Here it is:
My room from the door. I love my room. It is a corner room with 3 windows which means it gets really hot in the summer (like now when it is 90+) and really cold in the winter, but I love it!
That's my room. Bring on the kids!
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
My Shiny Room is Ready for Kids
I took the summer off from writing my blog. I still continued to read Twitter and blogs and got a lot of fresh, new ideas for the school year. I am very excited for the kids to report tomorrow. I came in all 5 mornings last week and then we had 2 full days this week to get ready.
Here it is:
My room from the door. I love my room. It is a corner room with 3 windows which means it gets really hot in the summer (like now when it is 90+) and really cold in the winter, but I love it!
Imagine my surprise when I walked in last week and saw a beautiful projector mounted to the wall. Ahhhhh! I am in love! I have since been able to get hooked up to it. It projects a huge picture - about 5 feet wide. It would make a great place to watch a movie. It also allows the sound to go right through it. It is high so I have remote. Some teachers share my room and I don't want to lose the remote, so I added some velcro to the back of it.
Next is my desk nook. This is my 11th year teaching and my first year not sharing a room. That means I earned more corner desk space and an additional closet. Yippee!
My desk:
My computer. We did get Apple TV as well, so once that gets hooked up, we will go wireless! What an exciting year!
My new favorite decoration comes from last year's student work. They had to make a picture using equations and constraints in desmos.com. I love having these pictures up and telling my new algebra 2 kids that they will be doing that in the spring. They don't believe they will be able to, but they will! It is great incentive. I didn't know how I could get them all hung on the wall to actually stay on the wall, so I bought Command strips and grabbed some clothesline and pinned the pictures up.
I love having my monthly calendar at the back of the room so I can see it and refer to it. I made it a little smaller this year to leave more room for students to work at the board. I am lucky to have whiteboards at the front and back of the room.
And, finally, this is my bulletin/cork board with some old and some new. I made a 3x3 ft Sudoku puzzle with 12x12 in scrapbook paper and index cards to make little pockets to hold the numbers. I wanted something interactive. I also have the two older things from past summers to the right - the standard equations for transformations and the mindset poster. Up above I have my textbooks, old catapults we make in Algebra 1. To the left, I have my student center to sharpen pencils, get tissues, and sign out.
That's my room. Bring on the kids!
Here it is:
My room from the door. I love my room. It is a corner room with 3 windows which means it gets really hot in the summer (like now when it is 90+) and really cold in the winter, but I love it!
That's my room. Bring on the kids!
Friday, June 19, 2015
Paint Parabolas
In my small math class (only 4 kids on this day), we rolled marbles in paint and then rolled them to make parabolas. This idea is from Alex Overwijk @AlexOverwijk and his website: Slam Dunk Math
I didn't have too many details but I knew I wanted to use it as an activity to culminate our lesson on quadratics. We would bring together what we knew about the properties of a quadratic graph and then do systems and regression with it using Desmos.
I tried the activity at home by rolling the marble in paint and making it roll on paper. It didn't go very smoothly or in a parabolic shape. I tweeted @AlexOverwijk for help. He told me I should add a little water to the paint, perfect!
I had the kids pair up (all 4 of them) and practice rolling the marbles.
Then, we went to the good paper - the big grid paper I bought so they could roll for real. The first person rolled theirs and the other person had to roll it in the other direction so it would intersect twice - ah the pressure. They didn't work out perfectly in one shot, but we went with it. The kids could see the grids below but you may not be able to.
They did great and it went more quickly than I anticipated. The whole lesson was one hour.
After they rolled for real, we cleaned up and took out the computers. They need to find 10 good points on each of their lines and create a table of values. Then, we turned to Desmos to do the regression. They found the equations of each of their lines and then entered both into Desmos so they could find the point of intersection and "solve the system". They had to continue and tell me each of the properties of their graphs as well - the vertex, the y-intercept, the x-intercepts, and the axis of symmetry.
They did a great job and I thought it wrapped up the unit nicely. Thanks Alex!
I didn't have too many details but I knew I wanted to use it as an activity to culminate our lesson on quadratics. We would bring together what we knew about the properties of a quadratic graph and then do systems and regression with it using Desmos.
I tried the activity at home by rolling the marble in paint and making it roll on paper. It didn't go very smoothly or in a parabolic shape. I tweeted @AlexOverwijk for help. He told me I should add a little water to the paint, perfect!
I had the kids pair up (all 4 of them) and practice rolling the marbles.
They did great and it went more quickly than I anticipated. The whole lesson was one hour.
After they rolled for real, we cleaned up and took out the computers. They need to find 10 good points on each of their lines and create a table of values. Then, we turned to Desmos to do the regression. They found the equations of each of their lines and then entered both into Desmos so they could find the point of intersection and "solve the system". They had to continue and tell me each of the properties of their graphs as well - the vertex, the y-intercept, the x-intercepts, and the axis of symmetry.
They did a great job and I thought it wrapped up the unit nicely. Thanks Alex!
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Solve Me Puzzles
If you haven't been to Solve Me Puzzles, check it out here: Solve Me Puzzles
It is about balancing mobiles and look something like this:
They are great! I heard about them at NCTM in April and we have been doing them in my small math class since then. We do three a day. You can have the students do them on the computer, but I take a screen shot and add it to my powerpoint. Then, the kids work on individual whiteboards to answer them. I love the natural progression of difficulty.
And, surprise, after a while, gasp, fractions might be needed. In the example above, the kids would cut 6 in half and see that each branch will equal 3, but then, you have to divide 3 in half, so they discover they will need fractions and not just 1/2. It comes naturally to them after doing so many.
We have gotten so good at them, that I thought it was time to make our own. As we worked on the daily three, I asked a few leading questions - as we think about designing our own, do you think it is easier or harder to have a bigger number at the top? Some kids said bigger numbers because you have more numbers to work with. One boy decided his total number was going to be 3. He likes a challenge. Sometimes, one of the shape values might be given. I asked when that might be. We looked at our daily three and figured that out too.
I gave them some parameters. They had to be at least 3 branches and use at least three shapes.
As one student was making his own, he declared, "I am going to work backwards. I am going to make my 4 shapes have numbers and then make the puzzle."
It lead to some good thought process. After they made them, they had to decide if they needed to give the students any shape values. Some did and some didn't.
Here are there finished Solve Me Puzzles. After they finished, we swapped whiteboards and they solved each others.
In the above puzzle, you need to be told the triangles are 12, if I recall correctly.
It is about balancing mobiles and look something like this:
They are great! I heard about them at NCTM in April and we have been doing them in my small math class since then. We do three a day. You can have the students do them on the computer, but I take a screen shot and add it to my powerpoint. Then, the kids work on individual whiteboards to answer them. I love the natural progression of difficulty.
And, surprise, after a while, gasp, fractions might be needed. In the example above, the kids would cut 6 in half and see that each branch will equal 3, but then, you have to divide 3 in half, so they discover they will need fractions and not just 1/2. It comes naturally to them after doing so many.
We have gotten so good at them, that I thought it was time to make our own. As we worked on the daily three, I asked a few leading questions - as we think about designing our own, do you think it is easier or harder to have a bigger number at the top? Some kids said bigger numbers because you have more numbers to work with. One boy decided his total number was going to be 3. He likes a challenge. Sometimes, one of the shape values might be given. I asked when that might be. We looked at our daily three and figured that out too.
I gave them some parameters. They had to be at least 3 branches and use at least three shapes.
As one student was making his own, he declared, "I am going to work backwards. I am going to make my 4 shapes have numbers and then make the puzzle."
It lead to some good thought process. After they made them, they had to decide if they needed to give the students any shape values. Some did and some didn't.
Here are there finished Solve Me Puzzles. After they finished, we swapped whiteboards and they solved each others.
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Speed Dating with Rationals
I love speed dating. I have done it before and it is something I look forward to. We did it today in Algebra 1 with multiplying and dividing rational expressions. They each get a problem and a white board. They become the expert on their problem, meaning they do it, check their answer with me, and remember their answer. Then they pair up and switch problems with the person across from them. If they need help, they check with the expert across from them, not me. It takes a little while to get started as I make sure everyone has the correct answers, but then I can just sit back and listen and watch.
Great conversations heard:
"You can't cancel across" (meaning if they are both in the numerator - egads, no!)
"Don't tell me the answer. How am I going to learn how to do it?"
"Take your time."
"Simplify your problem. Simplify your relationship." (being pun-ny with 'speed dating')
Great conversations heard:
"You can't cancel across" (meaning if they are both in the numerator - egads, no!)
"Don't tell me the answer. How am I going to learn how to do it?"
"Take your time."
"Simplify your problem. Simplify your relationship." (being pun-ny with 'speed dating')
Monday, May 11, 2015
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Estimation Station - The Details
We have been using Estimation180.com every day for the entire school year. We are getting good at it. We wanted to see how the rest of the school might be.
We planned it for about a week and a half of math classes - not all period, we did lots of math as well. Our agenda one day looked like this:
Each day we prepared a little more:
Day 1: The 3 ideas - brainstorm the stations and the necessary materials
Day 2: Meet with our film and TV teacher to discuss our plan for videotaping (Thanks Mr. Haas!)
Day 3: Field trip down two floors to the science room to borrow goggles and aprons (Thanks Mr. King!)
Day 4: Make the signs and count the Skittles (Thanks to cafeteria ladies for giving us non-latex gloves!)
Day 5: Pour the soda (this was the plan but we didn't have enough cups so we had to wait until the day of.
The day before the actual Estimation Station project, I reminded the students to be in school. It is a small class, only 10 kids, 8 come regularly but attendance is an issue. One student said she had a field trip, one had an interview and then realized that was on a different day. Another said he didn't really want to do it, but later changed his mind. For a group who seemed excited for it, they were ready to bail on me. I reminded them of all our time planning it and told them the money I had put into it. They didn't realize the behind the scenes stuff. They asked "How much did it cost?":
How much do you think the teacher spent?
3 bags of Skittles ($7.50 but only used 2 bags)
1 jar for Skittles ($1.00)
2 yellow tableclothes ($2.00)
2 Two Liters of Coke ($3.00)
Pack of 50 plastic cups ($2.50)
1 Watermelon ($7.99)
2 - 350 pack of rubberbands ($15.00) This I had to research, watched some videos, learned the different sizes - ordered 3 inch Size 64 rubberbands from Amazon.
Grand Total: $38.99
Other materials:
Table, bowl for the watermelon (next time, bucket would be better, we ended up putting bowl on a chair, little tippy), pens, paper to write guesses on, goggles, aprons, bags to hold guesses, funnel to pour soda back into bottle, mini white boards to hold tablecloth down and provide surface to write guesses on.
Process for Watermelon:
2 kids put on 75 then took a break
2 new kids started adding bands until it broke
Surprisingly, no rubber bands actually broke on them
The actual explosion happened in a blink of an eye.
It was so exciting and cool to watch.
A big ball of rubberbands ended up about 8 feet away.
Coming Soon....The video.....Stay Tuned.
All answers will be announced in the video.
We planned it for about a week and a half of math classes - not all period, we did lots of math as well. Our agenda one day looked like this:
- Estimation180 Check these out here.
- Solve Me Puzzles (3) Check them out here.
- Which One Doesn't Belong? Why? (2) Check it out here.
- Visual Patterns (1) And, these can be found here.
- Make signs for our 3 stations
- Make advertisement signs and hang them around the school
- Count the yellow and purple skittles
- Factor when A is not 1
Each day we prepared a little more:
Day 1: The 3 ideas - brainstorm the stations and the necessary materials
Day 2: Meet with our film and TV teacher to discuss our plan for videotaping (Thanks Mr. Haas!)
Day 3: Field trip down two floors to the science room to borrow goggles and aprons (Thanks Mr. King!)
Day 4: Make the signs and count the Skittles (Thanks to cafeteria ladies for giving us non-latex gloves!)
Day 5: Pour the soda (this was the plan but we didn't have enough cups so we had to wait until the day of.
The day before the actual Estimation Station project, I reminded the students to be in school. It is a small class, only 10 kids, 8 come regularly but attendance is an issue. One student said she had a field trip, one had an interview and then realized that was on a different day. Another said he didn't really want to do it, but later changed his mind. For a group who seemed excited for it, they were ready to bail on me. I reminded them of all our time planning it and told them the money I had put into it. They didn't realize the behind the scenes stuff. They asked "How much did it cost?":
How much do you think the teacher spent?
3 bags of Skittles ($7.50 but only used 2 bags)
1 jar for Skittles ($1.00)
2 yellow tableclothes ($2.00)
2 Two Liters of Coke ($3.00)
Pack of 50 plastic cups ($2.50)
1 Watermelon ($7.99)
2 - 350 pack of rubberbands ($15.00) This I had to research, watched some videos, learned the different sizes - ordered 3 inch Size 64 rubberbands from Amazon.
Grand Total: $38.99
Other materials:
Table, bowl for the watermelon (next time, bucket would be better, we ended up putting bowl on a chair, little tippy), pens, paper to write guesses on, goggles, aprons, bags to hold guesses, funnel to pour soda back into bottle, mini white boards to hold tablecloth down and provide surface to write guesses on.
Process for Watermelon:
2 kids put on 75 then took a break
2 new kids started adding bands until it broke
Surprisingly, no rubber bands actually broke on them
The actual explosion happened in a blink of an eye.
It was so exciting and cool to watch.
A big ball of rubberbands ended up about 8 feet away.
Coming Soon....The video.....Stay Tuned.
All answers will be announced in the video.
Estimation Station 3 - How many rubberbands will it take to make the watermelon explode?
"It won't work."
"How many rubberbands are in the bowl?" (Answer: 700)
"Can I touch the rubberbands?" (Yes) "Oh, they are strong."
"Do you know the answer?" (No)
"Are you going to do it?" (Yes at 3rd lunch at 11:45)
"I got it. I know I am right."
How many do you think?
"How many rubberbands are in the bowl?" (Answer: 700)
"Can I touch the rubberbands?" (Yes) "Oh, they are strong."
"Do you know the answer?" (No)
"Are you going to do it?" (Yes at 3rd lunch at 11:45)
"I got it. I know I am right."
How many do you think?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)