December Reflections

Successes:

• Geometry - I "flipped" my classroom for the Congruent Triangles unit! Here is the webpage I created to hold all of the information for the unit.  We finished the unit the week after Thanksgiving, I was behind the other two course teachers, but I got caught up thanks to the videos! 
• Geometry - We finished this unit about 2 weeks ahead of where we did last year. I spent time in class doing vocabulary enrichment activities as many of the students struggle with vocabulary. 
• Algebra 2 - Graphing Polynomials - KAHOOT has made this unit so much more fun! I was able to present information to students using Kahoot as we went through the process of graphing polynomials on the calculator! If you don't know what kahoot is, go to getkahoot.com! 

Concerns & Possible Solutions:

• Geometry - Vocabulary Review - How can we create a comprehensive final on vocabulary to hold students accountable through the end of the semester without having to change all of the individual standard scores? 
• Algebra 2 - Graphing Polynomials - Even at the end of the unit, students were struggling with how to find the vertex of a parabola given the different forms. I expanded the unit review, so that students would have more practice before the final. 
• Reassessment Deadline - As a math teacher, I'm not available for students to come in my room for tutoring during ELT. Next semester, this will still be an issue since I have so many kids in my room. How can I get more students to take advantage of reassessing? 

Questions:

• How can I get students to stay off their phones while I am instructing? Our current technology policy is that technology should be put away when a student enters a room. Students are struggling because they aren't always paying attention completely because they are responding to a text message....
• Is it possible to create a "Comprehensive" standard to give a final at the end of the semester, that is comprehensive of all standards? If we come up with an attendance policy, perhaps this could be an incentive for students with perfect attendance or >90% attendance in my class period. I'm worried that our students aren't prepared for comprehensive finals in college.