It's the day before spring break and I have been counting down to this moment for awhile now.
ITS FINALLY HERE. Spring break is a chance to rest and find new energy.
But then today as I was planning for my lessons for when we come back from spring break I started to get really excited! I found myself thinking..."I wish I was teaching tomorrow". WOW! I've been looking forward to spring break for new energy when all I needed to do was excited about my lesson plans :) Here they are:
AP Calculus: We are are in full prep mode. We are switching everyday between multiple choice and free response. The other day we had "The Worst Day Ever" with is my take on the surprise tests done by Mr. Calculus over at Diamond Bar High School. 20 questions multiple choice pop quiz style. I told them that it was "The Worst Day Ever" and our goal until after the AP Test is that every day will be better. So after spring break we are going to have another surprise test but it is going to be BETTER for several reasons. One, I am actually letting them study for it :) and 2) they know what to expect. Already WAY better than "The Worst Day Ever". The goal of course is that the AP Test will be "The Best Day Ever".
Precalculus: My students definitely needed a break from trig so they've had three weeks of probability but now we are back to wrap up the trig. We are going to be working with Law of Sines and Law of Cosines. From reading other fantastic blogs I am preparing myself for a tough lesson. However, when I was at the CUE conference I was inspired by Joe Corippo to make sure that I am teaching more than what students can google. Students will be given a list of "googable" things and then as a class we will figure out what to DO with them. (Use appropriate tools strategically #mathpractices)
Algebra 2: Two words. Function Notation. I have only been teaching for four years but so far I have been really disappointed with the level of understanding most students have for function notation. Using the hashtag MTBoS I was able to hunt down some expert advice via Mrs. E's Classroom Blog. We are going to notice and wonder as a class for several examples and create a class definition of function notation BEFORE we start to use it. Again the approach is sure they could google the definition but can they google how to discover, wonder, and notice function notation?
Needless to say I am looking forward to coming back after spring break!
Are you? What are you doing in your class that you are excited about?
