A few of my favorite things...

In my Math 3 classes (which I've been treating like an Algebra 2 class lately and it's totally driving me crazy) we're factoring, solving, and graphing polynomials. I legitimately think this is the hardest topic for them of the year because of all of the stuff it forces them to know.

Want to graph? Ok, well find the zeros.
Need the zeros?  Factor it.
Won't factor? Try the quadratic formula.
What about the shape of the function? Check the degree and leading coefficient.

For kids who live day-to-day and only tend to remember one "thing" at a time, this is torture. My second period class, who I would consider my most involved group, has been in a revolt because I'm expecting them to remember all of this stuff.

Yesterday I gave them my most favorite assignment - this chart.
And then there was a back.

Needless to say, they weren't happy.

In Precalc we've been graphing sine and cosine curves. We started out with "Here are transformations, how does that affect the curve?", moved on to "Here's a graph, what's the equation?"  (loved using a Desmos Activity for that!), and today I gave them a set of data for them to graph and fit a sine curve to. It's interesting how they can all graph given an equation, are pretty good with fitting an equation to a graph with "nice" numbers, but the learning happens with the messy data.




We also did a fun activity on Friday plotting our individual Biorhythms (the idea that you have an intellectual, physical, and emotional cycle) to see how exams will fit in next week.

Oh, I do love me some trig.

(By request, here's a link to all of my intro to trig & graphing stuff.)

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