Chapter 2: What Are Data? Continued (Days 9-10)

Let's get to today's Blaugust topic.

Since today's the 23rd, here's the 23rd topic from Shelli's old 2019 list:

• Time Capsule - revisit an old post and reflect. If you are new to blogging - find a post on this day from the past on someone else's blog-read, share, reflect.

OK, I think I will revisit an old post, from my old blog. It's from nearly eleven months ago -- the last day of September, when I was just starting out with my long-term assignment:

Well, it didn't take long for me to receive my first parent complaint. This morning, I meet the principal for the first time, as he informs me that one parent is upset over [a certain song I sing].

And there's a reason that I choose today to reflect upon this September 30th post -- I compare it to something that occurs today, here at my new school. Well, it didn't take long for me to receive my first parent complaint. This afternoon, I meet the principal for the first time, as she informs me that one parent is upset over some songs I sing.

Most of the details of this incident can't be posted on a blog. The only things I'll say here are:

• Because I told the students that I've never taught Ethnostats before, the parent questions whether I'm even qualified to teach Stats.
• Due to the above, the parent believes that I play the guitar as time filler.
• The principal says that due to this incident, I should avoid playing guitar "until further notice."

And that's all I'm going to post about this incident. And all that matters to you blog readers is that I won't be singing songs in class for the time being, nor will I post songs to the blog. Although I'm only banned from playing guitar (so technically I could still sing), I think it's best that I avoid having a music break altogether.

I have no idea when I'll be allowed to play music again. It could be a month from now, or second semester, or not at all this year. I should assume that I won't be playing guitar for the rest of the year.

The only good thing about this incident is that perhaps it will speed up the process of getting a solid Ethnostats curriculum. Our principal might put pressure on my predecessor teacher to send me the Ethnostats materials so that I can start teaching it and assuage this parent's fears.

On September 30th, I wrote:

I hope that my second meeting with the principal will be under better circumstances.

And that second meeting will be on Wednesday -- namely Back to School Night.

Back to School Night has a strong impact on this week's schedule. Just as in the LAUSD and many other districts (including my previous district), there is a minimum day not on Back to School Night itself, but on the following Friday. Fridays are normally even period days -- and so in order to keep the schedule balanced, the entire week is shifted one day early. So odd periods this week are today and Wednesday, even periods are tomorrow and Thursday, and all classes meet on minimum day Friday.

The blog will follow this week's block schedule -- whenever odd classes meet, I blog. And so my blogging schedule for the week is today, Wednesday, Friday. Wednesday, being Back to School Night itself, is a special day under the old Tina Cardone rules, and so I'll do "A Day in the Life" that day.

I didn't know about the schedule change until late Friday afternoon, when one of my students said "See you Tuesday!" due to the change. And apparently the office is slow to react as well -- attendance on Aeries was programmed for the regular Monday schedule, and so were the bells. This led to an extra long nutrition break while they were working to fix the bells.

Since today is a block day, I proceed with the next six pages in Stats. These pages continue Chapter 2, "What Are Data?" There are two practice questions on the first page, and the last page is near the end of Chapter 2, with the first chapter exercises of the text. I assign the two practice questions plus the eight even-numbered questions from the exercises, giving a total of ten questions.

This is the first time that I attempt to use Google Slides to set up the lesson -- that way I can project the words onto the whiteboard. I've seen other teachers print out the notes from the slides and pass those notes out to the students, but I believe that was on PowerPoint, not Google Slides. As far as I can see, printing these slides only causes each slide to print on its own page.

One of the six pages introduces graphing calculators, specifically the TI-84. I've received my class set of TI-84's, but as it turns out, all of the batteries are dead. So instead, I have the students practice entering data on the HP calculators that they can download onto their phones. I think I'll get some batteries in time for their next class on Wednesday.

Since I don't get the message from the principal until after school -- and since today is a block day -- I sing what turns out to be my last song for now. As for which song I choose, let's go back to Friday. On that day, there were activities after school. The students played us teachers in volleyball (we split the two matches), and there were other carnival games and music. One of the songs that was played during the carnival was TLC's "No Scrubs." And so this inspired me to sing my parody, "No Zeroes," about how students should avoid getting zeroes on assignments and assessments.

This is a great song to fit with Square One TV's "Count on It" and "That's Math" -- all three songs establish at the start of the year the importance of learning and studying hard at math. But that was before I get the principal's message -- and the song has an unfortunate link to September 30th. While this song was not the one I played in September, there's an indirect link between the September song and (an old version of) today's parody. If I'd known that today would be my final song for now, I would have chosen another Square One TV song, probably "Wanna Be."

I'm keeping the "music" blog label, since I'm explaining what's happening with music in my class. But I won't repost the lyrics to "No Zeroes" -- and after today's post, I won't include the "music" label.

In Calculus, we move on to Section 1.3, "Making New Functions from Old Functions." This is all about transforming functions (translating, stretching, reflecting) and composite functions. The students appear to understand transforming functions but are a bit confused with composite functions -- perhaps because I rush that part of the lesson with the end. Well, now that there's no more music break, I'll have ten extra minutes to complete Calculus lessons.

But it now remains for me to decide what to do about Ethnostats tomorrow. As of now, I still don't know what to teach, as I'm still waiting for my predecessor and counterpart teachers at the main high school to respond to me. After today's incident, they might respond very soon (though not likely in time for tomorrow's classes). At this point, it will be better for me to stop waiting for things to happen and start making things happen. I might even implement Sarah Carter's "personal Stats book" idea (and no, I'm not waiting for Carter to post more info on how it works either).

Tomorrow is an even period day, hence a tweet day. My next blog post will be Wednesday, Back to School Night.