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So as you can probably tell, this year has not gone according to plan. My last post was back in September. I have thought and planned to post but always seem to be pulled in 10 other directions, all of them away from my blog. What is it my teenager would say? "EPIC FAIL!"

So why am I finally back?
It is project time in my geometry classes and we have just started investigating and planning a tessellation project using the MIT program Scratch.

This is my favorite project during the year for two reasons. First, in my former life I must have been a computer programmer, either that or I will be in my next (then again everyone might be a programmer by that time), and this project lets me play and do a little programming. Second, I get a chance to see the creative side of my students. Some of the projects create are amazing and fun.

They just finished searching the Scratch site to find some examples of fun Scratch projects. You can use the assignment link to the left named Scratch Examples to see what they found.

The school year has already hit cruising speed. Open house was a success with many parents attending so that they could walk in their children's shoes for a night and meet their teachers. Although it is an exhausting day, for everyone involved, I enjoyed seeing so many parents getting themselves involved in their kid's education.

This week all of my classes have their first blog assignment due. Their charge was to introduce themselves to the world, spice up their blog site, and describe their best and worst math memories.

As I was reading through some of their posts I figured, what the heck, I should share some of my memories as well. I'm finding as I try and pick out of my 37 years of math history (I don't count the five years before kindergarten since I don't remember them) there are different categories of best and worst. I think we all have had those in the "grades" category when we either did really well or really bad on a test. Then there are those "game" memories when playing a game was fun and memorable. I have the pleasure of having "student" memories as well since my daily life gives me scenarios involving my students. But I think I will share with you two memories that were kind of the "a-ha" moments in math for me.

I will start with my not so good memory.
I was a sophomore in college and had been bumped out of a Linear Algebra class that was too large. This meant I had to find a different math class to take that semester. A friend, that was a teammate of mine on the golf team, convinced me to sign up for Abstract Algebra so that we could take it together. Little did I know that the suggested prerequisite for the class was Linear Algebra. Both my friend and I sat in the class the first week with our eyes glazed over. Nothing made sense. We failed the first test. I felt like all my success in mathematics before was a farce.

But I didn't give up.

In fact this wall that I had hit in Abstract Algebra contributed to my best "a-ha" moment which was that I wasn't always going to find math easy. That with everything worth while there comes a challenge. And what makes you really good at something is not always whether or not you get it on the first try but whether you forge ahead and figure out how to deal with and get over any walls that present themselves. My friend and I spent countless hours in our professors office (where we learned that she had failed Abstract Algebra the first time she took the class) and slowly and surely the pieces started fitting together. I didn't end up with an A in the class but I must say I was more proud of that C+ than I was any other math grade I had received because I persevered and met the challenge head on.

The interesting thing is that it took a math class for me to have that "a-ha" moment, yet I had already faced similar challenges. In golf trying to spin a wedge shot or shape a drive were challenges that didn't seem the same because they were part of something I loved and wanted more than anything to do. So until I took that same attitude in something that wasn't a passion I didn't see the connection. Now when faced with new challenges I have strategies for working my was through them successfully.

Another school year has begun. Bring on the books, pencils, planners, worksheets and papers...and don't forget the bells.

I was thinking yesterday, durning our freshman orientation, how strange my life would be without bells. During this particular day students are rushing around, finding their way (literally and figuratively), learning their schedule, and meeting their new teachers. To do this smoothly the office turns off the bells that normally ring between classes.

I found it a little disconcerting. In my 42 years I think I have lived without bells for a mere 9 years. My first five as I was preparing for kindergarten and then again during college while preparing for my career.

That means for 33 years I have been waiting for the bell to tell me when to arrive, when to start working, when to hit the restroom, when to have lunch, when to change classes, and when to go home. I find myself wondering what it would be like to have a job that had no bells. Would it be relaxing, or do those loud piercing bells actually bring me comfort?

No matter, another school year has started.

LET THE BELLS TOLL! And have a great year :)

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