letters to my class

12 March 2013

March 12th, 2013

Dear Problem Solvers,

After spending lots of time around the same people, sometimes problems crop up. Sometimes people do things that we don’t like and sometimes we do things that others don’t like. One of the most important skills we can teach you at school is how to handle these conflicts in a healthy and productive way.

It’s important that you learn these conflict resolution skills because conflict is something you will have to deal with for the rest of your life. Unless you end up on a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific, you will have interpersonal conflict. When that happens, we have a choice: we can deal with it in ways that show respect for ourselves and our fellow human beings, or we can deal with it in dangerous, unsafe ways. I hope you choose the first.

At school we’re trying to help you build the skills you need to be capable, self-reliant, and confident people. That means we learn how to solve math problems and it also means we learn to solve interpersonal problems.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck
March 11, 2013

March 11th, 2013

Dear Students,

Going to school is your job. Colorado taxpayers spend hard-earned money to send you here. We do it because we know you need skills and knowledge to be successful. We also hope that you’ll add something of value to the world–maybe solve some of the complex problems we’ve created or at least show us how to think about them in different ways.

But what are your responsibilities as a student? We’re going to spend a fair amount of time this week (and the rest of the year) talking about things that good students do and ways that you can return the favor to all of us Colorado taxpayers who are sending you here each day with such high hopes for your future (and our own).

Let’s have a great day,

Mr. Heimbuck
February 4, 2013

February 4th, 2013

Dear Problem Solvers,

“If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”–Albert Einstein

We’re going to continue to talk about problem solving today. We’ll review strategies and talk about methods, but mostly we’ll just talk about problems and the things that make them interesting. As Einstein’s quote implies, if we want to find a meaningful solution, we need to really know the problem.

Anyways, our bigger goal is to come up with our own problems. That’s the purpose of math: to pos esolveable problems that might reveal something interesting about the world.Often, the solutions to such problems are incomplete, fleeting, and up for debate, but the problems themselves last a long time.
January 24, 2013

January 24th, 2013

Dear Questioners,

“The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he is one who asks the right questions.” –Claude Levi-Strauss

What we know in science is only useful in what it helps us discover. Facts, formulas, equations–those things are all useful and helpful, but the essence of science is in the questions that help us discover new things about the how the world works. Developing new ideas about the universe is the purpose of education, learning, and culture. When we come up with these ideas or the questions that lead to them, the whole world of human thought changes.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck
January 23, 2013

January 23rd, 2013

Dear Modelers,

To really understand something, it helps to make a model of it. When you make a model of something, you find out what the key parts are and you investigate the relationships between them. Today and throughout the year, we’ll think about ways to model fractions. By studying and creating models of fractions, we’ll get a better sense of fractions and be much better math thinkers.

A lot of what we’re talking about with number sense is a gut feeling you get about numbers. I want you all to be able to feel some of the key attributes about the size and characteristics of numbers. Just by looking at two fractions, we want to be able to get a rough idea about which one is bigger. Then, we investigate through various means and prove our answer. But our math gut instincts have to be strong.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck
January 22, 2013

January 22nd, 2013

Dear Climatologists,

Today we’re going to talk about climate–the average weather conditions in a place over a long period of time. When we talk about climate, we have to study a lot of different fields of knowledge: meteorology (study of the atmosphere), oceanography (study of the oceans), physical geography (the study of places), and human geography (the study of people in places). Climate affects how people live in particular places all over the world. It even affected decisions you made this morning–what did you eat for breakfast, how did you get to school, what did you wear, what jobs do your parents do, etc.

We could study how climate affects our own lives forever and keep discovering more stuff. The fun thing about knowledge is that it’s never-ending. The more we get, the more there is.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck
January 16, 2013

January 16th, 2013

Dear Solvers,

Knowing answers is overrated. Most of the stuff worth knowing is stuff we don’t know yet. The real value is in how we figure those things out. We’re going to keep practicing problem solving in math and science, and I am going to give you problems that I don’t expect you to know the answers to. But I do expect you to figure out a reasonable answer. Looking closely at something, paying attention to patterns, and thinking reasonably will take us far in life. Those skills are more important than memorizing facts and figures.

Let’s have a great day,

Mr. Heimbuck
January 15, 2013

January 15th, 2013

Dear Problem Solvers,

Math really is only about solving problems. We often use numbers to solve those problems because they let us do it more efficiently, but we could solve almost any problem by drawing a picture. Many times, such a picture takes a very, very long time to create, so numbers are more efficient, but the job of math is solving problems.

You’ve been solving problems your whole life. In many cases, you probably used math to solve these problems and didn’t even know it. Our goal in math class is to give you the tools to solve problems more efficiently and more creatively. And after you get practice solving problems, you start making up problems of our own to which math is almost perfectly suited to solve.

We’ll spend a lot of time the rest of this year thinking of problems, solving problems, and talking about our mathematical methods of doing so.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck
January 14, 2013

January 14th, 2013

Dear Risk Takers,

I am pretty bummed about the Broncos losing on Saturday, but life goes on. It’s probably foolish to take life lessons from sporting events, but if the Broncos loss teaches us anything, I think it shows us that we should always go for it.

The Broncos had many chances to win the game but they took the safe route instead. In school, sometimes it’s easier to just get along, just do enough to get by, but if we want to be excellent, we have to try for more. When we write an essay, don’t do it just to get a good grade, do it to change the way you or someone else looks at the world. When you solve a math problem, don’t just do it to get the right answer, do it in a way that reveals something profoundly interesting about the universe.

The world has enough people who are happy to fill in boxes and take the safe route. We need dreamers and risk takers and change makers.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck
January 8, 2013

January 7th, 2013

Dear Data Collectors,

It’s great to be back to school. We all had a nice, relaxing break, and now it’s time to get back to the pleasures of learning. My goals for this semester are to help you all become better readers, writers, problem solvers, and citizens. It will take a lot of hard work, but I know each of you can accomplish great things. You’ll be making your own goals for this semester, so be thinking.

Today, we’ll collect, organize, and analyze data. In math and science, we deal with data a lot. But we also use data all the time in our real lives. The important thing about data is that is has to be reliable. That means we have to be able to trust it. Anytime we crunch data, we’ll ask ourselves if our data is reliable, how we know it’s reliable, and how we can make it more reliable.

Let’s have a great first day back,

Mr. Heimbuck