Parent University 5.0

This was my fifth time presenting at our district's Parent University. I built on my session "Improving Math Grades." I was again fortunate to have Ms. Betsy Sanchez translate for me. The first session was jam-packed with over 45 attendees. The second session was a much more intimate, with just eight people. Both sessions went smoothly. I've learned that two sessions are good, three would be an overkill. At the end, I assisted Mr. C.'s Link Crew session by picking up pizza and drinks for the participating Link Leaders.

That evening, I also got to hang out with a few great teacher-friends. A very nice Saturday.

Got Sick

Out of nowhere, I caught a nasty flu on Monday. I remember feeling just fine during fourth period, but my whole body ached as lunchtime rolled around, and has continued since. I got home late Monday night due to a professional training. Today, my voice was almost completely gone. I fought through and finished the day, even tutored for Link Crew for a few hours after school. I needed to show my students some grit by reviewing until the last lesson.

There is an upside. In addition to losing my voice, I also lost five pounds.

Farkel Party

Dice are extremely useful in many activities in statistics that demonstrate key concepts. I purchased a set of these from Amazon and really like the box and containers. Though a bit expensive, I purchased three more to have a set for every pair of students. I'm realizing that this course is very expensive... = )

M&Ms and Sampling Distributions

Last week, to introduce the concept of sampling distribution, I used an activity involving M&M candies. Students received cups of about 50 candies and counted the number of each color. Initially, they guessed that there are more reds than blues. As our sampling distribution showed, it was quite clear that the proportion of blues is higher. According to many web sources, the proportion of blues is 24% and reds is 13%. Our results were very close. It was a fun activity; students ate the chocolate afterwards.

RC vs. Coke

One of the goals that I have for my AP Stats class is to involve as many hands-on activities as I can manage. We've already done several. Last week, I bought two cases of soda. RC Cola and Coca Cola. We used the blind taste test to generate the random variable of the number of students who can decipher the brands. Interestingly, only 10 of the 24 tasters correctly identify the "real" Coke. More tasters thought that RC was Coke!

Escher

M.C. Escher in my classroom. (Predestination 1951 Lithograph).

Stats Shirts

The Stats shirts were distributed on Monday. I tossed them out to the students one at a time. I spoke a thing or two about each of them. I don't know all of them very well, but I'm glad that I have their names on the shirt. I'll let the kids decide when they want to wear the shirt. I will debut my shirt at the rally tomorrow!

SGV CaMP

I attended another California Mathematics Project (CaMP) workshop last week. Although it ran from 4pm to 8pm, I felt that the time went by very fast because I enjoyed spending time with like-minded math educators. We spend the evening discussing differentiation in the classroom.

Stats Shirts

I'm blessed with some of the best students on campus in my AP Statistics class. We struggle as we learn, but I believe strongly that we're making positive progress. Inspired by the Wordle website, I designed our class shirts. I placed the order today. The front of the shirts have students' names. They insisted to have my cartoon face on the shirt. Initially, they wanted a big face on the back, but I lean towards subtlety. A small face on the sleeve will do.

New Book

During my lessons, I tried reusing some of the illusions that I've collected over the past couple of years. While many of them are amazing, I want to show students who I've had in previous years new illusions. "Masters of Deception" is my newest book purchase. It has a collection of 20 illusion artists. While it is not a complete collection, I am able to easily search for their works online.