If these walls could talk... Math Team would be part of their recent conversation, I'm sure.

Well, today was the Math Team state competition. It was a good day, but definitely a long one. My students ended up getting recognized a few times - 5th place of all 11th graders on one event, 5th place of all students on another event, and 3rd place for a group of five students during the Team Round. The Sweepstakes (where everything is put together) were a tight race, at least where we were at in the rankings. From what I remember, 4th through 7th place were all within points of each other and we ended up getting 6th place. We were one slot away from getting trophies, so part of me is thinking "So close", but at the same time, I'm proud of how my students did. Today was certainly a tough competition.

The last big Math Team event is the League Championship, but unfortunately no one at today's meet had the official advancement criteria (the director of the league still hasn't decided and/or told people yet). That was a little frustrated, but I feel like I'll at least have two students qualify for their individual efforts and accolades. I hope that my team of five students advance since they got 3rd place, but it will all ultimately depending on what the director of it all says.

(P.S. Totally called it yesterday - I was with the Rockhurst coach proctoring the math tests in the small school room today!)

Unfortunately, something happened with the scoring or tabulating results because the award ceremony was delayed by 30+ minutes. Fortunately, it was a smooth drive back to campus, but it was still 4 hours of sitting in a van going down the highway. My open wing tonight ended up starting as soon as I got back to the building, since there wasn't anyone else to supervise the wing for long periods of time. The students went with a 90's cartoon theme and I was impressed with the decorations they made - particularly the painted decorations of characters like Johnny Bravo, Catdog, and the Powerpuff Girls. I ended up having Toy Story in my apartment and then a few guys and I played Super Smash Bros on the N64 (staying with the 90's theme). A few of the other rooms had games, music, and some snacks. All in all, a good fun night.

So, since today was definitely Math Team focused, I didn't have a lot of time set aside in regards to a holiday. The only daily holiday that seemed feasible was Spring Astronomy Day and the open wing kept us in the building, so that didn't really work out. I decided to look at the monthly ones and it hit me - April is Math Awareness Month! Okay, it kind of seems like a cop-out, but I was doing Math Team stuff for the majority of the day, so I'm content with this holiday. Hopefully next week will have some good daily holidays for celebration.

TC

In recent years, I've had moments where I look at a room or particular place and try to piece together the "story" of the area. For example, the math competition was in the physics building at Mizzou, which is one of the most well-known universities in the region. The room I proctored in was a lecture hall and partway through the competition, I noticed there was a handful of paper airplanes on the ground. I looked at the airplanes and all of the papers were the same blank sheet with some prompts for physics notes, so I figured the math students I had with me didn't make these while I wasn't looking. I then imagined some of the college students building paper airplanes and taking about air resistance and wing surface area. Of course, a random student could have just built them for fun on his own, but it's fun to imagine.

This chain of thought kind of feels like I'm dressing a movie set, making sure that the area feels authentic and lived in. I've walked through the hallways here in my building and noticed the imperfections that occur over years of use. There are some marks that I know about (a nickel-sized hole in the wall, a ":3" painted near the Shop, a piece of paper that says "Don't panic, Breathe!" above a whiteboard, etc.), while there are other things that I can only imagine the story. Of course, I don't have to think too hard about the things that would result in a busted ceiling tile or broken furniture when I live in a community of males between 15 and 18 years old.

I've also thought about what the items I carry say about who I am. If I emptied my pockets, I'd find various keys, a tube of Vaseline, and a wallet that includes items like photo IDs from multiple universities, membership cards, and some "Buy 9, Get the 10th Free!" cards. While they can't give you a complete picture of who I am, there are reasons why I carry particular items.

Now that I have this written out... I feel like this is something that is more intriguing and makes more sense in my head. Since today has been quite a long day, I definitely need some sleep.

DFTBA and I'll see you tomorrow.