Category Archives: Teaching

Teaching

Gemini Math

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As I’ve mentioned before, I play with AI regularly to make sure I understand how it works. Gemini, Google’s LLM, has generally been pretty impressive. It’s not without its hallucinations (and numerous other concerns), but more often right than wrong.

Simple polygon using GeoGebra.

Today, I was working on some exercises for my beginning computer science students. They need to be able to use Cartesian coordinates in their Python programs (using the “turtle” module). Most of them need more practice. I created a simple polygon in GeoGebra so that they can identify the vertices. I needed to create a bunch more.

Then I thought, This is a perfect task for Gemini! I explained what I wanted to Gemini and this is what it came up with:

Yikes! Even if math isn’t your thing, I suspect you’ll be able to see some egregious errors here. It is utter nonsense, wrong in just about every possible way. I’m surprised that it knew which axis to label x and y. (Even then, it added the specious “0” and “e“.)

I think my colleagues in the math department don’t have to worry about being replaced by AI “teachers” quite yet.

Andrew, Teaching

Humanizer

It’s hard for me to believe that someone wrote this copy with a straight face. It seems like a mockery of AI — a dystopian satire of the robot apocalypse. Humanizer? Really???

Screen shot of an email advertisement received from Grammarly on September 8, 2025.

Andrew, Photo, Sarah, Teaching

Last Day Celebration

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Today was the last day with students at my middle school. Five teachers and spouses went out for an evening on the town, culminating in an outstanding Chinese feast at Shuang Cheng in NE Minneapolis (owned by the parent of a former student and serves the best Ma Pao Tofu I’ve had since leaving Oakland).

It was a bittersweet occasion because Shannon is retiring and Matt is taking a sabbatical next year. The middle school won’t be the same without them.

Some of the finest teachers in the twin cities.

Andrew, Teaching

Classroom Life

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This evening, hours after I got home from school, I received this email from a student about a project that’s due tomorrow morning:

Hi mr Roy I was wondering if you could put this picture on the smart board to make sure you can read the lettering. if you cant read it then I will change the picture. thanks bye

I guess it’s true that students believe that their teachers live in the classroom 24-7!

(Yes, it is also riddled with mechanical errors, but that’s pretty common with emails from middle-schoolers. He probably felt like he was being super-formal by putting in periods and saying hi.)

Oliver, Teaching

Mind Powers

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“I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s like my mind is connected to the bead bars. I Just know what’s going to come next.”

Oliver’s wonderful Kindergarten teacher, Molly, sent us this picture and quote. The “bead bars” represent numbers (by the number of color-coded beads on each bar) and can be used to explore a lot of mathematical operations (including addition and multiplication). It’s amazing to see how these manipulatives give kids real confidence around number manipulation. Oliver regularly stops me from solving math problems so that he can do them himself.

Andrew, Photo, Teaching

Snow Days

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A big winter storm came through this week. Two more days off from school. (First day was a false-positive… we could have easily made it to school, but it had already been called.) Today (the second day), seems much more justified.

Back porch scene this morning (with a few more hours of snow to come).

Actually, this is just for Andrew and Griffin’s school (SPA). Maggie and Oliver got three days off!

Andrew, Griffin, Teaching

Teacher-Parent Joy

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On Friday, I had to give a series of short presentations about the middle school GSA to students in every advisory in the building. I was with my two wonderful colleagues, Kate and Vito, who have been co-leading the group with me for the past few years. Over the course of 90 minutes, we gave the presentation to a dozen different groups of students. We tried to keep it high energy, so we were running a bit ragged by the end of it. One of the last groups, however, made my day.

As we wrapped up our presentation, a girl called out, “Mr. Roy, are you Griffin’s dad?” I said, “Yes I am. Why do you ask?” She responded, “He is the nicest person I have ever met!” At which point, a bunch of other students chimed in in agreement.

This wasn’t surprising in the sense that I feared that Griffin wasn’t nice—my sense has always been that he is uncommonly kind—but it is rare for seventh graders to put themselves out there to compliment a classmate so publicly. Moreover, it helped quell any lingering anxiety about how he is settling into his new school.

Way to make an entrance, Griffin!

Andrew, Teaching, Video

Courage Retreat

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Every fall, my school hires Youth Frontiers to conduct a day-long activity for our eighth graders called the Courage Retreat. I was skeptical about it the first time we ran it in 2010, but they won me over because they were able to win the students over.

This morning, while discussing the retreat with some new faculty members, one of my colleagues discovered a video on the Youth Frontiers site that features our school. These were our eighth graders three years ago, so they are in eleventh grade now. It was a great class.

The video is obviously an advertisement, but it warms my heart nevertheless. I thought some of you might enjoy catching a glimpse of one of the many things we do at SPA. Sharp eyes can even spot me in the background in a few shots.

In case the YouTube link above ever goes defunct, I made a personal copy of the video that should work in perpetuity below. (My guess is that YouTube’s streaming protocols are far more efficient, though, so I would watch the above copy as long as it is working.)

Andrew, Photo, Teaching

Barricade Day

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One of my students is an ardent fan of Les Misérables. For the past few weeks, she has repeatedly asked if we can celebrate Barricade Day by building a barricade in our classroom. I laughed. But she was serious. I had never heard of Barricade Day. She was happy to fill me in. I hemmed and hawed. Finally, at our last class, it became apparent that this particular group would finish their video projects early. (They’re a pretty sharp, dedicated bunch.) I told my student that if she came up with a lesson plan that would teach the class about Barricade Day, I would give her 45 minutes to run the show today.

Sure enough, last night she emailed me a lesson plan with a 350-word mini-lecture about the June Rebellion of 1832, including images to share with the class and a short video. I honored my end of the bargain. at 1:45 sharp, we ended our regular social studies class and went to Paris to learn about the unrest there. At 2:00, filled with revolutionary zeal, we tore apart the classroom and built a barricade. (I did have two recommendations: don’t break anything and don’t get hurt.)

Here are the pictures my student shared followed by a picture of our 8th-grade version.