YouTube Math = Awesome

DonorsChoose is kind of amazing. So far, I’ve gotten a class set of MIRAs (a cool geometry tool) and an 8 x 4 foot dry erase board donated to my classroom. The proposal writing is made very simple by the template that the website has set up for you, and the DonorsChoose people are very accommodating (I had to extend my “feedback deadline” twice since it took about two months to get that dry erase board up on my wall – don’t even get me started).

Too late, I’ve started. So, my dry erase board arrived very quickly. I gathered some students to help me bring it up to my classroom. And then there it sat. For two months. Any time I needed something from my closet (so, several times a day), I had to slide that monstrous box to one side, and the slide it back again. I wrote note after passive aggressive note to the person-who-said-they-probably-couldn’t-get-it-up-until-summer. The notes went something like this:

Hi M. ------- ☺

It’s been a week since we last spoke, and I was wondering what the status is with getting the dry erase board up. My students are really excited about using it, and I think it will make a big difference in their achievement!

Thanks!!

Ms. ------ ☺

Smiley faces, exclamation marks, student achievement – I laid it on thick. Annnnnd got precisely nothing done. Then I started pleading with my principal to help me out, and that wonderfully, amazing woman got it up for me in no time. I learned a lot about teaching – when nice-ing someone to death is fruitless, get backup.

And now for my next DonorsChoose project. I’m trying to get a digital camcorder for my classroom so that my students can make math YouTube videos like this calculus one:



Ok, so probably not that awesome, I really think that it will be the COOLEST THING IN THE WORLD and that the kids will be way into it, and they’ll obviously learn a lot. Feel free to donate five bucks (or . . . one million dollars? ← that was said like Dr. Evil, obviously). Am I shamelessly trying to get you to donate? YES. Am I OK with that? DOUBLE YES

Here is my proposal, which you will donate to if you want to be a good person and raise student achievement!! :) :) :) Do you see those smiley faces? Those exclamation marks? The reference to student achievement? The passive aggressiveness? I'm good. Also, if I don't get what I want I'm going to tell on you to my principal!