This is the sixth song that I'm writing in 12EDL, our main scale for November and December, and the first in AAA, with verses only -- or to be more precise, A, with a single verse. And at this point you might wonder -- shouldn't I be playing more complex tunes in 12EDL, such as ABCD, rather than a simple A?
The reason this song is so short is because today is the day of observation. As I explained last year (on the Stats blog), all first- and second-year teachers have observations from the principal. And recall that last year, my principal objected when I played long songs on the guitar during class. So this year, I avoid lengthy performances -- and don't play any guitar during the observation at all.
The period of observation is fourth period today. I choose it since it's convenient -- on Tuesdays the schedule goes 2-3-4-5, so I can use second as a dry run for fourth. Fifth period is ruled out because with today's Chapter 5 DeltaMath test, there is no active teaching left in Math III this semester. (In addition, it means that I don't need to prepare a lesson for the class after the observation). Finally, fourth period has been the best-behaved Math I class in recent weeks.
Like last year, the story of my observation goes back to last week, As it turns out, that Wi-Fi blackout that I mentioned at the end last Wednesday's post extended into Thursday, which essentially ruined the Tetris Desmos activity that I'd been planning.
On Friday morning, we discussed the plans for the upcoming Math I final exam. As it turns out, not only will some material from Sections 3.2 and 3.3 indeed be included on the test, but some of the other teachers have already presented 3.2 and 3.3 material, saving 3.1 on transformations for this week. But since I already did 3.1 last week, I used one of those later lessons for the observation -- 3.3.2, "fraction busters" (that is, clearing fractions from linear equations).
My plans are simple. After the Warm-Up, I would have the students solve as many equations as possible in their notebooks. They would copy the equations down as opposed to giving them a worksheet, since I don't want the principal to watch the students spend time gluing into notebooks. We'd move on to a a simple Desmos that has already been set up with some equations and other unrelated Chapter 3 material.
In second period, we have time to solve six equations in the notebooks before moving on to Desmos, and then there are four "fraction busters" equations on that Desmos activity, providing us with a grand total of ten equations to solve. Actually it's twelve, I guess, counting the Warm-Up (which isn't a fraction buster, but a simple one to remind the kids how to solve equations) and Exit Pass.
I believe that the fourth period observation goes OK. Three special ed students who often fool around during class attempt to escape to the tutoring room as soon as they see a principal in the room -- the special ed aides send them back until after the written part of the lesson. Other than that, I think the the student behavior is acceptable.
Of course, I won't really know how well I fare today on the observation until I get my evaluation scores back from the principal. Right now I don't know what to expect.
Here is the Mocha code for the song. Like our previous songs with only an A part, we get to have Mocha just repeat a single line without having to retype it with four DATA lines:
https://www.haplessgenius.com/mocha/
Don't forget to click on Sound before you RUN the program.
Since there is no observation in second period, I do play the guitar in this class. Notice how the melody goes B-B-B-C-(high)A, with an emphasis on Degree 11, B (or Bb). The riff goes G-Am -- I often like to play the Degree 11 note over a G chord (despite G not being a part of the 12EDL scale) because then we can interpret Degree 11 as being B or Bb, to make it either G major or G minor. (In fact, perhaps a G power chord would work even better here.)
By playing a G major chord, this short ditty fits well with the "Solve 'Em" song, a previous tune (written before EDL) about solving equations. So in class, I play today's song and then pick up "Solve 'Em" from the combining like terms verse (avoiding the distributive property during fraction busters).
I perform the song the same way during the fourth period observation, except with no guitar. During the written part of the lesson, I emphasize the "Don't Call Me After Midnight" mnemonic and avoid singing any song until it's time for Desmos.
No comments:
Post a Comment