Benvenuto!

Hello and welcome to Cougar Scat, home to all the poop from Mr. Brown's Mathematics II classes. Here you will find summaries of what's happening, including important announcements, course information, and learning resources.

Primarily, this is a communication tool, and the goal is to update this information, sort of like a blog, at least once each week. Of course there are other avenues for communication as well, including email and Canvas. I am looking forward to our time together this semester and I am looking forward to all the ways we will work together toward success for all. 

Check the About Me page if you are curious about who I am, and please do not hesitate to send me a note to introduce yourself!

As we head toward the end of our first (partial) week together, we are making the most of these early days. So far we've worked on classroom procedures and expectations while familiarizing ourselves with some of the tool and technologies for getting our work done. One of the most important things you, or your student, can bring to class each day is a positive growth mindset. The latest research in neuroscience tells us much about the plasticity of the human brain - in other words, our brains can grow and we can all get "smarter."  This is great news - especially for those who say, "I'm not a math person," or, "I've never been good at math." In the coming days, weeks and months I am inviting my students to practice using a simple but powerful word; the word is yet. Why is this word powerful? It's powerful because it is an essential part of the positive mindset vocabulary. Instead of saying "I don't understand this," we can say, "I don't understand this yet."  Rather than saying, "I'm not good at this," we want to say "I'm not good at this yet." This simple word at the end of the sentence changes everything, and reflects the hope and determination that success sometimes lies just on the other side of a bit of struggle. I've included a short interview with Stanford University's Jo Boalar. She is a prolific writer/researcher in the power of a positive growth mindset to transform students into the mathematicians they may never have believed they could be. I invite you to watch the video and then join me in embracing the power of yet.