The Line of Best Fit

I remember when I first started teaching 4 years ago, there were several topics that I just didn't feel like I was adequately prepared to teach.  Statistics was one of those topics, but especially Line of Best Fit.

Fast forward 4 years--- I LOVE STATS!! Seriously--we have the best time in my class during the time that we are learning about Statistics because I quickly figured out how much fun it could be.  I spent some time with our AP Statistics teacher and learned so much about Statistics!

In my Algebra 1B Class, we are about to start working on Linear Regression. As I was planning this unit with my intern, I ran across an activity that I have done before with TI-Nspires, but we don't have TI-Nspires in my classroom.

The basic idea in the activity is to look at a scatter plot, try to guess a "Line of Best Fit" using a movable line and its residuals to try and approximate the line of best fit.  Once you feel like you have a solid guess--compare it to the actual Regression Line, interpret, and make predictions.  So, in trying to figure out a way to modify this awesome activity, I remembered something I stumbled across in Grad School at Auburn--> Desmos Activity Builder!

If you've never looked at teacher.demos.com you definitely should!! It is SO awesome! You can search by topic to see if another teacher or Desmos has already created an activity OR you can create your own and share it with other teachers! Such a great technology resource.

I spent several days working on this between the rough draft, sending it to another teacher for feedback and the revised activity, but I think it will be well worth my time!

Here is the teacher link to my activity: https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/563a42fb60dded490a7f410d

I made a handout for my students so that they would have a reference sheet to remember what we discovered after the activity is complete.  


I welcome any and all feedback you may have on this! I am always looking to improve activities for my students!

I am finally ready! :)

You know that it is THAT time again when you walk into Walmart and right in the front of the store there are huge displays of school supplies! 

Yep.. it is time for school to start back, and I am SO excited!!! :) Seriously, the weeks leading up to now, I have been in that "I am NOT ready to go back" mood.  But today.. I am excited.  I finally feel ready because today I sat at my desk for about 4 hours and completed my course outlines for the entire year--for all THREE preps! 

I am ready today because I have all these ideas floating around in my head about the first day of school! I am looking forward to meeting a new group of kids and learning with them this school year. 

My first year of teaching, I literally planned week to week. I felt like I was drowning at the end of a day. I could NOT have planned this far ahead then, but now I feel lost if I don't have my entire year mapped out from day one.  It is my road map. It lets me know what I have to do this week in order to get where I need to be next month. 


Now for those who want to know how I did this, it's pretty simple.  

1- I went through my course of study and wrote down all the major topics that made up the standards. Ex. Linear Functions & Arithmetic Sequences, Exponential Relationships, Quadratic Functions, Descriptive Statistics & Conditional Probability, etc.  

2-Once I had all my major topics, I put them in an order that I thought would flow well.  For example, I can't teach Quadratic Functions before Linear Functions.  Linear must come first. 

3-Now, I had to decide approximately how much time I needed to adequately address the standards within that group. Am I going to need to review some topics from previous grades? Is there a project that I need to leave time for? 

4-Once I knew how much time I needed, I mapped it all out to fit my 4 nine weeks of time that I have in this school year. Filled in all standards, resources, projects, etc. and then my course outline is complete. :) 

I am including one of my course outlines for this school year.  This is something that I adapt every year based upon reflections & notes that I keep from the previous school.  For example, if I planned 3 weeks for solving equations, but I only needed 2, then I can re-distribute that time elsewhere from the beginning. 

If you have any questions, please comment below :) 

Advanced Algebra 1 Course Outline (15-16)