Category: #MakeItReal

2019: What’s Your Slogan?

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2019: What’s Your Slogan?

In 2017, I chose the #OneWord “Preflect,” which is a word I made up. It means to picture yourself at the end of the year, looking back on this year. What do you see that you were proud of or excited about? After thinking about that…go make it happen! I’ve decided that my All Time #OneWord will be PREFLECT, and that day by day, week by week, month by month, I’ll picture myself at the end, looking back, setting goals and reflecting on them often. I love that word, so I’m keeping it. 

But, I still recognize that there are things I want to change about myself, too. You see, there were plenty of times this year I could and should have been writing, working, creating, talking, listening, playing with my kids, singing with my wife, and more. But instead, I just didn’t.  So for 2019, I’ve decided not to pick a full resolution, but to narrow it down to a company slogan that applies to me.

I’m done saying phrases like “just a minute” and “right after I finish (insert useless activity here)” and “sorry we never got around to (insert much more important activity here).” 

If you’re interested in picking a slogan for you that supports your goals for your teaching, your students, your classroom, your relationships, your personal growth, or anything else in your life, Just Do It! And here’s a list of a few I like to get you started. 

Nike: Just Do It
Lego: Only The Best is Good Enough.
Apple: Think Different
Zurich: Because Change Happens
Jaguar: Grace, Space, Pace
Audi: Advancement Through Technology
L’Oreal: Because You’re Worth It
Dr Pepper: What’s The Worst That Could Happen
Adidas: Impossible Is Nothing
AT&T: Reach Out And Touch Someone
Disney Land: The Happiest Place On Earth
General Electric: We Bring Good Things To Life
Lexus: The Relentless Pursuit Of Perfection
Nokia: Connecting People
Staples: That Was Easy
The Independent: It is. Are you?
U.S. Army: Be All That You Can Be
Verizon Mobile: Can You Hear Me Now
Volkswagen: Think Small
Philips: Let’s Make Things Better
Microsoft: Where Do You Want To Go Today
Red Cross: The Greatest Tragedy is Indifference
Vodafone: Make The Most of Now
EA Games: Challenge Everything

I could spend more time talking about why I’m doing this, but I’ve got stuff to do. 

BONUS SLOGAN ACTIVITY!!!! Over the course of the year, create a logo that represents you, too. Design it, revise it, be creative. Share your logo anytime or next December 31st! Your students can do the same thing!

Don’t forget to check out

The Instant Relevance Podcast!

Remember to use the #MakeItReal Hashtag for sharing ideas!

Connect with Denis Sheeran at Denissheeran.com

Twitter: @MathDenisNJ and

#MakeItReal Chat Every Wednesday 9:30 pm EST for 30 Minutes.

Read Instant Relevance

#MakeItReal Moment Number 16: The Funnies

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The Funnies

When I was a kid I couldn’t wait for my Dad to come home from the convenience store with the Sunday Morning newspaper. He’d start pulling apart the sections, making a pile of news, sports, store flyers, and then, like a slow motion moment in a movie, he’d pull out…THE FUNNIES! I’m not sure where you’re from or what you called the newspaper comics, but in NJ we called them “the funnies” (insert future #MakeItReal Moment on regional dialect here). I can honestly say that I LOVED the funnies, although I can’t actually remember a time when I laughed out loud at one. Come to think of it, they’re not that funny. But they were a part of a grown up thing, the newspaper, that a child could covet as their very own. And they did approach situations from a different angle, often trying to make a twist ending by the third frame.  Those Sundays of my youth have stuck with me, so now I visit gocomics.com every morning before I read the news to check out two of my favorite comics, Foxtrot Classic and F Minus.

Here is today’s F Minus Comic.

 

See? Not “funny” per se, but this time it made me think about something totally different. I realized we could use comics (funnies) like this as catalyst pieces for teaching students about the Claim, Evidence, Reasoning structure. You see, this comic makes a claim. To many, a totally impossible and outlandish claim. But it’s not outlandish to me, or to my wife. A few years ago we were having a philosophical conversation about why multiplying 2×5 does not equal 12. Her thought was that it only equals 10 because we start with zero. How come the expression 2×5 doesn’t imply that we’ve started with a 2, then brought in 5 more 2s? After a while, we decided to call this method “Mathematatics” and will put it on Wikipedia soon to see if people believe in it (suckers). 

So look back at the F Minus comic. There’s a lot there, and plenty not there, too.

Claim: For a short time, 2 + 2 = 5.

Evidence: missing

Reasoning: missing

It’s time to put this in front of your students to see what they can do. Can they debunk the claim? Can they explain how this could be possible in the real world? Can they create a system like Mathematatics that could explain it instead, all the while citing their evidence (showing their work for math), then sharing their reasoning? I think they can. And I think it would be a lot of fun. 

Let me know if you use The Funnies in your class for Claim, Evidence, Reasoning lessons, or other ways!!! 

Share your ideas and lessons with me at the #MakeItReal Hashtag on twitter!!!

Remember to use the #MakeItReal Hashtag for sharing ideas!

Connect with Denis Sheeran at Denissheeran.com

Twitter: @MathDenisNJ and

#MakeItReal Chat Every Wednesday 9:30 pm EST for 30 Minutes.

Read Instant Relevance

#SuperBowlSnaps II Challenge

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Are You Ready For Some Football?!?!?!?!

It’s #SuperBowlSnaps II: Snapchat vs Football!

A Co-Blog Post Co-Written and Co-Posted by Co-Educators, Denis Sheeran and Tara Martin.

Denis: Last year, right around Super Bowl time I started to notice the prolific tweeting of something called #BookSnaps. My Twitter besty, Tara Martin, had started a movement in education where teachers and students would use Snapchat to share their thoughts, assessments, feedback, and comments on what they’d written, read and seen in books! This is an incredible hack of a social media tool for GOOD, not evil (like my kids use it for).

 

I suggested to Tara that we do live #SuperBowlSnaps during the game, taking and annotating pictures from the game, the commercials, the fans, our families and their reactions. It would be a fun way to incorporate the game into our lessons for the next day. At the time, Tara wasn’t a big football fan, but she was a Snapchat FREAK!

 

Tara: Yes, it is safe to say, I was a bit hesitant because I typically make a ton of snacks for the Super Bowl party and pay little attention to the game. However, by adding my passion for visual, digital creations to connect with content (that was not so appealing), I learned a new appreciation for the game of football. Ok, I was immersed entirely from start to finish.  As an educator, I couldn’t help but think… How might “relevance” to the delivery of instruction, or method of learning, encourage students to learn more about topics that were once of no personal interest?

 

Denis: What I found to be outstanding was that we both left with a new skill and a new perspective. I loved football but was skeptical about Snapchat. After the game, I was ready to snap and snap often!

 

Tara: And I loved Snapchat but was skeptical about football, despite my husband’s attempts to interest me in the game. Now the Super Bowl is rapidly approaching, and I haven’t even thought about the menu items I need to create. Instead, I’m messaging Denis via DM to chat about Super Bowl snapping! Are you guys ready for the 2nd Annual #SuperBowlSnaps Challenge?!

 

We have two calls to action for you.

 

1: Join us for the  #SuperBowlSnaps II Challenge on Sunday, starting…whenever you start thinking about the Super Bowl!!! Tweet pictures through snapchat using this hashtag and my #MakeItReal hashtag, too. Because really…what’s a better way to find Relevant Learning Opportunities than by becoming part of a national event that most of your students are probably watching?

 

2: Think about this. Consider the content you’re teaching that your students may not be all that interested in. How do you communicate it to them? Through your language, or through theirs? #MakeItReal for them!!

 

Click the Padlet: 2017 #SuperBowlSnaps  for examples from the Inaugural #SuperBowlSnaps.

 

 

Check out Instant Relevance for more ways to connect students to your content in meaningful, relevant ways.
Visit R.E.A.L, Tara Martin’s blog, and become inspired to grow as an educator as you read her experiences and share her growth. And if you’re interested in #BookSnaps, check out this post!

#MakeItReal Moment Number 12

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Measuring Priceless

So…this just happened.

I love incredible events like this, so when I saw a former math professor of mine post about it on facebook and noticed the first comment, I had to take action.

Instant Relevance is the idea of using what’s happening now, and what matters to you and your students, to engage in excellent opportunities to learn. I couldn’t pass this one up. So I took the straightforward route and went to my calculator and treated this like a simple interest investment. The formula for simple interest is I = PxRxT, or the Interest (earned amount) is equal to the Principal (starting amount) multiplied by the interest rate and the time. We know three out of those four things. What we have is this:

$450,312,500 = $59 x R x 58 years.

To start solving for the interest rate, divide the interest by both the $59 and the 58 years and you end up with 131,593.37, which is a ridiculously large number for a percent, and isn’t even really all that helpful yet. You see, in most of these problems, our answer comes out to be something like 0.05, which means the rate is 5%. So the ACTUAL interest rate needed to return this kind of investment is 100 times greater than what we got. In other words, 13,159,337% interest.

BUT WAIT!!!! THERE’S MORE!!!!

I didn’t ask my math professor where he got the $59 from, so I checked. The painting sold for 45 Pounds in 1958, which, it turns out, converts to $59 in today’s money, but with inflation, is $125 in 1958 money. So, time to start over!!!

$450,312,500 = $125 x R x 58 years

For a mere adjustment to the low, low interest rate of just 6,211,207%. 

Follow Up Questions:

Is Mark, the facebook commenter, right? How could it be so different and seemingly so much more reasonable than what I got?

How long would it take if we knew we had an absolute cap of 10% compounded annually?

How could you use this event in Art, Science, ELA, Social Studies and other classes?

So my question to you is this: How will you use this extraordinary circumstance and likely once in a lifetime opportunity to quantify “Priceless” in your classroom, before it’s no longer relevant? 

Share your ideas and lessons with me at the #MakeItReal Hashtag on twitter!!!

Remember to use the #MakeItReal Hashtag for sharing ideas!

Connect with Denis Sheeran at Denissheeran.com

Twitter: @MathDenisNJ and

#MakeItReal Chat Every Wednesday 9:30 pm EST for 30 Minutes.

Read Instant Relevance

Powerful Partner Extension for Slides Sorter…Hide Slides!

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Hide Slides Chrome Extension According to the same valid statistical survey I recently made up, everybody loves Google Slides…everybody. Being web based, it’s easy to add videos, images, items from your google drive, find templates, and take Google’s own suggestions for display themes through their Explore function. But sometimes, as …

For Those About To Rock

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For Those About To Rock… A guest post by Laura Steinbrink I’m excited to have Laura share her experience of running with an idea, taking it to new levels, and truly modeling the #MakeItReal message. Read her post below and share your comments with us here and on twitter with …

Eclipsing Learning

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You Forgot To #MakeItReal Leadership can either help open the eyes of teachers and students to the learning opportunities that surround them, or they can completely cover those opportunities up and literally eclipse their potential value in a school.  Yesterday was the Great American Total Solar Eclipse-O-Rama of 2017. You …

Fidget Spinner Follow Up

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Fidget Spinners Post = Tons of Great Ideas! If you haven’t read my most recent #MakeItReal Moment about Fidget Spinners, either look farther down the webpage or check it out here. To make a long story short, I’m against banning what kids love to do and all for finding creative …