1st Day!

Well, it started a bit rough, but it got better. I'm teaching 4 classes, but I only have one prep, so by 6th period I had it down. I need to reestablish my ethos, however, with my first class (2nd period). I'm afraid they think I'm a bit weird. {Melissa says, big surprise, you are weird.}

I, however, have already had the defining moment of my year. In my last class, one student suggested that a line was nothing more than an infinite collection of points. Almost immediately, another student raised his hand and said, "How can it be that a something with dimension could be built out of things which have no dimension?" It was spontaneous -- I had nothing to do with it. But it was the perfect question at the perfect moment. "There is a philosopher amongst us."

Could you pass this test?

A math assessment for a intro science class at UW. I'm giving my 9th graders a modified version of it tomorrow.

Here's the grades, with the percentage breakdowns of correct responses per question. We math teachers aren't preparing our students for college very well, me thinks.

Phoenix

I am now an Arizonan. And as the phoenix rises from the ashes to new life, so I begin again to recount my thoughts on this blog of inebriation.

Monday begins my first day of school, and most of my thoughts are occupied with the formation of lesson plans and structures of discipline. I am teaching geometry, and I will be beginning the year with the following poem, on which I welcome your comments.

Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare.
Let all who prate of Beauty hold their peace,
And lay them prone upon the earth and cease
To ponder on themselves, the while they stare
At nothing, intricately drawn nowhere
In shapes of shifting lineage; let geese
Gabble and hiss, but heroes seek release
From dusty bondage into luminous air.
O blinding hour, O holy, terrible day,
When first the shaft into his vision shone
Of light anatomized! Euclid alone
Has looked on Beauty bare. Fortunate they
Who, though once only and then but far away,
Have heard her massive sandal set on stone.

I think my favorite part of this poem is the verb 'prate' and the immediate capitalization of the noun 'Beauty.' Many speak of 'Beauty,' as if they were on intimate terms with her, and knew her ways and her wiles. A gentle mockery. "Oh yesss. Beeeaaauty" says the teenage beatnik in the coffee shop. But it is Euclid who has seen her in her bedchamber, and knows her ways.