calculators

at the beginning of precalculus, or as soon as all students have graphing calculators, i need to specifically teach students strategies for using their calculators and how to enter entire expressions into the calculator using parentheses in the correct way. i figured that all out myself because no one ever taught me, but it'd be great to actually teach them so they don't learn after a bunch of errors!

precalculus teaching notes

• Specifically teach how to label the x axis in radians when teaching how to graph sine and cosine.
• Require students to write out trig identities periodically to help with memorization?
• Require students to derive identities?
• Spend a longer amount of time teaching the lesson about solving trig equations, especially as related to the kind that have more solutions than normal.
  

student tensions

i had good conversations with all my students that were having talking issues. it's interesting that part of the dynamic is that two of those students is really annoyed by one of the other students and the things that he says. but from my perspective, all of them talk out of turn and none of them is really worse than the other, except different reasons for talking out of turn. but i think i have a much better idea of how indicate to them individually when they shouldn't be talking. so i tried to be very intentional about that during class today and will hopefully be able to keep up consistency in that way and not let things slide.
it's an interesting tension among the students though because two of them just look at me when the other one that annoys them talks when he shouldn't like they're saying "why aren't you making him stop?" (and i talked to that student about specific ways i could get his attention so he understands it's not the right time to be talking--ADD is part of the issue there.) but then five minutes later, they will be the ones talking when they shouldn't. so kind of ironic. we talked about that too. we'll see how it goes!

why???

this is the question that my nine girls in algebra II are asking lately (well, at least some of them are). why do we do math? why does this matter to my life? but their question goes beyond math to school in general. why do i have to write papers? why do i have to go to school at all? these are valid questions and students today are discovering things that are wrong with the school system--that they do a bunch of theoretical things but not necessarily practical things that they will actually need to use in their life. it's a hard question to answer in general, including answering it about math specifically. i said something about how math trains your mind to think in different ways, while other subjects train you to think in other ways, so you can be ready for whatever thinking comes your way in life in the future. they (the people who were being frustrated and bothered by the "why?" question) didn't even want to talk about that though, so we ended the conversation. i think for some people i need a better way to respond than rational reasons why we do these things. i try to be as encouraging as possible in my classes and not say things that put down students or make them feel bad. i think i need to work on affirming more, and then when these why questions come up, offer to talk to individual students (or the whole class), if they are really open to discussing it. when students are frustrated is probably not the best time to have a discussion like that--at least that's why i gather from what happened today. so then how to diffuse frustration that a couple students are feeling and not have the bad feeling spread to the whole class, that is the whole question i don't have an answer to right now.

talking issues

my precalculus class is having talking issues. they feel like they can talk whenever they feel like it. i try asking them to raise their hands, and then i have trouble enforcing it when some of them start talking anyway. i think i need to talk to individual students, but i also need to work on being more form and less "nice." my problem is that i want to hear what they have to say, but i'm allowing them to say things at inappropriate times, when i'm trying to teach. i need to work on "the look" or being more firm when i tell someone they need to stop talking. i think they get the impression that i don't really mean it because i am too nice or i smile when i shouldn't. i don't like feeling mean, so i try to ask them nicely. but that doesn't work because that's when they think i don't really mean it or that it doesn't actually really matter. i never want to be the teacher who explodes in anger, so i think i go the other direction and end up being too nice. i need to find a middle ground somehow. i need to not let things slide, and actually stop the lesson when they aren't acting how they should be.

things to think about

ponder:

• what to say when students feel discouraged about a test
• how to encourage students to be consistent in doing their work and asking questions when they think they can get help one time for 30 minutes when they haven't been getting their questions answered for weeks and then suddenly be doing better....
• what to say when students say during class "i hate this"

good things:

• a student said "her world was falling apart" when i didn't have a quiz at the beginning of class like i normally do.
• allowing students to create their own example problems and situations when it's appropriate--this has brought much joy to my physics class
• i should more often have "competitions" as review before tests. it's been hard to convince myself there is time for this when on a block schedule, but when i did it with a few students after school, they had *fun* and felt more confident in their skills.
  

differentiating for algebra II

my algebra II class has an interesting mix of students. 5 girls are getting solid A's or very high A's in the class, one has a B+, one has a B-, and two are currently getting Fs. after the recent test, i'm going to really encourage the people who got A's to try doing one of the available projects instead of doing the review parts of each homework assignment. i'm also going to add 4 problems or so to each homework assignment that the people who got A's on the test must try. i feel like the people who are getting As in the class aren't being challenged enough, and i would like them to be challenged, not bored (as i know a few of them are).

graphing project!

i'm so excited that that graphing project i'm having my precalculus class do is a success! i'm looking forward to seeing the final products that come in next week and having student work to post on the bulletin board above the cabinet of laptops. from what i've seen so far, what students have done looks like it will be pretty amazing! i'm looking forward to trying something similar with my algebra II class before the next test, even though they can only graph lines right now.

assessment & review

i know the value of review in math--it's unreasonable to expect everyone to understand a concept the first time it's presented. when grading tests i realized that even though i assign homework in such a way that has the students reviewing past concepts, i don't do enough review and checking of understanding of those past concepts in class. i need to do more intentional and specific review before tests.

yay for making math fun!

one of my precalculus students today told me she was having fun with the lesson today! and she is one who doesn't really like math and works very hard but still struggles to do well.

note to self: having students explore different graphs on their graphing calculator to discover what the different graphs look like and then sketching their own graphs is a good idea!

now i need to find some ways to make my algebra II class fun... i think the anticipatory sets in precalculus and AP physics have improved the environment of the class recently, and i wish i could think of some for algebra II as well. thinking of something that relates to the material is the hard one for this class, partly because i don't know the class interests as well, or their interests seem to be harder things to relate to math.

details of classroom routine

on a positive note, i'm really happy with a few classroom routines that i've set up.

• students know that they need to write in pencil. they know that if they don't have one, they can always borrow one by putting a shoe by my desk and taking a pencil from the box on the desk. because i explained this to students at the beginning of the semester, this now happens pretty much automatically whenever students need a pencil. they don't ask or disturb other students--they just get up and go get one (for the most part). =)
• students also know where to put their homework and quizzes when they're turning them in--on the table by the projector in the middle of the room. they've become good about passing things in there without me asking them to, for the most part.
• students also know that class starts with a short quiz and they have started asking when i deviate from that at all. (usually i don't, but it's happened a few times.)
• all the students use the school laptops that are located in my room and they know that they can just come in, take a laptop (not the powercord), sign it out and leave with it, without asking about anything. they also know to sign it back in and put it back on the proper shelves that i labeled. =) plugging the power cord back in is something that needs to be worked on.

i thought there was one other, but i can't think of it right now.

on another positive note, a student told me that my class is "remotely interesting" compared to another teacher's. hmmm...so maybe that's something?

making math fun

i find that i'm being challenged to find ways to make math fun. it's already intrinsically fun to me, so i guess i forget to make sure concrete things happen in the lesson to convey that to students. i could tell today that the algebra II class was just somewhere else in their mind during the lesson. (it was the last day before a 4 day weekend...) but i knew my lesson wasn't that interesting too, even though i explained things well and when they were working on the homework i could tell that everyone understood it. the biggest question for students who don't like math is "why are we doing this?" and i have a lot of philosophical and practical answers, but those answers don't work on a day to day basis when trying to make lessons that actually engage students. this kind of goes along with anticipatory sets--having things in the lesson that are relevant to student interests and actually engage them and get them thinking.

i'm happy that i have a good anticipatory set for even and odd functions today with the analogy of a convex and concave mirror. we shall see how it goes.

anticipatory sets & classroom management

I find myself challenged to think of anticipatory sets that are actually relevant to students for some topics. There have been some days that I just haven’t had one, and I can see the difference on days that I have one and days that I don’t. The key seems to be thinking about student interests and going from there to think about how those things could relate to the material.

I’m finding that if I’m very clear with students about what I don’t like about how they are behaving during class, there seems to be a better feeling in the class about how things are going. Recently there seems to have been confusion about what I’m ok with and what I’m not, and I was finding it difficult to know what to enforce in regards to when students are allowed to talk and when they are not. Part of the challenge has been figuring out exactly what I do want to expect, what bothers me and what doesn’t, and what is interfering with learning and what is actually helping the students to have fun while they are learning.

classroom management observations

• i need to work on not talking louder to compensate for how my students are talking.
• it could also be good to try what another teacher does and outline what's going to happen in the class period, especially for block classes.
• in terms of classroom behavior, asking my students what they are doing wrong instead of telling them might be more effective too.
• it also seems that having a break during the last block period of the day is a bad idea. telling them we will start 5 minutes later instead of having a 5 minute break in the middle might be better.