Point of Inflection

It’s not just that I want to prove myself the world’s fastest math teacher (one estimate of my speed in  http://larkolicio.us/blog/?p=42 was 18 mph!).  It’s that I think a video competition amongst teachers would be interesting for my students to judge.  So, want to race?

My idea is that several teachers would submit a video of themselves doing something.  Running is an easy idea.  Videos would be at different resolutions and different zoom levels, with different settings, so kids would have to use multiple points of reference to determine who is actually moving the fastest.  Then, we’d have our kids make their calculations.  We’d need some sort of structure to submit work from our multiple classes, and some averaging scheme to be fair when one class says their teacher was going a suspicious 50 mph (honest mistake, of course!).

Clearly it doesn’t need to be a footrace.  We could have any sort of timed event.  Is there an untimed event that we could compare?  Building a pile of sand with the best height/base ratio?  Making a function with the best (length)/(area of enclosing rectangle)?  Best record at Settlers of Catan?

Maybe you’re getting the idea that this is not crystal clear in my mind yet.  But here’s my motivation: I want to show kids that I am part of a learning network, and that other people are working on getting better at things.  I think it will motivate them.  Also, I think they’d think that interacting with students from another class would be cool, and would show them a way to interact with others on the internet besides facebook.  How can we do this?

Leave your wave username in the comments or email it to me and we could collaborate with it.  I’m “rileylark.”  I have a bunch of invites if you don’t have an account.