1. We played a last-minute Kahoot! in class today to review unit circle values. One of the boys chose Foussinating as his name. Hi 2nd period!
2. I took two class days to construct the unit circle; one day was spent labeling degree and radian values, then the next was creating little 30-60-90 and 45-45-90 triangles to fit the triangle and find the ordered pairs. I know this could have been done in a 20-minute period (instead of 2 35-minute shortened periods) but I also heard a lot of "Oh!" and "That makes sense!" when we got to the ordered pairs. So the extra time was worth it. Today we finally got to the point where we could see the relationships between those ordered pairs and the sine/cosine/tangent values.
3. I'm (tentatively, but pretty sure) teaching both Precalculus and Math 3 next year, both of which I'm currently teaching. So after a year of creating 2 brand new courses, I actually get to use one of them again! But of course it won't be that easy...
A. We adopted a new textbook series for Math 3. Wait, let me edit that. We adopted a program for Math 3. Won't have too many physical books (which is fine) but our program seems to have a pretty good online component. And after a year of no book at all, it'll be nice to have more choices. But that also means that I either adapt my course to its program or its program to my course.
B. Not only do we have a new book, but I'm hoping that with another year of common core math under our belts, the kids coming into Math 3 won't need as much review/reteaching. I spent a lot of time on linear and quadratic functions that I "shouldn't" have to do. So even if I can compact that a little more it'll give me time to actually get to the statistics and geometry that I'm supposed to do in Math 3.
C. Because of the change in our courses due to common core, there's been a lot of overlap in Math 3 and Precalc. Which means that a lot of topics won't need to be repeated in Precalc and will give me time to hit limits and derivatives and the beginnings of calculus even more than I do now. But I also need to add in conics and matrices (both considered 4th year). My goal is to make them into blended modules that the kids can work through on their own, especially the matrices. So there's a summer project! I should be able to lose rational functions, exponential functions, and even some of the trig. This year I have a mixup of kids from Honors Algebra 2, Trig with Functions, and Honors Math 3 so I wasn't able to make changes. Next year they'll all be coming from the same place.
Regardless, this summer will hopefully be a little less hectic than last summer (bought a new house, got back to the classroom, started creating two new courses). But of course I'll still have work to do!
2. I took two class days to construct the unit circle; one day was spent labeling degree and radian values, then the next was creating little 30-60-90 and 45-45-90 triangles to fit the triangle and find the ordered pairs. I know this could have been done in a 20-minute period (instead of 2 35-minute shortened periods) but I also heard a lot of "Oh!" and "That makes sense!" when we got to the ordered pairs. So the extra time was worth it. Today we finally got to the point where we could see the relationships between those ordered pairs and the sine/cosine/tangent values.
3. I'm (tentatively, but pretty sure) teaching both Precalculus and Math 3 next year, both of which I'm currently teaching. So after a year of creating 2 brand new courses, I actually get to use one of them again! But of course it won't be that easy...
A. We adopted a new textbook series for Math 3. Wait, let me edit that. We adopted a program for Math 3. Won't have too many physical books (which is fine) but our program seems to have a pretty good online component. And after a year of no book at all, it'll be nice to have more choices. But that also means that I either adapt my course to its program or its program to my course.
B. Not only do we have a new book, but I'm hoping that with another year of common core math under our belts, the kids coming into Math 3 won't need as much review/reteaching. I spent a lot of time on linear and quadratic functions that I "shouldn't" have to do. So even if I can compact that a little more it'll give me time to actually get to the statistics and geometry that I'm supposed to do in Math 3.
C. Because of the change in our courses due to common core, there's been a lot of overlap in Math 3 and Precalc. Which means that a lot of topics won't need to be repeated in Precalc and will give me time to hit limits and derivatives and the beginnings of calculus even more than I do now. But I also need to add in conics and matrices (both considered 4th year). My goal is to make them into blended modules that the kids can work through on their own, especially the matrices. So there's a summer project! I should be able to lose rational functions, exponential functions, and even some of the trig. This year I have a mixup of kids from Honors Algebra 2, Trig with Functions, and Honors Math 3 so I wasn't able to make changes. Next year they'll all be coming from the same place.
Regardless, this summer will hopefully be a little less hectic than last summer (bought a new house, got back to the classroom, started creating two new courses). But of course I'll still have work to do!
How do you think using the online component of Math 3 and deviating from traditional textbooks is going to effect the learning process of students?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete