After attending a math conference which could have been better, I made a commitment to answer the call for presenters. If we as a math education community want to improve PD, we all have a responsibility to contribute. That's all fine and dandy until the call for presenters comes. It came on Friday from my school district. Curses. I'm trying to figure out how to back peddle fast enough to where I don't have to do anything.
It doesn't help that I teach at a charter school in the school district and I feel a bit like a red-headed step child. Everyone in the district has the day of the conference off of school. I have to get a sub for half a day and then look lively for parent teacher conferences from 1-7.
Still, I can't help feeling an obligation to do something. So here's what I'm thinking, I can do one of two ideas with not much more than 5-6 hours of prep.
It doesn't help that I teach at a charter school in the school district and I feel a bit like a red-headed step child. Everyone in the district has the day of the conference off of school. I have to get a sub for half a day and then look lively for parent teacher conferences from 1-7.
Still, I can't help feeling an obligation to do something. So here's what I'm thinking, I can do one of two ideas with not much more than 5-6 hours of prep.
- Hacking Physics into Math Class
- or something a bit broader about using experiments in math class.
1) I've already done this presentation so it would just take a bit of tweaking. However, it's more geared towards Algebra 2 teachers. And it forces the use of technology--primarily the free Physics Tracker Software (which is awesome!). It's a solid little "how to" presentation. This is cool and all but I'm currently teaching Algebra 1 and Geometry, not Algebra 2. Do I present on something I used to do?
2) I could change the title to "Hacking Science into Math Class" and talk about using experiments in math. I regularly have students run an experiment and fit a function to the data--less "regression" and more "eye-balling it". This is something I currently do but it would take some time to pull together the slide deck and write a script. Yeah, I actually do write out what I want to say word for word. I don't use it to present; I find it helps me with the transitions and saying "like" less.
If I'm going to present for the school district, it'd be nice to reuse the presentation for next year's state math conference. Here's the real question, which would you rather attend?
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