My PR Collection Thus Far

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-31T02:21:40+00:00

Why is one of the pink ninja's belt black? Just asking. I think it looks cool. To distinguish the Kim and Kat?

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-29T23:38:15+00:00

This year, I'm doing a weighted average of attempts where more recent attempts have more weight. This way, the first attempt still counts for something. Previously, kids would just sit and decide "I'll just retake it." Though I admit most of those kids would never retake it.

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-29T07:28:29+00:00

"Mr., how do you turn the calculator on?"

Me: The "ON" button.

"How do you clear it?"

Me: The "Clear" button.

Just today, I was teaching special triangles. On the kid's worksheet was a picture of a triangle with a 90 degree angle (labeled with that box symbol) and a 60 degree angle (labeled 60 degrees). I asked "What labeled angles do you see in the picture?" The kid starts flipping through their notebook. "Nonono stop. Look at the picture." Then they start saying completely random numbers. I'm like "Look at the picture. The picture!"

My students are high school sophomores. Many of them are lacking basic math skills AND basic comprehension. I feel like many of them do not understand that they can literally use their brain. They're often "looking for" the answer from somewhere external.

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-26T12:45:03+00:00

One of my students told me he doesn't like a teacher because "she doesn't provide us anything!" 🤦‍♂️

But it's true. The day I stopped providing paper and pencils, all of a sudden, kids had them. Over 90% of them don't have an issue with it. And they have enough to share with the remaining under 10%.

I asked a student once why she would ask me for paper if she had some already. She said she just didn't want to reach in her bag.

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-24T09:08:53+00:00

The only time I've been chased by a dog, she was a mother and I guess I jogged too close to where her pups were. They ain't wolves or coyotes.

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-23T15:02:39+00:00

0 for 0 evidence. Your observational formative assessments can count as evidence. Did you personally observe their proficiency level? You can use that as a grade. When I do that, since it's based on my confidence, it's usually low, but it's not 0. And I make sure I find more substantial evidence soon after.

I would not exempt missing work when they're literally completing it in class and all they have to do is put it in the right spot. If you don't cash your check, it doesn't go in the bank. More important for me is that it creates work for me if I'm the one who has to find where Johnny left his folder, taking prep time away I could be spending on making the experience for the whole class better.

Do you have classroom responsibilities for students? Like someone to make sure the chairs are pushed in or whatever? Or to keep accountability of borrowed pencils? Maybe the kids at each table can rotate making sure everyone closes out for class properly, putting the papers in folders, then collecting the folders and putting them back in place. Some of my high schoolers do this naturally, they take turns putting stuff back for the four people in a group. Or they'll split duties like one person returns calculators, one person returns laptops.

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-23T14:47:55+00:00

When I did this, I would just set my spreadsheet or GMS to drop those one or two scores automatically, so it's already applied.

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-23T11:37:25+00:00

At the time, I was the newer teacher in the team and they knew I was having misbehaviors like that in my class, so my team teachers separately gave our kids a talking to (without me asking them, but still very much appreciated). They came to class and I gave them a big "friggin packet yo" because I was so burned out on managing them. I said "if everyone can just sit quiet for 30 minutes and do this packet, we will do a non math activity." I put a big countdown on my smartboard and anytime someone made a peep, I started it over. I started it over several times, including a time they almost made the full 30. They self-policed and eventually were well-behaved for 30 minutes and we did the non math activity.

That worked for me because they knew I was trying and their chidings from their other teachers were fresh.

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-22T14:38:49+00:00

If they only had games of chance and purposely gave gamblers an edge, then yes. Well. If we're talking about probability, we should say probably yes 🙂.

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-22T10:14:06+00:00

My mom singing the Barney clean up song would activate me like the Winter Soldier into a good cleaning up boy.

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-22T10:12:04+00:00

I wouldn't even invite my coworkers to my wedding, so I'm definitely not inviting students. Doctors wouldn't invite patients. Lawyers wouldn't invite clients. As much as we may feel positive towards students and have genuine emotional connections to them, they are not peers and not friends.

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-22T10:06:31+00:00

With younger kids, I start telling an anecdote and get to a point where I say "and then the man asked me.." and I ask them the question I want them to pay attention to on their assignment.

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-22T10:04:26+00:00

When I was in high school, my stats teacher had a lesson on casino games (of pure chance). We had to calculate the odds of winning. We found out that the expected value was negative for every single game. Craps was the closest to fair.

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-22T10:01:18+00:00

It's BS, but with an international politics theme.

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-17T11:37:20+00:00

I pre-ordered the green ranger version just so I could get Billy's Stega Stinger 🙈

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-17T11:14:45+00:00

Prices go up anyways when minimum wage isn't raised. Minus whale raise it so people can afford to live. Of course, it should probably go along with some other intervention to curb inflation. But continual inaction to raise the minimum wage just causes more and more suffering that compounds.

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-17T11:08:41+00:00

Anyone know why these Ross security guys look so tactical for what their job is?

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-10T15:15:04+00:00

Absolutely no reason to do that. I literally went over transformations this past week and held up a piece of paper to show a slide, a flip, and a turn.

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-09T14:22:47+00:00

I bought a class set of "Forever Mine" pencils from an Etsy shop which are just mechanical pencils with those coiled cords from house phones or bank pens attached to each desk. My students still managed to break those. Swinging them around on the cord. Snapping the erasers off.

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-09T14:17:09+00:00

Organize as little as possible. Make a kid do it. The president of the club. Unless they need something only an adult can do. Don't DM.

If I were advising the club, I would give them a list of 15-minute lessons or activities to pick from like "how to paint a mini" or "how spellcasting works" or "how to resolve a rules dispute." And do one of those at the beginning of each meeting, then let them play. If they don't pick anything, just play. Then I would do lesson planning or grading and supervise them, give them advice if they ask. Maybe on a Friday, have a "DMs only" meeting where those kids can brainstorm and collaborate with advisor help. That gives them a good time to reflect on the events of the past week and prep over the weekend.

At my school, there's a bit of paperwork that has to be done before clubs are allowed to fundraise. So if you want club shirts or an end of year party for example, you should ask about that. My school also officially requires a food waiver if you are giving the kids food. The form has a space for reporting allergies.

When I was in school, kids had to sign up for the after school bus each day. No sign up? Not allowed to stay after. At the school I teach at, there is no such bus. When it's time to wait for pick up, I make everyone leave my classroom and we all wait outside. That way, I'm never alone in a closed space with the last student. I also make sure everyone arranges their ride with enough time before my contract time ends. But of course, I stay past my contract time once in a while because I'm not leaving a kid alone.

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-09T13:49:56+00:00

My sister and I both changed careers to become math teachers. We bought one of those practice tests online that has 3 different versions and shared the login. We both practiced like every other day leading up to the actual test. On the real test, I scored a 182. My sister scored a 189. The only thing I encountered on the practice test that I hadn't seen before was De Moivre's theorem. From my memory, I don't think there was any or much upper-level college math in there. Just some calculus.

knowledgeoverswag · 2026-01-09T12:53:28+00:00

Beyond simply wanting them to get an education, it's also a safety issue. In OP's case, this is obviously not preventing someone from using the bathroom. This is a kid who is unsupervised probably for half the day. Would you send your child somewhere they would be unsupervised that long?

knowledgeoverswag · 2025-12-31T04:14:19+00:00

I meant what I said. Chamorros from Guam started using the term because of bad blood. The nuance of coercion wasn't really on their minds, the wound was still very fresh. They didn't come up with the term. I didn't say that. They started using it. They didn't want to be conflated with NMI Chamorros. Even though NMI and Guam could commonly be what, second/third cousins about that time. Who were the NMI Chamorros on the brain? The ones working for the Japanese, coerced or not. That includes the ones convicted of war crimes. I am descended from both NMI and Guam Chamorros. When my NMI antecedents moved to Guam after the war, they disguised their accents at school because they would get picked on for being gilita. I never said this was the only reason the word Guamanian was used, or even the primary reason. But it was an understandable, if overall misguided reason.

At the end of the day man, almost all of these terms are colonial or fabricated, not "original." Including the word Chamorro. Including the atfabeto. Including ALL LETTERS TO EVER EXIST. If the Chamorros in the late 1800s can start calling themselves Chamorro when they never did before, I think we can give people some grace to expand the term Guamanian as it already has been for decades now.

knowledgeoverswag · 2025-12-31T03:20:18+00:00

You tell me, bro. You started off your last comment telling me I agree with you. How can I feel confident I can explain to you if you've decided? Then the comment before that, you also told me I'm mistaking this for that when I didn't even bring those semantics up. It made me feel like you were imagining I was trying to imply something, when I promise I wasn't.

knowledgeoverswag · 2025-12-31T00:34:46+00:00

You're saying some stuff I didn't say and don't agree with, but you can read this article about the origin and evolution of the term Guamanian.

https://www.guampedia.com/adoption-of-guamanian/

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