Friday, September 28, 2012

My Favorite Friday #10


Welcome to another awesome week of #MyFavFriday, featuring posts from around the blogosphere!

Don't forget to submit YOUR #MyFavFriday post HERE

Now on to Week 10's posts...
(Holy Moly - Can you believe we've done this for *10* weeks!!!!)

@Borschtwithanna - Hackpad for organization & discussion groups

@_CindyWallace_ - Algebra v the Cockroaches

@misscalcul8 - Kuta Software Presentation View

@tbanks06 - Favorite Place To B on Friday's at 7:30

@4mulafun Jennifer Smith-Sloane - My Fav Teacher Bag and Fav Shoes

Courtney Steketee - #myFavFriday- Sticks

Beth - Our team process

Ms Z Teaches in Mathland - My Favorite Way To Change It Up

Monday, September 24, 2012

Made4Math - Dollar Tree Find


I'm cheap. Actually, I take that back... I'm frugal :) And as a frugal person, one of my favorite stores is Dollar Tree! As I wander the aisles of Dollar Tree, I am constantly thinking of "How could I use this in my classroom?"

So this weekend, hubs and I were out shopping and I find a plastic basket on the floor of my local Dollar Tree and I immediately think... "HEY!!! I NEED THAT!!!" :)

Let's backtrack a bit...

This year I have been using Interactive Notebooks in my classes. I *big puffy heart love* them! My students love them. The parents love them. What I don't love though, is the paper. LOTS of paper. And students that don't know how to use glue/tape appropriately to adhere said paper.

Cue the music for the entrance of the "spare handouts" basket.

I am tired of kids asking me "Miss, do you have an extra _____?"

My answer (starting tomorrow)... "No clue! Go check the Extra Handouts Basket!"


Big Puffy Hearts to Dollar Tree!!! :) :)

#Made4Math Monday - Week 13


Don't forget to submit your #Made4Math project HERE

And now for this week's submissions..

@simonjob - Times Tables Grid Wall Poster

Goober Speaks - Sudoku Review for Functions

@4mulafun Jennifer Smith-Sloane - Ready 4 Fall with a Halloween Printable

Bree (@btwnthenumbers) - Gym Bag & Patterns Unit Assessment

Meg - Graphing Transformation Matching Game

@misscalcul8 - Idea Box

The Math Idea Drop - ZAP PowerPoint

@tbanks1906 - Notebook - Pair-Up Matrices

@Fouss - Three Ring

@druinok - Dollar Tree Find

Radical Rational - More Kagan, Triangle Centers Foldable

@reminoodle - Bazinga Board

@Alwildadaughter - PEMDAS Mobile

Julie Reulbach, @jreulbach - Dry Erase Table Frames

School of Fisher - Exit Activity (Printing on Stickie Notes)

@_CindyWallace_ - Math imPossible

Friday, September 21, 2012

My Favorite Friday #9


Welcome to another awesome week of #MyFavFriday, featuring posts from around the blogosphere!

Don't forget to submit YOUR #MyFavFriday post HERE

Now on to Week 9's posts...

@reminoodle - Hilarious Moments of the Week

@druinok - My (current) Favorite App

Beth - Super Tool - random group generator

@tbanks1906 - Matrices Pass Around

@misscalcul8 - Math Poker

Kristin - Properties Quiz Quiz Trade “Game” + More

@gwaddellnvhs - #MyFavFriday: Dropbox

@4mulafun Jennifer Smith-Sloane - Instagram Learning

Julie Reulbach, @jreulbach - Negative Numbers - What's Your Sign?

My (current) Favorite App


Over the summer, I got an iPad. I actually got a great deal on it (Thanks, craigslist!) but up until now, I've not used it for much. I have a few apps on there, a few games and a few that are work related.

I guess I should back up a few years.... last time I taught Algebra 2, I decided to start making Jing screencasts for my students to help them review for tests. This really went over very well with my students, so I kept it up all year and the kids really loved it. Last year, I had plans to create similar screencasts for AP Stat, but I had moved to a new building and the technology did not play well at all. So I worked with a Bamboo tablet and a microphone at home to create Jing screencasts, but the Bamboo tablet wasn't the easiest thing in the world to write on. Then, as I got more and more interested in flipping the classroom, I decided I wanted an iPad, which led to a LOT of craigslist surfing :)

So, finally I found a great deal and off I went. Except that I haven't used it. (Other than sudoku *hehe*). So this week in AP, I decided I was going to try a screencast on the iPad to see how it worked. I had downloaded a few of the apps and my favorite, by far....



Educreations is a FREE app that lets you record multi-page screencasts, insert images, etc. It also has a web application where you can create screencasts via your computer. Other than some pre-planning on my part, it was so easy and within about 30 minutes, I had 3 screencasts created. Click HERE to see one of the screencasts I made this week.

Yup... It's a keeper! :)

What are other MUST-HAVE apps???

Monday, September 17, 2012

#Made4Math Monday - Week 12


Don't forget to submit your #Made4Math project HERE

@aanthonya - How far is Sacramento from Austin?

@druinok - Foldables and Stations

Kristin - Scientific Notation Jigsaw Tarsia Puzzle

@4mulafun Jennifer Smith-Sloane - Creation Overload

Beth - Equations Up and About

The Math Idea Drop - Absolute Value Card Sort

Julie Reulbach, @jreulbach - Foldables - Place Value, Exponents, and Scientific Notation

@misscalcul8 - Domain and Range Lesson

@_CindyWallace_ - Bulletin Board Idea for HS Seniors' Class

Made4Math - Foldables and Stations


Wowzers! Can you believe that we've been doing this for 12 weeks? Sometimes I wonder if I'll make it through the year, but honestly, the idea of #Made4Math helps to keep me going. It forces me to blog every week AND it forces me to try to be creative in some way every week.

Project #1 - Stations Activity
Last year, Julie had posted about using acrylic frames for her stations activities. Since I like to do stations, I was intrigued. In the past, my students had really struggled with stations because no matter what, someone couldn't see the problem well enough to work it. With Julie's idea, everyone can see the problem, which I love! I finally got the chance to use my frames this week.


I printed off 2 sets of 4 problems, one set in orange, one in pink. The right side of my room got one color, the left side got the other color. Each group started with a problem and after about 10 minutes, we rotated within their color groups. It worked out well, students could see the problem, and the frames gave it an air of "official-ness" :)

Project #2 - Writing Equations Foldable
I have to say I am VERY proud of this one. We were working on writing equations of a line and I decided to do a foldable. Since I'm slightly OCD, I wanted everything to line up well and I finally got it to work. It was so much fun to see students using their foldable all week :)


If you want the file, click HERE

Have a happy Monday!! :)

Sunday, September 16, 2012

New Blogger Initiative - Week 4

Welcome to the fourth and final week of the New Blogger Initiative. Over the past month, we have met so many new math bloggers and I am so happy to have been involved in this project! Thank you to Sam and Julie for getting this project off the ground!

Now it's time to introduce you to my last batch of new bloggers. Please take a moment, visit their blogs, and leave a comment for them.

Kristin - Hoppe Ninja Math Teachers Blog

Kristin (@kristinabc123) has a blog named "Hoppe Ninja Math Teacher Blog". The fourth post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "Search and Shades" and the author sums it up as follows: "Search and shades are great for practice, reviewing, and remediation. I've bought the books and made my own!"

A memorable quotation from the post is: "I love Search and Shades, and most of the kids do, too."

My thoughts... Wow! I have used the "quilt block" books before, but I've never thought about sitting down and making my own. A huge thank you to Kristin for sharing these very cool worksheets!

Rebecka Peterson - Epsilon-Delta

Rebecka Peterson (@RebeckaMozdeh) has a blog named "Epsilon-Delta". The fourth post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "Writing Piece-wise Functions" and the author sums it up as follows: "I stole ideas from Maggie and Bowman to review my Pre-Calc students on peice-wise functions and function transformations. We had some great ah-ha moments, and students did better on this standard than I've ever seen them do on previous tests."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "Success! Finally!"

My thoughts... Rebecka's post comes at a perfect time for me as I'm smack dab in the middle of piecewise functions in Algebra 2. It's also a perfect tie in to practice the parent functions and transformations that we've done recently. I love how the blog-o-sphere does my lesson plans for me!

Mr. Carby - Change Over Time

Mr. Carby (@NateilCarby) has a blog named "Change Over Time". The fourth post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "Favorite Classroom Phrases" and the author sums it up as follows: "A brief glimpse into how I communicate with my students. I'm a little rough around the edges. I'll get it right one day."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "I understand what you're saying, but then I don't understand what you're saying"

My thoughts... I have to agree with Mr. Carby about the memorable quotation. That one is my favorite on his list as well :) I think I might try this with my students. I think it could be very telling to ask the students what my common phrases are.

Bruce Ferrington - Authentic Inquiry Maths

Bruce Ferrington (@BruceFerrington) has a blog named "Authentic Inquiry Maths". The fourth post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "The Difference Between Area and Perimeter" and the author sums it up as follows: "Kids get easily confused about the difference between area and perimeter. So I asked them to give me some ideas about how to avoid confusing the two very different concepts.."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "Seems just about every text book you open introduces area and perimeter at the same time and from my experience this often leads to confusion for the kids."

My thoughts... This is the second time recently that I've read about the confusion with similar concepts when they are presented at the same time. I think I will definitely have to be more careful about this as I teach concepts throughout the year.

Carey Lehner - I Am A Teacher. This Is My Journey

Carey Lehner (@careylehner) has a blog named "I Am A Teacher. This Is My Journey.". The fourth post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "Our PLC Group" and the author sums it up as follows: "This post describes the PLC goals that our group has this year."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "I am looking forward to improving my teaching and hopefully that will impact student learning. I believe this PLC group will allow me to do this."

My thoughts... Carey is the second person recently to recommend the book Embedded Formative Assessment. This book was already on my Wish List, but it just moved further up the list. Thanks Carey!

Friday, September 14, 2012

My Favorite Friday #8


Welcome to another awesome week of #MyFavFriday, featuring posts from around the blogosphere!

Don't forget to submit YOUR #MyFavFriday post HERE

Now on to Week 8's posts...

Julie Reulbach, @jreulbach - Hanging Holders for Absent Work

@druinok - I <3 YOU

@misscalcul8 - Favorite Moments

Simplifying Radicals @noraoswald - Problem experts

Terrance Banks - @tbanks1906 - My Fav Friday - Graphing Cartoons

@reminoodle - Student Created Math Puns

@4mulafun Jennifer Smith-Sloane - Organization Favs

@_CindyWallace_ - Rafflecopter to Raise Test Scores

School of Fisher - Dry Erase on Desks

Courtney Steketee - #myFavFriday- Middle Schoolers

Beth - Satisfying Moments

@aeakland - What Time Is It?

@luvbcd - First Day Activities

YOU are my #MyFavFriday


Ladies and Gentlemen, drum roll please.....

Because MY favorite thing this Friday is YOU!

That's right - YOU!

Why, you ask?

Because YOU are amazing!

Seriously though, this has been a doozy of a week. But, at the end of the day, I know that I have YOU, the math-twitter-blog-o-sphere to keep me sane.

Highlights from this week...
The Global Math Department meeting this week was *A*M*A*Z*I*N*G!! Thanks Megan, Lisa, and all of the presenters this week! (ACK! I'm supposed to present next week!?!?!?!?)

My foldable in Algebra 2 worked! (Thanks Julie for rocking your foldable talk and thanks to @approx_normal and Monica for proofreading it for me)

Notebooks are going smoothly in both Algebra 2 and AP Stat. Even had a student teacher come observe today and the boys at her group did such a great job of explaining what they liked about the notebook.

Back to School night was tonight and I must give a Shout-Out to @LaurenDeReche for her Angry Birds Grading screen that I flat out stole :) (Sorry Lauren! But you were a hit!)

....

In general, this was a crappy week. We had our personal family losses of last week plus additional losses this week in our school family. But, sometimes loss can help you cherish what you have. And this week, I choose to cherish YOU.

Each of you have helped to make me a better teacher, a better friend, and a better person.

Thank you for sharing your lives, your strategies, your struggles, and your triumphs.

YOU are my #MyFavFriday


Monday, September 10, 2012

#Made4Math Monday #11


Don't forget to submit YOUR #Made4Math project HERE

Now on to today's posts...

@druinok - Card Sorts and More

@reminoodle - Absent Work Bulletin Board

@msklaster - Easy Seating Charts

@_CindyWallace_ - Tune into Math

Kristin - Foldables

Simplifying Radicals @noraoswald - Factoring Flip Book

@misscalcul8 - Diamond Foldable and EOC Review

Beth - Equation Dominoes and more

@4mulafun Jennifer Smith-Sloane - Classroom Decor (with FREE Downloads)

@luvbcd - Daily and Class Files

Math Tales From the Spring - Graphing Calculator Cheat Sheet

@aeakland - Exit slips du jour

@mathymissc - Reteaching Solving Equations

Made 4 Math - A tribute and some lessons


Welcome to this week's #Made4Math! My laminator and I had a lot of fun this week, that I'm hoping to pass on to you :)

But first, something personal. I don't usually post a lot of personal information here, but it's been a sad weekend at my house. Last week, my husband's grandfather passed away. He was 94 years old, a WWII veteran, and a great guy. As I was preparing my sub plans on Saturday evening and about to go downstairs to bed, my husband calls up that something is wrong with one of the ferrets. One of our boys, Bandit, was having a seizure. We called our vet, who sent us to the emergency hospital. The doctors tried everything they could to stabilize him, but on Sunday morning about 11am, we had to let him go. He was 6.5 years old and a very loved member of our family. If you aren't an animal person, you may not understand why I'm sitting here in tears typing this, but our animals are our children and we love them dearly. Rest in peace, my little man.


Thank you for letting me share my sorrow with you.

Project #1 - Foldable
While the weekend was pretty crummy, I did have some productive moments this week! First up is the very first foldable I've ever made for AP Stat:


The font on the front is "Puffy Dreamland" - isn't it cute! :) Get this file HERE.

The kids really liked the foldable and on the inside we took notes and drew the corresponding diagrams for each type. Then they glued their foldable into their notebooks. This project leads us to....

Project #2 - Card Sort
Let me start off by saying that Card Sorts are one of my most favorite formative assessment techniques! The basic idea of a Card Sort is to give each group a set of cards and they sort them into similar characteristics. This Card Sort works hand in hand with the previous foldable:


After finishing up the foldable, I wanted students to practice on identifying the types of experimental design. I browsed through various textbooks until I found 4 Completely Randomized experiments, 4 Randomized Block experiments, and 4 Matched Pairs experiments, printed them onto colored paper, laminated them and cut them out. Then I gave each group a set of cards and told them to sort them by Experimental design. The conversations were awesome to overhear! After the group sorted their cards correctly, they had to verbalize to me what the unifying theme of each design was, then pick one card of each type to draw the flowchart of the experiment. This really helped to solidify each type of design. You can get the file HERE.

Project #3 - Multiple Representations
A few years ago, I stumbled upon this website for Pre-AP resources. One of the activities there was a multiple representations matching activity for Piecewise Functions:


The idea is for students to match the graph to the scenerio to the table to the equation. Since piecewise functions are on my lesson plans for the upcoming week, I thought this would be a fun activity for the kids to try. I'll try to take some pictures of this activity in progress :)

Don't forget to check out all of the other #Made4Math projects!

Saturday, September 8, 2012

New Blogger Initiation - Week 3

Welcome to another exciting week of the New Bloggers Initiation! I am so excited to get to share more great blogs with you! Please take a few moments, read through these submissions, and leave a comment to welcome them to our community.

Kyle Harlow - War and Piecewise Functions

Kyle Harlow (@KBHarlow) has a blog named "War and Piecewise Functions". The third post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "HS Math & The "Dump" Theory" and the author sums it up as follows: "The biggest misconception I see in my new students is their belief that math classes are entirely self-contained. They think that anything they need to know this year will be taught/learned this year. Then I try to take a few shots at fixing it."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "I’m just tired of spending days reteaching fractions, properties of exponents/radicals, factoring, solving equations, the quadratic formula, the unit circle, function transformations, and a dozen other things in every single course I teach, no matter the level."

My thoughts... Kyle's post really hit home with me. I gave a "review" yesterday in Algebra 2 over concepts from Algebra 1, such as slope. I was shocked at how many kids had no clue where to start on such a simple concept! Oftentimes, kids "rent" the information until the exam, then immediately break their lease. They never "own" the material and get that it is something that needs to stick with them. I blame some of this on the "mile wide, inch deep" curriculum, but that's a whole 'nother post!

Frank McGown - Finding the Process

Frank McGowan has a blog named "Finding the Process". The third post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "Less than one, equal to one, greater than one" and the author sums it up as follows: "From estimations that students are sure will be too high or too low to benchmark judgements, quick check-ins with students can provide a lot of insight on their thinking. This post relates a scenario as students work to understand part-to-whole relationships."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "Their reasoning was that 147 is greater than 100 so the fraction must be greater than one."

My thoughts... Reading Frank's post makes me realize how much I truly love small group work. Like Frank, I enjoy eavesdropping and asking questions as students struggle to internalize a concept. I also realized that I need to find the video clip he is talking about so I can use it next year!

Jeff Brenneman - Trust Me - I'm a Math Teacher

Jeff Brenneman (@brennemania) has a blog named "Trust Me - I'm a Math Teacher". The third post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "It's School Again! Huzzah! (Part 1 of 2)" and the author sums it up as follows: "This is the first of a two-part blog reflecting on the first week of school. In this post, I discuss my interactions with the freshmen on their first day, and also post a really cute picture of my dog. Because I love my dog. And I also love freshmen."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "Some [freshmen] looked at us as if we had just picked our noses with an acetylene torch."

My thoughts... I truly enjoyed reading about Jeff's first day of school. I love that each teacher stood outside to personally welcome each incoming student. While I adore my school, sometimes I miss the personalized touch that comes with teaching in a small school.

Katrina Hamilton - Lady Leibmiz and the Galileo Girls

Katrina Hamilton (@klwarsin) has a blog named "Lady Leibmiz and the Galileo Girls". The third post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "This is Math" and the author sums it up as follows: "This post is all about what I believe mathematics really is. It starts with some wise words from Einstein and Descartes, and ends with how I put that into my classroom. It's the most personal post I've written, because it goes to the core of who am I am as a mathematician and a teacher."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "There's nothing like it to make you feel like a genius and an idiot all at once."

My thoughts... I love Katrina's story about David, the college professor that truly showed the beauty of mathematics. I know, that as a teacher, I don't spark this curiousity nearly enough. I get too wrapped up in the minute details that seem to rule my life at times and forget that I should be fostering that love for a beautiful discipline. Thank you, Katrina, for reminding me of that love.

gooberspeaks - Reflections from an Asymptote

gooberspeaks has a blog named "Reflections from an Asymptote". The third post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "Day 1 .... DONE" and the author sums it up as follows: "Algebra 1 takes all those skills you learn in elementary school and middle school and apply them to three topics (1) writing and solving equations of lines (2) writing and solving equations of quadratics and (3) graphing. Algebra 2 is the same stuff – we are still writing and solving and graphing – but instead of looking ad nauseum at lines and a little less ad nauseum at quadratics, we are going to spend time writing, solving and graphing many different kinds of problems ..."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "Algebra 1 takes all those skills you learn in elementary school and middle school and apply them to three topics (1) writing and solving equations of lines (2) writing and solving equations of quadratics and (3) graphing. Algebra 2 is the same stuff – we are still writing and solving and graphing ..."

My thoughts... I totally agree! I also teach Algebra 2 and it reminds me of those awkward "tween" years. Too grown up for the basic and simple "childish" things, but not grown up enough for the "adult" issues. I try hard to make Algebra 2 interesting, but it's so difficult!

Lisa Nussdorfer - Instruction for all

Lisa Nussdorfer (@nussder) has a blog named "Instruction for all". The third post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "Negative and Negative is Positive, Right?" and the author sums it up as follows: "This is about how I address the concept of the subtraction of integers which many students haven't completely mastered. I write about the ways I work with individual students and the whole class."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "Especially teaching 9th through 11th graders, many student have had Algebra I multiple times which unfortunately can reinforce certain misconceptions."

My thoughts... Lisa brings up such a great point about student misconceptions here. I think the abstract nature of Algebra is really difficult for many kids to grasp and oftentimes it is a struggle for me to see where the student misconception is. I have a student this year that was really struggling with how to visually tell a positive slope from a negative slope and try as I might, that was a misconception that I just could not fathom. Sometimes I really wish I could jump into the kiddo's brain and see what they are thinking.

Wesley - Intervals of Convergence

Wesley (@wp202) has a blog named "Intervals of Convergence". The third post for the Blogging Initiation is titled ""Can I do this?"" and the author sums it up as follows: "A student uses her own understanding of linear equations and slope to come up with her own way to find an equation of a line."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "Glad to see the main concept stuck."

My thoughts... I really love that Wesley didn't use a "formula" to teach writing equations of lines. I had a similar thought the other day about point-slope form and since I had just taught transformations, I had them write an equation with a slope of 3, going through the point (-1, 4), so that the "vertex" had shifted left one and up four. I was so pleased to see that most of the students easily wrote the equation of the line correctly, without me teaching "point-slope form".

There ya go... even more awesome new bloggers for you to check out :) Happy Reading!

Friday, September 7, 2012

My Favorite Friday #7


Welcome to another awesome week of #MyFavFriday, featuring posts from around the blogosphere!

Don't forget to submit YOUR #MyFavFriday post HERE

Now on to Week 7's posts...

@druinok - My Favorite New Tech Toy

Julie Reulbach, @jreulbach - Mega White Boards

Simplifying Radicals @noraoswald - Try, Try Again

@reminoodle - High School Student Randomness

School of Fisher - Song of the Week

@sevenfooter1 - Mathematician in the Village

radical rational - 2>4! and Tetris Costume

@4mulafun Jennifer Smith-Sloane - My Fav Friday- Stop and Take Time for Others

@MsMac622 - "Prepared" Lunches

@aeakland - Visions of PEMDAS danced in my head

My Favorite New Toy


I have a new favorite toy in my classroom :)


Meet my Elmo. No, not the Sesame Street friend, but my new document camera. I have never had a document camera until this year and I am *loving* it. It really came in handy when I was showing my kids how to set up their notebooks or when I'm showing them how to set up a foldable.

It is connected to my computer, which connects to my projector/Promethean. By using the annotate over desktop of the Promethean, I can even write on it! Woot! The ELMO software also has an annotate feature, but it doesn't work up on the "big board".

Here's what my computer looks like when I'm using the ELMO:


So there's #MyFavFriday - My new ELMO!

Oh, and just because it makes me happy, here's a picture of my three ferrets all sleeping in their favorite cuddle sack :) I love how they are all lined up in a row!


Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Made 4 Math - A day late...


Okay, I feel horrible that I'm a day late! But in my defense, it was one of those weekends that I did very little school work, other than clean out Google Reader! So I figure one week out of ten isn't too bad! Seriously though, can you believe we are on week 10!!!! Wowzers!

Anyway, my projects this week are products of necessity, so maybe this will help someone else :)

Project #1 - Bulletin Board Makeover
If you recall from my previous posts with pictures of my classroom, my AP Stat bulletin board was rather bare. However, prior to the students arriving, I did manage to fill it up with cartoons and comics relating to statistics. (Thank you XKCD!) This was all well and good until I started getting bombarded with paper! You see, in AP Stat, I'm not exactly doing the same type of Interactive Notebook as I am in Algebra 2. I'm doing more of the notebook idea from Infinite Sums $1 Textbook post. Included in this idea is having their practice problems included into their notebook and to save paper, the problems are typed out onto smaller strips of paper. This is great for the environment, but not so great when I have all of these small pieces of paper floating around my desk!

So, today after school, I had a brainstorm! I could use the colored card pockets like I used in Algebra 2, but use them to hold the strips of paper! When students are absent, they can go back to the board and find whichever problem set they need!


You will notice that the board isn't done... that's because I ran out of pockets that were already laminated! I will finish up the board tomorrow morning :)

Project #2 - Student Aide To-Do List
My student aide this semester seems really awesome. However, since he is off campus in the morning, sometimes he arrives a bit late to my class and I can't stop instruction to get him started on what I need for him to do. Up until now, I've used lots of post-it notes, but that was getting wasteful, so I decided to make a to-do list for him! I laminated it so it would be easy to write on with whiteboard markers and I could keep it at my desk during my plan, then move it over to his work station at lunch. I think I'm really going to like this!


Project #3 - My Wall Thingy
Yeah, this one isn't a project that *I* made, but it is something I bought, so that totally counts, right??? This summer, I ran across this hanging magazine file at Big Lots and *had* to have it! It hangs right by my desk and holds all of the important folders, such as my attendance folder, the reassessments folder, my Interactive Notebooks, etc. I love how easy this is AND how everything has its place!


So there you have it... My #Made4Math for Week 10!

(STILL can't believe we've made it to Week 10!!) :)

Monday, September 3, 2012

Made 4 Math Monday #10

Wowzers! Can you believe that we've had TEN #Made4Math Mondays? How amazing! :)


Don't forget to submit YOUR #Made4Math project HERE

Now on to today's posts...

@_CindyWallace_ - Splat! Math Review Game

Julie Reulbach, @jreulbach - Dry Erase Index Card Necklaces

@noraoswald - Prompt Poster

@reminoodle - My First Attempts at Foldables

Elizabeth - Place Value Game - includes decimals

@mathymissc - Aztecbook

@stephanie231333 - Racko

Katie - Types of Slope Foldable

Katie - Operations with Real Numbers Foldables

Cindy W. @finding_EMU - Made4Math: Formative Assessment Forms

@MsMac622 - Decorated Clipboard

Beth - Class Website

@misscalcul8 - Be Less Talkative'

@sandramiller_tx - Point, Lines, and Planes Foldable

Radical Rational - INB pics & Triangle Investigation

Math Tales From the Spring - Binder Project

@tbanks06 - Math Posters

@4mulafun Jennifer Smith-Sloane - Converting Frac, Dec, Perc Foldable (w/ templates)

@druinok - Bulletin Board Makeover and More

Saturday, September 1, 2012

New Bloggers Initiation - Week 2

Welcome to another exciting week of the New Bloggers Initiation! I am so excited to get to share more great blogs with you! Please take a few moments, read through these submissions, and leave a comment to welcome them to our community.

Sarah Hill - You Can Secant You

Sarah Hill has a blog named "You Can Secant You". This week's post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "First Day of Calculus" and the author sums it up as follows: "This post describes the activity I did with my Calculus class on the first day of school. I wanted to jump right in a starting learning something important on the first day and I think this activity accomplished that."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "What I hoped they took away from this was a beginning understanding of using limits to find rates of change and some practice in graphing motion."

My response: I would have loved to be in Sarah's classroom! What a fun lesson, with so many take-aways! I think it would also be fun to team up with the physics teachers with this activity.

Kevin Laxton - A Beginner's View of Math Education

Kevin Laxton (@LaxtonMath) has a blog named "A Beginner's View of Math Education". This week's post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "Generalizing (New Blogger Initiation Post 2)" and the author sums it up as follows: "This post is about what I'll call common sense generalizing. Connections exist between some things in the world, correlations if you will. And then there are things that are not correlated. It matters keeping the two straight."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "It's important that I impress upon my students a way of thinking that encourages them to see where connections exist between two things and where they don't exist. "

My response: I love xkcd! I hadn't seen this comic before, but I think a lot of discussion could come from it. Thanks to Kevin for sharing his toughts on this one!

Kate - Axis of Reflection

Kate (@fourkatie) has a blog named "Axis of Reflection". This week's post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "I do not think this means what you think it means" and the author sums it up as follows: "This blog post is about a professional development session that was supposed to be about bullying prevention that turned out to be about conflict resolution. It includes some description of the high-point of the training which was some entertaining role-playing from actual scenarios we have experienced with our students in the past."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "While I can't say that every one has been essential, meaningful, and valuable to me, I can say that for the most part as a participant I feel my school's PD generally has the best of intentions to be purposeful and relevant to the school's needs and the needs of its students."

My response: I've "known" Katie for a while and I have to say this is one of my favorite posts of all times! We've all sat in those PD sessions where *our* perception of the topic and the *presenter's* perception of the topic are not quite in sync. And bonus points for the awesome scenerios!

Brian Miller - Differentiating Differentiation

Brian Miller has a blog named "Differentiating Differentiation". This week's post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "What I Do When I Have a Bad Day" and the author sums it up as follows: "This post is about what I do to cheer up and get energized after having a tough day. I'm basically just providing a quote that is simple and beautiful and works for me, but leaving the philosphizing about it up to the reader."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "I definitely think part of classroom management is learning how to manage ourselves."

My response: Brian shares a quote in his post that I definitely plan to make into a poster before the weekend is up. Thank you to Brian for sharing!

Robin Nehila - Flip!Learn!Share!

Robin Nehila (@radical_robin) has a blog named "Flip!Learn!Share!". This week's post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "My First Unit " and the author sums it up as follows: "My post is mostly about the assignment sheet (Layered Curriculum style) I made for my first 7th grade unit. It also talks about the new structure of my class. I am really excited about both!"

A memorable quotation from the post is: "I just knew that if I had left any of these things out this year or did not give my best effort in trying them I would be left with a big "What if?" floating around my head and I despise that feeling!"

My response: This is really cool and I am eager to hear more from Robin about how it works during the year. I love the idea of kids having more ownership and control in their grade.

Ana Fox Chaney - Make Math

Ana Fox Chaney (@AnaFoxC) has a blog named "Make Math". This week's post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "Detective Work" and the author sums it up as follows: "I’ve been tinkering with ways to use these translucent polygons – a set of mostly triangles and quadrilaterals – in a way that is harder. Harder in a good way. Last year, I elected to scrap several of the usual lessons in favor of what I decided to call "Detective Work" - 5th graders would spend over a week creating visual proofs for angles in polygons."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "It includes the kinds of activities no one would continue doing if the teacher and school suddenly vaporized."

My response: After reading Ana's post, I really found myself wanting to join her class and see what else I could discover. When people talk about "literacy in math", they need to check out this post. Amazing work!

Jeremy Loukas - Making Math Work

Jeremy Loukas (@jloukas) has a blog named "Making Math Work". This week's post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "Changes in linear graph exploration" and the author sums it up as follows: "
I love when an activity I make from scratch comes together. This activity seemed to connect with students and help them see how changes in linear functions look on a graph."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "Students enjoyed the random aspect of the problems..."

My response: I love this idea so much, I had to pin it on pinterest! :) I hope Jeremy doesn't mind if I steal his idea to use in my class next week!

TJ Hitchman - Circles and Tangents

TJ Hitchman (@ProfNoodlearms) has a blog named "Circles and Tangents". This week's post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "Something I am proud of: an IBL Geometry Course" and the author sums it up as follows: "In the last 5 years I have totally transformed who I am professionally by learning to conduct an Inquiry Based Learning style classroom. My place for experimenting, and now kicking ass and taking names, is my Euclidean Geometry course. I thought I might share the beginnings of my "task sequence" to encourage others."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "So, Things are Going Swimmingly (with apologies to A.A. Milne)."

Jeff de Varona - The Problem Bank

Jeff de Varona (@devaron3) has a blog named "The Problem Bank". This week's post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "The Original Random Problem Idea" and the author sums it up as follows: "Since I began using Problem-based Learning as my primary mode of instruction, I have been constantly on the lookout for random problem ideas. This is the very first problem idea I ever had that actually incorporated some of the qualities of a good problem. And for that reason, I'm proud of it. (There's also a Hemingway reference, so what's not to like?)."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "If I could take a mundane review topic and create a decent problem out of it…well I can do anything, right?"

My response: I think Jeff has hit the nail on the head with this post. I agree that it is far better to create your own problems, but that is still a struggle for many of us, including me. I do hope Jeff continues to post on this problem-making idea to help those of us that struggle!

Mrs. W - Mrs. W's Math-Connection

Mrs. W has a blog named "Mrs. W's Math-Connection". This week's post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "Proud to Make them Practice" and the author sums it up as follows: "I have always loved creating my own classroom materials and in this post I share some of my favorite kinds of worksheets to create."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "My favorite types of worksheets to build are riddle puzzles and problem sets to use with VersaTiles."

My response: I have not used VersaTiles, but like Mrs. W, I also enjoy puzzles and riddles. Kids are more likely to do a worksheet with a corny riddle than one without :)

So there you have it... 10 awesome new bloggers for you to check out :) Happy Reading!