support. So, we failed and missed AYP for the first time in 3 years.

This year is different.

For the first time I am not teaching a freshman math course and I am as focused as ever on AYP. I am teaching a test prep class that reviews two years of high school math to help students prepare for the impending graduation test and the next math courses the students need to take to graduate.  I am also teaching AP Calculus and GA Math 2.  I believe this is the best teaching course load I've had in my short career.  Unlike the students I am never bored with repetitive math - Standard Deviation, Circles, Chords, Angles and Reimann sums all in the same day.

When Mowing The Lawn Becomes A Career Goal

Becoming an assistant baseball and softball coach (the basketball court still has no grass) has made mowing grass a viable part time job. Like everything that I do, I want to do be the the best so I can fulfill those MLB grounds crew fantasies.  My coaching experience quickly grew from sitting on the bench for JV basketball to head freshman basketball coach and assistant softball and baseball coach.

Naturally, I have maintained all my other obligations as a teacher and department chair.  I am teach three different courses this year, including AP Calculus.  The chair gig has become tedious, exhausting and demoralizing. Our school district cut the time allotted to chairs to do the work and our principal has provided more to do.  My belief is that my boss wants to do the work that used to be my responsibility.

I am no longer responsible for showing teachers different teaching strategies, explaining curriculum issues or helping the department get better.  I do have responsibility for sending email meeting notices, posting templates, ordering office supplies and ironically hiring a teaching in mid-school year.  Some believe that I am no longer suited for the job, including me.

Fortunately,  I am goal oriented.  I wanted to become department chair and I reached that goal. When situations change, goals change.  When I met coach a few years ago and began to talk baseball, I knew that I eventually wanted to become part of his coaching staff. Now, I am working on a new set of goals and my new title will be Mr. Coach Mathman.

Calculus By Day Grounds Keeper Later During The Same

It has been an interesting start to the school year.  In fact, I may be underestimating reality when I say that.  As usual, my class schedule does not resemble the one that I had on paper last May.  I was ready to become a Georgia Math GPS teachin' machine.  Math I and Math II and Math III.  The gods of class schedules stopped me in my tracks, even though I took that summer quadratics class.

I find myself teaching a new math review course and Math II and AP Calculus AB.  At least, I know Math II - its all about those quadratics and them circles. I am excited about teaching AP Calc. But it has been a while since I took the AP course and that Tardis trip back to  IU and M215 (now M211) was so long ago. So I taken to sleeping with several calculus text books. My latest goal is written on the inside cover of my old Anton, Calculus book.

I have an interesting observation about the new GA Math Curriculum.  The students in my AP course have   a mixture of math experience; both curricula are represented by the kids.. Those "new math students" seems to have a better understanding of those troublesome math concepts - domain and range and end behavior and blah blah blah functions. It appears that the new curriculum is aiming to get kids ready for college math. I will become a "matheist" if they make me teach Algebra I ever again.

I also, have expanded my coaching duties,  adding assistant girls fast pitch to my list of coaching titles.  We are basically the boys baseball staff plus one or two other coaches. Our first game was last Wednesday.  The girls lost a heart breaker 7-6 but this team is promising.

I played score keeper for the game.  I often keep score at ball games. Most recently I penciled out the Rome Braves game during our annual July 4th  baseball adventure.  We watched the game while the baby sat in the rest room texting me trying to find the right words to get me to take her home.  

On  Wednesday, I had no pencil.  The pen and I combined to make that score card look like a monkey's handiwork. The monkey stayed with me today when I learned  to drive a zero turn lawnmower.  I zigzagged through the outfield drawing crazy patterns that my calculus students will have to sort out.  

15 Wins and 15 Losses

With all the bad news in education, budget problems and teacher cuts I keep trying to write these "heady" posts about what's been happening at Mathman H.S. I am really pissed about my colleagues getting fired. 7   draft posts sit unedited in my Edit Posts tab. Eventually, I'll get to them.

On the personal front, school has been going pretty well, except for the 15 teachers who lost their jobs last week.  Even the varsity basketball coach got fired. So I don't know if I'll be asked to coach the freshman team again next year.  These damn job cuts are stuck in my brain.

Baseball season sure went fast and I enjoyed working with the team.  The team's 15-11 winning record was the first since 1998. They beat several  teams that made the play-offs and one of our pitchers struck out a potential MLB draft pick with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 7th inning to end the game (with several MLB and college scouts watching).

Next year, the boy will attend Mathman H.S. and play baseball, too. I can't wait to be an assistant coach when he's on the team. But I will miss my colleague, the other assistant coach, because he lost his job last week, too. Whoops, I slipped in that bad news while I was telling you the good.  Stupid negative educational climate.

Remember when I was Fat-Mathman last summer?  Well, I am no longer the fat guy. I've lost 25lbs and today, I checked another goal off my list. I ran a 5K race sponsored by our service club that supports helping homeless pets find new homes.

My goal was to run the race in 35 minutes. I was sure that I'd make it in 32.  Lots of students, teachers and pups showed up to compete.  While I was warming-up and clipping my Ipod nano to my pocket, one of my colleagues and I decided to run together.  Holy Cow! We ran a brisk pace for the first half of the course finishing in 12 minutes.  25 minutes and 12 seconds was our final time.  It's ashame that she's losing her job, too.

Songs from my nano 5k playlist:

Fade Out Basketball... Fade in Baseball...

I am little sad about the then end of basketball season.  On Friday, the team won by 4. In Saturday's first game, the semi-final, we just could not get it going - the ball would not drop and we were beat again.  Relegated to the consolation game we faced the same opponent that we beat the night before.

In the locker room prior to the game the captain's told me that since it was their last game they wanted to just have fun.  "OK", I said and started 5 different players.  The boys won the quarter 15-2 and they never looked back.  The final score was 54-34.  We arrived back at Mathman H.S. feeling good about the season. Since the Varsity team was playing a game  I ran into the baseball coach and just like that my season changed to baseball.

Tomorrow, is my first day as a baseball coach and I am a little more confident about the sport even though I know that I must learn more about the game. I worry about the time commitment because there is no special neophyte's deal exempting me from practice.

I keeping thinking about my motivation for taking on these coaching responsibilities.  To be candid, I want to bring in a little more income to offset the families lost income.  I may earn a small stipend for coaching two sports.  But, I am also trying to position myself to help the boy's chances of playing ball next year.

I am also lucky. I learned in college how much I enjoyed sports, so much so I was prepared to get a degree in recreation to facilitate a role for myself in intramural college sports. In hind-sight that turned out to be a misguided endeavor except that I met Lisa while earning that degree.  Lately, I recalled the questions so many people asked me when they found out that I was getting a degree in Recreation Management: "Are you going to be a gym teacher?" or "Are you going to be coach?" Funny, how these are almost the same questions I was asked when I was getting that pure Math degree:  Are you going to be a math teacher?

I also answered these questions the same way:  No, No and No.

I am passionate about teaching math and I am always amazed when I learn something new - even if it occurs while teaching very basic Algebra topics. If only I had been focused and understood myself better when I was younger. Add coaching to the mix and I have accomplished two things that I never thought possible. I am working hard but consider myself lucky to be doing things that I love to do.

I Am Coach Mathman

Are you tired of listening to my latest story yet?  It"s almost over. 3 more games and my debut basketball season will be done. The team won (8-3) last Saturday and to be honest our JV coach led the way. I don't have a winning record because of my internal library of basketball knowledge. Watching 60 plus games coached by Bob Knight does not make a basketball expert.


It was easy to move over to let the expert coach. I have coached 5 games and he has coached - well who knows. The important thing is that the team won and we're poised for a rematch on Saturday. The last regular season game is Friday against a team we could play in the Saturday's second game (either the championship or consolation). 


Enough about basketball.  


Believe it our not I am still teaching math. The sports stuff has been a welcome distraction from work and it is bringing in that marginal income.  I am teaching another new course this semester.   It also has an exciting title:  Math 2.  Consider me a Georgia Math 1 and Math 2 teacher. 


To be candid, I am tired of all the complaining about the new Georgia Math Curriculum.  People, keep saying that the students do not have a good Algebraic foundation when the reach Math 3.  If you rewind to three years ago... wait.   Walk across the hall to that room where the old curriculum is still being taught to those grandfathered kids and you'll find that those kids have weak skills, too.  The reason a change had to be made. 


I say, "stop your bitching about the curriculum and the students".  


Now that I have that I have been teaching these courses for 18 months I have come to realize several things. First, there will always be kids who can and kids who can't because students are products of bad parents, good parents, good teachers, bad teachers, good schools and bad schools. Second, changing the math curriculum doesn't not change the math. Euclid, Newton, Pascal and Pythagoras are dead but their are ideas are alive and well living in math classrooms.  Changing the curriculum has provided us, teachers, with new insight into ideas that seem staid and boring to children.  The new order requires creativity and thought and collaboration.  


I love the challenge of teaching math with this new presentation.  Last week, I learned another way to factor quadratic polynomials. This method would have made my Algebra I experience better and now I can share that with my students so that I can make their Math 2 life more interesting than my Algebra I, II Geometry life was in the '80's.

What I am Doing?

I am feeling a little blog inspired these days.  Many thoughts keep popping into my little gray cells and I think, "I should write about that."  In an odd way, these ideas are causing my writers block because I just don't have  time to write them all down.  Clearly the lack of time is a good thing.

As a kid, my parents never pushed me toward anything other than math and music; both came naturally for me.  Our musical family forced that on me and I am glad that they did. I love music.  And you all know about the math (see the blog title).

My parents absolutely discouraged organized sports because mother was terrified that I (or my sibs) would get injured.. No little league or football. But when I went to Indiana... I discovered intramural sports and I became an intramural jock. I participated in so many sports that I won an award which currently resides in my office to prove to students that I once had some athletic ability.

I am not entirely delusional and understand that my true calling is math education with a side of a lot of different stuff..  So far, I have been a marching band field tech, department chair, club sponsor and chair of several committees.  Lately, I have been reviewing a math puzzle book for a publisher in Indiana.

As I have accomplished these non-math things, I realized I really want to coach high school baseball. When an assistant baseball coach position opened last spring I seriously considered taking the job. For the past 4 years, I've been talking to our coach about the actor trying to get him an opportunity to play at Mathman H.S. My naivite and enthusiasm for the boy has helped me build a relationship with the coach. I discovered that he would have hired me if I wanted the job. I decided that I could not effectively coach baseball, teach, be math chair and drive an hour to and from work every day. Eventually, I will solve that problem.

But, I have been serving as an assistant JV basketball coach this season.  I was put in this role because  we lost another coach in a road tragedy in May on the last day of school. (no I did not write about it)  About  three weeks ago "something"  else happened and I was asked to coach the freshman team.

The day after accepting the job,  I coached my first game knowing only one player by name.   We achieved a victory nonetheless and after 2 weeks the team was 4-0 (7-2 overall).  On MLK day I attended an entire practice and  began to figure this thing out.  However, on Tuesday we lost our first game thatI coached.

Tomorrow, we start our conference basketball tournament. I am excited and a little nervous to get to the game. If we win, then we play the team that beat us last week.Oh, by the way, coach says, he still has an assistant baseball position open.

A Call To Duty

In 1984, I was a typical Indiana University undergrad. I was a calculus whiz and understood how to find derivatives. On weekends and at night we watched basketball. A memorable year because IU managed to beat North Carolina that included Michael Jordan to reach the Sweet 16.  The core of that team won the NCAA tourney in 1987.  The next season - the chair.

My association with Mathman H.S. Basketball started several years ago when the varsity coach was a math teacher.  He moved on to his alma mater but his bud is now coach and he asked me to help. In between this year's frustrating pay-cuts and new principal  I have been assisting our JV basketball team. I ride the bench during games because our head JV Coach is not a school employee.  I am simply representing.

You all know that I really aspire to be a baseball guy.  I can tell when a pitcher is done or the ump needs some dirt kicked on his shoe.  But my basketball experience consists of playing on slow break league 6 foot and under team back in 1988. Our team was good but we were short; just like me and my basketball skills and knowdge.

As the season has played out, I quckly realized that our JV coach is excellent. I assumed that I would simply watch him, learn a little about basketball and a lot about coaching.  All true so far. Today, I was asked to coach the freshman team. Tomorrow, I will be pacing the side lines and trying to control my nerves and keeping my hands off the chairs.

The Rookie

I decided weeks ago that I was going to write a blog post. I wrote post after post that were 2 or 3 sentences long. I even wrote 2 two paragraphs last week. All these words were left to rot on the digital paper on which they were typed. Now, I am at it again.

I have so many ideas kicking through my brain that I am having trouble deciding which thought I should become my first post since August. August was a devastating month. Our school district decided to move our principal to another school and replace him with a rookie.

In sports, rookies often are identified because they have talent. They run, hit, catch, kick, throw, shoot a basketball or even drive. But rookie principals are an absolute crap shoot and if we are talking about rolling 2 dice like in craps I'll take the 7 before I bet on our new principal.

In the not so distance past, I was confident in the job I was doing as a teacher and chair. I knew that my vision was the boss' vision and therefore the school. My job was to move the department toward that vision. Teach and cajole the teachers to get better and teach and cajole the students to get better. It seemed so simple because we had great leadership. The boss understood that the sum of the parts made a greater whole.

I didn't worry about anything other than the math department and how we would get teachers to improve. I am not implying that we have bad teachers (OK, we do have some) but anyone who does anything knows that you can always do better. To begin debate I often send emails that lead to conversation so that I can share information and more ideas. This year, I have had my methods denounced.

My departmental emails often ask the teachers to reflect upon or consider an idea. A few months ago, I asked the department. "What are we going to do about the number of students who are failing math?" Naturally, I shared my email, with the new boss and of course one teachers fired back (using respond to all) with a host of reasons why this issue was not her responsibility.

I know that there many reasons why kids don't do well in school. But this teacher said that the kids don't do their work and parents must take responsibility. As a parent, I was angered by this statement and as a teacher I was offended. Of course, we need kids and parents to be responsible but in a classroom for 90 minutes a day, the teacher must bear responsibility for the students.

The new boss (he still refers to himself as the "new guy") sent a firm email to this teacher telling her that we are responsible for the learning in our classes and that we can't control student and parent behavior outside of school. Seconds, later he sent me an email telling me, "emails are ineffective because of this type of response." What the boss didn't know and still doesn't know is that my email elicited one response from someone who is unwilling to consider different ideas but prompted 5 others to email or talk to me about student success.

My interpretation of his email to me: "Mathman stop doing what you're doing. I don't believe your method will work." When I went to his secretary to make an appointment to talk to him, she said that he was not taking new appointments.

It a Function of Something...

I admit that I am not nearly as motivated to write blog posts. I know that I have said that before. But shoot, another two weeks has gone by. The new school year marches on and all of a sudden we are in the middle of week three and open house is on Thursday. The first football game is on Friday against a rival where the old boss landed.

When I mentally sift through all the crap, the new principal, the made up stuff to do, the lack of respect for my fellow department chairs I find the golden nugget - the reason that I teach. All those excentric students from last year stop by to visit me every morning. I really like these kids. Finally, the new Georgia Math Standards are making sense to me. My new students seem to get the math a little better. The students and the math are the reason's I teach and that's what makes it fun.

Arrrgg...

I am feeling compelled to be here, at my keyboard attached to this blog. I can't say that I have gone back to read any old posts but many of them are with me. I am thinking about them, especially the stories about Mathman H.S.

I wonder if I complained too much in those stories. Maybe. All those problems with admin 1 and admin 2. Honestly, those were false issues; not then but now. Problems that did not go away but have been smoothed out, mostly.

I am worried about Mathman H.S. The jockeying for position seems ridiculous. People who have no business in a leadership roles downward delegating (because of ignorance) and writing emails with big words used incorrectly are distracting us from our goal. They cause the minutia to seem more important than educating our students. I am considering walking the plank. More wine (or beer for JIM), please.

The Yellow Limousines are Approaching

My brother once told me that I should be able to do any job. I assume, he meant that most jobs are essentially the same. I am not sure that I agree with him but this week I have my own, half stolen, half made up and half trite statement: Everything I learned about careers I learned as a Radio Shack Sales Manager.

If you've been to one of these stores you know exactly what I mean. When I worked there I had a staff of over aggressive, not entirely qualified, mostly nice people who worked for me. I just wanted to the best job I could and make a lot of money, thank you very much!

I don't know when I learned of the golden rule of people but I think it is essentially true.

Sometimes it's referred to as the 80-20 rule. 80% of my customers had no clue. And I mean no clue about anything. These are the folks that have trouble finding a 5 dollar bill in a pocket that contains 2. The 20% get it and are mostly OK. This rule works in many other situations.

As a teacher, my goal is to teach my students well so that they stay out of the Radio Shack 80. The other night, I ran into one of my former students and she is trying like hell to enroll in other 20. Lisa and I pulled up to the DQ drive-up window and after ordering, I commented to Lisa, "She was very polite." Surprise! - one of my own.

She proudly told me that she's going to college. "Great", I said. As I recall, college was never a certainty for her. She has many strikes against her but I am confident for her.

Back in the Radio Shack days my good friend, also named Doug told me, "Douglas, I can out survive any of our District Managers." And we did. There were 5 in the 7 seven years that I ran stores. Most of these guys were pretty good at the job. Education has not been much different. In my seven years working in 2 school districts I have worked for 5 different principals. "Holy shit, Batman that's the same as Radio Shack."

At Radio Shack the real problems were my colleagues and my employees. Now, as you know, I work with some incredible people. Some are great teachers and leaders and educators. Some are absolute boobs. In 1989, I managed my first Radio Shack store. I had one of those boobs working for me. At first, he acted as if he was incharge. He told me that we did things this way or that way while answering my questionswith a nasally "eh".

Eventually, I took control of the situation and the store. I ran the store my way and the boss transferred "eh" to a different location. Mathman HS has some "eh"s, too. One who happens to be my new current administrator. The day before the old boss left, he saidMathman sorry about the "eh" but we'll talk about how to work him.The next day the old boss was gone and the new boss was in.

"Eh", I said. Over and over and over and it continues to echo in my head.

Just like my1989 "eh" the current "eh" is puffing out his chest and claiming expertise that he didn't have last year or the year before that. I hear claims of knowledge and solutions when I walk around corners. Everyone has noticed and people are talking. I am listening above and below. I hope that the new boss is listening, too

What Should I Do Now?

I used to have blogging goals. Now, I only have thoughts that rarely make it onto a typed page. I keeping thinking I want to write about how the egghead's who run our school district moved our principal to a different school and left us with a rookie leader. I could tell you about how school will be different this year for the kids or for me. I did accidently post a draft of my course syllabus the other day, maybe my best work. It is entirely possible that Facebook has ruined me for blogging.

In honor of my facebook summer I am reducing this post to a list of words of stuff that I may have done or thought about doing:

fireworks

read

walk

treadmill

weights

mountain

Indiana

BBQ

tomato

tire

clutch

tea

boobs

teeth

crown

boss

baseball

lawn

computer

sprinkler

plants

flowers

vacuum

laundry

dishes

kitten

liter

plunger

balance

theapy

more

cobbler

farmers market

cars

wine

reflecting

deck

library

books

birds

squirrels

cats

in-laws

bubble bath

flowers

pictures

photography

facebook

make up

Steve

Forrest

cousin

Australia

Dance

XBox