As far back as I can remember, my family has played cards. Random memories include:
  • Playing Black Jack with my dad at age 4 or 5 in my grandmother's apartment in San Francisco (1967 or 1968)
  • Mother's bridge parties (1969 to 1975)
  • Playing Casino with my Nana while Merv Griffin hummed in the background
  • Winking, biting my lip, and raising my eyebrows to signal my Mus partner that I had something good
  • Spite and Malice with my sister anytime, anywhere. 
  • Flying and being given a deck of cards
  • Again at 4 or 5 crawling over to my Aunt Polly's sleeping bag to see if she was awake enough to play Cribbage at the first sign of summer light
We played other games too, Parcheesi, Chinese Checkers, Dominoes. My dad taught me Pinocle and Poker too. Don't you think this is where I began my love affair with math? And my parents were always in disbelief...I am not.

During our Probability unit in Algebra 2 I am amazed at how few students have experience with a standard deck of playing cards. They don't know about the four suits, the number of cards in the deck, how many of each suit there are, or even how to multiply by 13's. It seems such a part of my cultural literacy.

How have you translated "a standard deck of playing cards" with today's students? Is there some hip video game I am clueless about? Is there some new board game that is all the rage?
James Altucher is a quirky business guru, podcaster, diy learner. If he were a math teacher, he definitely would be in on the MTBoS. He wants you to be better. (Yeah, he wants you to buy his books, but he also wants you to learn from his mistakes and he wants your path to be easier because he learned a lot of it the hard way.)

Why am I bringing up a business dude? BECAUSE, he recently had Austin Kleon on his show. Their conversation was powerful and resonates strongly with the MTBoS philosophy. Some of what they discussed was about how to have creative success. You have to put your work out there. Even if it isn't perfect, those you trust will help you make it better. (So MTBoS!) He talks about how most of us have been influenced by others. Cool. Talk about who inspires you, what articles, blog posts, activities are piquing your interest and making you feel empowered. Acknowledge your heroes and whose floating your boat at the moment and how they have inspired your work.

We have all known the teacher who thinks they are the expert. They must be the keepers of the knowledge and want their students and colleagues to hang on their strategically parceled wisdom. What James points out is that this kind of teacher/speaker/boss/worker/human misses out on a valuable part of the equation: LEARNING. Wow! My self-esteem regarding my quirky, risk-taking, growth mind-set teaching style got a little less feeble, I think I grew an inch. What a relief to know that even though I have been teaching a long, long time, it is not only okay, but actually enlightened to acknowledge that I am NOT the solitary expert on ALL of Geometry!

Perfect timing to meet the challenge of the last two teaching weeks of the year.

I hope you all have a wonderful year end and an invigorating summer.