Snow Day!!!

The drive home last night was a bit slow. My normal 30 minute commute took me almost 2 hours! So this morning, I wasn't surprised to wake up to a blanket of white stuff in my backyard. I usually use the diving board to help me gauge depth and according to the news, we received about 5 inches of snow and sleet. We've not been above the freezing mark since Wednesday evening and we're not supposed to see above freezing temperatures until mid next week. That's roughly 30 degrees below our typical December temperatures. BRRRR!!! Today will be a soup day I do believe :)

Day 76... Collaboration Day!

Today was a Collaboration Day, which means the students had a late start and the teachers had meetings for the first two hours of the day. I worked with the neighboring science teacher to prepare our Forensic Science course that will be starting up in January. However, since the students have a late start, that means we lose one class period of the day and since we teach AP Stat every hour, that means that Collaboration is usually a chance for a review day. Today we practiced on some previous AP problems... well, until 6th hour at least...

Because by 6th hour, all my students were capable of doing was standing at the window and staring at this:

No matter how many times I tried to settle them down, they continued to find reasons to go to the window... I guess I can't blame them, it's been a few years since they've had a snow day at all, so the thought of snow and sleet is fascinating to them. This is mostly sleet so far, so we had an impromptu discussion on how to drive in bad weather as my class size slowly dwindled from early dismissals. :)

I'm sure they are all wearing their pj's inside out tonight in hopes of a snow day tomorrow!

Day 75... Multiple Ways to Tackle a Problem

I know I haven't shared much about Intermediate Algebra lately, mainly because I forget to take photos! :) We've been working on systems of equations and today I asked them to solve a system two ways to make the connection that the solution is the same, no matter which way you solve the problem. It took a while before the students realized that this is a method of "self-checking" and they didn't need to ask me "Is this correct?" after every problem!

Solving for y is still an issue for many of them, but hopefully with enough practice, it will become second nature.

Day 74... Let's formalize it a bit

Since most of the very basic rules of probability are review topics, not many notes were needed, but I did want students to have something to refer back to when they are studying. (And in case you couldn't tell, I really love foldables!)

Day 73... Pizzazz!

Most Algebra teachers are very familiar with the "Algebra with Pizzazz" series of worksheets. In AP Stat today, we started basic probability, which is mostly a review of middle school probability. Where better to find fun practice than the traditional Algebra with Pizzazz worksheets! :) The best part of these worksheets is the self-checking aspect with the "pun" at the bottom and it cracked me up to watch the students race to the end and yell out "No Spoilers" because they wanted to find the answer to the riddle by themselves. :)