Geometry & How to Think

I know that anyone that comes across this will most likely find it a bit on the boring side. I get that. I'm not trying to build an audience here, I gave up on that dream long ago. At the same time, what I am going to say, I believe has relevance. I believe it is important. I believe that it borders on essential. And so I write it, not thinking that it is a statement that will sweep the nation or the educational system or even the 5 people I know online. I write it instead, as an actual exercise in thinking, which is the core topic of this post. So I encourage you to read it, to think about it, and to communicate with me about it, not for social media hype, but for community and dialogue and for thinking... 

Geometry

The longer I teach Geometry, the more I believe that the real purpose of Geometry is not how to find angles and identify shapes and compare congruent triangles... No. All of those things are secondary to, what I believe is, or ought to be, the real purpose of a Geometry Course. Don't get me wrong, all of those things, along with slopes of lines and right triangle trigonometry and the surface area of spheres is all important: amazingly, exceptionally, actually important. The more technical our world gets, the more these things are drastically important. And even if I go another way with Geometry... the "Geometry in Construction" way, which is another course that I teach, these things are still really, really important. Houses still need to be built with the proper pitch of the roof. Rafters need to be cut, doorways need to be square, and floors need to be level. Again... all important stuff... but... But the longer I teach Geometry, the more I believe that the real purpose of Geometry is not necessarily any of these things. The real purpose may be... ought to be... probably should be or at least could be... how to think. 

I guess that if I am going to talk about this topic in this format, I should probably attempt to accomplish a few things in this "talk". I most likely need to say something about the need for our youth to be taught how to think. You wouldn't think that this would need an explanation, but it might. From there I should try to show you why I think that the Geometry classroom is the proper delivery vessel for students to be taught how to think... I think. Let's start with the need for thinking by thinking about thinking, you think?

Welcome Back

 I attempted to channel my inner David Attenborough while doing the voice-overs for this video. 

Just a Harmless Podcast - Episode 02

Quiet Wisdom

For all of my teacher friends out there...

For all the ones who toil,
day after day,
attempting to help their students in the ways
that seem so small at the time...

For all those who offer
bits of direction,
and assume that there is only once concession,
well... maybe...

For all of those instructors
who instruct sincerely
and know in the end that very clearly 
that only a few were listening...

For every single educator
who educates from the heart
hoping each day that just one will start
to change...

For the teachers out there who counsel
though counselors they are not
this role they fill on the spot
when one child's ears are open...

Keep this saying in mind:
"The words of the wise
heard in quiet
are better than the shouting of a ruler
among fools."
Ecclesiastes 9:17 (ESV)g

The Seed and The Soil of Education (New Learning Project Part 1)

(This is my entry for the first part of my project for my New Learning course that I am taking.)

Introduction

Corn Fields in Illinois

I have lived the majority of my life in the Midwest: mid-state Illinois to be specific. Where I live, farming is everywhere. My grandparents and great-grandparents on both sides of my family were farmers. My dad grew up on a farm and owned farmland, well into my own adulthood. But, even if it wasn’t in the family, I still would have been surrounded by farming. You can’t go more than a mile outside of my city’s limits without encountering miles and miles of fields. Most of our highways, and even interstates, are located between acres of farmland.

New Learning Course Update #4

As I've mentioned before, I'm taking a course this summer called New Learning through the University of Illinois. As a part of the course requirements, I must add 7 different updates related to the topics in the course.  This is update #4 on the topic of Authentic Pedagogy: More Recent Times.  The update ended with the prompt: Describe and analyze the features of an example of authentic pedagogy today. 

Here is my update:

New Learning Course Update #1

I am currently taking a Master's course through the University of Illinois. This is an online course, and the requirements of the course involve me contributing to the "discussion" through typing my own updates and adding them to the course's page. There are seven updates that I need to compose, and I have decided to cross post those updates on this blog.

Here is the first update, in response to the instructor's update, titled Being an Educator in Interesting Times.

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My math teacher told me the truth.

When I was in my Junior or Senior year of high school, I wasn't the best of kids. Sure, I wasn't the worst of kids, but I definitely wasn't the best... It was mostly about being mischievous, but there was a definite path that I was taking. I wasn't aware of this myself, when you are smack dab in the middle of the morality compass, it is easy to think about the fact that you really aren't all that bad.

On top of that, I knew the Word. My parents were both Christians, I went to church every Sunday, I went to a Christian School, I attended all of the revival services our church held, and I made my way to a Christian Camp in the summer. The Bible was something that I was very familiar with, but I was a hearer of the Word and not really a doer. All of this attendance was mandatory at that particular time of my life, so it was a faulty gauge for measuring my actual spirituality.

There were other things that should have made me aware of this reality, but I was self-deceived. That mischievous, rotten nature, that displayed the destructive path that I was taking, would peek out at every opportunity that it could. And the very first person that saw through all of that "required Christianity" was none other than my math teacher. He had caught me with something that had no business being in a Christian School. He pulled me out in the hall and said something to me that I have never forgotten.

It wasn't really profound or beautifully quotable, but it is the statement that I always use to mark the beginning of God's gracious work in my life. Once out in the hall, away from my peers, he simply said to me, "Matt Harmless, I don't believe that you are saved."

Of all of the things that could have been told to me, this ended up being exactly what I needed to hear. What a gracious God, to bring this analytically thinking man into my life, to brilliantly add up all of the loose ends and calculate all of the variables in my life and deduce, with the same logical mind that was teaching us mathematical proofs, that my faith added up to zero.

Those words rang in my ears for the next few years of my life. At first they seemed arrogant. "Who was he to tell me... ?" Then they were audacious and insulting, but eventually those words proved themselves to me to be true. And it was the sheer truth of those words that cut me to the heart.

It was another three or four years before I was eventually captured by God's extravagant grace, but when I tell the story of my salvation, I nearly always begin there - that moment in the hallway outside of my math class, when my math teacher figured it out and told me the truth. When I look back, I can see so clearly that those words were the first spark in the chain reaction of my own salvation.

Thank you, Mr. Cofer, for being brave enough and bold enough to tell me the truth.

End of the Year Thoughts...

This is the 17th time I have ended a school year as a teacher. Actually it is my 18th, if you count my student teaching experience. I have spent nearly an equal amount of time teaching at public schools as I have private Christian schools, and there has been a wide variety of types of schools in each of those two categories. I think I may have learned some stuff about teaching, but I still feel like a rookie most of the time: like I still have a lot to learn.

As this year ends, I thought I would share a few thoughts from my years as a teacher (and specifically this last year):

It dawned on me today... I have two very difficult jobs.

It dawned on me today... I have two very difficult jobs.

Now, if you know me, and you know my two jobs... you are probably thinking... "duh."

For those of you who do not know me or do not know me that well, allow me a moment to tell you about my two jobs.

Striking a Deep, Resonating Chord

I just started reading Charles Spurgeon: Preaching through Adversity by John Piper. I am going to share on this blog a portion of the introduction to this book because it struck such a deep, resonating chord with me.

If you know me in real life, you know that I have been really showing the wear and tear of trying to be a full-time pastor, a full-time teacher, a husband, a father... and everything else... a home-owner, a mechanic, a handy-man, after-school program, etc. etc. etc. I have been busy before, but I have never felt quite like I currently do.

So, when I read this introduction, I felt like I was taking a peek into my own soul. Therefore, I share this introduction to give you a peek...

3/14/15 9:26 and 53 seconds

Pi Day... of the century!

pi = 3.141592653... 

today is 3/14/15 at this moment... 9:26 53 seconds

A Defense of Test-Heavy Weighted Grades

A few weeks ago my Principal asked me to write down some reasons why I weight my grades the way I do. This is most definitely a rough draft, but I think it is a good beginning for an explanation of my reasons.  Let me know what you think:

A Defense of Test-Heavy Weighted Grades

Feel free to leave your response/comments in the comments section of this post...

Psalm 119 Journible

Our new Bible Study books showed up on the porch today.

For our new Tuesday night Bible Study time, I picked a book from the Journible Series (or the 17:18 series). There are several editions of the Journible Series, but I picked a nice short one for the introduction to our Bible Study. The one I chose was Journible Through Psalm 119 because I love Psalm 119 and because Psalm 119 emphasizes the Psalmist's passion and love of God's Word... a passion that is seriously lacking in many, who claim Christianity as their faith.

Pouring over the scriptures, pondering them, and reading them were a natural response to my genuine introduction to Jesus. I wanted to get to know him. And what is important is that I attribute this attachment to the Bible... not to some inherent quality within myself... or as a result of what the Spirit of God does in just a handful of His followers... but to the natural response to anything that we come to value.

unnoticed creepers

Jude is an amazingly compact little letter. There are big ideas and mind-blowing examples. There is so much in there... and such passionate words: Jude is eager, under compulsion, appealing, contending, etc. (and that is just in verse 3!)

I am preaching on a portion of Jude tomorrow, verses 3 and 4. It is a portion that I have become passionate about myself. I am hoping to grab a bit of that passion that Jude clearly was overflowing with, and minister a bit of that to Edgewood tomorrow. I am hoping it is like a shot of adrenaline. I am praying, really praying, like literally... right now... that some in the audience, including myself, will walk away ready to contend for the faith because the Church (not just Edgewood) has certain people who have crept in unnoticed, just like in Jude's day:

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
(Jude 1:3-4 ESV)

These unnoticed creepers are, whether they realize it or not, perverting Grace and denying Christ. I don't want to sound over-dramatic, but I really don't want to sound under-dramatic.

Classroom Teaching

It has begun again.

I have been back inside of those school walls again over the last two days. We won't have any students in our classrooms until Monday, but we are participating in our annual, obligatory institute days within the district. This is that time of year when all teachers find themselves sitting in meetings and sessions... attempting to learn how to accomplish all of the priorities that the government has sent down the proper pathways so that they can ensure that they have done everything they are supposed to do to turn teachers into good teachers... while simultaneously, these same teachers are attempting to create to-do lists of all the actual priorities that are immediately necessary for them to really be a good teacher. This can be exhausting.

Every once in awhile, during these institute days, there will be a presenter at one of these sessions who has been a teacher and remembers what it is like. Well, actually many of them have been teachers, but most only think they remember what it was like to be a teacher but they have forgotten, or quite possibly the reason why they "used to be teachers" is because they never should have been a teacher in the first place and they got out of it because they weren't very good at it, but now they are instructing other teachers how to be teachers. It's a mad, mad world.... Anyway... Every once in awhile there is a presenter who is actually a good teacher currently, and you can tell that he (or she) "gets it" ... not because they tell you such, but because they actually do "get it" and you can tell. Well, we had one of those presenters today. He presented information that we have heard before, but it made sense this time. He was interesting, he was enlightening, and most importantly for myself, he presented pertinent information.

During the presentation, he shared a quote from a guy named Lee Shulman, who is an educational psychologist. Here is the quote that he shared (I Googled it right after it was on the powerpoint):

Classroom teaching…is perhaps the most complex, most challenging, and most demanding, subtle, nuanced, and frightening activity that our species has ever invented….The only time a physician could possibly encounter a situation of comparable complexity would be in the emergency room of a hospital during a natural disaster.
~Lee Shulman, the Wisdom of Teaching

Now, obviously I don't think of teaching as something that we invented. Being a teacher is a characteristic of God that we might call communicable: It is an attribute that can also be applied to us. You could say that Classroom Teaching, as we know it, is an invention of people, but I believe that the good aspects of teaching can be traced back to the Great Teacher. But I am sharing this quote, not because I agree with the entire thing, but because much of what he says is quite accurate, especially in today's modern society. Teaching is challenging and complex, to say the least.

What always surprises me is how often one might encounter different people who love sharing a great quote about teaching or teachers... sort of like this quote or maybe even like that video where the guy talks about what teachers "make" ... but the ones who tend to talk in this positive, uplifting way are also the first in line to throw a teacher under the bus. Most specifically when their own children aren't performing well. Surely it was the teacher's fault! It is almost as if people love to glorify the occupation of teacher in a very general way, but with teachers that they actually know, they can only see their shortcomings and deficiencies. Besides... we all get the summer off every year anyway... right?!?

Well, I share this quote and my surrounding thoughts, not for my own sake, but for all of those teachers out there. It is a challenging occupation, more than most people will ever know, but it is also one of the most unappreciated jobs by those who are closest to a teacher.

Keep at it teachers!  You are giving the occupation a good name, whether those closest to you realize it or not.

Coalition for Community Involvement

On November 21st, at 7pm, in the Georgetown Ridge Farm High School Cafeteria, there will be the first meeting of the GRF Coalition for Community Involvement.  This event is open to anyone in the Georgetown Ridge Farm Community.

Tonight I will be sharing the vision of the Coalition, with a key aspect on emphasizing Open Doors.  Even though this is not geared toward Churches or Christian Organizations, it is an amazing opportunity for Pastors and other Church Members to get involved in kids lives.

If you know anyone in the Georgetown Ridge Farm Community, or just someone who cares about this community (they don't have to have children in the school or even live in this community) then please pass this along.  This includes Pastors, Church leaders, Church members, Business owners, Law Enforcement, City Leaders, Public officials, Family members, Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and any other Concerned citizens.

Please Pray that this meeting goes well and loads of people will show up.

"I'm just bad at math..." it's a myth!

When I first started teaching, I began to encounter the "I'm just bad at math..." comment from a variety of students. I didn't find it helpful to the situation, but what was I to do?  I wasn't in their head... maybe they really did have math deficit disorder, but it sure seemed like the large part of my students who would use this phrase, seemed to connect it with their inability to get their homework completed.

The longer I taught, the more I began to see a connection.  I even noticed that those students who were typically labeled the "math people" were also very diligent in their work.

Now, I know that we live in a society that isn't allowed to make a judgment call on anybody for any reason, so even talking this way tends to ruffle some feathers.  My response is that you should stop judging me by calling me judgmental!  But that is a different blog post, I just want to share an article about this myth of "bad at math" that is plaguing our nation.

The article is titled, The Myth of 'I'm Bad At Math' and it's subtitle is: Basic ability in the subject isn't the product of good genes, but hard work.

There is much in the article that I found to be worth reading, but I want to at least quote the final paragraph, because I believe that it holds a key thought that is impacting all of us.

Math education, we believe, is just the most glaring area of a slow and worrying shift. We see our country moving away from a culture of hard work toward a culture of belief in genetic determinism. In the debate between “nature vs. nurture,” a critical third element—personal perseverance and effort—seems to have been sidelined. We want to bring it back, and we think that math is the best place to start.

Let's not forget the key third element to our intellects.

education defined

education

EDUCA'TION, n. [L. educatio.] The bringing up, as of a child, instruction; formation of manners. Education comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations. To give children a good education in manners, arts and science, is important; to give them a religious education is indispensable; and an immense responsibility rests on parents and guardians who neglect these duties.

with proper citation this time...
"education." Noah Webster's 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language. 2013. http://1828.mshaffer.com/d/word/education (20 September 2013).

A Statement from the NEA (National Education Association)

“If the study of the Bible is to be excluded from all state schools; if the inculcation of the principles of Christianity is to have no place in the daily program; if the worship of God is to form no part of the general exercises of these public elementary schools; then the good of the state would be better served by restoring all schools to church control.” 

Oh... did I fail to mention that this statement was made in 1892?