Mr. C Baker's Math Class

Why do I make kids turn in all of their notes on instead of just handing them to me?

Is the joy I get from this student asking me to be in the background enough? 😂📸

I had the opportunity to darn a student's shirt and reattach his button a couple of weeks ago. Not all heros wear capes - some of them keep a sewing kit in their desk.

My Geometry text suggested a concept map in a recent section on angle pairs.

My kids said they hadn't made concept maps, so before I had them collab on angle vocab connections, I scaffolded the task by having them practice with superheroes. It was super fun!

Collaboration and communication with low stakes helps kids be more comfortable when the stakes are higher. It worked great!

Day 3

Today felt a bit like a "here's all the rest of the goodies we wanted to share" kind of day, so there is a LOT swirling through my head I'm trying to synthesize!

The main course today was about Number/Math Talks, so that's where I'm hoping my buddies and will work with me this year practicing these moves!

Let's normalize "I don't know yet," in our classrooms and in our leadership.

You show greater strength when you take a posture as "LEARNER" and go find a solution.

You'll never know EVERYthing - the world changes too fast. But you can learn ANYthing with the right mindset!

This BOOK was ridiculously amazing!

Already igniting some discussion on our staff FB group. Love it.

I was telling some guys last night - summer is when I get the most reading done (and I love reading about education), so it's also the time I'm most passionate about having these discussions! Thanks to my colleagues who put up with ruining their break by reminding them of school. 🤪

In the "GRC Space Materials Lab" today with budding scientists testing insulating layers for a new spacesuit!

Before testing materials, we learned a lot about the past (and future) of NASA spacesuits. The big shocker - the suits onboard the ISS are *basically* the same ones designed in the late 70s for the shuttle program (with a few refurbs and modifications). There are actually only FOUR functional suits for the whole space program right now (originally 18 were produced).

The good news - everyone beat the control. The bad news - they all basically tied, so it we couldn't really see who's was the *best* design. :D

Nice sketch!

It's the same as a "tower" building competition, but 2nd graders in GRC's Space Academy competed in the "Space Race" Monday in teams for their first challenge.

After given the parameters (20 pieces of paper, a roll of masking tape, be at least 36" tall) students spent 5 minutes sketching ideas independently before sharing with the other 3 members of their group.

Checkout the end-of-year magnet a student gave me today!

And I'm pretty sure that note is a compliment... LOL 😄