Friday started rough when I got to school and realized I did
not have my laptop bag with my laptop and my ipad. This was not great because I
use the apple TV projector to record notes during the lesson. Of all the days to say "I'm going to start my reflection project" of course something like this would happen! But the class
must go on…
Period one – AP Calculus
They did a flash card test today. I had given them a list of
typical directions on the AP test and they had made flash cards of each set of
directions, with the directions on one side and how to solve on the other.
Today I randomly picked 19 of the flash cards and they had to tell me how to
solve the problem.
Reflection: This was great because they had kept saying the
wording of the ap test was throwing them off. It was good to take a break from
the actual math and focus on the wording for a day. If they don’t know what the
question is asking then they can’t hope to show the math. My students
definitely know how to do the various calculus concepts but are not confident
when it comes to the wording. After this test one student said “We are going to
pass now”. I liked this test but I think I also need to incorporate other
opportunities of checking the wording earlier in the year as well.
Period two – Precalculus
One of my students had an extra ipad for me to use for
notes. SAVED
We went over homework and then talked about polar graphs.
The goal is for them to make observations about the graphs rather than actually
do the graphing. Then I had them use Desmos to complete a matching activity
that I borrowed from Michael Fenton last year (reasonandwonder.com). THANK YOU. Their homework was a
worksheet walking them through more observations of polar graphing.
Reflection: After going over homework I realized I need to
do a better job of teaching inverse trig functions, especially tangent. This unit
is not specifically on inverse trig but rather expects them to already know it,
which they do but obviously not well enough. The matching activity was awesome.
It had them match up a description, picture of a graph, the equation of the
graph in polar form and the equation of the graph in rectangular form. Some
many opportunities for “ah-ha” moments. I think next time I do it I’ll include
somewhere for them to record their observations and conclusions more formally
than today. While I like the connections that were made I think I should also try to include some real life connections next time. Thanks CSTPs!
Period three – Algebra 2
We had a warm-up and then two examples problems.
Reflection: The warm-up was awesome! I had them fill in
missing numbers of a completed problem where the final answer was already
given. I’ve done more and more problems like this over the year. I was inspired
to do problems like this from Open Middle (openmiddle.com) which stemmed from a talk Dan Meyer
gave in 2013 “Making math class more like video games”. They really have to
have a thorough knowledge of how to do the problem in order to fill in the
boxes with the appropriate numbers to make it work out to the already fixed
answer. I love that it might start with trial and error that leads to making
deeper connections and overall better number sense. Even if the student never
gets it and they only do trial and error, they still end up practicing the
concept behind the problem multiple times. This eliminates the need for a
worksheet with multiple problems
The two example problems I gave were good but I realized I
should have started the first problem a bit differently. I adjusted for period
5 and it went great.
Period 5 – algebra 2
Same as period 3
Period 6 – AP Calculus
Same as period one
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