Student Videos

I fell behind again. Blogger initiation came and went… my self-discipline really shows.

My ill-excuse, robot club. Yeah. I have been with kids building robots.

We went to a FTC Qualifier Event on Saturday, Dec. 8^th in Ankeny. We scored 17 out of 18. Not the best I know, but my kids were awesome. We met challenge after challenge with things going wrong, ordered parts never showing up, things not being legal on the robot, not being able to find things… We set our school alarm off because we stayed at the school working so late the night before we left. My students rose to every challenge. We will be competing again in February, and I know we will do a whole lot better.

Though I may have been busy, aren’t we all? I read f(t)’s recent blog http://function-of-time.blogspot.com/2012/11/day-in-life-dulce-edition.html  and found it amusing as usual. Again, it is comforting to know there are others who understand how active and involved a teachers’ day is. My husband asked why I was so tired one day. I wanted to lop him one. I sometimes envision my brain is like a car engine that if I put too many miles on it now, I will not have anything functioning when I am older. Then I remember my brain is a muscle. I get serious brain DOMS- a term a learned from my brother-in-law about stretching muscles. But, hopefully the constant activity I am giving my brain will only make it stronger for the future, right? Is that how it works?

Anyway, I thought I would try to resume some self-discipline and get my blog on again. Below is a Calculus “quiz” I am giving my flipped calculus students. The typical me teaching through videos is going to be put in their hands, for they are going to be the ones making videos. This quiz is a bit out of the ordinary, because it is somewhat of a group quiz. Ideally, you would have groups with three students to a group. In each group, each of the three students will be assigned the f-, g-, or h- functions. They are to complete the two problems they are assigned and complete a video on the two problems. Then, the next day I post up all of the videos, and they can watch each other’s to help complete the remaining problems on the quiz. I will post up the videos from one group. I have recently been on a kick to bring out students who are able to explain and articulate their understanding and assess this understanding appropriately. I believe this assignment does that.

chapter 5 Quiz.docx

Here are some videos created by one of the groups: