180 Blog: Day 2

I did the syllabi today in all my classes. I put it off yesterday because I didn't want to bore the students, but man, did I make up for that today.

This year, the department got together and decided that we would allow students to retake chapter tests in Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II. In the past, department "policy" was against retakes. I put "policy" in quotes because we would say that we didn't do retakes and apparently, individual teachers would do them anyway. I didn't allow retakes, except for two cases in AP Stats, because I was trying to abide by policy even though I disagreed. I was stunned when the overwhelming majority of the department not only voiced their support of retakes, but said they already did it. We're only allowing students below 75% to get back up to 75%. I would like to switch to standards based grading and allow retakes for full credit, but I'm happy that we are moving to a focus on the learning and communicating about our practice.

My wife is 37 weeks pregnant today, which is officially considered full term. I am planning to take two weeks off to be home with my wife and the baby when she is born, but I am no where close to feeling comfortable enough to leave my classes. The baby's not due until the 16th and first babies tend to be late (I hear. Bad stat teacher, no data to support claim.), but the idea of full term hit me like a ton of bricks.

AP Stats
We're using BVD. Students read Chapter 1 last night and I reinforced Think-Show-Tell by showing a music video from last year's students. It is pretty amazing, but I don't feel comfortable linking it here. It's Van Halen's "Jump" with lyrics "Might as well Think/Show/Might as well Tell". I tried to steal @gwaddlenvhs (How do you make twitter handles possessive?)  www.sciencedaily.com activity but I ran out of time. We have had two hour block periods for at least three years, but have just switched to a regular 6 period day -- my timing is way off.

Algebra II
I introduced them to Estimation 180 as suggested by @StrangeKathleen. I had a lot of fun with it, especially since I am taller than Mr. Stadel. We did Sidewalk Patterns from mathshell. Timing was all screwed up and we'll have to finish tomorrow.

(Not very interesting photo. I feel weird taking pictures during class)

Algebra I
Timing was screwed up again. Didn't get through all that I wanted to. One of my students was already suspended for two days for ...(drum roll, please)... cutting class! I don't get it.