Today, a friend and I co-hosted an AP review session at my school. We had a great time with the dozen kids that attended. I think overall the kids had time to review topics they hadn't seen in a while, so I think it was worth the time and energy and loss of Saturday :)
Last week my friend had treated me to lunch so this week was my turn. We went to a hamburger place in town and several of the kids came with us. The waitress put it all on one tab, which was no big deal. I told the kids I would take care of it. I get up to the cash register and they don't take Discover and my Visa card expired a few days ago and I had forgot to put the new one in my purse. OMG - I was mortified. I eat at this place often but the waitress acted like she had *no clue* who I was. My friend had left her purse in my classroom so she didn't have any money either. I ended up leaving my Discover card as collateral and my friend went back with her credit card to cover the lunch. Then I forgot to get my Discover card back from my friend so I had to run by her house tonight to get my card and give her money to pay for lunch. First thing I did when I got home was to put the new Visa in my wallet LOL.
Tonight I knew I needed to run and get items for my goodie bags. I *love* Dollar Tree!!! There is a Dollar Tree in town that is absolutely awesome. I love the educational toys, teacher supplies, and stationary products they have. In the toy section they had several "mini-carnival" games. Since I'm always on the lookout for items that I can play with in class, I am now planning a carnival day for next year. I got a ring toss (proportions), a "skeeball" type game (means), a tic-tac-toe game (??? not sure what to do with it). Do you guys have any ideas of carnival games that we could play with Statistics??
Also at Dollar Tree was a reversible chart - one side is a temperatue graph, the other side is a "goal" thermometer. I picked one up because I like to do mini competitions with my classes. Any ideas out there? I was thinking the percentage of turned in assignments or average on their weekly review quizzes.
I'm outta here - the rebroadcast for Grey's Anatomy is about to come on (It was preempted due to weather this week). Thanks in advance for any ideas!!!
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Block Scheduling and Chocolate - A great combo!
Tomorrow is my last day of Geometry End of Instruction exams. This week has gone so quickly with block scheduling! On the positive side, my Geometry students said they felt prepared for the exam. Since we did not have official "review" time, that made me feel a bit better about the week. Of course, from many years as a teacher, I also know that "feeling good" does not translate to high scores! LOL
I had planned to test in my AP Stat class, but with only 6 more class sessions until the AP exam, I decided that I would rather do an activity. Bonus - no grading!!! wooohoooo!! hehe. Looking around my room, I had some left over M&Ms and remembered seeing an AP review activity on Mrs. Smart's website. I started with her idea and tweaked it to fill up a 2 hour review session for various inference methods. Since I typed this up tonight (after a 2 hour nap), it's still pretty rough, so please excuse any typos. :)
Everything I learned about Inference...
The end is in sight! One month left at the HS - only the final left at the Uni... where, oh where did the semester go???
Update: This activity went extemely well!!! The kiddos were actively discussing the problems and stayed engaged for 2 hours - excellent :)
I had planned to test in my AP Stat class, but with only 6 more class sessions until the AP exam, I decided that I would rather do an activity. Bonus - no grading!!! wooohoooo!! hehe. Looking around my room, I had some left over M&Ms and remembered seeing an AP review activity on Mrs. Smart's website. I started with her idea and tweaked it to fill up a 2 hour review session for various inference methods. Since I typed this up tonight (after a 2 hour nap), it's still pretty rough, so please excuse any typos. :)
Everything I learned about Inference...
The end is in sight! One month left at the HS - only the final left at the Uni... where, oh where did the semester go???
Update: This activity went extemely well!!! The kiddos were actively discussing the problems and stayed engaged for 2 hours - excellent :)
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Ready or Not...
It's finally here. The End of Instruction exams for Geometry start tomorrow. I did not have time to do any review with them, but every homework, quiz, and test had "previous knowledge" sections, so I have to hope that the constant review throughout the year was enough.
As for AP, I see them 7 more days before the exam due to the block scheduling for the EOI tests. I had a test planned for them this week, but I'm rethinking it so I can use the time for review instead. Do any of you have good review strategies?
Today is a semi-lazy day since I won't really "teach" this week. I have a test to write for the Uni and a few things like that, but other than grading, nothing is really pressing on my schedule.
I hope all of you have a great Sunday!!
As for AP, I see them 7 more days before the exam due to the block scheduling for the EOI tests. I had a test planned for them this week, but I'm rethinking it so I can use the time for review instead. Do any of you have good review strategies?
Today is a semi-lazy day since I won't really "teach" this week. I have a test to write for the Uni and a few things like that, but other than grading, nothing is really pressing on my schedule.
I hope all of you have a great Sunday!!
Thursday, April 17, 2008
The Countdown...
Since my last post, I have:
1) realized (again) that I have an amazing hubby,
2) taught my last lesson for the semester at Uni
3) lost my cool with my AP kids
4) been exhausted from the stress of life :)
When I last wrote, I was pretty darn ticked at my printer. As I lay in bed at midnight with tears of frustration, hubby tried to console me. The next day during my plan, I printed the originals and made copies for my AP class. About 20 minutes later, hubby shows up at school during lunch with 25 stapled and collated packets for my AP class. Nevermind that I had already made the copies, I was touched by such a generous show of love. :)
The Uni semester is almost over - I am giving a test on Monday and then the final is May 5th. I can't believe how fast it went!
Today, I lost my cool with my AP kiddos - they are a great group and it's very much a family like atmosphere with lots of good-natured joking and ribbing, but today they wanted to play way more than they wanted to work. With the AP exam 2.5 weeks away and only 8 class sessions until then, I don't have time to play! I ended up having to be very stern and I hate that! *sigh* I hope they take some responsibility on their own to study...
Lately it has been all I can do to keep my eyes open. Hubby told me at dinner tonight that I was a walking zombie.... For some reason I have been totally exhausted lately. I know its a combination of things, like dad being in the hospital for 2 weeks (got out today YAY!), totally rewriting a Geometry course (end is in sight there too), EOI exams next week for Geometry (I hope they do well!), and AP exams right around the corner. April is a tough month for me... there is still 5 weeks left of school yet you know you can't salvage much from this group of kiddos, so you start thinking about next year and how to improve, but then I'm impatient because I have to wait so long until then...
Speaking of improvement, every year about this time I start making lists of things I would like to accomplish to be a better teacher. I hope I never outgrow that trait, as I fully believe that lack of growth as a teacher is very dangerous, both professionally and personally for me. I am looking forward to this summer. While it will be very busy, I think it will also be professionally gratifying, with the AP reading, collaboration with other stat teachers, and an AVID insitute.
Well, I suppose it is time to head to bed... I hope you all have a great night!
1) realized (again) that I have an amazing hubby,
2) taught my last lesson for the semester at Uni
3) lost my cool with my AP kids
4) been exhausted from the stress of life :)
When I last wrote, I was pretty darn ticked at my printer. As I lay in bed at midnight with tears of frustration, hubby tried to console me. The next day during my plan, I printed the originals and made copies for my AP class. About 20 minutes later, hubby shows up at school during lunch with 25 stapled and collated packets for my AP class. Nevermind that I had already made the copies, I was touched by such a generous show of love. :)
The Uni semester is almost over - I am giving a test on Monday and then the final is May 5th. I can't believe how fast it went!
Today, I lost my cool with my AP kiddos - they are a great group and it's very much a family like atmosphere with lots of good-natured joking and ribbing, but today they wanted to play way more than they wanted to work. With the AP exam 2.5 weeks away and only 8 class sessions until then, I don't have time to play! I ended up having to be very stern and I hate that! *sigh* I hope they take some responsibility on their own to study...
Lately it has been all I can do to keep my eyes open. Hubby told me at dinner tonight that I was a walking zombie.... For some reason I have been totally exhausted lately. I know its a combination of things, like dad being in the hospital for 2 weeks (got out today YAY!), totally rewriting a Geometry course (end is in sight there too), EOI exams next week for Geometry (I hope they do well!), and AP exams right around the corner. April is a tough month for me... there is still 5 weeks left of school yet you know you can't salvage much from this group of kiddos, so you start thinking about next year and how to improve, but then I'm impatient because I have to wait so long until then...
Speaking of improvement, every year about this time I start making lists of things I would like to accomplish to be a better teacher. I hope I never outgrow that trait, as I fully believe that lack of growth as a teacher is very dangerous, both professionally and personally for me. I am looking forward to this summer. While it will be very busy, I think it will also be professionally gratifying, with the AP reading, collaboration with other stat teachers, and an AVID insitute.
Well, I suppose it is time to head to bed... I hope you all have a great night!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Extreme Frustration
Ever feel like the world is plotting against you? This morning I sat down on the couch, ready to grade, and realized that my answer keys were at the high school, which is 30 minutes away. Since it would take more than an hour to recreate the keys, I decided that I would head to the HS and run by the hospital to see my dad on the way back. So far so good, right? I get home, start grading and make fairly decent progress over the course of the afternoon. About 5pm, I decide I had better start working on this week's lessons. It is now 9pm and I am still trying to print the paper that I started trying to print at 5. I am *so* pissed off at my printer right now. I have a huge HP LaserJet 5 with duplexer that is totally possessed by demons. Every time I try to print, it has different issues. What works well one day won't work at all the next day. The total inconsistency is about to drive me INSANE!!! (Note to self: I do love my hubby for finding this printer because when it works, it works well - the duplexer is awesome - but I swear it's possessed by demons!!!)
Both at the HS and the Uni tomorrow, I am teaching Chi-Square tests. At a workshop I attended last summer, we had done the VARK learning styles test and analyzed our data. So that's my plan tomorrow - if I can get the stinking thing to print. I plan to do a Goodness of Fit test to see if all learning styles are equally represented and then a test of homogeneity to see if there is a difference between males and females.
This week is going to be interesting. At the HS level, we start our End of Course tests and the Geometry test is 1 week away. I will not get through the Geometry curriculum before the tests and have to hope and pray that my students do okay on the material we have learned. The AP exam for Stat is only 3 weeks away, I have 2 chapters left to go and lots of praying there too.
*sigh* Now if only I could get the printer to print.....
Both at the HS and the Uni tomorrow, I am teaching Chi-Square tests. At a workshop I attended last summer, we had done the VARK learning styles test and analyzed our data. So that's my plan tomorrow - if I can get the stinking thing to print. I plan to do a Goodness of Fit test to see if all learning styles are equally represented and then a test of homogeneity to see if there is a difference between males and females.
This week is going to be interesting. At the HS level, we start our End of Course tests and the Geometry test is 1 week away. I will not get through the Geometry curriculum before the tests and have to hope and pray that my students do okay on the material we have learned. The AP exam for Stat is only 3 weeks away, I have 2 chapters left to go and lots of praying there too.
*sigh* Now if only I could get the printer to print.....
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Melts in your Mouth... Not in your Hands :)
Everything I learned in Stat class, I learned from M&Ms :)
Some days, that statement feels so true. From univariate data (weights of bags, proportion of colors), to probability, and finally to inference, most topics in Intro Stat can be related back to M&Ms.
This week at the Uni level, we will delve into inference for proportions. As my Uni students have already figured out, I much prefer using real data to just putting problems on the board and droning on and on :) This week we will learn to do confidence intervals and hypothesis tests using M&Ms.
M&M Activity Sheet
At the HS level, when we covered this information, I chose not to do M&Ms and instead did a "globe toss" using a blow-up globe from Oriental Trading company. The students had a lot of fun tossing the globe around in the commons area and using the data generated to learn how to do a CI and HT for proportions. To top off the chapter, I gave a quiz a few days later. With the quiz, they each got a bag of Skittles and had to do the CI and HT for their bag. While it was a pain to grade, the kids enjoyed eating their quiz data :)
Globe Toss
Skittles Quiz
-------
On a different note, I have no idea how many people have actually read this blog (other than Jackie - my lone commenter *grin*), so I don't know if the material I am posting has been useful to anyone out there or not. The AP Statistics community is fairly small and mostly rely on the ap-stat listserv to communicate with the other Stat teachers out there. However, I have found it rather interesting to post my lessons and commentary for my own documentation if nothing else. By updating the posts with what worked and what needs to be modified, I am hoping to use this like a journal as I teach the same lessons next year, tweaking and improving as I go.
Some days, that statement feels so true. From univariate data (weights of bags, proportion of colors), to probability, and finally to inference, most topics in Intro Stat can be related back to M&Ms.
This week at the Uni level, we will delve into inference for proportions. As my Uni students have already figured out, I much prefer using real data to just putting problems on the board and droning on and on :) This week we will learn to do confidence intervals and hypothesis tests using M&Ms.
M&M Activity Sheet
At the HS level, when we covered this information, I chose not to do M&Ms and instead did a "globe toss" using a blow-up globe from Oriental Trading company. The students had a lot of fun tossing the globe around in the commons area and using the data generated to learn how to do a CI and HT for proportions. To top off the chapter, I gave a quiz a few days later. With the quiz, they each got a bag of Skittles and had to do the CI and HT for their bag. While it was a pain to grade, the kids enjoyed eating their quiz data :)
Globe Toss
Skittles Quiz
-------
On a different note, I have no idea how many people have actually read this blog (other than Jackie - my lone commenter *grin*), so I don't know if the material I am posting has been useful to anyone out there or not. The AP Statistics community is fairly small and mostly rely on the ap-stat listserv to communicate with the other Stat teachers out there. However, I have found it rather interesting to post my lessons and commentary for my own documentation if nothing else. By updating the posts with what worked and what needs to be modified, I am hoping to use this like a journal as I teach the same lessons next year, tweaking and improving as I go.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Video Clips
I like to use video clips whenever it ties in to what I am teaching. However, I rarely have the time to search out new video clips. I tried to go through my stack of Numb3rs DVDs over spring break, but still had an issue with lack of time.
Here is a video from the ap-stat listserv on Type I/II Errors and Power. You-Tube Video
My students (at both the HS and Uni levels) found it very interesting to discuss. Then we looked at other problems that previous students had written and they had an assignment to create their own scenerio. If anyone is interested in that worksheet, let me know and I'll post it here.
Do any of you have videos (online or DVD) that you like to use in the classroom?
Here is a video from the ap-stat listserv on Type I/II Errors and Power. You-Tube Video
My students (at both the HS and Uni levels) found it very interesting to discuss. Then we looked at other problems that previous students had written and they had an assignment to create their own scenerio. If anyone is interested in that worksheet, let me know and I'll post it here.
Do any of you have videos (online or DVD) that you like to use in the classroom?
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