Computer Programming...

As I was teaching the logic unit in geometry a few weeks ago, one student asked where this was used. In addition to other examples, I mentioned that logic is heavily used in computer programming and gave some examples. Then they asked why we didn't have such a class at our school. Good question. I've been looking around at resources, and other high schools in our district, and it seems that computer programming is only taught at one school.

"Back in the day" in NJ in the late 90's I taught programming. Back then (and maybe in that state), you didn't need extra certification to teach it. I taught the introductory class, and, horror of horrors, it was taught in QBasic. Gasp. But I actually found it to be cool and friendly for the students. We could create graphics (that were "cool" for those days before all the whizzy bang stuff they've seen today). We created games and questionnaires and such and all the basics (ar ar ar) were taught: loops, sorting, if statements,...

Well, it seems in Texas (and today) I'd need an extra certification, but that would just require taking another test since I already have a certificate. Then there's the question of what language to teach it in. It seems that AP Computer Programming is in JAVA. But in my (old school?) mind I'm thinking that a "non object-oriented language" would be the way to start for a 1st year student. I still think that if you learn the basics well in any language, then transferring your skills to a new language would be doable.

Anyway, hopefully it'll be put on the choice sheets in January, and maybe next year I get to have fun with programming. Of course now that I've jinxed it, it'll not come to pass. I guess that doesn't prevent me from learning JAVA (in my spare time) and learning enough to pass the certification test this summer. Does anyone teach a 1st year programming course in HS and have tips on what language works? I'd greatly appreciate any extra knowledge.

Schooling Behavior...

This past Monday we had a school-wide assembly in the morning, and the speakers were discussing an event we'd have on Friday for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Our students could show their support by wearing pink on the Friday. During this short presentation, various students were listening, and various students were quietly giggling or talking with their friends. I noticed one teacher mill around the students and appear to sternly look at them to settle them down. This went on for the whole 5 minute presentation.

At the end of the presentation. This particular teacher got up in front of the school and gave an impassioned reprimand to the "10% that were not respectfully listening to the speakers." You could hear a pin drop as she talked angrily from her heart: if you were joking and talking with your friends, you're basically saying that you don't care about this issue, and you're not considering that maybe your friend or a student you know or a teacher you know has a relative or knows someone going through this disease. You were talking with your friend and basically being disrespectful of people that are going through a devastating situation in their lives and turning your back on your peers.

This was the gist of her reprimand. It was powerful for a few reasons. She's a respected teacher, she has had experience in one way or another with cancer, and the students know it, and she wasn't harping on them, but they could hear the emotion in her voice that this was something she cared deeply about and that she was very upset with their behavior.

I'm so impressed that she stood up and said something, and I think it's something the kids will remember the next time a situation like this occurs (I know I will). They're still kids and still learning how to behave in various instances, and it's easy for me to forget that they still need guidance in what's right and wrong from ALL sorts of sources in addition to their parents ... as opposed to adults just shaking their heads and saying, "kids these days".

Test Question

For my last 2 tests, I've tacked on an extra question at the end. Partly because it's fun to read what the kids say, and partly to get a better insight into them, and partly to have them think about things.

My current question was: If you could learn one challenging skill in life, what would it be and why?

Various Responses:
* I would learn how to skydive.
* I would be fluent in another language.
* I would learn how to crack codes.
* I would learn to always be confident.
* I would learn how to always win at crane machines.
* I would learn how to keep stuff clean.
* I would learn how to remember EVERYTHING I learned.
* I would learn how to cook everything well.
* I would learn how to do a cartwheel.
* I would learn how to be more patient.
* I would learn how to use a bow and arrow.
* I would learn how to survive in the wilderness.
* I would learn how to tightrope walk.
* I would learn how to fly.
* I would learn how to see in the future.
* I would learn how to become unnoticeable when it was necessary.
* I would learn how to sing in public.
* I would learn how to be funny.
* I would learn how to tame a lion.
* I would learn how to handle stress.

p.s. I've also thought about it, and mine would be to learn how to do those floor gymnastics where I could just take off at a flying run and jump into the air and flip over a few times and land gracefully on my feet. Ta Da! THAT would be awesome. Then when I'm bored or if I see an empty hallway, I could start my trot and go flippy doodle all up in the air, then keep walking. You?

Logic Proof Projects...

I collected the Logic Proof projects the other day. Actually, I just called it a "homework" and assigned homework credit. They had class time to work on it, and they checked with me as to the correctness of their setup and proof before they committed to poster board. And even with that, some students made mistakes, or didn't check with me, so some aspects of the project/homework were not satisfied. I guess that's par for the course. Here are 5 that passed muster and were clever.

Did I tell you the wonders of hot glue. A teacher at my school swears by it, and puts up all her posters and such with hot glue. I guess as long as it's on painted cinder block walls it's okay .... I guess I'll find out in June (ahem).

Angle Pairs

We're starting geometric proofs now, and yesterday we did two activities to prep for this. First, I wanted the students to be familiar with some basic definitions and to know that they are biconditionals, and see how they're used as reasons for proofs. Second, I wanted the students to look at partial pieces of proofs and fill in the blanks with reasons, or steps if given the reasons.

Here's an activity I did to get them thinking about adjacent angles, linear pairs of angles, and vertical angles:



We first looked at the definition of adjacent angles. Then I had them go down that column and either indicate YES, or if NO, then list the parts of the definition it violated. Then we did the same with linear pair. Then I just had them write on the LHS which one(s) were vertical angles.

Next we took notes on how theorems, definitions, postulates, properties could be used as proof reasons, and I had them refer to a print out of our basic ones so far (along with definitions), and do the following:



The pesky bell rang, and we ran out of time, so I'll have to see how they did next class.

Potential Slope Memory Tool

Let me start by saying that I am not in the least bit a religious person. I do watch movies and TV and live in the world, so I think I know how certain religious people do the "sign of the cross".

Today I was trying to get some geometry kids I was tutoring to remember how to calculate slope when given 2 points. In various states of nonknowing, they either didn't remember at all, or they only knew how to do it on a graph, or they kept messing up and calculating, m = (x2-x1)/(y2-y1).

We got out the graph paper, and they remembered "rise over run". So I (again) linked that to "what changes when you rise?", "when you run?". And I tried to link that to m = (y2-y1)/(x2-x1). Anyway, as I was gesturing with my hands: rise (and my hands were moving up and down and up and down) over run (and my hands were moving side to side etc), I reminded myself of making "the sign of the cross". I double checked with the kids, and yes, the up down motion comes before the left right motion, so I said, "well if you want to remember which is which, then think of making this sign, and and the up/down is first, so that's (y2-y1) change, .....".

Then a kid joked that you also want to say your prayers before you do math (or take the math test).

In other weird/new-to-me tidbits. For various reasons, today I briefly mentioned congruent in geometry, and said that soon we'll think of shapes as being congruent when they .... . And the kids said, "same shape and same size." Then one kid raised her hand (and others confirmed) and wondered out loud why when she learned "congruent" in elementary school, she learned "same shape, same size, and same color". ????? I've never heard of this. Have you? Why stop there .... same: smell, texture, .... There must be something else that was going on that I'm not aware of.

Logic Culmination

We're almost finished with our logic unit, and soon we'll be moving on to actual geometry flow proofs. To cap it off, I assigned my students the following:



I made sure to have them check with me before they thought they were done (we had class time to work on it). The first draft of many of them either didn't work, or had too few steps or whatnot. They were really excited and seemed to have fun making up weird problems. Here's a sneak preview .... and I'll post some final products later.

Sneak:

"If vampire bunnies drink our blood, then we die out.
If we die out, then vampire bunnies will take over.
Vampire bunnies drink our blood or the butterflies will save us.
Vampire bunnies don't take over.
Therefore, the butterflies will save us."

Let B stand for "vampire bunnies drink our blood"
Let D stand for "we die out"
Let T stand for "vampire bunnies take over"
Let S stand for "butterflies save us"

B implies D
D implies T
B or S
not T
therefore, S

Game Day...

I am SO not a "game teacher". I have never fully worked it out, so that all the kids are involved, and I'm not stressing that there's more "fun" than learning (heaven forbid), and .....

Well, today we gave the PSAT, and so our schedule ended up being 40 minute classes. Being so used to 1.5 hour classes, I was wondering what to do. Poof! Inspiration! Now, I'm sure I'm reinventing the wheel, but I was so excited that it actually worked, and all the kids were working and time flew, and I heard good conversations going around.

Before the geometry kids got to class, I put my 5 tables in a large circle formation (for ease of movement). I put small whiteboards (thank you home depot shower board cutting idea from someone) and dry erase markers and cut up napkins to erase on each table with enough for each kid. When they walked in the room, I had them immediately put their stuff to the side of the room and just find a seat. (side note: this is SO NOT ME, that as I was directing the kids to put their stuff aside and have a seat, one kid asked me, "are we in trouble?")

I told them we were going to play musical chairs and practice for our logic exam coming up soon. I told them why I hardly ever did this (my distraction with them NOT CAPPING THEIR PENS and not being able to help them when they ask a question because all I'm thinking is CAP THE PEN! CAP THE PEN!...). I also modeled with another student that we would NOT BE "slyly" following around our REAL friends, so that we could sit by them EVERY TIME.

Then I turned on the music (I had an Amadeus CD and that was fun in many ways). They got up and wandered. I stopped the music, and they picked the nearest seat. Then I put a problem on the overhead (write the basic truth table for conjunction ... or a conditional is "if it's Wednesday, then I don't get enough sleep" and you write the contrapositive ... or factor 2x^2 + 13x - 7 ... or such). Then they could work with their current table quietly and get the answer on their board. I walked around and gave suggestions if I felt they needed a nudge, but I made them help themselves. After we went over the answers, on came the music and up they moved.

We got through about 7-9 problems in 40 minutes, and I think it ran its course, but I'm glad I did it, and it gave the kids some awareness of what they still don't know or do know for the following test.

Block Period Break

I teach on a 1.5 hour per class block, and lately (this year), I've just been plowing right through a concept for the whole class. I tried something different yesterday that maybe I'll keep doing (or doing periodically).

Various comments and glances at tests have reiterated the fact that basic math skills are not as fresh and exciting as they could be: adding and subtracting positive/negative numbers, factoring, FOILing, etc. I don't want to stop class and reteach these things for a large block of time, but I don't want to ignore it. A few days ago, I discussed the +/- issue briefly. I showed them a potentially new trick. Then yesterday I wanted to see if it stuck.

Right in the middle of class I announced, "Pop Quiz" and handed out quarter sheets of scratch paper. Now my pop quizzes are just for their/my knowledge, and I don't record it. I put up 6 +/- problems, and they did it and they graded their own papers. I asked for a show of fingers on how many they got wrong. We moved on back to our regularly scheduled program, since there were low "wrong" numbers. This took all of 3 minutes (?), and it provided their brains a break from logic and proofs for a bit, and I'm SURE they were refreshed and ready to go again afterward :).

Maybe next time it will be a factoring break of 2 problems.

Freedom To Go On A Tangent

I don't mention my IED class much (Introduction to Engineering Design), that's a PLTW class, but I love it. It's a nice change of pace from the math courses I teach. The kids get to do hands-on things. We get to play with Inventor (an AutoCad program), AND best of all, I have the freedom to add my own things to the curriculum if they fit or if we have time.

For example, our first few units were on brainstorming and inventions vs. innovations and technical sketching and drawing and such. During our innovations unit, a student asked what patents were and what would qualify as something you could patent and if you invented toothpaste, does that mean no one else could make toothpaste or if they made it a different flavor, THEN could they market it? And so on. I told her the little I knew about patents, and we went on with what we were doing, but that kept niggling at my mind.

Enter our new mini unit that we're going to sprinkle throughout the year and see how far we can take. Their first homework assignment was to find 3 new-to-them facts about patents, and then to brainstorm a 1/2 page of questions they had about patents. I'm doing all their homework with them this year, so I did it too. The following class we shared out our questions. There were some good ones: how long does the application process take? How do they decide who is the patent "winner" if 2 people submit an application at the same time? What qualifies you to work at the patent office? etc.

Their next homework is to pick 3 of their questions and become an "expert" at the answers. My ultimate vision (naive? doable?) is for us to try and patent something. They're freshman (so I'll be "near" them for 4 years), and who knows how far we'll take it, but I thought it would force us to learn what it's all about. If a 5 year old can get a patent, I'm thinking our chances are okay.

Wednesday Mistakes

Case 1:

Here is one major difference between my 10th grade geometry students and my 8th/9th grade geometry students. A couple of times I've had the wrong answer on an answer key that I'm projecting on the document camera. My 10th graders just quietly assume they're wrong, and mark it wrong and put my (incorrect) answer on their pages without mentioning anything to me. Are they just on autopilot? Do they just assume they don't know anything? Do they just not try to figure out their/my mistake? Do they think I'm god(dess) and can do no wrong? Three periods later, at least one of my 8th/9th graders when checking their homework, will raise their hand and politely ask how I got such an answer, and when I rework it out, I see my mistake. Yeesh!

Case 2:

I'd called on a girl to answer a question, and she had the "deer/headlights" look, and said, "don't call on me. I'm having a really bad day." Feeling sorry for her, I called to the class, "does anyone have a joke that we can cheer her up with?". No one answered, so I pulled out the 1st I could think of:

Why don't blind people like to skydive?
It scares the dog.

Pause. Laughter when it sinks in for various people in the class.

Then the original girl pipes up, "my dog just died".

Great!

Time for bed.

Studying for Tests

I recently had a conversation with a math teacher friend. She teaches 7th grade, and we were lamenting about the fact that too many students don't know how to study for a math test. Even with guidelines and verbal discussions and such, it does not really occur to some students to whip out the old homework and book and notes and redo problems from scratch and put yourself in a testing situation.

She said something that I may have to try in the future. She said she no longer tells them to "study" for the upcoming math tests. She says she tells them to "practice" for the upcoming math test. In this way, maybe the light bulb may go off in their heads and they may just redo problems instead of reading over notes and nodding their heads to themselves that, yes, they get what is being done.

Three More Updates

At my high school we have tables instead of desks, and all last year, I put up manila folders when the students were taking tests. I was never happy with that solution, but I never found/had the time/whatever to change it. This year, this is my second version. These are just LARGE poster boards cut in half (the white part) with a slit up/down the center. Then I took other board (they'd run out of white by the time I went back), and cut accordingly:

It mostly works okay. I like it WAY better than the manila folders. They're still a bit floppy towards the outsides, but I think I can fix that with some sort of teeny stands or something on the bottoms.

Another goal I had was for the students to be more reflective, so periodically on one of their homework assignments (I've only done it twice this past 6 weeks), I assign as one of the problems a "how are things going" question. Then when test time comes around, I collect their notebooks to check that they're taking notes properly and to see their responses. Wooo, glad I asked. Here's one entry:

This student is so NOT stupid, and she doesn't put on an air of feeling stupid, so if I hadn't asked, I wouldn't have known this was going on.

Finally, I had my students make their 2nd foldable to eventually glue into their notebooks. We took 4 1/2 sheets of paper (8.5" x 5.5") and offset them a bit and folded them over and stapled at the top and voila:





The middle "same colored" flaps REALLY bothered me for 4 classes (OCD anyone?), so by the 5th time I did this with my last geometry class of this topic, I figured out a way to fix it. I took the middle folded paper, and folded another one the same way, and cut out a 3rd color and just shoved it in instead of the same color, and the magic stapling fixed things. Disaster averted.

Retesting Update

At the beginning of the year I decided to have my 10th graders be guinea pigs with a retesting scheme. I had read many books and blogs over the summer and reflected on learning, and finally settled on something I was willing to try. I discussed it with my students and with my AP, and had my 1st test ... my first test that was right before the progress reports went out ... my first test in which more than 60-70% of my students ended up with a failing grade for the progress reports ... my first test in which I lost sleep afterward trying to figure out a way to stop the rush of panicked angry parent phone calls and student tears.

Here's how I set up my first test. I separated it into 5 sections, and each section was worth 10 points (no matter how many problems per section). The concepts were
A. matching geometry diagrams of lines points rays to notation
B. using the definition of distance to find coordinates of points on a number line
C. segment addition postulate
D. T/F & A/S/N on visualizing geometry
E. naming conventions of points lines planes

I was firm with myself in grading: have they convinced me of their knowledge? and/or am I just being nice "because they tried". I was firm. There were MANY zeros per section. There was no final TOTAL grade, just 5 grades entered into my gradebook.

I sent home the following letter:



There were 3 weeks until the end of the grading period. Students started to slowly trickle in after school and during lunch to study with me and to retest. I made hand printed/copied versions daily of new tests for each section (there were only 2 problems average per section ... except matching which had 6 pictures and 8 notations ... and T/F which had 5 questions). I started to get worried because there were still some students that never talked to me and never came in.

Flash forward to the 2nd to last day of the 6 weeks. An AP e-mail reminder of calling parents for potentially failing students prompted me to send home a generic e-mail (I do NOT like phone calls: they take too long and are inefficient and I have to talk to people :o ). I sent the e-mail to the parent, student, and my AP. This got a majority of the laggers to come in on the last day.

Final tally: only 1-2 students never made the effort to improve their grades out of about 50 students.

I'm a grudging "retest" convert ... or SBG as it seems to be called around these parts. It's a ton more work, but I've had students thank me for allowing them to retest and learn. My AP likes it, and she mentioned that her daughter who goes to another high school in town has a math teacher doing the same thing. ... I just gave my 2nd geometry test Friday ... bring ON the RETESTERS.

Counterexamples

We're moseying along in geometry and are now doing truth tables and "Laws of Inference". Soon we'll be taking it to one step proofs and then real proofs. Before we get there, though, I want the kids to start thinking about what proves and what disproves things. Is it enough to consider EVERY EXAMPLE IN THE WORLD and if they're all true, then the statement is true? If you just find one counterexample to a statement does THAT make it a false statement (what if you find an example that makes it true?)?

Anyway, along those lines, I made up the following sheet:





I love the document camera because we worked on the 1st few one at a time, and then I could put various students' papers up there and we discussed if their drawings were suitable or not and how to fix them if they weren't.

Comment Board Outcome

I mentioned earlier that I was going to implement a comment board in my classroom, ala Whole Foods. This is what it looks like:



The response has been good so far. The kids mention that if they have any concerns, they can just post a comment. Among the various comments I got, I'm happy about 2 things that came up that I probably wouldn't have been aware of otherwise. Here's one:



I'm never angry or frustrated when kids ask questions. At least I'm never outrightly frustrated. I know I scrunch up my face or have a set look on it sometimes, but that's just me thinking of another way to phrase some explanation or it's me concentrating on what the kid is asking. Now after this comment, I've been making sure to reiterate that I totally need them to ask questions and to know that my expression is not a reflection on my frustration.

Here's another comment:



In the mornings I'm rushing around and scrambling to get ready, so I was JUST having tutorings in the afternoons. Well, I got enough comments about kids being in band every day and not being able to make it, that I started tutoring one morning a week.

So all in all, I'm glad I implemented this this year. Here are 2 other posters I like in my room (made them from old calendars and cut out or hand written extras):

My Day Has Been Made

Today was grueling. I promised myself I wouldn't mention the "T" word (tired), since that seems to be the 1st thing EVERY DAY that comes out of my mouth when people ask how I am. I must sound like a broken record. Anyway, I did pretty well not mentioning it, until last period when I slipped twice. They're my chattiest class, and I keep shushing them, and feeling/sounding crabby.....

Anyway, I came home to this message on FaceBook:

Ms.Cookie,

I am not sure if you remember me or not but I am an ex-student of yours. I was in your Pre-Cal class at ***** in the 06-07 school year. I'm the guy that never did homework. I failed your class by one point actually.

Anyway, I'm just writing you to let you know that despite sucking at math in high school (and just doing bad in general), I'm majoring in math now at *******. Well, physics and math. I guess it just took me a little longer for me to realize that doing homework helps one understand things. So thanks for not passing me, it helped me change a few things about myself and I'm doing better now!

Now off to bed smiling and uplifted.

Logic

We've reached one of my favorite units in geometry: logic. Today we just learned about conditionals, hypotheses, conclusions, and the 4 types of statements. I tried to be all interdisciplinary, and when we got to the part where the students had to i.d. the hypothesis and the conclusion, I said, "you know, it's just like science." Then everyone got the guess wrong. Well, duh, in science, the hypothesis reads something like, "if ____, then ____". So I revamped for my NEXT class, "you know how words have different meanings in different contexts? That's how it is with hypothesis here....". Here's the in-class sheet I used.

Tomorrow truth tables, mwa ha ha ha.

In fun news, here are my Lindy Hop aspirations.

Homework Location

Before school started I was talking with a middle school English teacher, and she mentioned that one of her 1st assignments is to have the kids keep a log for a little while on where and when they read and what effect it has on their reading. They read in 4 different types of situations and answer some questions about how it went.

I'm thinking that's a great homework assignment for my math students. Something to the effect of:

For the next 4 weeks, attempt doing your homework in a variety of locations and situations and discuss the effect this had on the success of your work.

Examples of place: at the kitchen table, on my bed, in the cafeteria, in the library, on the couch, ...

Examples of time: the night before it's due, the night it's assigned, the same day it's due, 5pm, 8pm, 11pm, first hwk I do, last hwk I do (from various classes),...

Examples of situation: while watching TV, while listening to the radio, while texting friends, in silence, while my family is noisy about me.

Make sure you write about at least 3-4 different combinations of the above, and make sure you analyze how it went in terms of being able to successfully think about and concentrate on your homework.

I'm curious if they've already figured out what's best for them, but I'm guessing that since their lives are so jam packed and they're teens and they want to talk with friends and leave things until the last minute, that maybe they haven't played around with changing things up to see if they can do better.

Homework Questions Update

Oy what a day, but I think by working through the struggle, I had a new and improved idea I want to try.

Before school started this year, I pondered how to get my "average" students to start going beyond the homework problems that they could INSTANTLY understand and do because they remembered from class, or we did something EXACTLY like it or it was EASY. So my initial thought was this idea.

Then as things do, I made sure to pass it through to my department chair, and it sort of morphed to a "homework completion grade rubric" that the whole department was strongly encouraged to follow (which included my original questions, but my main idea was embedded in other things).

Flash forward to 4 weeks into school. I've had hit or miss success with it. Some kids (literally a handful) buy into it and use it to their advantage and make progress on problems they can't originally do. Most kids either ignore it or just pay lip service to it.

One conversation I had a week ago:

Average Girl In Class (AGIS) while we're going over the previous day's hwk: I didn't get that. We didn't do anything like that in class.
Me: Okay, so what did you do about it to make progress?
AGIS: I wrote the answers to the "extra" questions.
Me: what did you write?
AGIS: "I didn't know how to start. We didn't cover this in class."
Me: okay, so then what did you do.
AGIS: blank stare.
Me: pause.
AGIS: still staring.
Me: It doesn't help you just to answer the question, you actually have to put forth an effort to make progress beyond your original stumbling block.
AGIS: wide-eyed and silent.
Me: (I got nothing!)

So, flash forward to today. I taught 3 classes of "average" geometry students. During the 1st class when they started in on the "those last problems were hard", and "we didn't do anything like that in class", I gave them an analogy. I said, suppose you wanted to run the mile and had never run it before. Do you think you'd be successful your 1st time out? No. You'd fail and fail again, but you'd keep trying and eventually your progress would eek you towards your goal. With the hard problems in math, if you just look at a hard homework problem and then give up immediately, then it's like you're taking off your running shoes and not even practicing on the track. You can never do hard problems unless you attempt hard problems.

Okay, so then I was all strutting my stuff and proud of myself for my little motivational speech. Then my 2nd class comes. I trot out the same story (except for some reason it morphed to a 10K race, but ....). Then my subconscious must have been working because I added while we were going over a hwk problem that they did NOT get: okay, say you are at home and attempted this problem. I'm guessing you just sit there and stare at it with big question marks. Here's the question I want you to ask yourself: okay, I may not know how to solve the problem, but what DO I KNOW about ANYTHING in this problem? Then I had them discuss in their groups and brainstorm about anything they knew. Then I just called on people, and we got a ton of ideas down. Then with a wee bit of guidance, and me continually prodding them about what they knew, they started to be all, "OHHHHHH, then I can do this, or this....", and we eventually solved the problem.

Then my 3rd class came. This spiel morphed into not just the 10K, but potentially throwing free throws or playing the guitar or whatever. Did the same questioning and such with 3 problems. But now I added the story of: even I'm continually learning. I wanted you to be able to do hard problems on your own, and I attempted something, and now I see it's not working well, so I have to go back to the drawing board and ask myself, what do I know? what can I change? etc.

Bla bla bla. Who knows if it'll get through, but maybe I'll soon have a homework for them that includes 5 HARD problems. And I'll stipulate that I don't even want them to solve them if they can't, but to get ANY CREDIT beyond a ZERO, they have to brainstorm and answer the questions:

well, what do I know about this?
what do the words mean?
what formulas might apply and why?
here are some calculations, I don't know if it'll work, but I'll do them anyway .....

FYI here were the stumping 3 problems for them:

1. AB is parallel to CD. A, B, C points are given. D is on the x-axis. Find D.
2. EF is perpendicular to GH. E, F, and G are given, and H is (5, y). Find y.
3. J,K,L are given points. Is triangle JKL a right triangle?

To be continued...