Weekly POPS

Have you ever tossed a puzzle at one of your students? Y'know, the puzzles kids can play around with using their hands and minds? It's crazy, right?! It's fascinating to watch a student display a wide range of behaviors: curiosity, engagement, perseverance, frustration, and an earnest desire to know the solution if they get fatigued and stumped. I have a couple bins full of puzzles in my classrooms that do this to kids. Students rarely have a chance to play with them, but when they do, they go bonkers in a good way. Occasionally, you'll hear a triumphant yell when someone solves a puzzle. Other students look in disbelief. It's hilarious. My collection of puzzles ranges from the Bedlam Cube (now known as Crazee Cube), to Cannonball Pyramids, to the Rubik's Cube, to Tangrams, to ThinkFun puzzles, to other miscellaneous puzzles I've picked up over the years. A few weeks ago, I was driving home and wanted to know if there was something I could do in math that had a similar magical effect on kids.

Have you ever tossed a puzzle at one of your students? The ones on paper that require logic and critical thinking? Those are crazy too! Kids can really get into them. Around the same time I was thinking about the power of physical puzzles, my school wanted to revamp our weekly intervention/study-hall period. I thought students could benefit from working on logic puzzles, patterns, or Get to Ten. I went to a resource called The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles and Problems by Martin Gardner in which Fawn recommended. I came across this Billiard Balls gem in which I remade for my students:

So I got to thinking and thought of some inspirational people/things from my PLN. I've always wanted to incorporate Fawn's Visual Patterns into my classroom more, especially with it's beautiful new makeover. Fawn is also known for her weekly problem-solving tasks. I've also wanted to incorporate more PoWs from the Math Forum. The Math Forum has an abundance of problem-solving tasks that range in difficulty across grade levels. Sign up, yo! Last but not least, Dan Meyer had impeccable timing and recently wrote a very invigorating post on [Fake World] Conjectures that has created quite the buzz in the comments. Personally, he struck a chord with me as he ended it saying:

Find those puzzles in the real world, the fake world, the job world, or any other world - it doesn't matter.

His post and quote made my day (with a smile).

The result of all these crazy things: Weekly POPS.

POPS stands for:

• Patterns (or puzzles like the Billiard Balls above)
• Order of Operations (Get to 10 or Get to 24)
• Problem-Solving

Patterns (or puzzles):
I will include a pattern either from Visual Patterns or one I create. As you can see from the handout below, it's similar to Fawn's form. I am adding a section for students to describe the pattern in their own words. If I decide not to do a pattern that week, I'll do some type of puzzle like the Billiard Ball puzzle above.

Order of Operations:
Students are to use the four given numbers and mathematical operations, symbols, and/or notations to get to the values of ten (or twenty-four). As you can see from the handout, students need to write the expression and evaluate it correctly using Order of Operations (or PEMDAS).

Problem-Solving:
Definitely one of the most important parts of the Weekly POPS, problem-solving. Right now, I'm finding old PoWs from the Math Forum's library to share with my students. As you can see from the handout, be sure to include the Math Forum's copyright information when photocopying. I'm looking for students to organize their work, demonstrate their solution strategy, and think critically.

My goal with Weekly POPS is to get students to really think critically and problem-solve. Why? because they so desperately need it. It's challenging, demanding, and necessary. There's a slight puzzle feel to POPS. Students have really been into it this week.

Students receive the POPS every Friday and have a week to complete it. They'll turn it in the following Friday and receive a new POPS. I've invested a lot of time in class this week going over my expectations, but will use Monday and Tuesday next week to show my classes student POPS that are exemplars, average, and sucky. I told them, "You earn a zero on your POPS, it's the same as POOPS."

I look forward to this adventure with my kids. Here's a folder with the POPS I've created so far. Feel free to join in the action. If this link is broken, please notify me and I'll fix it, unless your name is Fawn.

[UPDATE]: Check out Piles of Tiles that can be used in place of patterns. (12-27-2013)

POPS,
951

Garage Jams are my #TMC13

Divisible by 3 is usually used for math talk. It's summer and this post has nothing to do with math. It's just a post about something I love to do, play live music. While so many fun people are enjoying their time in Philadelphia at Twitter Math Camp (#TMC13) this week, I've had the pleasure to jam with my nephew and edit some of the video we captured. For those of you looking for math stuff, my next few posts will definitely be filled with math... trust me.

I set my Flip camera on a tripod in the corner of my garage for capturing my nephew on drums and I taped a GoPro camera (thanks Karim) to the headstock of my guitar for those guitar licks. Here's a quick soundcheck:

My nephew and I get together every so often to jam. We mainly rock out to songs by our favorite artists or songs from the bands I was in during college. Last summer, he added drums to my PEMDAS song. Between the two of us, we'll choose a few songs, practice them individually, come together, talk about a few transitions or endings, count off, and then rock out! Everything here is our first take. I'll start you off with Jimi Hendrix's Spanish Castle Magic found on his album Axis: Bold As Love.

As you can see, we're not trying to nail these songs note for note. We enjoy adding our own style, sound, or feel to the songs we cherish while maintaing the integrity of the original. It's just drums and guitar in case you're wondering why there isn't any thumping bass or screaming vocals. I'm using the audio from the GoPro camera which ended up capturing the sound decently. As for the following songs, the camera definitely picked up more drums than guitar in the mix. That's okay because we're not out to release this stuff for a record deal. This is just pure fun and I'm using this creative space to post it. Up next, Rage Against the Machine's Guerrilla Radio found on their album The Battle of Los Angeles.

Tom Morello comes up with these simple, yet powerful riffs while adding some slick effects to his overall sound and solos. It's always fun and challenging for me to figure out what he's actually using and playing. We had a few other jams on 2013-07-23, but this will be the last one I share here. You'll find updates inside this Vimeo Album. We both enjoy Incubus and have jammed to many of their songs. This last song was a last minute decision, but I think it turned out alright. Here's Blood on the Ground from their Morning View album.

It's always a blast getting together with my nephew. He's off to college in the Fall and our opportunities to get together and jam will be fewer. Maybe we can jam via Google Hangout! It's been a pleasure to watch him improve at drumming over the years and really have a wonderful ear and talent for music. As promised, this post has nothing to do with math. I'm not rambling about how jealous I am of those at Twitter Math Camp because live music truly has a special place in my heart. I'll return in a couple of days with some thoughts as I prepare for my CMC South presentation in November.

Jam,
1203

PEMDAS song

I finally recorded my PEMDAS song!
Listen/Download here.

*[Update] Here's a video for those visual learners: Vimeo or YouTube.

PEMDAS from Mr.Stadel on Vimeo.

I know, I know, I know... math teachers need another PEMDAS song just as much as we need another Michael Bolton ballad. Oh well! I wrote this song a few years ago and brought it into my students at the beginning of the year. I think I had reached the point as a teacher where I didn't like any other PEMDAS song I came across (sure, call me a snob). I was getting more comfortable as a teacher, making a fool of myself in front of my students. And if there was one math concept to write a song about, Order of Operations was it!  I had a couple of lines that made sense lyrically. I picked up my acoustic guitar, threw down a few chords, and put some lyrics to PEMDAS. I wanted to keep it short, to the point, have a call and response feel, and something my students could remember for the rest of the year. Mastering Order of Operations at the beginning of the year pays dividends throughout the year.

Sorry, I'm not here to discuss where Order of Operations came from, why does it exist, or what underground math cult magically persuaded the entire universe to evaluate mathematical expressions in the way we do. My twitter cohorts @MrPicc112, @jreulback, @druinok, @ChrisHunter36, @fnoschese, and @ray_emily had a fantastic discussion the other week. It would be nice to know why, where, and how Order of Operations came to be. However, I've reached the point of acceptance. Honestly! I've learned to accept acceptance. So, on with the show.

I get together with my nephew (16 years younger and still in HS) and we jam out to our favorite bands in my garage every once in a while. This last time we jammed, I asked him to throw a beat down for my PEMDAS song since I actually wanted to record it. Being the phenomenal young drummer that he is, he was happy to do so! He did a fantastic job in about 10 minutes. Every other noise you hear is me... guitar, bass, and vocals. So at least the drumming is good. You don't dig it, blame everything on me. I dig it! Many of my former students dig the song and sometimes sing it back to me in class. Very cool. Many times throughout the year, all I have to say is, "Parentheses" and without skipping a beat, the students respond, "Start with these."

If you decide to torture your students with the PEMDAS song, here are a few tips:
1. Do a 'call & response.' You start each line of the verse and they finish it:
Teacher: Parentheses
Students: Start with these
2. Tell your students it will only take a minute to learn and a lifetime to forget!
3. Hire me and I'll come perform at your school. Ha!
4. Don't forget to actually teach them how to simplify/evaluate expressions.

If you're looking for an extension to torturing your students with learning the song, have them rewrite the lyrics of the second verse. Have them write lyrics for the Left to Right rule that applies to Multiplication/Division and Addition/Subtraction. I did this one year and really received some cool lyrics. I also received some terrible ones because those kids could have given a rip about the assignment. Guess what though! They remembered the Left to Right rule. Who's laughing now?

This was a labor of love. I hope you get some mileage out of it, no matter what grade you teach. Lastly, not all your students are the biggest fans of cheesy songs like this. I never was! Hence, my reluctance to record and share. I'm seriously thinking about making a video to accompany the song for those visual learners. Stay tuned!

PEMDAS,
1137

P.S.  Apologies to my Canadian and British readers! PEMDAS is kind of limited to the States. Let me know and maybe I'll upload an instrumental version and you guys can change the lyrics to suit your needs.