PAEMST Timeline Continues!

OK, here's the PAEMST Timeline as I see it. The online application isn't available until November this year. As soon as it becomes available, people can start nominating! 

So, September was all about the video. 

This month, October, I finally got to scan student sample work. My HP scanner renders JPGs, so I had to use a Linux utility (sams2p) to convert everything to PDF format for uploading to http://www.slideshare.net/calcpage2011

Next month, it's November already! So, I'll have a colleague nominate me. Even though the nominations aren't due until March, I'd like to get the application process started.

Finally, I'll work on the application proper in December which isn't due until April. Everything is done online. So, I will be uploading the application with the video, my essay and student samples. Even if I finish everything by 12/31/12, I probably won't hear anything about the outcome, one way or the other, until 12/31/13! So, I hope it'll be a Merry XMass!

Here's some of the student samples. Samples 1-8 are each from different students handing in the Conics Worksheet from the video. The video was recorded the second day of school. The first day we talked about SOHCAHTOA a little. But we also did seating assignments, book cards and bio sheets. Samples A-D are some of the bio sheets. Sample A1 and A2 are from one student, B1 and B2 are from another, etc:

Sample1 from A Jorge Garcia

Sample2 from A Jorge Garcia

Sample3 from A Jorge Garcia

Sample4 from A Jorge Garcia

Sample5 from A Jorge Garcia

Sample6 from A Jorge Garcia

Sample7 from A Jorge Garcia

Sample8 from A Jorge Garcia

Samplea1 from A Jorge Garcia

Samplea2 from A Jorge Garcia

Sampleb1 from A Jorge Garcia

Sampleb2 from A Jorge Garcia

Samplec1 from A Jorge Garcia

Samplec2 from A Jorge Garcia

Sampled1 from A Jorge Garcia

Sampled2 from A Jorge Garcia

Generally Speaking,

Quarter I, Week 4: ScreenCasts, SmartNotes and Code oh my!

Quarter I, Week 4: ScreenCasts, SmartNotes and Code oh my! 

Math 4R: preCalculus for Seniors

Math 4H: preCalculus Honors for Juniors

Math 5H: AP Calculus BC

CSH: Computer Science Honors

APCS: AP Computer Science

CIS(theta): Computing Independent Study

PAEMST

Above you will find links to summaries of all my lessons for this past week!

This week were off on Wednesday for Yum Kippur, so we had no YouTube Wednesday! But I did show the following YouTubes in Calculus class:





Enjoy a little background music played by Itzhak Perlman:

Well, that's all folks!

Learning with Technology, 

pastebin youtube slideshare 
mathforum apcommunity
sage ebay

PAEMST: We have Lift Off!

I had a colleague make a live video recording of my 1st period AP Calculus BC class on the second day of instruction last week as you can see above. This week I sent home a video release form as you can see below.

I haven't had a chance to go through all the paper work involved with the PAEMST application process, much less start the required essay critiquing my teaching practice in the video. However, you are also supposed to upload supporting documents from the class when you upload your video and essay. As you can see below, in addition to the release form, I've already got a few!

All I'm missing is samples of student work which they also encourage you to upload with your application. Stay tuned for the next update on this topic for some of those. I suppose I'll scan some work from the conics worksheet and maybe the back of the bio sheet.

Welcome Back! from A Jorge Garcia

Biographical Information! from A Jorge Garcia

5HBC2012 Unit 2 Assignments! from A Jorge Garcia

How to Graph Implicit Relations! from A Jorge Garcia

5HBC2012 Conic Worksheet from A Jorge Garcia

5HBC Conic Solutions from A Jorge Garcia

We even talked about the Unit Circle for doing SOHCAHTOA trig!

Generally Speaking,

Flipping The Classroom: "To flip or not to flip," that is the question!

What follows is an email I recently posted to the AP Computer Science listserv that I thought you'd appreciate:

Flipping the classroom has been a controversial issue for science teachers for some time now as evidenced on the AP Physics listserv. It's only natural that we, as Computer Science teachers, would like to emulate this fad. The idea is this:

(1) if you have sufficient electronic materials such as ppts, pdfs or mp4s, and

(2) if you have sufficiently motivated students ready for said material, then

(3) you can assign most of the traditional class work to be done at home, and

(4) you can focus on the lab work with the students in class!

The problem is that this model is meant to make the most of lab time for lab intensive courses. However, many teachers are flipping their classes even if they teach non-lab based courses. For example, some on the AP Calculus listserv are doing this. I have resisted this trend as I think that the students loose something in the translation. They are there, at least in part, to benefit from your guidance. You can flip a few classes or a unit or two for variety's sake and to see how it works for you. However, if you flip the whole class, you miss interacting with the students and adding your unique perspective on the topic at hand.

The Flipping Trend is a hard one for me to ignore as I have many of my classes recorded as ScreenCasts and SmartNotes that the students could easily view online at home and still get my perspective on things. I share these files with my students already for those that need to review a difficult concept or need to make up work due to an absence. I post these files as mp4s and pdfs on my ftp, blogspot, youtube, slideshare, pastebin and edmodo sites. I don't think I'd flip a Math class. However, my Computer Science classes could use more lab time....

Here's the rub: most of our students are not as well prepared or dedicated as we would like to think. So, many students probably won't complete the assignment at home. Those students will still be wasting lab time trying to catch up on what they missed at home. Let's face it, today's AP students are way too over booked with other AP courses and activities. Now the student is even farther behind the 8-ball!

HTH,
A. Jorge Garcia
Applied Math and CompSci
http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/calcpage2009

Well, that's my 2 cents for the week. I am now stepping off the soap box.

Generally Speaking,