new tricks for an old dog

How Big is a Trillian Dollars?

bcarrera — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:57:48 +0000

Quick and easy powerpoint showing the physical size of a trillian dollars. Two versions are availble, ppt and pptx.

How Big is a Trillian Dollars (pptx) @box.com

How Big is a Trillian Dollars (ppt) @box.com

Why I will never have a girlfriend.

bcarrera — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:37:35 +0000

Tristian Miller published a satirical essay using statistics to show why he would never have a girlfriend. Using world population statistics, and adding concepts such as the bell curve, he developed his “proof.” I took the original paper, updated the statistics, and twicked it a little for my current students.

I found that we ended up discussing bell curves, beauty, intelligence, and standard deviation among other topcis during the course of the period. I intended to use the powerpoint as a filler on a light day, but we ended up filling the whole class time.

If anyone changes the statistics or makes any other changes I’d like to see a copy of what you did. Thanks.

Why you will never have a girlfriend @ box.com powerpoint format

Piecewise Functions classroom Powerpoint

bcarrera — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:27:01 +0000

I’ve wanted for sometime to post a few of my lessonplans and classroom materials that I have enjoyed and that students have commented on.

The first is a lesson on piece-wise functions that I developed using two blogposts that caught my interest. The two posts are by Jason Dyer and Math Teacher Mambo. The first involved an application of piece-wise functions and the second a graphing technique.

Piece-wise_Functions

Level: Advanced Alg-1, Alg-2

photo credit: rader_seth @ flickr

Classes are set

bcarrera — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:57:59 +0000

Things have changed since the last post.

Algebra 1 with 2 students

Geometry with 10 students

Pre-Calc with 1student

Calc2 with 1 student

I’m interested in creating an assigment using a spreadsheet for my geometry class. I want them to understand the basics of a spreadsheet. So I’m thinking of having them create a ‘toolbox’ with the different formulas (area, preimeter, midpoint, etc) that they might end up using on a regular basis in the class. Along the way we will cover cell formatting, protecting of cells and so on. I’m open to suggestions and will try and post a grading rubric ASAP.

photo credit: cassiemassacre via Flickr

Early Planning

bcarrera — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:44:54 +0000

My early planning has started. Switching schools and textbooks (which I haven’t gotten a look at yet) is going to force/allow me to revisit lesson plans and activities.

I want to add two things this year: Algebra Readiness assessment, and testing before starting material to find a better starting point.

I’ll keep this blog current as I go. Next week sometime I can get into the school and get my hands on my new materials.

CLASSLOAD: Pre-algebra, algebra, algebra II, pre-calculus and calculus 2 all of which I’ve taught before. (I teach at a really small school, average class size will be 3-4.)

Any suggestions will be welcomed .

First day prep-part 1

bcarrera — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:44:24 +0000

I’ve wanted for some time to create a notebook to hand out to my math students the first day of class. Its partly to give them an organized resource for the year, and partly to allow me to teach them a systematic way of doing things. (How many of your junior highers entering your math classes insist on doing their math work across the lined page instead of using unlined paper and working form top to bottom?)

Here’s what I have included this year. If you have any suggestions please let me know.

Quick guide to wxMaxima (open source replacement for Mathematica.)
An Excel tutorial
Excel tutorial for matrices (for the Alg2 and above crowd.)
Cheatsheet with the trig identities (again Alg2 and above.)
rectangular and polar graphing paper

What else would you add?

Trying to find a niche

bcarrera — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:57:13 +0000

You may notice that I haven’t posted for awhile. I think its becuase I can’t figure out what I want to do with this space. Everything that I want to do is already being done better by other people.

I don’t want to post a list of links, unless its ones I find helpful and useful (meaning that my classes have directly benefited)
No one wants to read about my feelings and struggles as I teach.
Dan Meyer already does the tech savvy but slightly sarcastic questioning of the sacred cows better than I could.
I don’t find pictures of dogs and cats really interesting.

Well, give me a few weeks, school will end and I can try again.

um…ok…

bcarrera — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 14:54:00 +0000

I’ve run up against a serious problem in my attempts to implement technology and some o the web2.0 tools in my classroom. I have a few parents that wont’ let their children use the internet or download anything if they aren’t sitting right there next to their child. So..um…ok..

I’ve decided to offer use of my room and my computer to those kids that can and want to stay after school to work on the projects. What else can I do? I don’t want the rest of the students to be halted because a few families are that resistant. This isn’t a question of filtering, we have to have filters (I’m the IT person so my computers have a lower level of filter). What is it a question of and what is my obligation here?

Post Ideas

bcarrera — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:03:55 +0000

School year started with more holes this year than I can ever remember. I’m only now getting out of the administration side of things, and back into my classes which I passed off to a visiting volunteer couple (both experienced high school teachers) for the first marking period.

I do have more time, so expect more posts soon.

For my master’s class, I’m working on a paper about the use of electronic portfolios. If anyone has any resources, please let me know.

But I can’t use imovie….

bcarrera — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 14:09:54 +0000

There are most likely many of us that would like to use imovie in our classrooms, but for various reasons, can’t. (I live Brazil, and mac support does not exist where I am. You buy and use a mac at your own risk. Everything goes to the coast to repair, and meanwhile weeks pass…)

For us, MS-moviemaker is a workable substitute. For tutorials and other helps:

atomiclearning.com mightycoach.com

wtvi.com gslis.utexas.edu

forum papajohn.org

The latest version of moviemaker can be downloaded here.