Pre-First Day Notes

Well, class begins tomorrow, and I have to say the room has really come together. They dented the smart board to the point that it wasn't working, so we got another one. They gave me a twelve foot whiteboard when I needed six, so I scrounged around and got a four by three foot board. The desks were delivered. My teacher desk was a hand-me-down from another teacher, so it is larger than it should be, and I don't have the keys to the locking drawers, but I have a desk. I have a room that has been successfully pieced together from all of these different places. Is it what we asked for? Not really. Is it a classroom? Certifiably yes.

In the end, all of this doesn't *really* matter much, what matters is the content and the interaction with the students. So long as they have somewhere to sit and I have something to write on I can teach. It has given me a nice cynical attitude for dealing with the administration, but I was going to get that one way or another.

Now for decorations. I have plans to buy three portraits to put over what used to be a fireplace. The three I am thinking about are, from left to right, Euler, Liebniz, and Gauss. They are not very pretty men, in fact I dare anyone to find a picture of Liebniz where he is smiling, but they represent the cultural heritage of modern math, and I think they would add a little class to the room. On another wall, I plan on putting a family tree for all of the major mathematicians, using small portraits and a bit of text describing each person. That is going to take some time, and I have yet to scan the picture of a nice portrait frame to make it look nice.

I will post pictures of my classroom as soon as I can.