A blog by a veteran math teacher who tries to learn new things. Most posts are about teaching math and problem-solving, but sometimes, it's just about life.
Today my Problem Solving Class unpacked the 225 Rubik's Cubes shipped from http://www.youcandothecube.com/cube-mosaics/ and began the task of creating our school crest. Last week, a student used Photoshop to turn a picture of the crest into a mosaic, and after spending time adjusting some of the squares that did not turn out quite right, we were ready! I asked Diane from the company for a bit of help, and she immediately responded and helped me to figure out what to do. My class and I divided the mosaic into 25 sets of 9 cubes. Each student (9 altogether) were assigned 2 or 3 sets of the 9 cubes, and their task was to make the top face look like the one portion of the 9 cubes...so for example, if you remember the opening of the Brady Bunch, one student had to first figure out the face of "Marcia", then "Carol", and this continued till they did the whole group of 9...then they placed them on the butcher paper I had on the floor.
Here is how we divided up students, and we looked at the original just to make sure we fet good about the colors.
It was pretty amazing to get 225 Rubik's cubes all solved...it was quite satisfying see them all! But we had to mess them up to get them to match the picture.
We had no idea how long it would take. Our class is 1.5 hours long, and I definitely thought we would need at least two classes to complete our task. But about an hour in, I new we could do it...it started getting really exciting as we had only a handful of cubes left. We finished with about 10 minutes to spare!
We may do one more, depending if we can find a piece of student artwork that works well with the mosaic program. Next year, we will use 400 cubes to get an even more accurate design.
I think this project really promoted teamwork, collaboration, and grit. We talked about it for months, so finally doing it was very fulfilling for students.
I am working on writing up directions to solve the cube--it will not be directions to make you the fastest, but rather to make you remember how to solve it and show other students...I am collaborating with the teacher who skyped with me and taught my class and me how to solve a Rubik's Cube, Dan VDV. He was so patient and helpful, and I hope to do the same for the #MTBoS! I have written about how solving the cube helps to develop grit here.
As part of the MTBoS Blogging initiative, today I will capture my "Day in the Life of a Math Teacher."
I am a week late, but I was the lead chaperone on an Immersion Trip to Canada with 22 students and three other chaperones last week. It was truly the trip of a lifetime, not just because the kids were fantastic, but because the chaperones were too. We went dog sledding, tobogganing, tubing, and visited an Ice Hotel, a Canadiens game, and so so much more...so, onto my Day in the Life.
5:45 - Wake up to Allison by Elvis Costello. My husband reminds me that I need to make the alarm lower. I agree as it wakes us up to the core. I forget to try to change it every evening, and so it's "Groundhog's Day" all over again tomorrow.
5:45 - 6:00 Shower
6:00 - 6:30 My favorite part of the morning...read The Skimm, catch up on emails, texts, and go through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Blog feeds. I had 130 Blogs waiting in my inbox when I got back from Canada!
6:30 - 7:00 Get dressed and ready for work
7:00 - 7:10 Make breakfast and take things out to the car
7:10 - 7:50 Drive to school. I've been making this drive for 20.5 years, 12.5 of which have been with my son. He has been coming to school with me since Kindergarten, and now he is finishing up his senior year at SA!
7:50 - 8:05 Go to the faculty lounge to make Via Starbucks coffee...the coffee in the lounge is just too weak for me! Say hello to several colleagues. Punny Guy and I contemplate rhombi at the copy machine (true story). Colleague A and I talk about Mu Alpha Theta (Math Club) announcements.
8:05 - 8:30
-write this up
-email with Student A about upcoming MAO competition
-Student B pops in with a question
-email Department Chair about organizing AMC competition and a middle school student needing a peer tutor
Keep in mind that this is my easy day. I only have one hour and a half class...this is why I have time at all to blog. Yesterday, I taught or worked in the Math Lab from 8:30 - 3:30 with only two ten minute breaks, and 30-minute lunch. Then from 3:30 - 4:00 there was a math competition. But today is easy in comparison!
8:30 - 10:00 Honors Problem Solving Seminar
We were not in school last week, so I need to pick back up from where I left off. Half the students are new this semester, so I have to do some differentiated teaching. My plan is that one-half will learn how to do the Rubik's Cube (see my blog here), and the other half will work on math competition problems today. Yesterday after school, I worked on a draft of how to solve the Rubik's Cube, which I will allow my one-half to try out today. I also asked Dan Van Der Vieren to collaborate. I will also assign Problem Set 9 for them to work on for a week outside of class. We are getting ready to build our mosaic of our school crest! I am so excited and am thankful for http://www.youcandothecube.com/cube-mosaics/ for providing 225 free Rubik's cubes! We have a lot of work ahead of us, but this is the idea, below:
OK, so #MTBoS changes everything, as I wrote about here. I gave this warm-up to my Problem Solving class from http://thinkzone.wlonk.com/MathFun/Triangle.htm. My plan was just to make it a warm-up...students have been working on it for an entire hour! We emailed for a hint...it's a tough one, but my students love the challenge.
My student called this an "asymptote problem," because you get "really close to the answer, but you never get it."
Hoping to hear from the person who posted the problem soon. Also, taught one student how to get to level 2 of the Rubik's Cube and taught a new student how to get the white cross. Very fun class!
10:00 - 10:15 Pick up Work Wife and Fun Bobby and walk to Chapel. Gave Work Wife the geometry problem in hopes she will help us. Talk about shoes that are suitable for the "cold front" we have here in Florida, and how to handle a situation that came up in class.
10:15 - 10:45 Chapel
We sang Amazing Grace, said the Pledge of Allegiance, and listened to opening prayers...this one was interesting, and became part of the homily: "And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own?" Our reverend went on to talk about reflection and introspection before judging. He showed the video above and talked about how we all need some harmony in our lives rather than judge others. We had a birth this week in the community and a death. Life.
10:45 - 10:50 Walk back to classroom with Punny Guy. Of course, a pun was told along the way. Wish I could remember it now!
10:50 - 11:20 Debrief with Sheila from Explorica about our trip to Canada. Briefly talk about possibilities for next year.
11:20 - 11:35 Walk to Math Lab and sing happy birthday to Colleague A with math department.
11:35 - 12:05 Work on quiz, print materials for class tomorrow, answer emails, look over possible Immersion Trip for next year that Sheila already sent me!
12:05 - 12:35 lunch--caught up with Bestie. Haven't seen her in a while!
12:35 - 12:40 Deans office for peanut m&m's, Head of Upper School's office for lotion for my chapped hands!
12:40 - 2:45 Worked on getting Mosaic ready for Friday's class, emailed art teacher, answered emails; Graded most of the grading from when I was away last week
2:45 - 2:55 On hold with Sur La Table--to see if we can have a cooking class reunion for our immersion trip.
2:55 - 3:30 helped students with math, sent messages on classroom google to student groups about looking for a peer tutor and also for Algebra 2 honors class to google change of base theorem because I forgot it was in their homework; collected MAO check from student
3:30 - 3:45 chatted with Work Wife about new geo book possibilities and weekend plans. Find it unbelievable that she looked at new book (Jacobs) today, and it has the same impossible geometry problem in it!
3:45 - 4:10 got butcher paper from an art teacher, talked to her about getting her to enter one of her pictures into the mosaic contest. Found a peer tutor for Middle School student! Working on getting a second one.
4:10 - 4:20 entered Florida Math League scores
4:20 - 4:45 Delivered Trig Formula Sheet and Florida Math League papers to colleagues mailboxes and chatted with My Vault about blessings and curses and children and colleges and Jewish Forum
4:45 - 5:10 talked with Sur La Table representative--pricey...texted student to see what he thinks...checked on another cooking school.
I am glad that I am in the habit of doing all of my lesson planning on the weekends because so much of my easy day is spent doing other things! Though, truly, I contemplate having more free time on the weekends...
5:10 - 6:10 change and work out--tried Piyo DVD...hard!
6:10 - 7:00 drive home, ask kid about his day, watch him catch up on his sleep
7:00 - 8:00 enjoy this dinner hubby made, clean up
8:00 - 9:00 catch up on emails and texts, clean, get ready for tomorrow...4 peer tutors available for middle school! Entered workout into #FITBoS sheet. Tweet out help on the geo problem. Sur La Table is No. Pack stuff up for tomorrow, including Exploding Kittens.
9:00 -? Chill with hubby, watch TV, catch up on Words with Friends and Pinterest, and then we do it all again. Will I remember to change the volume of my alarm? Probably not :(
It all started when my 17-year-old son came home from his summer teen tour and had some much needed down time. The normal teenager would probably just sleep or watch videos, but AJ decided he wanted to solve the Rubik's Cube. I remember playing with one as a child and could get one face complete pretty easily. But in "those days," the directions were all on a folded piece of paper (the horror!), and I did not have the GRIT needed back then...at least not with this puzzle. But he watched a video over and over again, and by the next day, he had it down. (As I am writing this, I hear the clicks from him solving his cube...it's a good "brain break" for him between homework assignments.)
Over same summer, I was planning for my new Problem Solving Seminar, and I thought I would make solving the Rubik's cube an assignment for the class around Thanksgiving. I thought it would be a good time for kids to practice...and perhaps get encouragement from their families over break. I decided I would have them watch the video my son learned from, and I would facilitate, but that I did not have to really solve it...after all, it was an assignment for them, and maybe I didn't really have to (gulp) solve it?! It felt really daunting to me, and yet, I knew my kids could do it. I just didn't necessarily want to--which I know does not make a whole lot of sense right now...but it somehow did to me then.
I asked the bookstore to stock Rubik's cubes...the only thing they needed to purchase for the course, and after avoiding lots of "when are we going to solve the Rubik's cube?" questions, we finally watched the above video together last week. I broke down the first few steps as such:
The white cross on top with yellow in the middle
The white cross flipped to the bottom with white in the middle and a partial matching T
The entire white face with one full layer (top) complete
The entire second layer complete
As we were watching the video and pausing A LOT, I noticed that many of the students were having trouble visualizing. Ironically, one of the top students in the class could not follow the directions at all at first. But most kids were still very interested...solving the Rubik's Cube is like a fun party trick to pull out-out of nowhere, so most were determined. Some asked me to share the video via Classroom Google, so they could watch at their own pace, which I did.
Oddly, I was able to see how to do the first three of the four steps, above, pretty easily. I say oddly because my spatial reasoning is my weak point as a math teacher. You could spin me around in my own driveway, and I will get lost. But I guess having played around with the cube a lot as a kid, I could do these steps fairly quickly. So once I realized my kids needed help, and I could help them, I started to want to solve it myself. But it was not until then that I felt the need to solve it. They needed my help in explaining it, and that I could do. But I didn't know how far I could get...that second layer blew my mind.
Then luck happened. I got an email from the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) highlighting an article about Dan Van der Vieren (known to students as Mr. VDV), a teacher who wrote his undergrad thesis on the Rubik's cube. I immediately followed him on twitter and asked if he was willing to skype with my class...and he said yes! And then the magic happened.
Via skype, and with pictures like the one to the left, he showed us how to get the entire second layer complete. This involved an algorithm. My students struggled through this (as did I), making mistakes and having to redo it all over again, but once they finally got it on their own the texts with pictures started pouring in...on a Saturday night?! And it coincided with me getting that layer complete as well. We felt so accomplished!
Mr. VDV, is skyping with us again on Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving break) to get us to the next stage. This, more than anything else that I have ever taught, is teaching the kids tenacity and grit and stick-to-it-tiveness. I do have a student who wants to give up. I hope more than anything else, I can encourage him to stick with it and solve it. He will learn more from that, I think than anything he has learned in my class. If he learns how to do it, which will come not only from my helping him but also from his willingness to learn from his mistakes, I will feel like I have done my job.
Mr. VDV has tweeted with me regularly, sharing pictures like these to help me help my students--so incredible. I am so thankful to him...funny this is the case right around Thanksgiving.
Lastly, Mr. VDV has told me that his class has made mosaics with Rubik's Cubes, and now, of course, we HAVE to do this...next semester. I can't wait. He told me to register at http://www.youcandothecube.com/, which I did, and someone got back to me Sunday morning! They will ship all the cubes to you for the mosaic making; all we have to do is pay for shipping back.
I am looking forward to my post when we actually create this. Another challenge, Mr. VDV told me, is to make our school logo as a mosaic. There is an app for that! The possibilities are endless.
I am not there yet...I haven't solved the puzzle fully. I'm 2/3 done, but I can do the entire 2/3 from memory...by Thanksgiving break, I hope to have it fully done, along with the rest of the students in my class. I finally am learning about the grit I have been talking about to my class. And it feels great.
