August 2007 – Page 6

Seventeen Hours Left!

By Dan Meyer • August 10, 2007 • 5 Comments

Gotta say, I’m impressed with both the turnout and the quality of submissions so far. If I had a free week here at the end of summer, I’d definitely spend it deconstructing the choices some entrants made in cracking this particularly tough design nut.

Here’s the current list. Add your name before 23h59 Pacific Standard Time tonight. We’ll announce winners Monday morning.

Alice Mercer
Diane Cordell
Dave Stacey
Colette Cassinelli
John Pederson
Marcie Hull
Chris Duke
Ethan Bodner
Nancy Bosch
Glenn Moses
Carolyn Foote
Kevin Hodgson
Graham Wegner
Paul Williams
Tracy Rosen
Jeffrey Pierce
Gail Desler
Ms. H.
Mr. H.
Neil Winton
Mindy Jurus

Three First Day Updates

By Dan Meyer • August 9, 2007 • 21 Comments

One: here’s the original Who I Am AppleWorks file. I realize no one uses AppleWorks. More people skate on rollerblades nowadays than use AppleWorks but I don’t know of any alternatives except Pages which (sorry, Tim) scares me.

Two: I realize this blog carries with it a self-assured vibe which some find smelly and unearned. I want to admit again that the first day of school makes me feel woozy and weak. I have no answers, only activities which have sucked less than others.

The only thing I know for sure is that my kids will work from bell to bell. I’ll give them index cards at the start of class. They’ll find their seats. There will be questions on the overhead. Whatever activities we do, I’ll cross my fingers on the not-sucking issue, but we’ll be doing them until the very end of class. This matters so much. Only the rest of the year depends on it.

Three, Alice updated the first day wiki with some cool PowerPoint slides for high turnover classes. That’s it. That’s the wisdom of crowds. Two people. Me and her. Intertubes 2.0 fails me. Back to my cave.

Jeffrey’s Demons

By Dan Meyer • August 9, 2007 • Comments Off

I enjoyed and winced at Jeffrey’s catalogue of Demons of a Young Teachers. I’d always assumed perfectionism was more angel than demon, but I’ll give her a closer look next year.

I swear.

By Dan Meyer • August 9, 2007 • 1 Comment

I swear Audrey Hill and I aren’t the same edublogger.

The First Day Wiki

By Dan Meyer • August 9, 2007 • 36 Comments

How Did This Happen?

Never thought I’d append “wiki” to a post, but here we are. Here, approaching the dead center of August, I’m getting Google hits along the lines of “first day geometry lesson” and I don’t have content to show for it.

So I’m posting some of my first day procedures, which are by no means authoritativeTruthfully, the first year I taught I was pretty relaxed, nonchalant even, about the first day of classes. But every year since it terrifies me more and more, nevermoreso than this year.. The comments section of this post seems an inadequate container for all the first-day wisdom you all have, so I’m going to encourage you to add on to The First Day Wiki.

Here’s my contribution, both for general ed and for math classes:

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Month: August 2007

Seventeen Hours Left!

Three First Day Updates

Jeffrey’s Demons

I swear.

The First Day Wiki