Teach 180: The Golden Ratio (Day 114)

Today I gave a chapel talk in the middle school called "The Golden Ratio: A Common Pattern".  The bigger theme for the chapel was to look for common things we share with others rather than focusing on the differences.  My talk focused on generating the Golden Ratio from the Fibonacci sequence.  I then showed how the golden ratio is found in architecture, art, insects and the human body.  Did you know that the ratio from the tip of the index finger to the wrist and the wrist to the elbow is in the golden ratio?  Or that the width of the ear to the height of the ear is in the golden ratio?  In fact, the ratio of the length of a minor groove to a major groove in DNA is the golden ratio!

So, this ratio is seen many places.  But is it really that common?  Take any two integers and form a Fibonacci-like sequence from them.  As you find ratios of consecutive terms, it approaches the golden ratio.  The golden ratio truly is a common pattern.

Teach 180: A Visit to a French Market (Day 113)

Bonjour!  Je m'appelle Leigh Nataro y je ne parle pas le français tres bien.  But today I spent about 15 minutes visiting a French market in one of the French classrooms.  The students had items for "sale" and were practicing their speaking skills relative to buying and selling food items at a market.  Several of these students will be traveling to France over spring break and this activity helped them prepare for the trip.  Faculty were invited to the classroom to participate in the activity.

I said, "J'ai soif", and a student poured me a delicious (raspberry, I think) sparkling soda.  Next I told one of my current AP Statistics students, "Je voudrai un meringue."  It was a tasty cookie, but a bit overcooked.  I also paid way too much for deux carottes.  I think it was 2 Euros for the baby carrots??  Hmmm, perhaps next time I should study the Quizlet cards a bit more.  In any event, I enjoyed seeing my students in a different setting and this was a fun way to show them that teachers can be students, too.

Teach 180: Teaching the Wrong Way (Day 112)

Today I did a disservice to my period A class.  I lectured for the entire class period, which was nearly an hour long.  I could tell many of their brains were full after about thirty minutes, but I plowed ahead. So, why did I lecture for a full hour?  The answer is the AP exam; it is on May 17th.  This is the first time in fifteen or so years of teaching that the date of the AP exam has been a concern to me.

In years past, I had plenty of time to review for the AP exam.  I split my content up into bit-sized, easily digestible 40 or 50 minute chunks.  Some days were entirely for students to work through problems.  Other days were driven by a data collection activity.  Some days included lecture for part of the class period. 

In years past, we had about three weeks to review prior to the start of AP exams.  This year AP exams start about one week later and you would think that would allow me more time for my students to review for the AP exam.  Unfortunately, that is not the case.  Based on my estimates, we will have the equivalent of 5 one-hour classes to prepare for the AP exam.  My AP Stat colleague from souther states will have 20-30 hours.  I fear my five hours of review will be woefully insufficient.

In order to protect those five minimal review days, I chose to take two 30 minute lectures today and put them in one 60 minute lecture.  It is true that 2 x 30 = 60 and technically, the timing equates.  We talked about null and alternative hypotheses, p-values, the wording of conclusions, type I and type II errors, and quickly touched on power of a test.  Basically, three big ideas that should have been separated into 2 or 3 separate class periods.   Yes, it would have been better to separate these ideas, but spending an extra day on content now means one less review day in the future.

Teaching in longer periods will still be my reality next year at my new job.  So, what will I do differently?  Mostly, I'll plan better.  No time was allocated for teachers to do this at the beginning of the year or to pay them for this work over the summer.  Had we been given time to work within our departments, we would not be scrambling to determine what content will be left out of our curricula for the remainder of this year.  Or better yet, we could have reviewed the math curriculum that was over 12 years old to determine what content really matters the most.