Mathsational

I can't say for sure where I first stumbled across Dance Dance Transversal.  It was most certainly on twitter while catching up on #MTBoS posts.  I found many people who had implemented the lesson, but the one that was done the best was this one by JJ Martinez and Jenn Vadnais. Last year, I used their Billie Jean and Uptown Funk videos.  My supervisor just happened to be doing a walk through as I was transitioning from one activity to the next.  When he walked in the room, the kids were cleaning up their markers and other supplies from a project that they were working on (they were creating alphabet scrap books for "The ABCs of Geometry") while I was bringing up the needed videos.  He inquired about what we were about to do for the second half of the period.  I let him know that what I was about to do would either go horribly wrong or be fantastic.  Of course with this bit of information, he had to stay.  I wrote about the implementation on tha...

I came across this activity in the #MTBoS community through twitter.  The activity seemed very outside the box for me and my students and I was nervous to try it.  Many teachers have written about their experiences with implementing this lesson, but Jenn's is the most detailed and helpful that I found.  The basic idea is this:  Students make a set of parallel lines and a tranversal with masking tape on the floor.  You review the angle pairs alternate interior, alternate exterior, same side interior, same side exterior, corresponding, vertical).  Have students place their feet on the appropriate angles in their tape diagram. In the post mentioned above, Jenn shares some awesome videos with fun music and angle pairs.  It works just like Dance Dance Revolution from there.  I tried it with my 11th graders as a review before we started parallel line proofs.  They had a grand time and really got into it.  I recorded one of the dances ...

This is week four 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 organization. Organization: Well, seeing as how I'm posting this entry several hours past the deadline, I certainly could use some organization pointers for sure.  However, I do have a few pointers. Do everything digitally if possible.  My students will have 1-1 iPads before the start of the second marking period.  Until then, I'll continue to use my class cart of laptops.  I am fortunate enough to have those as part of a grant that I signed-up for circa 2007.  The machines were updated one time in those 10 years, so the technology available is anything but cutting edge, but it is functional. The reason I love organizing digitally is that it is easier for me to make lots of folders inside of other folders and to move/update things as needed. ...

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...

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...