Halfway there... a self-evaluation

My greatest concern going into this school year was to effectively teach AP Statistics. Though I have been teaching statistics for ten years, I had never taught AP before and I was worried about pacing and the quality of the lessons and assignments. I was worried about sacrificing pedagogical beliefs for the sake of getting through the syllabus in time and preparing students for the format of the test.

The course is going better than I had hoped. I greatly value projects in lieu of tests. Whereas a test is completed in a set amount of time, contains closed questions, and is done individually, a project is done over a number of days where students can choose how much time to spend on it, is more open-ended, and is done in a group of 2-4 students. Tests have very little value in helping students improve on their knowledge and are limited in their ability how much information they provide regarding what a student knows. Projects can help a student to better understand material and are provide richer information about what a student can or cannot do. My non-AP Statistics course was always completely project-based. I wanted to carry over as much as I could from the non-AP course into my AP course, but I feared the pace would make this difficult. I was optimistic that I could incorporate two projects this year. Happily, the students were able to complete two projects in the first semester alone. I now expect them to complete two more in the second semester at least.

The pace has been fine. While I am going faster than I ever did in my non-AP course, the pace has not been so fast that students are being left behind. The faster pace requires students to be more self-motivated, but, maybe because it carries the AP designation, students have been up to the challenge. Also, I have been able to adjust the pace at times based on feedback from my students. I had concerns that there would not be enough flexibility to adjust the pace mid-semester. But there proved to be more flexibility than I had anticipated.

Back in August, I started this blog regarding my teaching of AP Statistics. I am happy with how blogging has gone. This makes post number fourteen. Though my audience is quite limited, people have been at least clicking on the blog links I share on Twitter. One Twitter user even added one of my blog posts to the Math Education Daily and that particular post had a lot more page clicks. Blogging has allowed me frequent opportunities to reflect on my teaching and that alone has helped me to design a better course. It has provided little so far in professional discourse. I hope to get back to blogging weekly and I hope that my regularity can increase the chances of future discussions about my posts. I have engaged in a couple Twitter discussions with other math teachers. I would like to do more of that going forward.

[Regarding Twitter, I very much want to participate in Twitter Stats Chat. This is definitely a goal of mine. I have yet to figure out how to do that. I know the hashtag (#statschat) and I know that it starts at 6 pm (Pacific Time) on Tuesdays. I have TweetDeck set up for #statschat. But I never see a bunch of posts starting at the specified time in my feed. Grumble.]

In looking over the various assessments I have designed for my AP Statistics students, I am very pleased with the progress they are making. The projects and tests show that they are learning the material at an acceptable rate. Predictably, the multiple choice items have been the least helpful. I do not like such test questions. I have felt compelled to include ten with each chapter test so as to better prepare the students for the AP exam which will contain forty multiple choice questions. However, I am questioning how much practice students really need with such types of questions. This re-evaluation has partly been fueled by Jo Boaler’s book, Mathematical Mindsets, which I am almost done reading. In the book, Dr. Boaler presents research that affirms my views that students do not need practice for standardized tests. Rather, students can actually perform better on standardized tests if they have learned to be confident mathematical problem solvers. For the next chapter test, I have included ten multiple choice questions. But, I have made one adjustment that was suggested by a Twitter user: students can designate a first-choice answer and a second-choice answer. A correct first-choice answer earns two points while a second-choice answer earns one point. However, I think I will include more short answer questions and fewer multiple choice questions on future tests.

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...

Just another AP Statistics Teacher

Hello there. I teach students. After successfully avoiding the letters A and P during the first 16 years of my career, I have been asked to teach my students the AP Statistics topics.

The good news for me is that I have taught a non-AP introductory high school statistics course for the past ten years or so. The bad news for me is that I feel like I am going to have to completely overhaul my syllabus and employ some of the teaching methodologies I have tried to leave behind in order to meet the demands of the AP course. I have many ideas how to make this process more palatable and to make it a better experience for my student.

The very good news for me is that I found a practical use for Twitter this summer, and that is making this transition a heckuva lot better. In July, I attended CSET's Stanford Summer Teaching Institute and one of my instructors sold me on Twitter. Who knew there were so many wonderful teachers out there very willing to help a fellow teacher out? I just drop a hashtag on a tweet (such as #MTBoS or #statschat), maybe mention another teacher using that @ symbol and teachers from all over place can see what I write and respond to it. And they do!

Besides the wonderful help these twittering teachers provide, it also gives me a new sort of community that makes me feel not so alone in what I am trying to do. And it does my soul good to know that there are so many kind teachers out there who are willing to help a stranger.

Today, however, I had a realization that I am trying to recreate the wheel and I wonder if there might be a much better way. Especially given this online community and the collective resources. My students will have a much better experience this year if they get instruction from experienced AP Statistics teacher. I know I can help my students, but my inexperience will limit me and make it harder for them.

Wouldn't it be better for my students if they could somehow connect directly to the best AP Statistics teachers? Wouldn't it be better for them if someone who has done this ten times designed the syllabus I use in my class?

I did an AP institute this summer and I have resources to help me and I am certainly not starting from scratch here. But does the world really need another AP Statistics teacher? Isn't it conceivable that there exist enough excellent AP Statistics teachers already and that instead of trying to do my own thing, my students could tap into the knowledge and direction of those that really know what they are doing?