Category: Success YES!

  • Exeter–The power of 1 exercise

    Before I begin going through this problem I have selected, I want to link you to where the PDF’s of the documents can be found. Notice these are NOT the problem sets, these are activities that ARE used in class, but also are pulled together for teacher use at the Phillips Exeter Academy Summer Math…

  • Exeter: on pedagogy

    Before I get into some examples of what we did for the 4 days of Exeter training, I want to discuss what the overall philosophy of pedagogy that was modeled exhaustively. Never once did the instructor actually SAY, “This is how we designed and planned the problems.” Instead, he set up the situation where we…

  • A PROOF of the visual representation of imaginary solutions

    Many people ask me why I ride my motorcycle long distances in the summer. This summer I traveled from Reno, NV to St. Louis, MO. It was around 4000 miles, round trip, and brutally hot for a couple of states worth of riding. But, that traveling allows me one single thing I rarely get. Time…

  • Confidence Intervals all at once in AP Stats

    I tried something very new in AP Stats this year. Okay, it may not be all that new, but it was new for me. Last year when teaching confidence intervals, I taught it as it shows in the book, first 1 prop z, then 2 prop z, then inference testing, then 1 sample t, then…

  • Binomial probability w scantrons in hand

    My last post was about an idea to use old scantrons as a visual aid to build knowledge of the binomial probability formula before the learners actually were introduced to the formula. Short post: it worked, I think. Long post: I passed out the scantrons, which immediately brought forth a groan. We just had the…

  • Making expensive tech for cheaper

    I am very much a fan of repurposing objects and creating my own solutions to tech problems. Often times, you can do for your self much cheaper and get better quality if you think outside the box and create your own solutions instead of buying a premade solution. A long time ago, I wrote about…

  • Reviewing for AP Exams II

    The FRQ review that I did last class was fairly successful. The learners worked their problems, thought about how to teach that problem, and gave good presentations to the class. The one thing I was very disappointed in was the lack of questions on how to do the problems the class was teaching. They all said, “yup,…

  • Half sheets for full effort

    In AP statistics I was having a problem getting the class to actually engage during class! I know! The whole purpose of being .. in class .. is to BE IN CLASS! Thanks to my twitter PLN, I learned a terrific idea to get the class engaged. It works. Hardcore it works. It is called…

  • Hooks and Ladders in Alg 2

    An accident happened to me while teaching Algebra 2 this year. A very good accident. I was teaching solving equations, and I always tell my learners that solving equations is about looking for 1’s and 0’s. I stress this fact, and point out the 0’s and the 1 every time we solve something. And of…

  • One way to get more from your projector

    I was frustrated last school year because it was a pain to use my projector.  I had an S-Video cable wired for my TV, 2 Video cables, one for the school’s computer and one shared between my elmo and laptop, and a fourth cable for my iPod. It was the shared cable between my laptop…