Semester Reflections

As I sit and watch my students working diligently on their semester
final, I am so grateful that winter break is upon us. It has been a
whorlwind of a semester, filled with new challenges, new triumphs, new
frustrations, and a huge lack of time to sit and write about it.

One of my biggest challenges at the start of the year was how to
manage 130 kids in AP Stat. If you've never looked at the AP
Curriculum, it's very writing intensive and conceptual - not your
run-of-the-mill right/wrong math class. It has worked out fairly
well, and while I am not able to grade assessments as quickly as I
would like, I have amazing students and they have really shined this
year. Part of how I've managed is by two things - active learning and
standards based grading. Over the past few years, I have transitioned
more and more away from lecturing and this year is even more so.
Since AP Stat is my only major prep, I have really put a lot of time
into developing quality lessons, making connections, and tying things
together this year. In class, the *kids* are the ones working their
tails off. They sit in partners, so they have someone to turn to when
they are stuck. They work with their partners on a daily basis while
discussing and working problems. The problems that in the past I
might have assigned as "homework" get worked in class instead. They
do not sit and watch me work problems and do examples - THEY tackle
the problems, work through it with their partner, then we discuss it
as a class. Overall, this has led to high engagement, which has shown
up in their assssments.

The second thing that I tackled this year was using Standards Based
Grading in my AP class. I had started this journey last year with
Algebra 2, and at the time, had no idea how it would work in AP.
While it's still a learning process, overall I do really like having
the more detailed information about student's understanding of each
concept. There are still some kinks to be worked out, like the crowd
of people in my room this week for reassessments, but the pros far
outweigh the cons. The kids have embraced SBG with open arms and over
time have seen the benefit of having to remediate and reassess, of
having detailed grade reporting, and learning from their mistakes. I
have heard the statement, "I wish Mrs/Mr X did SBG too!", many, many
times over this semester. There definitely have been challenges to
SBG though... writing assessments that really get to the heart of the
objective, writing reassessments that cover the same concept without
being identical to the original, the time it takes just to grade that
volume of papers, etc. But overall, I'm happy with how this semester
has turned out.

As I reflect back over the past year and a half, I realize how
different I am now as compared to when I started this journey. My
philosphy on what really matters, what grades should mean, how to
structure my class, so many things. I was one of those teacher that
would have sworn "if you don't grade it, they won't do it" and now I
see how wrong I was on a daily basis. My kids work their butts off
every day and it's NOT about how many grades I take - it's about being
engaged with the material and tapping into their intrinsic motivation
to learn. It's not always been a smooth path, but this was a journey
well worth the time and energy it took to get where I am today.

#statchat anyone?

First, let me preface this by saying I am having a *great* year.
Statistics has long been my passion and this year I am blessed to
teach AP Stat all day, plus one Intro to Stat class at the uni. I
really love only having one core class to prep for, my lesson plans
are quick to write, and in the case of a lab day, I don't have to set
up and tear down the labs multiple times. It's been great to branch
out and work with the science teachers on the integration of math and
science as well as exploring new ways to use technology in my
classroom.

However, what I did NOT anticipate about this year was how much I
would miss the daily collaboration of my Algebra 2 buddies. For the
past several years, I have taught next to Partner Teacher and we have
joked that if we could put both our brains into one teacher, that we
would be unstoppable. This year, though, I moved across the parking
lot to a new building, leaving behind many of my close friends AND I
no longer teach Algebra 2, so I don't have the collaboration partners
that I am used to. This adds up to a year of feeling pretty alone in
my math world. I am one of those teachers that really learns through
brainstorming and discussion. I love the flow of ideas that can come
from a discussion on "How do you teach this topic?" or "My kids keep
messing up here - what do you do?" or "Dang, they bombed that quiz -
what now?"

This past Sunday, my feeling of isolation really came to a head and I
was very frustrated. In general, I believe in being proactive, so I
got on twitter that afternoon/evening and asked if anyone would be
interested in a weekly #statchat discussion. It doesn't have to be
ultra formal, I just want a time to talk to other stat teachers and
bounce ideas, labs, activities, suggestions, etc. I got a few
positive replies, so I thought I'd post here too - so, let me see a
show of hands... Anyone up for a weekly #statchat?

Til next time... :)

Active Learning

Tomorrow is my yearly Pre-Evaluation conference with my principal. Last week, he sent out an email asking for our professional goal for this year and suggested that it tie into our high school's goal of "increasing student engagement both in and out of the classroom." I decided that my goal for the year would be using Active Learning strategies on a regular basis.

I wrote about Active Learning last summer in this post. However, since then, I've become even more concerned that "classrooms are a place where students go to watch teachers work." The problem, for me at least, is how to solve this. I have a large collection of games, labs, activities, etc that I like to use, but I want more activities that are quick 5-10 minute activities (like Think-Pair-Share) that could be used during instructional time. Another issue I have is that I teach seniors and so many of the collaborative activities are fairly corny and would not go over well with my students. Yet a third issue I have is that while I have a large classroom, it feels fairly small with 32 bodies, so a lot of "move around activities" are hard to do.

Here are some of my tried and true favorites:

Partner Discussions
My classroom is set up in pairs. Daily, students talk to and work with their partners to discuss problems. I would like to develop some more specific strategies to use with the partners, beyond Think-Pair-Share.

Half Sheets
This strategy was first known as Relay Race and came from an ebay book that I got many many years ago. It is a definitely favorite amongst my students. Students work in pairs (or groups of 4) to work through problems. They get one problem (half sheet) at a time, bring it up to be checked, then get the next one to work on. The kids love this and I really like the individual feedback I can give to each group. This is again more of a review game though.

Gallery Walk
I have used a Gallery Walk with several concepts and I'm always impressed by the discussion that comes out of it. I love this idea and wish I could use it more often, but it's again a "move around" activity and that limits its usability. I have 8 groups of 4, but only whiteboard space for 6 groups, so I really need to invest in some of the "showerboard" whiteboards.

Exit Tickets
I really like the idea of Exit Tickets, but I just can't seem to make them work for me. I would love to hear how they are used in other classrooms.


What are your favorite strategies?

Math/Science Partnership - part 2

I have to admit, I'm so glad September is over! For most of the month, I felt so overwhelmed and behind and unable to catch up.

Anyway, the AP Env Sci (APES) teacher and I were able to get our students together to do the Quadrat Analysis activity. On the first day, we all met in her room as she talked about what QA is and why it is useful to scientists. I jumped in a few times to ask my students why we wouldn't want to take a census and what kind of sampling method QA was for us. Then we split up into groups of 4, with each group having 2 APES students and 2 Stat students. We gave each group a map and a yellow square of acetate and they were off to collect their data. They dropped the acetate 10 times, recording the species found in their sample. After their 10 trials, they found the average for each species, then multiplied by a conversion factor to find a population estimate for the land area. Finally, the groups put their data into a Google Form.

On Day 2, we started out in my room as I discussed the analysis that we were going to do. From the previous day's G-Form, I had compiled the population estimates for the 16 species on the map and each group was going to have one species to analyze. This proved to be a great review for my students on how to make well-done graphs, write descriptions, and test for outliers. Each group was given an 11x17 piece of paper to make a mini-poster for their species. The posters were then displayed for our Open House festitivies.

Overall, I was happy with how our first collaboration went and I think the students walked away with a better knowledge of how the course content overlaps.

Math/Science Partnership

One of the goals for my high school is to develop a math/science partnership to help students make connections between the content areas. The commitment to this goal can be seen in our new building, where math and science classrooms are side by side rather than in different wings, as in a traditional facility. This opens up some unique collaborative opportunities for us since I now have daily access to the biological science teachers and the activities/labs they do in their classrooms.

Enter the AP Environmental Science (APES) teacher. She and I have collaborated before and actually took a week long workshop together last summer in an effort to see where our curriculums collided. Stat has the unique ability to fit in with so many curriculums that I could easily tie into just about any teacher's lesson plans if I truly tried. Anyway, earlier in the week, the APES teacher came to me with a lab she was doing that involved Chi-Square tests. Ultimately, the idea behind her lab was Natural Selection - the ability of a predator to find and kill their prey and the ability of the prey to hide from a predator. Her students had taken 3 types of beans and spread them into two differing habitats (aka the sidewalk and the grass) and recorded which prey was killed in each habitat. They organized the data into a table and that's where the Chi-Square Test came in. Now, I don't get to Chi-Square until April, but I had just finished contingency tables and segmented bar charts, so I was pretty bummed to miss out on such a neat collaborative activity.

Today was test day, so I went over to my APES neighbor and asked her for a copy of a couple of the labs she had mentioned so that I could read over them and jot down notes for next year. During our short chat, she mentioned another lab that she said she would find and bring over to my room. Low and behold if she didn't show up with this map:

With this lab, the students have to count the species of plants to determine the potential environmental impact of the plants. My students have already been through the idea that a census isn't usually practical and is oftentimes inaccurate. We have also discussed the different random sampling methods used to generate data. This lab will let them see a real example of cluster sampling and using that to estimate a population parameter. They will drop the yellow acetate square 10 times, count the various species in the square, find the average of their 10 trials, and then use a conversion factor to estimate the population parameter. The next day, each of my student pairs will get the data for one species, have to display it in both a histogram and boxplot, and then describe the distribution of their species. I'm thinking this will be a great summary of the material we've covered thus far.

If you have any other ideas on how to integrate math and science, please leave it in the comments... We're in the baby steps phase right now, but eager to learn more!

What a great day!

Today was one of those days that you just feel good about. Lessons went smoothly, the a-ha moment happened at just the right time, and kids were engaged.

First off, let me preface this by saying that for the most part, I am enjoying teaching AP Statistics all day long. Sometimes I get into that "Did I already say that?" rut, but overall, it's fun to be sharing my passion for stat with the students. I kind of miss Algebra 2 and I definitely miss collaborating with my Algebra 2 buddies, but after a couple of years where stat got pushed to the back burner, it's great to have the time to really devote to engaging lessons and an active classroom.

Right now in AP Stat, we are deep into the Experiments chapter. This year I am trying to bring in more real life articles and having them analyze them. Last week we discussed the vocabulary of experiments and the required elements of experimental design, then ended the week by analyzing some articles. Each group got their own article and an analysis sheet. Working with their partner, they broke down the article using the language of statistics. That brings us to today.... When class started, each group (my kids are seated in pairs) had a copy of this article about the Placebo Effect. They had to read and discuss it with their partner, then write a summary of it in their warmup folders. Then we had a sharing session to see what they had found interesting in the article. That immediately got us thinking that if the placebo effect can be so powerful, how well does the REAL treatment have to perform to be considered the "winner". We had briefly talked about the idea of Statistical Significance earlier in the year, so I pulled out another psychological experiment (Zener Cards and ESP) and we tested our class for ESP. This lead us into a discussion of how many right answers they expected to get, how many they actually got, and if that was a big enough difference to convince them of our class's ESP ability.

Then the grand finale (and lead-in for tomorrow), I told them we needed to do some quick review of all of that vocabulary from last week. I pulled up the Fish Tank problem from the 1997 exam. (Can I just say I really *love* the Snipping Tool in Win7!) I asked the students to identify the experimental units, the explantory variable, the treatments, and the response variable. Then we designed a Completely Randomized experiment for the fish tanks. We sketched the experiment on the whiteboard, then talked about randomization. I had the groups discuss how they would assign the fish food and really had some great responses (spinners, dice, etc). When someone said "Put the numbers 1-8 in a hat and mix well", I played it up and said "OH MY GOSH! That's what I did too!!!" I brought out my paper bag with 8 poker chips and we assigned the treatments. In all of my classes someone then said "But wait!!! What about the Temperature issue???" That led to a great discussion on confounding variables and at the end of the hour, I left them with the task to determine how to assign the new and old fish food to the tanks with respect to the temperature issue. Tomorrow, their warmup will be to write down their method and we should be able to segue into blocking and why blocking reduces variability.

However, every great day usually has a bummer moment too. I plan to also talk about matched pairs tomorrow and wanted to intro it using the Boots problem, so when hubs was running errands after work, I asked him to check on some really cheap boots that I could use as a prop. For some reason, in past years, students have not really understood that the new water proofing method does NOT change the appearance of the boots, they look identical. I was hoping with the two physical sets of boots that the kids would get that you could assign one boot of each type to a person and see which one resisted water the best, but it was going to cost close to $50 for 2 pairs of boots and that was quickly vetoed!

Now to figure out the blocking dogs activity to see if I want to tackle that this week too. :)

Another year has begun...

And what a year it has already been! New building, new technology, new hallmates, new gradebook, the list goes on and on! Overall, it's been pretty good, but having never moved into a new building, I wasn't prepared for the little details that were commonplace before, like pencil sharpeners. :)

My schedule also changed in the days leading up to the official start of school. Last year, we had 90 AP Stat students in 4 sections. This year's senior class is the first class that took 8th grade Algebra 1 as an on-level class (rather than honors as before), so that left a lot of juniors that took Pre-Calc and wanted a 4th year of math. Enter AP Stat - our enrollment jumped to 215 in 7 sections at last count. (And for those AP Stat teachers out there that are half jealous and half "how the heck are you going to grade all that" - I don't know yet....) So needless to say, I now teach AP all day long (and one hour for my AVID seniors).

So today was day 3 with the kids and I really am enjoying them overall. Thursday and Friday we did some introductory material of "Stats in the news" and today was our first real day of material. Because of the success of the Gallery Walk that I did last year, I did something similar today. The first chapter of my textbook talks about how important it is to know the context of data - the W's if you will (Who/What/When/etc). After a brief introduction to the W's and a class example, off to the boards we went. One nice feature of my new classroom is LOTS of whiteboard space. I can fit 8 groups of students at the whiteboards, so I had taken some scenerios, printed them on cardstock, and posted them around the room (held to the board with magnets) with a #1, #2, etc above them. I numbered my students and sent them to the boards to the corresponding number. As a group, they read the problem, discussed and agreed upon the Ws and wrote it on the board. When they were done, they took the problem card down, flipped it over to reveal the answers and graded themselves. Then they erased their work, rotated to the next station and did it again. We continued until they all felt comfortable with identifying the W's.

All in all, I'm pleased with the first days of school and I'm excited to see what this year brings. For the past two years, AP has kind of been on the back burner because of Algebra 2, so I'm eager to get back into the planning of AP and really trying some new things.

Now if only that morning alarm wasn't quite so early.... *sigh*