My Gift to You: A Factoring Goldmine

I am excited with the way my polynomial unit has turned out and I wanted to share.  I am glad I tried everything out first because my first class found all my mistakes. They are my editors!

We started Polynomial vocabulary, add, subtract, multiply, long divide, and synthetic divide.  That was the first part of my unit before midterms.  Then, we took a break and did midterm review and a week of midterms.  That meant I actually had time to make some new activities for the second half of the unit.  I did not want to just direct teach factoring and do a bunch of worksheets.  So, I took the worksheets and turned them into activities.  We had 4 days of factoring this week.  Next week we will have two days of graphing factoring polynomials.  You can see I included the Pizzazz joke puzzles.  We didn't really have in class time for that but if kids wanted more practice, those were good self-checking problems.  I assigned homework from the book.

Feel free to use any of these if you are factoring.  This was how I developed my plan.  I love when I have time to actually sit and plan and create. 


I made the activities, then I decided how I wanted to teach it and made my Google Slide.  I wanted to do quick check ins, so I had a couple of exit tickets in there.

For the Board problems on day 63, I had the kids at the boards #VNPS for quick check in.
For Day 64, I used Sarah Carter's Factor Stack - worked really well.

PPT: Day 63 Ppt

8.5 Distributive Property with Polynomials

Factoring by Grouping

Board problems.

Tarsia problem

Pizzazz Practice p 97

PPT: Day 64 Ppt

8.6 Factor all trinomials

Factor Stack blog  Factor Stack Questions

Pizzazz Practice p 91

Exit Ticket

PPT: Day 65 Ppt

8.7 Factor Special Products

Desmos Sort

Flow Chart

4 in a row

Pizzazz practice p 87

Exit Ticket

PPT: Day 66 Ppt

Practice Factoring

I Have, Who Has (for class of 18 - could do 2 teams vs each other)

Factor Bingo    Bingo maker

Bingo Ques, Ans, and Call Cards

Bingo Set 1 (8 cards)

Bingo Set 2 (8 cards)

Bingo Set 3 (8 cards)

Bingo Set 4 (8 cards)

Poly Lab Graphing

Desmos Activity

Worksheet to go with Desmos Activity

Review graphing practice

Desmos: Match My Polynomial

Graphing Worksheet 1

Graphing Worksheet 2

What do the tails do?

PPT: Day 69 Ppt

Review for Quiz 8

Study Guide

Review Packet

Review Packet ANS

Then, I just bought a new laminator and I put it to use for the first time.  I asked Twitter if I should cut first and then laminate or laminate first.  I tried both. I think laminating first saved time. The pieces came out sharper and I think they will last for a good amount of time.  I only wish I tried my activities before I laminated because I had some mistakes.  I just fixed them with a sharpie.

My favorite activity of the week was 4 in a row.  I have seen teachers on Twitter use the idea before so I thought it would work well for focused practice on factoring perfect square trinomials and difference of two squares.  I did laminate the board and had the kids write on it with highlighters but that didn't work so well.  For my second class, I just printed it out on paper and had them use pencils to do Xs and Os, much better. 


We have an early release today so we did "I Have...Who Has...?"  I have done this before with other content and really enjoy it.  My first class is smaller, so we did it as the whole class putting themselves in order.  My second class is bigger so we did two teams and did a competition. I was happy with both ways.  Below was BINGO which was also a lot of fun. 



I will say I haven't tried the two graphing ones yet with my class.  I had a 12 page worksheet that goes with the graphing calculator that I have used for years and I finally had time to turn it into a Desmos activity.  I still wanted the kids to record on paper so they were actually drawing the graphs and hopefully seeing the patterns.  I hope it goes as I envision it.  

Thanks for reading.  Let me know if you use any of these ideas or if you make them better or if you find any mistakes. 

First Post....A Good Year?

This is my first post of school year 2019-2020 and my first post of the year 2020.  It is also my 1st post in a series for a blogging initiative I started called #MTBoS2020.  If you are reading and you blog, sign up here.  If you are reading and don't blog - thank you - but read here (the same link) and find some other writers taking part in #MTBoS2020. 

What is MTBoS? It stands for Math-Twitter-Blog O Sphere.  We started some while ago, kind of when Dan Meyer starting blogging.  We are just a group of educators who are active on Twitter and also like to blog to share ideas.  There is no official membership card.  If you want to be part of MTBoS, then you are part of MTBoS.  If you are on Twitter, consider including the #MTBoS to meet more amazing educators and you can start following them.

Why 2020?  I thought it would be helpful to remember to write a blog post on the 20th of each month of 2020.  We can use this as a motivator.  Back in the day, everyone was blogging.  I started by reading blogs and then I wanted to start my own blog just so I could add other people's blog to my blog roll so I could find them more easily.  I took off with it.  I love to blog about my lessons and include pictures and links to worksheets.  I love to look back and reflect (and maybe cringe) at old lessons.  I can use blog posts in my end of the year portfolio.

Back to why my first post of the school year?  This school year has been great. I kind of didn't want to type about it because I didn't want to jinx anything and I didn't want to sound braggy.  Last year wasn't so great a year, school wise, so I didn't write a lot then either.  So, I don't write when things are good, and I don't write when things are bad???? I just need to type.

What makes this a good year?

• My classes are small.  I usually have 5 classes of at least 25, sometimes 29 kids.  That is 125 students.  Our town is growing so fast and our classrooms are swelling, however, for whatever reason, I only have 80 kids.  I can really feel the difference, especially when grading assessment, when I make my monthly seating charts, and best benefit is small classes are comfortable and starting to feel like a family.
• I love my classroom.  I am lucky to have a lot of great technology - apple laptop, apple tv to project my google slideshows in lessons - lots of whiteboards all around my room for VNPS and #thinkingclassroom.  I have a corner classroom, so lots of windows.  Everything has a spot in my room, I even have a jigsaw puzzle table.
• I love the content I teach.  I have a variety of classes and levels.  I teach 2 Accelerated Algebra 2 class, 2 Accelerated Algebra 1 classes, and 1 College Preparatory Geometry.
• And, shhhhhhh, but I do not have any discipline issues.  They are all really well behaved.  Some can be immature here and there but it's all good.
• I have all five classes in the same room.

This may not sound like a lot but it IS a lot and it makes a huge difference and making a school year go more smoothly.  I am really appreciating it for all it is.

What's next?  Thank you for reading, especially if this is your first time to my blog.  I am currently worked on 4 days of lessons of factoring lessons.  I am reinventing our Accelerated Algebra 1 curriculum this year, so I am building the raft while I am trying to paddle down the river.  I got a little big ahead as last week was review for midterms and this week is midterms.  When we start 2nd term, I am doing 4 lessons on factoring polynomials.  I didn't want to direct teach and then have them practice with worksheets, so I am creating some new activities.  Stay tuned......

Oh the Places I will Go

Who knew math and church youth group could take me to so many amazing places!  Now it has all wrapped up so I thought I would reflect on it.

For math, I was lucky to be able to go to 3 Twitter Math Camps during the summer:
2016 - My 1st in Minneapolis
2017 - In Atlanta
2018 - In Cleveland, Ohio.

I was lucky because I got to be around amazing teachers for a week and just take it all in.  I got to meet these people in real life.  Go out for great meals.  Go for runs.  See these amazing cities.  I remember at first thinking, Minneapolis...who wants to go there.  I fell in love with that city.  If you ever get a chance, you should visit.  (In summer, of course).  Atlanta was so different than I thought as well.  It is huge with a lot of trees.  For us to travel from out hotel to the Coke museum was a hotel bus, to a city bus, to a train, to then still having to walk a mile.  Crazy.  We went to the Georgia Aquarium.  We have a great one in Boston and I wasn't going to go to this one.  Amazing!  Again, if you are ever in Atlanta, you should visit the Aquarium.  And, then last summer was Cleveland.  So many awesome restaurants!  Such a cute city.  I recommend it as well.

For our church youth group, I just "retired" from volunteering as our youth minister.  Eight years ago, our church has a paid youth minister.  I helped him out with our youth group and went on my first mission trip to Mississippi.  His position was cut and I didn't want to see it end, so I stepped up and volunteered.  For eight years I have run (with a lot of help from some great friends) our youth group and mission trip.  The kids are awesome and make it all worth it but it is a lot of work and a lot of time.  We have a school year calendar full of events from service to prayer to fun events.  Our religious ed leader told us we have the best group around our area because she has meetings with other churches.

That first mission trip really was life changing.  And, every one after it has been as well.  I am so blessed to have been part of it.  It has been so fun to have the opportunity to share a week with my students in a different part of the country and expose them to different ways of life.  I am sad that it has come to an end, but I am looking forward to slowing things down and having more time.

Each trip was about 60 people.  I always had such a fun group of adult leaders as well.  So many memories:

2012- Mississippi to clean up after Hurricane Katrina
2013 - New Jersey to clean up after Super Storm Sandy
2014 - Back to Mississippi for still more clean up after Katrina
2015 - Queens, NY for a crazy city experience
2016 - Appalachia, West Virginia - our group of leaders really wanted to get here and we made it happen.
2017 - Adirondacks, NY - we had a nice, quiet week of community work
2018 - Houston, Texas to help after Hurricane Harvey - we took 2 sites.  One site held 50 people and we knew that would be too limiting so I took a risk and took both sites for a total of 100 people.  This would be our biggest trip and I was a bit nervous about filling all our spots and then dealing with the large number travel wise.  I thought like the movie "A Field of Dreams" - If we build it, they will come.  They did.  We filled all 100 spots.  That became our t-shirts - "100 helping Houston".
2019 - My last trip - Philadelphia.  This was definitely memorable.  We had 9 graduated seniors who joined us for all 4 mission trips during their high school career!  It was a crazy trip.  With all my planning, many things happened outside my control, but we pulled together and it bonded us.  For a lot of kids this was their favorite trip.

With all this traveling for math and youth group, now I hope to get to travel some with my husband. 

Happy Medium or Medium Happy?

That's start at the end, that is the end of last school year and even before that.  Last school year was not a great year.  It was anything personally against me but everyone that I work with at school and on Twitter had stinky years with lots of bad stuff happening to them.  I wanted to help them.  I didn't want to just be the positive cheerleader telling them annoying positive phrases.  It was just stuff they had to go through and I tried to be there for them. 

At the last week and 2 days of the school year, I developed vertigo.  Yuck!  It was debilitating!  I woke up that Sunday throwing up and spinning.  Monday was even worse and I had to take the day off from school.  I went into a walk in clinic and they gave me a prescription to help the spinning.  Then, I went to my friend who is a physical therapist that specializes in vertigo.  She did some testing on me and gave me some exercises to help me get better.  I felt worse than being drunk.  I walked tilted to the right.  I couldn't drive.  I couldn't lay back.  I couldn't close my eyes.  I was most comfortable lying at a 45 degree angle and just staring into space.  I had to have my family drive me to school and some colleagues drive me home.  I couldn't look at the computer screen.  I did go home early two days after the kids took their final exams.  I was so thrilled that a colleague offered to grade some of my exams.  It was so helpful.  I was doing everything in slow motion.  I now have a better understanding of what it is like when kids have concussions.  I couldn't go any faster.  I couldn't think.  I was so tired.  I didn't feel like myself and I was mad.  I just wanted to walk up normal.  I did my exercises and rested a lot so I was better after about one and a half week.  I know people suffer from it a lot longer than that and I can't imagine. 

But, due to this, I didn't end the school year the way I normally do.  I would pull everything out of my school closets and toss stuff I didn't use this year.  I would reorganize.  I would pack up neatly so I could come in fresh for this school year.  Nope, I just stuffed stuff away.  I am not looking forward to trying to find things.  But, it was what I had to do.  It will all be fine in the end.

So, my title...I am going to try to find a happy medium this year.  Not getting too busy or too far behind.  Not taking too much home with me.  Exercising, sleeping, staying healthy.  Then, maybe I will find a happy medium or maybe at least be medium happy.

Algebra I is back!

I am entering my 15th year of teaching and all those years except last I have taught Algebra 1.  I made it a really great class full of MTBoS lessons.  I was bummed to not have it last year and I found myself missing it. 

Turns out, I get it back this year.  There will a few changes.  I have the Accelerated level, but it will be different in years past because my incoming freshmen will have taken Algebra 1 in 8th grade.  Now, they are taking the accelerated class.  I am looking at it as they have been exposed to the ideas last year and I can dig deeper with them this year.  I will do a lot at the boards #VNPS.  We will get to do some meaty problems.  I will assign less homework than I have in the past.  I did not assign any in my college prep Geometry class last year and it went well.  Not ready to totally abandon it here, but I am going to aim for 5 good problems a night. Things I missed and hope to bring back - Bucky the Badger 3 Act, Taco Cart 3 Act, candy catapults for quadratics, cup stacking, Monopoly regression from Yummy Math and so much more.  We will do visualpatterns.org and would you rather plus estimation 180.  I can't wait.

Oh, and my classes are smaller than in the past.  I usually have about 25-29 kids per class.  So far, my Algebra 1 classes are at 12 and 19.  I am not complaining.

My other classes will be two Accelerated Algebra 2 classes and 1 college prep Geometry class that was new to me last year.  I had a blast making it, so I look forward to making it even better.

Geometry Final Exam Reference Sheet

I had my college prep geometry work in groups to write everything they know about what we have learned 2nd term in order to prepare for our final exam next week.  Here is what they came up with. They have to look them all over for errors.  Then they write them down to create their test reference sheet.  Most snapped pictures and then copied from their phone.

Similarity, Geometric Mean, Pythagorean Theorem


Right Triangle Trigonometry


Polygons


Surface Area and Volume


Circles

Card Sharks

I have a deck of jumbo cards I hadn't found a use yet but then thought of Card Sharks, the game show.  It is an old one, but I think they are bringing it back.  I did not do the trivia part in order to earn the card turn.  I set two up and the kids worked in groups to try and get through the 5 cards.  It was harder than they think.