Education, Math, and More with Mr. Allison

 This week was hot. Really hot. I remember hotter (summer of 1980), but I was just a kid then and could take the heat a lot better. Now, as an old fat man, it's a lot harder to take. It's easy to feel sorry for ourselves and complain when it's like this. But this week, even in the incredible heat, I was reminded how blessed I am that I can usually find refuge. I am extremely thankful that most of my day is now spent in the air conditioning. As I type this, a crew is putting a new roof on the house next door. They don't enjoy my luxury. Even still, I do spend some of my work day in the heat. I'm a teacher, but I'm also a school bus driver. Most school buses, mine included, don't have air conditioning. That big yellow steel box sits on a lot all day under the blazing sun and temperatures inside are at or near 120 when you get on it for an afternoon route. Then you fill it with kids and all that body heat makes it worse. I got on my bus this afternoon at 2:45 p...

Today was the first day of school for us. All-in-all, it was a great day for me. I love my family and I love my coworkers, but I always look forward to the first day back with kids. Today began my 18th year teaching and I realized a long time ago, this is my calling. It's what I'm supposed to do. There were a lot of great things to say about today, but I'm going to focus on one -- what I learned from our social contracts. What is a social contract you might ask? To some it sounds crazy. To others silly. Some think it's stupid. But a few...a few of them took it serious and used it for its intended purpose -- to give kids a voice in the standard operating procedures of the classroom.  Kids were supposed to brainstorm and come up with suggestions for rules, policies, and procedures framed around four essential questions How do you want to be treated by the teacher? How do you want to be treated by others? How do you think the teacher wants to be treated? How do we want to ...

Thursday's coming. First day of school for us of the 2023-2024 school year. This will be my 18th year. There are a lot of teachers with more time than that and a lot with less. But in my 18 years I think I've picked up a little bit of wisdom that's worth offering to those who might be a little nervous about the year to come. First, there's too much to do it all. Today we just finished our pre-start professional development. It ended with all the stuff that gets saved for last because it's what everybody hates. Basically a list of everything expected of you that's longer than the Mississippi River. Duty. Roll. Forms. Detention. Discipline. Lesson plans. Unit plans. Parent contact logs. Parent contact procedures. IEPs. 504s. Documentation. Documentation. Documentation.  And somehow with all that you're also tasked with getting to know the kids, giving them input on classroom procedures and rules, dealing with classroom interruptions, schedule changes, new kids...

It makes a difference! Today was the first day of my 18th year as a teacher. At lunch with the rest of the district, another teacher from a different school walked up to me and said, "[Former student] still talks about you all the time, and how much of an impact you had on her." I taught her daughter more than 10 years ago and she was always a great kid. But it meant a lot to hear that today. Times change in everything, including education. One year things are great and the next may be completely different. We have good years and bad years, plenty of ups and downs as classroom teachers. It can be a tough class, an issue in your personal life, a change in administration, or a treasured colleague moving to greener pastures. Lots of things can make a year tough, and sometimes they string together, one after another.  Even when there's a still a lot of good around you, sometimes the bad things outweigh all the good. That's why a comment like I received today is so importa...

Next month, I'll start my 18th year as a teacher. One thing I've learned over the years is there's always more to learn. Most of the time when you turn a good idea into reality, it works for a little while before some kids figure out a way to circumvent it. But one idea a friend of mine and I came up with many years ago still works well for me today. It's a curve for grading tests that actually works!  Here is a link to a spreadsheet calculator you can make a copy of and use! What does that mean, that it works? Everyone's heard of the bell curve of old, but that's been widely denounced as unfair. A certain percentage of students make A's and a certain percentage make F's, even if only a few points separate the highest and lowest grades. If the highest grade was 100 and the lowest a 90, you would still have students making F's. My friend and I agreed that was ludicrous.  Another common method of curving grades is to simply add a certain amount of poin...

 When I started teaching Advanced Placement Statistics in 2013, I was excited, but pretty much clueless about how to grade. I think this struggle is common to most teachers who begin teaching AP classes. My approach to grading has evolved over the years and I think I have a pretty good approach, worth sharing for those who are new to AP. If you like it, feel free to use it. If you don't, I hope you find another great approach that works well for you and your students.  **IMPORTANT NOTE -- The system I use was not developed in collaboration with any other teacher or entity. Do not infer that it is endorsed or backed by College Board or other AP teachers. You can find many approaches. This one may or may not work for you and your students. In this post, I will describe how I structure my tests, how my test grades are calculated, and how my course grades are calculated (balance of assessments and other assignments.) I will link you to a sample Google Sheet with a fabricated class...