The Hunch Punch

The thing that I absolutely love about Twitter is that the educators that I follow challenge me everyday. Every time I read a chat, a blog, an article or a tweet, my horizons are expanded. I read a tweet a few months ago, which led me to this post by Todd Nesloney: http://nesloneyflipped.blogspot.com/2013/03/week-twenty-four-march-4-8-2013.html

I just finished my 7th year teaching and I've always wanted to do a math fair. My students participated in a science fair during my first three years, but after moving to a new school there wasn't a 'fair' type event for my grade level. I remember thinking during my first year at my current school that I should organize a science fair or even a MATH fair, because those are the two subjects I teach. I love planning events, but during the past four years I decided to go in different directions - planning events and programs such as Choices Day,  It Takes A Village Parent Involvement Series, the Anti-Bullying Program, Bus Program, etc.

If you have time, watch the video below. Steven Johnson amazingly explains "Where Good Ideas Come From" and I feel like this is exactly what happened in this situation.  It was crazy that Todd, a teacher I had never met hundreds of miles away, had the same idea. I had the first "hunch" years ago, but I waited around for it to marinate and Todd's "hunch" gave my ideas a kick - I'll call it,  a 'hunch punch.' After reading Todd's post my mind started racing on how I could pull everything off and still give the students time with their project.

In the next post, I'll discuss the details of the project. I just love how the human mind works, so if you're looking for ideas, sometimes it's good to look to Twitter for inspiration, other times it's good to let them sit and marinate for a while. And when you're hunch gets punched, roll with it :)

Lesson #12: Roll with the punches!  

Thanks Todd for inspiring me!  My students loved the Math Is Everywhere Project!