And now for something completely different...

Like lots of other teachers, I'm trying to finalize what I'm keeping, shortening, or just plain throwing out for this year. Judging by the spring, everything takes so much longer online and facing an entire year online, adjustments are going to have to be made and curriculum will have to be sliced and diced. You know how us math folks do, identify the context of the problem and the constraints. So, here's my schedule dilemma. 

Let me first off say straight up front, I know I'm lucky to be teaching where I am. Period. The kids are great, my colleagues are great, and my schedule is way less ulcer inducing than I'm used to. In a normal year, I teach three 60 min classes a day (an Algebra 2, and two AP Stats) plus run an hour long drop-in math help center. We run on a loose college schedule so last year first semester ran from August 19th until December 6th and second semester was from January 13th until May 15th (ish, I went a week longer with my AP kids so they could get through to their exam). Based on that schedule, we're already 4-5 weeks shorter than the public schools in our area. The other big difference is that we're an arts conservatory and as such, on Wednesdays they are in their arts classes all day instead of academics. So subtract all of those missing Wednesdays and we're really short on days for an AP class. 

One more giant caveat: last year was my first year teaching Stats so I have no real feel for pacing yet. Last spring blew everything up!

This year is way different. Instead of having three day weekends and fall and spring breaks mixed in, we're going straight through from August 17th until Thanksgiving. The kids will go home at Thanksgiving for good (assuming we make it that far) and will take their exams at home. They won't be back for classes until February 7th and will go straight through again until the middle of May. We are still continuing their arts classes on Wednesdays except for a handful of days where they get a mental health day - I'm sure we're all going to need it.

So, that's where we stand. Slightly panicked about that two month gap in the middle, I'm not going to lie. 

I feel good about Algebra 2. I know I went slower than I needed to in the fall last year and had already been planning on picking up the pace a little bit. I obviously need to wait until I get the kids in the room (or more accurately, get them in the Zoom) to see if my pacing makes sense but I'm not stressed there.

Stats on the other hand, yeah... a little stressed. I know I want to continue to start with Experimental Design (Collecting Data) and follow that up with One-Variable Data. After that, who knows? I'm leaning toward Bi-variate Data as a stand alone module over winter break. They'll have seen most of it before in an Algebra 1 or 2 class so that would probably be the easiest to do completely asynchronously with a couple of quick wrap-up lessons when we're back together.

Related to having seen things before, I have rattling around in my head something Roxy Peck said in one of the ASA AP Stats Zoom calls after the AP reading. Someone asked her what she would recommend to save time - paraphrased, she said to stop teaching middle school stats. They already know how to draw box plots, don't waste time on it. They already know correlation in scatter plots, don't waste time on it. My thinking now is that I'm going to set up some mini-lessons on those things and post them in Canvas as resources so they can access them as needed. 

So as of 11:43pm, my plan is CED Units 3, 1, 4, and hopefully 5 before winter break. Unit 2 over break with 7-9 plus review in the spring. Maybe? I'm sure I'm going to change my mind about four more times. 

Stats folks, got any suggestions for this semi-newbie?

Have a Balcony Cat as a reward for reading this far!