D124 and 125: All the AP

AP CSA

124: AP test registration.  One hour dedicated to students bubbling in things.  I should have assigned some homework for students who did this in their previous classes.

125: We started AP Test prep on RSI.  Doing the multiple choice prep seems to be good.  Students are making mistakes, they are looking back at their notes and comparing answers with friends.  It seemed like they finished 20 problems really quickly.  I think the 90 minute practice test next week will give more insight.


AP CSP

124: Hour 6 of Create Task.  I gave students a form to fill out on their progress so far.  I asked them to estimate how many more hours they would need for the programming part of the task which was helpful.

125: Hour 7 of Create Task.  Students are making progress.


Concepts

124: We did a practice worksheet and sent our emails to our mentors.

125: Took the quiz on rational functions.  I feel pretty good with how the unit went.  We did do a lot of repetitive practice - there isn't a ton of application to do here, it is mostly theoretical "what happens if..." sorts of practice.


One Good Thing
Doing the eMentors program has been really great.  Students are taking it pretty seriously and it is forcing them to write more.

123: AP Test Prep Begins

AP CSA
We are starting AP test prep today.  My goal is to make it a mix of FRQ practice, Multiple Choice practice, interactive activities, and mini-lectures.

Today we kicked it off with a mindmapping activity.  Some students did really well with it.  I started with asking students what they had learned this year and then we popcorned it out.  From there they grabbed materials and started their mind map.

About 20 minutes in I handed them a half sheet with random vocab on them to spark some more thoughts.  That flow went really well.

Here were some of the products.

AP CSP

Create tasks are being worked on.  It is exciting to see what students come up with.

Concepts

We did one rational function problem and then wrote e-mails to our eMentors.

Days 118 - 122: Starting the Create

AP CSA

This week we did a mini-unit on sorting and searching.  It was 4 days long with a test on the 5th day.  The first day was fun... the rest was a snooze.  I think next year I need to add a run-time analysis on the sorting algorithms on the 2nd day.  I think students were somewhat confused why we were doing this.  TBH, it seems like a reason to practice tracing code... it was a lot of tracing code.

On the first day we did the sorting egg activity as inspired by Rebecca Dovi.  I made half sheets for each of the sorts so that students had some sort of guiding question.  After we were done with this, I had students share their "3-word description" of how the algorithm accomplished the task which lead into a nice introduction of vocabulary.  Taking one from ABC-CBV (Activity Before Concept - Concept Before Vocabulary).

I think next time I would try to make all the same color so it is less obvious the order the eggs should be in.  I even switched up the cartons every once in a while so students had a new set of items to re-arrange.  That kept students focused on the task a bit more - without that, I think they would have "skipped" the acting it out part and moved to just answering the questions on the sheet.

From there we did an interactive notebook activity.  Once again, I LOVE these - students throughout the week pulled them out too.  That tells me they find them useful.

From there, we did a day of tracing code and one day of random FRQs.  The day of FRQs was rocky, but it showed me I need to do a mini-review of content before doing FRQs - it is actually a nice way to show students what a "real life" AP question looks like with that content.

AP CSP

We worked on the Create all week this week - four total hours!

Concepts

We started rational functions.  Did desmos.  I love rational functions!  Students seem to be picking it up pretty nicely.

One Good Thing

We have been having a conversation about mental health, and I realize my go-to is to look at reducing homework for students, but really if I can come in with a calmer and happier disposition to teaching and learning, that might have a bigger impact on student mental health - and my own TBH.