M. C. Escher

As I was organizing my classroom, I came across an old book - "The Magic of M.C. Escher". His works are amazing. I cut out many of the images from this book and matted them on black poster board. I can't wait to laminate them and put them onto my classroom walls.

U.S. Education

On international tests, U.S. ranks 15th in English and 31st in Math, according to this USA Today report. It really isn't a surprise. I found the article interesting, but the comments posted by readers even more fascinating. There's a lot of racial comments posted. I wonder how we will ever address these issues.

(Image from Corbis.)

It's Done

Today, I got my project formatting officially approved. After waiting in line for 40 minutes to pay the cashier for the the binding fee, I submitted the project to the Graduate Office. It's over. I've completed my master degree. The Registrar said it'll take until mid-January for my grades and degree to be posted. The diploma should be ready in February. I haven't made up my mind yet about attending graduation, but it'll be mid-June. I am grateful for those who have supported me through the last two difficult years. My advisor Dr. Lotfipour showed me patience and perseverance. The faculty in the Educational Multimedia program had been great. I wouldn't be able to do it without my family and friends. I am grateful to my brother Randy for building our home while I selfishly work on my project. Thank you all. Now that I'm completely exhausted, I will rest and rebuild my body and spirit over the winter break.

Project Submission

At 4pm tomorrow, I will drop off this box at the Graduate Office. It delivers my masters project. Seven copies of the 77-page document. In return, I trust that it will deliver my masters degree and professional opportunities. Most importantly, I hope that it'll deliver to me my freedom.

Dice Collection (part 10)

This is the last one of the collection that I got from the Palm Springs math conference. A circle, a hexagon, a square, a triangle, a non-square rectangle, and a trapezoid.

New Toy

I promised myself a new iPod Touch when I complete my masters. This new toy is so much fun. I used it to take photos during field-testing with my class in the computer lab. For some time, I just wanted to play Scrabble. I plan to incorporate it into my classroom. I just need an Apple AV cable.

Dice Collection (part 9)

This one is weak: two plus signs, two minus signs, one division sign, and one multiplication sign.

A Terrible Magician

After school Friday, a few students came to my room to submit last minute homework and made up quizzes. Somehow, they got me doing a couple of magic tricks with a deck of cards to entertain them. I know a good magician never reveals or repeats their tricks. Thus, I initially regretted repeating a few tricks and teaching the kids how to perform the tricks. Only later did I realize that, at the core, I am a teacher. I am not a magician. I did what my instincts led me to do. I did what I've practiced and prepared each day to do. I taught the kids magic.

(Image from: http://customersrock.wordpress.com).

Dice Collection (part 8)

An unlikely outcome. (Likely, highly likely, impossible, highly unlikely, and equally likely are the other outcomes.)

Forgetful

I shared this with my students: Driving home yesterday, Dec. 1st, I realized that I forgot to pick up my paycheck. I was momentarily upset at myself for being forgetful. But I soon realized how lucky I am. For one, I didn't need the check that day. Not that I'm independently weathy, but I can make ends meet without that check for at least a little while. More importantly, getting paid wasn't the reason I went to "work" yesterday. I almost never look forward to the 1st for the sole reason to get paid. I told the kids about the cliche: "If you like your job, you'll never have to work again."

Dice Collection (part 7)

A 10-sided die. (Pentagonal trapezohedron).

Evaluation

Though it may be mere formality at this point in my career, I am still a bit anxious when I am evaluated formally as a teacher. I've been fortunate to have had very positive evaluations from administrators all along. This year, I have a new evaluator and he, too, gave me a positive evaluation today. The process of teacher evaluation is a hot topic recently. While there may not be a perfect evaluation system, I'm still glad to know that my quality of work is acknowledged by the administration.

Dice Collection (part 6)

A 20-sided die. Icosahedron.

The Cost of Education

UC Regents approve 8% tuition increase. This increase will take place Fall 2011.

See LA Times article.

Dice Collection (part 5)

A 10-sided die. (Pentagonal trapezohedron or decaheldron).

Teach Math w/ Computers

A powerful and inspiring talk.

Dice Collection (part 4)

My favorites: 30-sided dice. (Rhombic triacontahedron).

IGNITE Presentation

During the math conference, I attended an IGNITE session. This format allows each presenter exactly five minutes, 20-slides, with each auto-advancing every 15-seconds. The first presentation, "Disneyland, Buses, and Wine", was my favorite. The speaker Cheng spoke of the need to be creative (Disneyland) in the classroom. He is a professor at Cal State Fullerton but had driven school buses for 14 years. He believed that collaboration is the best way to improve education, but collaboration should be done with coaches (Buses). Lastly, like fine wine, great lessons need time to develop. A very concise, simple talk that was very powerful and creative.

Dice Collection (part 3)

A creative idea: Rock/Paper/Scissors dice on dodecahedrons. Using these dice would eliminate strategies and skills in this chance game.

Reading

An awesome English teacher and I sat together to watch our football team played on Friday night. Inevitably, we talked about teaching, but also about our recent favorite books. Ironically, one of her favorite ones was a book about statistics and human irrationalities. I shared with her one of my recent favorites about communication using the structure of story telling. We both agreed that reading is a lost art. I rarely get to talk to teachers who don't teach math. I enjoyed our brief conversation.

Dice Collection (part 2)

A ten-sided die in Spanish. (Pentagonal trapezohedron or decaheldron).

- from the math conference.

Monty Hall Problem

I tried the Monty Hall Problem with my AP Stats class on Tuesday. It worked out well. Some teachers suggested the use of cups and coin, I chose to use playing cards, with a face card as the winner. It was a neat experience for the kids to do something hands on. It encouraged me to make future attempts to doing more activities.

Dice Collection (part 1)

Two 12-sided dice. (Dodecahedron) I purchased some special dice from the math conference. Today, I passed it around the classroom. The students enjoyed playing with them.

Palm Springs 2010

I attended a "AP Stats for Newbies" session at 8:30 am, a very good session by a veteran teacher. She shared a lot of practical activities that I will try this year. The second session at 10:30 am was by a professor at Cal State Fullerton, he demonstrated linking geometry and statistics. It was a good presentation, but I didn't particularly like the activity much. The session at 1:15 pm was by a retired statistics professor. He shared many fun probability problems which I found very interesting. I will definitely use them this year in my class. Lastly, I attend a large session called IGNITE. The format is as follows: each presenter has 5-minutes and 20-slides. The slides auto advance and the speakers get to make their points. Of the eight speakers, the good ones were great, and the bad ones were still bad. I sat with two other teachers. At the end, we continued to interact and discuss our passion for the profession. We shall continue to have the conversation in the future. In all, I found this year's conference to be very valuable. I even bought some dice, including a few 30-sided ones.

More Time Please

Today's professional development was better than the ones before. We had several isolated meetings throughout the day after a strong opening session. At the end, however, I am not sure if I have gained any major new skills or have simply learned more about our current education system. I'm still amazed when I look around the meeting and see so many talented and passionate teachers. Then, it hits me that we are often wasting our time and energy in some of these meetings. It'd be so cool if we can just have time to collaborate and be creative - to come up with lesson plans with teachers from other disciplines, to share ideas and techniques that work. I hear Google gives its employees time to create freely, and often the best work/ideas come from those hours. I think it can work at the school level as well.

(image from thinkgeek.com)

Report Card Night

Tonight's Report Card Night went smoothly. I had many pleasant conversations with students and parents. Only in one case, did I need to address the student's misbehavior in the class and her inability to meet the course's expectations. It was also nice to see many of my former students and their parents as well. One of the teachers told me that while this event may not be extremely conducive, it allows the school to connect with the community. I missed it last year due to a night class, I was happy to there tonight.

(Image from thethirftymama.com)

Injured Student

I was shocked and saddened to hear today that one of my former students was involved in an auto accident Sunday evening. She was on life support. I was told that she no longer requires life support, which I interpret as an improvment. She is one of my favorite students, she's always cheerful. Some of the alumni students kept in touch with me on FaceBook and will keep me updated. We're hoping for a full recovery as soon as possible. Due to my full schedule, I may not be able to visit her until the weekend. Hopefully, she'll be much improved by then. (SGV Tribune update.)

(Image from Commentsyard.com)

Homecoming 2010

Two of my former students acknowledged me during their Homecoming Court introductions. Joe and Stephanie are both great kids and deserve the nomination, I'm very proud of them. I am humbled by their acknowledgement. The student body voted today after the rally, and winners will be announced tomorrow. No matter what the results will be tomorrow night, I wish these students a safe and fun time.

I chatted with a teacher-friend Mr. D., who was also acknowledge by some of the Homecoming nominees, throughout the rally. We both agree that it's important that we say and do the right things as teachers, even though we are often tempted to make off-color remarks/jokes in the classroom. There's always a line and we're always in the role.

Resonate

I read almost exclusively non-friction books, often on topics relating to technology and academics. My latest reading is Nancy Duarte's Resonate. It guides presenters to give public talks using methods of storytelling. I am not as good of a storyteller as some of my friends or other teachers. I hope this book will give me some insight on this key skill.

(image from http://blog.duarte.com/)

Studying

On two separate occasions on Friday, I chatted with two staff members (one administrator and one groundskeeper) at school who expressed their concerns for their respective 15-year-old son's academic progress. From what I know of these two guys, my guess is that they are both great fathers, so I asked them why that is the case. Each agreed that the variable is laziness. I asked them both what they did as parents to address that, they both admitted that they got angry with their sons, and had a serious talk with them.

Last week, a counselor said that a lot of students don't know how to study. I didn't say anything at the time, but I think we shouldn't equate not studying with not knowing how to study. Ultimately, I think effort goes a long way. We are each responsible for our own efforts and motivation.

(image from Lulu Blog)

Success

I shared this 3-minute TED video with my students.

Happy Bidding

I bought about a dozen scientific calculators last year to reach a class set of 36 calculators. I didn't bother doing a check-out system, and as a result, a few were sadly lost and vandalized. I think I have only about 28 remaining. It is frustrating, the calculators aren't cheap. To do the trigonometry section, I wanted the students to use calculators and not charts. I have recently been bidding on used machines on eBay, trying to buy at a lower price. Hopefully, I can keep my class set throughout this year.

Wannabes...

I did a quick game of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" with my AP Stats class recently to review key concepts. Games are fun; when done appropriate, they help engage students. Teachers need to be mindful, however, of the academic nature of that the activity. It's perfectly okay to play a game, but don't force a lesson into a game (or vice versa) without a purpose.

Staff Development

Our faculty had an ambitious agenda today. In addition to several all-staff meetings, there were three 40-minute time slots during the day, each with three workshop options that allowed teachers to choose. I attended a SnapGrade introductory workshop by Mr. D. and Mrs. H. They are both excellent teachers, two of my favorites, in fact. Their session went well, and I learned the availability of a powerful tool. I attended a Cornell-Notes session during the second slot. Having heard about this technique for a long time, it was nice to see an expert (Mr. V.) demonstrate the spirit behind this note taking technique. Lastly, I went to a Poll Everywhere workshop. Mrs. L. showcased a website that allows the audience to text answers to a site, which instantaneously displays the polling.

While I learned something new in each of the three wonderful workshops, I was still very frustrated throughout the entire day. I feel that it was extremely unproductive. Aside from the three workshops, all of the other information can be presented in a much shorter time. I understand that the spirit of the staff development is to sharpen teachers' skills. Nonetheless, having heard from many other teachers' comments, we really feel that Staff Development Days are painful and drain our spirits. One teacher posted on Facebook: "I hate staff development days!!! The only thing I develop is a headache!"

I shall just move on and focus on my work. When the time comes again, I strive to provide teachers with a valuable session that is worthy of their time and attention.

Staying Focus

More than ever, I am trying to focus on my own work. Speak no evil, hear no evil. We concluded the first five weeks of the school year. Everything has gone very smoothly, I am blessed with wonderful students. This is only the beginning, though. I read an article about Kobe Bryant visiting UC Irvine's athletes for an interview. During the interview, he was quoted as saying: "Rest at the end, not in the middle."

What's His Face?

This is one of my proudest lesson components that I created. A picture is on PowerPoint is placed behind squares with math problems on them. Students must answer the problem correctly before the squares are removed. It's a silly game, but it gets students' attention. I recall the afternoon that I come to this idea. Using PowerPoint 2003, it took me around four hours to build this activity on the computer.

Back to School 2010

From 6:30pm to 8pm, teachers get 10 minutes to present our class to parents and guests each period. I used this opportunity to share some of my teaching philosophies and teaching methods. This year, in addition to reusing some of the slides from the past, I emphasized on my new developments in using the TI-Nspire. I demoed some of the programs to show guests its powerful features. During the last session, I visited a fantastic presentation by a science teacher during my prep period. Very inspired.

TI-Nspire Debut

The TI-Nspire is a very powerful teaching/learning tool. After attending a three-day training over the summer, I gain an understanding of its capabilities and its operating system. I will use it in my stats class to visually explore our first quiz's results. There are many resources online for further TI-Nspire exploration which I strive to incorporate in my lessons.

Link Crew Follow Up

I had the pleasure of attending the Link Crew follow-up training this past Thursday. It was a seven-hour event. I arrived very early to the beautiful Laguna Hills. I studied and read for about 40 minutes at the quiet second floor lobby of The Hills Hotel. BoomerRang Project's Carolyn Hill hosted an energetic event. She proved again that she is an agent for positive change.

Throughout the whole process, however, I have the following thought: the success of programs like Link Crew is essentially contingent on the failure of the public educational system. If the educational system is good, defined as providing what students need, then there would not be any demands for programs like Link Crew, AVID, or THINK Together. My analogy is that the public school system is a pipeline. Our students are the precious water, leaking ever so rapidly from this pipe. These supportive programs, fantastic as they are, attempt to catch the leaking water. How can we measure our success or progress as educators? Catching a full glass of leaking water? Or having no leaking water?

Made a Mistake

So far, I feel pretty good about the content of AP Stats. Truth be told, I've studied it many times and for countless hours on my own. Additionally, I've taught/tutored it numerous times. I still made a mistake today, however. I said that the sum of the deviations will always add up to zero. While this is true for a distribution of data, it doesn't work out in a frequency table. My student, Valerie, pointed it out during the lesson. And I'm glad she did. Gotta be more careful next time.

An Old Machine

On Saturday, I finished cleaning the 15 old calculators left behind by a retired teacher. I was able to revive four of them. Three of them are TI-83 Pluses, and surprisingly, the lone TI-82 is also in working condition. In this era of handheld devices, the TI-82 an ancient model. I'm not sure if its operations are suitable for AP Stats, but it's nice to see its durability.

AP Statistics Teacher

Two weeks in the books, and it still feels a bit surreal that I'm teaching statistics. It's been a dream of mine for about a decade and it feels a bit spooky that it's going so smoothly. So far, I've covered graphical displays, measures of center, and measures of spread. I am blessed with some amazing students.

A retired teacher left us with about 15 TI-83+ graphing calculators. They were not well maintained and are now in horrible shape. Many had broken screens and the battery compartments are rusted with leaked battery acid. It was a little upsetting to see such valuable resources go to waste. I spent a good amount of time this morning cleaning and restoring the conditions of these calculators. Luckily, I was able to revive a couple of them. I will go in again tomorrow to see what I can do with the rest. A portion of my students don't have graphing calculators, so hopefully, I'll be able to get a couple more TI-83's to work.

I am reminded of my uncle who would clean up old cameras that he discovers at antique shops, as the art of photography is his passionate hobby. Teaching is my art and these calculators are the brushes for my students.

TI-SmartView

This year, I face a new challenge of teaching three different classes. I have Geometry, Algebra II, and AP Statistics. I appreciate this assignment. While I don't feel that I'm at my highest spirits, I strive to continue to improve. Today, I incorporated TI-SmartView during statistics. Later in the year, I hope to be able to throw in a few demonstrations of the TI-Nspire and UCLA's online resources.

Link Crew Orientation

Mr. Ciccoianni was incredible on Friday's orientation. Over 300 freshmen came, and our Link team in our new red shirts were ready. They showed enthusiasm and pride. As I went around campus to check on the small groups, I found that they were completing the activities successfully. The day ended with a pizza party with the leaders and coordinators in the cafeteria. School starts Tuesday. (This is the best image of the shirts that I have.)

Link Leader Training

We wrapped up a two-day Link Leader training. Mr. Ciccoianni was incredible in leading this amazing event. I led two activities (Life Story and Questions Lists) on day one, and Fast Fingers on day two. In all, I feel very positively toward this training, mainly because Mr. C. was so well prepared. I am so grateful for his enthusiasm and professionalism. We also received huge support from Ms. Curtis and many others. Friday will be the big show: Freshmen Orientation. I will be there to provide Total Support. GO BIG!

Literature Review

My professors have long told me that completing a graduate program while working full-time is a big challenge. Knowing and experiencing is completely different. My journey to my masters thesis has been long and at times painful. Working full-time and coaching while taking 16-units is a quarter that I would never attempt again. The most difficult part, according to many, is the literary review. Today, I am grateful to have finally received approval of my lit-review. It is only one chapter, but a big step nonetheless. Yesterday, I read an e-book saying that setbacks are just setbacks, not failures. I can't put a timeline on when I will finish, but I strive to put in as much effort into my project as I can each day. Someday, I believe, I will finish.

Statistics in Action

Content is king. As I strive to lead a successful course in statistics, I have dedicated a lot of time in preparing for its content. The last two weeks have been devoted to sharpening my technological skills and curriculum development. Between now and the start of the school year, I strive to complete the outline of as many chapters as possible. Currently, I have done three of the 14 chapters. Watkins, Scheaffer, and Cobb are the authors to an organized textbook "Statistics in Action". My goal is to use it as the main focus, but to add digital content sparingly to dress up the course. Though I am very conscientious of the ultimate result, I really should focus on doing my best in delivering content to my students first.

UCLA's SOCR

UCLA's Department of Statistics granted me an opportunity to attend a workshop targeted for high school teachers. The department developed Statistics Online Computational Resources that is free and easily accessible. It is very powerful. I was thoroughly impressed. Professor Dinov and Professor Chirstou showed me many amazing applications, tools, and games that are offered by this well-developed online resource. We were also granted access a visit to UCLA's faculty dinning hall. I had a wonderful experience; it helped sharpen my tools for the upcoming years.

AP Stats Day 4

On the last day of the institute, we covered every type of inference questions on the AP test. Additionally, we learned how to use the TI calculators to do these computations. How I wish I had this tool when I tutored statistics at UCI! Mr. Olsen did a great job, he has prepared me for next year. Now it's all on me to work on the course.

(* This is a picture of the AP teachers enjoying lunch outdoors. It was extremely nice being under the sun during each day's long academic sessions.)

AP Stats Day 3

We talked about software packages that are used in the course. It got me interested in developing my skills in Fathom. There are also plenty of free resources at AP Central from the College Board. In the afternoon, we discussed probability and began inferences. The concepts are all slowly coming back to me now.

(*This is a picture I took of the Pacific. The ocean is only a block away from the hotel I stay at during these four days.)

AP Stats Day 2

We focused on experimental design today. Our presentation did a good job of reviewing the details of sampling and design. In groups, we focused on one experiment and will present on its design tomorrow. One comment from our presenter struck me, he said "Our job isn't to understand that they are kids, our job is to make them into adults."

AP Statistics Summer Institute Day 1

Palos Verdes Peninsula HS is a nice campus not far from the ocean. I arrived very early to beat traffic and enjoyed a quiet morning reading at the campus. Although we got off to a slow start, by midday, my class of 19 teachers dove right into discussions of experimental designs and inferential statistics. Most importantly, I began experimenting with the TI-84+. The presenter said that this is the most widely used handheld. Fortunately, it is much easier to use than the TI-Nspire CAS which I learned last week. It was at UC Irvine when I first learned and tutored statistics. I recalled all of the topics and did quite well on my first try at completing the multiple choice section today. My hotel is just about a mile away from Redondo Beach. Beautiful whether here in SoCal.

An amazing story - the principal of PVPHS, Kelly Johnson, was a janitor at the school 41 years ago. He is retiring this week. He encouraged us to open the AP doors to more students. The two most important people on campus, according to him, were the students and the teachers.