Math Teacher Mambo

Clock Update

2012-01-31T17:02:00.002-06:00

I saw this idea somewhere a while ago, and due to the number of questions I keep getting, I thought I'd have this clock enhancement. I don't say anything, it's just there for them to process. Woot! Future time tellers of America.

Special Quadrilaterals

2012-01-28T10:27:00.003-06:00

We've just finished our unit on special quadrilaterals, and before our test, I thought I would try to drill home the value of marking up your figure with pertinent information to help you solve problems. I also made them cover up their previous attempts with jokes about their wandering eye that may do them harm. I decided to do it in a "race" type format.

I wanted the kids to compete against themselves and make progress between attempts, so I said that they would be timing themselves and grading themselves and being consistent with how they marked mistakes.

I put an online timer on my computer and the document camera (this one was nice). I just set the start time for 0 and end time for 2 minutes just in case.

At each attempt, in one color, the student was to mark up the figure with useful/correct markings that represented the figure. I reminded them to QUIETLY lay down their pencils at the end (by being goofy and demonstrating the jerky contestant who makes tons of noise at the end). Then when everyone was done (all eyes up), we graded in a different color. We did 3 attempts for each shape, and I kept asking for hand raised if they made improvement. I said they could do the 4th attempt on the night before the test.

Helpful? Don't know, but it was a chance to drive home the importance of marking and knowing the properties.

Here's the document:

Thinking, Contributing, and Confidence...

2012-01-26T21:21:00.002-06:00

It finally hit me the other day, the students in my "regular" geometry class were so gun shy of answering questions. You know. I'd say something like, "and what kind of quadrilateral is this forced to be if it has ____ properties?".

Chirp.

Then someone bravely says, "rhombus." Then downcast eyes. Then, "oh I don't know, forget it." More downcast eyes with the body language of, "move on lady, nothing to see here." Even though it turns out the answer was right.

So after it happened again in my next "regular" class. I stopped the lesson and said the following:

You know if I could grade you all on your participation in your learning, it would go something like this.

* 3 points if you answer my question, and it's right. Because you're thinking and active in your learning.
* 2 points if you answer my question, and it's wrong. Because you're still in the game and willing to process your information and try.
* 1 point if you are paying attention and answering in your head but for whatever reason, you don't speak.
* 0 points if you just sit passively and think, oh, someone else will figure it out.
* -1 point if you sit there and think, hmmmm what's for lunch.

Then I mentioned the, "you can't just passively sit there and learn math" spiel. Then I went back to the lesson.

Hmmmm. Then there was lots of participation. And I would interject with, "3 points" .... "2 points" ... etc. ... hopefully it lasts.

Statistics vs Calculus

2012-01-25T22:04:00.004-06:00

It's choice sheet time, and our current crop of precalculus students (and algebra 2 students for that matter) are asking questions:

* What IS calculus?
* What IS statistics?
* Which one should I take?
* Can I take both eventually?

We've been having conversations on the fly, but I thought it would be good to get it all down on paper and send out a mass school e-mail. This way the students have a more informed way of making a decision as opposed to, "so and so said THIS one was easier .... or THIS one was the one to take .... or my friends are taking this one...".

Here's the document:

Collaboration

2012-01-22T11:29:00.002-06:00

I just got back from the Houston Regional T3 workshop and learned yet more things I can do with the TI-nspire.

* I now know how to use the student software to be useful to me
* I know how to link between calculator and computer/calculator to transfer things
* I know how to upload pictures onto the calculator and then use it for math, say on a graph page or a geometry page
* I know how to easily do piecewise function graphing

I'm very excited to use these activities for upcoming lessons.

AND. Something someone said sparked another idea. I'm wondering if there are any precalculus teachers out there with about 22 students that are willing to collaborate with my 22 students. I don't have a firm idea of the final product, but my thinking is along the lines of: we would somehow match up our "remote" pairs of students, and then they would have to work together to create something - blog, song, newsletter, podcast, other .... that has to do with precalculus - either teaching something as a review, finding a new thing that is associated with precalculus, coming up with a memory tool for a concept we've learned .... I want to leave it open enough, so that they can be creative and most likely think of something we don't envision. I do want to have more firm rules and periodic due dates along the way. I'm thinking of a project/activity that we give them about 3 or so weeks for. In this way, our students can find a new "math buddy" in another state, and they can learn skills of working with a total stranger to complete a task (good future working-life skill).

Any takers? If so, leave a comment, or send me e-mail (math_mambo@yahoo.com), and we can take it from there.

For that matter I have roughly 4 classes of geometry that we can do the same thing with. But in that case, I'd ultimately need about 86 or so total students.

Pa-ra-lel-o-grams

2012-01-15T21:33:00.002-06:00

I've been obsessively using the TI-nspire as a discovery tool in my classes these last 2 weeks. In geometry, we just started parallelograms, and I wanted them to explore the 5 properties of parallelograms, and it worked great.

One extra thing that I'm excited about is that I had them hold up their closed fists, and I asked them to put up a finger for every syllable of "parallelogram". Five! Ohhh! Five properties. So. Every time they discovered a new property on the calculator, I had them run through the list so far and tick off a new finger for the newly discovered property. We did this until we got through all 5 properties. Woot! Memory tool. Hopefully, they'll remember that there are 5 and parallelogram has 5 syllables, and they can recite all the properties:

1. parallel opposite sides
2. congruent opposite sides
3. congruent opposite angles
4. supplementary adjacent angles
5. diagonals bisect each other

Six Word Memoirs

2012-01-09T21:24:00.006-06:00

Recently, I was reminded of the "six word memoirs", and I decided to have that as my first day back homework for my precalculus students.

I had them create a small poster with 2 such memoirs, one for their "math life" and one for their "other/real life". Here's the assignment:

Here are some samples. Some were creative, some were eh, some were funny. I told them I'd do it to, so I'm tossing mine in the mix. Each poster has 2 memoirs on it.

Challenging Precal Problems

2012-01-08T15:07:00.003-06:00

A while ago, I gave my precalculus class a "clock faced" problem that was not something they were used to seeing. Some of them rose to the challenge and figured it out. Most started the problem and then petered out. Too many didn't know what to do.

I struggle with how to effectively teach problem solving skills, so here is my latest attempt that will be their homework tomorrow.

Polygon Angles

2012-01-06T19:38:00.005-06:00

I've tried various ways over the years of presenting the following 2 facts:
* (n-2)*180 is the sum of the interior angles of a polygon.
* 360 is the sum of the exterior angles of any polygon.

Yes, the students remember ultimately, but as I was looking over my old files this year to do it again, things just didn't sit right ... or I was in the mood for a change ... or I'm a different person now, and I want to approach it differently.

I hit upon the following method, and I think I like it the best (ask me what I think next time). Here are things I like about it: it's not talk, talk, talk. It's not, "let's do it all theoretically and then POOF here's the formula." It's not, "let's all explore a different polygon by drawing and measuring and seeing what happens and there'll be human error, but we'll hand wave that away." It's pretty efficient. It's different from what I usually do, so it'll stick in MY students' minds (hopefully).

I had everyone get a piece of colored paper and fold it in 4ths and cut the 4 separate rectangles. Then on one rectangle, I had them draw a heptagon (we drew a light circle, put 7 dots on it, and connected the dots). We took a colored marker to the border of the heptagon and made sure that some color was on the interior. We drew diagonals from one vertex. We cut out the heptagon. Then we cut the triangles out.

Then I said, so what we want to explore is if I had asked you to measure all the interior angles and add them up what would you get. So now look at what we have done, and see if you can figure out the answer and then ALSO figure out why I asked you to do these particular tasks.

Then I waited and eavesdropped. Then I asked a kid to explain. Then I had them tape this into their composition books to look something like this:

Then (after some other polygon stuff), on another piece of the colored paper, I had them draw an octagon but extend the sides to show the exterior angles. Before I had them do the following thing, I had them take thumb votes on the scenario, "as the number of sides increases, what do you think happens to the sum of the exterior angles as shown: thumbs up for increases, down for decreases, sideways for stays the same, or open palm for it depends on other factors." They thought and voted. Then we did....

Then I had them cut out the interior octagon and leave the border. We reviewed what the sum of the interior angles was (6 * 180). Then we built up what the sum of all the "lines" angles were (8 * 180). Then we thought and discovered and here's what they taped in their notebooks:

Then as always I ran out of time and was rushed and couldn't do any practice problems, so my resolution of stopping class 1 minute before the bell so they could pack up was not put into place today!

What I Did on Vacation...

2012-01-02T18:41:00.003-06:00

What's a vacation without lots of surfing on old and new favorites:
(I thought I'd share so that I'm not the only one losing many hours of my day)
(sorry, or you're welcome, whatever the case may be)

AwkwardFamilyPhotos
FoodGawker
MovieTrailers
HomeExercise
FunnySite
InterestingVideos

Almost Over...

2011-12-30T11:47:00.002-06:00

These days of enough sleep will soon come to an end. I'll miss the sleeping part, but I won't miss the sitting around on my heiny part. I'm wondering if it almost wouldn't be better to have a week shorter break, and then take those 5 days and sprinkle them around for FIVE FOUR-DAY weeks at various times during the year. Then it would be like mini vacations all the time.

I went to a wedding of an old friend yesterday, a retired math teacher getting married for the first time, WOOT, and not surprisingly, he invited a bunch of other math teacher friends he'd taught with throughout his career. I was chatting with a few, and we happened upon the discussion of administration. A retired woman was commenting on the fact that as the years went on in her teaching, she'd see various administrators come and go, and they got younger and younger and greener and greener and she just had to ride out the tide.

Some other retired middle school teacher's husband commented on the fact that at the various school parties he noticed a hefty amount of alcohol. Ahem.

Another teacher was reminiscing about the days when there would be a "homework hotline" where they were paid $10/hour to sit and wait in the evening for possible student calls for math/english help.

Another retired teacher was mentioning the fact that she now gets paid $26/hour to tutor 10 students at a particular school. I know of another retired math teacher that tutors students in a wealthy district for about $40-$50/hour and for most of the year (half the year?) has about 20 students on his roster once a week. Yeesh. I guess there won't be any shortage of things to do when that time comes. ...

Success!

2011-12-21T17:00:00.002-06:00

That's what I deem this first day of vacation.

It started out with a much needed 8 hours of sleep. Continued on later with a brisk exercise walk in our "freezing" 46 degree weather. Followed by a yummy lunch and 2.5 hour nap. Enhanced by starting a book ("Odd Thomas" by Dean Koontz) recommended by a work friend. To be concluded with having friends over with delicious take out from a neighborhood Italian restaurant.

This year has aged me ... or maybe I'm just aging. I don't wear glasses (except for driving), but I've been noticing a fuzzier appearance to the world. I guess that's what 46+ years will do to you. I'm also not getting enough sleep during the school week/year, so I feel haggard. I'm also skipping yoga too much because I feel trapped at work too late (maybe that will be my New Year's resolution: leave on time on Tuesdays). This causes me to feel stiff and achy and stressed. I think I may piggy back that resolution onto another resolution a friend told me about: try at least one new type of drink a month (to get out of her same old same old rut).

I did enjoy two new endeavors this semester. The first was teaching Digital Electronics. Loved it! It's a nice mix of logic and math and breadboards and LEDs and such that you control with your skill.

The second was an online Java course I took (and will continue taking in the spring). It's the AP Computer Science curriculum taught through the University of Missouri. The teacher is great, the curriculum is well laid out. The topic is fun. I get to program again. I even made a version of "green globs" for my final project, and it worked! I love the push I have to actually go through the subject because of the deadlines and grades and tests I have to submit. I know if I just said I'd do it on my own it would be so easy to put it off all the time because I am busy.

All in all, it was a good semester, and MOST of all, I'm going to enjoy my free time by napping and reading and movie-ing and puzzling and such.

Challenge

2011-12-16T17:26:00.002-06:00

This problem makes me happy in its difficulty and challenge. I threw down the gauntlet to my precalculus students. We'll see if they run with it to the finish line or not. Either way, I wanted the smartie smarts to at least know there are some problems out there that require more than just rote brain power.

End-O-Semester...

2011-12-09T19:33:00.002-06:00

As always it's just slam-banged and gotten here already. Now it's a scramble to get all things graded and finals written and reviews made and failers cheered on to get their act together and mouths kept shut due to lack of sleep and knowledge that if something comes out of my tired brain/mouth it will be a regrettable snarky comment that won't do anyone any good.

On a positive note, I have this extremely clever 8th grader this year. She's quiet and polite, but every time the timing is right, she comes up with these zingers. For example, today I quickly made up a review sheet for geometry, and it had an answer bank on the bottom. Being the last-minute person that I am, it was all hand-written. Well, as a shock to no one, there were 2 mistakes in the answer bank due to my non-checking of my work. So as their class started, and I handed out the hand-written sheet, I mentioned that there were some "pen-o's" on the sheet (you know, typos, but penos). This class also knows since I've mentioned it several times that I have a pen buying problem, and I'm trying to go through my current bazillion stash before I succumb again to purchasing more.

Anyway, after I said, "pen-o", she said, "is that like wino but with pens?" Then we chuckled and mentioned that I should join PA, "hello, my name is ____ and I have a pen problem."

Not Just For Special Occasions...

2011-11-28T20:48:00.002-06:00

In my geometry class, I'm trying to keep their algebra skills fresh (AND exciting!), so lately I've brought back lines: find the equation of a line parallel to ____ going through point ____; find 4 points on the line ______; etc. I reviewed point-slope form, slope-intercept form, standard form.

Well, many students came in for tutoring and were stuck on this problem:
Find 4 points on the line 3x + 2y = 12.

Them: "I don't know what to do."
Me: "How many points on a line?"
Them: "Infinity."
Me: "Yes, infinITE. What do you think is true about this equation and any point on this line."
Them: chirp chirp of crickets.

Me: explanation, showing, bla bla bla.
Them: "oh yea" .... work furiously.
Them: "I'm stuck. I can't find any more."
Me: looking and seeing that they have guessed and checked their capacity of integer valued (x,y) values.
Me: "Just pick an x and solve for y."
Them: "I tried, and NOTHING ELSE WORKS!"
Me: "Decimals and Fractions! They're not just for special occasions."
Them: "Oh, I didn't know you could have non-integer points."
.....

Eye Contact

2011-11-22T20:38:00.002-06:00

For sad work-related issues of not being able to get out of work on time, I often miss my 1 favorite yoga class in the week. It's either that or be the jerk that walks into class late frequently ... so I settle for being the jerk every other week or so. What I love about the class is that the teacher always has a theme or some sort of life lesson she winds through the class. She also changes it up EVERY week. She's also very fit and warm and a good person and makes sure she learns everyone's names.

At the end of class, she stands outside the door, and people always clamor for her attention and want to talk to her as they are leaving, but she always says goodbye to everyone. What I notice the last few times is that the moment I'm leaving, she's engaged in conversation, and though I do get a, "bye," there's no eye contact since she's otherwise engaged. What I also notice is that it started to bug me. ... not in the sense of, "the nerve of the woman!" but in the sense of, "hey, notice I'm a human being amongst the other human beings here."

Then, of course, I noticed that I frequently do that to my students at various times. There are those students that by the very nature of their personalities just force you to pay attention to them. A LOT. Then there are the quiet polite ones that just go about their business, and maybe I may never make eye contact with them (much?). Maybe that may happen in most/all of their classes, and even if it doesn't, it's a shame it happens in mine. I get into the state of, I'm dealing with a class or a question you have or the math of it, and it's a "situation" not a person I'm dealing with.

So today, after each student was finished with their test, when I collected the paper, I made sure to smile and say a quiet thank you and actually make eye contact with each of my students.

Woot! One day of successful eye contact down. A bazillion more days to remember to do this.

Precalculus Trig Function Transformations

2011-11-17T21:55:00.003-06:00

We've just finished a unit on transforming trig function graphs:
y = a sin b(x + c) + d.
We did various things and practice, but I think I found my new BFF towards the end of the unit once we were reviewing for the test.

A student was having a hard time looking at a graph of a transformed function and getting the equation. I had some old transparencies that had the coordinate plane on it with radians on the x axis. I also had half sheets of cut up transparencies and a ton of markers. I laid the 1/2 sheet over the graph and had the student draw the parent function of the sine graph (for example). Then she was able to slide the 1/2 transparency any place she wanted to see what the transformed graph would look like (barring amplitude and period changes ...... though I guess we could have used another 1/2 transparency overlayed on that one).

This seemed to help gel in her mind the steps she had to take. I think next year I may give all students such transparencies just to keep and play with for the duration of the unit. .... My 2nd thought was to have pipe cleaners they could manipulate into the shapes and then move those around on a graph.

Also, I loved this particular review question I gave. There was a picture of a (say a potential sine graph) that has been transformed in all sorts of ways. The question was: find 2 possible equations for this graph. I guess a variation question could be: find a sine and a cosine equation for this graph ... or find 2 sine equations and 2 cosine equations for this graph.

End of the 6 Weeks...

2011-11-12T17:36:00.002-06:00

Well, from 20+ failing students down to 3 for now and possibly only 1 or 2 after I grade some test corrections and put in more homework grades. What IS it with certain types of people that they have to hit rock bottom with their grades before they start putting out some effort? I guess it's probably a mix of human nature to get by with as little as possible plus teenage brains plus maybe a dose of "they don't REALLY mean it that I'll fail, do they?", plus an ounce of "math's hard, let's go shopping!".

On the positive side, one of my hardcore, "I hate math, and I probably hate you, and I'm going to be as obnoxious as possible to get some attention" students pulled it together in the last couple of weeks and started behaving semi-politely and actually put out an effort to understand the math and take her retests and learn some geometry. On the negative side, she's also the student that couldn't really with utmost certainty tell me what "8 over 4" really means in terms of life/math/reality. "one half? 2? I don't know! what are you asking?". Oy!

But on the "am I a glutton for punishment?" side, it always seems to be the most gratifying when THOSE kids get it together and pull through and actually learn something. Hah! Forget the nice kids that are always doing the right thing and being polite and being good students! Boring!

.... Just kidding.

Timed Trig Quizzes....

2011-11-09T22:20:00.003-06:00

Well, it's towards the end of the 6 weeks (1 more day), and it's the last chance for my kidlets to do their "1 minute / 10 question / know your special radian sine/cosine/tangent angles" quiz. Whew! Most of them have passed, and I think they surprised themselves.

When I first gave it to them weeks ago, they couldn't even get 2 accurate (let alone complete the quiz). Now, they're just whipping them out. I kept saying that I wasn't worried and that they'd rise up to it and that they'd surprise themselves, but it would take work. .... Some of them even surprised me. You can't imagine the whining throughout the process (or maybe you can) .... Why is it timed? Why do we have to do this? I can't do this! This is impossible! Whaaaaaaaa! I'll never pass. Stopppppp! What if I don't pass????

Honestly, I don't remember how long I used to give them in the past ... and like a bad teacher, I didn't look it up. I assumed it was one minute, and now I'm wondering if it was 2 ... but I don't think so. Even my most snail-paced-think-through-everything-twice student was successful. Woot!

The repetition is the key, and it's even good if it takes them longer to pass because that's more time they have to spend memorizing all the angles.

Magic Hand and Transversals...

2011-11-05T14:03:00.004-05:00

We started talking about 2 lines cut by a transversal this week in geometry. I had fun with the "magic hand" statement, and it seemed to work with my students. I held up my hand at the appropriate moment and asked them what it was ..... "a magic hand!", and then I placed it over the "4th line" that I had drawn.

I also mentioned that the two lines could be like sandwich slices and the transversal is the toothpick that goes through the sandwich. So when I had them identify types of angle pairs, I could keep saying, "who's the bread? who's the toothpick?". That seemed to help them be successful once the "magic hand" removed an extra line.

Quote of the Day...

2011-11-01T21:19:00.001-05:00

"It's not a mistake. It's a white-out opportunity."

Substitutes...

2011-10-30T17:59:00.002-05:00

Eesh. I had to go to a PLTW meeting last week and had a substitute for the whole day. First of all was the planning and me being a last-minute person. I was at school from 6pm - 9pm the night before getting ready ... THEN had dinner. STARVING. Anyway, that told me a couple of things I didn't realize or never stopped to count. I guess it takes about 3 hours every day to plan for the day and make it happen. Then when I added it up, it wasn't too far off.

I get to school at about 7:15 and plan and prep until 9:15. Then in my early off period I do more prep. Of course there are interruptions and such, but sheesh, I never counted it all up before.

But, I really wanted to process the substitute experience, and how you can't plan for EVERYTHING, or maybe it's just me who can't remember everything. I am patting myself on the back because I remembered to tell him my bathroom policy, so there would be no issues. I DIDN'T remember to tell him about my food policy because it's not something on my mind .... and that's kind of ironic because the whole time I was at school that night I was STARVING (in case I haven't mentioned that yet).

I don't mind kids discretely eating snacks in my class as long as it's not distracting, and they clean up after themselves, and they're tuned into me, and it's healthy-ish. If it ever is a problem, I speak with the student and deal with it (which rarely happens). Well, I forgot to put this on my plans, and the substitute had a "no eating in class policy" apparently, and my students were not used to it, and he made some students throw out their food and put away the other food.

Next, I put something in my plans about either him going over the homework key or having students come up and explain. Again, silly me, since I'm such a control freak and always present the key (mostly for time sake), it didn't occur to me he might choose the OTHER option of students doing it. Well, apparently, this took 2 or 3 times as long, and then they didn't have enough class time to do the lesson. The reason I put that in the plans was in case there was a problem that someone needed an explanation for, then the students could elaborate. Of course this was all in my head, and apparently, the substitute is not a mind reader.

Anyway, I heard ALL about this from my students when I got back, and we commiserated. But. I had to tell them that being a substitute is SUPER hard, and they're not treated very nice, and YES, when they're in the room, it IS their classroom.

On an AWESOME note. My 10th grade (on level) geometry class kept informing me via e-mail or after I got back that they had a BIG argument about one of my truth table problem solutions. They were convinced I was wrong and had a big discussion about it in class. YAY! They were actually right, and I love it that they were confident enough in the topic to recognize my mistake as opposed to quietly assuming they were wrong and passively writing down my answer.

Sine Curve Application...

2011-10-25T21:56:00.005-05:00

Today in precalculus we worked on a "real life" application of the sine curve. Sure I could have done this without a worksheet, and put the data on the overhead, but I like the sheet because it's a different way of differentiating instruction. Everyone can work at their own pace, and I'm free to wander around helping and hinting instead of being trapped up front talking at the class.

This took about an hour. I basically said, "go" and let them struggle. They had various issues:

*amplitude, how do I find that? (I showed them something more familiar to them, and they then figured it out ... say a sine graph shifted up with max of 10 and min of 6).

* period? what? 360? (no ... think about how long the yearly cycle would be)

* vertical shift? now wait a minute lady (think .... look at old work we've done)

* horizontal shift? what the?!?!?!? how? (think .... )

They finally got through enough of the answers, so we talked it through, and then the final what?????? hey, it doesn't go through EVERY point! That bothers me! Make it stop! (calm down. real life is messy. It's a MODEL. We make assumptions...)

Week from H.E.Double.Hockey.Sticks.....

2011-10-22T16:03:00.002-05:00

Phew! I'm still alive, and I didn't damage kids too much, and I'm still reasonably sane. This week was filled with drama and lack of sleep and midterms and bell schedule changes and teacher (me) melt downs and ....

Too predictable to mention, because I'm sure we've ALL had such weeks, and I'm sure there'll be others like it. On the plus side, I'm glad it happened (now that it's over), because I was getting a wee bit worried with so many positive days happening in a row. It's like waiting for the other shoe to drop, and you start getting paranoid because you KNOW it's coming, so you want it to come (sort of) to get this cycle over with.

On the funny side .... and it TOTALLY doesn't apply to me since I love my job, but I found this funny quote:

“Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar.”
(Drew Carey)

Student Questions

2011-10-19T22:53:00.002-05:00

In my mind I believe I keep a neutral face when I answer student questions. Most of the time it's okay, but I'm thinking of those times when you JUST answered something 2 seconds ago, and then 5 more students ask in a row the same question. I know, I know, it's human nature, and you're multitasking, and you may have been concentrating on something else when it was answered, etc, but still, MY human-ness makes me roll my eyes (on the inside) and say to myself (on the inside), "for the love of G**, I JUST answered that" all the while .... blank face ..... or to vary it up a bit, a wry smile ... and answer the same question again.

Or those times, when someone asks a bizarre math question (or at least it seems bizarre to me) .... blank face.

So anyway. Today in precalculus, someone was asking a math-related question, and then, I don't know, for some reason, I felt all the other students' eyes on me to see my reaction as I answered the question. It sort of felt like, "let's see how she handles this potentially silly question ... (but I don't know if it's silly because I sort of want to know it, too .... but maybe it's silly ... let me see), so that I know in the future if it will be safe to ask MY question or will she make me feel bad, so I'll just be quiet."

It just hit me again, that the judging of "playing school" goes both ways. We judge constantly how the students are being students, and they judge in all situations if it's okay to learn however they need to learn, or if they have to be on guard about things around you.

Or maybe I'm reading too much into it, and they were just staring at me because I looked so tired or it was just a place to rest their eyes.

Real Life Logic

2011-10-14T17:30:00.002-05:00

Before I started my logic unit in geometry, I told my students that in their lives lots of people are going to try to sell them things: products, ideas, candidates, positions/views.... and they can choose to be passive receivers of information or they can be critical thinkers with the information and make their own decisions.

Recently, there was a newspaper article that lit a fire under my students, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to put this into action. I copied the article and put line numbers on it, and gave them this sheet:

After our discussion on all things logic, I gave them some quiet time in class to start the article and highlight and think for a bit, and then discuss with each other, and then toss around some thoughts on what the author was trying to sell them. Then they had the rest for homework.

Today, when they got back to class, I took them out into the hall and paired them off facing each other with directions on what to discuss. Then we rotated around (like a rubber band I told them) and got a new partner and discussed the next question and so on. LOVED IT. They were on fire and got a chance to interact with different people than they usually work with and they got to defend their choices and such.

The actual article is not that important to y'all, but I think it helps if it's a wee bit controversial. Before they handed it in, I had them jot down some of their comments about the actual homework:

"long" ..... (I may shorten it to only 4 "conditionals" or so if I did it again)
"I don't see how it relates to geometry" ... so I guess I have to reiterate why we did this and how it's an application of logic
"it made logic have more sense to me"
"it makes the conditionals make sense because we had something to apply it to"
"it helped me actually have to think deeply about the article"
"I think it took too long, but helped with conditionals" (again, I do think 6 is too many)

Obsessed!

2011-10-13T18:54:00.003-05:00

You know, in all my spare time, I had to fill the vacuum, so now I'm obsessed with making these:

Which I heard about from pinterest.com (another obsession) and ultimately from this blog.

Stick a Fork In It

2011-10-11T20:17:00.002-05:00

I had a nice reminder yesterday that (obviously) our students are not finished products.

I don't know about you, but it's too easy for me to get some idea about a student (heck, let's just say a person), and then in my mind, BOING, that's my perception of them. So any time I see them in the future, that's a label or whatever that comes along for the ride while I'm having my interaction with the student/person.

News Flash. People change. Shocking! Right? And students change constantly. And students are influenced by people and events and occurrences around them. So this person/student that was a noodge or mean or ran with the "wrong crowd" or _________, may not be that person today. Or they may be, but that doesn't mean that your interactions with them or other people's dealings with them won't have a positive, cumulative effect for a future date. I shouldn't "write people off" or (sub)consciously treat them in a certain way because of something I know about them or heard about them because .... they are not finished products.

So that was a nice gentle wake up call to me (along with the good news about a student that WAS running with the wrong crowd but is now making visible steps to break free). See! I'm not a finished product either. Woot!

Extras That Are Saving Me This Year...

2011-10-09T13:04:00.002-05:00

You know how you gather tons of teaching advice throughout your career. Some sticks, some doesn't seem to (but who knows, maybe the fact of filtering through the information allows you to take a stand on things valuable to you).

Here is one that always stuck with me, "find pockets of time and use them wisely". This was given in the sense of, "yes you have to grade that huge stack of papers, and yes it will take you maybe 2 hours, and no you probably will never consistently have 2 hours in one shot, BUT, if you find 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there, then the work gets done, and it's ALMOST painless .... because everyone can stand most ANYTHING for 15 minutes." In this way (unless you're using your 15 minutes to rejuvenate), instead of sitting around chatting or surfing or whatnot, then use that 15 minutes to chip away at work that you'll have to do.

Here's how it's helped me this year:
I'm doing lesson plans this year, and I'm keeping up with the online homework calendar and the GradeSpeed updating of homework.

Old Me: oh, I'll do those 3 things after school, or I'll do them on the weekend, or I'll do them LATER. And this was hit or miss successful, and when it was successful, it amounted to a ton of time playing catch up.

New Me (for now .... work in progress): Boom, I just wrote the homework on the whiteboard, let me quickly use 1 minute to put it on the homework calendar and then it's done. ... oh let me SIT for 15 minutes after school and actually write my lesson plans instead of just taking them home for a round trip. .... oh, the students are correcting their homework from the overhead, let me put the new homework on GradeSpeed.

So that's one consistent improvement this year. Here's another one.

Old Me: oh, something unusual is coming up soon or not so soon. Let me write a sticky note, and that will remind me of it when it comes to disrupt my schedule (meeting, e-mail I have to send, conference I have to sign up for). And maybe I'll see the sticky note in time or not.

New Me: Let me put it on my Google Calendar and add several e-mail reminders that will shoot me e-mail periodically to keep it fresh in my mind.

Old Me: wow! look at the pile of p** that is my desk.

New Me: let me put away just 7 things right now. (oh look a smaller pile of p** ... for now).

Calculator Precalculus

2011-10-05T18:50:00.004-05:00

Geometry. Geometry. Geometry. It's almost like I don't teach another class. BUT. I totally teach precalculus, and it's fun to get back to it after a 2 year break.

We're currently learning how to solve "simple" trig equations on the calculator. I make the students purchase a scientific calculator, so that they have one at home and so that when we have "graphing" tests, they can still use this calculator.

Here's what we're currently working on, and I just have to say, still LOVE the answer banks. [note: added later .... eek! error in answer bank on front side. "5.6034" should be "3.8214"]

I'm also going to start the 100% or 0% quizzes soon. I want them to have quick and accurate access in their heads to the sine, cosine, and tangent of all the special angles given in radians (including on the axes). I give them a 10 question (14?) quiz and I take it with them the 1st time. I tell them that I'll give them twice as much time as it takes me, and they have to get 100% or it's a 0%. They can take it as many times as they want throughout the 6 weeks. This forces them to have a super fast grasp of it.

"Funny"

2011-10-03T20:23:00.002-05:00

As my husband and I were pulling out of the "membership only big store" parking lot, we passed a Wendy's. There was an advertisement for job openings, both cashier and manager. The manager's position said, "make up to $55,000 per year".

Then I had to pause. That's more than I make after 14+ years of teaching as a Texas teacher. Eeesh!

Pizza & Circles

2011-10-02T20:57:00.003-05:00

We were at one of those membership-huge-quantities types of stores today, and I saw this. I made my husband go back and film it with his cell phone (as I don't have one). Bla bla bla, dark ages, bla bla bla. Anyway, Geometry! Circles! Engineering! Pizza! Woot! (* this seems to work with Internet Explorer, but not with Mozilla hmmmmmm)

Truth Tables

2011-10-01T15:16:00.005-05:00

We're well into our journey of logic in geometry, and we just started truth tables. In the past, I walked them through the 5 basics (conjunction, disjunction, conditional, biconditional, and double negation). We make up funny statements and see how things work. Then IN THE PAST I have immediately stepped into building a large truth table such as: (p or q) --> (~p and q) or some such thing. Shockingly, it was too fast of a leap into the deep end.

I had tried various things such as cutting out each column on pretty paper and moving things around, or working examples with them, or whatever. Not completely successfully. And then this year, I think I got it (after my 10th or 11th year teaching the topic!).

This year, right at the end of class for the basics, I set up a 3 column truth table, where I gave them weird columns for the 1st 2, and I gave them various "T"s and "F"s for the first 2 columns. Then I had them think about what the new action was on the 3rd column.

Example (of 3 column headers):
1st column: (p -->q)
2nd column: ~r and w
3rd column: (p-->q) OR (~r and w)

At first they were all, "what?", but I kept silent and eventually would dole out little clues if they were stuck (like boxing in one color the 1st column header and that same thing in same color in the 3rd column). They FINALLY got, "oh! you're just "ORing" 2 things. Voila! They went to the appropriate basic table and filled in appropriately.

Here's a piece of their homework for that night:

Then, when I started class the next day, we did a "fill in 2 columns" one, and they were okay. THEN I just started truth tables, and it seemed more successful than before. Woot!

Project Results....

2011-09-27T21:06:00.004-05:00

Here is the back of the project sheet I mentioned last post. I don't COMPLETELY feel comfortable posting it .... I'm hazy on these copyright laws .... so I'm just showing it to you. AND here are four examples of what my students came up with. They continue to inspire me with their creativity.

Personal Ad Project-ette

2011-09-24T14:53:00.003-05:00

It was a day of service last Friday, and I was going to be out with my high schoolers, and leave my little 8th grade geometers stranded, gasping for geometry air. Baby project to the rescue.

A while ago I saw this section in Weight Watchers Magazine where they introduce a new vegetable or fruit or some other healthy food and make it look like a personal ad. Something to the effect of "Hello, My Name is Squash" .... "on weeknights you can find me..." ... "things you may not know about me....", etc. I copied this page on the back of the following sheet:

I didn't get all of them back yet, but holy cow some were funny. One was, "ANGLEina Jolie" whose parents were rays and who had "25 degrees" ranging from accounting to psychology. I'll post some when I get them all back. But those students make me giggle.

Conversation Snippets...

2011-09-21T23:03:00.002-05:00

Geometry Class:

Conversation One:
Class: "Are you going to let us have a formula sheet on the test?"
Me: with shocked awe, "No."
Class: Stunned silence as they think I'm kidding.
Me: "Seriously? Three formulas. I know you can handle it."

Conversation Two:
Student: "Are you going to let us use calculators on the test?"
Me: Started a long-winded response on why I'd be doing them a disservice if I let them use a calculator on THIS test .....
Me: glance at the vacant look that is starting to pass over the student's face.
Me: "Do you want the long answer or the short answer?"
Student: "Short answer."
Me: "No."
Student: "Okay."

Conversation Three:
(me walking past a student who I see (or think I see....) stuck on a problem I know is hard from the packet they're working on.
Me: starting in and continuing on being very helpful with hints on how to get started.
Student: politely doing what I ask.
Me: pause.
Student: I wasn't even on that problem.
Me: ..... "did you even call me over, or did I just start helping you?"
Student: "I didn't call you over."
Me: walk on by......

Conversation Four:
(after I explained to my "on level" class how a particular 4 problems on their packet were challenging, so I'd like them to try them, but I don't want them to get stuck on them and then not move on to other problems)
Student: (pushing through and probing on how to be successful on this particular problem) .... "I want to be that student this year that pushes herself to try hard things past my comfort level and go above and beyond."
Me: bursting with pride for her and a big smile and congratulations to her for having that life attitude.

Self-Award-Winning Crank

2011-09-17T23:16:00.003-05:00

Oy! Who let ME out of the loony bin? As the week went by I got more and more crotchety and ornery and just generally not fun to be around (if you were a teenager who happened not to behave in a manner I found perfect). I think all the moons aligned and teenagers had to nerve to act like teenagers and as a perfect person who always behaves perfectly, I couldn't abide by the nonperfectness of the young humans around me.

Thank goodness the weekend has rolled around, and I can hole up in my home and reflect on what my options are for buying some patience next week. Maybe there'll be a two for one sale. Maybe I'll get some sleep and store up some patience. Maybe to kidlets will forgive me for snarling at them.

In other news, four school weeks have rolled by, and, no joke, we've already had days off for college field trips, time off to give school tours to visitors, early dismissal for volleyball tournaments, shortened schedules for student council speeches, (upcoming) day off for doing service and for bonding retreats, (upcoming) partial day off for college representative tour. Nope. Nobody here is stressed with the dwindling days to teach.

In funnier news, I heard a joke on Prairie Home Companion today that provided MUCH-needed laughter:
A couple was out celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary, and the wife punches the husband in the shoulder and says, "that's for 25 years of so-so sex."
The husband thinks a bit and punches his wife in the shoulder and says, "that's for knowing the difference."

Geometry Diagrams

2011-09-11T13:14:00.003-05:00

Last week after we learned more ways to notate a diagram to represent various things (midpoint, bisecting, ...), I handed out the following activity in class.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

I walked around a bit until I saw that a couple of problems were done and searched for a mixture of 3 to 4 papers that had mistakes of varying sorts and possibly some correct answers. Then I made sure to thank the students in advance for providing us with a learning opportunity and discussed how you can learn way more from searching for errors than from getting something right the first time.

I put problem #1 on the document camera and made sure that each student's name was not evident, then I asked the class to discuss with each other what were the correct things on the diagram shown and what were things that could be improved or corrected. I tried to use positive language and kept promoting it as a learning opportunity for ALL involved (which, obviously I think it is, but teens being teens....).

We went through a frew #1's, then did the same with #2. Then after I passed back the papers, I repeated the process with a few problems at a time as the need arose.

We especially had good conversations about #4 vs. #8. In number 8 many students wanted to make "T" be 2 different points. In #4, some students thought that if the angles had the same angle measure, then they were "the same angle".

Week Three

2011-09-07T22:27:00.002-05:00

I'm sleepy/tired, but I'm having fun with my students. Highlights of this week:

* one of my 8th graders today was staying for geometry tutoring, and apparently her bra was too tight (ask me how I know). She talked at length about it, but each time she said bra, her voice went down to a whisper.

* one of my 11th graders mentioned that she gives hugs more frequently when she's stressed. I've been getting a ton of hugs lately. Especially since I have her for 2 classes and an advisory.

* my students are LOVING the soldering in the Digital Electronics class. We're each of us feeling like "all that" since we're doing something that seemed unmanageable.

* I'm taking the online computer science course with one of my students. Her current grade is higher than mine (don't ask). She's giving me "fun" grief about it. Game on! is what I say.

* I came up with a good activity that was useful and effective in geometry on the fly today (maybe more later). Good feeling.

* Our school is right by a place that has coffee and cookies, and all the math teachers have last block off. Today we mosied down for a short 15 minute break and yapped and caffeinated before we got back to it.

* I dived into introducing the TI-nspire calculator to my precalculus class (I used the "Scavenger Hunt" activity). The kids thought the calculator was the coolest thing.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzy

2011-09-05T10:53:00.003-05:00

Have 2 weeks flown by already? I'm a slave to my agenda and am constantly updating and recreating and SOMEtimes crossing off items on my to-do list. It's all still start of the year EXTRA stuff that has to be done and takes time and "gets in the way of" actual planning of what I need to teach.

I did something crazy. A student wanted to take an online computer science/programming course, and our AP asked me if I thought the student could handle it. Hah! This kid can totally do it, so I said yes, she is self-motivated and can handle the course load. Then the AP asked if I would help the student if she needed it. While my mind was processing the answer, "yes", my mind also thought that even though I took/passed the teacher certification test to teach programming, I haven't actually PROGRAMMED in ages (let alone JAVA programming), and then my mind ran through various scenarios of the student asking me for help and me just sitting there with a stunned look on my face not being helpful at all. So. While these horror pictures were running through my head, my mouth decided that the best solution would be to utter the words, "why don't I take the online course with her?"

Flash forward to this weekend where the bulk of my time has been to do our first real reading and doing assignment. It's a semester-long course given through University of Missouri, and it's an AP CS course like in high school. The instructor has it all neatly and well laid out online. There are weekly assignments and midterm/final tests and forums we need to participate in. But ..... bzzzzzzzzzzzzy.

The positive side is that by January, when choice sheets come around for next year, I'll be in a much better position to show what a programming class would look like.

Did you know that there is an actual Pearson book for AP CS classes? I respect the Pearson books in general because they don't seem as "babyish" as the Holt book I have for Geometry. The one seems great so far.

Am a a juvenile in thinking upon seeing "Cara Cocking"'s name that she totally must have taken a lot of ribbing in school (or her husband did if that's the case).

Mobiles and Matching

2011-08-27T06:13:00.003-05:00

I was SO excited for the 1st weekend to come after school started, so that I could catch up on sleep. Didn't happen. Apparently, my body now thinks it's a great idea to try existing on 6 hours per night or so. BUT this is only in the school year. Go figure. AND I have jury duty on Monday. What's up with that?

Anyway, I had some great projects come back from our summer packet for geometry kids. The kids are so creative. Here are some:

I also did this activity just yesterday with my geometry kids. I like the fact that it's not necessarily a direct match up, so they have to think.

Funny 1st Day Story

2011-08-23T06:39:00.002-05:00

We had an all-school assembly before classes started on the first day of school yesterday. Tons of hugs were given and received between returning students and teachers. Before I continue, in my defense, I just want to say at the outset that I got my fair share of hugs. I'm just saying.

At one point, I see one of my former students (I've had her for 3 classes so far, and another this year), starts running towards me with her arms outstretched and a big smile on her face. So, I smile back and open my arms ..... just as she runs past me to greet another teacher.

As she passes me and sees me waiting, she hesitates slightly ONLY slightly as if to say, "oh, awkward", and then continues to go for the OTHER teacher hug.

First Day Activities

2011-08-20T18:50:00.003-05:00

I'm happy with the outcome of my geometry and precalculus day 1 activities. Now we'll see how they pan out. Now to plan/map out the REST of the year.

Geometry:

Precalculus:

Outlook

2011-08-20T10:08:00.002-05:00

We "finished" our first "fake week back" at school. And by finished I mean that I'm going in today to continue to get ready for the students' first day on Monday. Things are mostly done, but I still have to make copies and finalize my decision on the first day activity for 2 classes.

I THOUGHT I had a general plan of what to do, but then my friend/dept. chair throws THIS book at me. Oy! There are some great things in there, and once I finally adjust the idea of my geometry day plan and my precal plan, I'll share.

Which brings up another thing that was happening as I planned. I don't know if it's past experience or other reasons for the hesitation, but I printed things out: syllabus, autobiography, seating chart plan, etc. and then I hesitated on making my final copies and getting it done. I guess I've done that enough and made tons of copies, and then realized that it wasn't JUST right or JUST what I wanted. Or maybe I just like the thrill of the last minute. Hmmmm. Anyway, it worked out well this time, because, YES I had to alter the syllabus, YES I had to alter the seating chart (yay! largest class currently is 26 and not 30), YES I totally am revamping my 1st day activity.

Which finally brings me to another funny saying I've seen lately: I have CDO. It's like OCD, but with the letters in alphabetical order - like they're supposed to be.

Last Friday Before the "Fake" 1st Week of School

2011-08-12T18:03:00.003-05:00

To relieve my bum's fascination with sitting and surfing on the computer all the time (it's really talented), I went in to school every day this week for a wee bit and unpacked and decided on desk structure (30 kids! Woot!) and stuff. You can see I'm still not done, but I've made headway, and my butt thanks me for actually walking around. You're welcome, bane of my rear.

Here are the unpacked boxes SO FAR:

Here is what I'm trying out. Two students per table. Long rows. No extra room. Oh! and look! More schtuff to put away:

I'm trying to be more organized this year. I tried to put myself on a pen diet last year. NO MORE PEN BUYING. Apparently, my fascination with the show, "Hoarders", .... hmmmm, a little sensitive?

What's this? More hoarding tendencies? And I didn't even buy any pens or stickies this year. Yet.

Funny...

2011-08-10T09:03:00.002-05:00

This made me giggle. I don't know if it makes me feel super old or super young or what. I'm FaceBook "friends" with several former students. Most of the time it's okay, but sometimes I have to hide all the posts from a particular ex-student because I don't want to know how much they drank or did other things. That's about 1% of them. The rest are just fun to see grow up and explore and get jobs and live.

Anyway, this student graduated HS about 2007, so maybe he's graduated from college right now and roughly 22 years old. His post was:

Is it just me or is the crap that kids are watching now a days really really suck?? I mean what happened to the good stuff??

Hah! "Kids these days"! Does he feel like an old man?

Update ...

2011-08-09T08:03:00.002-05:00

I couldn't let it go, and it kept bothering me for a variety of reasons. So I just sent the following e-mail to the person mentioned in my last post.

DD,

I was just going to let this go, but it's been really bothering me since last Saturday night at the banquet when you made your extremely offensive remark against a person that happens not to be white.

One, I'm saddened that you think it's okay to blurt such stuff out in public (let alone think it), and two, I'm insulted that you think I must be of a like mind. I'm not, and I don't want you to harbor the impression in the future that I think like you apparently do.

***

At least I feel better about taking some action.

Okay, back to math ..... I've heard through the grapevine I may have a class of 30 students. Oooh! Now I know (sadly) that this may seem like a nonevent to others, but in a classroom where I'm to use those long tables as "desks" as opposed to actual desks, it's a tight squeeze. It's going to be a cozy year.

Anatomy of a Racist Encounter

2011-08-07T21:44:00.002-05:00

You attend a 3-day, 10th annual event because of your husband. You see people you only see once a year, and some people that you see throughout the year. You have nice conversations about a variety of things with a variety of people. You talk with a 78 year old man, CI, about many things, and a couple of times he makes slightly in-poor-taste remarks about people of different ethnicities. You scrunch up your face to show distaste, and he backtracks and conversation goes on. You think to yourself, well, he's of a "generation".

You are at a final-evening banquet sitting with 3 people you see once a year, one of whom you've had good conversations with for 2 days, let's call him DD. The conversation turns to politics - local Texas small town mostly. There are big drought issues and land issues and two of the locals don't agree with how the city has decided to deal with things, and they start in with, "once you become a politician, it seems you become an expert in everything you know nothing about."

Then the 3rd person, DD, interjects an awful racist remark, "oh, like that ____ ____ ____ ____ over in the White House." The other two don't allude to DD's statement and just keep talking. You're stunned into shocked silence and not quick on your feet and still processing the fact that this person has literally let his racism hang out in public airing just like that. The conversation has continued. You're still stunned and really uncomfortable and want to say something, but don't know how or what or with what tone. You're angry with him, and you're angry with yourself for staying quiet. Isn't that the same as pretending what he said was okay? Doesn't that give him another vote of confidence that other people think like he does? You excuse yourself and don't return to the table. The evening ends.

And here's the thing. Now you have one more chink in your armor of trusting that people that you meet and that seem nice really ARE nice. That most everyone you meet that SEEMS human judges others on their character first/mostly and not on their race/sexual orientation/wage-earning. And you wonder when it will come out when meeting new people or talking with people you've known for a while. And what about the other 2 people at the table? Did they think the same way as DD because they didn't say anything? Do I have to wonder about them? Or were they flabbergasted like I was and are wondering the same about me?

And mostly you're still upset with yourself for letting it slide at the time and not knowing the right thing to say and the right tone, so that the person knows that he's offensive, and it is not okay and beneath his humanity. You don't think you can change his views, but you think that you should speak up. You keep thinking about it. You hope you come up with a phrase or two that will be on the tip of your tongue next time. But hopefully there won't be a next time.

Fun and Apparently Free

2011-08-03T13:29:00.003-05:00

One of my goals ("someday") is to be fluent enough in at least 2 languages (ideally tons, but I could start with two). To that end, I dabble here and there and practice. I downloaded (when they were still free AGES ago) the "Learning Spanish Like Crazy" and "Learning Italian Like Crazy" CDs and listen to them in my car. I like both, and I'm pleased with the Spanish one because it's Latin American Spanish which is more relevant for me.

Apparently, some of my students think I know 5 or 6 languages (or maybe they're just humoring me) because sometimes I'll count in Japanese or say a word in German or such just to break things up. If they ask, I tell them how many I've "learned" in the past (in order: English, Farsi, German, Russian, Spanish, French, Japanese, Italian), and I also tell them how many I'm fluent in now (1). Go English!

Let's not fool anyone here. Maybe there's some segment of my brain that remembers these things, but those foreign words/phrases are not making that trip to my mouth. Anyway, as I was surfing the web today and went to the BBC site, I found THIS! Holy cow. There are videos and little dialogs and tests and all sorts of fun things.

I browsed through the French test, and got one wrong, and they linked me to these possible sites. I liked the Ma France one. Oh oh! more things to distract me from doing work.

Utopia....

2011-07-31T19:31:00.002-05:00

You know how certain segments of society are all, "oh no, I need to lose weight. I need to get fit. I need to look more attractive. I feel bad about myself because I'm not thin/pretty/hot/young like people I see on TV/ads/movies." (no names mentioned)

We need a society where the stress is more, "oh no, I need to be more ethical. I need to be a nicer person. I need to do more good for the world. I feel bad about myself because I'm not nice/ethical/good-natured."

Or reverse, instead of, "I'm hot spit because I'm attractive." This needs to be more, "I feel GREAT about me because I'm basically a good person."

Where's THAT parallel universe?

Nervous.....

2011-07-27T17:00:00.003-05:00

In the course of making and filling out my school calendar for next year and planning for various classes, I came across these 3 scary months on some official calendars:

March:

April:

May:

Notice the 5 bazillion weeks of state testing. Now of course our state is in the process of switching over from one test to the other, but that just means that we'll have to administer both for the next few years.

I also counted up the actual teaching days I get, and tried to discount for these weeks and finals weeks and other weeks that seem to fall away, and I REALLY hope I'm wrong, but I counted about 140 or so actual days of teaching.

Must go cry now.

"Working"....

2011-07-22T09:04:00.003-05:00

Okay, so I'm SLOWLY working through my to do list:

But this is HEAVILY sprinkled with the fun things I've done.

My coffee cup from a paint-your-own pottery place. LOVE the 20 oz. cups:

My agenda book for next year. I found a ton of pictures and sayings and taped them on the covers. Now I just have to make all the calendars for the back section, and I'll be ready to roll.

FRONT:

BACK:

This agenda book idea worked really well last year, and then towards the end of the year, I looked at another person's book, and she had a running numbered list of things she had to accomplish then crossed out(instead of just higglety pigglety around all pages). I started doing that, and loved it.

TI-nspire Start Up Worksheet

2011-07-16T15:19:00.003-05:00

I've just created a "getting to know you" sheet for my students for the TI-nspire. Again, we'll just be using it for in-class explorations, and I don't expect students to rush out to buy them.

A really nice person sent me a "Scavenger Hunt", and I used that as my inspiration. Of course now that I go through my e-mail to thank her in "person", I can't find the message, so a PUBLIC THANKS to you.

My next goals are to create a teacher sheet for the other math teachers at my school to show them where the resources are, and IF I HAVE TIME (and it seems to be quickly dwindling), I want to create actual activity sheets.

You can find this sheet here. If the graphics mess up, then I'm guessing you know how to adjust them. Preview:

Summer Math Packet Update...

2011-07-14T09:03:00.002-05:00

Back in mid June before I went to my workshop I sent out 2 sets of e-mail for summer math work - one to my rising precalculus students, and one to my rising geometry students. I'm still working out how I'll grade these or assess these, since this was a last minute decision, and basically given out via e-mail without any warning to the students to watch for e-mail (long story).

I'm not sure of the fairness in holding them accountable for this work since some may not even get it. What I'm leaning towards is for THIS SUMMER (as opposed to next because I'm sure this will now be a given) is to either give them extra points on the homework portion of their semester grade, or to create an extra quiz grade and assess it that way, and for the students that did not do it, they do not get the quiz opportunity.

Here's my precalculus e-mail:

You can finally breathe a sigh of relief, your summer math work has arrived. You're going to be learning a ton of cool things in precalculus next year, and there are a few things I want you to refresh your memory on: function notation, right triangle trigonometry, and special right triangles.

You're welcome to do these things in any order and at any time over the summer, but I highly recommend spreading the wealth out and not cramming it into one or two sessions. I also recommend maybe ALSO looking at the information and doing the practice once every few weeks, so it has time to soak in and get trapped in your brain cells.

Here are some suggested sites for each of the three topics. Note that they may not be the best for how you learn, so you're welcome to Google search on any of the purple topics on your own. You know if you're successful if you can complete all of the "goals" with great accuracy. By mid July, I will send you some online quizzes for each of these topics. Your job is to take the quizzes and score 80% or better. You can take various versions of the quiz as many times as you like.

Please send me e-mail once you've received this e-mail, and you can e-mail me any time during the summer.

function notation video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj3Aqov52TY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoDHSqQZuiw&feature=related
GOALS:
1. be able to evaluate functions presented in function notation for numerical inputs (i.e. find g(7) if g(x) = 5x^3 - 9x + 1)
2. be able to evaluate functions presented in function notation for any expression input (i.e. find h(x^2+1) if h(x) = 4x - 3x^2)
3. be able to find the input that satisfies the output (i.e. find x such that f(x) = 10 if f(x) = 2x^3 - 6)

sine cosine tangent:
http://www.mathsisfun.com/sine-cosine-tangent.html
http://www.mathwarehouse.com/trigonometry/sine-cosine-tangent.html
http://www.algebralab.org/lessons/lesson.aspx?file=trigonometry_trigsincostan.xml
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S35Ht4imhs
GOALS:
1. given any right triangle and a designated acute angle in that triangle, you can set up equations for sine, cosine, and tangent
2. you can pronounce "sin" accurately
3. on any right triangle with angle information given and one side length given, you can use trig to find the remaining 2 side lengths
4. on any right triangle with side lengths given, you can find the remaining angles of the triangle

special right triangles:
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Special-Right-Triangles.topicArticleId-18851,articleId-18821.html
www.mente.elac.org/presentations/spec_tri.pps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVTtSE5nv7c
GOALS:
1. you can recognize 30-60-90 triangles and 45-45-90 triangles
2. you can quickly place the ratios of sides around either
3. you can find all exact side lengths of a special right triangle given any side

For geometry I decided to make it two-fold: actual math practice, and a project.

Here's the e-mail:

Hello Mathies,

Here is your summer geometry work with instructions included in the document. I'd recommend downloading the attachment instead of just viewing so that the formatting doesn't go all crazy on you. Have fun, and look for another e-mail from me some time in July (as mentioned in the attachment).

Please send me e-mail if you have any questions.

Big Hugs and Big Math,

Ms. D

(here's part of the attachment):

Hello Future Geometry Kidlets,

There are 2 parts to your summer math work (you’re welcome).

PART 1:
Choose one of the following projects to complete. These are due the first day of class, and we’ll share out. I will do the project also and share my results.

PROJECT 1:
1. Go to this link: http://www.district87.org/staff/powelln/Geometry/Projects/GoldenRatio/GRProject.htm
2. Click on various parts to see what’s what.
3. If you didn’t already, click on the “learn about pantographs” link under the “CONSTRUCTIONS” part of that page (http://www.ies.co.jp/math/java/geo/panta/panta.html). Play around with the applet on the bottom.
4. Make your own real life pantograph. Figure out how much larger you make your drawing (give me a ratio and explain how you found it). You can be creative with the objects you use. You don’t have to spend a ton (any?) money. Extra points if you can do this for free.

PROJECT 2:
1. Go to this link: http://www.district87.org/staff/powelln/stringart/index.html
2. Click on the various links to explore “string art”.
3. Explore this YouTube video: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPn8obkZyPI) and possibly others shown on that page.
4. Create your own string art. Again, you can be creative with the objects you use. You don’t have to spend a ton (any?) money. Extra points if you can do this for free.

PROJECT 3:
1. Go to this link: http://www.district87.org/staff/powelln/Geometry/Projects/OrigamiMobiles/OrigamiMobiles2007.htm
2. Click on the various links to explore “origami mobiles”.
3. Create your own origami mobile. You must have at least 6 different origami pieces. Your mobile must balance.
4. Again, be creative with the objects you use. You don’t have to buy origami paper. Extra points if you can do this for free with objects found around the house.

PART 2:
Complete the following problems. You must show all your work. I will send an answer key soon for you to check your work. I will also send a few online quizzes some time in July to make sure you understand the concepts. You can take the quizzes as many times as you want, but you must ultimately score at least an 80%.

Now the chickens come home to roost, or the fat hits the frying pan, or whatever.... I'm off to make the quiz assessments on proprofs.com. And I will also do all 3 projects for fun and to see what the various cool math aspects are.

Trips Galore...

2011-07-13T08:47:00.005-05:00

I'm finally home after basically 3.5 weeks away: 2 weeks for the Digital Electronics training, and 1.5 weeks for visiting family old and new friends.

POed graciously agreed to meet me while I was in NYC, and we had a walking and talking marathon. She suggested tons of great places to visit: the highline park, riverside park, yotel, gershwin hotel, and YES, the best pizza ever - at Ray's way down south. You know it's a great pizza place when you ask for fresh garlic as a topping, and they pile 2 heaping tablespoons full on top. My husband will be surprised that even I had to scrape some off. I'm very impressed with POed, though, she was not such a sissy and finished all her garlic topping like a champ.

Love her, by the way - she's smart, friendly, caring, and fun to trade war stories with. Here are some pictures from NYC.

Sculpture along Riverside Park:

Another Riverside Park sculpture .... inside was basically living quarters - bed, chair, toilet, ....:

Yotel. This was a robot in the entryway and you could command it to store your baggage in these little drawers. How cool is that?

Highline Park, built along old railroad tracks:

View from Highline Park. There's amphitheater type seating with a Plexiglas window in front where you can watch the street action:

Sculpture from one of the many parks we passed on our trek:

Workshop Thoughts

2011-06-29T20:49:00.003-05:00

Okay, it's Wednesday, and Friday is the last day of our 2 week workshop. Here are random teaching thoughts that have floated around in my head while it's being crammed with electronic information:

1. Hey workshop participant, you don't have to voice every thought that passes through your brain. ALL the way through our class from 8am - 5pm.

2. Linking new information to a good story or visual is a great latch. For example, on certain IC chips (details not relevant to the story), there are two inputs that serve a certain purpose. If they're "activated" they basically take over in a certain way. So our cool teacher spun this tale about Zeus and Hades and said that the gods don't "follow the clock", so when they wake up, whatever they want goes, and Zeus is "higher" so things change to 1 whenever he wakes up, and Hades is "lower", so things change to 0 whenever he wakes up. They're gods, and do what they want. When they go back to sleep, the IC chip pattern follows the clock again. So now whenever I come across these certain "pins" in my homework, DING, I think back to Zeus and Hades, and the information of how to proceed is immediately available to my head.

3. Perseverance is key. My table mate and I were pushing through and seeming to struggle with breadboards for the LONGEST time. Note: we finally and successfully completed the assignment, but the thing that sticks in my mind is somewhere after 4 days, one of the teachers said, "well, you know, you can use this OTHER automated breadboard and don't have to continue to fiddle with these ones". What I HEARD was, "hey, dummy, now that you can't handle the hard stuff, here's the baby version that may be more your speed." Well, that put additional light under my butt and I refused and was ultimately successful and proud of myself, versus if I gave up and settled for the easy way out. Also note to self, don't make the same suggestions of any sort to my students. DO mention that overcoming something hard will make you better.

4. pandora.com ROCKS .... especially at 12:30am when you're finishing your homework, and yes, I'm late to the game.

5. I love meeting new people and hearing various cool things about their lives or experiences and occasionally meeting new friends and laughing so hard I have to pee.

Ignorant vs Stupid

2011-06-23T22:58:00.002-05:00

And not that you'd call anyone "stupid".

Maybe I haven't mentioned it more than 5 baZILLION times, but I'm SO excited to be at a 2 week training for "Digital Electronics" in the PLTW curriculum. I've been through 3 actual days of class time now (Thursday at 11pm), and it's intense but loads of fun.

Let's just throw around some terms that I've bantered about and slowly become acquainted with in the last few days: ohm, resistor, digital logic board, capacitor, analog, digital, light emitting diode, power source, switch, TTL, Boolean algebra, sequential logic, SOL, AOI, DE, valence shell, soldering, tinning, oscillator circuit, frequency, duty cycle (tee hee), time high, time low (hee and hee), breadboard, .....

If I could go back in time and read those words (say before last Sunday), you'd see this glazed look over my eyes combined with a fight or flight response of, "ackh! others know more than me, and I should know this, and they're saying it's obvious and oh no, let's switch the subject..."

Now, peshaw! I'm totally going to be throwing those words out at my next math party and be the hit of the evening, right?

But anyway, a typical day so far has been: get up at 4:30am in a panic because I didn't finish the homework from the last class(es). Do as much as I can before I hit the gym at 6am. Shower and have breakfast. Class from 8am - 5ish pm (with lunch). Dinner and unwinding for a couple of hours. Homework until 11:30pm until I crash, and repeat all over again the next day.

Anyway, tonight I had to create a "Voting Machine" logically on paper and in a simulation program before I took it to actual DLB to work. (so if you know what I'm talking about great; if not, you're me 4 days ago). One of the instructors was down in the common room helping us (8pm - 9:30pm). I was apparently doing something TOTALLY ridiculous on the simulation program. Sure, the theory I have down pat; it's logic and math. My paper version was all correct. The electronics .... (wait for it), I'm "ignorant on" at this point. Well, sheesh, that's why I'm here, to learn. I'm not stupid .... (obnoxious and anonymous brag alert) ... I have 4 math/applied math degrees .... (end of alert). But I am IGNORANT about electronics. Please don't treat me as if I'm stupid. Just explain it to me and answer my actual questions so that I can internalize and process the information (shout out to my instructor). ... To give him credit, in the end, I finally understood the issue (I think) .... hint: for a circuit to work that has an LED in it you have to ..... okay, you don't care.

The point is, "note to self", don't treat my students as stupid, and be sensitive about when you may be making them feel stupid when really they're just ignorant on the current topics. AND be very careful to answer the questions they ask, not the ones you think they're asking with all your filters of assumptions on what they get or don't get or can get or can't get.

Okay, what am I doing blogging when I have homework to do .....

Fun Problems

2011-06-20T20:41:00.002-05:00

A few days ago, Allison posted a problem you could really sink your teeth into and enjoy the puzzle of it all. It reminded me that it's been a while since I did this sort of brain challenge type problem just for the heck of it. Many years ago, I came across this problem:

Consider a square cake that's frosted on the top and sides. How do you cut it into 5 pieces so that everyone gets the same amount of cake AND the same amount of frosting? You must serve the whole cake. (be able to prove why it works) (added bonus: what if it's a rectangular cake?)

Now as a selfish person, I'm wondering if anyone has links to other cool such problems that make you think and tinker for a longer while than usual. Share! Share!

Fun Crafts

2011-06-17T14:55:00.003-05:00

We're soon visiting my husband's brother's wife's sister's two little girls, and I wanted to make some knitted or crocheted toys for them. I didn't have a ton of time, and I like really fast projects, so I altered and eyeballed and shrunk down visually from a doll pattern and came up with these two beauties that are about 3 to 4 inches tall. Woot Woo!

The alien baby dolls. Or maybe they can be the Einstein Dolls and the girls can play pretend relativity theory. I still have bits and pieces of 2 weeks left, so maybe I'll make dogs and leashes and beakers and microscopes and such to go with them.

Education Experts

2011-06-16T11:08:00.003-05:00

Did you ever think up this really cool idea for one of your lessons. You were really excited! This was going to be so clear and fun and educational and work perfectly. Of course, you spent time working out the details and thinking through all the THEORETICAL issues that could come up. You launched it.

Most often it didn't work as planned. Various things came up. REALITY set in, and you had to think on your feet. You fixed what you could. If it seemed MORE usable than not, you made notes and adjustments for next time. For me, it usually takes about 3 times through before I work out *most* of the bugs.

But the deal is, it really didn't work as you had planned. But being a teacher, and as important, just being one of you, and knowing you're the expert of your classroom you could adjust quickly and on the fly. And no one has to throw it back in your face and say, "ha! you messed up! double ha!"

But I want to get back to the "didn't work as you had theoretically planned" business. I'm thinking that this is what happened and is happening with all the uppy ups telling us how to teach and what to teach and shoving state assessments down our throats and strategic compensation and whatnot. Because theoretically, that sounds so true and good and seems to make sense: hold people accountable. Hold teachers accountable. Hold students accountable. What could go wrong? People will rise up to the high level of expectation and perform better.

Hah! Reality could go wrong, apparently. Theory is all well and good, but reality is what you have to deal with in the end. And they're such a huge bureaucracy, and they have a "ton more students and classrooms", that how long does it take to adjust their strategy? And how easy/hard is it to admit you've made a mistake when so many people are watching you.

Or maybe I have it all wrong, and "they" are still sitting "up there" saying, "it's all the teachers' faults. If only they'd be better and do what we ask, we'd fix education! A pox on the teachers. Slackers the lot of them. And they get the summers off!"

Stories and Pictures

2011-06-13T07:38:00.002-05:00

I'm going to a 2-week Digital Electronics workshop soon, and since I didn't want to show up with no remembrance of anything electricity, I thought I'd better brush up. I didn't want my "brushing" to be too painful, so I found this book to help me, "The Manga Guide to Electricity".

Super cheesy, right? I'm not a "manga" person at all, but I figured it would be a "fun" (?) way to review.

Well, what do you know. It works! I think part of the effectiveness, for me anyway, is that when one of the characters is explaining various aspects of electricity, he links it to a picture and/or something I know. Now later on in the book when that aspect is referred back to, I conjure up that picture in my head and can see the story line and know what he's talking about. I can keep things straight instead of just plowing through various equations and thinking, now what equaled what?

Then I got to thinking, wouldn't it be fun/interesting (possible?) to have a running storyline (or a few) in, say, geometry. Then when you're teaching a new topic, there's pictures the kids can refer back to or some link that connects it to what they know. I guess ideally it shouldn't just be random things because maybe that adds to the memory retrieval problem.

What would it look like? Would they each develop their own story, sort of like that "here's a sentence and let's pass it around and everyone add another sentence and let's create a story" type of deal. Oh, maybe that's it. Every night someone new would be responsible for adding to the story. We could have an online geometry story that would be a work in progress all year. The kids could go back to it whenever they wanted to review.

Logistics: Would each class have their own story? Would we have one total? What if a kid flakes and doesn't do their part, how is that remediated? Blog? GoogleDoc? Other? Homework grade? Extra quiz grade? No grade? How many times a year will a student have to add to the story? Is there a way where they can sign up for a schedule?

It's just crazy enough for me to want to try it next year.

Summer Math Packet

2011-06-09T10:26:00.002-05:00

Our math department decided to give summer math work for students, the same way they get summer reading. I'm of mixed minds about this, but I'm doing it anyway. And since I came late to the game (try LAST 3 DAYS OF SCHOOL) (don't ask) (and maybe I would do it in this manner anyway), I'm going to make it more of an online "packet". My idea is to pick some topics I want them to review or refresh their memories on using YouTube or other online links. Then I'll use my proprofs account to quiz them.

I don't know if I'll have them try various quizzes until they reach a certain score or what. I also don't know how they'll be held accountable come school time. I'm batting these ideas around in my head: bonus points, homework passes, quiz the first week or 2 of school, homework grade,...

I will be doing this for rising geometry students and rising precalculus students. I'm also thinking of having various packets sent out and "due" every 2 or 3 weeks, so they don't leave it all to the end .... incentive for them to do it in a timely manner? More "points"?

Precalculus Topics: right triangle trig, special triangles, function notation, ... any other suggestions?

Geometry Topics: solving equations, graphing lines, factoring, working with fractions, ... any other suggestions?

Soooooo, I'd better get my butt in gear and actually send out the "packet" information.

Too Cool Not To Share...

2011-06-06T17:01:00.002-05:00

As I was culling through my work e-mail today in my quest of cleaning EVERYTHING up this summer, I came across one from our excellent librarian. She shared this link. Holy Cow! It's mesmerizing, and I want to watch it over and over to see how many patterns emerge. Also, I'm sure there's math that's accessible to high school students as to when they "converge" or "meet up" or how many times they meet up. Or we could all just watch over and over again like little 2-year-olds and their movies.

Kids' Chairs

2011-06-03T09:01:00.006-05:00

Here are some pictures of my students' cardboard chairs. They are in various stages of completion and of success. We only had time to finish prototypes, so I don't really know how people actually had time to THEN go make the final version. Maybe they had more students on each team. Maybe they could dedicate more time during the school day to the project. Maybe they were just faster than us. Anyway. Most of them supported weight (as long as you didn't move around too much). They presented their chairs on the day of their finals, and we had interesting discussions as to what worked and what didn't work and WHY and what could be tested to improve the chairs.

I also handed out a questionnaire that I found informative. The prompts were something along the lines of (because of the project):
* what did you learn about yourself?
* what did you learn about engineering?
* what did you learn about chairs?
* what do you like about your chair?
* what could be improved?
* and various questions where they graded themselves on each aspect of the project.

I liked this last section. Instead of letting them choose a 0% - 100% grading scale, I worded it as follows. I think it then was clear for the students to decided on their grade:

Last Day of School

2011-06-01T22:08:00.003-05:00

Sort Of. I've become more relaxed about making sure EVERYTHING is done before the last bell on the last day. You know. "The Check Out List". Make sure you: turn in your keys, box everything up, turn in all technology, do a complete inventory of all PLTW items on a new system on the computer, have finals graded and packaged up and stored, ....

Yes, I still do those things, but I'm not too worried about them getting done by ___. Now maybe that makes me the jerk to work with, but here are my thoughts. I know I'm ethical, and I know I need to do those things, and I know I will do them. BUT. I'm not going to kill myself doing them by a certain time frame when more pressing things need to be done: grading the finals thoughtfully, entering the grades and making sure kids get the grades that will serve them best, talking with kids that either will not be back or just I'll miss or they'll miss me over the summer. Also, I don't mind going in partial days for those first 2 weeks of summer, it'll break up my day from my potential slouching on the couch sessions interspersed with trips to the refrigerator.

Today was the last day for kids, but tomorrow the staff has to go in and work and have a year-end review. I can do some packing then and on Friday and next week.

Phew! Over! Done! Sort of. Then as usual, there's the summer plans I have: go to D.E. training for PLTW for 2 weeks (ooh, acronym city), learn TI-Inspire and make worksheets for beginning teacher/student users, make activities for TI-Inspire, learn electronics before above-stated workshop, learn/practice computer programming, relearn and revamp my precalculus curriculum, revamp geometry and potentially teach it to a potentially new geometry teacher, read/have fun/relax/see movies/purge my house of more stuff that's just sitting there/knit-crochet 3 baby gifts ....

Proud "Mama"

2011-05-27T23:30:00.006-05:00

This year in IED (the Project Lead the Way engineering course) I decided to assign a "cardboard" chair project. I had gone to a workshop in February, and 2 other IED teachers presented this project, and I totally had to do it. My class started right after our spring break in March, and I decided to do the project with my students. I JUST finished my chair, and my students' chairs are in various stages of completion.

I altered their project to fit my school's needs and time frame and such, and the kids stressed out and grumbled and such, but then I heard various whispers of them being impressed with themselves for designing and creating something totally from scratch and from their own imaginations. Part of the specs were that it could only be made out of cardboard, and it had to support 200 lbs.

I finished mine today, and it worked! Woot! Anyway, just a bragging post to show pictures, and because I was hopeful that it would work, but deep down wasn't quite sure I could pull it off.

Quarter Scaled Mock Up:

In Production:

Finished Product:

Goofy Person In Chair:

Like Terms

2011-05-24T19:47:00.002-05:00

Oy! We're reviewing for our geometry finals. We're including a ton of algebra embedded very sneakily into problems. We have to dredge our minds to remember that using the Pythagorean Theorem on a right triangle with sides of length: x, 5, and 3x means that I can't just write, "3x^2"; I have to write "(3x)^2".

Then we have to remember that sometimes like terms are tricky little buggers. How do you add x^2 + x^2? Hmmm, maybe it's x^4, or maybe it's 2x^4, or maybe I just don't know. Here's a conversation I tried to get started so that a student could see the light and say, "OH! but of course, Ms. D, that's OBVIOUSLY 2x^2". It went something like this:

Me: Okay, the numbers in front are just counting numbers.
Her:
Me: For example, what's one cat plus one cat?
Her: A kitten.
Me:

Oy!

We FINALLY got it. This time.

Units Conversion

2011-05-21T11:01:00.002-05:00

Probably in math classes across the country no matter what level (algebra through calculus), right now, if you asked a student, "how many feet squared is 100 inches squares?", the majority of them would JUST divide by 12 to get their answer. Right? Right?

I've tried various things throughout the years, and things "stick" for the unit, but later, say the following year or years, I ask the same question, the student reverts back to JUST dividing by 12. Must be hardwired into their heads.

Anyway, this came up again yesterday in geometry class with the following problem:

You want to paint the exterior of a cylindrical container with a 4 inch radius and 15 inch height. Paint costs 86 cents per square foot, how much would it cost.

I had an answer bank on the sheet, and LO AND BEHOLD, their answer was not on there. Hmmmmmm. Then I prompted: be careful with your units. OH! Okay, convert convert. OH! the answer is STILL not on there. Hmmmmmm. The dreaded JUST dividing by 12 dilemma. Anyway, I held up a piece of white paper and basically did what you see here below.

It SEEMED to make sense to the students. I liked the visual and the methodical dividing the side by 12 AND the algebraic equation by 12 right afterward, so they see what happens. It SEEMED to stick, but I'm not going to fall for that again. I'll quiz them again next year or two to see. My optimistic self thinks, "YES! I've solved the problem of world peace." Don't burst my bubble. Anyway, one more example to add to the arsenal.

Wolfram HWK on 3D solids

2011-05-16T21:59:00.002-05:00

I have no idea how this is going to work, but I'm going to try it anyway. My 9th graders will be out of class all week in one of my preps. I'll catch them back up during review week on these basic topics on V and SA, but here's their homework due Friday:

I have found in the past if I leave things open enough for this type of population, they (most of them) run with it. This will be their chance to explore.

3D Cram Session

2011-05-15T09:07:00.004-05:00

This week will be the last week of new material before we start reviewing for finals. This week is also our week of EOC testing. So, I won't see my 9th graders at all, and I still want to refresh their memories on volumes and surface areas of 3D objects. Sheesh, I have to manage my time better next year and remember that we have more "wasted" weeks than I planned for. Let's see 6-8 days of material crammed in 2 block days, 2 of which I don't see them. Quality instruction. What makes me not TOO worried is that they've seen it before (not that it's immediately accessible in their memories), and they're hard working and will do what I ask via e-mail.

Anyway, my vision is to "teach" them via e-mail and online quizzes. Here's the formula sheet they'll paste in their notebooks:

Now I'll get to use proprofs.com to make some "homework" quizzes I can check virtually.

Haiku Fun

2011-05-13T22:28:00.004-05:00

On the latest test for my 10th grade geometry kiddies, my last "question" was: Write a haiku about geometry, and I refreshed their memories ... (3 lines: 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables).

Along with the "non answers", and the kidlets who didn't know what a syllable was (eeeeee), here were some fun ones:

Geometry, huh?
Well, it is so very hard,
But it's also fun. *

*(but hard.)
[Love the fact that she had to stress the difficulty]

In geometry
you're the master of numbers
watch while I compute.

Math can be fun. Just
try geometry. Really!
You will love this class.

Geometry is
equations and big circles.
It is very fun!

What am I taking?
It's a geometry test.
That's what I'm taking.
[Too funny]

Math is difficult.
Geometry is worse, though,
but I still love it.

Geometry is
an intelligent subject.
There's so much to it.

Geometry is
scary, horrifying, fun
but I learn the shapes.

Math is very hard
I'll cry uncontrollably
But D_____ ____ is cool.

I need "vinegar".
Math makes me really angry.
You evil llama.
["vinegar" is in reference to me bringing balsamic vinegar to school and the kids thinking it was a bottle of wine and me playing along. "llama" .... I don't know, somehow I got labeled the "llama lady". Don't ask.]

I need to pass this
Geometry. Pretty Please.
I will try my best.

Geometry is
About the shapes and logic.
It be more math, bleh!

Oh, Geometry!
You make my head ache so much.
Why Geometry?

Don't be sad with math.
It is useful in some ways.
Yea, Geometry.

Love geometry.
It is extremely helpful
all around the world.

Self Teaching Segment Area

2011-05-07T08:23:00.002-05:00

We have 4 crazy weeks left of school. Every time we blink either our schedule is shortened for (fill in the blank) assemblies, or students are missing for AP exams (but only for some classes of your prep), or students are pulled out for EOC field tests (and again only for some classes of your prep), or since there's a FAIR for the environment, so we have 40 minute classes and then a ton of prep for the fair. Weeeeee.

Anyway, lots of deep breathing going on here. Funny story. I brought some balsamic vinegar to school for my lunch salad, and I happened to leave the bottle out on my messy desk after lunch. Some time during my afternoon classes a student asked, "is that wine?!" I played along and said yes, that they were driving me to drink.

Anyway, in the spirit of needing the kids to self teach a LOT the next couple of weeks, here's what we did yesterday. I'm LOVING the answer bank concept. The answers are jumbled up, but the kids have immediate feedback on whether they did things correctly. They also are more apt to immediately go back and search for their errors if they don't see their answer. ALSO, I don't have to spend the extra time coming up with a corny joke to make up and to fashion to fit. ALSO, I can have repeat answers, and it doesn't matter because I just put both of them down.

Here it is:

Teacher Appreciation Week

2011-05-05T21:07:00.002-05:00

Funny Story. This week is T.A.W., and I think our AP nudged our students into writing thank you letters to the teacher (or some such gesture) because I'm getting them trickling in. They're sweet and make my day.

Anyway, today in geometry, I'm teaching the FASCINATING area concept, and I wanted to make a visual point, so I scanned the room, and saw a student seemingly doodling and not looking up. I called her on it and got her attention and went on. Flash forward to the end of class. I'm walking around the room, and I see there are cookies on her desk, and I jokingly said, "Oh! Are those for me? Thanks!" guffaw, guffaw.

Then she says, "yes, they ARE for you, and here's a note with it. THIS is what I was doing when you called me out in class."

Awkward.

Radical Like Terms

2011-05-03T20:22:00.006-05:00

I threw out a goofy story one day a few weeks ago to get the kids to manipulate radicals properly, and it seemed to help some kids, so I thought I'd share ... and I guess I'll share in building up order instead of the order in which it happened.

I make sure to ask a student (or class) what this means: . I get a variety of answers:
* I don't know
* 4 times ?
* are you asking me?
* what?

So then I look suddenly across the room, "Look over there! What's that?". They look. "Just see those 4 cute little s running around!" And I go on to describe that you're just counting in shorthand how many there are.

And then if there's a problem like + , I expand the story: "... and over by the door, 8 more sexy s just joined the party! How many are in the room now?"

I guess it sticks with SOME of the students because today we had a problem like: (12)() and someone was wondering how to multiply it. So I asked: "what does mean?". Pretty quickly someone answered: you have 12 little s running around. And then we were able to finish the problem (and you have 12 sets of those 12, so .....

My next goal (someday) is to have them do a dramatic interpretation or story or SOMETHING emotional about + . I've read that things that pack an emotional punch in some way stick better in your head. Or maybe it's just the punching part ....

Hot Glue Hot Hassle

2011-04-26T20:37:00.002-05:00

Hmph! Way back in forever this year, I was so excited about finding something that finally worked to put things up on the walls - hot glue. I tested it out; I put some on the wall; I waited; it didn't fall down; the next day it peeled off easily. I was set to hot glue to my heart's content.

This week, the chickens have come home to roost ... or the eggs have hatched in the basket ... or the 2 bushes ... or hands ... or whatever.

It's TAKS week (tres exciting), and so everything that is mathy or school-y must come off the walls in my room and in the hallways. I had posters of Thomas Edison. I had smaller paper posters of logic problems. I had globs of hot glue that stuck to the stucco, and still remains long after the papers are gone.

It is now my daily meditation: I will chisel off at least 4 globs per day until they are all gone. Hmmmm, math problem, If Ms. D. put up ___ this many posters and used 4 globs per poster and there are about 5 weeks left of school and she wants to tackle 4 globs a day, will she be done by summer? Follow up question. For the love of all things scholastic, is there anything out there that will stay up and not peel off the paint and be easy to remove? Bonus points for a correct answer.

Ackh! I just realized I have WAY more globs than that. There are still tons of "artsy" things in my room that have been globbed on. Depressed. Must. Administer. Ice Cream. Therapy.

Multitasking

2011-04-18T20:17:00.002-05:00

I told one of my classes today that I was going to put up a poster listing my additional fees for duties ON TOP OF MY teaching them math. Then I would send their parents the bill. We all laughed and moved on, but seriously people.

You can probably guess one of the myriad of situations that caused this statement.

Here's my idea:

Circle Equation Exploration on GeoGebra

2011-04-17T15:15:00.004-05:00

Tomorrow my students will learn how to graph circles on the coordinate plane. I was JUST about to do my usual "lecture/Socratic-questions/practice approach" when I stopped myself short and remembered GeoGebra. That was a close one. I haven't tested it out yet, but here's the first draft:

New World Order

2011-04-14T21:37:00.002-05:00

Before
Students would start a question or a statement or an answer with one of the following:
* This is probably stupid, but ...
* I'm probably wrong, but ...
* This may be a dumb question, but ...
* I'm probably insane, but ...

And I would either inwardly roll my eyes or widen them and wait for them to continue.

Now
Students start a question/statement with the same as above.

My new response: "start over".
(repeat as often as needed until the demeaning preface is omitted).

Smaller Learning Communities...

2011-04-12T21:42:00.002-05:00

Probably like many high schools around, we have a version of "smaller learning communities" where students choose a pathway and take a course or two along that pathway track in addition to their other core courses. In this way, possibly they travel to the same teachers (in some larger schools), and have a focus for their studies.

When I'd first heard of this, and young teens picking "majors" in high school, my impression was, "right! I didn't know what I really wanted to be until I was in my 30's. How are they going to decide?". Then when I heard testimonials from students that had been through such programs, I had a shift of thinking, "okay, they may not ultimately pick this as a career, but isn't it nice to test it out now in HS and know instead of paying time and money in college and THEN change your mind."

I had a conversation with one of my students who is in the engineering track at our school. She said something to the effect of, "they shoved this down our throats, and I don't want to be an engineer." She went on about the 'other' things she wanted to do, but her "shoving" comment stuck in my craw. Partially, I think she was just pushing buttons for effect, but partially, maybe she felt that way.

I had another way to explain it to her. Think about buying a dress. You can't just go home after picking it off the hanger and have it fit perfectly. You have to go in the dressing room and try it on first and look this way and that, and THEN make the decision. Maybe you buy it and maybe you don't. That's sort of what you're doing here. You're in the dressing room for your future career.

Coi-cles

2011-04-09T16:07:00.008-05:00

Is anyone else panicking that there are less class days left than what you comfortably need to do a good job on all you have left (or want) to teach? Sometimes I'm going along, and then if I get up the nerve, I look at how many non-interrupted-by-other-things classes we have left and compare that to content time needed. SCARY.

Anyway, we started circles just the other day. In true girly fashion, I had them make a foldable that gives the notes in question form on the outside flap and answers (chord, tangent, minor arc, etc) on the inside of the flap.

Some Always, Sometimes, Never, True, False questions that came up:
1. All chords are congruent. (TF?)
2. A chord can contain a diameter. (ASN?)
3. A chord can contain a radius. (ASN?)
4. Concentric circles are similar. (ASN?)
5. If 2 segments are tangent to a circle, then they are congruent (TF?)

And, I made up a new quiz. (Obviously, you can just enter a fake name. I have this so that elsewhere I can know which of my students have taken the quiz.):

Circle Terminology & Practice » exam software

What If You're Awesome, And You Don't Know It?

2011-04-01T20:12:00.003-05:00

At my 1st teaching gig in central New Jersey, I taught at a newly opened school in a great district. We started out as only a 9th grade campus in 1997 where the kids fed into the "other" high school. Then the 2nd year, we were 9th and 10th, and again the kids fed into the "other" high school. Eventually, we were a full 9-12 school and fed ourselves.

In those 6 years I taught there, we started out with 6 or 7 math teachers and became pretty close. They showed me daily/monthly/yearly examples of what an awesome teacher and an awesome/sharing math department looked like. I'm still really good friends with 2 of them (hey! let's visit each other once a year or two) (even though none of us are at that school or in NJ any more) and keep in Christmas/birthday card contact with 3 of the other teachers.

Anyway, what does this have to do with this post? Eh .... only indirectly because one of the HS teachers shared this story with me one time about one year when she was teaching 4th grade, and she described it as a "magical year". She clicked with the kids, they did cool projects, they gelled, the kids loved her, she loved them, and amazing learning went on, etc. (FYI she told me this story because at that time, I taught a 9th grader that had been in her 4th grade class). Anyway, this is one phrase I always remember: "magical year".

Side note: maybe some people right now are making a goofy face and and saying, "yeah! I got your magical year, lady." because you're at a struggling school or have non-cooperating-in-some-way students or whatever. Feel your pain. Been there at other times. Sorry. Hugs. Enough about you.

Back to me.

So, you see where I'm going with this. This year. In my IED (engineering class). I'm having a magical year. Have I mentioned this before? I yap about it all the time in "real life". The kids in there are smart. They work hard. They ask great "what if" questions. They push me to be better and deliver better. We go beyond the curriculum and explore, just because we want to learn and do and be. They're MUCH smarter and harder working and savvy than I was at that age. In my mind they are rock stars.

And so I think that's obvious to them. Let's see. 14 years of teaching. Approximately 120 (rough rough rough) kids per year. Ish. 120 x 14 = 1680 kids. Yeah, I can get a general feel for average and above average students. It's a no-brainer to me that they are above average. I think of them as poised and self-confident and bla bla bla.

Well. I don't think they think so or know so. Which has altered my reality. Note that these are freshmen. Fourteen to fifteen years old. I have such a high opinion of them that it doesn't always register with me that they've had a limited view of the world. Here are 2 things that have happened lately.

First: a few of them were having trouble with another teacher. Long story short, they felt intimidated in class and stupid and not worthy for various reasons. .... What?! This is SO not the population I thought would feel "unsmart".

Second: today in IED we were having a visit to get nationally certified as a PLTW program. That means that a gentleman came for the day and put us under the microscope and asked questions and probed adults and students and counselors, etc. So. He was in my 9th grade class and talked with various students, and I saw him talking to one of my amazing girls and didn't think anything of it. Come to find out later. She told the other PLTW teacher that she was so nervous and intimidated when he was asking her questions about her classwork and such. Hah! In my mind, I was all, "Score! He's talking to one of my superstars. We'll look great! She'll be great!". And here all this time she's probably thinking, "oh no! Big scary adult talking to me. Nervous!"

She's awesome and doesn't know it. How does that slip past you? But then when I ask that question, the answer is obvious. As a person, you only have your point of view and how you act and how you think things should be done. You just think it's business as usual. There's probably other people around you going, "WHOOOOOOO! Superstar!", but they don't mention that to the person because they think it's a no brainer, and the Superstar MUST know they're great ..... so maybe no one ever TELLS them they're great ..... it's like if a person has brown hair, no one ever goes around and thinks to mention, "hey! Do you know you have brown hair?". They think it's SO obvious it doesn't bear mentioning.

And then there's that OTHER problem where HOW you complement someone affects the outcome. They may just discount your praise with a "yeah, but...." in their heads and not absorb the information.

Anyway, ramble ramble ramble. P.S. we got certified. Yay! And I'm having a magical year with my cute 9th grade IED kidlets. And I have to think of a way to get them to know they're phenomenal.

State Test Craziness

2011-03-27T16:16:00.002-05:00

Oy! I'll be semi-happier after the April 25 week when our math TAKS tests are over. For the last forever amount of weeks, I've been tutoring 3 sets of kids, once a week, during advisory, strictly for this test. And last Friday some words came out of my mouth to my group of tutees that now have me thinking.

I didn't want them to think they were just in there because we thought they'd have a high chance of failing. That's definitely not the case. And, I guess I'm a product of the "feel good about yourself" school of growing up .... though from what-all I'm reading, I have to think about how I offer THOSE words of praise. So after we went over some material, I said something to the effect of, "okay! we're going for commended!" and I went on with going over problems.

Well, a 10th grader in that group came up to me afterward. She's a diligent, hard-working, come-in-for-tutoring if she thinks she needs it kind of math student. It does not come easily to her at ALL, and I had her last year for algebra and this year for geometry, and I've seen a great improvement in her algebra skills this year after her having time to absorb it.

Anyway, she came up to me and said, I'm really discouraged about this math TAKS. I haven't been commended on the math portion since the 5th grade. She's passed every year, but here we are, a higher performing school, and the message we're encouraged to give is, "don't just PASS, go for commended!". So not getting commended is apparently the new failing for these students. Crap! It didn't occur to me until that moment how students may feel every year when, yes, they may pass, but, oh no, I've let down my teachers by not being commended.

I don't know how successfully, but I told her that one of the main reasons we've been saying that (in my opinion) is to get the kids to try and do their best, and I already see she puts out her effort on every question she goes through, and that's the type of diligence that's going to get her far in the world, not the "oh yay! I passed and got commended on a state test." ... It's even telling that she's stressing about the 10th grade TAKS, and it's not really as high stakes for the kids as the exit level in 11th grade.

Regardless, here's another bad side effect of these tests and what we may seem like we expect from the kids all in the name of some outside random measure of "are we doing our jobs as teachers" test.

Trig and Teaching and Knocking

2011-03-22T21:06:00.003-05:00

TEACHING:
Lately I've been noticing in various forms of teaching or discussions about teaching, sometimes the "speaker/blogger/writer", either intentionally or not, conveys the message that, "if you don't do things THIS way, you're doing it wrong!" ... or ... "why in the WORLD would you even CONSIDER teaching so-and-so THAT way, you hack!". Or maybe it's just how I'm reading into things.

I think for the most part we're all trying to do the best job we can, and obviously there's no magic bullet that's going to work for all topics and all days and all teachers all of the time. We (and by "we" I obviously mean "me" because that's obviously who it's all about) should just stop beating ourselves up when someone speaks/writes/communicates how they do something, and it sounds so perfect and rosy, and my (our?) first thought is, "sheesh, THAT person has it all figured out. What's wrong with me?". Okay, my self-pep talk is over.

KNOCKING:
Anti-Joke of the moment I love:

Knock, Knock.
Who's there?
To.
To Who?
To "Whom".

TRIGONOMETRY:
As with all things we do the 1st time through (or maybe it's just me), there are kinks to be worked out with the activity I wrote about last time. The last 2 days I took my students to the computer lab, and they self-taught basic trigonometry ratios with my GeoGebra file and the 4 page packet. I realize I'm fortunate to (this year) have frequent access to a computer lab.

I know that that was one of the BIG reasons before that I didn't like Geometer's Sketchpad or even bother to learn GeoGebra. Once the kids grasped it on the one time a semester I actually got to go to the lab, then they forgot it all the next semester when we could go back, so basically what was the point. I guess that's why I'm liking this GeoGebra, because if a student has computer access at home (and I know that's not always the case), at least this is an extra resource for absorbing things. Anyway, choir .... preaching .... bla bla bla

I would do the activity again next year, but here are some things that happened and how I'd revamp. I teach a 1.5 hour class, and after we went over homework and did another small activity, we had about an hour for this activity ... WAY too little time for them to be set on their own and finish up.

The first thing I changed was I had them cross out 2 of the cases for each of the 6 tables. So they were only checking sin/cos/tan twice for each acute angle. Next year, I think I'd change it even more: check just once total and then check what a neighbor or 2 got and notice.

I also would take out the ratio of sides on my GeoGebra activity. Invariably, once a kid had to fill in column 2, they didn't read very carefully, and just used my #s above, even though they may not be the correct ratio of sides ... but HEY, all the letters started to blend together.

Other than that, with periodic "giddyup-ing" by me in the form of "you have 30 more seconds to finish up to ______". "Okay, the main point of that was _______. Now do the next section." ..... I think it went well ... Especially, since I seem to have lost my voice YET again this year. Chronic sick-fest.

Learning Trigonometry

2011-03-20T11:46:00.003-05:00

Now I'm almost ready to start my trigonometry unit. Here is the 4-page self-teaching packet I'll hand my students tomorrow, along with a graphing calculator and an e-mail message that has all the links they need. My goals for them are to be able to: identify opposite and adjacent sides of an angle in a right triangle, find the sine, cosine, and tangent ratios of a triangle given the 3 side lengths, and link these skills to the special triangles they just "learned". Once I make up a homework sheet (or use the textbook), I'm good to go.

Also, on a cheery, vacationy note, here are some Marfa and Fort Davis, Texas pictures from our short Spring Break trip.

Quiz Anyone?

2011-03-19T17:56:00.002-05:00

I'm writing up my worksheet to go along with my geogebra "baby trigonometry" applet, and I found I needed/wanted a quiz for them to take online. I couldn't find any with the right number of questions or types of questions, so I made one up. We'll see Monday if it's a success or a stinker.

SO excited about Geogebra

2011-03-16T16:48:00.002-05:00

A nice person commented from my last post and showed me some applets she'd made for Geogebra (thank you Lsquared). This must have planted a seed in my mind, because today I was tinkering around with how to start up my trigonometry unit. I went to the Geogebra site. I clicked "download". Then I clicked "Applet Start". I figured my kids don't have downloading capabilities on the school computers, so this would be fine.

I tinkered around with things and came up with this activity. I'm going to make a worksheet that goes with it to guide them through a self teaching, first day of trig, what is sine/cosine/tangent activity. I think some of the questions may even be of the effect of, "set your triangles, set up your calculator just so, press cos ____ (degree shown), compare it to ratio."

I would love feedback on this "non applet". Effective? Hard to manage? Fine?

Note: I tested out opening the file on another computer. It "failed" with Firefox, but worked fine with Explorer. I DID have to change the window size to 200% or something like that. But there is a way to show WHOLE picture.

Anyway! Off to write the worksheet. I'll share. Okay, really off to dinner then Lindy Hop, then Marfa, THEN to write the worksheet.

Spring Break

2011-03-15T09:40:00.002-05:00

Phew! I can't tell you what a consistent 9 hours of sleep each night can do for a person ... or maybe I can. I feel great! Here are some pressing activities on my plate:

1. Watch cheesy bad movies on Netflix streaming (Blackbelt Jones, Cherry 2000, ....)
2. Read book(s) (Saving Fish from Drowning)
3. Catch up on grading (test corrections)
4. Sign up for the Digital Electronics STI workshop for PLTW (soooooo excited)
5. Prep myself for the Cardboard Chair Project for my engineering class (design, test, create a cheap durable cardboard chair for a dorm room ... cool "hook" video)
6. Prep myself for my PBL unit (project based learning) of trigonometry
7. Take a blanket out to local parks and laze around and soak up sun and outdoors
8. Go to Marfa, TX (Thursday)
9. Do my "train" project on Inventor for IED (I'm doing the homework with my students this year ... keeps me honest)
10. Puzzles, puzzles, puzzles (hiyawake puzzles my new favorite)
11. Get ready for the PLTW certification visit on 4/1/11 (eek! hope that's not portentous)
12. Sleep more than 7 hours a night (or did I mention that already?)
13. Get my IED students to write thank you e-mails for a recent speaker/friend that came to visit and talk about his engineering experiences. (It was useful to send my students THIS e-mail as a primer):

Hey! Let's be green (and timely since it's Spring Break). Here is your EXTRA homework to turn in to me NEXT Monday 3/14/11 .... and by that I mean 3 days from now .... OVER spring break.

Please send me an e-mail, either with an attachment of a thank you card for Mr. H., or your thank you words inside the e-mail message.

I will then gather them all up together in one e-mail and send them along to him.

Thank YOU for saying more than just "thank you for coming to speak to us". Maybe indicate what you liked or found interesting or learned or whatever.

Example, here's my "thank you" to YOU, my IED students:

Dear IED students of 2010-2011,

I love teaching you because you're so creative and make me think of new things and ways to teach you. I also love that you're excited about the various things we do and learn. I look forward to your questions because they make me think through the why's and how's of various concepts.

Signed,

Ms. ______

I look forward to your thank yous for Mr. H.
Ms. _____

(I've gotten 6 out of 12 back so far)

Anyway .... must go exercise with my other latest craze (as of 4 weeks).

Special Quadrilaterals

2011-03-12T05:47:00.002-06:00

We finished studying special quadrilaterals a while ago, took a test, and now the kids are trickling in for their retests. Ew. Something didn't stick or even get through to some students, and I'm trying to process how to improve it for next year.

Here is how I taught it:
parallelograms: I had 4 already printed on a paper, and they were to use their rulers and protractors to measure various things to discover the facts about the angles and diagonals.

squares/rhombi/rectangles: I had them neatly draw one each in their grid notebooks (I gave the instructions on where to put the vertices). Then I had them again use their protractors and rulers to measure various things and fill out a chart as to which had which properties (diagonals congruent, diagonals perpendicular, diagonals bisecting opposite angles).

trapezoid/kite: I had a sheet with some drawn we worked through the logic of things to get to their properties.

All this went in their notes. They had review problems. At no time did I have them (and apparently they didn't think they needed to) gather all the information into one place (foldable? 1/2 page) to have a quick summary. (I will change this for next year).

Okay, then test time. The usual suspects did well, but too many kids had no idea about things they should have. For example, when a student was coming in for a retest, and I asked her about what a rhombus was, she was silent. Oy! Now I know this particular student coasts by and can look like she's playing school, but .... Regardless, I want them to learn despite themselves.

I think something happened at another tutoring session that will make me either add a day to my lessons, or replace the previous lessons with this. I'm leaning towards add to the lesson.

Another student was studying rhombuses, so that she could take the retest, and she still wasn't understanding or processing things she should know. She couldn't even draw a vaguely accurate rhombus. I took a piece of colored construction paper, and pretty quickly used a ruler to cut it into a rhombus (it turned out to be approximately 8.5" per side). I liked that it was big enough to see things on and to write on and play with. Then I had her folding it to make the diagonals. Then we stared at it. It was clear the diagonals were perpendicular. It was clear that they were bisected. It was clear which angles were congruent (you could match them up and check). It was clear that the diagonals bisected the angles (again you could fold and check).

Then as she was trying to redo a test problem, I had her write the given information on the rhombus, and then figure out the rest. ... I don't know if this will stick. I guess we'll see when she actually does a retest, but maybe the extra visual and tactile properties of the shape will be clearer in her mind.

Pythagorean Theorem Video

2011-03-08T20:30:00.002-06:00

Today we started reviewing radicals, and talking about Pythagorean Theorem. I know they've seen it before, but they still need help on the harder problems. I found this cool, short video that I showed a few times in a row until they understood it. It was a fun discussion on what he was trying to do.

Then we built up their skills with individual problems of varying difficulties:

(the terms listed are "a", "b", and "c" for a right triangle with hypotenuse "c"):

FIND x
1. x, 4, 10
2. 3, 9, x
3. 2*sqrt(3), x, 4
4. x, 3, sqrt(17)
5. x, 3x, 20
6. some sort of trapezoid with 90 degree angles on one side.

Anyway, I just wanted to post about the water video. Done. Dinner.

Room Fustiness

2011-03-04T21:41:00.002-06:00

Phew! Stinky Room Alert! I don't know what it is .... well, maybe I do, but the last few weeks while I'm teaching in my room for hours on end, I don't notice anything. But step out of the room for a few minutes and walk back in after a gaggle of teenagers have been in there, and Stink City.

It's not that way in the morning when I first get to work. It's not that way right before 1st period. But after I teach a class or two and leave the room and come back. Ew. Not HORRIBLE horrible, but noticeably smelly/musty.

So my question is, is it just my particular group of teens? They don't really smell strongly, but I guess get enough of them together and have them in there for an hour and a half and watch out. I don't like the fake smell of room deodorizers. I can't open my windows. I have one plant in there (which sometimes causes its own problems with teeny bugs that flutter around and like to hover around the vacuum of your nose only to be accidentally sucked in and EWWWW). Do we think more plants would help? Certain plants? Has anyone successfully overcome this TRAGIC situation?

Signed,

Singed Nosed Sufferer

Algebra/Basics Review in Geometry

2011-03-02T21:42:00.002-06:00

I'm basically teaching two levels of geometry this year even though we call them both "preAP". I have the 8th and 9th graders in one class, and for the most part they whiz through everything and delight in the challenging problems. I'm also teaching 10th graders that are in other sections, and they approach math in a different way. I have to keep reminding myself not to rush rush rush through topics and to keep remembering that they need more practice on everything to make it stick and to make it make sense.

I am doing one thing, though, to help them keep their algebra skills fresh: ALGEBRA :). For example, for the last few topics, I made sure to make up geometry problems that ended up having a factorable quadratic equation in it at some point. This led us to recall FOILing and ("claw"ing .... Thanks, Mrs. H) and factoring. Now I'm making sure to include quadratics that CAN'T be factored (hello quadratic formula review).

BUT. Here are some things that I didn't think would come up, but did/do, and REALLY I should make a mental (or better) note to myself of where things can go askew, so that I can make more problems throughout the year to have such examples, so that we can have a discussion about them and keep them fresh in our minds.

Example 1:
A student is solving: 2x + 4 = (1/2)x + 8, for example.
Hmmmm, I don't like that (1/2)x,
so I'll just remember that I can do the opposite to x to undo it,
and I multiply ONLY the 2x and the (1/2)x by 2 to end up with:
4x + 4 = x + 8. Eeeeek.

Example 2:
A student gets to a point in an equation where they have (13/2)x = 14. Well, heaven forbid we keep things in fractions and go the easier route of multiplying both sides by 2/13 to get x = 28/13. Boom. Done.
No.
We convert to 6.5x = 14.
We stress that 14 is not easily divided by 6.5.
We chug through and do long division and create pain and suffering for ourselves.
We curse the teacher for such a hard problem and no calculator.

Example 3:
Teacher takes the expedient route frequently and makes up problems where the answers are integers. This saves time, she thinks, so that they're not struggling with messy things and they're concentrating on new material.
Students freak out the first instance an answer is not integer.
Gasp! I must have done something wrong. Things ALWAYS work out nice and pretty in "math world". Fractions are not REAL numbers, no matter WHAT my teacher says. Oh, and by the way, "your answer key says 3/2. Is it okay if I write it as 1.5? As 1 1/2?"

Example 4:
A problem comes up where you're asked to find the height of a person. The decimal answer is 4.666666666 feet. You think this either means 4' 6" or 4' 7" (if you round). You DON'T think that 2/3 of a foot is not either of these answers.

Inspired by the TI-nspire.....

2011-02-27T14:10:00.002-06:00

I was SO ready not to "drink the kool-aid" of the fancy what-sa-ma-gadgets that were newer than the TI-84s. I was feverishly searching for talks at the T^3 conference that were not TI-nspire or "navigator" based. I was looking for good calculator activities that would supplement my teaching and help the kids absorb and understand more about the math they were learning. Well, you see where this is going, right? Sip, sip, gulp, wipe the red-dye #5 off my chin.

The first 2 talks I went to were baby/basic/"the on button is here" types of talks about the TI-nspire and the Navigator. Boom, that's all it took. I was hooked. For those of you like me (or maybe I'm the only one left that doesn't know much about these things), here are some basic functions and reasons I'm sold.

TI-nspire:
1. There are a ton of resources (example) for most (all?) math levels that include teacher notes, student worksheets, programs for your calculator, etc.
2. The students get to explore a topic by playing around with slopes or points or triangles or such.
3. If a student is taking the AP Calculus exam, they can "create new pages" for work for (say) each problem, and then save and refer back to the work as needed (it stays on the page).
4. One of the teacher presenters there mentioned that she has kids referring back to an exploration weeks after they had done it, and it still stuck in their head.
5. The key strokes and such are intuitive (I got the hang of it after 1-2 sessions).
6. Example lessons we worked with: someone had created a program that guided us/students through discovering how slope works. On the calculator was a line with 2 points highlighted and their coordinates showing. The "right triangle" rise over run dotted lines were showing. Above the graph the slope was showing. The kids could grab a point and move it and see what happened to the slope. ..... You know, stuff you probably do anyway, but with maybe a worksheet(s) with them walking through your problems. Now it can all be condensed on the screen and you can be green (ar ar ar). The kids are also asked various questions about the situation. I'm sure you can make up your own questions, but I like the fact that the program is readily available to download to all the kids' calculators. There was also a calculus example where the tangent to the slope was shown that you could move around and see what the instantaneous rate of change was.
7. There are options for calculator pages, graph pages (which talk in f(x) notation), spreadsheet capabilities, scatterplots, .....
8. There is math type availability .... I'm guessing somehow you could also do things on your calculator and then screen capture and cut/paste to tests (??)
9. Cabri is basically on the calculator and easier to play around with (bigger screen) AND the activities and programs prewritten make it more accessible and easier to use daily (rather than find a time when a computer lab is open to take your kids to use Geometer's Sketchpad .... which they've forgotten since it's been a month or 2 since they last saw it).

Navigator:
This is the presenter option where you can see what all is going on in your class. You can make a kid's calculator the "presenter", and they could be doing the key strokes while you're talking.

Anyway, glad I went. I actually bought a TI-nspire and have been playing around with it. I want to download some programs to see further just what's available .... and maybe write a grant to get some class sets for next year.

A Good Week

2011-02-19T11:38:00.002-06:00

I just found out I passed the Computer Science 8-12 teaching certificate test, so that was a great capper to the week. I'm not sure if we'll offer it next year due to a variety of reasons (budget cuts, small school, only put on the upper class-kid's choice sheets, so low enrollment,...), but maybe in the future we can offer it.

Also, we had professional development yesterday, and I went to 4 different math sessions that had good things to offer:

1. Found out the T^3 conference is in San Antonio next weekend. I've never been but am thinking of going. The PD presenter also mentioned some potentially good websites:
mathbits.com
mathplayground.com
education.ti.com/calculators/timath/

She also mentioned that there's this new feature on the calculators (don't know what operating system) where you can push 3 buttons at a time, and it disables the apps and such .... think TAKS test. It seems like an easier way than clearing ALL the memory and apps and then having to reload them. And then to get it back, you somehow link to another calculator and do something basic (forget what). It's called PRESS TO TEST, and you can probably google it and your calculator type to find out more.

2. The "Web 2.0 tools" talk showed some great websites as resources:
mathvm.pbworks.com

this is a "warehouse" of math related sites and on the far right of the table there are videos that explain their usage/power.

3. I went to a "using stations in high schools" talk that just may get me out of my "rut" of doing things the same way all the time.

4. I went to a foldables talk and got some more ideas.

Now off to grade some IED projects to enter for the 6 weeks grades.

RollerCoaster Week

2011-02-12T09:49:00.002-06:00

Ugh! This was the LONGEST week ever: I was cranky, the kids are overwhelmed, I was getting over a cold and coughing "wetly" all week, we started TAKS tutoring during our advisory periods, I had to pick up a cell phone from a stealth texter, we had two meetings that took up morning planning time, and on and on and on.

Then the capper was on Thursday after school when I had students staying for tutoring and retesting of math concepts. I was going along on my merry way, and one of the girls decided to "share" with me, "you know, Ms. ____, in class, we're not laughing WITH you; we're laughing AT you."

Thanks. That basically put the final sour grapes on my week. She was smiling the whole time. She's also the girl that when I'd lost my voice a few weeks ago and was rallying on teaching in a harsh whisper ALL week, said one day, "oh! Ms. ____. Your voice!". Thinking she was commiserating with me, I said/rasped, "I know. It doesn't hurt, though." Then she said, with a pained expression and her hands over her ears, "no. I mean my ears. You're hurting my ears." ....

Anyway. So I went into work on Friday in a miserable mood, grumbling and muttering to myself about the ungrateful little tykes, and I open up this e-mail from a former student:

Hello
You have been on my mind. How have you been? I'm at _____ doing my clinicals. I'm level 1 nursing. You would be so proud. thank you I owe you so much you are a wonderful person.

That turned things around 540 degrees! Here was a student that had gotten pregnant her junior year, and somehow figured out a way to graduate and move on with her life and now is a successful nursing student. Love her! And SO appreciate her taking the time to basically make my week end on a great note.

Time For Parallelogram Review...

2011-02-06T13:15:00.004-06:00

Well, we had a snow day on Friday, and I got sick, and I like puzzles, and I was trapped at home, and on Monday we're having a "C" day with shortened classes to make up for our lost day and so we don't go off our predestined ABABABABABAB schedule for the rest of the year, so......

This is what I'm having them work on and review so far in our special quadrilaterals unit:

I've checked it a few times, and I THINK I've worked out the bugs, but I guess I'll see how it goes tomorrow. I tried to mix in some algebra review of quadratics and such in there. Hopefully, it'll be a good mix of easy/medium/hard problems.

What's enough for a parallelogram to appear?

2011-02-02T19:59:00.002-06:00

Whew! We've graduated PAST triangles to quadrilaterals in geometry, and now we're cruising. The first day I showed some Internet clips/pics about scissor lifts and pantographs and wood routers that are made like pantographs and such to show parallelograms in "the real world". Then we explored by measuring and conjecturing about the 5 (6) properties of parallelograms. The 2nd day I started with this sheet:

I had a brief discussion with them about what could you "get away with" and magically GET a parallelogram for free if you were creating an object that needed to be a parallelogram. It may be more costly or time consuming to force 2 pairs of parallel opposite sides instead of some other properties that might save you some time or money. Then they discussed with whatever tools they wanted, and then we converged as a class. I made sure to either have them draw a picture at the end as a counter example to the shape being FORCED to being a parallelogram, or we did a "flow proof" to show some were forced.

Today was a crazy day. It started out as 17 degrees F in the morning and up to the 20's during the day, and our city/state had rolling brown outs to be able to handle the load of everyone trying to stay warm I guess. Anyway, at school we were in a ratio of 45:15 off:on electricity practically all day. Sheesh! Thank goodness we have TONS of windows. But BOOOO on the lack of microwaves and coffee pots for the essentials: lunch and caffeine!

Teaching The Sine Graph

2011-02-01T03:53:00.002-06:00

I still get requests for the file I used to teach the sine graph WAY back when in the days I taught precalculus (side note: I'll be teaching it again at my new school next year). This is an idea (I forgot where I heard/saw it from) that I wrote up. It involves string, spaghetti, and the worksheet. The kids use the string to wrap around a circle to mark off random angles/marks on the circle. They transfer this to the "linear" xy plane. Then at these angles, they measure the y value on the circle with the spaghetti and transfer that height over to the linear graph. Kids should have prior knowledge of radians, calculator/triangle practice with calculating sine (I forget what else....). Here's the file.

Coolest Foldable Yet

2011-01-30T10:46:00.003-06:00

This year we hired a new chemistry teacher, and she is now OFFICIALLY my "creative genius" idol. Every time I have been in her room, she has all these inventive ideas of things she's done with the kids to get them to learn. The latest is this foldable I saw her kids doing, and I just knew I had to do it soon. We're on the "special quadrilaterals" unit, and I'm going to do something with this.

Anyway, here is the general idea:
1. Fold a paper (longest side) into quarters.
2. Cut any size slits down the center two folds.
3. Cut 2 other papers so that they're just a sliver shy of 1/4 of page.
4. Weave them through the 1st paper as shown.

The beauty is that you get a SECRET extra "side" by prying open the middles. Notice the numbering on the pink strips. You eventually get "12" parts with how I cut it.

A Challenge for my Geometry preAP Kiddies...

2011-01-26T22:38:00.002-06:00

In an effort to provide a challenge worthy of the students who always get EVERYTHING, I put the following problem on their last review packet with the intention that not everyone would get it, but that it would give the super smarties something to chew on.

Consider line AB that goes through an x-intercept of -8 and a y-intercept of 3. This line goes through the altitude in triangle DEF from vertex D. Find D, E, and F, and convince me that your points satisfy these conditions.

I gave my students the key to every other problem in the packet, so they could study for their test, but not this one. I was gone to a workshop while they took their test, and today when I came back, I had some students present their answers. No one got it (yet), but it provided some great conversation about what they did and how we knew it didn't work.

I was interested to see that some students just used a slope approach, and tried to find D, E, and F using slopes of things they knew. Mixed success. Some students forgot how to find points on a line, so we had a bit of review. I still didn't tell them the way (a way) to solve this, and mentioned that somehow, before the end of the 6 weeks, they have to each convince me that they can do it (for a grade). It's interesting having students come up to the document camera and present. We get to have a conversation on how to do so and how to talk to an audience. I also get to pick their brains about their understanding and also poll the class about their understanding (even though they're not the ones in front). ... We'll see what they come up with next.

Can You Say Busy?

2011-01-25T18:21:00.002-06:00

Whew! Coming up for air temporarily ... won't go into all the details because I'm sure everyone else either is or has been in the same place. I just got back from a PLTW training in Dallas that was awesome, and I learned so much.

One great side note about this is how one teacher handled students working in groups. You know how there's always "group issues": someone slacks or someone bosses everyone else around or friends always want to work together or whatever. Here are some tips from one teacher:

* During the year on his various group projects, the rule he mentions to the kids at the start of the year and as a reminder throughout the year is that you can never work in a group with the same person twice.
* He hands out a team management sheet that the kids have to maintain (online?) it has columns for task that needs to be done, who's responsible, target due date, completion date, comments. If the "responsible" person doesn't do their job, his/her name is scratched out and the "doer's" name is put there. That way there's a record of what/who.
* The teacher mentions that he should be cc'ed on all e-mails, so this way he can address various issues and kids as the project gets done as opposed to hearing at the end that so and so didn't pull their weight or so and so overwhelmed everyone else.

I liked his approach, and I'll try it next time, and institute it more next year. There was also this PHENOMENAL "cardboard chair" project for IED he mentioned. The kids actually go through this 9 week project and all aspects of polling people, making mock ups, doing the statistical analysis of body measurements, etc. to build this functional chair out of cardboard that should hold up to 200 lbs and weigh no more than 16 lbs. COOL! Hopefully, I'll get my act together this year to try it out.

There was also some great information on how to make short "desk top" videos to provide instruction for your kids (don't have my notes with me). That way, for the things you say 2000 times, or for the kids that are absent or for the kids that have to hear things again, you/they have this resource.