I’m applying for a Fulbright grant to learn from teachers in Singapore. If all goes well, I’ll use this space to reflect on my experiences and track my progress.

(I also promise to be more faithful to this blog!)

I’m already in the FOURTH week of this school year? It’s so cliched, but true: time flies when you’re having fun.

My BC classes have already moved on to the second derivative and my AB darlings just had their first experience with Desmos.com. They are all hooked. I’m pretty sure it was love at first graph for all the students. I’m still working on some of the questioning in my Desmos activities. I want to ask open-ended questions, but I also need to make sure the students are headed toward the learning objective, too. If my questions seem opaque, it’s because they are.

My dance class is moving along, too. One reason I enjoy teaching dance so much (among many) is that I can SEE the changes and improvements that students make as they try and re-try movement. It’s like being able to see the wheels turn inside the brains of my math students. My dance students’ physical changes in how they hold themselves, move their bodies and articulate their extremities is fascinating.

The yoga colloquium is off to another good start, too. Wtih 32 students, this is the largest one I’ve had. For many of these students, they are learning for the first time how physically and mentally demanding a good yoga practice can be. I think they are reluctantly learning how beneficial it is, too.

I am so fortunate to have chosen teaching as my career. Some cynics might think that I say that because I get summers off, but that’s not it at all. I like the start of a new school year: new students, (sometimes) new classes, new teaching techniques to try, new assessments to write…a chance to improve upon my last year of teaching. It’s like having January 1 in September. I’m not really into New Year’s Resolutions in January, but I do resolve to make myself a better teacher than I was last June. I don’t know many professions where one gets to re-create themselves so regularly. I feel fortunate to be a part of this great one.

I am especially looking forward to this year as I get to teach a dance class for the first time in several years. I LOVE to teach math – as I have been doing since I started teaching. I also love to move and dance as much as I can muster. I am looking forward to sharing this passion with my students. My hope is that the learn to appreciate their bodies, what they can do with them and what their bodies can do for them.

The title of this blogged is influenced by the fact that there is SO MUCH to who we are as people and SO MUCH for all of us to learn. “Necessary buy insufficient” is often a phrase used in mathematical proofs, but I am using it in a different application here. YES – Math is important and I feel strongly that it is *necessary* to learn how to think mathematically, to solve problems, to look for and explain alternate solutions – what real math is all about. I also know that that is not enough. It is not sufficient to  learn only math; we need to learn more about the world around us and about ourselves. I am thrilled that I get to teach TWO subjects – math and dance – that help students discover what is both necessary and insufficient.