A blog by a veteran math teacher who tries to learn new things. Most posts are about teaching math and problem-solving, but sometimes, it's just about life.
Every year, I assign my Pre-Calculus and Algebra 2 Honors classes a Unit Circle Art project, which I got from Miss Rudolph. I loved her guidelines and rubric, and I have used it in my classes since 2016 and 2017. I don't have pictures of the projects I got prior as I probably wasn't blogging then. The toga really stands out from the student who graduated college last year! So I've been doing this a while, but Miss Rudolph really helped me with her rubric. I assign this as a 30 point project, and the top three win 1, 2, and 3 points extra credit. The winners are chosen by another teacher and sometimes his/her students. This year, the winner was the HQ-nit circle, a play on the trivia game HQ, which we try to play every so often in one of my classes.
It was fun to tweet to @hqtrivia and get a ton of likes.
I saw Pam's Yule Blog Challenge and decided it was time to write about the good things that are going on this year in my classroom, 2017.
Escape Rooms - in and out of the classroom.
1. My department purchased a Breakout Edu box, and my Honors Problem Solving Seminar students "broke out" twice this semester, once in the beginning of the semester and once at the end. I have to say that most students loved these challenges, and I plan to do it in my Algebra 2 Honors classes at the beginning of second semester. We ended the semester by going to a local escape room for a field trip. We had a blast!!
Play Table. Again.
2. I have always had a few puzzles laying around my classroom for students to pick up and touch, but this year, I have a play table. I think the biggest hit has been Connect Four because it brings back some childhood memories for students...however, the cool thing is that now that kids are older, they are really understanding the strategies behind winning the game. Students also love the metal Tavern Puzzles (for lack of a better name...I believe they were played in taverns back in the day), where they have to separate what seems like one piece into two.
HQ
3. My period G class falls at the end of the day. At first, this class came in quite sleepy and not as engaged. I always find that my least engaged students become my most engaged students at the end of the year. I think it's because I work harder at getting them motivated, but who knows. Anyway, we started talking about the viral game HQ and played once during our brainbreak. What a hit. While we can't play a lot (what could really be a 2 minute game can easily turn into 20 minutes with the commentary of my new fave Scott Rogowsky), I thought it was worthy to donate to the MS Society and have Scott do a cameo video for the class...SO FUN!!
"Breakfast Club"
4. My Mu Alpha Theta students have been peer tutoring a lot (I require 10 hours a year), but we have been holding a special session on Thursday mornings called "Breakfast Club." I got the idea from Sarah's post about Cookie Club. Math teachers don't offer extra help Thursday mornings, so I pick up donuts and about 10 - 15 of our members either help each other or are available to help any students who pop in. We've averaged only about 3 non-club member students a week, but it is a start. My officers want to continue it next semester. My classroom is not centrally located so we may move it to a better location, such as the new Entrepreneurial Center. However, no food is allowed there so we may need to rename the club! In February, the club will be hosting its first Math Games Night for either the Lower School, the Middle School, or both...stay tuned!! I'm very proud of my officers this year!
3D Printers
5. Our school bought three 3-D printers, and I'm excited about the prospect of having students create. I am not sure I want to sacrifice my conics project on Desmos, and it's too late to do something with parent functions, like what I read about in Heather's post, but I am psyched for the future. I am hoping to get John Stevens to do a workshop for us. Stay tuned on this as well!
Former Students
6. This is the time of year when former students come back to visit. What a treat! It's great to hear what they are up to. I love seeing the babies or marriages on Facebook, or just getting a quick rundown in person. I have one former student that I closely consider to be the daughter I never had. We see each other maybe once a year (she lives across the country), but we catch up here and there with a quick text or through social media. She was one of those students who laughed at every joke and whose eyes lit up during that lesson that you prayed would work. I taught her in Algebra 2, and she quickly rose to the top, getting A's on her exams and skipping over the next math class to get directly into Pre-Calculus. I actually first met her during her freshman year, on our Pathfinder school trip. I was trying to roll up my sleeping bag to fit in this impossibly small bag (something my husband always does for me), and to no avail, I could not do it. She quickly earned the name "Macgyver" as she rolled it up in about a second and proudly displayed the sleeping bag in its case, holding it by the string.
We have kept in touch ever since. Perhaps the hardest time seeing her after she graduated was when she flew back for a classmate's untimely death. The funeral was unbearable, for a life lost too soon. He was one of her best friends, and we still talk about his antics. That was a sad day, indeed.
I caught up with her last week, listening to her delightful stories of rubbing elbows with stars in LA (I am easily starstruck). It was a lovely start to winter break.
These are just a few of the cool things going on this year. Nothing remarkable. Which is just the way I like it.
I have assigned conic picture projects wayyyy before Desmos. My students did them by hand in the old days, and even on TI-83's (not easy) after that. This is the first time I ever did the project using Desmos, and it was a huge success. My students exceeded my expectations. Here is the project, some of which I got Mr. Sumerton.
Not only did students make great pictures, they did some pretty awesome math in the intersection part. And they told me that they really understood translating and conics so much better! Here are some pictures of their work.
What was even cooler is that some learned about trig curves and polar curves and how to rotate conics, even though they did not learn that in class.
And my other students, who saw the projects on display, were so impressed with their work! They wanted to know how the graphs were made, etc.
Above are parts of projects--I didn't take every picture because it would have been a lot.
Below is one full project, with the graphs made on Desmos colored in, the equations, and the points of intersection shown on Desmos and done algebraically.
And here is a close-up of one student's intersection work.
*Note: if you see any of these projects already online, please let me know, as we have a strict honor code on plagiarism. In addition, my students worked super hard on their projects and have gotten very upset when they see their projects copied online after I showcase their work on this blog. Let's keep sharing ideas and encouraging students to come up with their own :)
Tomorrow is the first day of school! I am teaching Honors Problem-Solving Seminar (see this for the first unit of the textbook I created, problem set 1, problem set 2, and the blog post by my students from last year.), Pre-Calculus AB (our newly named accelerated Pre-Calc, for kids moving on to AP Calculus AB next year), and Algebra 2 Honors. I have four classes, and we are lucky enough to have a Math Lab staffed one period a day by a math teacher. So that's my 5th period in a 7-period block schedule.
I was going to blog AFTER I got my thoughts together about what I am doing this week (we see all students Wednesday for 30 minutes, and then we see our first set of blocks on Thursday and our second set on Friday), but I realize I need this blog to gather my thoughts together RIGHT NOW. :)
Wednesday:
I have am using Apple TV in lieu of a SmartBoard, so I am using an iPad with Notability as a teaching tool. It's a little confusing using a laptop for writing lessons and an iPad for presenting, but I am getting the hang of it. We are a 1-1 school with laptops, so students do not have iPads.
I loved Mathy Cathy's blog about her first day, and think her use of Tackk is incredible. Since I am just getting familiar with Notability, I decided to use that but make something similar. I love the website https://www.canva.com/ and made this to display for students coming in:
Next, I am going to show students part of their homework, which is Who I Am...who can I give credit to for this? Mathy Cathy is also is doing this, so I felt good that I was doing the same. I knew my students would be confused about the self-portrait, so I like her addition in blue, but don't print that one out for the students!
Next, I am going to go over my syllabus. I know I've blogged about them before, but I can't remember where. I also am not sure who to give credit to here, so let me know if this was your idea! The "live" version has links to their text help and classroom google.
I know it's a lot of stuff to cover in 30 minutes! I am not going over the entire syllabus in one day.
We gave summer packets in the math department this year for the first time, so then I plan on showing students the second part of their homework, which is to fill out this google form on the questions they did not understand the most. I can look at the pie chart before class and see what I really need to go over in class. I already have one response and class didn't even start yet! I love Honors!
I am going to show them my extra help times so there is no question--I also have this posted on both of my doors.
It seems really cool and I'm excited to do it. You prepare a sheet of paper cut and folded in such a way that it looks easy to create, but it actually is not. You tell students they can walk around and look at it, but can't touch it and you give them paper and scissors and tell them they must recreate it, but they only get one shot. At the same time, you walk around and write down the things they are saying, like, "I can't do this!" "This is impossible!" etc. You write what they are saying on stickies or on the board and then eventually stop them and ask them how they felt.
Tom writes, "I then refer back to the language used during the activity and how the language we tell ourselves quickly becomes our own best friend or worst enemy. If students can start to reflect on the language they use about themselves at a (sic) young and choose a better path it is a fair bet their lives will be productive and fulfilling."
I know I will be short on time, so I will probably follow up with it in my classes the next day.
Thursday/Friday (blocks so only meet class once):
In Problem-Solving, I first need to share how cool my workbook cover is, in the shape of our crest and designed by a student who graduated last year.
I am going to start with the "National Math Salute," which I saw at FAU Math Day last year,
and its reveal...
I think they will love this because it seems so easy but it's almost impossible :)
Then we will do the topics on my first unit: 1-5-4-2-3 card game and Angela Duckworth's talk on grit that I posted about here. They will also get their first problem set assignment, due back in a week.
In Pre-Calculus, based on the questions that they check marked, I will go over whatever topics they need, and will have them go up to the board to practice problems. This is all we will do because we have only a 60-minute special schedule today, and they have a quiz on their summer packet Monday, and I know I may need to go over the activity and/or finish the syllabus.
In Algebra 2 Honors, I will do the same thing as in Pre-Calculus, but we have 30 more minutes. So I am going to do the 1-100 numbers activity from Sara V. I have seen this a lot, most recently from Sarah Carter, and because she said we have to do it, I'm gonna do it :)
So that's it for the week...whew! It seems like a lot, but I'm going to give it a try. Better to be overprepared than underprepared :)
