And there’s still one day to go.

“It’s about the journey, and not the destination.”

If there was ever a week to epitomize that statement, this was it.

A wonderful week it has been, surely — filled with moments that remind me of why we love what we do.1

Just… really, really long.

1. but also filled with allergies, which need to go die a fiery death, quite frankly. [↩]

So, tonight I attended a student-teacher orientation for the UTeach program at Painter. It was the first I’d been on campus (that I recall) in years, and… it felt strange, to say the least, being back under the shadow of the tower. 1

Yes — that means that I am hosting a student teacher this semester!

It’s exciting!!!

It’s… a little scary.

In my mind, this represents probably one of the largest responsibilities that I have taken on yet.2 To me, the passing on of knowledge from one “generation” to the next is one of the most important things that we can do as a society — and this is certainly not just limited to the field of education or to the profession of teaching.

In previous years, I think I was so focused on improving my craft that I probably didn’t feel comfortable enough to relinquish control of my classroom to a teacher-in-training, but this past year has been a bit of an inflection point in my life and career. So… that corner is now being turned (and it is an important one to turn).

On a side-note, it’s THAT time of the year:

Astute observers will notice that they changed the name back to “samoas”. Also, if you care about this sort of thing, the faux-foil wrapping has been replaced with a transparent counterpart:

It’s only Wednesday, but already this has been an absolute BLUR of a week. If you’re keeping track, this is week #19. Finals week is week #38, which means we are now at the half-way point of the year. 3 So incredibly thankful for the upcoming 3-day breather.

1. Which, by the way, the Drag has changed. A. LOT. And the 24th street side of Painter Hall is a LOT prettier than I last remember, but that could very well be my imagination. [↩]
2. and one that I certainly want to avoid screwing up at all costs [↩]
3. Cue Bon Jovi. [↩]

(but 20 ’til Summer.)

Sure, I’m overstating things a little, but “Glory” refers to the AP Statistics Exam (on Friday, May 9). 1

2

As I sit here preparing to go back to work this week, sometime in the next day or two, my brain will hit that switch — that proverbial switch3 that flips me into full-fledged crunch-time mode… until… well… until “Glory”.

In sports, one might refer to this as “WINNING TIME”.

That’s what Magic Johnson used to call that part of the game: that critical juncture where there are about 4 minutes left to go in the fourth; where one’s poise and experience will lead to triumph — or, conversely, where a lack of may cause one to crumble.

Overly-dramatic? Perhaps. But this is, more-or-less, the attitude I take into the Spring semester. 4

So. Here is how the remainder of this campaign breaks down:

• 9 weeks to go until Spring Break…
• 8 weeks after that until the Statistics AP Exam (aka, “Glory”).56
• 3 weeks after that — including final exam week — until Summer.7
• Along the way, we get 3 days off: MLK Day, Good Friday (which we call “Spring Holiday”), and some Monday in mid-February to honor of one (or more) of the U.S. Presidents. 89

Simultaneously, the majority of my students are seniors, and legend tells of this mythical disease called “senioritis” that is often characterized by formerly studious kids transforming into meandering zombies, bloody-red sunrises in the sky, and a screeching halt to all meaningful productivity — basically the end of civilized life as we know it.

(Not that I know ANYTHING about “senioritis”. It’s not like I’ve ever had to deal with it firsthand with any of my students.) </sarcasm>

All told, there are 20 weeks to go until Summer break. Perhaps that sounds like a lot, perhaps it doesn’t, but this much I know:

These 20 weeks will fly by and be gone before you know it. And that is somewhat bittersweet, because this year has been — and surely will continue to be — one to remember.

And here is one [awesome] upside of having a public blog that current students are free to creep on:

Just before the break, a student saw my last post — specifically about the part about my eye-less pet rock — and brought a NEW EYEBALL.10

1. And I want to make this clear up front: The AP Exam is an important destination… but truly, I have always felt that the journey is more important than just the final destination. [↩]
2. on a side note: I seriously wonder if one day in the not-too-distant future, kids are gonna see pictures of these things and NOT know what they are… [↩]
3. and OH, right now, that is one TOUGH switch to flip! [↩]
4. Sure, one can argue that the entire year — and not just the second half — should be “winning time”, but… yeah… well… OKAY. [↩]
5. The AP Calculus Exams are the same week, but on Wednesday, while Stat is on Friday. [↩]
6. Incidentally, I hate the fact that our exam is on a Friday afternoon for the 2nd year in a row. The global proportion of “passing” scores dropped by a full percentage point last year, and while I’ll never be able to prove it, I suspect that had something to do with it. [↩]
7. aka, “Glory, the sequel”… or — if you’re me: HIBERNATION. [↩]
8. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I remember back when I was in high school, we got three consecutive Mondays off in February. Sigh. That was also before the Internet, when it cost $0.15/minute to make a phone call from Texas to California, and when Mark Wahlberg was still “Marky”. [↩]
9. Actually… now that I think about it, that last one might just be a day off for students, and not staff. Erghrh. [↩]
10. Which really begs the question… what is anybody doing with a spare eyeball?! =) [↩]

Every year carries a distinct flavor, and for whatever reason, these last couple of weeks were certainly nothing to cherish fondly. But now that we are midway through finals week, it should all be downhill from here — just 3 [half] days standing between us and [two weeks of] freedom.

To close out the end of 7 full years in the classroom, here are some “random”1 musings…

Anytime a student brings me a gift or note or card of any kind, I like to take a picture of it2. This is one that a kid brought by this morning:

Doesn’t that look nice?!

There was actually another nice looking3 bundle of homemade cookies that a student brought me this morning… but I realize now that in my haste to EAT them, I forgot to snap a picture of them. Oops. =)

My pet rock:

It used to have an eyeball,4 which went missing in the past week. A few years back, I once had a pet betta fish, but when it tragically passed, I was too distraught to try and take on another living animal… thus I settled for a pet rock. Now that this one has lost its eyeball, perhaps that’s a sign that pets just aren’t for me.

According to a student, this is me. A sloth.

Apparently, being associated with a sloth — characteristically speaking or otherwise — is a GOOD thing. You know you’re getting old when these things cease making sense to you.

I always find it amusing when students refer to themselves as my “favorite”:

Hellooo?!? I’m a teacher. We don’t have favorites. =) 5

And finally, a funny that a student left next to an illustration on a problem about our beloved pig dice:

lol. I have no explanation. =)

1. but not truly RANDOM, in the scientific / statistical sense of the word. Which, by the way, “random” has got to be one of the most mis-used words in the English language… [↩]
2. I actually have a dedicated folder in my Dropbox for these that I have compiled over the years [↩]
3. and nice-tasting! [↩]
4. singular — just ONE eyeball [↩]
5. Yeah okay, that’s a lie. Kinda like when parents lie to their kids and tell them that they don’t have favorites. It’s just one of those things we’re supposed to say. =) [↩]

Here’s a good one on long-term probability and “beating the house”.1

Pictured above are “pig dice”, which land in six different positions. One of the positions features the pig landing on all four (we’ll simply refer to this as “feet”).

Here is the scenario:

In a game of chance, you will choose a number of times to roll a pig die. If you manage to roll “feet” on at least 25% of your rolls, you win a prize!2

Here are your choices:

I. 4 rolls
II. 24 rolls
III. 64 rolls

Which of the 3 preceding choices gives you the BEST chance of winning a prize? (In other words, in which scenario are you MOST likely to roll at least 25% “feet”?)

(At this point, I ask students to pick one… then take a show of hands. Results are usually mixed.)

I happen to have a whole bagful of these little pig dice, so I’ll let each student grab one, and start taking some rolls. Have the students track their proportion of “feet” after each roll, both in a table and on a graph, as so:

We will usually stop at 4 rolls, at which point I will ask students to raise their hand if they are a “winner” (aka, have at least 25% “feet”… which only requires one “feet” at this point). Typically at least half of the class is a winner at this early juncture.

Then we continue rolling…

By the time we stop again at 24 rolls, the number of “winners” has dwindled down to about 3 or 4 students. And of course, that’s the point.

We’re lucky to have even one winner by the time we get to fifty rolls.

If you ask the students to tell you what percentage they seem to be approaching, it’s usually somewhere between 0.05 and 0.15. Empirical data3 suggests that these pig dice land on feet around 10% of the time, give-or-take.

Thus is the Law of Large Numbers: long-term probabilities will reveal true behavior if you let time run its course. 4

Moral of the story: If you want to beat the house, win quick and GET OUT.

1. hint: the house always wins [↩]
2. Hypothetically, I would make this a cookie. But hypothetically, we’re not really supposed to give out cookies. So this is all hypothetical, of course. [↩]
3. obtained through a few years of doing this activity [↩]
4. Or to put it aptly: Gravity always wins. [↩]