Tuesday, February 25, 2020

High School -- Performance Task: Properties of Quadrilaterals, Continued (Day 118)

This is the second day of a two-day Performance Task on the blog, so there's no worksheet for me to post today. Hopefully our students can figure out the answer. As a hint, students should first try proving that the figure is a rectangle (which requires four slope calculations). Two distance calculations (length and width) are need to confirm that the rectangle is a square. The Midpoint Formula given on this page is a red herring, as it's not needed.

And in fact there's not much else for me to post today. It's funny how on some days, there's so much to include on a single day -- I sub in a math class with a full "A Day in the Life" post, on the same day as a Rapoport Geometry question, along with my regular U of Chicago lesson post, and with some side-along reading on top of all that. Then there are days like today -- I don't sub at all today, Rapoport's question isn't Geometry, there's no U of Chicago worksheet (which is very rare), and there's no side-along reading today. So there's nothing to post.

Let me just briefly touch on a number of side issues instead. First, with today's Performance Task, you might remember the long discussion about the Big Essay Performance Task for ELA last year. It seemed as if every other day between New Year's Day and President's Day last year, I subbed in an English class, and each time the class was working on that same Big Essay.

This year, I didn't write about the Performance Task -- and it's not because the district didn't give that task this year. It's because I subbed for English a grand total of zero times so far this calendar year! I point out that each time I subbed for English, it was in the old district, and each time that I subbed in the new district, it was for another subject. Last year I escaped Open House "showcases" and ELPAC block schedules, while this year I escape the ELA Performance Task in January/February. (Now watch me find out that the Big Essay was delayed to March this year -- and then I end up subbing for English almost every day in March!)

Meanwhile, today is Mardi Gras. Three years ago at the old charter school, I actually wrote a special song that day. It was a parody of "When the Saints Go Marching In," except with "saints" changed to "scientists" (that it, it was a rare science song from me). But just like yesterday's "Runnin'," my science song landed on a scheduled non-posting day. I only wrote lyrics on a poster in the classroom, and then I ended up leaving my classroom shortly after Mardi Gras. And so I no longer remember or have access to the words I wrote.

I suppose I could recreate some lyrics and post them on the blog today. I probably would have done so if I'm actually subbing today, especially if it's in a science class. (That old song was originally about the science I'd be teaching that week, so I could do the same with the science that classes are actually learning now -- if only I'm subbing in such a class today.)

Also, I was considering having a side-along reading book during the Big March -- the final book I got a few months ago on the computer language Visual Basic. But I placed the CD in my computer drive, not only does the computer not recognize the CD, but suddenly the drive can't even open. So I failed!

And so thus ends this rather short (at least by my standards) post!

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