Ok Go

Wednesday night, 2 blocks away from my lovely house in City Park is the historical Bluebird Theater, and it rocks.

Ok Go was a blast! It felt like we were listening to a rock band out of a garage, I felt like we were friends. The red suit, pink pants - all ironed very neatly, too - and then the lit-up guitars with white feathers around the strap and guitars. Great stuff! They even sang a blues song while playing church hand bells. took me right back to the Lutheran church. So this kid, probably 17, did a drum cover of one of their songs, "This Too Shall Pass," and the kid was at the concert last night. The band brought him up on stage and the kid played the drums for the song! SOOOO COOL. Small venue concerts are the best. Plus, it was a free ticket.

Now, how am I going to get through today's classes with energy? A night out on the town has its repercussions....

Bikram

Went to my first Bikram yoga class last night with my friend Krista. I am a believer and feel transformed. After running and weight lifting I feel strong and healthy but nothing like I felt after the Bikram class. It was my first time, so I was watching the girl in front of me - and she was good - but the poses were easy to attempt because the teachers words were direct and simple. Good teaching is good teaching. I'm definitely going back. Yoga memberships are expensive though! $69/month!!! So worth it in my book. We were at the only certified Bikram studio in Denver; apparently the teachers have to study with Bikram himself and have over 700 hours of practice before opening their own studio.

I loved it. I felt strong, healthy and secure. Such a great workout. The heat wasn't even that big of a deal, considering I lived in Phoenix where temperatures are in the 90s and 100s most of the year.

If you haven't tried Bikram, make it a 2010 goal. I hope you will feel as empowered as I did. Problem is, I couldn't fall asleep because I was so energized from the 90 minute sweat session.

teaching

I don't normally share what happens in our algebra classroom. But today, I will.

We are multiplying binomials - remember FOIL? And my students, who have struggled graphing straight lines and still forget negatives times a negative is a positive are rockin' out multiplying polynomials. It was amazing. They had an 'exit ticket' yesterday which is 6 problems to solve in the last 10 minutes of class. Grades usually follow a pattern but this time, the pattern was transformed. I saw students earning 100%s and over 100% (there was a bonus question). Normally, there are 2-3 100% papers but there were like..20 out of 60 students with 100s. AMAZING. There were another 20 or so with As and just as many with B+ on their exit ticket! I was SO impressed and excited. Multiplying polynomials is no easy task but they rocked it out. I can't wait to see what happens when I introduce the quadratic formula soon.

I am SO proud of my Class of 2013 :)