Oops I Did It Again, and I Did Somewhat Better This Time

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At least I apologized.

I am totally in love with this "distance" calculator that uses the Pythagorean Theorem to make its point.
(From PBS Learning)

We started the morning in Geometry with a warm-up of "I notice, I wonder" on the the animations from the above distance calculator. I love that it starts with two points and when you release the left click, it makes a right triangle whose leg lengths are given. It is good to warm up, gets your mind going. Yes we have a test today, and believe me, it won't take 95 minutes to complete.

Part of the test is on the distance between two points and the midpoint of the segment between them. This graphic is just lovely for that. I pull up the screen and pretend I have I Smartboard (LOL), and ask, " what else can the lengths of the sides tell us?" Two things come up. How far the midpoint is from either of the x-coordinates  and same from either y-coordinate (especially if we know the coordinates of point C.
The second most popular idea is slope. How cool, right? So...

This one boy raises his hand and says, "Ms Zimmer, if we have a test why are you teaching us new stuff?"

Well, I unproudly lost my cool. AND, I did explain my reasoning, (that's the better part, cause I read Make it Stick, and well, because I am the teacher, that's why).

Reasoning:

"If you have enduring understanding, like I have been coaching and preparing you to have, you won't lose what you know, you will enrich what you know. And if you don't have that kind of understanding of the material, I would have hoped to see you today at lunch (before the class), yesterday, the day before or the day before, and ..."

Then I lost it.

"Um, AND this is actually review from Algebra, right, or 8th grade, right?"

I did apologize to all the tables for losing my cool, except for that one kid. At that moment, I was channeling Fawn. Maybe I will have a one on one chat with him next time.

Happy Fall ya'all!


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