Mathsational

This winter break  @druinok is organizing a blog challenge.  I don't think I'll be accomplishing the 12 posts over the break, especially since I'm already on day 7 of a 10 day break and am just getting around to posting the first blog, but I do love a good blog prompt.  You can find more info here if you'd like to join in the fun. The first prompt that spoke to me was "What are your strategies to reach 'that kid.'"  I'm a big fan of using Love and Logic with my classes.  I've never been able to make it to an official training session, but would love to one day.  I've just gather some tidbits by talking to other teachers who have gone through the training and by reading some of the free online resources.  Here are some of my favorite Love and Logic strategies.  All of them help in dealing with all students, including the more difficult ones. First:  Neutralize arguing by going "Brain Dead."  This means that you need to b...

I'm nearly caught-up with the #SundayFunday challenges.  Last week's challenge was to observe yourself.   Here  is more info if you'd like to join in the fun. I actually had a coworker record a lesson for me recently, I had not yet made the time to watch it and reflect.  This prompt gave the extra push that I needed. My lesson started with Which One Doesn't Belong warm-up.  This is one of my favorite style of warm-up.  All four images have a reason that it is different from the others.  This allows for all students to participate at various levels.  It is a perfect example of a low floor high ceiling task.  The warm-up provided a chance for students to practice using vocabulary like vertex, opening direction, parabola, discriminant, and axis of symmetry.  When students describe these features without using the appropriate vocab, I prompt them for it and it is reaffirmed with everyone. Prior to this lesson, my algebra 2 ...

Here is yet another late #SundayFunday post.  I'm still making progress towards making a post on time though.  This post is 3 weeks :/    Here  is more info if you'd like to join in the fun. The challenge this week is to share a bit about how to successfully incorporate group work into your class.  I love group work in theory.  The possibilities of students learning from each other are worth the difficulties of implementing a group work routine.  I think the routine piece is what makes group work WORK :) One way that I try to make group work more focused and avoid the typical problem of one student doing all the work and another doing nothing is to use participation quizzes, especially during the first few group assignments.  At first, I am the one providing feedback to groups, but eventually I like students to take over monitoring their own groups. I first read about participation quizzes in Jo Boaler's Mathematical Mindsets book....

Here is yet another late #SundayFunday post.  I'm still making progress towards making a post on time though:  This post is only 3 weeks late this time  Here  is more info if you'd like to join in the fun. The challenge this week is to share a picture from your classroom.  I've chosen to share my new seating arrangement: Obviously I'm not the first person to use this arrangement.  I've used it myself for short bursts of time but this is the first year that I'm primarily using this set-up.  David R. Johnson wrote about the many benefits of this arrangement in several of his books, including "Every Minute Counts." I reread Johnson's books every few years and always find something new to improve my classroom.   What makes the Double U-shaped arrangement so great is how easy it is to circulate around the room.  I can peak at every students work in a matter of seconds in this set-up.  I also like that this arrangem...

Another late #SundayFunday post, but at least I'm closing in on posting one one time :) This one is only 4 weeks late and I'm making up ground!  Here  is more info if you'd like to join in the fun. I feel like a real hypocrite even considering the idea of giving advice about work-life balance.  I have almost no life in my work-life balance.  In general I work from 6am-4pm every weekday and often a few extra hours in the evening.  I also usually work 5 or so hours over the weekend.  During the summer I work nearly as much except I'm usually better at taking the weekends off. Therefore, this post will be more about my goals for giving myself some more life in my work-life balance! 1)  I'd like to make more time for my hobbies.  These include camping, hiking and spending time with family, friends, and my dogs.  My husband and I try to camp at least once a month from May to October and I make it a point to walk the doggos daily.  ...

Here is another better late than never #SundayFunday post :) At least this one is only 5 weeks late and I'm making up ground! Here is more info if you'd like to join in the fun. It's really no surprise that I ended up being a teacher. I had a very difficult childhood. I won't go into the gory details, but although my mother did the very best she could with the resources she had, she could not protect me from everything. My early life was filled with neglect, hunger, inadequate shelter & clothing and abuse. I was surrounded by illegal activities and poor role models. At school, no one knew what I was going through and no one treated me differently. That is exactly how I liked it. I did not have the means to develop skills in areas like music or athletics, but I could take advantage of my free appropriate education. I quickly learned that if I worked really hard, I would excel, and that is exactly what I did. I loved the feeling of control that I ha...

This is another very late (6ish weeks overdue) #SundayFunday Post.  I should actually be able to catch-up now that it seems there will be monthly prompts rather than weekly :)  Here is more info if you'd like to join in the fun. I've been meaning to write a long series of posts about my favorite math games.  In the past, I've written much about practice structures .  In my mind, practice structures are fun ways to practice recently learned skills while games would be more review of slightly older skills.  I'll start with posting my two favorite math review games.  Eventually, I'll follow-up this post with other game summaries. In general, my favorite review games focus on content, get every student involved, do not reward speed over deep thought, and involve some type of chance.  The first two items on this list are pretty obvious.  Jo Boaler has written much about the harm teachers and schools do to students when focusing on speed in mat...

This is a very late (6ish weeks overdue) #Sunday Funday Post.  I love to read education books and I always learn something new to use in my classroom.  It's hard for me to pick just a few books, so I'll share some of the most recent ones that I've read. First up: Seven Strategies of Assessment for Learning by Jan Chappuis. This for a grad class that starts Monday. Getting a jump on the readings... at least I had a few hours of summer break :) @JanChappuis pic.twitter.com/3cqUUdzCKU — Jennifer Abel (@abel_jennifer) June 9, 2017 This was required reading for a grad class, but it was one of the best books that I've read on formative assessment.  I know that feedback is so important for student learning but often wondered about what it would look like in practice.  This book offers tons of concrete examples. I made it one of my professional goals for the year to give more formative feedback and fewer grades.  These pointers have helped so fa...

Today I posted this to Twitter and got some interest about how I use Nearpod to check homework. Today in alg2 we used @nearpod to check and go over homework questions #teach180 pic.twitter.com/rK6xTXhe9B — Jennifer Abel (@abel_jennifer) October 17, 2017 I also posted this picture on my last blog post. I can not take credit for the idea.  It was shared with me by a coworker.  I just added the Nearpod component. I have been using the free version of Nearpod for a while and Cathy Yenca shared how you could make the most of the limited space in the free version by using generic templates rather than full lesson. Here is how it works in my room: At the start of class, students write down the number of a homework problem that they wanted to have explained.  Other students in the class sign-up to explain problems when they can.  If no one signs-up for a given problem, I will explain it if it is different from the other requested/explained problems. To...

I'm slowly catching-up in my #SundayFunday prompts!   This is the prompt from week nine of the Sunday Funday blogging initiative.  It's never too late to join in!  You can read more about the challenge  here  if you like.  This week's challenge is to write about our classroom set-up. I posted a few pictures from my classroom on Twitter prior to the start of the year. At the time, I was looking forward to incorporating more group based whiteboard practice (Vertical Non-Permanent Surfaces #VNPS) and continuing with the rotational station based model of blended learning.  Although I had successfully implemented this model involving small group instruction, group work, and individual work for the 4 previous years, this years' students struggled more than usual.  It may have been that I had more freshmen than ever before and they had not yet developed the confidence and self-discipline needed to work productively while I was with...

I've gotten very far behind in my #SundayFunday prompts, but I'm hoping to catch up!   This is the prompt from week eight of the Sunday Funday blogging initiative.  It's never too late to join in!  You can read more about the challenge  here  if you like.  This week's challenge is to write about our warm-up and closure routines.  To be honest, I've had a very difficult start to the year.  The routines that I've used for the last 4 years including hybrid learning and standards based grading  (also see the 7 posts following this one if you like) have suddenly been deemed inappropriate in my current placement.  That, however, is another post for another day :(   Because of these circumstances, I am still looking for a good routine for my current constraints .  I look forward to reading the other posts to see what everyone else has found success with.  In the meantime, here is what I've done in the past. I...

This is week seven of the Sunday Funday blogging initiative.  It's never too late to join in!  You can read more about the challenge  here  if you like.  This week's challenge is to write about our favorite lesson.  I have a hard time picking a favorite lesson, especially one that I have not already blogged about.  I love all of the following: Barbie Zipline - Angle of Elevation Barbie Bungee - Line of Best Fit Logarithm Earthquakes Circle Equation Earthquakes Candy Catapult Quadratics  and Dance Dance Transversal However, I'd like to write about something new.  So today I'm writing about CPM's "How High Will it Bounce?" lesson.  I added some technology to this lesson to connect estimating a line of best fit and using a graphing calculator to find the linear regression line and correlation coefficient.  Here are some screenshots pictures and videos from the lesson. Today in #al...