Day 84: Start of semester 2

AP CSP

On day 83 we did a "rainbow logic" activity and then did a "guess who" questioning activity.  It was a good way to start the semester.

Today we worked on the explore.  I swear we could get this done in one more day.  Tomorrow I need to go through and see where everyone is.  There is a lot of off task behavior... I don't know how to handle that for this "designated time" - it does set a bad precedent.

AP CSA

On day 83 we did a sorting activity and reviewed the exam.  The sorting activity was just fine - students didn't do a great job of writing their algorithm - I maybe should have given them the opportunity to refine it as they saw some of the issues.

Today we started with polymorphism.  I had students create a UML diagram of these different classes.  It was amazing how quickly the idea of "oh we can use the Person class to help with Student" came up.  

From there we did a stand-and-talk looking at 2 different classes and one runner class with output.  That actually went really well - I wish I would have had one copy per student for them to mark up.  Some student known

We then added to our tri-folded notes. 

Then we did a quick code along with ChildrensBook and Book. 

It was an action packed hour!  I am feeling good about how we are starting this - I think the trifold notes could have waited as a "summary" a few days later.  Right now, I don't think it meant a lot to students as we were writing.

Overall, students had great questions about this new content. 

Geometry

Yesterday we did the rainbow logic activity as a team builder.  Then I had them fill out a card with 2 truths and a lie.  I am going to use this to choose students in the future.

I introduced proportions today.  They struggled with when fractions are negative how you handle the negative sign.  They also struggled with setting up the proportion with labels.  We did speed dating instead of homework, and I think that went well - I need to structure that more - some super motivated students were just swapping problems without talking about it.  I think next time I could have them go to a different table each time to get more movement in the classroom.

One Good Thing

I felt good about what happened in geometry today.  I also feel good about what I have coming up in geometry.