Education, Math, and More with Mr. Allison

It's that time of year again in education. The end draws near. At my school, we started the final quarter of this school year last week. A lot of stuff comes with that. Seniors are almost finished, really finished. Everyone--teachers and students--has summer on the mind. Prom, scholarships, letters of recommendation, graduation, testing, and a ton of other stuff that all comes at the end of the school year. Most of it exciting and fun. But not all of it. Some kids are moving after the year ends and may be kind of nervous and anxious about the unknown. Seniors are leaving the world they've known for 13 years and struggle with uncertainty too, even while they're excited about the prospects. Teachers, as relieved as they are to see the light at the end of the tunnel, this can be a stressful time too. Teachers' contracts are year-to-year, so everyone is wondering if they're contract will be renewed. Testing is stressful for teachers too, since results are often tied to ...

In his 2022 book, The Voltage Effect: How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale , economist John List, the Kenneth C. Griffin Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago , defines the Sunk Cost Fallacy as the idea that one must continue to pursue an idea based on money previously invested. The basic idea is that the money previously spent is already gone and no longer recoverable. As humans we have a tendency to feel like that money is wasted if we decide to abandon the effort we spent that money on, even after the project appears doomed for failure. Too often, people continue to pour good money into a failing effort, because they don't want to waste the bad money they've already dumped into it. Teachers are prone to this same fallacy. The year was 2019. I sat for the ACT for the first time since I was a junior in high school, way back in 1984. Thirty five years had passed since the one and only time I'd ever actually SEEN the test. Ov...

Thursday's coming. First day of school for us of the 2023-2024 school year. This will be my 18th year. There are a lot of teachers with more time than that and a lot with less. But in my 18 years I think I've picked up a little bit of wisdom that's worth offering to those who might be a little nervous about the year to come. First, there's too much to do it all. Today we just finished our pre-start professional development. It ended with all the stuff that gets saved for last because it's what everybody hates. Basically a list of everything expected of you that's longer than the Mississippi River. Duty. Roll. Forms. Detention. Discipline. Lesson plans. Unit plans. Parent contact logs. Parent contact procedures. IEPs. 504s. Documentation. Documentation. Documentation.  And somehow with all that you're also tasked with getting to know the kids, giving them input on classroom procedures and rules, dealing with classroom interruptions, schedule changes, new kids...

 I've seen teachers asking for donations for their classrooms. Supplies, materials, decorations, etc. All things teachers use hoping to help students learn. Probably from my upbringing, but I usually have a really hard time asking for things like this. But I did just apply for a $500 grant through ASTA for the first time.  ASTA -- Arkansas State Teachers Association -- is a non-union professional organization for Arkansas school employees. I joined ASTA because they offer a $2 Million liability insurance policy and lots of other benefits (including classroom grants) for much less than it costs to secure these benefits through the union. An added bonus is that none of my money goes to political candidates or causes. ASTA does survey its members regarding issues and legislation impacting Arkansas educators, and communicates the results to lawmakers and policy makers on issues under consideration. But they never donate your money to political campaigns or other groups that do....

Perhaps the most oft repeated question every math teacher hears. Worse, regardless how we answer it, the kid asking figures we're just blowing smoke and have no idea what we're talking about. Then of course, we also constantly see memes on social media, "Another day and I didn't use [fill in a high school math class here.]" The truth is, math is more than counting and memorizing formulas. The main reason most education systems require students to take as so much math, up to algebra or higher in most cases, is not so everyone can "cipher" as Jethro used to say on the Beverly Hillbillies. It's not so you have a bank of formulas memorized when you're 40 to pull out and use at the grocery store.   The reason you're required to take so much math is because it teaches you logic and reasoning. When you put these two things together you get good problem solvers. An THAT is why you're required to take so much math! So you'll develop problem so...

I was self-employed, making good money. Working hard, 7 days a week, but doing well. When I got out of the Marine Corps we bought 80 acres on the top of a long rocky ridge line in Cleburne County, Arkansas. It was rough ground that had lacked attention for a long time. We put a 16x80 trailer on it and I went to driving a truck, first driving for my grandfather and then purchasing the truck and doing everything on my own. Five years of life on the road got old and my wife and I decided to raise chickens.  Over that five years, we'd cleaned the place up quite a bit. We borrowed a bunch of money and built a 650 foot breeder house, bought a bunch of cows, and started my career in agriculture. We adopted our daughters and life was good.  I think God started dropping hints at what he wanted me to do along the way, but I was too hard-headed to heed them. On a homework assignment once, my oldest daughter had to estimate something and she threw out an insane number for whatever the sit...