Differentiating Instruction

I've known for a while now that there are some kids in my class that think/know I'm going too slow for them or too easy or whatnot. It's only my 2nd year teaching the precalculus at this school (so still tweaking things) and my 1st year teaching calculus (so still treading water), so I never seem to have enough time to cater to all levels in my classes.

Well, yesterday (Thursday) was a semi-success story. In precalculus I have 2 boys (at least) that basically quickly do what we're doing in class, then spend the rest of the period amusing themselves with various math things they come up with on their own ... or they do other work, but they REALLY like math. So, while the rest of the class was reviewing for a logarithms/exponents quiz, I gave them 3 "hard" problems. Well, wouldn't you know it, they worked on them and worked on them yesterday, then kept coming back after class and between classes all yesterday and today to see if they were close or to clear up some misunderstanding or to tell me that they finally got the answer to one of the problems. They're STILL working on 2 of the other problems (Friday). Yay.

I also handed out a "killer" sudoku puzzle for them to work on after the quiz if they all prefered (today), and that caught some kids' fancy. ... So all in all a good way to end the week. (except for the mouse poop I found in what I thought was a mouse proof container full of cookies and crackers for my UIL students).