If you were to ask who my favorite child is, I wouldn't be able to do it (most days- ya see, some days my older son drives me nuts, other days it's the younger one who does the digging. Parents know what I mean).

Annnnnnyyyyyyyways

Recently, Dan asked me to do something similar:

Fine, Dan, I'll take you up on the challenge. Here's to hoping that one of my babies doesn't resent me for this.

Quick back story that gives my favorite post a bit of an unfair advantage.  My dad is a gold miner, so our whole family has grown up looking at gold prices, silver prices, and copper prices.  We've spent the earlier years of my life moving around to find the next place that has a promise of gold.  No, folks, this is not like reality TV.  The years that my parents spent struggling to make ends meet while providing a quality upbringing for me and my brother cannot be taken out of my feelings of which WYRmath post is better than the others.

Just speaking about the mathematics behind this promopt, here's why it's my favorite:

• It lends itself to an immediate conversation without begging the kids for math.  You can't come to a reasonable solution without recruiting some math to support it.
• There are inherent conversions that are being done to come to a common comparison.  On first glance, the obvious choice is... I really don't know, and my students didn't either.  We would like to say that gold is always better, but that's a WHOLE LOTTA SILVER!!!
• The prompt can be scaled.  The next two bullets hit on this.
• For a middle school class, we find the current conversion, compare, and be done with it.  Sure, start an argument about the price and hypothesize about the future, but you don't neeeeeeed to get deep into the graphs
• For a high school class (or more advanced middle schoolers), the current price is only the beginning of the discussion.  There is plenty of trend data available for both gold and silver, leading students into a strong conversation about futures, stocks, trends, stats, and much more.  Putting all bias aside is easier when you're looking at a lot of data to support either side.
• This requires math to have a decent conversation.  All I'm doing is asking which one they'd rather have, not demanding the math, but the students in the class will start to force the issue with peer pressure. Matt stands up and says "I like gold chains, so I'm going with the gold". Ryanne says that she would rather have the silver because (insert something incredibly mathematical and brilliant here), leaving Matt to wither back into his seat and do some research.  
• It changes!  Based on the prices of gold and silver, the justification for students' answers will change from week to week.  When we did it, the prices changed from period to period, making it a genuinely fun experience that I didn't know the answer to!  Yep, I didn't have the answer to my own prompt and I was completely happy with it. In fact, the kids stopped expecting it.
• They sought the tools and math necessary to justify their reasoning.  I didn't hand anything to them, put anything on the board, or tell them to bust out their calculators. It was just the prompt.  And it was glorious.

This is the point in which a national curriculum, a standardized way of teaching, and a common textbook all start to fall apart.  My least favorite prompt is one that I don't feel passionate about, haven't experienced personally (other than driving by them multiple times), and can't seem to get excited about.  It's not the math that's boring.  In fact, the math is pretty interesting.  It's the prompt and how it relates to me and my students that lacks the oomph that I love about WYRMath.  However, someone in an area where crops are prominent might just find this incredibly relevant and useful.

On top of the aforementioned lack of relevance, the math itself isn't very deep.  To be honest, a lot of WYRMath posts take a helluva lot longer than my usual 5 minute warm-ups.  I'm totally fine with that, and love the extra conversations, but it does chew up valuable time that needs to be spent addressing the (ugh) standards. Nevertheless, the reasons:

• It's shallow.  The only math that the prompt is requiring students to do is to take percents of acres and compare them.  The depth of math required to put together a solid argument isn't there compared to most of the other prompts that are on the site.  Still, for a teacher wanting something quick, this is a viable option.
• It lacks relevance.  Sure, I've already mentioned it in a contextual standpoint, but it also lacks relevance in a percentage standpoint.  When else are you going to find the percent of mortality of an item/object/scenario?  This doesn't lend itself to further conversations very well.  It can happen, but not as naturally as I'd like.
• It's hard to start an argument.  I like arguments. A lot. It's hard for me to advocate for one side or the other and justify it in a way that makes kids contemplate their stance.  Maybe it's just me, and I'm open to being convinced, but I think that 50 acres is clearly a better choice.

And the here's Maria, a teacher who completely finds value in my least favorite because of its relevance to her students.  I'll take that!

What is fun, and probably predicted by Dan, about this challenge is that it forced me to think about why I really love the Would You Rather Math posts.  Not only does it encourage a discussion, but it prompts an argument.  I can't help but get fired up when I hear two kids raising their voice, see them getting out of their seat, and using mathematical terms to prove that the other person is... wrong.  That thing so many of our kids are used to hearing.  Now it takes on a whole different meaning.

Thank you to everyone who uses WYRMath, talks about it, promotes it, and gives me ideas and encouragement to continue working on this little side project.

As always, if anyone has an idea for a WYRMath post, please let me know via twitter or leave a comment here!

Happy "Favorite Child Syndrome" Fishing

I got mentioned in a Tweet tonight by Tim McCaffrey, a math coach in Southern California.  My response is too long for a 140 character reply, so I'll do my best here.

I miss my kids. I loved my students.  Of all the things about being a classroom teacher that I think about, my students are responsible for all but one (I had a really strong department that I respect highly and miss dearly at my last school).  In one way or another, they made it possible to get up in the morning and do my best to bring what I thought resembled my "A game".  

With that being said, my answer to Tim's question is Yes, No, and Double Rainbow Unicorn Land.

Not having a classroom sucks, as I alluded to with my comments about my students.  Being in the coaching role, I have more time to research and learn about effective teaching strategies, apps, and websites.  I get to have more conversations with teachers who are doing dynamic work throughout our district and I see how their work can fill in some of my gaps as an instructor.  It would be outstanding to take this new set of tools into a classroom and use them as a "one classroom learning lab".

On top of that, I'd have the best of both worlds.  Only one class to lesson plan for, assess, deal with classroom management for, and invest in emotionally?  Whabam!  That sounds like quite the deal.  I was so exhausted after most days of school and, by the end of February, I was looking for a finish line.  With one class, the emotional toll that a set of 185 students take wouldn't even compare to 54 minutes, 180 days, of 35-40 high school students.  That I could manage.

Looking past the utopia of a one class assignment, I would also be able to "stay relevant" with the implementation of the tools that I am researching.  When going to work with another teacher or offer up advice, my foundation for all discussions would be based on what I'm currently doing or plan to do with my students in the coming days, weeks, or month.  This would certainly add credibility to what I'm trying to accomplish as I work with 1100 teachers in my current district.

Along with this, teachers would be able to come in and observe my learning lab and come up with new ideas for us to try out.  Knowing that this class is a one-of-a-kind experience, the students would be familiar with the regular visits and would embrace the idea of being special enough to be involved with it.  Seriously, this would be a pretty cool thing to see happen.

But no.

As much as I miss the classroom and the interactions with the students, having only one class of kids wouldn't be enough.  If I'm going to be on campus, I want to fully commit to being there for the kids.  If my role is 1/5 teacher and 4/5 coach (or any other disbursement of teacher and coach role), I have divided responsibilities.

In this scenario, I imagine being pulled in so many different directions.  Right now, I'm a member of 4 committees who meet regularly and make decisions that directly impact the learning that happens in our 1100+ classrooms throughout our district.  I'm involved with professional development teams who count on the consistency and insight of educators and district personnel who can bring in pertinenet information.  I was always overcommitted as a teacher, but this would take things to a whole new level.

Not only that, but I would be relegated to the one campus instead of all 8 high schools in our district.  One perk of the job that I didn't expect was seeing the different cultures on each of our campuses.  I learned from an English teacher today at our southernmost school and learned from a librarian at our northernmost school on Halloween.  If I was in the classroom for a period, there's no way I could keep my sanity and my schedule simultaneously.

With that being said, it's not fair to the kids. If I'm teaching a percentage < 100 of my contract, there's a limited percentage of time I'm thinking of those students.  Sure, they will always be the ultimate priority, but it's a whole different mindset.  As a Geometry teacher, I was always worried and eager to find better ways to help my students learn and care about Geometry.  Anything else was a personal hobby.  If I'm expected to dedicate 1/5 of my time to math and the rest to supporting the district, there are going to be gaps that I'm not willing to allow happen.  This either means a stressed and unhappy me (and family) or a lapse in productivity.

It isn't fair to the school.  Let's assume that I'm a decent teacher.  By no stretch of the imagination was I great at teaching kids math (hey, just look at my test scores........ oops) and I had plenty of gaps in my classroom management that needed (still need) improvement.  Those kids in my learning lab would know that I'm only on campus for that one period, or only teaching for that one period, and I can't help but imagine that there will be repurcussions because of it.  Kids can sniff out a fake, can tell when someone's lying, and know when they're being cheated.  To me, a 1/5 assignment is cheating the kids of the best job that the selected teacher can do for the students, teachers, and culture of the school.

But Yes.

I'm almost there, but not quite yet.  My ideal scenario is to be a coach with opportunities to get into classrooms and teach lessons.  A little while ago, I had the chance to do that thanks to Christina Depweg and Mathalicious.  It was incredible and I enjoyed every minute of it.  

At the end of the day, I felt like I got my feet wet again and had the chance to try out a few new things that I hadn't done as a classroom teacher with my own students.  Some of the new technology like Doceri wasn't available to me when I was in the classroom, so this was the perfect chance to put my money where my mouth was and model what that could look like. Not only that, but I've been working a lot more on Mathalicious and advocating for our district to invest in it.  This gave me some ground to stand on.  It also gave a 2nd year teacher a different look at instruction with her own students rather than a learning lab.

When it was all said and done, I went back to the office, reflected, thought about how I could improve for next time, and got right onto my calendar for the next training that we were planning for a Chromebook rollout.  I wasn't worried about how I was going to teach the lesson the next day and I could focus on the next group who needed my full attention and respect.

In short, I was able to give each scenario the time that is deserved.

As my role evolves, I am hoping that more of these opportunities come up where I can be invited in and work with teachers to teach lessons.  I'll plan with (or for) the teacher, co-teach or just teach the lesson for the day (giving the teacher somewhat of a much-deserved day off), and provide those opportunities we never get to have a conversation with another adults about what actually happened in class that day.

Otherwise, my step away from the classroom will feel more and more like a giant leap into the darkness.

Happy "Double Rainbow Unicorn Land" Fishing