#Made4Math - Preparing for a New Year

Monday is here, again???  How does that keep happening???

Seriously though, the past few weeks have *flown* by and this week will be no exception.  Between hosting the Northeast Oklahoma Math Teacher Gathering, attending another workshop at school, organizing #MTBoSBlaugust, and celebrating several birthdays / anniversaries this week, it's gearing up to be a very busy end of July / start of August!  While I technically have a couple of weeks until I officially report to school, summer is pretty much over and I have so much left to be done!

But at least I had a few bursts of productivity to share with you :)


Made4Math #1 - Big Protractor

When I first started teaching, instructional technology pretty much consisted of using transparencies and an overhead projector.  Now that we've moved past all of that, some of us (ahem) still have piles of transparencies that we stockpiled way back when. :)

For years, I have made small protractors for students to put into their notebook, but that hasn't dwindled my stock much at all.  Last year, I noticed that I kept grabbing a small protractor to illustrate on the Promethean when talking about measuring angles but for whatever reason, I never thought to make a large protractor!  So, this summer, that was one of my projects.  I just took the student image, enlarged it to fit an entire page, and printed it.  I can use it on the Promethean or on the whiteboard!  yay! :)  Here'a copy of the big protractor for you to use if you want it! :)


Made4Math #2 - Domino Puzzle

Based on recommendations from the #MTBoS, I started a Puzzle Table a few years ago and the response from my students has been amazing.  I put out a new puzzle each Monday and the kids work on it all week.  However, I will have some kids this year that I had last year, so I needed some new puzzles for the upcoming year.  Of course, the amazing Sarah (@mathequalslove) to the rescue!  (Note - if you've not read Sarah's blog - go there now - I'll wait!)  Anyway, a few weeks ago, she posted a link to the ATM Puzzle Page and while browsing, I found this great domino puzzle that I knew would be perfect for the Puzzle Table!  In the picture at the left, you can see the domino pieces plus a puzzle that Sarah shared on her blog this summer.  I organize the puzzles in a Puzzle Binder with the instructions and puzzle pieces in a sheet protector, then a divider at the back to keep separated the puzzles I've used vs those I haven't used yet that year.


Made4Math #3 - Stand and Talk

One of the best blog posts I read this summer was a post by Amy Zimmerman sharing the love for Stand and Talks.  I had previously read the original post by Sarah VanDerWerf, but Amy's post let me down the rabbit hole of research and finally to an amazing episode of Global Math Department led by Sara VanDerWerf on Stand and Talks.  Since then, I've been thinking through how I could use them in my classroom.

With AP Stat, there were some curriculum revisions this summer with the new CED, including a graph that I had never heard of - a mosiac plot.  Doing some more research led me to this link, where I found the above graphs regarding the survival status of those on the Titanic.  You can download the Stand and Talk here.


Made4Math #4 - AP Formula Sheet

In May, when the new AP Stat Course and Exam Description (CED) was released, one of the changes was the Formula Sheet.  The previous formula sheet had been around since the course started in 1996-1997 and was due for an update.  As soon as the CED was available electronically, the formula sheet was the first section I checked out and needless to say, I was a bit bummed.  The tables (Z, T, and Chi Square) were not user friendly and spanned multiple pages, which made printing them for the classroom a bit tricky.  This past week, I finally had made time to reformat them, mainly because I need to start sending stuff to the Copy Shop! :)  I formated the tables so that they will easily fit a composition notebook and still be readable.  If you would like the revised tables, feel free to grab them here!


I have a few more projects in the works, but I didn't get them done in time to share them this week, but that's okay - it gives me something to write about next time! :)  But until then, have a great week and Happy Back to School! :)