Rock, Paper, Scissors

A few weeks ago I was out with my family and caught a glimpse of two kids playing Rock, Paper, Scissors. I immediately made a note of it on my phone for a 3 Act lesson. Here's what I came up with for Act 1:

Rock Paper Scissors - Act 1 [Scoreboard] from Mr.Stadel on Vimeo.

In my mind, Rock, Paper, Scissors (RPS from here on out), is such a powerful way to decide something between two people. I think of all the times it decided who got to ride shotgun, who got the last piece of pizza, who got to go first, etc. We're talking a huge playground staple (at least I think it still is). I have no idea if the two kids were deciding something or just playing RPS for fun. It doesn't matter! I wanted to know who would win? Were they playing straight up to one? Were they playing the best 2 out of three? Who has the advantage: rock, paper, or scissors? What are the chances of a tie? A lesson was born... I have to get it down on paper or make a digital note of it somewhere. Imagine the class activity that could result from this... that will be a future post.
I'll admit, I was proud of this Act 1. I thought I had a slam dunk. Feedback from some tweeps said they preferred the scoreboard (thank you twitter and online colleagues). As you can see only 7 people have viewed it on 101qs.com so far and 3 of them skipped it. Usually those first 7 people are the regular 101qs users who post first. I admire them. I dig their attentiveness. I could list them, but I won't. They're awesome!

I'm over the initial bewilderment that it barely passes 50% perplexity. There's a bigger, more important element here besides my state of mind: comments. That said, I'm excited with Dan Meyer's most recent update to 101qs.com, specifically the option to leave Comments. I would love to hear from those 3 people and what prompted them to skip it? How could I improve it? What about RPS did not perplex them? Bottom lime: I look forward to receiving constructive feedback on 101qs.com just as much as giving it. Our students, classrooms, and craft of teaching all benefit from it. I think Vimeo sums it up nicely when leaving comments, "Be cool and play nice."
What do you think?

RPS,
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Why? How? and What?

Inspired by Simon Sinek's TED talk (at least the first 6 minutes of it), The Teaching Gap (Stigler & Heibert), and you... I'm reevaluating some teaching ideas & restructuring some classroom details in preparation for next year. What are your thoughts, using
One sentence for Why?
One sentence for How?
One sentence for What? about:

• Learning
• Teaching
• Estimating
• Exploring
• Discussing
• Assessing
• Improving

*PLEASE send me a CONFIRMATION TWEET when you take the poll, verifying your twitter handle.


Survey

Results here.

Thanks in advance!
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*Gold star for @fawnpnguyen for first post!

Future students

Recently, I've been developing and staging 3 Act lessons for elementary students (my future students). However, who's to say the tasks can't be applied at the middle school level, or even higher.  I've been looking through the Everyday Math series our elementary school uses and have found it refreshing to see what concepts students are introduced to or expected to master at each grade level. Ironically, I came across a second grade "Exploratory" lesson that Dan Meyer recently nailed with Popcorn Picker. Second grade if you missed that.

Popcorn Picker — Act One from Dan Meyer on Vimeo.

It was fun to share the textbook scans with Dan.  Christopher Danielson jumped in with some thoughts about elementary curriculum. He works with future teachers and is a very insightful fellow! Check out his Tootsie Roll and the Ootsie.

As a middle school math teacher, this elementary stuff is all new to me, but I'm open to the challenge. Especially since I'll be helping coach a handful of teachers next year with 3 Act lessons. I'm using the summer to investigate some ideas and build up a small catalog of lessons. My working goals are to:

1. Work on turning the abstract to concrete.
2. Look for overlapping concepts throughout K-8 grades.
3. Further investigate the importance & relevance of estimation.   

My first attempt is Paper Cuts - Act 1 (subconsciously inspired by Popcorn Picker and Everyday Math). Again, my intended student would be from elementary school. Would your students benefit from this task?

Paper Cuts - Act 1 from Mr.Stadel on Vimeo.

Lastly, it's great to know there are teachers helping students with life skills and not workbook skills. Sadie Estrella shares an experience she had this year by embracing those teaching moments we frequently have with our students. Should we eliminate 're-teach' from our vocabulary and change it to re-explore? Your thoughts on all this?

Future,
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