Author: samjshah

Senior Letter 2010

On Wednesday, I had my last day of classes with my seniors. I write letters to my senior classes each year and hand ’em out on this day. I don’t know if they throw ’em away, or take what I say to heart, or something in between. But I don’t write it for them.

I print it out on school letterhead, and include their “Who I am” sheet they filled out on the first day of classes with an index card with goals they had for the upcoming year.

I hope they stick the letter and “Who I am” sheet in their yearbooks and forget about ’em until years later. I did that with a letter my high school English teacher gave to me, and I treasure that.

Binomial Theorem Video Contest

Kate Nowak’s binomial theorem video contest deadline is this Thursday! Which means you still have time to enter. It’s not about perfection, or about video length, but about coming up with an interesting idea and trying to execute it. Don’t feel bad about the competition bit — and thinking your idea isn’t good enough, or that it’s been done before, or that you can’t make a professional-looking video, or that you think it’s too boring. Just put caution to the wind and throw your hat in the ring! I think everyone in this online-math-teacher-edu-blogosphere-thingy is probably a bit too critical about themselves, and always feels a little inadequate. (I know I do. All. The. Freakin’. Time.) This is about just experimenting and trying something out.

And yes. You obviously can win fame and glory. And an ill fitting t-shirt. And possibly (if there are 7+ entries) the Lemov book. There’s that too.

Putting it all together

On Friday I left home after the first two periods, sick. That’s not the bad news — I mean, we all get sick sometimes. The bad news is that I had already planned on leaving after the first two periods, to go to a wedding. I had to miss my friend’s wedding, to be sick at home. But I guess if there was a perfect time to be sick, it’s the day that I had already prepped sub plans.

I’m going to share ’em with you, because they worked really well.

The year is coming to a close, and I wanted my calculus classes to pause for a moment and take stock of what we’ve accomplished. I also wanted them to try to fit it all together in one large conceptual framework.

So I decided to ask ’em to — on giant yellow poster paper, with markers — create a concept map in groups of 3.

I didn’t know what to expect. I hadn’t done this before. I did offer a prize to the best map (bag o’ candy).

I came to school on Monday, and was really impressed. The maps were colorful, comprehensive, and fun. I can only imagine the conversations that students had when drawing them (“remember when we did …”; “what was that thing we did with…”; “look at this!”).

A funny thing happened by accident. When I broke the kids into groups, I gave ’em group names (“The Polynomials,” “The Concavities,” “The Tangents,” and “The Anti-Derivatives”). There were just cutsie names, no thought behind ’em.  I meant for each group to make a concept map for all of calculus. In fact, each group ended up making a concept map for their group name.

I’ll admit my initial reaction was disappointment, because they missed the “this is the entirety of calculus all together” aspect of what I was goin’ for. But then I looked at all four maps together — and they formed a pretty awesomely comprehensive map for the entire course.

Brainstorming Some Extensions/Changes

1. Use this as a 35 minute final exam review activity for a class — where each group takes a cluster of topics and connects them. Hang these up during review days for students to look at and refer to. (I might do this for Algebra II.)

2. If a course is broken into, say, 12 large conceptual units, ask groups to design one concept map for 4 random units they draw out of a hat — making connections among ’em. Then (somehow — this I haven’t figured out totally), have the class use these smaller concept maps to generate a giant map for the entire year.

3. Have students do this at the end of each unit, so they can visually see what they’ve learned and how everything relates to each other. (Possible studying technique for students who are detail oriented and can’t see the larger picture or how things relate.)

Their Homework

After this exercise, I gave my kids homework. I gave ’em a writing assignment, promising them I wouldn’t read ’em until after their final grades were entered. I do this for all my classes as they wind down.

For homework I’m going to ask each of you to write a letter from yourselves now to yourselves at the beginning of the year, telling yourself what you wish you had known about how to succeed in this particular Calculus class.

Something like:

Dear Sam from the Past,

Wow, what a long year. I can’t believe it is finally winding down. You might think it’s weird that I’m writing to you from the future, but I am. (The future is amazing.) Here are some important things to know so you can be successful in Calculus, and in life. Don’t wear Green. Mr. Shah hates Green. […]

You can talk about my quirks as a teacher (like “Mr. Shah does/doesn’t give a lot of partial credit” or “Mr. Shah doesn’t like when you use pen in class”), math things you wish you knew beforehand (like “you should make sure to really know your exponent rules” or “you should really be comfortable with fractions”), and any other general advice (like “trust me, doing your homework every day is key” or “Mr. Shah knows what he’s talking about so do everything he says without question” and “I found that cramming the night before did/didn’t work”).

You can and should also say whatever you want about the class — if you found it rewarding, if it’s really tough to visualize things, if meeting with me helps, if it’s impossible to do well, whatever. I won’t read them until after your final grades are calculated. Feel free to be funny — like if you look at yourself at the beginning of the year, and you hate that sweater you wore every day, warn yourself not to wear that sweater because it’s stupid. Or if you stole a teacher’s cupcakes, and you want to warn your previous self not to be so selfish, you can do that too. Don’t stress yourself out if you’re not funny.

I use these to create “Advice from Students Past” packets to give to my students next year (here too) — advice which might resonate with ’em on how to succeed. It also gives me some insight into my own teaching and my own class from my students’ perspectives.

So that was all from last Friday, a day I missed.

Brainstorming Ideas for 2010/2011

So about a week or two ago, I started writing down all the ideas I have for next year. And they kept on coming, I got 20, 25, 30… And each time I came up with one, I threw it in my google doc. This is the current instantiation of my list.

I wasn’t going to post it, because it’s just brainstorming (who knows if I’ll decide to follow through with ’em; some are great ideas and some are terrible), and because the list is so specific to me and my classes. But @hemantmehta said it might help him, and who am I to deny @hemantmehta?

I thought writing the list was cathartic. It also helps with my horrible memory. (I tend to forget all the small things I want to change over the summer — when my brain atrophies from inactivity.)

I suggest if you haven’t made one yet, do it now — when you’re in the throes of the last few weeks of school, when things are getting on your nerves and you’re ready to be done. This is the time you should make this list. Because you’ll use your angst and frustration to imagine the educational paradise that you’re going to create the next year.

So okay, here are some of my raw, jotted down thoughts. I’m not really looking for feedback on them.

Ideas for next year (2010/2011)

  1. Binder checks in calculus
  2. Binder checks happening in small chunks 1st and 2nd quarters
  3. Idea: Homework quizzes: Assess students aperiodically on questions from the homework — and they’re allowed to use their homework to do it? (Has kids show more work, if they can just copy, and write down the problem… also encourages kids to label topics from each sections?)
  4. Create a better sheet to walk around with to check homework daily – so I take attendance and homework more consistently
  5. Have sign in sheets for kids to sign in when they arrive late without a note from a teacher – or get caught chewing gum
  6. Have a sheet for kids to write their name down when they forget a calculator/pencil/paper and have to borrow one from me
  7. Rewrite more tests instead of recycling them from previous year
  8. Talk about how to “write” answers to conceptual questions more – at least once per unit – and give classwide feedback and what’s good and what’s not
  9. Give lesson on how to read the book – IN CLASS each quarter spend a period actually learning a topic/section by reading the book in groups
  10. Make a website with links to useful videos for each Alg II topic we learn – so students can learn independently (videos from the Holt website, but also from other places)
  11. When introducing function notation in Alg II, and functions in general, teach how to graph the 8 base/parent functions. Use those as examples for compositions, etc.
  12. Decide to get rid of some topics in calculus (e.g. inverse trig integrals/derivatives, rational function graphing, extensive work on limits?) to spend more time on fun stuff (volume, surface area)
  13. Incorporate probability unit in calculus
  14. Final 4th quarter group project in calculus (introduce EARLY in 4th quarter) – based on problem solving to capitalize on the work we will do all year?
  15. Group work standard in Algebra II and calculus – meaning having standards groups each quarter.
  16. Group pop quizzes for team work and group building
  17. Giant whiteboards to have students work on problems and present their solutions
  18. Calculus problem solving (at the beginning … or end … of each unit) — how to assess problem solving?
  19. Have students in MV calculus be better at deriving equations and solving basic problems (more regular tests? use concept questions regularly?)
  20. In Alg II, don’t have single assessment grade; break assessments into standards and record those
  21. Idea: use Friday 3:20-4pm as a way for students to reassess. REASSESSMENT IS A CAN OF WORMS – think CAREFULLY ABOUT THIS
  22. Write in planner the topics/standards covered each day, so I have a record of how long it takes me to teach things
  23. Allow students 1/2 credit for homework done in pen or not on graph paper
  24. Go over course expectations at the start of every quarter
  25. Talk about what collaboration can look like for homework, and what it can’t. Do this each time you go over course expectations
  26. Come up with a clear idea of what collaboration can look like for MV Calc problem sets… and come up with ways for them to be be enforced
  27. Put review questions on each assessment
  28. Create posters for classroom(s) — with quotations and rules? In general decorate classroom! COLOR!
  29. Create some sort of “prize” that students can work towards (e.g. everyone is focused, and working in groups well, gets a paper clip added to chain… when it reaches 20, donuts?) — very visible!!! Or something like if all students do their homework for a week, we get to play a song at the end of class on Friday – of their choice (as long as it’s appropriate).
  30. Prize for students who get perfect scores on assessments — publicly awarded (BUTTONS I DESIGN?!)
  31. Set aside the last 3 minutes of class, no matter what, to have students summarize what they learned and what they’re confused on
  32. Steal Kate Nowak’s “index card” idea… taped to each desk will be a index card holder (imagine library card holders), and 4 white index cards (so no kid gets embarassed by holding up a different color). On each card are numbers 1 to 4, and the words “1. TOTES GET IT!” “2. I’M ALMOST THERE!” “3. KINDA CONFUSED, SIR!” and “4. NO IDEA WHATSOEVER!” – make sure to only make 4 – don’t want to have a “middle option” for kids to always sit on the fence. Maybe use these at the end of class to see how they feel about the 2 or 3 skills/ideas we’ve learned. Stop asking “do you get it? anyone confused” which clearly indicates I want them to say yes.
  33. Is there a way to make electronic exit slips? Maybe at the end of each week have students fill one out as part of their homework? GOOGLE DOCS! Or ignore, if using 32.
  34. Be consistent about writing one random positive email to parents — one for every “hard”/”bad” email I have to write, and if I don’t write one in a week, then one every Friday. Keep track of this.
  35. Make a sign in sheet for when kids come for extra help — I fill it in, with name, date, and what they’re meeting me for.
  36. Create a template for the email students need to email me when they want to meet… Have on it “I would like to meet because I am having trouble with this specific thing:” Require students use the template.
  37. Go visit at least 4 different classes each semester – plan 2 at the beginning of each quarter to ensure that I start doing this.
  38. When doing review classes, create and use more f(t)/Kate Nowak games
  39. Have more “hooks” — like making homework like https://samjshah.com/2009/08/21/idea-ill-never-follow-up-on-though-it-is-good/
  40. Consider allowing students in calculus to use their calculator more often — with requirements on how they have to express they used their calculator (if they did) on assessments. Talk with them and maybe come up with class norms — they generate — on what they think is fair to be asked to include on an assessment when they use their calculator.
  41. Teach students how to program in their calculators in calculus (how to come up with an approx deriv program, an eqn of the tangent line program, a Riemann Sum program, any others???)
  42. For ONE unit in Alg II, try out sticking strictly to a schedule – to try it out….
  43. Pencils down at the end of assessments. Enforce with a 1pt penalty.
  44. Provide “find the mistake(s) in these solutions” for Alg II and Calculus. For Calculus, make some of the mistakes NOTATIONAL errors. Highlight the importance of notation.
  45. Use many different variables in calculus, besides x and t — to really drive home that d/dx means “taking the derivative with respect to x” instead of “take the derivative”
  46. Continue practice of having students answer questions about the course expectations using google docs – especially about homework makeups from absences and extended time. Do it at the start of each quarter. Make sure to get their graphing calculators’ serial numbers.
  47. Have students write (etch?) their names on their calculators (case, calculator itself, battery lid) one day in class
  48. Make an ongoing list of homework assignments, corresponding with each skill taught. So the following year, I know what to assign depending on how far we got in class.
  49. If students get a solid C or C- or below on an assessment, they must write down 2-3 paragraphs: (1) how they prepared for the assessment, (2) why they think they got a low score, (3) their plan for the future. MAYBE: they also need to get it signed by their parent if they get a C- or below (?) — or is this moving away from student independence?
  50. Honor statement that students must write out on each assessment.
  51. Spell out homework collaboration on course expectations.

Rip me apart, please?

So everyone talks about and around assessments, but we rarely actually talk directly at them. Concretely. (By the way, I am using “assessments” to mean tests/exams/quizzes.)

Partly because the abstraction of assessing is so much more fun to bandy about than actually looking at assessments. Partly because some of us probably don’t want our assessments floating around in the electronic ether. Partly because assessments as so context dependent — on what you’ve been teaching you’re kids, and where you’re kids are at. And partly because we probably think our assessments all pretty much look the same.

Personally, I’m not as thoughtful about writing exams as some of my colleagues. I see them carefully construct questions, talk about what skills are getting over and under assessed, and overall, go through their exam with a fine tooth comb. I create mine with more general brush strokes. I never really learned how to write an exam.

I figured if people are interested in having a conversation about what a good exam looks like, I’d jump start it here by including a copy of my latest Algebra II assessment.

I’d like you to rip it apart, with suggestions big and small. From spacing and font issues to wording issues to content issues. Or if you’d just like to throw down your process for writing assessments, or types of questions you really like (e.g. “find the mistake!”), or things you try to avoid, do that!

If you want a little more context for my particular assessment, you can see the “topic list” that I gave my students here.

Factoring Quadratics by Grouping

David Cox teaches “Bottom’s Up” to show how to factor quadratics. (Video here.)

There’s only one thing I don’t like about this method. It has one step which isn’t intuitive, and makes it all seem like magic.

When you have a coefficient in front of the x^2 term that isn’t one, you have to divide the factors by that number. And then you do “bottoms up” where the (x+\frac{1}{2}) gets converted to (2x+1). I don’t like that you have to randomly divide by a number, nor that the implicit implication is that (x+\frac{1}{2})=(2x+1).

A fellow math teacher at my school taught me to teach a very similar method, but that uses factor by grouping.

Given a quadratic, the first part is the same:

2x^2+7x+3

Rewrite the 7x as 6x+1x (numbers from the diamond above)

2x^2+6x+1x+3 [1]

Then the problem becomes a “factor by grouping” problem. You group the first two terms and second two terms and factor:

2x(x+3)+1(x+3)

Then you see each term has an (x+3) so you factor that out and are left with (2x+1):

(x+3)(2x+1)

It might seem a little more complicated, because you have to factor a few times. But my kids tend to get it after practicing 3 or 4 problems, and it doesn’t involve any knowledge they didn’t already possess. They understand that 7x=6x+1x and they understand how to factor 2x^2+6x. There is no lingering “why?”

[1] You could write it 2x^2+1x+6x+3 also and it would work. 2x^2+1x+6x+3=x(2x+1)+3(2x+1)=(2x+1)(x+3).

Favorite Tweets #5

NEWS: You can now access the “Favorite Tweets” series by clicking on the menu on the upper right hand side of the header. (Wow, things are getting FANCY up in here!) This is the last “Favorite Tweets” that I will be posting on the blog itself. All future “Favorite Tweets” will go directly there. I don’t think they’ll show up in your RSS readers, but you’ll know when I post a new one via Twitter. And aren’t you guys on Twitter the only ones who really care, anyway?

Here’s #1 and #2 and #3 and #4

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samjshah @dcox21 i don’t actually teach my kids in reg calc about sequences. but i think if they get the IDEAS behind it, that won’t matter.

samjshah @dcox21 plus, depending on the sequence, i’ve seen it written both ways (0th term and 1st term)… plus they’ll forget it before 11/12th gr.

dcox21 @samjshah Forget? You underestimate me?

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k8nowak I hate when my new favorite song turns out to be three years old.

SweenWSweens @k8nowak Has Bieber really been putting out songs for 3 years now?

k8nowak @SweenWSweens You just get me, Sweeney. It’s scary.

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samjshahARGH!!! #itssundayandireallydontwanttoplanfortomorrowanditsgettinglaterandlaterandimjustnotabletostarttogetittogether

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ddmeyer This just hit me hard: the same curriculum that pushes our students away from what’s great about math does the same thing to their teachers.

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mctownsley @samjshah Counting Crows – Mr. Jones! I had a friend in college who mixed up the lyrics. Instead of “Mr. Jones and me…” ..

mctownsley @samjshah (con’t) she thought it was “Mr. Snowman Yee” she’s never lived this down. #nojoke

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ddmeyer I attended the “Western Caucus” at NCSM. I’m curious how the board will attract new teachers (most of whom caucus online) to that format.

ddmeyer Put another way, “caucusing” (especially in this context) seems more relevant to an age when we couldn’t connect instantly online.

samjshah @ddmeyer on that note of caucusing online, why aren’t you on this map?: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hq=http:%2F%2Fmaps.google.com%2Fhelp%2Fmaps%2Fdirections%2Fbiking%2Fmapplet.kml&ie=UTF8&dirflg=b&hl=en&msa=0&msid=102961433061679876855.000484f12a77524f148fe&ll=39.300299,-93.339844&spn=31.685063,79.013672&t=p&z=4

ddmeyer @samjshah What the hell is that?

ddmeyer @samjshah Why haven’t you added me?

ddmeyer @samjshah Hurt.

samjshah @ddmeyer everyone added themselves! it was a bit of a crazy frenzy on twitter yesterday. see my recap at the bottom of https://samjshah.com/2010/04/25/favorite-tweets-4/

cannonsr @ddmeyer Yeah, dude. You were being too cool hanging out at an actual conference. Such a diva.

JackieB @cannonsr Hey, I was at the actually conference. /And/ I added myself to the map, don’t let @ddmeyer off the hook that easily.

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welikesnow Tip: Don’t cut your leg with a chainsaw, even a little bit.

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misscalcul8 How do I get them to think?

JackieB @misscalcul8 Give them good problems, ask questions, then don’t answer your own question. Wait. And wait. Repeat if necessary.

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k8nowak “Please don’t call me ‘Mom’. It makes my uterus clench in terror.” – Me to 5th period.

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SweenWSweens Recently all this evidence is pointing towards me being an adult… but I don’t buy it!

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RobertTalbert OH: “I love when I walk down this hallway and see all the lights on, because it means that mathematics is open!”

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approx_normal Student: “I heard our lesson is hard today.” Me: “What’d did you hear was so hard?” Student: “I heard we have to think.”

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CardsChic Busted. “How did you come up with this idea? Did you just make it up today, or did you steal it from someone on twitter?”

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hemantmehta I named my iPod “The Titanic,” so when I sync my iPod, it says “The Titanic is Syncing.” (via a student) #fb

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jimwysocki My seniors have so checked out. I got so annoyed with them today that I walked out of class.

SweenWSweens @jimwysocki One time I got so upset with one of my classes that I fake quit.

jbrtva @jimwysocki that’s how I felt today…with my Alg1 class (fresh/soph) #commisserating

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samjshah the most fabulous thing, though, was getting a HUG from @k8nowak. yes, you heard it here first. she does hug. you just have to booze her up.

dcox21 @samjshah @k8nowak She’d gonna punch you in the neck for hugging and telling.;-)

dcox21 @jybuell @samjshah @k8nowak I believe it happened. Didn’t you notice her talking about shoes last night? New shoes and hugs? What’s next?

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samjshah @RobertTalbert i just finished FTC II in calculus. that was … fun.

samjshah @RobertTalbert “WHY DO WE HAVE TO KNOW THIS?” “Because it is FUNDAMENTAL. And the sequel is better than the original.”

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lpudwell apparently “there are i balls in this box” sounds a lot like “there are eyeballs…” even to a combo class that’s used to balls in boxes. :)

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CmonMattTHINK In the future, if I ever tweet something about considering giving a take-home test, somebody please smack me upside the head.

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k8nowak @samjshah this tweet is coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE!

samjshah @k8nowak i see dead people. BRAINS, CLARICE.

cannonsr @samjshah @k8nowak Huh. Wouldn’t have pegged y’all to become a horror movie. But somehow not surprised.

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JackieB No idea what my husband is watching on the TV, but his yelling “Don’t look at the TV” did not have the intended effect. Gross.

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dcox21 Sorry, but you don’t prune cotton. #needaredstamp #FarmProject

k8nowak @dcox21 nobody needs that stamp. except you.

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k8nowak @jreulbach Find a worked out example you want to practice, put a blank page next to it & copy the problem. Cover the example with your hand.

k8nowak @jreulbach Do as much as you can, compare it to the existing work, copy when you need to. Repeat until you can do it without comparing.

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k8nowak By the way, if @samjshah ever offers you a tour of Brooklyn, take it. Trust me.

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dcox21 @k8nowak Honestly, while on the train, how many times did the phrase “no sleep till…” enter into your head?

k8nowak @dcox21 Wow. Zero. 7th grade me would be so disappointed in me.

dcox21 @k8nowak Oh, c’mon. I sang it at least 10 times cause I knew you were going.

k8nowak @dcox21 Well, 7th grade me thinks you’re rad.

dcox21 @k8nowak You just earned your 7th grade cred back with an appropriate use of “rad.”

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ThinkThankThunk @samjshah This twitter thing is totally worth it just for your links. I’m showing all of these videos tomorrow!

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k8nowak Der Subs: I don’t want to read an aria about how every kid deviated from acting like a perfect angel. Just effing deal with it.

k8nowak “Students asked questions about the yellow packet &the period ended before I started the lesson.” You were just. Supposed. To. Collect. It.

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samjshah @ddmeyer why are you not yet on this? http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hq=http:%2F%2Fmaps.google.com%2Fhelp%2Fmaps%2Fdirections%2Fbiking%2Fmapplet.kml&ie=UTF8&lci=bike&dirflg=b&hl=en&msa=0&msid=102961433061679876855.000484f12a77524f148fe&ll=40.713956,-74.003906&spn=61.260704,158.027344&z=3 ADD YOURSELF

ddmeyer @samjshah How do I do that? You and Riley are the only collaborators with editing privileges.

cannonsr @ddmeyer Really? The edit button was enough for the rest of us. (Maybe collaborate first.)

ddmeyer @cannonsr @samjshah Hmph. Edit button needs to be a little bigger if you ask me. I’m good now.

cannonsr @ddmeyer You’re the one with the Google connections to change it.

k8nowak @ddmeyer Agreed. If only we knew someone who worked at Google. We could tell them.

ddmeyer @cannonsr @k8nowak I’d rather blame @samjshah.

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Fouss @smallesttwine We had a fire drill when I was in hs and taking an AP test. Hmm – maybe that’s what I could blame my score on. :)

samjshah @Fouss i had to take my AP calc test in the autoshop room which smelled STRONGLY of bleach. why? kids earlier in the day pooped in the room.

samjshah @Fouss PLUS a horrible daddy long legs spider crawled on my desk. i am TERRIFIED of spiders. so i had to call the proctor over to remove it.

samjshah @Fouss there MIGHT have been some yelping and gasping and panting involved. you may cue your imagination of this scene in 3… 2… 1…

smallesttwine @samjshah AHHHH!!! I just actually screamed out loud. Not sure what is worse, poop or spider.

Fouss @samjshah Can’t stop LOL… seriously (or not, I guess). And yet you still got a 5, right?

Fouss @samjshah It’s the yelping and gasping and panting that’s killing me.

jreulbach @samjshah OMG, poop and spiders? What the hell goes on in shop class??

samjshah @Fouss obvi. neither autorooms nor bleach nor poop nor spiders shall keep this mathlete from the swift completion of his AP calc exam. 5.

Fouss @samjshah I would expect nothing less.

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sig225 It’s spelled i-s-o-s-c-e-l-e-s #needaredstamp Otherwise, it’s a comb & perms question given the number of different things students write

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hemantmehta An AP photographer was in my classroom today. I told the kids to applaud when I enter the room & bow down to me. They refused. Dammit. #fb

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dcox21 @samjshah But we could saddle one [spider] up and you can take it for a ride to the restaurant. Oh, well, your loss.

SweenWSweens I was thinking about not ebaying the 4th mathblogroadtripmobile seat and saving the room for my prized spider collection instead.

Fouss @samjshah I’ve got kids – I’m ok with shrieking. And as long as the blood is @SweenWSweens and not mine, go for it.

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samjshah there was almost no positive today, except for one thing, which was huge for me. one kid who i taught in 10th and 12th grade said that…

samjshah… he wanted to take me to college with him, because i was the only person who was able to make math make sense to him. i melted.

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samjshah you know when you feel like soon you’re going to have too many variables on the board and kids will freak out? http://brizzly.com/pic/2CTX

k8nowak @samjshah what are those green things? turnips?

dcox21 @samjshah @ddmeyer Kinda what I thought too.

park_star @k8nowak I was guessing sad apples.

CarissaJuneK OMG @samjshah…that log proof is amazing. I like the apples, cherries and bananas :)

samjshah @CarissaJuneK WINNER! she got all the fruits, because she has EYES. seriously, @k8nowak @park_star

k8nowak @park_star maybe the bananas are sad. you know, since they are blue.

park_star @k8nowak good point. I was actually going to say colorabi, but then I wasn’t sure if anyone would know what that was.

dcox21 @CarissaJuneK @samjshah I think those “apples” are tomatillos.;-) @k8nowak

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samjshah @ddmeyer might you promote @k8nowak‘s binomial expansion contest on your blog? i bet we could get some good fodder for convo from these vids

jybuell @samjshah I’m hurt u didn’t ask me to promote. Over 12% of the people who share half of my genes have read at least one post

jybuell @samjshah I’ll just tell all my subscribers about it next sunday dinner

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SweenWSweens @hemantmehta @jbrtva Make sure you go out for coffee afterwards. ZING! I’ve been waiting on bringing that one back for months now.

jbrtva @SweenWSweens @hemantmehta We’ve affirmed our “just friends” status long ago…coffee shops unnecessary. :-) well played, though

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Fouss @samjshah I killed a spider in my closet today and thought of you.

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misscalcul8 Give time limits. Students don’t pay attention to 5, 10, 15. Try 7. #pippens

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cannonsr @JackieB @ddmeyer 1 of 3) Been trolling the academic journals. Keep running into conclusion….

cannonsr @JackieB @ddmeyer 2 of 3) that building online communities apart from physical ones doesn’t happen often.

cannonsr @JackieB @ddmeyer 3 of 3) Frustrated by my reality vs research reality. Given my position, that’s not a bad thing.

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sumidiot getting excited about spending my evening proctoring an exam. wait, what? no, that’s not right. dammit.