Heard In Math Class

Things I've heard High School students say...

[Heard In Math Class @HeardInMath]

Just had a student walk up to me in the hall and pulled 2 baked potatoes wrapped in foil from his hoodie pocket…

[Heard In Math Class @HeardInMath]

"We need to bring back merry-go-rounds. These kids need to learn if you're dumb bad things happen"

[Heard In Math Class @HeardInMath]

High School students think they deserve top scores in your class, but will say things like...

"Does thousandth mean 3 decimal places or 4?"

"What's the difference between an angle and a side?"

[Heard In Math Class @HeardInMath]

Doing a lot of problems on a math concept is not "busy work" it is fine tuning a skill.

[Heard In Math Class @HeardInMath]

I fell for it... students started with the "Helen Keller isn't real" debate, and I let the stupidity get to me... I should know better... #shameonme

[Heard In Math Class @HeardInMath]

Student: “How do you spell ‘saw’? Like, ‘I saw someone…’ not like ‘you saw down a tree…’

[Heard In Math Class @HeardInMath]

The bar gets lowered and we push students on the the next grade or class, then they get to upper level classes in HS with a false sense of ability and they wonder why they can’t do the work…

[Heard In Math Class @HeardInMath]

11th grade student in Algebra 2…

“Why is our y-intercept down between the -4 and -5?”

Teacher: “because the equation tells us the y-intercept is -9/2, which is -4.5.”

Student: “And we’re just supposed to know that?”

Yes you are…

[James A. Furey @JamesAFurey]

We’re stuck with a school system where no one can fail, because failure means no diploma, and no diploma = no job.

So we pass students who can’t read, inflate grades, and lower standards until a diploma is meaningless.

I know this is pie in the sky, but it seems to me that a more robust push toward mentoring/apprenticeship could help incentivize employers to hire based on skill, not time spent in a desk.

Then, schools could once again hold the line, fail students who haven’t earned it, and restore value to what a diploma is supposed to represent.

[James A. Furey @JamesAFurey]

If school is supposed to prepare kids for the “real world,” why doesn’t it look anything like it?

The real world doesn’t give endless second chances, ignore your personal failings, or reward your bad behavior.

[Heard In Math Class @HeardInMath]

I’ve never met a group of people that know so little think that they know so much.

[Heard In Math Class @HeardInMath]

We’re hitting the panic stage, 4 1/2 months of failing needs to be fixed in one week… “what can I do to get my grade up?”

How about answering a question correctly…

[Heard In Math Class @HeardInMath]

Parents, stop calling your student out just because they ask you, make them stay in school. You’re not doing them any favors and they don’t think you’re as “cool” as you want them to think…

[Heard In Math Class @HeardInMath]

This is what I think about when high school boys rush to the window to see who drove by in the loud truck…

[James A. Furey @JamesAFurey]

If we strip memory from the classroom, we can’t wonder why students struggle to think clearly or connect ideas.

Recall isn’t busywork; it’s the foundation of insight.

Without knowledge held in the mind, every lesson is decontextualized and quickly forgotten.

[James A. Furey @JamesAFurey]

While we coddle loud, disruptive students, entire cohorts of resilient, hardworking young people are quietly enduring, their potential systematically undermined by an educational culture that rewards dysfunction.

[James A. Furey @JamesAFurey]

Not every kid deserves to stay in the classroom. Some students have earned their way out of it.

It is not cruel to admit this. What's cruel is forcing 25 other students to sit in the room while one kid makes learning impossible.

And every teacher knows what kid I mean!

Some are experts in low-level disruption, but others constantly talk, make noises, refuse to do work, roam the room or hallways, etc.

Worse, there are kids in school who regularly pick fights, bully others, and make threats to the safety of students and staff. Yet, we keep them in.

In these situations, schools are held hostage by their worst students. When that happens, we're no longer in an instructional environment; we're in the business of crisis management, with the kids who actually want to learn getting ignored while teachers put out a thousand little fires.

This results, de facto, in the removal of kids from education, just not the ones who deserve it. We essentially force the good kids out of the education they deserve by making them to sit in chaotic classrooms, wasting day after day.

It also results in teacher burnout because they are tasked with tolerating failure instead of being supported to fix it. We're forcing good people out of the profession, people who may, under different circumstances, raise reading and math scores and help prepare our students for a useful and fulfilling citizenship.

"Every child has a right to an education"?

Yes. But no child has a right to steal one out from under everyone else. Maybe it's time we consider what it takes to lose that right.

[Heard In Math Class @HeardInMath]

Students are bad at computations and refuse to have/use a calculator.

Students will waste $10 at the store everyday on snacks but won’t spend $10 on a calculator that will get them better scores

[Heard In Math Class @HeardInMath]

It cracks me up that the students that get the most excited about “Senior Skip Day” are the ones that end being seniors again next year… #SuperSenior

[Heard In Math Class @HeardInMath]

Student: “Hello, I’m excited for you to teach us some more made up math!”

#RadianMeasure #TheUnitCircle