Thought Process

I did it... the last five lessons have been uploaded. Here is what I did:

Instead of creating five new lessons I added to the ones I had already created. I called them supplementary lessons. Before I left for Summer Break I asked my students what professions they were interested in. I got mostly good responses, with a couple bizarre ones.
What I did for these five lessons was I applied the material to 2 or 3 professions. I have to say I am pleased with the results and I think adding these supplements helps tie the concepts and the application together. Let me know what you think...

Les Schwab???

This latest Lesson Plan got it's inspiration from the waiting room of a prominent auto repair shop. I took my laptop while I was waiting for my vehicle to be serviced and bam... inspiration hits. Vehicles and GPS systems, I knew there was some math involved somewhere. ;-)
With this lesson plan I have just reached the half way mark of what I purposed for myself. I am quickly realizing that I may have been a little over ambitious when setting the course requirements. Regardless, I am still enjoying preparing these lesson plans and feel that I will actually be able to use them for the coming school year.

More Inspiration

I am thoroughly enjoying writing these lesson plans. I have to confess that this last one was a little rushed because I realized that my wife and I are going on vacation tomorrow. We are driving to California which was actually inspiration for the lesson plan topic that I chose.

Amendment

I am quickly realizing that the lesson plans I have been writing up until now are not specific job related. Having a specific set of job skills is important, but I want these lessons to be applicable to all the students, regardless of their future chosen career. That being said... I think I may amend what I originally said about writing lesson plans that cater to individual jobs. I would really like to focus on more general skills because I think my students will be more likely to relate to topics like these. Working with the specific job skills needed to become an astronaut would be fun, but I can see some students thinking, I'm not going to become an astronaut so I'm not going to participate in this lesson. I want to avoid this mindset and maybe offer skills for specific occupations on an individual basis or through an elective.

Inspiration

Before I left for the summer I polled my students and asked them what they wanted to do as a career job. Those that participated responded with occupations consisting of: a nurse, veterinarian, professional athlete, pilot, astronaut, and performer. The lesson plans I choose to write will, for the most part, center around these occupational choices. There are some other topics that I will filter in just because they are relevant to society today. For example, I have just posted a lesson plan on cell phone service plans that relates nicely to graphing linear equations.

Introduction

Welcome to my journal entry page.

Over the course of the next couple of months I will be examining articles in order to pull information from various resources in an attempt to bridge the gap between mathematics and life applications - especially at the Junior High level.

This blog site will be a place for me the post my observations and findings as I create lessons that complement the current pre-algebra textbook I use in the classroom. I will post journal articles I find relevant to this topic and I hope to post my lesson plans on this site as well.