The Calm before the Storm

Amazingly, we seem to be a school that starts late. Amazing because we are still starting before Labor Day. As a kid, school always started after that holiday. From my new Twitter adventures, I realize that many in the Math Twitter Blogosphere (MTBoS) are already well underway. Meanwhile, we don't start until next Monday.

Anyway, I haven't had a lot of time to devote to AP Statistics since I last wrote. Last week, I renewed my Wilderness First Aid certification and this week we have had our opening of school meetings. I have now taught at four different independent schools and so I am well aware that such meetings are pretty much universal. But maybe there could be fewer and shorter ones? I would much more value focused work time so I could make my courses as rock awesome as possible.

I did have one recent significant AP Statistics moment.

A week or so ago, I contacted my textbook rep about some of the instructor resource materials. I also tweeted for help from the Math Twitter Blogosphere about which of the resources were useful. Naturally, my MTBoS colleagues won the quick reply challenge. In under 12 hours, I had multiple suggestions and recommendations. It took my textbook rep a bit longer to get back to me.

Then, earlier this week, a mysterious box arrived in our package room for me. Since I live at a boarding school, this package could have contained just about anything. Lo and behold it was a back-to-school package full of every resource I had asked the textbook rep about. Solutions, test banks, teacher resource CD. I had not planned on ordering it all and I had expected that I would be limited by my department's budget in what I purchased. Being a math teacher, I can say definitively that FREE fits within our department's budget.

Now, I understand a bit about business, especially the textbook business, so while I was pleasantly surprised, I was exactly flabbergasted at the free goodies. I am quite certain the publishing company will make a lot more money if we order a dozen new textbooks next summer than if we get one or two teacher resources. So, by sending me these materials, it's a good business move because I become more likely to stay with textbook especially if I am more reliant on their resources. It's a move done by salespeople the world over in all sorts of commerce, legal and otherwise.

Part of me is hugely embarrassed at admitting to being so smitten with textbook resources. I also teach an integrated high school math course, and last year we didn't use any textbook at all. I usually avoid having a textbook company design my course. But, this is my first time teaching AP Statistics and I have to start somewhere. And, I admit that the textbook we are using may be the best textbook I have ever used (in my opinion, of course).

Next week, I think I'll write about making my first AP Statistics multiple choice quiz. Yes, multiple choice. I haven't given a multiple choice assessment in 15 years...