EPSILON-DELTA
445 FOLLOWERS
I taught at the college level for three years (two of which were as a TA), and now I teach some of the coolest high schoolers in the nation.
EPSILON-DELTA
3y ago
I wrote a bit about my journey of saying goodbye to U-Substitution on the One Good Thing blog (here and here). As I said in that blog, I will probably never go back to teaching U-Substitution. When I see u-sub, I see it as a way to simplify the integrand so I can easily reverse Chain Rule. But, no matter how many colored highlighters I got out or how slowly I went, my students seemed to only ever see it as a set of abstract steps that they would get tangled up in. Mathematics should be revealing. For my kids, u-sub was muddling. The whole idea of u-sub is to simplify. If it's not simplif ..read more
EPSILON-DELTA
4y ago
I ran into a former student today. “Mrs. Peterson?” she asked (it’s been years since we’ve seen each other).
“H? How did you recognize me with sunglasses and a mask…?”
“It was your voice…”
Your voice. Our voice...
************
Compassionate Heavenly Mother,
As we enter a school year unlike another, grant us grace—grace for ourselves, grace for our students, grace for their parents, grace for our coworkers. Remind us—constantly but gently—that every single person has been through so much in the last six months, including ourselves. Free us from the temptation of comparison, as we look at what ..read more
EPSILON-DELTA
4y ago
Type #1: Explain
Have students take a test on their own (don’t grade the tests). Once they’re done, give students the key and have them grade their own.
Ask students to make corrections and then create a video of their explanations of the three (or however many) most difficult problems for them. They may or may not be questions they initially got incorrect. Students should submit their initial test, corrections, and video. Grade is given on accuracy of grading, accuracy and cleanliness of corrections, and appropriate video explanations. Grade is not based on initial number of ques ..read more
EPSILON-DELTA
4y ago
I wanted a way for my students to still see my face when I worked problems in front of them on a Zoom call. I think it’s important for them to see my facial expressions and it’s important for me to be able to “look” at them. You already lose so much via a Zoom call--I wasn’t willing to lose what little interaction I had. I have an iPad and Apple Pencil, so I used the first method below to write on my iPad and share my screen (while also keeping the meeting open on my computer so my kids could still see me). See photo below:
If you don’t have a tablet/stylus, you ca ..read more
EPSILON-DELTA
5y ago
I started practicing mindfulness with my students last spring. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback on it from both students and peers. My precalc kids from last year who lopped with me into calc this year asked (told) me to continue this tradition in calculus as well. I thought I would post my script here in case it's something you want to try with your kids. I currently teach pre-AP and AP students but I have a colleague who does this with her on-level students as well, so I'm convinced it works for all learners.
I first set the tone of what mindfulness is and why it's so important, wh ..read more
EPSILON-DELTA
5y ago
I recently had the opportunity to talk to the teachers new to our district about why I teach and why I teach at Union Public Schools. I was originally going to try to write this in blog form (versus speech form), but my brain has made all its allowable decisions because...August. So I’m leaving the speech as-is below:
I’ve been asked to talk to you about why I teach and why I teach at Union. And I’ll be honest, this intimidates me a bit because even though most of you are new to Union; many of you are not new to teaching. Many of you should be telling me why you teach and yet here we are ..read more