Chapter 1: Stats Starts Here (Days 5-6)

 Let's get to today's Blaugust topic.

Since today's the 17th, here's the seventeenth topic from Shelli's old 2019 list:

• #made4math - Create something you can use this semester, such as a tarsia puzzle, question stack, game, card sort, etc.  (Or share one you have previously created)

Unfortunately, the only thing I've ever made for math are worksheets -- and I doubt that this is what Shelli means here. Indeed, Shelli herself had a weekly "Made 4 Math Monday" challenge over the summer, and here is a link to her final post of that challenge:

https://statteacher.blogspot.com/2021/08/made4math-birthday-pencils-and-planner.html

In this post, Shelli refers to her "birthday pencils":

I've always been really bad at the whole birthday thing, but going to a new school, I really want to try harder this year to recognize student birthdays and I thought these pencils might just do the trick! I pulled up my trusty PowerPoint, made a few shapes, added some free clipart and a cute font and I was on my way!

I was never a big birthday person either. This is mainly because my own teachers I had as a young student rarely acknowledged birthdays. My first grade teacher had a "birthday tree" based on a book we read, and my seventh grade Core (English/History) teacher gave us some pencils, but that's it. But now that I've joined the MTBoS and read about birthdays, I feel like the only one who doesn't do birthdays.

Today was the first Advisory period -- I have a dozen seniors show up today. I've decided that some of these MTBoS ideas based on feelings/emotional learning will make sense in that class. Since the main purpose of Advisory is to prepare the students for college and career, I give the students a quick survey of four questions -- name, birthdate, plans for college and career, and goals for this year.

Many teachers struggle with summer birthdays. As it turns out, none of the twelve students in this class was born in July or August. The first birthday is coming up in early September. On the other hand, there are a few June birthdays to worry about -- one is a few days before graduation, while the other is a few days afterward. I figure that I can give them their birthday pencils on the day of their spring finals.

Due to California's old cut-off dates (the first Transitional Kindergarten cohort hasn't made it to senior year yet), the students born in September-November will celebrate their 17th birthdays, while the December-May birthdays will be turning 18. For some reason, the two June birthdays are my oldest students -- they will turn 19 that month. Although I'm giving out birthday pencils, I may not necessarily give away candy -- I'll wait to see whether that's permitted at this school during the pandemic.

In fact, I do give away pencils in all classes -- back to school pencils, that is. I've decided that I will give away pencils for the major holidays (Halloween, Christmas, and so on) this year, as well as for the start of the new school year today. Like Shelli's pencils, these also have a message -- "I Love Math." As it's a long time between today and Halloween, I'll add one more special pencil day -- in late September for the first day of fall. These are the only free pencils -- any other pencils will cost the student a dime each in the first semester, a quarter each after winter break.

Also during advisory, the students are supposed to pick up textbooks -- but just as I feared, the bookroom never reaches my class. And so most students arrive at Stats without a textbook -- and neither do I have any Stats text other than the one that I'm told is for Ethnostats.

And so here's what I do in first and fifth periods -- I read Chapter 1 of the Ethnostats text. Notice that Chapter 1 isn't really a chapter at all -- it's more like an introduction. There's only a discussion of what Statistics is -- there are no exercises or anything like that in this chapter. But it allows me to stall for time -- I'll stay in Chapter 1 until the students get textbooks. Then we'll finally start Chapter 2, the first real chapter, for only the class that's supposed to use this text (presumably Ethnostats).

In case you're curious, the short definition of Statistics is that it's all about variation -- just as mathematics is all about patterns.

Today I mention the next two resolutions: "7. We sing to help us learn math" and "8. We follow procedures in the classroom" (especially coronavirus-related procedures). The seventh resolution leads directly to my first music break and song of the year -- Square One TV's "Count on It":

Count On It

Lead vocals by Larry Cedar

Sooner or later, you’re gonna see some math
You can count on it
Sooner or later, those numbers cross your path
You can count on it

You may be hoping it will go away
But let me tell you, math is here to stay
You can count on it, hoo, yeah
You can count on it

Everywhere you look, they’re measuring the action
You can count on it
Everywhere you look, they’re even using fractions
You can count on it

They’re keeping time, and they’re keeping the score
They draw the line, and they’re running the store
You can count on it, hoo
Yeah, you can count on it

Look at the dial; look at how far
Look at how much; look where we are
Look at the gauge; look at the graph
Check out the numbers; you’ve got the last laugh

‘Cause it ain’t mystery; there’s nothing tough about it
You can count on it, that’s right
Soon you’re gonna see that you couldn’t live without it
You can count on it, hoo

Don’t take a genius or a great magician
To make a pretty good mathematician
You can count on it, hoo, yeah
Yeah, you can count on it, whoo
Oh, you can count on it, whoo
Baby, you can count on it

(fade out over Larry singing skat)

I like to begin the year with these Square One TV songs on the importance of learning math. I play my guitar, which is finally in tune.

By the way, I don't have that many Stats songs to perform. The only Stats songs that I've established so far are "Measures of Center" (a "Row Row Row Your Boat" parody) and "Rudolph the Statistician" (a Christmas parody). If you count probability as part of Stats, then Square One TV's "Ghost of a Chance" would qualify. Otherwise, I'm going to have to come up with a bunch of brand-new songs to perform during music break on block days.

The Calculus students don't get their textbooks, but at least I know what their text is. I begin with Lesson 1-1, which is a review of functions. This lesson discusses domain and range, so I mention Sarah Carter's DIXI-ROYD mnemonic. (And I thought I was done with the Carter activities for now!) I point out that the real Calculus stuff (as in limits, derivatives, and so on) isn't until Chapter 2.

At the end of the day, I learn that my email account has finally been created. This will allow me to set up Google Classroom so that my classes can really get started. My partner math teacher has offered to help me during my sixth period conference tomorrow. Thus tomorrow's Ethnostats classes will end up being much like today's Stats classes.

Advisory, meanwhile, will be logging into Zoom tomorrow to watch a presentation on dual enrollment at the local community college. (And I thought we were done with Zoom for now!)

I'm not scheduled to blog tomorrow. Instead, I'll be tweeting about my Ethnostats classes. Recall that my schedule is to blog Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and then tweet Wednesday and Friday.