Math Prep for College

High School teachers have an obligation to prepare students for college. It's sometimes tough to remember that. We tend to get caught up in teaching our subject and it ends there. It's not easy to think beyond that but we must. I was working on a geometry lesson a few weeks ago and kept thinking about how awesome the lesson is. It isn't awesome because I wrote it but because of how much algebra and geometry it has in it. In some lessons you get so focused on one thing and just keep repeating that thing over and over. This particular lesson has so many concepts and review of algebra. A lesson like this can be used as a review for things students should already know in a precalc class, a calc class or a college test prep class. How awesome would it be to review all

of the following in one lesson:

• Writing equations of lines
• Finding distance, midpoint and slope
• Finding slopes of perpendicular lines
• Refresh terms like parallel, perpendicular, bisect, obtuse, acute, altitude, vertex, circumscribe, inscribe
• Plotting points and coordinate plane work
• Drawing all types of triangles

The resource is called Concurrent Segments in Triangles. The technical work leading up to finding these points of concurrency is all of the amazing review concepts above. I was thinking that I could take this lesson and break it into parts and use it when I review for the PSAT, SAT, ACT, ACCUPLACER or the TSI. My school is on a modified block schedule. I see all my classes on Fridays and there are lots of interruptions. I've turned Fridays into test prep days. I can use the concurrent segment lesson and make it last six weeks! I'm not going to get caught up in the terminology used such as orthocenter, incenter and such. I'm going to focus on the awesome math involved. Not many lessons have so much good math. Can't wait to start this!