Teaching off topic (yet again)
The occasional lesson, free-coverage, or spot fill-in, allows a lot of freedom. Since there is not really an “on-topic” unless we count the ubiquitous test-prep, everything is off-topic, which is how I like it.
This week I was the guest at an after-school hour-and-a-half 7th grade math team session. I love this stuff. I could have done some model American Math Competition problems (we just gave the AMC this week), and thought about it, and maybe one day I will come and do some, but this week I did not.
We started with counting vs not-counting endpoints. Good buy-in, and tested if they could algebraically represent the result. They could. Good sign.
I ran some silly “guess the numbers” – in the first they added one to their
