I don't have much to say this week.
It was a confusing mixed up week with students grieving and services being held and things being canceled.
I should probably be saying some deep, meaningful things about life but I got nothing.
I tried one lesson with my geometry class about circumcenters but the whole thing failed. I couldn't even make a circumcenter on my own.
Algebra- still trying to wrap up graphing and finding slope and intercepts. I may be taking too long on this but I've decided if they don't learn anything else, they will learn linear functions. We've done the slope formula on every warm up for probably 4 weeks in a row now.
Then the week went downhill from there.
Today was our first home basketball game and so we had a pep rally/karaoke contest. It was super fun! The students weren't shy or timid and just sang their hearts out. Everyone needed a good laugh and it was just fun. At the end we sang Lean On Me and all the students stood up, leaning and singing, just like a movie. Then we did the Cupid Shuffle and it was like High School Musical 3.5 up in there. I gave up any semblance of sanity the rest of the afternoon and spent time karaoke-ing in my room, watching students have rap and dance battles, and the kids tried to teach me how to jerk.
Next week is finals. I'm a little nervous. I never took one in high school and so the idea of writing one is somewhat foreign. Other teachers do multiple choice in order to make it quick to grade. But I've been doing free response all year so it seems weird to change now. I'm thinking about doing some matching or multiple choice for vocab and then free response for actual problems. I will be spending the weekend creating that and a study guide. Another teacher said she gives a study guide with all the problems worked out by her. I think I will let the students work on the problems on their own and then give out the answers for final studying. How many questions do you put on your final? Do you pull problems straight off of earlier tests? Do you do any bonus/extra credit/anything different?
My school does not require finals (lucky me), but last year I gave one in a couple of my classes. The review was a bunch of problems they could work out themselves, but I was there if they needed help. We spent a couple days in class "studying". It was mostly free response but a few MC questions, too. (I have very few students in my classes, so grading isn't as much of a chore). I tend to put bonus/extra credit questions on each test...something requiring more application/analysis, or something completely unrelated (I asked students one time to spell my last name...you'd be surprised how few can! - part of the reason is they never use it...just my sign name..)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, another thing your post made me think of...re: the jerk. When I introduced position, velocity, acceleration, and jerk as a sequence of derivatives in particle motion problems, my calc student got up and started doing the jerk. He said, "You mean this is calculus?" FUNNY. He then tried to teach me...without success. *smile*
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteThat is funny! Notice I said 'tried'. Their 'tutorial' was unsuccessful as well. I think I may secretly try to perfect it and then just bust out with it to surprise them one day. lol
I give them unworked study guides with similar questions. I post my correctly worked problems on the bulletin board for them to check their answers and I set up a 'conference table' where they can consult me for help.
ReplyDeleteI also spend a day showing multiple choice questions on my projector. Each corner of the room is labeled with 'A, B, C and D' and when you have solved the problem, you go to the appropriate corner. Everyone who is wrong has to sit down and the remaining kids do it all again. When there is only one left (or a few) I give them a point and everyone joins back in. There are prizes. I find this is a good way to try to 'trick' them and it's funny to watch them decide whether to trust themselves or follow the crowd.
Ms Maddy,
ReplyDeleteI love that idea! I made the test multiple choice but the study guide is problems for them to work out. I like the idea of practicing multiple choice things though. Thanks!