Welcoming the New Year: Survive to THRIVE!

In our goal of moving from surviving to thriving, I've made some adjustments as a result of wise counsel from parents.  Some students were taking great advantage (too great an advantage in some cases) of my very flexible late policy.  I wanted (and still want) to be flexible, but students were needing to be more responsible with their learning.  There simply was too much waiting-to-the-last-minute going on in terms of watching EdPuzzles and completing the written assignments for learning to happen meaningfully.  Some students had become lax enough that they were trying to learn 3 or more days' of work in 1 day (and if each trimester day is equal to 2-3 regular year days.... well, you get the idea...) That's simply too much. A group of students needed more guidelines and needed the firmness and motivation of a grade adjustment for their timeliness of turning in assignments.  For the majority of students who were completing assignments on time, the change in policy means nothing more than a grade boost. For some students, it means structures will help them get their work done in a more timely way and in a time frame that allows greater sink-time and ultimately greater learning. 

The expectation is that students will watch/answer questions for the EdPuzzles either during class or before class, so I can follow up with answering questions and augmenting the lessons.  Students will complete their written assignments immediately following (and most students will be able to complete this during class) so I can offer help and answer questions as they work.  Some students will need a little time outside of class to finish this up; no student should need more than one hour.  

If you find your child is needing to work more than an hour outside of class and becomes frustrated, please stop them!  Tell them I said that they should not work that long -- something is not right.  If your child is working more than an hour, counsel them to stop. write me an email, and submit what they have.  If your child is showing frustration or anger or hate for math, then tell them to stop, write me an email and let me know what they are thinking and feeling.  If they show effort and communicate with me before the deadline, they will not lose points. Ideally, they could let me know they are struggling in time for me to adjust class structure to accommodate their needs and to help them thrive.  I don't ever want an overworked, tired, or frustrated student.  No one can learn if they are tired, or hungry, or angry, or frustrated.  Plus, math in my class is meant to be satisfying and fun.  

I've told your sons and daughters that they need to contact me or communicate with me somehow if they are having trouble, are fearful of falling behind, or are in need of help. I've provided lots of opportunities for communication.  However, sometimes kids are reluctant to contact teachers with that kind of message, but it's really important that they learn how to communicate effectively with their teachers and professors. 

 In terms of thriving, we are now considering some rather complex math.  We have been studying the geometry of transformations -- translations, reflections, rotations, and dilations.  We have applied each of these transformations to figures on the coordinate plane, and in these next few days we will "pull it all together" by applying these transformations to our complete library of functions -- quadratic, cubic, cube and square roots, reciprocal, and absolute value to name a few.  We have placed special triangles on circles with centers at the origin (anyone remember unit circle trig?), so your children will see trig next year and feel as though the special triangles are old friends.  We've studied and evaluated the geometry of inverses so when logarithms appear in their lives next year, they will be a jump ahead of the game.  In general, I alternate more challenging topics with topics students usually have less trouble with, so if you find your child is struggling, know that an easier topic will likely follow so they will soon have time and energy to work through the more challenging one. 

I'd like to consider for a moment what this previous paragraph means.  Here we are in a global pandemic; people concerned about the interruption of our children's learning.  These teenagers -- your children --  have demonstrated that they are capable of adjusting, pushing themselves, and learning at an advanced level.  Many seemed happy yesterday to return to "class;" they dove right into their assignments.  They are working,  thriving, and growing at a time when there's so much strife. They want to learn.  They want the normalcy of an advanced education that they were counting on for the last set of years.  How wonderful. 

But let me also circle around to how this blog post started.  These times are challenging both in terms of our pandemic, our environmental challenges, and our political situation (as I write this, there are protesters storming the U.S. Capitol).   While all students are learning, some young people are responding by regressing and needing more structures. Some young people are responding by behaving like adults.  Some young people are responding by having periodic brain freezes-- times when they just can't learn.  All seem like pretty normal responses in light of what's going on.  As someone who is tasked with supporting our youth, I need to recognize that each student responds differently and has different needs.  I can individualize much of what happens in an on-line class and I've been happy to do so.  Indeed, the tightening of assignment due dates and penalties for late work were the result of parent comments. 

That said, I'll do a better job with your help: please let me know if you see your child needing additional support.  I'm not physically with your child each day -- and I'm trying to pick up subtle cues like handwriting changes or backlighting themselves on screen so I can't see faces.  But I can't see body language, or poofy cheeks, or new dimples that could indicate stress.  Please shoot me an email if you have a concern or make an observation about your child simply being different.  I also encourage you to use our counseling department or our learning specialist.  

It's been my impression that there's a lot of thriving going on with my students as they navigate this new world.  They give me hope for the years ahead.  Thank you for your good work, patience, and care for your children -- your care for your son or daughter makes an enormous difference to each of them, to our classroom, and ultimately our world.