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Wednesday, January 3, 2018

A #Teach180 Reflection

Technically, this post is based on the #MTBoS12Days prompt list to share a #teach180 photo and lesson, but over the break, I didn't have my resources to really post a complete lesson.  Sadly, I didn't quite make my #MTBoS12Days challenge, but I blogged more in 2017 than I did the year before, so I'm declaring it a success! :)

#Teach180 Lesson Reflection

Today was our first day back with kids and I don't know about you, but the January Back to School day is almost more difficult than the August day!  In August, kids are fairly eager to get started, to see what their teacher / classes are like, but in January, the kids already know you and motivation can be lacking when it's super cold outside.  We are coming off a super cold spell - today was the first day above freezing since last Friday, so that didn't help at all!  Also, in August, I have spent weeks cleaning and decorating my room and preparing lessons, but in January, I haven't thought about school for 2 weeks, let alone try to remember what we were learning back in mid-December.

So I knew that I wanted today to be a semi-relaxing day, nothing majorly stressful, but something to get them thinking again to ease them back into the swing of things...

In Stat, I did a modified version (1st semester topics only) of the Wedding Story Activity that was shared a few years back at the AP Best Practices, but I didn't get any pictures of that :)

But in Geometry....  oh my, we had fun! :)


We finished up Triangle Congruence in December, which means we are starting this semester with Proofs.  At some point in the next few days, I'll post my proof plan, which is mostly stolen from the #MTBoS :)

To start them out, I wanted to emphasize logical thinking, so our warmup was the sequencing activity you see on the left.  They were given 12 photos, out of order, and as a group, they had to put the photos in a logical sequence.  (File)  I really enjoyed listening to their discussions as they argued about why their order was the best.

From there, we moved on to some other logic puzzles, including this Logic Area Puzzle that you see on the upper left.  I took this puzzle from the Holt textbook that we used YEARS ago at my school.  Again, I loved listening to the kids as they worked to remember perimeter vs area of squares and I'll admit I did not let them struggle the way I should have here.  :(

On the flip side of the Logic Area Puzzle was a "Flow Story Proof" from Math Teacher Mambo to help introduce the left to right logic of a flow proof.  I don't know that I would keep this activity in this sequence next year - I think I would rather use it as a warmup on the day I actually teach flow proofs.

The activity that I absolutely LOVED was the Word Proofs from Don't Panic, the Answer is 42 and you can see them on the lower left.  We didn't get very far into these, but I think they will be our warmups for the next several days.  The structured reasoning of here's where we start, here's each step (and the reason), and finally here's where we end was such an amazing way to think through the proof process!

The last few minutes of class was a 2nd semester Feedback exit ticket for Keep / Change / Start / Stop.  I'm not sure that I received a ton of useful information from them, but I brought them home to ponder some more over the next few days.  

It was such a good morning and one that I enjoyed quite a bit.  :)  Only 100 more days to go! :)

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