Take back the Math!!!

 I am looking at our Precalculus book, Larson, and every section could be taught as if they were child's picture books; no story connected but all suppose to be doggone interesting. I look at the AP calculus test with its multiple steps and many processes tied into one. There is no way we are teaching for the"test." We need to look at multi-step problems and put the puzzle, the pattern recognition and brain building back into mathematics. Math is not just a tool you may reach for later in life as you are solving a physics problem or cooking. It is training the brain to visualize, creating multiple neuro pathways in the brain, it teaches us how and when to question, and it teaches how to justify our opinions and show evidence. These are goals for us to instill in our students. Take back Math from the bureaucrats!!! The artists and dreamers and thinkers are thirsty!

I was looking at my school's Precalc Honors test for the algebra 1 review chapter (I say my school's because some bureaucratic somewhere decided we have to have common assessments and if you are in the minority opinion you get shut out of the process and most things done by committee they are watered down milk toast).  It was 8 pages long took 2 days to give, IN BLOCK SCHEDULE, and was worth 133 points.  What kind of feed back is that?  Each of the 100 skill was tested individually.  No questions had interest, application or depth.
No they weren't perfect, yes they should know all this stuff but they don't.  Why because we spoon feed them a bite at a time so we can accelerate them. Even though students never see that topic again until the next level of math in a traditional book, we expect them to have all these concepts at the ready. 
Kids are kids.  If we don't ask them to know something past the due date or the test, they will not absorb it.  Most books are written so teachers can dump or rearrange topics so the publisher can sell the more books without having to republish.

This year I hope to keep track of the great ideas and even some of the flops in my classroom.  No student names will be given - all names, if used will be pseudonyms.
I am frustrated as the year starts.  I am teaching a traditional honors precalculus class, a CPM  geometry class and a special needs CPM algebra class.
I helped choose this curriculum and yet I still don't like it.  I love the deep rich questions I see when I watch the Japanese lesson study.  They are one concept deep.  Really stretch the students and the teacher is in control.  I like this format.  We have recently gone to a literacy infused lesson plans that must use 3  or more literacy strategies.  I understand having these interspersed throughout the unit but to require these just seems like running after a " to do " list and not attending to the concept I want to teach.
We are also being required to change up every 15 -20 minutes; an attempt to use age +2 strategy.  ( A researcher found that people can attend to their age +2 minutes.  So it was decided at our school that we physically make the students move to warm up their brains.)  The classroom has heavy duty desks, the kind where the desk and chair are attached.  Students hate moving these.  To do this several times in our 88 minute class may waste a large chunk of time.  This is suppose to stimulate students and they wind up attending for 70 of the 88 minutes.  Interestingly, Japanese assume kids will be kids and their minds will wonder and Finnish classroom teachers are considered experts on what kids need.  They are specifically designed so that if a student's brain wanders off for a moment they will not have lost the entire lesson.  I have a Promethean Board and no chalkboards necessary to show the different and unique solutions or proofs students devise.  This would be if I had the choice of working on lesson study to find good deep questions to stretch the students and to ensure the development of the concept.
The lessons, if I follow the rest of the teachers and therefore the books, teaches up to 12 different topics per section in the traditional book and as many as 10 deep guided discovery questions in the CPM.org series.
Then there is the question of homework.  The Precalc book, Larson, has questions that are dull and single concept.  There is no need to know anything you just learned because each question comes with no strings or prior knowledge.  In the CPM book, only 3 or so problems are what students are currently learning and the rest are either review or guess and check preview.  Mastery over time has been taken to an absurd level and students aren't even sure what they are to master as the final mastery is often chapters away from the original inclass practice.
I know kids enjoy games and hands on activities and hope to incorporate these this year.  Wish me luck.