APCS AP Exam Studying

After a conversation with some 10th graders today: "I wish teachers would teach us HOW to study for exams", I got nervous. In my mind I HAVE done that. I think. Once. For final exams. But apparently, it's not a message that sticks. Or maybe they're so used to being bossed around by us/me, that when they aren't, they think, "woo HOO! Free time! No Homework! Study Shmudy."

So I came up with this assignment for my APCS class (while I'm on a field trip with other students .... no stress here .... only a handful of class days before the AP Exams, but SURE, I'll help chaperon).

Maybe if they have the schedule, they'll be more likely to use it. Don't burst my bubble.

Senioritis

... And I don't mean dear old me!

Our school is relatively new, and so we have our first graduating class this year. We're starting all sorts of new traditions and going through growing pains and figuring out what works and doesn't work (or figuring out that we have to figure it out).

I don't know if it's a function of being such a small public school, or if it's just business as usual, but for most of the year this year our seniors have been:

"UGH! I'm so over it!"
"UGH! I can't WAIT to get out!"
"UGH! This SCHOOOOOOOL!"

Well, I could go on, but you get the picture.

As people with feelings, or maybe I'll just speak for myself, ... as a person with feelings, my first reactions are:

"The NERVE!"
"Don't you know the blood/sweat/tears I put out for you?"
"Do you appreciate NOTHING?!?!?!"
"RUDE!"

I could go on, but again, you probably get the picture.

Then I started to think. This is a natural process. Of course they want to leave. It would be weird if they wanted to stay in HS forever. Also, it's not ALL the seniors, but just a vocal few that phrase things this "in your face" way, and of course I then extrapolate, and it's EVERYONE that HATES us/me/math.

Maybe it's also part of the natural process (or maybe I'm just making myself feel better), that they are anxious about leaving after being here for so long, and they are trying to not get nervous/scared/worried about next year, but instead they're trying to replace it with relief of leaving.

My new inner and outer response the the kidlets is:

"Of course you want to leave. It would be weird if you didn't. You're ready for your next life phase."

(and of course the little voice inside me will still whisper: ruuuuuuuddddddeeeeeeee)

Quick and Easy Visual for Tangents to a Circle

I was helping a student recall that 2 tangents to a circle from the same exterior point are congruent (as segments). Instead of talking it out, we did this. It was a quick and effective way to test out various scenarios. We set it up so we could read the distance from the exterior point to each tangent point.

Geometry: Two Dimensional Areas

The year is winding down, and it's time for 2D area, 3D surface area and 3D volumes. I know my geometry kidlets have been learning areas of triangles since they were in the womb, so I didn't want to spend much "lecture/learning" time on it. I also wanted to do something different for parallelograms. Basically, I wanted them to spend the bulk of the period on practicing challenging area problems.

So, I thought I'd have them draw a large (palm sized) triangle in their notebooks, and then we would eyeball all 3 altitudes by lining up the ruler markings with the base to allow perpendicular segments. We'd measure everything in cm, then use calculators to get area.

We also talked about accuracy and how since we are measuring to the tenths place and THAT'S iffy, then when we calculate, we can only expect accuracy to the integers place.

Once we did this, I asked if anyone was off more than an integer for their 3 calculated areas (the 3 scenarios of bases and heights). Some kids were off a lot.

Well. It seems that I wasn't clear or it wasn't clear and I just assumed they'd know which base matched up with which height. Silly me.

So I went back and color coded my notebook and had them do the same. Here is what it looks like:

Volumes of Revolution

Whew! All AP Calculus topics DONE (okay, except for optimization ..... and a thorough job of accumulation functions). But, I figure with my now intensive 3 weeks of review, I can hit those (again) and maybe it will have a chance to stick in their overfull brains.

We just did Volumes of Revolution (and cross section areas), and here is the sheet I used for the revolving volumes:



It's a mix of information/ideas from the great site: mastermathmentor.com and from my ideas.

Active Recruiting

I was sad after choice sheets went out and came back for next year, and only 3 people had signed up for AP Computer Science. I had tried to send out enticing "see what we do in here" types of e-mail about 3 times this year to show the projects and stuff. Alas, to no avail.

Then during the CS workshop in Denver, I kept hearing about how everyone ACTIVELY recruited students, and how students HAD to feel individually welcomed. You may make a broad statement to the whole group, "Yes, you can do it. You are WELCOME in class." , but there will be students thinking, "She can't mean me."

So this past weekend, I looked at the choice sheets and found students that I thought had potential to really enjoy and succeed in the class. I sent personalized e-mails to each one. Here's a version of the e-mail (and p.s. In the 2 days since, I've had at least 15 students say yes to CS next year.):

I hear that you have signed up for an online course as an elective next year, and I want to convince you to switch to Computer Science instead. Here’s why:

• For an online course you’ll be sitting in a room by yourself reading through text and taking tests all year.
• In computer programming (it won’t be an AP course) you’ll learn how to do valuable fun things and get to actually use what you have created. And you get to interact with others for the whole year.
• There will be no written homework in the Computer Programming class for the coming year. It will strictly be fun, useful, usable coding. You’ll create games and pictures and code that will do specifically what you tell it. 
• It's a weighted class.
• We’ll do graphics and learn about web design and learn how to solve all sorts of problems with our coding skills.
• This will look good on your college application. Not many girls (or people in general) take computer programming in HS, and you will stand out.
• Computers are UNIVERSALLY used, and you will have a leg up with your programming knowledge in practically any field you study.
• Here are some cool people who use programming in various ways for their jobs: http://www.dotdiva.org/profiles.html
• Here’s a HS girl that used programming for cancer studies: http://www.care2.com/causes/teen-girl-wins-google-science-fair-for-breast-cancer-computer-program.html
• Here are some direct quotes from students who have taken HS programming:

"Everything in the world today is based on computer technology."
"It is the one true completely hands-on course. It is the way education should be."
"It helps me to understand the logic behind games...which I love!"
"I love it!"
"Computer Science has taught me to think outside the box.  Programming is an excellent way to improve problem solving skills.  I wouldn't trade my four years of Comp Sci for anything."

• You may think programming is hard or boring.  One: it’s “challenging” but doable. I won’t let anyone fail in either grades or skills. You WILL succeed and you will feel great about doing something that other people think is hard. Two: it’s totally not boring. Of course, anything can be made boring, but there are so many fun things to do and ways to learn about programming, that if you EVER come up to me during the year and say it’s boring, I will work my behind off to change things up.
• I promise you that if you sign up, you will not regret it, and who knows, you may find a new skill that you can use forever and actually enjoy.

I’ll check back with you this week to see your decision since I have to let Ms. W. know by the following Monday. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Ms. D

Finishing Up Polar Graphs

A long time ago at "math camp" (NCTM annual workshop), someone led a talk on how to relate the Limacons and Cartioids and Rose Petal Polar Graphs to the shifted or "squished" trig graphs in terms of y = f(x). This seemed to work out really well, and the students could visualize what happens in terms of the amplitude and the vertical shift. Anyway ... we're all done with that, and after exploring on the graphing calculator for the next day, this was their homework in precalculus:



Onwards and upwards to Logarithms which I subtitle (Drugs, Sex, & Rock n Roll) due to my first few examples which they figure out (and see why logs are useful): drug absorption/metabolization, population growth, & decibel levels and hearing loss.

Spring Break

Aaahhhhh, the luxuries of 8-10 hours of sleep a night. Lovely. AND I got to go to a CSTA Equity Workshop. I learned many valuable things (either formally, or by interacting with various people), and here are some tidbits (and a nice picture of where I was):

* Are your reactions as a teacher (or person, for that matter) stifling or encouraging?
* It's potentially "good" when "bad" things happen to you because you (hopefully) learn empathy or awareness of how you treat others.
* Ask ALL kids the hard questions. Kids know when you don't expect much of them.
* Be careful of saying "you are so smart" versus "you worked hard and did well".
* People need to feel invited.
* All kids need to learn to advocate for themselves.
* All people need to learn the skill of pushing through even though someone may tell them, "no".
* Just because you are not "good" at something, it doesn't mean you can't get value out of it and learn to like it or let it teach you something.
* Get out of your comfort level often.
* Don't be the teacher that "says" something but acts differently.
* Once damage is done in a relationship, it's hard to repair.
* A cool response to "I don't know": "Well, if you DID know, what do you think you would say?"
* Are you challenging EVERYONE as a teacher?

Resources:

iSense (visualization of data)
Stuck in the Shallow End (book)
EarSketch (sound and computer programming)

APCS Sorting

I debated how to teach the 4 sorting methods we need to know: QuickSort, MergeSort, SelectionSort, and InsertionSort. I remember learning about them and then promptly mixing up which ones were which after some time had passed, so I never really internalized them. I figured the same thing would happen to the students.

So, here is how I did it, and it's still in the process, and who knows if it will work, but I guess the bugs will show up as we go along.

1. I made a graphic organizer and handed it out.
2. I discussed what and how we would learn this topic and what they were responsible for (see below).
2. I found 8 videos (2 per Sorting Method) that spanned styles of teaching and were effective and short.
3. We watched the videos in class, and after every method (and during the video) the students took notes on their organizers, and we discussed and answered quick questions.
4. This took basically all period, and then they self selected groups to work with (2 or 3 people).
5. I premade little slips of paper that had the names of the sorting methods.
6. Their group chose 2 different slips (and repicked if the same method showed up).
7. They wrote their names on the slips and handed them back to me after they noted which TWO Sorting methods they were responsible for.
8. Their job now is to create 2 videos and put them on YouTube withOUT letting on which sorting method they are demonstrating. They will share the links with me.
9. Then, after they are all done and graded on correctness and creativity, I will have a quiz where I show a random video of theirs, and they are to write down which sorting method is demonstrated.

I'm excited to see their videos. I mentioned I would make 2 also, and now, GAME ON.

A Dose of Resolve

There are a group of students that eat lunch in my classroom frequently, and while I'm busy doing other things to get ready for class and to stuff down my own lunch, I hear their conversations as background noise. A few times I heard them talking about a teacher and how if they just put on a sad face or make a request or ask "nicely", then that teacher will change a grade or postpone a due date or give credit for something that does not deserve credit. The tone of their discussion was that they knew it wasn't right, but they were taking advantage of it anyway.

So as I'm writing this, I'm wondering why I didn't stop what I was doing and address this or approach the teacher. Various reasons I guess. I know if I'd heard something really horrible like people bashing or blatant cheating, I would definitely have said/done something. Anyway, that's something for me to think on.

But, the reason I bring this on is because it strengthens my resolve when I get the same treatment of puppy dog face and poor me and please raise my grade for fill-in-the-blank reason. Just because someone asks you for something nicely, doesn't mean you have to give it to them, and it DEFINITELY doesn't mean that it would be in the student's best interest to do so. They most likely know they don't deserve and didn't earn the boost in their grade.

Binary Search

I hope this will have the lasting effect of students remembering Sequential vs. Binary search in APCS. I guess time will tell, but I wanted to try something different and was inspired by various ideas on the web.



I embellished this lesson with tactile stuff of how to search for something. I showed them code, but we didn't have time to do more than that so far (other presentations that day). Anyway, it made ME laugh, and really, isn't THAT what's important?

Now what will I do with SORTING. Hmmmmmm.

Last Week Snippets...

On a positive note, I stopped myself from getting "too" snippy with 2 great students once I realized I was "hangry" during a weekend meeting that the kids GREATLY showed up for (unlike many other students). I excused myself from the room and went to heat up my lunch and filled my tummy before I permitted myself back in the room to converse with them.

On another positive note, many kids took care of business at the end of the 6 weeks and got their work done.

On some sad notes, many kids did NOT take care of business and have failing grades to show for it.

On a happy note, we had some fun guest speakers in DE and APCS.

On a sad/funny note, for one speaker, it was the end of the week, and I was majorly sleep deprived, and I was slow to formulate and process words that were to come out of my mouth. At the end of his talk, when he was done with the overhead projector/camera set up, what I MEANT to say and totally DID say in my mind was, "you may leave the projector on. Now..... class ....bla bla bla...". What apparently he heard (because of the awkwardness that ensued) was, "you may leave NOW."  And he proceeded to scurry out the room while I was asking him a question which he didn't answer because he thought I was speaking to my class. Oy! I did run after him and apologize when my class let me know what they thought I did, but I don't know if he bought it.

On a positive note ... I've caught up on some sleep.

On a sad note, I left the calculus tests at school .... the ones that I needed to grade for the report cards due tomorrow. Hello scrambling morning grading while prepping for 2 classes.

On a positive note, I LOVE the mini iPad my husband got me for my recent birthday.

On a sad note, it's a major time suck when I'm reading reddit and playing games and reading Zite and goofing off for "JUST ONE MORE MINUTE".

On a positive note, my "eat a big tub of veggies and drink 2 large tumblers of water and write everything down" diet seems to be working ... slowly.

On a scary note, my sleep-deprived self declared to my last class on Friday ... the class that recently had 2 kids run the local marathon ... that I was going to run the marathon NEXT year with them.

On a happy note, I've run 5 miles max ever ... and by "run" I think we know what I mean ... run/walk.

On a sad note, 26 - 5 is a LARGE running number.

On a happy note ... red wine.

Precalculus Fractals

We are deep in our unit on complex numbers, and last class we talked about the 3 defining properties of a fractal and made the Sierpinski Triangle. Their homework was to find cool facts about fractals, and they came through. Today we watched some cool "zooming in" videos of the Mandelbrot Set and the Julia Set. Then we got to the business of understanding them by hand calculations (and the TI-84).

I don't know how much sunk in to how many people, but I hope I got across the insanity of 2 values REALLY close together on the complex plane can have wildly different results when applying the Mandelbrot Set iteration process. We also talked about how the colors come about.

Anyhow, bla bla bla, here was/is their homework, and I can't wait to see what they come up with for their own fractal. Most of this sheet is middle school level, but I figured it would drive home the iteration fact and the first few problems would give them an idea on how to create their own fractal. Maybe I should have incorporated complex numbers into it somehow. Next time? SHEET:

Homework Calendar...

Once Winter Break was over, I revamped my homework calendar to look like this, and I love it! It's nice not to have to click through mystery days to see what goes with what and what the assignment was and what the students were learning. I love that it's all in plain view and there are active links, and someone can quickly find what they're looking for. This is on the Haiku site, but I'm thinking it's adaptable to other such sites. I've color coded the objective of the day, the daily work, and any possible quizzes and tests coming up. The farthest right column is a list of resources.



I got the idea from searching various APCS teacher sites, and now I don't think I can go back to the "old way".

Dot Product

We're in our vector unit for precalculus, and today we learned about the dot product and its uses. Nothing too mind boggling, but here's the worksheet for homework:



Also, I'm liking my precalculus class for 2 more reasons. One, I don't know what it was, but when I was asking for homework one time about 2 weeks ago (have I mentioned this already?) .... (alzheimer's...)... I said, "make sure your name, date, social security #, mother's maiden name, and favorite ice cream flavor is on your sheet" just as a joke (except for the 1st 2 things, of course). Then when I was grading their homework, I saw that a couple of kids had actually answered my ice cream question. So the next class, I made sure to mention it, and we had a smile.

Then at the end of that class, another kid, while they're handing in the homework asked, "what's the question?" ... so I came up with ... I don't know actually, but last time's question was, "what do you want written on your tombstone?", and today's question was, "on a desert island, what would be the one treat you would choose to be stuck with?". So I guess that's our thing now, and it's kind of fun to read their responses (the ones that answer).

The second reason I'm liking them, is that they play along with my tangents. When I first introduced vectors, I mentioned that they allow people to space travel and build rockets and so on, and then we got on a tangent about the International Space Station and such, and I mentioned I'm "reading" "Packing for Mars" on audio books for my commute, and told them some things I'm finding out from Mary Roach. So what I love about this class is my question #12 from the above homework about bring me one interesting fact about the ISS (and I added to it, and some "wonderings" .... like, what do they do with the "waste" ... if you know what I mean). And I know that when we share out next class, they'll have found some interesting things (I'm doing the homework, too), and we'll all have a snippet of more information than we otherwise would have. 

Thursday

Five Moment Memoir

* My weekly breakfast at a local diner started my morning off right with good puzzles in the newspaper and one of the 2 regular waiters remembering my "usual" order.

* Did not like my lunch of leftovers that contained mashed potatoes and Indian Dal Lentils (hello extended stomach in the afternoon).

* Walked with my teacher friend to a local Pharmacy that "does coffee" and enjoyed the 70 degree January temperature and laughter and sinful potato chips (that go so well with the said coffee).

* Went out to dinner with same friend and our visitor from Boston that was observing and commenting on our invention progress.

* Had illicit ice cream at 10 pm after I got home from work after writing subplans since I'll be out on Friday for an APCS 2-day workshop.

Hmmmmmm, food. The love of my life. Sorry husband.

Five-Moment Memoir

I was reading my "O" magazine this morning on the treadmill, and an article by Sarah Beauchamp struck a nerve (can that happen in a good way?) ... maybe it's better to say the article "spoke to me" ... (not as in "hey, chubby, set the pace a little quicker on the treadmill", but as in "what a great idea you're reading about"). It was called "The Five-Moment Memoir". In it she wrote about how every day she committed herself to sifting through the highs and lows of her day and recording in her journal 5 moments of that day.

So ...

* Got a great idea while walk/jogging on the treadmill this morning in my on-going effort to be healthy and fit and strong.

* Had a funny conversation with a great student P. who for some reason I pretend to her face that she's evil and then she smirks her knowing smile at the joke and maybe banters back with a witty rejoinder.

* Had success in APCS with this in-class assignment that I pulled together last minute (like most days ... the "last minute" ... NOT the "success"), and students who otherwise are lost in class and cheat and such were calling me over to check their answers, and I put their work on the document camera as a "key" while saying whose paper it was:



* For once had NO students stay after school for tutoring, so I enjoyed some surprise free time to prep for the next day.

* Finally found a good book to read from the school library, and enjoyed a few minutes of relaxation in the evening enjoying each page.

Stress Relief

When my students came back from break, I knew they would start back on that cycle of school/lack of sleep/stress. I made one of my first assignments a "make a ceiling poster that gives advice on how to reduce stress". I gave them stock paper, and here are a few results. Yes, there were "last minute bad" ones, but mostly they were this creative. For the last few weeks, I see various students in all my classes gazing at the ceiling. Free eye-candy.

Shadows......

I recently realized that it's almost that time again in Geometry: TRIG. And with trigonometry comes shadow problems .... and by problems I mean the math kind and the understanding kind. I wrote last year about the fact that something I took for granted (knowing how shadows work) is not necessarily in my students' skill set. In fact, with my new crop of cute little 9th (and 2 8th) graders, I posed the following "pre problem" the other day in class:

1. In your notebooks, draw a line representing the ground.
2. Then draw a stick figure that is you somewhere about a third of the way in from the edge.
3. Then draw a sun high up away from you.
4. Now, draw your shadow as accurately as you can based on 1-3, and draw extra markings on your paper that convince me of what your planning process was.

Then I walked around and just glanced at their papers without saying "yay" or "nay". In my brief pass around the room, I saw all sorts of correct and incorrect thinking.

So, we just had a 3-day weekend, and before it, I assigned the following "project" to them (as a precursor to what they'll need to know later):

Every hour on the hour that the sun is up, measure your shadow as accurately as you can and jot down the time and the length. They then brainstormed, and we shared out ways to do this if you don't have a ruler or such. Then I asked them to jot down some things they thought may happen (to look at later).  I told them I was going to do the homework, too.

I haven't had them back in class yet, but I already know some changes I'd possibly make to the assignment for next time: It doesn't necessarily have to be ON the hour, but record the exact time you do it once every hour. Also, a kid had an interesting idea: stand in the same spot and notice the position change in your shadow (seems cool, but it would negate the way I measured my shadow). Coordinate with another geometry class at a different latitude and or "place" in their time zone and see what the differences are (if any) for "same heighted" people.

Anyway, I'm curious what they come back with, and if they've learned anything. I'll have to have some follow up questions and follow up drawings to assess. My plan is to get all the data on a spreadsheet and see what the function looks like. I'm guessing since they probably all fudged the times it will be wonky. I'm also curious what will happen when we get to problems such as:

You are standing such that the end of your shadow coincides with the end of a ______ shadow .......... and how they'll draw the picture THIS year (2 suns? 1 sun?)...

Parallelograms

We started our Special Quadrilaterals Unit the other day, and parallelograms were our opening act. Last fall, I found large, 250 straw, $1 each bags of pretty colored straws, and I had an inkling that I could use them for geometry. My original idea was to use them later on for the 3D units when I was talking about edges and vertices and faces and such. BUT.

I was playing around with cutting off pairs of congruent straws and putting them together. I had extra resistors hanging around (resisting the trash can, ar ar ar), and I made this:

 that can be squished to this:

connected with this:

My vision is that they can keep bringing this to class, and we can continue to reinforce the properties, and they can MAYBE not mix up rectangle/rhombus/parallelogram/etc. properties.

Don't burst my bubble.

My coworker had the brilliant idea that then we could use spaghetti for the diagonal investigations.

This was their homework: