End of Year Reflection

Hi Everyone,

John and I are sitting in an "Internet in the Classroom" workshop and the current discussion has turned to blogs. I was reminded of this lovely project that I, unfortunately, abdandoned in the midst of the murky year. I would like to revisit it at least once more now as we culminate our work in this curriculum for the year.

There are only a couple of days left of teaching, the final and Regents are coming and I am wondering how it all turned out. My 10th period class is immersed in looking at quadratics and will NOT finish in time, but, alas, I am not surprised. I know it is a difficult question to address before we actually see the first Regents, but while we are closing up shop what would you like to change about your own implementation of the curriculum this year (I need to change my speed and the depth of focus I gave to certain topics) and what things worked for you (I am still not sure about that)? What parts of the curriculum seem to be strong ones for your students (scatterplots and statistics for me - big surprise) and where do they falter (retention, retention, retention... it seems all topics were OK when we were working on them, but, as usual, I seem to be in the minority of those in the room that actually remember they were EVER discussed!)?

Post your comments.

Second Marking Period

OK, we are quickly approaching the end of the second marking period. It has been a while since I last posted here and tons of questions have come and gone in my mind, but I figured this would be as good a time as any to check in with everyone!

I took a day out last week to review questions from the state sample questions (from http://www.amaps.org/Integrated/AlgebraSampleTasks%201.pdf) that I had covered in my class so far. My students did A LOT better with them than I expected, but we didn't get through as many as I thought we would.They seem to be very comfortable with the statistical graphs (box-and-whisker is their favorite!), however, they STILL seem to have a hard time determining independent variables and dependent variables from written examples, as well as domain and range.

So here are my questions for the group:

- What, if any, misconceptions are your students having?

-Any tips for getting through to my students about domain and range and independent and dependent in verbal problems?

-Any questions/topics you would like to address on the blog?

Have a great weekend.

Nicole :)

First Impressions

Hello everyone!

So we had a jam-packed day of Integrated Algebra initiation... what did you think? It is A LOT to take in and John and I couldn't help but notice that EVERY pacing guide was taken and quite a few Student Editions also made it out of the building, so now is your chance to respond to what you've been checking out.

Here are just a couple of the millions of questions that are spinning through my mind as I review it all...

-How can this book/program best serve our students?

-How does it serve you as a teacher?

-How can we present the book so it is not too overwhelming for students?

-How can we best use these materials if the students keep the book at home?

Post any ideas you have or any other questions that arise as you examine all of our materials.

Nicole :)