Author: samjshah

A binomial expansion throwdown. You in?

Oh k8, my k8, has thrown down the gauntlet. Or in more modern day kid-speak, she asked you to “BRING IT ON!” (That’s Kate Nowak, for y’all.)

A while ago, she scoured every nook and corner online for videos teaching the binomial expansion, or for some ideas which make the teaching of it… well… not excruciatingly boring. Actual videos that didn’t make her want to stab her eyes out, they didn’t quite exist.

So she’s asking you to: make one. Anything that’s better than what’s out there.

You have weeks to do it (deadline: May 27th). She’s offering some sort of t-shirt prize. I’ll sweeten the pot. If we get 7 or more video submissions, I’ll buy the winner a copy of that Lemov book that the New York Times article featured a few months ago (as long as you don’t live somewhere with crazy shipping costs). And if you own that (or don’t want it), I’ll buy you some insanely cool math book. Yes, this is my own money. No, I don’t know why I’m doing this, since I’m pretty poor.

So when Kate says “BRING IT ON!” I hope you enter so you can say “IT’S ALREADY BEEN BROUGHTEN!”

Also, if you have a math or math teacher blog and want to spread this around, that would be super duper awesome.

I love when kids stump me

So in multivariable calculus, it happens a lot. Most of the time, I can work things out and come back with a cogent response, and occasionally, I turn to you good folk. Today I was stumped, and then worked through it, and felt all proud of myself for about 60 minutes after I was able to figure things out. Here’s the set up and the problem:

Today, I met with a student who is working on an awesome end-of-year project on center of masses. Basically, he’s making a bunch of semi-complex foam figures (with some other materials, like wooden dowels). He’s going to multivariable calculus to find the center of mass for these figures. Then he’s going to paint them black, mark the center of mass with neon orange, and toss them in the air while video taping it.

He was inspired to do so by this video I found online:

He’s going to throw the video he makes of his own crazy figures into LoggerPro (but Tracker would work just fine) and see if he gets a parabola.

One of his objects is going to be something like 2/3 or 3/4 of a foam torus. He was having trouble finding the center of mass of it. The first thing we did was simplify the problem — changing the 3D foam figure of uniform density into a 1D bent wire of uniform density.

For the problem, we assumed 3/4 of a circular wire and we gave it a radius of 1.

Then the question was to find the center of mass for this thing. Clearly it won’t be on the wire [1], so you can think of it as such: if you wrapped the wire in super strong but super duper infinitely light saran wrap, and then you wanted to balance this wire+saran wrap figure on a pencil point, where would you place the pencil point?

So I’ll admit that I struggled — but not as much as I anticipated. I started from first principles when solving the problem (cutting the wire into a finite number of pieces, and then making a Riemann Sum). And then this method allows me to find the center of mass no matter how much of the torus I have, whether it be 2/3 or 3/4 or e/pi.

I’m sure there’s an easy way to do this — much easier than reducing the problem to first principles and starting from scratch. But now that I have, I am pretty darn proud of myself. I think I understand the problem, now that I can look back at it, at a much deeper level. I can see symmetry arguments and how they come into play through the algebra, from working it out. I also can see how I can solve this sort of problem given any bent wire (any wire which I can describe parametrically, anyway). So yeah, I got a little bit… glowey.

My favorite part of solving this (which involved discovering the error which confounded me for 5 minutes!) is when I ended up with:

\int_o^{end} r\cos(\theta)\sqrt{1+\cot^2(\theta)}*-r\sin(\theta)d\theta

Immediately I wanted to convert \sqrt{1+\cot^2(\theta)} to 1/\sin(\theta) and have that cancel with the other \sin(\theta) in the integral. That’s when I realized my huge mistake… after 5 minutes of hunting.

You can’t assume that \sqrt{1+\cot^2(\theta)}=1/\sin(\theta). In fact, it equals 1/|\sin(\theta)|. And this small distinction makes all the difference in the world!

No, there isn’t any advice for you, and this isn’t about things I’m doing in my class, or even me fretting about how I’m not doing an amazing job. This blog also acts as a little digital archive, and I wanted to set aside this little glowey moment.

And if you’re wondering, I’m going to let my student sweat it out, and keep on working at it, until we next meet. If he hasn’t had that moment of insight yet, I’ll help him out.

PS. If you want to work out this problem or any variation, and come up with some beautiful and elegant solution (which y’all are oh so amazing at!!!), feel free to throw your thoughts/approaches/etc. in the comments.

[1] What he’s going to do, in order to throw it, is to put two or three light toothpicks in this partial torus, with a neon orange sticker attached to the toothpicks where the center of mass is calculated to be.

Topic Lists, Reprise: Obvious and yet, I never would have thought of it

This idea totally came from someone else, and I’m awful for not remembering who from the math-teacher-edu-blogosphere came up with it. But it’s just such an awesome idea, and I wanted to spread the love. If this is your idea, just throw the original post down in the comments, and I’ll be sure to add a huge giant link to it so you can have credit.

It could be really useful if you’re trying to help kids get organized for an end-of-year exam.

I wrote a while ago (causing some chafing for a few) about how I give my kids topic lists before major assessments.

They used to look like this:

Now, I’ve added a single image, in order to help students more effectively learn how to study:

So you can see what it looks like in it’s final glory…

It’s a little late in the year to make this effective, but I’m hoping it’s helped a few kids identify where they should focus their (precious and limited) time studying. If a student bombs an assessment, when I meet with them, I can ask them to pull out their topic list with these little boxes filled out, and we can start a conversation correlating their assessment with their filled out topic list.

(Of course, this is after the all important question: “Tell me how you prepared for the assessment. In detail. Don’t leave anything out.”)

Weights! Goldsmiths! Optimization!

I am in a problem solving group at my school, and I took 45 minutes of one of our sessions to lead a mock class. Not really mock, to be fair. I assumed I’d have 3 math teachers and 2 science teachers as my class, and I wanted a problem which would get them to think, work together, and also let me guide without leading (or is it lead without guiding).

The problem I chose was exactly the problem that Brent just wrote about on The Math Less Traveled: the broken weight problem.

A merchant had a forty pound measuring weight that broke into four pieces as the result of a fall. When the pieces were subsequently weighed, it was found that the weight of each piece was a whole number of pounds and that the four pieces could be used to weigh every integral weight between 1 and 40 pounds. What were the weights of the pieces? [I gave the problem with ounces.]

I have to say that I was really thrilled that I was able to get them to a solution, with very little nudging. I let them take their time. I started them out by giving them slips of paper of various sizes with corresponding weights written on them, and asked them to use those weights to be able to weigh something like 10 ozs. I helped them organize their thoughts with observations, and I helped them latch onto key ideas once they emerged. I never gave the key ideas, and I didn’t push. It was awesome to witness them work together.

It was also surprising in two other ways:

1. I had the pathway in mind that I thought they were going to take — basically a recursive approach. They did not go that way, and it was afterwards — when examining the problem once they had the solution – that they saw the recursion.

2. I had prepared two “hint cards.” They were written on origami paper and folded up — because, why not? I told ’em that if they all agreed, they could take the first hint card, and if they felt they really needed it, they could have the second hint card. They didn’t take any of ’em. I thought they would. In fact, I predicted that they would get frustrated and take the first one pretty quickly, so I put on the first hint card: “YOU CAN DO IT! Keep working at least for another 5 minutes.” It wasn’t a hint, but a “work through frustration” note. The second card had a hint leading them to recursion (saying something like “What if you only had any 2 weights… what would they be so that you can weigh the most: 1 oz? 2 ozs? 3ozs? 4 ozs? …”)

As a result of watching them operate, and places they struggled (including understanding the problem!), I wanted to challenge myself.

How could I create a formal lesson plan for this? A lesson plan that guides without leading.

Here’s my first crack at it (PDF here):

PS. Yes, I know there’s a typo in question 1.

Solution to the “what curve is this?” problem

So a while ago I posted a problem that me and another teacher worked on in our problem solving group. We didn’t have the most elegant solution (that honor goes to Jake), But I think it is slightly qualitatively different than the solutions posed in the comments of the original post. Our solution involved systems of equations and parametric equations and L’Hopital’s rule.  Yup, believe it or not, L’Hopital arose naturally in the wild, and when I was coming up with my plan of attack, I suspected it would if things were going right.

To remind you, I wanted to find the equation for this blue curve:

(If you want more details, just check out the original problem.)

So here it goes.

The crucial question we asked ourselves is: if we drew all the red lines, where would the blue line come from?

The answer, which was fundamental for our solution, was: if we drew two red lines which were infinitessimally close to each other, their intersection would give us one point on the blue curve. Think about that. That is the key insight. The rest is algebra. If we could find all these intersection points, they form the line.

So we picked two points close to each other: one with endpoints (a,0) and (0,5-a) and the other with endpoints (a+\epsilon,0) and (0,5-a-\epsilon).

Notice that as we bring \epsilon closer and closer to 0, these two lines are getting closer and closer to being identical. But right now, \epsilon is just any number.

So the first line is (in slope-intercept form): y=-\frac{5-a}{a}x+5-a (any of the red lines)
And the second line is: y=-\frac{5-a-\epsilon}{a+\epsilon}x+5-a-\epsilon (any of the other red lines)

We want to find the point of intersection. So setting the ys equal to each other and solving for x, we get:

x=\frac{\epsilon}{\frac{5-a}{a}-\frac{5-a-\epsilon}{a+\epsilon}}

Of course now we want to see what happens to the intersection point as we bring the two lines infinitely close together. So we are going to take the limit as \epsilon approaches 0.

x_{blue}=\lim_{\epsilon \to 0} \frac{\epsilon}{\frac{5-a}{a}-\frac{5-a-\epsilon}{a+\epsilon}}

Notice you’ll see that we get a 0/0 form if we just plug in \epsilon=0, so we must L’Hopital it!

When we do that (remember we take the derivative of the numerator and denominator with respect to \epsilon), we find that:

x_{blue}=\frac{a^2}{5}.

And plugging that into our equation for the first line, we find that the y_{blue} coordinate is:

y_{blue}=\frac{(a-5)^2}{5}

At this point, we rejoyce and do the DANCE OF JOY!

GAAAK! Almost. You silly fools. You’re like my kids, who get so proud when they do the hard part of a problem, that they forget what the question is asking and move on to the next problem. We still don’t have an equation. And what does (x_{blue},y_{blue}) mean anyway?

To start, that point represents the intersection point of two lines infinitesimally close to each other in our family of red lines above. But this a business? It’s confusing. I like to think of it like a parameter! As I move a between 0 and 5, I am going to get out all the points on the blue curve.

So how do I find this curve? Exactly how I would if these were parametric equations:

x=\frac{a^2}{5} and y=\frac{(a-5)^2}{5}.

I take the first equation and solve it for a: a=\sqrt{5x}.

I then plug that value into the second equation for y: y=\frac{(\sqrt{5x}-5)^2}{5}.

And we’re done! We graph to confirm:

And now, indeed, we may do the dance of joy!

Guest Post: On Being Yourself While Doing Math

I got an email from Rebecca Zook, who is a fellow math blogger, who was partially inspired by a post from forever ago (“Don’t Judge a Book By…“), asking me if I wanted a guest post on the same theme. Well, I’ve never had a guest post, and this is a darn good one, and now is as good a time as any! So without any more fuss and muss…


On Being Yourself While Doing Math­
by Rebecca Zook

When I met my new math tutoring student and her mom wearing my celery green pantaloons and a dress that made me look like a fluffy yellow daffodil, I wasn’t sure how they would react.

They looked at each other.  They smiled with relief.  And then, they beamed at me.  Next we got down to business and had a massively productive tutoring session.

This experience caused me to reconsider my entire philosophy of teaching attire.

My whole life I’ve had my own distinct style, whether that meant wearing galoshes without socks regardless of the weather (preschool) or making a dress printed with the solar system from an old curtain I found at Goodwill (high school).

But I started my career as a math educator by teaching SAT math for a big corporate test prep company.  So, despite the fact that they hired me when I was wearing a homemade miniskirt printed with text from a French nursery rhyme and pictures of chickens, once I got into the classroom, I seriously curtailed my exuberance and dressed for my teacher-role.  My efforts to wear business casual mainly consisted of me wearing the same pair of black slacks almost every time I taught.

Later, when I left the corporate world and started my own math tutoring practice, I still felt the need to dress “professionally” when I began to meet one-on-one with my own clients.  I worried that if I really dressed like myself—instead of some idea of what a female math tutor should look like—students or parents would get turned off or distracted by my clothes.

But I started to ask myself, why was it “educational” to pretend to be less fabulous than I really am?  Why not wear a really awesome outfit to teach in instead of trying to “look normal”?

In that moment, walking towards my new student and her mom, what I experienced was nothing like I’d feared.  It was something totally different: appreciation, excitement, and even recognition.

What the heck was going on here?   Why were they so clearly excited about me looking so different than they expected?  They might just be relieved that I was a female math tutor that wasn’t afraid to be girly, or something.

Or, it might just be because my new immaculately student, who frequently came to tutoring sessions wearing a pristine corset paired with bloomers, high-heeled knee-high boots, and antique goggles perched on her head, just approved of my weird style.

But then I remembered some of my different students’ styles: the 18-year-old homeschooler with blond dreadlocks and a torso-length tattoo of a Buddhist goddess; the fifth grader wearing her private school uniform who fervently professed her love of Abercrombie; the seventh grader who wore classic rock t-shirts and cherished her florescent vintage sunglasses from the ‘80s.

I realized it was something completely different than my students liking my style.

It’s about being yourself while doing math.

I want to create a space where my students feel they can create their own solutions and find what’s best for them.   I want to help my students gain true confidence in who they are, whether that means how they dress or how they think.

When a student spontaneously makes up a song about even numbers to the tune of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”, or leaps out of their chair to spin a certain number of degrees to solve an angle measurement problem, I feel I’ve succeeded in helping them be comfortable with themselves and asserting their own choices.

Maybe finding and embracing your own learning style isn’t that different from finding your own fashion style.

Maybe I’m crazy here, but when students only see one kind of person doing math, maybe they’re getting a message that they have to be a certain kind of person or dress a certain kind of way to be good at math.

I believe that you do not need to restrain your awesomeness/exuberance to kick butt at math.  In fact, the same passion, sense of adventure, and endurance that may lead someone to get a full torso tattoo of a deity can also serve them while mastering math problems.

You can learn math no matter what you look like, whether you’re into dressing like a daffodil, a Buddhist punk, or an Abercrombie fiend.  And you definitely don’t have to act, or look, boring.
BIO: Guest blogger Rebecca Zook is an online female math tutor who has been helping students get math into their brains for seven years.  Her blog, Triangle Suitcase, is about unpacking the process of learning in all its complexity, frustration, and delight.

MY THOUGHTS: If you’ve ever met me in real life (well, only two or three of you have), you know I am a lot of … something. And I love that about me. In high school, I was big into shopping at thrift stores and pairing together plaid golf pants with a pair of silver spray painted shoes with a ratty old tshirt. I was a clothing bricoleur. There are lots of reasons for that, but the consequence was that my sense of self was tied up in how I dressed. I saw myself as an unconventional almalgam, and my clothes were a conscious reflection of that. Well, because of that, I fully support students expressing that sense of self. And Rebecca has tied this same thing — this sense of individuality and choice and confidence — to how students do math. I like that. I also really was struck by this line:

Maybe I’m crazy here, but when students only see one kind of person doing math, maybe they’re getting a message that they have to be a certain kind of person or dress a certain kind of way to be good at math.

Holla! That gets to the crux of why diversity is important. It’s why we need female science teachers teaching AP courses, and female leaders in student goverment, and a diversity of ethnicities, religions, and sexual orientations in visible places in schools. You don’t need to be a guy to be great at math, and you can be gay and good at sports, and you can be a girl and in charge of student government. So yeah, it’s just clothing. But it’s kind of something more, if you look at it from a slightly different angle.

Favorite Tweets #4

Here’s #1 and #2 and #3.

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msgregson @k8nowak facebook is suggesting that we be facebook friends … how does it know? wierd.

Fouss @msgregson @k8nowak Facebook is kinda scary sometimes…

k8nowak @msgregson @fouss we have a mutual friend @calcdave. I blame him.

calcdave @msgregson @Fouss @k8nowak Mwa ha ha! My evil plan is coming together.

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samjshah @dcox21 Q: are you at the point where you are going to get a whistle like captain von trapp? “i’m incouragable!” “i don’t need a governess”

k8nowak lol @samjshah The @dcox211 children don’t play! They march!

k8nowak @samjshah @dcox21 21, even!

dcox21 @samjshah No whistle for me. I pick ’em off one at a time.

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Fouss @msgregson I just wonder if there are other little groups of math teachers floating around. Or if we’re “it”.

msgregson @Fouss ohmygosh! i wondered the same thing!

calcdave @Fouss Well, most of the cool ones are here already it seems, eh?

Fouss @calcdave @msgregson True. They couldn’t be any cooler than we are. :)

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JackieB Hey, I made it into @samjshah‘s favorite tweets post! Sorta. I quoted @chrislehmann. Alas, I guess my students are right – I’m not funny.

samjshah @JackieB that’s definitely the takeaway from this comprehensive and exhaustive list that i’ve painstakingly constructed. definitely.

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k8nowak @samjshah FINE. I’ll order a SHIRT.

cannonsr I finally got to wear my Twitter t-shirt today! Thanks @samjshah. (Join the club @k8nowak!)

JackieB @k8nowak Can you get me one too while you’re at it?

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k8nowak Matt & Scott just stopped by for a game of “one-dimensional infinite tic tac toe.” Matt: “It’s pretty much the worst game ever.”

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CardsChic @misscalcul8 @k8nowak Speed dating game and they do all the work?? I’m listening…

misscalcul8 @CardsChic http://function-of-time.blogspot.com/2009/10/speed-dating.html

k8nowak @CardsChic http://function-of-time.blogspot.com/2009/10/speed-dating.html

misscalcul8 @k8nowak lol

k8nowak @misscalcul8 tweet collision!

CardsChic @misscalcul8 @k8nowak Haha! Thanks – I’ll have to add that to my list… and this is why I love Twitter. :)

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misscalcul8 I feel like suh a bad teacher when I give out worksheets.

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CmonMattTHINK One of my advisees audibly contemplated inducing vomiting so as to get out of going to her Precalc class.

CmonMattTHINK Don’t really want to think about how many students have considered that course of action for my classes…

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MitchKeller An unnamed colleague: “If I were going to go back in time and kill someone, [Walter Rudin] would be at the top of my list.”

CmonMattTHINK @samjshah I feel the same about the similarly-named Royden, whose Real Analysis text I regularly referred to as “Hemorrhoyden.”

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busynessgirl At the point where you accidentally “grade” the answer key, it’s time to go home.

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BuiltOnFacts When the department email begins with “Here is an update on the odor in the building”, I am not optimistic.

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dcox21 @samjshah I’m really liking you for putting all those great resources in one place. I forgive you for not taking me up on the dinner offer.

samjshah @dcox21 and i thought you liked me for my dashing good looks and quirky sense of humor. you are SO superficial.

dcox21 @samjshah That too. 140 characters, you know.

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calcdave Somedays it just feels like this: http://bit.ly/aaAsRV

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k8nowak For a while there I thought it was Thursday then I realized it’s Wednesday but we have Friday off anyway so it’s all good.

calcdave @k8nowak :-| :-( :-D

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k8nowak If one more kid comes up and says “Calculator?” with out any additional words, or a “please,” I’m going to shove one up his butt.

misscalcul8 @k8nowak You didn’t wanna say butt, did you?

k8nowak @misscalcul8 Rage. I have it.

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revrev “Oh yeah? If I die my ghost is going to haunt you!” “Yeah? Well your ghost is going to see some disgusting stuff.”

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BuiltOnFacts Last famous physicist/writer to visit campus: Roger Penrose. Got his autograph on his book. Next week: S. Hawking. Autograph less likely.

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samjshah @k8nowak http://brizzly.com/pic/1Y7D and i definitely think i should get points for saying “peggy hill”

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madcaptenor Human beings bond by talking shit about other human beings. This is why I don’t like human beings, and identify as an icosahedron.

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samjshah okay just two more comments to write tonight. both are really hard kids to write about… tricky situations…

k8nowak @samjshah “Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap.”

k8nowak @samjshah “This young lady has delusions of adequacy.”

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calcdave How do you solve an integral like Maria?

CmonMattTHINK @calcdave I’m guessing with inverse tangents. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_of_Agnesi

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CardsChic Me: I’m not touching that with a 10 foot pole. Boy: How about a 9 foot one? #ILoveMyStudents

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JackieB If you share your deepest fears about yourself as a teacher with someone, and they start laughing, does that mean your fears are unfounded?

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msgregson My favorite users are @misscalcul8 @Fouss @samjshah ! Perhaps this is love ;) http://twtlab.com/love/

samjshah @msgregson perhaps this IS love… like the “mmm cheesy fries” love, though, not the “put a ring on it” love

msgregson @samjshah how did you know that cheese fries are my favorite? you really know the way to a girls’ heart.

samjshah @msgregson then when you come to NYC, we have to go to a place i discovered this weekend, with the best OOEY GOOEY CHEESY TOTS!!!!!!!

msgregson @samjshah i like how you said “when you come”, not “if you come” … it IS love. :) and, yes, it’s a date, when i come!

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park_star my students have started making fun of one another by calling each other “cylons.” i heart nerds.

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pepepacha Good Idea: Having my 8th graders prepare a math fair for our elementary students to distract them from premature “senioritis”

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CmonMattTHINK If f & g are both increasing on a given interval, then so is fg. If true, prove it; if false, give a counterexample. (LOVE q’s like this)

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ddmeyer “Death march to calculus” is my favorite new expression. #ncsm

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ddmeyer What’s your #NCTM day 1 scorecard? I posted 3 walkouts and 2 headbangers that tossed my grey matter like a spinach salad. Overall, a win.

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k8nowak @JackieB Normally I can’t help but make my sarcastic comments out loud. I make a lot of friends at conferences.

jbrtva @k8nowak @JackieB I, too, love making snarky comments at conferences to make friends with the people around me. :-)

k8nowak @JackieB @jimwysocki @jbrtva To clarify, by “make a lot of friends,” I meant “totally alienate everyone within earshot.”

k8nowak @JackieB @jimwysocki @jbrtva But hey, if you don’t have anything nice to say, sit next to me!

cannonsr @JackieB @k8nowak et al. I write the snarks in my notes. And pass to share with the neighbors.

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jimwysocki Got a take-away from my first session. Challenge students to bring in problems for me, demonstrate struggling.

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jreulbach @Fouss they will – too much! Better review your calm down quote. I say 3-2-1 they say math is fun.

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samjshah i’m jealous, all. can we plan to go to a conference together next yr? maybe we should just plan our OWN small conference abt blogging?

samjshah that last tweet was for everyone at NCTM and everyone else who is JEALOUS of them. im kinda serious about hosting a conference. NYC?

k8nowak @samjshah How about next Wednesday?! j/k. I think some prior coordination to invade a conference would be nice.

SweenWSweens @samjshah I’m in, got such an idea in October, but was waiting for more street cred to suggest it.

SweenWSweens @samjshah @k8nowak I see Kate’s idea and raise October Baltimore NCTM. Also, NYC is prolly too far north for them VA and NC peeps.

CmonMattTHINK @samjshah @k8nowak @SweenWSweens I can just see submitting the PD $ proposal… “Location: various bars in NYC…”

dcox21 @samjshah Thinking the same thing. Think I’d get more from talking to people I already know I respect than from rolling dice on conference.

mctownsley @dcox21 @samjshah what’s the name of this math/blogging/twitter/teaching crew? seems like a good start for a mini-conference

samjshah @dcox21 @CmonMattTHINK @k8nowak @SweenWSweens i know the good ones, just so you know. the right mix of dive and quality craft beers.

SweenWSweens @samjshah @dcox21 @CmonMattThink @k8nowak There’s gotta be bars in NYC that sound like they could be conference venues.

samjshah 1. go to NCTM conference, 2. meetup at nyc bars, 3. hold our own miniconference (designed to be useful), 4. do nothing and let the idea die

cannonsr @SweenWSweens Like the bars called “The library” near university campuses. Totally

jreulbach @samjshah YOu had me at NYC bars…

k8nowak @samjshah et. al. An unconference. Like BarCamp.

jreulbach @k8nowak Bar camp?

samjshah @k8nowak et al. yes. our own format. about interactivity, convos, playing with the web. less about leaders and more about those coming.

k8nowak @jreulbach http://lmgtfy.com/?q=barcamp

samjshah @k8nowak wow, i’ve seen that *in theory* before (see this cool site), but never used in practice. OH SNAP!!! @jreulbach got served!

SweenWSweens @samjshah Sounds like those venues are the start of a sweet summer 2010 “conference” where we could brainstorm about any future ones.

k8nowak @samjshah @jreulbach I feel kind of bad for picking on the noob. Sorry. I’ve been waiting for an excuse to use lmgtfy.

k8nowak @SweenWSweens @samjshah Yes. This calls for a preconference planning conference.

jreulbach I am in for summer. No kiddo or new job conflicts…

jreulbach @samjshah Can’t believe you said OH SNAP!! LMAO.

SweenWSweens @samjshah @k8nowak Any1 else close ? The Internet is so weird, everyone is so spread out. How do the tubes bring things so from so far away?

k8nowak @SweenWSweens Well, see, it’s a SERIES of tubes.

k8nowak @SweenWSweens @samjshah I don’t know who else is near-ish, but we could announce on blogs and see who bites.

CmonMattTHINK @SweenWSweens @samjshah @k8nowak Yeah how does there not exist a Google Map or something with all of our locations on it?

samjshah @k8nowak @CmonMattTHINK here’s our map! enter your info! (unless you tweeted about a map when i was making one) 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=40.670125,-73.955283&spn=0.00721,0.01929&z=16

SweenWSweens @samjshah Ugh haytchu, I was literally typing the one I had just made in. You win this round! But watch your back!

samjshah @SweenWSweens *pffffft*

cannonsr @samjshah Loving how this map has 63 views within 10 minutes.

SweenWSweens @samjshah @k8nowak I’m not sure posting on my blog will help, as seen in figure 1-a http://mobile.tweetphoto.com/19648985

dcox21 @sweenwsweens @k8nowak @samjshah If you look reeeeeal close… #photocaps http://twitpic.com/1hwwir

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samjshah ha! my dad sometimes sends me random links he thinks i might find interesting. today he sent me a link to @ddmeyer‘s blog. HA!

ddmeyer @samjshah My folks do that too. Can’t decide whether to be insulted or worried.

SweenWSweens @samjshah next week your mom will send you a link to my blog!

samjshah @SweenWSweens @cannonsr i feel there is a good “yo mama” joke in all of this. i just am not all that excited to hear it.

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ddmeyer Becker. Developing computation. 6F. “Take one of each.” Okay. #nctm10 http://yfrog.com/5m4mswj

k8nowak @ddmeyer Wow. I hope you brought the big backpack.

ddmeyer @k8nowak Seriously. And check this: he just ran out of handouts and has offered to send them out to latecomers … BY US POSTAL MAIL!

dcox21 @ddmeyer @k8nowak What’d he make those handouts with a typewriter?

dcox21 @ddmeyer @k8nowak Upside: at least he didn’t use Comic Sans

dcox21 @ddmeyer If I caught the sacrasm, you had enough. Note to tweeps: if Dan starts out with “Hey, guys,” it’s gonna be sarcastic.

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ddmeyer Hey you guys! Has anybody heard anything about this “Singapore Math”?! #nctm10

ddmeyer Obvs. I didn’t pour enough sarcasm onto my last tweet. I’m drinking a shot of Wild Turkey whenever a presenter refers to “Singapore Math.”

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dcox21 @JackieB @cassyt @jimwysocki @ddmeyer Hug? What was this, an English teachers conference?

CardsChic @dcox21 @JackieB Wait… so since I teach English for 1/8 of my day, is it okay that some of my students want to hug me sometimes? ;)

JackieB @dcox21 Yeah, I admit it. I hugged at NCTM.