It is spring break, so what am I doing? I am attending AP workshops and volunteering at my local university. All in all, a great spring break. So, Let me start with the question first. Why do we make it so hard to learn functions? I mean really. We treat each topic; linears, quadratics, cubics, [...]
Today is the first official day of Spring Break (Monday) and so far I have had an eventful weekend. I started by flying to Los Angeles and attending the 5th of the series of AP Workshops they have had. These are the one day workshop where teachers can attend and get some additional tips, hints, [...]
Every year in AP stats for the last 4 years I have struggled with getting my learners to understand and use the all important conditions checks in Confidence Intervals and Hypothesis tests. This year I changed up how I taught it, and it has really made an impact. In fact, I can honestly say that [...]
Homework, to give, nor not? How much to give? How much is too much? What purpose does it serve? What is the purpose in assigning it? I will be honest, I don’t have answers to these questions, but I do have some research, some documents downloaded that may help you shape your own answers to [...]
This month, Grant Wiggins wrote an article on the correlation between SES and academic achievement. There is a strong correlation between SAT scores and the families income and there is not a single data point out of place in the table. Here is the full 2012 report. Look at the scores climb as the family [...]
I have been thinking and struggling with these ideas for a week now. I read Dave’s post summarizing the study about repeating Algebra 1 and the lack of success in CA, and I really felt I needed to dive deeper in this topic. So I read many link and downloaded almost every article that was [...]
This is a post that can not be written without a better understanding of how Exeter structures its school year. First off, they are on a 3 term schedule; 3 ten week (approx) terms per year. This is a FABULOUS schedule, and I can speak from experience. It is a similar schedule to what Knox [...]
In this post I want to show Exeter’s problem solving strategy. This is important, because it is SO different from how a problem like this is typically approached. First off, the problem I am going to model is M1:21:11 [Math 1, page 21, problem 11] 11. Alex was hired to unpack and clean 576 very [...]
I am planning several posts on this week’s time I spent with a math teacher from Phillips Exeter Academy. This first one, though, will be radically different from the others, and it is because I have to vent a little and lay out a difficulty I had today. Today was the last day of the [...]
It is time to start thinking about such things! First, room arrangement. This year I am expecting to have between 30 and 37 learners in each class. In the past, I have had my room arranged in a large, double sided U. This allowed for maximum conversation and collaboration, as well as random number usage [...]