Chapter 17: Confidence Intervals for a Proportion (Days 154-155)

There was yet another unexpected schedule change today. It's originally supposed to be the monthly minimum day for May. But of course, I know better than that by now -- those extra days off in January have forced the cancellation of most remaining minimum days. What was unexpected though, is that instead of an all-classes Monday, it was decided that today would be an even block day (without any corresponding odd block day).

Why isn't today an all-classes Monday? I'm not sure. You've probably seen in previous "A Day in the Life" posts that school is out at 2:40 on regular Mondays and 3:05 on block days. So perhaps in the name of making up minutes from January, those extra 25 minutes make a difference. As to why today is an even day rather than an odd day, it could be as simple as Tuesday being a regular odd day, and it's desirable to avoid having two consecutive odd block days.

So what did my classes do on this sudden even block day? Well, in Advisory, I'm torn as to whether I should do a financial literacy lesson or a social emotional lesson. Just as I was about to choose financial literacy, another dodgeball game day is announced. (And once again, I participate on the junior team.)

In Ethnostats, I already knew in advance that it's not a minimum day, and so I never planned on doing any quiz corrections today. But some students had asked about corrections during Friday's quiz -- my response was that I wouldn't do it unless there was one question on which everyone struggled. As it turns out, too many students had trouble with the definition of independence (that is, that P(B|A) = P(B), or that the probability of B occurring has nothing to do with that of A). So instead, I have the students do a Warm-Up where they copy the definition of independence and answer a few questions, and then count it as a quiz correction for that particular question only.

We then move on to Chapter 17, on confidence intervals for a proportion. As I mentioned on the blog earlier (in connection with the final exam), I spend only one day on 17 before moving on to 18 -- and now that it's an unexpected block day, I'm able to do this chapter justice. There's enough time to do a few notes on 17 before doing a short activity. It's on the thirtieth anniversary of the Rodney King riots. (I mentioned the unrest on the old blog, in connection with the COVID-91 What If?) King implored us, "Can't we all just get along?" And, using an article from a newspaper, we calculate 95% confidence intervals for what proportion of each race believes that the we are just getting along with each other.

I also find a way to tie this in to Asian-American Heritage Month. Things were tense between blacks and Asians in 1992 when black rioters attacked Koreatown businesses. I learn from the article that it was in response to another incident (the same month as the Rodney King beating) where a Korean store owner shot a black teenage girl. (I have two Asian students in my classes -- one a Korean-American girl, the other a Hindi-American guy. He is celebrating Eid-al-Fitr today.)

Tomorrow is an interview day -- I will take the day off and call in a sub (provided one's available) so that I can interview at two different schools (and perhaps have a phone interview with a third). At first, I was only going to mention this on the blog if it occurred on an even day (hence a posting day). But tomorrow's sub day combined with today's schedule change will be problematic for my odd classes.

It now means that I'll see those classes only once in person this week. For my Calculus students, it means that I'll see them only once the entire week before the AP exam. My decision in November to slow down and barely finish Chapter 7 with one week before the exam has now backfired, since how was I to know that I'd only see my students once that week. While I do see my lone junior during AP reviews today, it's not the same as having a full day of class with them -- especially since I wanted to give them more practice with free-response questions this week. As of now, I'm still deciding what I'm going to give them.

In Trig, tomorrow they will take a quiz on Sections 4.2 and 4.3 (mostly 4.2, as we spent less time on 4.3 last week). Then we'll move on to Section 4.4, on finding equations of trig functions given their graphs.

Today is Eightday on the Eleven Calendar:

Resolution #8: We are mindful of books and other materials.

In Ethnostats, this is true -- the students do their Rodney King activity on page 31 of their scrapbooks. I anticipate this being the last interactive notebook page of the year.

By the way, rest in peace Naomi Judd. On the old blog, I've written about the Square One TV song that she performed with her daughter, "Count the Ways." If I'd still been singing songs in the classroom, I likely would have sung "Count the Ways" today to honor Naomi -- especially since I would have had to come up with a song on the fly. (I usually sing only on block days, and I didn't know today's a block day until I arrived.)