Looking ahead... things I want to change

Every summer I try and work through my courses to make them better. I try and get more organized, think about better ways of doing things (like homework grades), and just figure out what I can do to make students more successful. Here are a few things on my list:

1. A year or so ago I started assigning weekly reviews to my precalc students. They're mostly like last-year type reviews for skills that we'll be needing soon. They've worked out pretty well. For the second half of each semester I change it to a week of problems from the 1st half (so exams aren't so painful).

One time this spring I saw this tweet from Sarah Donaldson:

This was the photo that was attached:


I love this idea!  I'm thinking I can do this through Delta Math, so a big task on my summer "to do" list is to set up a spreadsheet plan of what topics to do when.

(ETA: I'm working on my spreadsheet and I think I'm going to leave off the "Last Lesson" section. Instead will have Last Week, Last Unit, and Last Year(ish). Here's a link to my spreadsheet.)

2. I'd like to include the idea of recognizing a student's birthday by playing a "walk-up" song as they enter the classroom (and maybe while they work on a warm up?). I can generate a report on our online grading software of students' birthdays, so I added a question to my beginning-of-the-year survey asking what they would consider their walk up song. I'm hoping to make a spreadsheet with links to those songs (YouTube? Amazon Music?) so I can click and play.  I actually have really small classes this year so I'm hoping this is manageable!

3. I taught General Math 3 for the first time last year and felt like I was constantly creating materials for our next unit. It's so nice to have those done now, though, so all I have to do is adjust.  For the first time, I'm having issues doing that, though. I know what ended up working for last year's students and what changes I would make for them but I know next year's bunch could be totally different!  I guess I'll just have to trust my gut and make the changes that I feel are best.



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