My zinnias are blooming. They remind me of College Girl because we'll see a flower, and she'll say she likes it and then ask what it is. Almost always it's a zinnia!
And then there's this....
I did this for 2 weeks this summer. K-State, for the first time, offered a two week math professional development course here in my southwest corner of Kansas.
And.... the bad was pretty bad. It was soooo cold at our high school where we did this -- I wore a sweater every day and long pants. And when we'd get done at 2:30 or 3, I'd drive home in complete bliss because my car was like a sauna and I could finally warm up.
Also, we spent a little over an hour a day on math history. Gotta love the math geeks that were teaching us -- they loved what they were doing. However, my starting point is way down here {ok, just imagine me touch my knees} and their starting point is right here {here I'm touching my shoulders}. Do you see the problem? I never took calculus, so .... frustrating. I love when PD reminds you of what not to do in your own classroom. :)
But the good --- oh, the good far outweighs the bad. We had a wonderful former professor who was so excited about sharing with us -- yes, yes, give us more! I got to collaborate with teachers from K - 6th grade; and collaborate with 4 other 2nd grade teachers from our district. The 5 of us broke down our math curriculum and looked at what we need to do to help 2nd graders become fluent in math. Oh! and fluent is defined as accurate, efficient, flexibly and appropriately. Not necessarily the tradition algorithm that I learned. And the wonderful former professor -- she's going to come observe my class at least twice.
All this makes me very excited for August.
