Had a great time at ICTCM 2017 in Chicago. And I learned a lot. Between Maria Andersen’s opening day keynote and Eric Mazur’s Saturday sessions I feel that I am making good progress in some areas, but there is still room for improvement. My “lecture time” is very active and engaging, but I feel like I need to turn it up a bit and allow my students more time to experiment and discover. I need to use assessment FOR learning. …
This Saturday I will be speaking at ICTCM about how I use Learning Catalytics in my Statistics and Algebra courses. Collecting Homework I started slowly in my Statistics courses, using Learning Catalytics to collect “written” homework. I often give written assignments to supplement MyStatLab exercises, and Learning Catalytics allows me to collect certain problems or parts of certain problems. The answers are automatically graded and scores are transferred to my grade book in MyStatLab. This strategy encourages students to do…
Today in my elementary algebra class we were reviewing solving systems of equations by addition or substitution. We were going over a system where students were having trouble determining what number to multiply each equation by in the system in order to eliminate the variable x. We had been discussing that the goal is to find the LCM of 12 and 14, but I told them that on exam day they could always fall back on multiplying each equation by…
This semester I am teaching two sections of elementary algebra using a flipped classroom model. The approach is different than the way I have flipped my statistics course, but has been very effective. I am relying heavily on MyMathLab outside the classroom. For each section that we cover … Students complete a “Flip” assignment before the material is discussed in class. The assignment contains conceptual videos that introduce each topic as well as videos of examples where problems are worked…
Thanks to the Transformation Grant, our college has begun to provide embedded tutors for developmental math and English classes. I have a tutor in each of my Math 200 (Elementary Algebra) classes. My tutors walk around throughout the class session, helping students and answering questions. I have had great results, and I am happy to say that my students feel that having a tutor in the classroom is very beneficial. Many developmental math students are much more comfortable asking questions…
This semester I am teaching a short term intermediate algebra class. I taught this last year, and I taught a chapter each week followed by a week to review for the midterm. I repeated the same schedule for the final. This semester I have changed the schedule and have had great success. After I finish covering each chapter, I devote a day to reviewing that chapter immediately. I bring in an old copy of a chapter exam, and the review…
Last semester I flipped my Statistics classroom, and was really happy with the results. I have put together some pages explaining exactly how I flipped the classroom, with links/descriptions of documents that I used along with a calendar showing how I we covered the material. You can find it all at http://georgewoodbury.com/flip I will be adding more to the site as I make my way through a second semester of flipping that classroom – this time in a short-term (8…
I hear many instructors lamenting that their students are not doing their homework to the instructor’s satisfaction. If we agree that homework is an important part of the learning process, then it is important to tackle this problem. Do your students know why they are doing homework? Don’t be so sure that they do. Many students do it because it’s part of the game, because they are told to do it, because they get points for doing it. They should…
I have had a few questions about how I am managing to work all of these early inferential projects into my Intro Stats course. 1) Switching from Chapter Exams to a Midterm and a Final In the first 7 chapters of our textbook I used to give 4 exams. That means that I would use 4 days for exams and approximately 6 days for review. I have 4 days built into my calendar for review (2 days) and the midterm…
This semester I have incorporated a three-pronged strategy in my intro statistics classes: Flip the classroom – having students learn material at home Make the classroom more engaging – using more group activities and Learning Catalytics sessions Focus on early inferential statistics early and often This week began with students learning about the 5-number summary and how to create a boxplot. On Monday we did an activity where students compared two samples of quantitative data in an effort to determine…