Mathsational

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...

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...

@ExploreMTBoS is hosting a blogging challenge for the start of the new year.  It's not to late to join if you like.  Read more about it here . This weeks challenge involves reading and sharing one of our favorite #MTBoS blogs.  My favorite newish blog belongs to Katrina Newell .  She posts great resources for interactive notebooks and for google interactive activities.  I found Mrs. Newell's Math Ideas and Resources for the Secondary Math Classroom  via twitter.  My school is planning on going 1-1 next year with iPads, so I've been eyeing up Katrina's great google activities .   I'm hoping to use some of her activities as is next year as well as use others as inspiration to create some of my own.  Katrina even frequently offers several versions of the same assignment that are differentiated to the needs of various learners.  She's kinda amazing :)  My favorite google interactive is probably this one on geometry proofs in...

For the month of January the folks at Explore MTBoS are challenging you to write one blog post per week.  This weeks challenge is to write about a favorite.  You can read more about the challenge  here . So far this year, my favorite lesson has been Julie's Candy Catapult .  Use the previous link to read about how she created and implemented the activity.  I used the activity over a period of 3 class periods at the direct station in my hybrid classroom .  This worked out to be about 60 minutes total for each student. First I allowed the students to choice their own group of 3.  I explained that we were going to use this catapult to shoot candy across the room.  Then then would do some calculations so that they could predict where the same candy would land when we shot from the top of a student desk rather than from the floor. I needed a lot of help from Julie and from the members of our physics department.  I wanted to be sure tha...