Sunday, December 18, 2016

#Teach180: Days 61-70

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 61:  Today was a quiz day.  I give cumulative quizzes on each fifth day of class.  However, next week I'll be skipping the cumulative quiz in favor of a benchmark test to help my students prepare for midterms.


Day 62:   Today in geometry, we practiced using properties of parallelograms with a chain activity.  Here is a link to the activity if you'd like to give it a try.  I wrote about this type of activity here if you want more info.


Day 63:  Today in algebra 2 we practiced solving quadratic word problems.  I borrow these problems from Patrick Brust.  My students will definitely need a little more practice with writing equations from the word problems.



Day 64:  Today in geometry we determined which characteristics of  quadrilaterals guaranteed that the quadrilateral would be a parallelogram.  We used ExploreLearning's Gizmo.  I like using these apps because it allows students to quickly conduct many trials and make conclusions based on the patterns they find.


Day 65:  Today in algebra 2 we used +Desmos to explore discriminants and how they affected the number and type of solutions to a quadratic equation.  I love Desmos for creating visuals for students without having to take the extended time to graph everything by hand.




Day 66:  Today we had our first set of benchmark tests.  I'm nervous about grading them.  Other than midterms and finals, my students have not taken large tests on multiple units of study before.


Day 67:  Today in geometry we practiced using properties of rectangles and rhombi with ExploreLearning's Gizmo.  It is so helpful to to have to construct all of these parallelograms for kids to explore.


Day 68:  Today in algebra 2 we used +Desmos to explore vertex or completed square form of a quadratic.  I created this assignment a few years ago before I knew how to make an activity builder; I'm thinking it is time to rewrite the assignment to be more interactive.  Here is a link to the assignment.



 Day 69:  Today in geometry we discovered properties of trapezoids, isosceles trapezoids, and kites.   This is an old school paper and pencil activity.  I like using technology, but sometimes low tech adds variety.  I downloaded the activity from Peter Jonnard on TpT.



Day 70:  Today in algebra 2 we played Parabola Marble Slides by +Desmos.  My students needed to use a lot of trial and error to solve each slide, but they were motivated to do well, and they got better at predicting how changing certain values in a quadratic equation would change the graph.

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