Mathsational

This year I've taken on the #teach180 challenge.  The challenge is to post one tweet per day showing a glimpse inside your classroom.  I'm also putting the tweets together in a biweekly blog so that I can share the resources that I'm tweeting about. Day 111:  Today was another one of our weekly quizzes. Testing today #teach180 . Just saw one kid do a fist pump, so it must be going well :) pic.twitter.com/IKFbB6q1pt — Jennifer Abel (@abel_jennifer) February 23, 2017 Day 112:  Today my geometry students finished up their transformations project using  +OZOBOT s.  The kids cheered as the bots successfully completed their courses :) Wrapping up our #geometrychat @OZOBOT transformations project today #teach180 . Thanks to MTEF @ManheimTownship pic.twitter.com/FqHEjt4yH5 — Jennifer Abel (@abel_jennifer) February 24, 2017 Day 113:  Today my algebra 2 classes used ExploreLearning's Gizmo to practice graphing and writing equations of circl...

I am about to start my 13th year of teaching high school math.  Every year, I buy way too much stuff for my classroom.  (My school does not provide us with very much in terms of physical supplies). This year, I am actually buying only a few things.  Of course there are some things that I will make as well.  Here are my must haves for the new year. 1)   Patty Paper  - for paper folding constructions and other activities from Patty Paper Geometry .  I already have the book, I just need to refill my paper supply.  This book is great for discovering geometry in a low tech, hands-on way.  Sure Geometer's Sketchpad is great, but sometimes physical is good too. 2)   The Classroom Chef  - I received this order a few weeks ago but was finishing a grad class.  I have a conference this week, so I'm hoping to start reading next week.  I follow both Matt and John on twitter, so I have high expectations.  I think their boo...

I modified this activity from one done by Matt Vaudrey and John Stevens .  I believe that they used the activity to study Pythagorean Theorem and the distance formula.  Here is a write-up of John’s lesson.  I used it to have students practice solving simple trigonometric triangles involving angle of elevation. I started the lesson with the same video that John did.  I asked the kids if they had ever been on a zipline and if so where.  A few kids had stories to share.  I asked them about what would make a zipline ‘good.’  This led them to the safe and fun metric.  They knew that the zipline needed to be both safe and fun if people were going to enjoy the ride. I set up a mini zipline in my classroom.  The starting height was fixed at some random value because I already had a command hook stuck to one of my cabinets.  It was at about 147 cm.  The zipline was just fishing line.  I used a carabiner and velco me...