Teach 180: A Personal Day (Day 54)

I am not playing hookie today.  I took my second personal day to visit a college with my daughter, who is a senior.  (How did that time go by so quickly?) It has been an eventful trip. Our flight leaving Newark was delayed by 2+ hours, there was a scuffle that required a police escort of two men off our plane when we landed, and our rental car was reserved at the other Dallas airport.  We finally got into our hotel at 3 AM CST (meaning 4 AM in Easton, PA).  Despite the travel troubles, the visit has been informative for both my daughter and me.

What are my students doing while I am away? Today is E day in the 8 day rotation of our schedule and that means I would be teaching period B and F.  So, my sub is just teaching the first period of the day (8AM - 9 AM) and the last period of the day (2:15 PM - 3:15 PM).  The first period is Calculus and the students took at test and then watched the video "How Big is Infinity?".  After a 40 - 45 minute test, students are pretty spent and it doesn't make sense to try to move onto the next unit.  But I don't want them to sit around shooting the breeze either.  So, we either do a hands-on activity to introduce a topic or we watch a video like this one.

Period F was Probability and Statistics.  Because I am very concerned about falling behind with content due to our new schedule this year, I had the sub do the lesson I had planned for they day.  It included reviewing problems related to probability and having students work on a graded problem set.  Luckily, we have a math teacher that retired from my school a few years ago and having her as a math sub is a great asset. I know I can count on her to teach almost any content and she will do it well.

It looks like the weather for Sunday may cause us more travel headaches when we head home.  I hope not.  Monday is Grandparents Day and I have some special lessons and activities planned to have students interacting with their grandparents.