So, in case you didn't hear, the nation got pounded by a massive storm system this week. In my neck of the woods, where a 3-4" snow is considered pretty big and closes us down for a couple of days, we got a whooping 21 inches! Needless to say, that set a few records, then we got another 3.5 inches today, with more forecast for Sunday *sigh*. The system came in overnight on Monday and hours before any snowflake even hit the ground, the schools were cancelling Tuesday's classes. Ultimately, we ended up cancelling the entire week due to the horrible road conditions. Tomorrow is the first day it is supposed to get above freezing, so I'm hoping for some melt as I go out to clear my driveway.
Anyway, so how did I use my snow days you ask? The first day or two was a total waste of course, spent the day gawking at the snow drifts and watching the news coverage while lounging under a warm blanket. But by the end of day 2, I started getting antsy, so I combed through blog after blog after blog stealing all of the good Algebra 2 ideas that I could find and organizing them by chapter of my textbook. I read through all of the Math Teachers at Play blog carnivals and brainstorming the various review ideas/structures and how I could increase student engagement in Algebra 2. There are some really awesome ideas out there, but it takes hours to comb through all of those sites and find the good ones.
A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a new math teacher blog (because she was awesome enough to post a comment here, or I would have never found her!) and totally stole this neat Math Stations activity. (Click HERE to read her instructions). We happened to have a short day a few days after I found her blog, in which I would only see one of my Algebra 2 classes, so I whipped up a quick review of the material we had been learning. I printed it double sided, but I did do the answers by hand because I didn't want to type that much :) I gave the kids 4 minutes per card and overall I think it worked REALLY well. Here is the file:
Thanks, MizT! I feel like writing a blog is something that I am doing for myself, to improve my teaching. But I am happy that something I shared was helpful to someone else. You have definitely given me a warm welcome to the blogosphere. :)
ReplyDelete@Amy
ReplyDeleteNope - Thank YOU! Without your willingness to share, I wouldn't have new ideas floating in my head :)