After my first few observations in Tony Bracht’s AP Statistics class, I realized that it was not a true project-based environment. The students were assigned one project where they had to design, implement, and analyze a statistical study, but most of the work was done outside of class. In contrast, class time was devoted to fairly traditional lectures. Despite this, I feel the observations were a helpful experience.

My observations allowed me to follow the interactions between students and teacher over an extended period of time. This was the first time that I did this from a teacher’s perspective. For example, I was able to observe Tony’s management strategies. I noticed that he would often give silent messages to students as he taught. For example, he would often walk by a student that was acting up and just stand there or place his hand on their shoulder for a second. This did not interrupt the flow of lesson or the other students’ thought processes, but still allowed him to communicate to the unruly student that their behavior needed to change. I now believe that proximity (to a certain student) is an effective management strategy.

Another important observation I made is that Tony constantly made it clear to his students that what they were learning was important and had meaning. This really seemed to keep the students interested and on task. For example, on September 27, Tony said, "Does everyone understand what residuals are?" The class went quiet. He then continued, "We have a very small class, only 9 people. When I ask if everyone understands, I really mean everyone. In a class of 30, everyone just nods their heads. I want you to really tell me if you don’t." In this example, Tony communicated the importance of their understanding to him. On October 11, Tony tried to relate statistics to his students’ lives. He asked each student what field they wanted to go into after they graduated, and then told them how statistics could be used in that job. This truly impressed the students and me. The attitude of caring and importance that Tony placed on the students’ understanding in the classroom was essential to the students’ interest in statistics.

In addition to observation, I had the opportunity to teach a lesson. I was given the task of introducing the topic of probability to the students. I searched the Internet, thought a long time about how I began probability myself, and tried to remember probability problems that I found fun and interesting. Finally, I came up with the Monty Hall Problem. I loved the counter-intuitiveness of the problem and it was a great introduction to the notion of probability. I presented the problem to the students and had them predict what they thought the answer would be. Then, I had them simulate the problem, creating many trials (See student handout). When they finished the simulation, they couldn’t deny the facts- the problem had tricked them just as it had tricked me the first time I heard it. Then, to explore the problem a little more, I had the students play with a java applet simulation of the problem on the computer (http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/#pro). This allowed them to add more doors and conditions to the problem and make predictions about how that would change the result. They began to pick up on ideas that related to the law of large numbers, but didn’t even know the "law" existed yet. I found that the students really enjoyed it and it truly turned out to be a fantastic beginning to the probability unit.