I did something stupid. I volunteered to write the geometry final when Mr. AP and I realized no one was assigned to do it. No one wants to write these exams, especially me, the Queen of Lazy, but I really like my geometry class and decided I could best prep them for this exam by writing it myself.
Most of the teachers in my department just go to Exam Gen or some old regents to get their questions. They are much smarter than I am. I decided to base my questions on the regents but change them because by now, many of the kids have done all the questions and many of the questions aren't all that good to begin with.
Here's where my stupidity peaks. I decided I had to draw my own diagrams using Microsoft Word, something I have never bothered to do before. It took me quite a while to get the hang of using the auto shapes and changing them to suit my problem. It took me just as long to learn to draw the lines to make my own tangents and secants. Adjusting the size of each diagram wasn't all that easy either. But, the real killer for me was getting the letters on the diagram and then figuring out how to get the text written next to the diagram.
After hours of work, I think it came out beautiful. I wish I knew how to put it on this blog because the final product is magnificent, even if I do say so myself. I even found the perfect graph paper, which I downloaded and inserted into the exact right spots on the test.
Now, if only the kids put the effort into studying that I put into writing, all will be worth while.
6 comments:
A well-balanced set of axes is a thing of beauty. I hope even one kid spends as much time studying as you did creating this test....
Could you send me a copy?
Proud of you! :D
Wow--that takes a lot of patience! You should check out Geogebra sometime--I find it easier to make my graphics in Geogebra or Sketchpad and copy it into my Word document.
Or try GraphSketch
http://graphsketch.com/ You can save the images and paste 'em into Word, Powerpoint, or whatever you're using.
>Here's where my stupidity peaks. I decided I had to draw my own diagrams using Microsoft Word, something I have never bothered to do before. It took me quite a while to get the hang of using the auto shapes...
The suggestions above are great programs, but do have slight learning curves.
For an alternative that's much easier, try Microsoft Paint (the tiny drawing program that comes free in the Accessories folder).
You can draw things in there, select them and copy-paste directly to MS Word without having to save them as a separate graphic file (such a time-saver!)
I have used tests written by other teachers that used the autoshapes, and not only was it painful to see the time spent, but if you reformat the test to add something the shapes can "un-align" themselves.
Using MS Paint or another program, the entire graphic is *one thing* so that doesn't happen.
Just a hint to hopefully save time in the future - it is a beautiful test!
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