My co-teaching went well on Thursday because I completely over planned for the previous day. I had many more google slides with questions and more patterns for students to decipher. I talked with my collaborating colleagues about how to divide up the work and we went to it. I was fortunate to be co-teaching because my voice was still scratchy, so it was good to rest it a little during the classes. By the end of Thursday, I was nearly as tired as the day before. I had gone to a yoga class Wednesday night that helped me a great deal. With all of the traffic and slow commutes that we have, it seems like my body had been stuck and immobile. Yoga was the remedy to that.

On Friday morning, we observed in three different elementary classes. In the first class, I was with sixth graders and I introduced myself. They were impressed that I was a math teacher. “Is Algebra hard?” a student asked me. “It’s hard if you are lazy, ” I responded. “If you work hard, then it’s easy.” “Please teach us some Algebra!” another student said. I asked the teacher if it was OK if I taught a little bit, she said that it was, and I set up my computer to the first slide of visual patterns that I posed with the 10th graders two days before. They quickly engaged. There was some faulty reasoning that was reminiscent of what the 10th graders did, but then they had some productive techniques. Two students presented their answers, with the correct answer coming second. I was happy that they were willing to try the problem that was meant for 10th graders!

After lunch on Friday, we left early to prepare our PD for Saturday morning.

On Saturday I led a 3-hour training session on using Desmos in teaching mathematics. I planned to start with the graphing app and then do more with the activity builder. When I realized that half of my participants were teachers of grades 5 and 6, I had to think quickly on my feet to give them material that was more relevant to their teaching. I am not aware of too many Desmos activities for content in grades 5 and 6 (though I am sure that there is a lot out there – I just didn’t have time to vet them), so I decided to show them how they can use google sheets to create circle graphs and bar graphs. The teachers were unaware of these features, so this was helpful to them.

Yesterday, we went on a tour of the countryside to Batangas and Tagaytay. Our girls went with us and we saw a different side of the Philippines, outside of Manila. It was great to get out of the city for the day and breathe some fresh air! We saw the oldest church in Asia – a 400 year-old basilica in Taal. We walked through the church and then visited museums in the town for more learning on Filipino history and the struggle for independence from Spain, from the US, and from Japan. It was clear in these historical renditions and in the current conditions in the Philippines that the country is still trying to recover from colonial rule.

Today, we presented to two groups of 10th graders on cultural aspects of the US. We had lots of pictures to share. We also talked about colleges and universities in the US so that students considering studying there will have new perspectives to think about.

I forgot to mention earlier that teachers asked me for feedback after I had observed their classes. I loved that they were willing to listen to my limited perspective and my suggestions. I humbly offered some ideas. They were interested in what I saw and the suggestions I had for them. They demonstrated that they are true teachers – people who are always willing to learn.