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1st HL maths class tomorrow. Topic: sequences. Th
1st HL maths class tomorrow. Topic: sequences. Thought this would be a great starter http://t.co/4FgHdJJ #mathchat
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Things I've Tagged (weekly)
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Precalc box project
What's the biggest box you can make out of an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper? Go.
That's the question I posed to my precalc classes yesterday. The first class kind of just stared at me for a minute, then thought of some questions.
1. What does biggest mean? (we decided volume, not surface area)
2. What's a box? (um....)
3. Does it have a lid? (we decided no for simplicity's sake... but today figured it out with a lid)
4. What shape? (we went with a rectangular prism, but one boy wanted to do a cylinder, so he did! love him.)
As a class we came up with a net of the box on the board, labeled some values, and came up with a formula for its volume. But how do you find the maximum volume? Someone suggested graphing the volume equation... but then what? What does a cubic look like? How does it have a maximum if it goes up forever?
That lead us to a discussion on the domain of our volume. The polynomial itself will go to all reals, but that's not applicable for our box. Once we had a good window, we talked about how to find the maximum value (without tracing on the calculator) and what that ordered pair represented for our box.
At this point, everyone grabbed a piece of cardstock (cut in different sizes so they had to work independently), measured, and proceeded to maximize their box. (Question - what do I do with 90+ small open-lidded boxes?)
Today I had them do some checking for me. Everyone grabbed a constructed box from yesterday, measured it, and entered their values into a google spreadsheet that I'd set up. It was a little crazy with 14 people trying to enter their numbers all at the same time (because they kept typing over each other) but it was fun to see all of the data come in. Then they were to come up with the maximum volume for a lidded box (after we drew a net and found a volume formula together)... though I'm not sure the net we came up with would maximize the paper, it was fun to see them think through what it would need to look like!
I actually did this project at the end of last year when we were doing limits and derivatives in precalc. They then had to find the derivative of their volume function and determine where it would have a maximum (by setting = 0). I'm going to keep one of the pages they filled out leading them through the process and give it back to them in May so we can do the limit and see that it's magically the same value that the calculator gave us! Crazy how that works.
(Much thanks to Luajean Bryan, who showed us this project at NCTM!)
That's the question I posed to my precalc classes yesterday. The first class kind of just stared at me for a minute, then thought of some questions.
1. What does biggest mean? (we decided volume, not surface area)
2. What's a box? (um....)
3. Does it have a lid? (we decided no for simplicity's sake... but today figured it out with a lid)
4. What shape? (we went with a rectangular prism, but one boy wanted to do a cylinder, so he did! love him.)
As a class we came up with a net of the box on the board, labeled some values, and came up with a formula for its volume. But how do you find the maximum volume? Someone suggested graphing the volume equation... but then what? What does a cubic look like? How does it have a maximum if it goes up forever?
That lead us to a discussion on the domain of our volume. The polynomial itself will go to all reals, but that's not applicable for our box. Once we had a good window, we talked about how to find the maximum value (without tracing on the calculator) and what that ordered pair represented for our box.
At this point, everyone grabbed a piece of cardstock (cut in different sizes so they had to work independently), measured, and proceeded to maximize their box. (Question - what do I do with 90+ small open-lidded boxes?)Today I had them do some checking for me. Everyone grabbed a constructed box from yesterday, measured it, and entered their values into a google spreadsheet that I'd set up. It was a little crazy with 14 people trying to enter their numbers all at the same time (because they kept typing over each other) but it was fun to see all of the data come in. Then they were to come up with the maximum volume for a lidded box (after we drew a net and found a volume formula together)... though I'm not sure the net we came up with would maximize the paper, it was fun to see them think through what it would need to look like!
I actually did this project at the end of last year when we were doing limits and derivatives in precalc. They then had to find the derivative of their volume function and determine where it would have a maximum (by setting = 0). I'm going to keep one of the pages they filled out leading them through the process and give it back to them in May so we can do the limit and see that it's magically the same value that the calculator gave us! Crazy how that works.
(Much thanks to Luajean Bryan, who showed us this project at NCTM!)
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Two down... how many to go?!
Two days down, and I think my body's in shock.
Ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating. I'm feeling my feet and legs ache... I'm feeling my tummy rumble (lunch was at 10:15!)... and I'm feeling my body all yucky and covered in sweat - gotta love having no a/c when it's 90+ outside! I literally was dripping around 7:45 this morning (but it actually got a little better as the day progressed because the humidity subsided a bit). And did I mention that I could totally go home and go to bed? 5:20 am is inhumane.
But my first two days back have gone pretty well. The kids seem nice (except one boy in a precalc class who I can already tell is super annoying... and I knew that after the first 10 minutes in my room!) and have been working for the most part. I assigned summer work for precalc and it was nice to jump right into factoring, solving, graphing, etc. without the normal foray into "here's what you should know" stuff. I'm giving a quiz tomorrow which could be interesting (especially after grading all of the kids' summer work!)... honestly, what kind of "honors" kid doesn't do half of their assigned work? Or just writes answers (which I posted online for them)? Maybe this will help my classes decrease in size a bit - I've got 32 in two of the classes and 27 in the other.
One thing that hasn't gone well is the technology component. (I know - shocker!) I had a wireless hub in my room which didn't seem to be working well except for the 5 minutes after I unplugged and replugged it. Our tech people came in and determined that the hub was causing problems all around me, so it's now gone. Yesterday was actually ok without it, but today's been a disaster. I wasn't able to wirelessly connect to my projector and have lost my connection to the network numerous times (which means I haven't been able to print or get online). The tech guy was just back in the room and tried a new hub to no avail. He said the engineer is supposed to come in on Monday and hopefully will get things back up like they're supposed to be... but I'm sure we all know that that's doubtful!
I'm a little at a loss with my Algebra 1 class. There are only 22 kids and mostly girls and they all seem very sweet. I gave them a fun problem to start class today (there are so many girls with cats and backpacks, etc. How many legs?) that they seemed to enjoy, then I handed out a skills review page just to see where they're at. It had adding and subtracting with negatives, order of ops, and some simplifying/distributing with variables. We got through most of the first two sections without a whole lot of problems although there was some surprise that yes, sometimes you will need to divide before multiplying, but what I heard from them with the algebra section let me know that we'll basically be starting from square one with variables. At least I know where they're at! Kinda.
I'm done rambling and I want to find some a/c. And a snack.
Ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating. I'm feeling my feet and legs ache... I'm feeling my tummy rumble (lunch was at 10:15!)... and I'm feeling my body all yucky and covered in sweat - gotta love having no a/c when it's 90+ outside! I literally was dripping around 7:45 this morning (but it actually got a little better as the day progressed because the humidity subsided a bit). And did I mention that I could totally go home and go to bed? 5:20 am is inhumane.
But my first two days back have gone pretty well. The kids seem nice (except one boy in a precalc class who I can already tell is super annoying... and I knew that after the first 10 minutes in my room!) and have been working for the most part. I assigned summer work for precalc and it was nice to jump right into factoring, solving, graphing, etc. without the normal foray into "here's what you should know" stuff. I'm giving a quiz tomorrow which could be interesting (especially after grading all of the kids' summer work!)... honestly, what kind of "honors" kid doesn't do half of their assigned work? Or just writes answers (which I posted online for them)? Maybe this will help my classes decrease in size a bit - I've got 32 in two of the classes and 27 in the other.
One thing that hasn't gone well is the technology component. (I know - shocker!) I had a wireless hub in my room which didn't seem to be working well except for the 5 minutes after I unplugged and replugged it. Our tech people came in and determined that the hub was causing problems all around me, so it's now gone. Yesterday was actually ok without it, but today's been a disaster. I wasn't able to wirelessly connect to my projector and have lost my connection to the network numerous times (which means I haven't been able to print or get online). The tech guy was just back in the room and tried a new hub to no avail. He said the engineer is supposed to come in on Monday and hopefully will get things back up like they're supposed to be... but I'm sure we all know that that's doubtful!
I'm a little at a loss with my Algebra 1 class. There are only 22 kids and mostly girls and they all seem very sweet. I gave them a fun problem to start class today (there are so many girls with cats and backpacks, etc. How many legs?) that they seemed to enjoy, then I handed out a skills review page just to see where they're at. It had adding and subtracting with negatives, order of ops, and some simplifying/distributing with variables. We got through most of the first two sections without a whole lot of problems although there was some surprise that yes, sometimes you will need to divide before multiplying, but what I heard from them with the algebra section let me know that we'll basically be starting from square one with variables. At least I know where they're at! Kinda.
I'm done rambling and I want to find some a/c. And a snack.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Things I've Tagged (weekly)
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@MathBratt With CCSS there r less standards tested, so u don't have to cover everything. Activities correlated to CCSS: http://t.co/183132G
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Pls help me build: iPad apps for Math Teachers lis
Pls help me build: iPad apps for Math Teachers list. Share & add ur favs here: http://t.co/XNVH0Ym Pls RT TIA #mathchat
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Degrees of Separation: Your College Major Matters More Than Ever - Education - GOOD
RT @GeekStats: Avg US college grad will earn $2.67 million in a lifetime; those w just high school diploma $1.3 million - http://ow.ly/5Zt9C
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Ask and you shall receive
It amazes me how generous people can be when you just take the time to ask.
Case #1. My previously-mentioned paper folding escapade with my Algebra 2 kids last year. All it took for me to get 2 large (!) pieces of paper was an email and a special trip to pick them up. For free.
Case #2. I've been doing some searching this summer to find new projects I can use in Precalc. I've had a little luck finding stuff online and have run across a book called Projects for Precalculus every time I search. Unfortunately, this book doesn't seem to exist in any stores. I did, however, find the email address of one of the authors of the book and decided to write. I said I was a precalculus teacher and was interested in his book but wasn't able to find it for sale anywhere. He responded back today and said that it was out of print and then he sent me a copy of the book on pdf. Can you imagine?! Twenty-six precalc projects now at my fingertips. For free.
Case #3. One of my twitter friends sent me some files today that I'll be able to use in precalc to help the kids get ready for the AP Calc format. Twitter. I can't say enough. If you're not on twitter, get on it. If you're not hooked up with a good group of teachers to help you, let me know. You're seriously missing out. And you know what? It's free.
Case #1. My previously-mentioned paper folding escapade with my Algebra 2 kids last year. All it took for me to get 2 large (!) pieces of paper was an email and a special trip to pick them up. For free.
Case #3. One of my twitter friends sent me some files today that I'll be able to use in precalc to help the kids get ready for the AP Calc format. Twitter. I can't say enough. If you're not on twitter, get on it. If you're not hooked up with a good group of teachers to help you, let me know. You're seriously missing out. And you know what? It's free.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Memory loss
With opening day just a little over a week away, I'm trying to get a little more specific with what I want to do starting out in each class... and yet when I sat down to do that, I couldn't remember exactly how I'd opened last year. Thank goodness for this blog! Just checked out the archives and found my description of what I did last year (it's here). Whatever did I do before blogging? :)
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I typed that a few hours ago with the best of intentions to get some work done tonight for Algebra 1 (my kinda new prep). And then I got distracted with my first day stuff. Last year @lmhenry9 made up a prezi to show the kids the answers to her Quiz about her and I thought about doing that but it would've taken me forever to make (I'm not the most proficient with prezi). So I fell back on the good old powerpoint. And 3 hours later, it's done! (Seriously?! Obsess much?!)
It was fun to make, though, and hopefully the kids will enjoy it. :)
****
I typed that a few hours ago with the best of intentions to get some work done tonight for Algebra 1 (my kinda new prep). And then I got distracted with my first day stuff. Last year @lmhenry9 made up a prezi to show the kids the answers to her Quiz about her and I thought about doing that but it would've taken me forever to make (I'm not the most proficient with prezi). So I fell back on the good old powerpoint. And 3 hours later, it's done! (Seriously?! Obsess much?!)
It was fun to make, though, and hopefully the kids will enjoy it. :)
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