DAY IN MY LIFE: 6/6/23
Well, we officially only have four days of normal classes left before finals and then the end of school! I’m finishing up logarithms and doing the best I can to get all the material in before finals begin.
Today in my Algebra II classes, I wanted to finish up the “CONDENSE AND SOLVE” thin-slicing problems at the VNPS and then have pairs progress at their own pace to the “GRAPHING LOGARITHMS” thin-slicing problems. This would leave us with several days to solve equations using inverse properties and then plot points using a logarithmic scale.
HOWEVER, we had an unexpected fire drill during period 3 today JUST as we were about to move to the whiteboards and get started. I thought it was a student pulling the fire alarm to get out of Biology MCAS (which was happening today), but it turns out there was a water pressure issue somewhere in the building, so the fire trucks had to come while we waited outside for about 20 minutes. This interruption caused me lose some of my momentum, and I almost threw in the towel, but I forced myself to get the students back to work. Luckily, their energy is infectious and I can feed off of it. As soon as they walked back into the room, they got right to work at their boards in pairs and got more done than I expected! They still didn’t start graphing logarithms, but we’ll get to that tomorrow.
My period 4-5 and 6-7 classes did begin graphing logarithms, but will need time to finish tomorrow. I was thinking of making one last video on solving logarithmic and exponential functions using inverses (rather than converting), but I’m going to show them in class instead (hopefully tomorrow).
A lot of my students are finding themselves with a lot of free time on their hands now that the MCAS and AP exams are over. A group of them like to come to my room during their AP classes where they’re done with their final projects, so I have been putting them to work with random tasks around the room. Some have been cleaning my whiteboards. Another few have been helping me FINALLY hang up last year’s sophomore’s “About Me” pennants! I had the idea to hole punch each pennant at the corner and use a coat hanger to organize them on a hook, since there is NO way I’ll have enough room to actually hang each one up on the wall. Each year, another coat hanger and hook will be added with a label of the year.
EDIT: The coat hanger (above) did not end up working as I imagined. The pennants keep sliding to one of the corners and it just doesn’t look good, so I got some 3” BINDER RINGS to try hanging them that way off of a command hook on the wall.
Another student is laminating newspaper articles I have been collecting. I love to cut out Wall Street Journal articles related to math, education, A.I. and learning, and more. I have a cabinet where I hang these newspaper articles.
Another thing I finally got for my classroom that I’ve been wanting all year is a LAMP! I love lamps and the different types of light they add. I got mine from T.J.Maxx Homegoods.
After my classes, I had lunch and then bathroom duty for a period. Last period I had a planning Zoom call with a local university where I will be running their first ever “AP Calculus bootcamp” at the end of June.
After school, I picked up my son from school, took him to his orthodontic consultation, picked up my daughter from daycare, stopped home to change and eat quick, and then we went to my son’s baseball game. Now that both my kids are in bed, I’m ready to fall asleep myself! Luckily, I don’t really have much grading to do - I just need to put final touches on my Algebra II final exam and submit it my department head.