Who's on First?

Thankful

My six-year-old niece was writing what she was thankful for on one of the leaves to put on the family thanks tree. As her dad walks by she asks, "How do you spell permission? So far I have p-e-r-m-i." He responds, "How do you think it finishes?"

"T-i-o-n?"

"No, but great guess. It is actually s-s-i-o-n." Then her dad (my brother) walks on and let's her continue to work independently. I ask her about it.

Me: Permission? What do you mean by that? Like permission for what?

Whitney: Like to do stuff.

Me: That seems a little vague.

So at that point she picked up her pen and decided to add to her leaf. She finished it and put it on the tree:

World Series

I was looking at the Postseason stats, and this is our pitchers against the Tigers in the World Series.

Another Day at the Office

Throughout the playoffs I've been keeping my students abreast on the Giants' progress. A couple of them have even told me they watched the games just for me. They knew I went to game 2 of the World Series on Thursday. Friday at the beginning of 4th period a couple of them asked me about the game.

I decided to respond to the question. I briefly described our frantic route trying to get to the game on time. Then the missed cutoff throw, but still relayed to get Fielder at home. Suddenly I found myself drawing a picture of baseball diamond on the front white board as I described the Blanco bunt staying fair. I even ran down the rows in my classroom giving high fives simulating me running down the aisle the night before in section 315.

Somehow I ended up standing on a chair in front of my class with the door open yelling about the outside pitches that Hunter Pence took for called strikes. I look out the door and see down the hall one of my students from another class had just stopped and was looking in the class, curious about the commotion. Then I see a parent walk by so I start yelling, "The absolute value of x is five! Yes five!" Now, I'm laughing. My kids are laughing.

We close the door so I can continue my story. Just as Pence delivers a huge sacrifice fly a student aid from the office walks into the classroom to deliver a call slip to me.

With me still standing on the chair at a volume louder than normal it sounded something like this, "Then the runner comes in from, Absolute value of x is five. Algebra. Math. X."

The office aid leaves. The class laughs. I ask, "Where were we?" One my girls in the 2nd row says, "Hold on Mr. Burrill. Let me catch my breath."

Romo closed the door and we won 2-0. The rest of the class we went ahead and worked on math.

Letter from Parent

The mother of one of my students e-mailed me today. I had her son Ryan several years ago. This was her e-mail:

 

I am so glad she has you this year. I totally believe Ryan wouldn’t be the person he is today if it hadn’t been for you. You gave him so much confidence and helped him believe in himself. Ryan’s story is truly a story to tell. Starting off with a learning disability can be hard enough but then to have suffered so much from the car accident when he was a sophomore; a brain injury and back problems; but he never gave up. And now he is so proud to have graduated with a 3.7 and get accepted to Sac State (by the way, he loves it there!) I think we all have one or two teachers that we never forget and I know for Ryan you are definitely one of them. Now for Makayla, Can you help her with her algebra too!J When she returns to school in a few weeks I was thinking about putting her in the after school program so she has help with homework. Do you know anything about it?

Hope to hear from you soon.

 

Tree Frog

My niece e-mailed me a picture of a frog she drew in art class. It looked great so I asked her how she was able to send it to me. This was her e-mail back to me:

"i took a picture of the paper with my phone, texted it to my e-mail, saved it on my computer, and e-mailed it to you as an attachment." 

Duh. Just like we did in middle school. 

Number

Me: I need you to call the phone company, and I memorized the number so I don't even need to look it up.

Her: It probably isn't a lot of numbers.

Me: What are you talking about? It is an entire 800 number.

Her: What is it? 1-800-444-4445?

Me: Wow. That is really close. How did you know?


(Actual number was 1-800-444-4410)

The Odds are Good

Recent conversation with my girlfriend:

Me: I'm not sure I want to say.

Her: Go ahead.

Me: I had us as 6 to 1 favorites.

Her: Not bad, I was thinking 4 to 1.

Me: That's one of the sexiest things a girl has ever said to me.


I think I'm going to marry this one.

Old Cayucos Tavern

I just looked this place up on Yelp because I was curious if they still had poker there. This was the first review I read:

From Patrick W:
liquor in the front, poker in the rear.
great spot to find that middle aged woman in search of a young man.
but everything else is awesome.
pool tables and shuffleboard. a most visit when in Cayucos

Pizza Party

Yesterday I bought pizza for 40 of my students as a reward for their effort in class. I think only 4 said "thank you."

Basic Effort

Here is the caption from under this photo:

Miami Marlins right fielder Giancarlo Stanton is unable to catch a ball hit by San Francisco Giants' Aubrey Huff for a single during the second inning of a baseball game, Friday, May 25, 2012 in Miami. Photo: Wilfredo Lee/ AP

I was in a restaurant so I did not benefit from hearing any commentary from the announcers. Pagan was on first and he went half way. When the ball hit the wall he easily made it to the third. The part I don't get: how did Huff not get to second? I'm still a little upset about it.

StickK

This is quite an idea:

stickk.com

When I first heard about it I thought they were paying out their members for hitting their goals, but I didn't see anything about that on the website.

Not Yet...

I did not choose to get legal representation this year, but my colleague just showed me the most recent letter from our lawyer. Some of you know about my situation, but really this does a good job of explaining why I am getting pink-slipped now and did not earlier in my career. Let me know if you would like further clarification or information. (skipped-- means skipped from being laid-off.) This does not mean I won't be offered my job back, but as of now have do not have it.


5. MATH SKIP: The District skipped 25 junior math teachers because they held a single subject math credential, which authorizes them to teach calculus and trig. The District stated that it did this because of the need for calculus and trig teachers. We noted for the Judge that only 6 of the 25 were teaching such classes and that one of the 25 taught in middle school. The Judge found that skipping based on that evidence was improper and that math teachers who hold a foundational level math credential can teach most of the high school math courses. We read the decision to call for 18 rescissions in math. The District did not read it that way. Today, it informed us that because it expects all 25 to teach calculus and/or trig next year (which seems impossible given that only 6 did this year) it is not rescinding any additional math layoffs. Expectedly, we are reviewing this as part of our potential challenges of the District’s actions. Bottom line at this time, there are no further rescissions in math.

Artificial Inflation

Last week I asked our plant manager if he could find me an overhead projector. He did. So today I used an old overhead projector for the first time in years.

They no longer allow us to control our own classroom temperature. So my AC will not come on unless the room is warmer than 74 degrees. So I put the overhead in the back of my class and put it directly on the thermostat. My room was cool and comfortable the rest of the afternoon.

My Pillow

This is what the pillow looked like in the tub. I forgot I also had to replace my shower curtain that melted from the flames.



This is about the position of the bed at the beginning of the night. We just shifted the pillow over slightly and then...

Math Teacher Retention

Last weekend to celebrate my birthday I went to Los Angeles for a math education symposium. The big wigs of the math world have been researching how to increase math teacher retention and this was a forum designed for all parties to share what they have learned. The goal was to come together in an effort to learn how to keep more math teachers in the field.

For the last few years I was one of the case study teachers. I was observed and interviewed. That is how I managed to get invited to the show. It was a three-day event; I was slated to speak in a panel on the final day. I was told I had 16 minutes. I wasn’t a major player in this ordeal, but was big enough that they paid for my airfare and hotel.

I didn’t plan much ahead of time, because I knew I was speaking the third day so I would have time to feel out the conference, learn my audience, and pinpoint my focus. I spent the first two days attending sessions and compiling some thoughts in an effort to answer the question: How do we keep math teachers in the field? I outlined my thoughts Friday night so I was ready to speak Saturday morning.

I told a couple different stories about the way my principals have responded to me. I shared some examples about how I have had a somewhat transient path. I even mentioned that each year I think about quitting and each year I come back. I posed the question:

“I don’t care too much about money, and I don’t have history of stability. I’m a perfect case study. How are you going to retain me?”

I spent the weekend asking myself that very question: What makes me choose to come back each year?

I even made a list to share with the audience:

• Do I feel needed?

• Do I feel appreciated and valued?

• Are my opinions/suggestions heard? Respected? Implemented?

• Does my work matter? Am I impacting the lives of the children?

Basically everything on my list related back to feeling like what I am doing is worthwhile. I was able to examine myself, a case study of one, and rephrase the essential question to, “How do we make the teachers we want to retain feel appreciated?”

From there I went on to discuss some of the benefits of being part of the California Math Project (CMPSTIR). Among these included: being part of a community and team, increasing job competency, receiving positive feedback, developing a network in the area, and learning to be a teacher-coach.

Through my reflections while attending this entire symposium, I was able to come up with my own solutions. I closed with three pieces of advice for teacher retention: (I will admit that when I got to this part it was nice to see everyone in my small audience pick up a pen and record my words).

1. Set up a system where teachers are developing their competency and confidence in classroom instruction.

2. Create a collaborative environment where teachers feel they are an important part of a community.

And most importantly…

3. If you have a teacher of high quality that you want to retain, let them know.

You can write that last one down, I told them, and put my name after it. It is simple, and should be obvious, but it is what keeps me going.

Support

Yesterday was a difficult day for our school. The day before a body was found on our softball fields. That night we learned it was one of our own students.

I had several students visibly shaken up by the incident.

One girl in my 6th period class in particular. I knew she knew the victim. She came to class with sadness in her face. I didn't call on her. I didn't make her participate. I don't even think I said a word to her. I looked at her with an expression on my face that said, "I'm sorry for your loss." And when I walked through the classroom checking the others students' papers for correct answers I gently touched the back of her shoulder as if to say, "I'm sorry for your loss." We didn't speak.

She e-mailed me last night and said:

I wanted to thank you for being so nice , and caring and supportive to me today!!! i needed that!! she was my friend.. i still cant get over it and wont for a while i think ... thank you

I didn't even know I did anything. I guess it is just nice to realize that being supportive helped her through the day.

Entertained

My 15-year-old posted this on her status:

I just watched a dog chase its tail for ten minutes and thought, "Wow. Dogs are easily entertained..." Then I realized, I just watched a dog chase its tail for ten minutes...

Hitting the Flop

Last night I was playing poker and on a flop of KQx the one black guy in seat 7 tells the other guy in the hand, "Just fold man. I'm telling you I hit that flop." He ends up turning over AA. The guy in seat one says, "You didn't hit the flop. If you're already married to it-- it is not called hittin' it."

On-line dating

To the following statement the girl responded strongly disagree:

I'd rather be nice than stupid.

I commented on the fact that she strongly disagreed with that statement and she explained:

I'm a very nice person, but I put a high value on intelligence. I would rather keep my wits then lose them and be a nice person that is taken advantage of. One or the other, brains... But fortunaly I am able to have both in real life. ;)

Got it.

Living Alone

I went to Trader Joe's a couple days ago and spent $113.28, and I didn't even buy any alchohol.

Words

The first four I found were, "Naive, shy, insecure, and thoughtfull."

Clearly this doesn't work for everyone.

Student Response

I do teacher evaluations before Christmas break. This is what one of my students wrote to the response "anything else you want to share with Mr. Burrill:"

Thank you for teaching me the ways of life. I will be sure to use them if I move. I won't let myself down or my foster mom.

Homework

I find it interesting that the students most likely to complain about me assigning too much homework or assigning homework on the weekend are the students that never do their homework. I think it takes that same amount of time to not do a short assignment as it does to not do a long one. I'm wondering if the same upbringing that teaches students to be irresponsible also teaches them to complain. I haven't collected a lot of data yet, but these are some of my early thoughts.

Spelling

Restaurant. Add that to my list of words I always spell wrong and have spell check correct it. I remember many times in my life using a synonym when I actually wanted to write "necessary." I finally learned to spell "necessary."