Dimensional Fun

2D

Phun is out for OSX! Okay, it came out a few weeks ago, but I just got around to downloading it. Phun is a 2-D Physics sandbox.

At this time, I have no idea how I’ll use this in class, but I have a new prep to plan for next year and a summer that is mostly unplanned.

3D

Via information aesthetics I ran across Tag Galaxy, a 3-D¹ representation of photos on flickr by tag. Each planet represents photos of related tags. Of course I had to see what the math tag looked like:

I had planned to post the screen shot of the “planet” of photos. However, the first photo I checked was not licensed under a Creative Commons License. So, be careful.²

4D

I’ve got nothing, sorry. Although I do keep bugging a friend to work on a time machine. Alas, he hasn’t come through yet.³

¹Obviously it is really two dimensional. Also, I think it is more of a planetary system than a galaxy.
²In a strange coincidence, the first photo I checked for CC belonged to Courtney.
³I know, I know. He hasn’t built a tesseract either.

Proximity control?

Today was the first day of senior finals.

One particular student was very anxious about the test. She had worked with a friend on the review materials. Actually she worked near a friend. When the friend sat next to her, she felt confident enough to try each problem. She didn’t do them perfectly, but she was willing to try. When the friend moved away, she stopped trying.

So her friend came to the final. She sat next to her and read a book.

*sniff*

I have remarkable students.

At the end of 3rd period study hall on Thursday, I got a phone call that necessitated my leaving the building, so I had to throw together sub plans on very short notice. At the beginning of 4th period, I apologized to the kids, explained that they’d have to look in their books for examples of the Law of Cosines and try to do the assignment. I told them I fully believed they could figure it out. I asked them to help each other.

I was trying not to show the students that I was upset/worried/nervous. Apparently I didn’t do a very good job of that. I apologized again on my way out. This is what I heard as I was leaving, “Don’t worry Mrs. B, we’ll figure it out. We love you.”

It’s a good thing I was walking out the door. Darn kids - making me all teary.

I haven’t forgotten

I haven’t forgotten about this space where I’m allegedly reflecting about my first year teaching.

I’m just buried in work. Grading, mid-quarter grades, reports to case managers, parent contact, first year portfolio, preparing for final exams… you know, the usual. I don’t do well with little sleep.

There are many changes happening too. I don’t do well with change. I still don’t know for sure what I’m teaching next year. I don’t do well with uncertainty either.

I’m also getting a bit wistful at the thought of not seeing some of the seniors anymore. I’ve grown attached to quite a few of them. This happens to me every year.

I need to figure out how to better deal with these things. I don’t think they are going to change much from year to year.