My Brain is Open

My school is getting associated with a Running Start program in a neighboring State. VT doesn't have the same flexibility. So next year students in my AP Calculus, Statistics and Precalculus courses can pay $100 and earn a 4-credit College mathematics course which they can transfer to where ever they end up going.

In addition to this change, the latest trend that I'm hot on is this whole idea of a flipped classroom. Students watch Videos I produce for HW, try some of the easier questions and in class we get to work on the application exercises which I end up helping them with traditionally. Getting them to take notes for HW should be a time saver. No excuse for not being able to do the work.

I've set up a Moodle classroom for each course and I've already begun recording videos.

I'll try my best to keep posting.

I'm blogging about incorporating Harry Wang's First Day of School book. I'll post here occasionally, but the new blog is where I'm probably going to concentrate for a while.

http://teachprocedures.blogspot.com/

I'm killing the last hour of my 22nd year in the classroom. I have to return this evening for a Senior Awards night and them I'm off until 8/23.

What went well this year?

The Personal Finance Course was a success for the first run through. Student feedback told me to pull my handouts into a big packet so it doesn't seem like "we get too many packets."

A big calculus class. We'll see how the test results fall out. One student told me to "Crack the Whip and stick it with" Good advice


This summer I need to put together a differentiated set of packets for students that need more of a challenge. I need to write the course syllabus so I can require students that can do harder work are required to do it.

I also have to pull together some calculus HW assignments that I can turn around quickly and give a grade for.

I also need to prep for accounting.

Today was the last day of regular classes. Three exam days, one inservice day and two evenings attending Senior Class activities and Summer begins.

I've been bumming during the last day or so after reading about dy/dan's decision to leave the classroom. Another dynamic person that only lasted a few years before leaving the profession. If the money were better, the job less stressful, not quite so consuming would he have stayed?

On a more agreeable note, I've been pleasantly surprised by what I'm seeing from my personal finance course ignite presentations. I never got a release so I can't post any of the presentations but they have been cool. Let them pursue something they are interested in and they do buy in.

For my non-college intending classes, I'm going to try to have them create an Ignite style presentation fr a final project. they need to choose some topic we've covered this term and  make a presentation on it. I've told them they can choose what they do, but they need 20 slides auto changing every 15 second and they need to give a talk at the same time. I suppose I'll need to make allowances for those students to shy to stand up. Record a Voice over ?

Yesterday we dragged the kids, and my parents, across the State to see this.

As we were walking around the Museum, my daughter, as se was looking at the map of the place observed:  "I think they must have used Google Sketchup to make this drawing of the buildings."  Looking a little more closely at it, I think she was right.

It is very cool to see one's children mature and turn into sentent beings. As she is turning 13 this year, this spring and early summer, I have been repeatedly brought up short by her insight into things around her.

Maybe I'll resurrect this blog to talk about using smartboards to teach high school math. I just had one installed on Tuesday evening. I am loving it. I've snatched test review material in preparation for our State's NECAP test and the PSAT on Oct 15.

I've been doing warm-up activities using these questions: PSAT Practice.pdf 

I've also done an exploration for the special right triangles using GeoSketchpad. Backed up with some traditional examples, I think it went OK.