Sunday Summary

3 things to share

1. Man, don’t you hate it when you figure out a better way to teach something the day after you teach it?  Although trig equations went pretty well this year (well, we’ll see tomorrow on their quiz), I think next year I will structure it differently. Here’s where we started:

CaptureCapture2Next year, I’m going to start at the end with the calculator/desmos, with a -4π to 4π window to discuss the general form.  Then do some examples with θ between 0 and 2π, then non-calculator examples.  Then on day 2, graph 2θ (or θ/2) on the same graph to discuss getting more/less answers.  If you’d like to modify this for me (doesn’t hurt to ask, right?), or if you want to use it as is, here is the .doc file (with bonus homework at the bottom!)

2. Now, day 2’s note-taker-maker, I’m kind of in love with. (ok, technically this was day 3 because I ended up teaching day 1 slowly)

Capture3The only thing I might change is super-reinforcing the ZERO product property rule is not the “ZERO or sometimes 2 or 3 or -7 product property rule” because some of my students are still having issues with that. (btw, Snoops is dancing because it’s already factored.  Also, it is super fun to have a kid ask later, “How can we solve this?” and you reply, “Cute and cuddly, boys!”  File link.

3. I finally figured out about 3 years ago how to make linear programming less painful…get the mechanics of it out the way first!

Capture4Let them spend a day finding the feasible region, vertices, and max/mins.  Then the next day you can focus on the finding the equations from those long scary problems and the rest is the same as these notes.  Much less stress than trying to introduce all of it the same day.  File here.

2 good books I’ve been reading

We took a quick weekend trip to Chattanooga last week where I started David Benioff’s City of Thieves and could not put it down!  It’s like a buddy cop movie set in the absurdity of World War II.  It reminded me of Anthony Marra’s Constellation of Vital Phenomona, one of my favorite books of the last few years.

 

 

Hector Tobar’s Deep Down Dark is the reason I haven’t gotten anything done today!  How did he make this so compelling when I already know the outcome?  I’m about to go draw a bath and try to finish it tonight; it’s such a page turner!  And don’t worry, he does a really good job making sure the reader doesn’t get lost with all the people in the story (I’m horrible at remembering names in both book and real life.)

 

1 thing I’m meh about

I have to write a unit plan about complex, polar, and parametrics using some premade lessons (and adding others as I see fit). The premade lessons are really expecting a lot from our students and I’m not sure if I will get the outcomes desired by using them (unless the desired outcomes are tears and frustration).  But I’m having trouble finding a lot of great stuff that I can easily replace them with (I have a few things thanks to @mrdardy and @crstn85).  So if you have some cool stuff to share, please do so!  The state of Alabama will thank you!

One comment on “Sunday Summary

  1. Thanks for the shout out – I hope that it is a helpful way to frame the important thoughts about complex numbers. Also – the whole state of Alabama would be thankful? You have a wide sphere of influence!

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