Monday, April 13, 2009

More cool stuff :)

I am just loving this free stuff :) I have been trying to figure out how to incorporate stat software into my classes, but now I have multiple options!!! Here's another free software program for students and teachers:

Mystat 12

Also, if any of you did not check out Dan's (dy/dan) blog today, he was helping another math teacher with their smartboard lesson. It just happened to be a stat lesson and I know I got some great ideas out of it and I thought some of you may find it useful as well. Go check it out at dy/dan!!!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

A weekend ramble

My school is a suburban school that has fairly high expectations...

However, due to its good reputation for academics, our demographics are changing as people move in to take advantage of our educational system. Our "lifers" (kids who go here from K-12) are used to the high expectations because they've had them all the way up. The kids that move-in to our district sometimes have a rough time adjusting, and this group is growing daily

With the idea of the changing of the student body, I'm trying to find the right balance... I want to keep high expectations (of course), yet make AP accessible to all kids that are willing to work. I have been batting around the idea of guided notes, where they are fill in the blank, but I'm worried that is a crutch... I want the kids to be prepared for college level coursework, but sometimes I feel like I am leaving kids behind that just don't have the skills needed because this is their first AP course....

I know this is a small group of kids right now, but I'd rather be proactive than reactive... I've seen this group continue to grow throughout the years and I don't know what to do

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Free!!:)

Who doesn't like a great pricetag like that?? :)

On the AP listserv this week, an entirely free statistical software was posted. I just played with it for a while and it is a neat package. Take a few minutes and play :)

http://www.statcato.org/

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Next Year's Schedule

It's that time of the year again... kiddos have done their enrollment cards, their course selections have been entered, and we've been asked what we would like to teach. As it stands right now, there's a pretty good chance that I will be teaching Algebra 2, so I've been spending my day looking online to see what I can find...

Here's some of my best finds of the day :)
Savvy Minds Notecards - printable and free!

Algebra Activities - Love the Hexagonal games!

Factoring Trinomials - kind of cool!