Requiem For A Calculus Teacher?
Dear New Calculus Teacher & Successor:
As a newly retired AP Calculus teacher, I salute you on your choice of career!
Believe it or not, I was in your shoes 36 years ago when I started teaching High School Math in 1984, AP Computer Science A&AB in 1988 and AP Calculus AB&BC as well as College Math in 1993. I've also been teaching PreCalculus and Intro CompSci most years since 1984 and AP Calculus BC every year from the 1993-1994 to the 2017-2018 school years.
As a newly retired AP Calculus teacher, I salute you on your choice of career!
Believe it or not, I was in your shoes 36 years ago when I started teaching High School Math in 1984, AP Computer Science A&AB in 1988 and AP Calculus AB&BC as well as College Math in 1993. I've also been teaching PreCalculus and Intro CompSci most years since 1984 and AP Calculus BC every year from the 1993-1994 to the 2017-2018 school years.
The main difference between my starting out then and your starting out now is that you have a lot more tools available to you with respect to hardware, software and even curriculae. For example, when I started teaching we didn't even know what a Graphing Calculator was! Now we have all kinds of Graphing Calculators and emulators as well as free computing platforms and Computer Algebra Systems in the cloud such as SAGE. Also, look at all the new free online textbooks and courses!
FYI, I'm in the process of posting my screencasts to Patreon. Please keep an eye out for my PreCalculus, Calculus and CompSci posts:
Last year was a fiasco in my PreCalculus Honors class due to the COVID-19 Pandemic Shutdown 3/16/2020. Otherwise, all was going well covering all of the Sullivan and Sullivan text by Quarter IV (PreCalculus chapters only) then covering an intro to Calculus at the end of the year. However, teaching high school students remotely over Google Classroom and Google Meet was not very engaging for my students and not very fullfiling for me as a teacher, to say the least.
I'm afraid that I can't give you any pointers regarding AP Classroom or the new Calculus CED as I didn't have an AP section of any kind last school year (2019-2020) for the first time in 32 years and now I find myself suddenly retired!
So, what follows is a non-exhaustive list of some of the techniques I developed over the years that originated in my Calculus classes but eventually permeated all of my teaching. Hope you can find something helpful for you and your students!
Over the past 36 years, I've tried everything I could think of to make learning fun in my classroom and encourage my students to succeed. I don't know if I want to get into every little gimmick, which ones worked and which ones didn't.
However, we as teachers try to cultivate a culture of learning and wonder in our classrooms and I think I will list a few that have become traditions in my room for future reference.
Warning, some of these gimmicks tend to be on the geeky side 'cause, let's face it, I'm a bit of a geek! What follows is a list of the top 10 traditions, in no particular order, that seem to have a life of their own in my classroom in that they resurrect themselves year after year!
1) Ceremony Of The Seats
The first day of every quarter, even the very first day of school, in fact, starts with the Ceremony Of The Seats! Every single class that day starts with the students walking into a dark classroom. The only light source is the SmartBoard playing the original sound track from the film "A Beautiful Mind" that you hear playing above. Then I lead each student to their seat, one at a time, with my cellphone flashlight like an usher at a movie theater! OK, I'll admit to a little flair toward the dramatic. Instilling a little mystery and wonder in class never hurt anyone, say I!
Of course, Gracie is my greatest idol because she would always encourage everyone to do things their own way. What we would call "thinking outside the box" today was an everyday event for her. She even had an analog clock on her desk that ran counterclockwise just to show that you don't always have to do everything the same way everyone else does it. I suppose that she was akin to a modern day Henry David Thoreau following the beat of her own drum! For example, she would always say, and I'm paraphrasing, that "it's a lot easier to act first and ask for forgiveness later." In other words, asking for permission before you do something is just putting responsibility on someone else's shoulders. Be a leader! If you think there's a better way to do something, go ahead and do it! Stand up for what you believe! Have the courage of your convictions! That's how I got Linux into my classroom back in the 1990s when Linux first came out. I couldn't stand how programmer unfriendly our Windows OS and Novell Network was. So, one day, I just downloaded and installed Slackware Linux.
Here's my conversation with my boss the day after installation 25 years ago,
Boss: "Wait, that's not Windows, what is it?"
Me: "Right you are, it's Linux!"
Me: "I don't do Windows,
Me: "and neither does my maid!"
Boss: "Oh my, how much does it cost?"
Me: "I use FLOSS everyday!"
Me: "Free Linux Open Source Software."
Boss: "Aren't you breaking CopyRight law?"
Me: "Nope, it's CopyLefted!"
Boss: "We can't run that here!
Boss: "Who will maintain it?"
Me: "Well, I will, of course!"
Boss: "What a great idea!"
2) YouTube Wednesdays
Every Wednesday I show a short clip from YouTube that has at least something remotely to do with STEM in general or a recent lesson in particular. This started a few years ago when I played some FILKs related to Calculus. What's a FILK? It's a recognizable tune where the words have been changed to make fun of something or to make some sort of statement or satire. As you can see above, I start the year with several FILKs by Tom Lehrer. Then I ease my way into documentaries about Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, then I get into NOVA episodes and the like! I start the year more or less the same way in every class. I start each month with a Tom Lehrer filk. Then each semester continues with a Star Talk TV episode! Then my Math and CompSci classes start watching different documentaries! This works well especially if you keep it short and have a brief class discussion afterward. I also have a ChromeCast running my playlists downstairs in our display case (with no sound so as not to bother nearby classes)! Of course, Gracie is my greatest idol because she would always encourage everyone to do things their own way. What we would call "thinking outside the box" today was an everyday event for her. She even had an analog clock on her desk that ran counterclockwise just to show that you don't always have to do everything the same way everyone else does it. I suppose that she was akin to a modern day Henry David Thoreau following the beat of her own drum! For example, she would always say, and I'm paraphrasing, that "it's a lot easier to act first and ask for forgiveness later." In other words, asking for permission before you do something is just putting responsibility on someone else's shoulders. Be a leader! If you think there's a better way to do something, go ahead and do it! Stand up for what you believe! Have the courage of your convictions! That's how I got Linux into my classroom back in the 1990s when Linux first came out. I couldn't stand how programmer unfriendly our Windows OS and Novell Network was. So, one day, I just downloaded and installed Slackware Linux.
Here's my conversation with my boss the day after installation 25 years ago,
Boss: "Wait, that's not Windows, what is it?"
Me: "Right you are, it's Linux!"
Me: "I don't do Windows,
Me: "and neither does my maid!"
Boss: "Oh my, how much does it cost?"
Me: "I use FLOSS everyday!"
Me: "Free Linux Open Source Software."
Boss: "Aren't you breaking CopyRight law?"
Me: "Nope, it's CopyLefted!"
Boss: "We can't run that here!
Boss: "Who will maintain it?"
Me: "Well, I will, of course!"
Boss: "What a great idea!"
And it's been that way ever since .... except, a few years ago, IT replaced all my Linux Partitions with WimpDoze!
3) Hour Of Code
My 1999-2000 AP Computer Science class was cancelled due to low enrollment. Ever since then I take a day near Admiral Grace Murray Hopper's birthday (12/9/1906) to conduct an in-school field trip. This Field Trip is not for my own students. I try to get all the other Honors Math teachers on board and have them bring their classes to my room. If I have a lot of Juniors, I will also take a day to do this with my own students. Over the past few years my Field Trip has dove tailed with the Hour Of Code and CS ED Week. Here's a whole other blog post about what we do during the Hour Of Code. This year I'll be using some of the inspirational videos from code.org, but I will be doing my own presentations. My Math classes will be learning about SAGE. Each presentation will include something related to a current lesson as well as an introduction to python. I'll do a bit of Arithmetic, Algebra and Algorithms in each class. Then in Calculus we'll do some Riemann Sum Programs. In preCalculus we'll do some Scalar Dot Products and Resultant Vectors with graphs in 2D and Vector Cross Products with graphs in 3D. In AP Computer Science, I'll introduce Processing. With the Field Trip students we'll solve Quadratic Equations by coding in SAGE and Python.4) preCalc, Calculus & CompSci Carols
Every class in December starts with a little caroling practice! These classes are our rehearsal for the day before XMas Break when we tour the school Caroling for whomever will listen. BTW, we have a preCalculus song book and a Calculus song book each with 12 songs we've collected over the years. Some are original compositions by my students. Some are stolen from the web. So, sue me! Last year we putt together an APCS song book based on Tom Lehrer lyrics!
5) Continental Mathematics League (CML)
CML is a competition a lot like Mathletes but is held in-house and there are several levels. My AP Calculus BC class competes in the Calculus League. There used to be a Computer Science League with AP Review styled questions, but that's over. There's basic Math and CS competitions for Elementary school students too. We've participated in this competition for over 10 years. It's great practice for AB Calculus Exam level questions. There's 4 competitions: December, February, March and April. Each one can be done in a class period. The competitions have 6 short answer and 2 longer questions. The long questions are a lot like AP FRQs. The short qustions can be MCQs, T/F or Fill-in. I play classical or instrumental music in the background during quizzes and tests to help concentration. Each year we compete against about 100 schools. Most of these schools are in the USA, but some are International American High Schools. We usually place in the top 3-5 schools in our region that includes NY and NJ. 6) CIS(theta) & NCSHS
I've been running a Computing Independent Study (CIS) course every year since 1995! Recent years have been focused on Parallel Computing setting up a cluster we like to call Shadowfax using MPI. First thing we used to do each year is reinstall our whole PC Lab Classroom with the latest version of Ubuntu Linux Desktop 64bit OS. Then we install the MPI compiler software stack. Last year we figured out how to setup a Raspberry PI cluster? Then we figure out a project that needs all that computing power. In prior years we had 100 cores running at 50 GFLOP/s and we tried to make a Fractal Zoom Movie, but ran out of time. These students also usually join our chapter of the National Computer Science Honor Society (NCSHS) Zeta Omicron. We call our chapter Hopper-NY. BTW, the main reason for the existence of this blog was to keep a record of what my students do with Shadowfax in CIS.7) Screencasting
Whenever I teach a new concept I record a ScreenCast on YouTube and link it to Edmodo or Google Classroom for my students' reference while doing homework. These ScreenCasts are also great for reviewing old topics as needed. Students find these videos useful when they miss class too! I've been ScreenCasting a new PlayList for one or two classes every year since 2009! This blog came about in part to showcase my ScreenCasts. The sample ScreenCast above is a summary of what we did in AP Calculus BC class after AP Exam week last year as a final project. In my ScreenCasts, you see everything I write on my SmartBoard and you hear everything I say as I teach.8) MCQ Mondays and FRQ Fridays
I've been doing MCQ Mondays and FRQ Fridays with my AP classes for some time now. Last year was the first year I did so in all my classes! On Mondays, I take an old MCQ Exam (Alg2Trig Regents for preCalc, AB Calculus for BC Calc) and practice a few questions using Socrative. In preCalc this review is a great skill builder. Also, some of my preCalc students need to retake the NYS Regents Exam in January or are preparing for the SAT. In AP Calc, this review is great preparation for the AP Exam in May. I cover each MCQ Exam in about 3 weeks. That's 2 Mondays in a row that count as Formative Assessments. I give 15 minutes to try 10 questions, then we go over those 10 questions. On week 3, I give an actual MCQ Exam in class for a Quiz grade aka a Summative Assessment. On week 4 I return the Scantrons and review the last exam. I haven't started this process with the AP Computer Science students as yet since they need to get more content under their belts first! FRQ Fridays occur at the end of a unit. That Thursday I give a preTest to review for the actual test. We go over the preTest in groups with WhiteBoards and then we present our work to the other groups! Then I give a Take Home Exam that's due on Take Home Tuesday the following week.9) AP Week Movie Marathon
In my AP classes, we do a Movie Marathon after the AP Exams. We usually watch Math Movies. After the AP Exam Weeks are over, we alternate watching movies every other day. In between, we complete a final project. For example, last year we watched Stand And Deliver, Hidden Figures, Proof, A Beautiful Mind, The Theory of Everything, The Imitation Game and The Man Who Knew Infinity. We may also have Video Game Days in AP CompSci class and even The Martian!10) SAGE & Processing Tuesdays
I've been using SAGE in class for years. Every Tuesday in Math class we use SAGE instead of a Graphing Calculator to do our work. Above, you can see one of my ScreenCasts using SAGE in PreCalculus. SAGE is a Computer Algebra System (CAS) that can do everything a Graphing Calculator can do plus it will do all your Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry and Calculus giving you exact answers in simplest form! You can even do 3D graphs from your browser on SAGE! In Computer Science class we use Processing on Tuesdays as well to make coding graphics and animations a snap! Oh, one more thing: I name my Graphing Calculators after Science Fiction and Fantasy characters. See if you can name each TV show or movie:
TI81 O B Wan
TI82 Klaatu
TI83 Ziggie
TI84 Frodo
TI85 Johnnie 5
TI86 Spock
TI89 Hal 9000
TI92 Colossus
TI200 Voyager
TI nSpire CX CAS Castiel
So, in summary, I've been teaching:
HS Math, Physics & CompSci since 1984
College Math & CompSci since 1993
with CAS & Linux since 2002
Math with Python in the Cloud since 2011
Note the arithmetic sequence, presumably finite, 1975+9n, n=1 to start.
I was wondering what would happened in 2020 (retirement) and what about 2029?
Maybe by 2028 I'll join EarthShot with Sir David Attenborough and Prince William in fixing the environment!
Funny, my blogs don't tend to generate lots of comments (except for my occasional, if controversial, scifi rants) but Google Analytics says I get 1000s of hits on both my blog and YouTube channel every month.
http://www.youtube.com/calcpage2009
Let not your heart be troubled! I'm still teaching remotely at the local college! I have a lot of years left to give to my students. Gonna miss all the fun I had with the HS students however. Teaching college students is a whole other ball game.
I'm also working on several websites like
http://www.patreon.com/calcpage2020
as well as Numerade, Redbubble and Society6!
https://www.numerade.com/books/chapter/applications-of-integration-3/?section=2715
BTW, I cringed at the four days of professional development I missed (thank goodness) this past August (8/1/2020 thru 8/4/2020 before Labor Day without students) including the use of Lavalier Mics when teaching remotely from school at the SmartBoard??? Wow, that takes me back to the early days of my own screencasting around 2007.
Last July I had a really good experience teaching Multivariate Calculus remotely for the first time at the local college using BlackBoard, Zoom and Kaltura. I also used the Squid Android App to write notes during class and to mark test papers via email. I used SAGE a lot instead of a Graphing Calculator. I also proctored my own tests in real time over Zoom. I was presenting on one chromebook, monitoring the zoom session from the student's perspective from another chromebook and following my notes from a third chromebook. All my documents were created and stored on Google Drive with Google Docs. Easy as PI!
Well, that's all folks.
2015 NYS Secondary Math PAEMST Nominee
mathforum apcommunity sage
RECOMMENDED AP COMPSCI REVIEW:
Generally Speaking,
2015 NYS Secondary Math PAEMST Nominee
Teaching with Technology,
pastebin youtube slideshare mathforum apcommunity sage
(IDEs & Code)
MATH 4H, AP CALC, CSH: SAGECELL
MATH 4H, AP CALC, CSH: SAGECELL
APCSA: sandbox.cs50.io
(Curriculae)
CSH: CodeHS
CSH: Coding In Python
CSH: Interactive Python
APCSA: Big Java
APCSA: CSAwesome
APCSA: Nature Of Code
RECOMMENDED AP COMPSCI REVIEW:
CRIB SHEET (given during exam)
REVIEW BARRONS BOOK (see me)
REVIEW BARRONS ONLINE
REVIEW APCENTRAL (past FRQs)
REVIEW EDX REVIEW MOOC01
REVIEW BARRONS BOOK (see me)
REVIEW BARRONS ONLINE
REVIEW APCENTRAL (past FRQs)
REVIEW EDX REVIEW MOOC01
REVIEW UDEMY REVIEW MOOC02
REVIEW CODING_BAT
REVIEW PRACTICE_IT
REVIEW RUNESTONE
AUDIT CS50
REVIEW RUNESTONE
AUDIT CS50
RECOMMENDED AP CALCULUS REVIEW:
CRIB SHEET (not given during exam)
REVIEW BARRONS BOOK (see me)
REVIEW BARRONS ONLINE
REVIEW APCENTRAL (latest AB FRQs)
REVIEW APCENTRAL (latest BC FRQs)
REVIEW APCENTRAL (older AB FRQs)
REVIEW APCENTRAL (older BC FRQs)
REVIEW EDX MOOC01
REVIEW COURSERA MOOC02
XTRA CREDIT FILKS RUBRIC
(1 video = up to 5 bonus points):
1) Use a recognizable tune.
2) Karaoke entire song changing up the words (about STEAM).
3) You are Singing, Dancing or Playing an instrument.
4) You upload your video to YouTube and provide the url.
5) YouTube Description includes the lyrics.
XTRA CREDIT ARTICLES RUBRIC
(up to 5 articles = 1 bonus point each):
1) Cover Sheet is a Summary of the article.
2) FullPage, 12 pt, DoubleSpaced, 1" Margin.
3) Article has to be STEAM related
4) Article has to be a current event.
5) Copy of entire article is attached.
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