With two and a half days left, now is a time of transitions, farewells, reflections and pizza parties. One of my favorite moments of the year was a double lesson with the Year 11s.
The Y11s are a free and fun-loving bunch, so sometimes we would have “guest lecturers.” For example, Stella lectured us on Discrete Mathematics and how to play Nim. Tagore kept bothering me, “please can I lecture on the Seleucid Empire?”
“No! This is a mathematics class!” But he persisted, “please, please, please.”
Finally I decided to put the matter to rest. “We will have a vote,” I told the class, “You can hear my carefully prepared lecture on vectors, demonstrating how to solve the type of problems that will be on the test next week, or you can listen to Tagore lecture on the Seleucid Empire.” Like Sakorsky, I was beaming with self-confidence.
“That sounds interesting!” piped up the always inquisitive Jee Sun. We voted. Tagore won by a landslide.
Twenty minutes later we were still listening to stories of Antiochus and Ptolemy. The Indians in the class were openly cheering for Chandragupta Maurya. When Tagore got to the part about the war elephants, and burning pigs in oil so that their squeals would scare the elephants, the students were mesmerized. I kept thinking, “this is a mathematics lesson—I hope an administrator doesn’t walk in.”
It’s nice when a teacher can learn from his students.
The Y11s are a free and fun-loving bunch, so sometimes we would have “guest lecturers.” For example, Stella lectured us on Discrete Mathematics and how to play Nim. Tagore kept bothering me, “please can I lecture on the Seleucid Empire?”
“No! This is a mathematics class!” But he persisted, “please, please, please.”
Finally I decided to put the matter to rest. “We will have a vote,” I told the class, “You can hear my carefully prepared lecture on vectors, demonstrating how to solve the type of problems that will be on the test next week, or you can listen to Tagore lecture on the Seleucid Empire.” Like Sakorsky, I was beaming with self-confidence.
“That sounds interesting!” piped up the always inquisitive Jee Sun. We voted. Tagore won by a landslide.
Twenty minutes later we were still listening to stories of Antiochus and Ptolemy. The Indians in the class were openly cheering for Chandragupta Maurya. When Tagore got to the part about the war elephants, and burning pigs in oil so that their squeals would scare the elephants, the students were mesmerized. I kept thinking, “this is a mathematics lesson—I hope an administrator doesn’t walk in.”
It’s nice when a teacher can learn from his students.
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