#Made4Math - Daily Habit Tracker

 

Happy Monday, y'all!!

It's a new year and like many people, I'm wanting to work on better habits in 2023.  I was talking to hubby last night about keeping track of habits and having a better way to monitor how I'm doing.  I know there are a ton of habit tracker apps, but I wanted something simple.

Then, on my way to work this morning (yes - I had to report to work today!), I remembered that I had incorporated a Habit Tracker into my Teacher Planner several years ago, but then as the Teacher Planner evolved, the Habit Tracker went away for some reason.

Obviously, I didn't want to recreate the wheel and I certainly don't want to remake my Teacher Planner halfway through the year, so I decided on a half-sheet bookmark style habit tracker for my planner.  Since my planner is always open on my desk, I could easily see the month and since I use a disc-bound planner, I could move it from week to week easily.  

I gave myself 10 columns for tracking habits - everything from Exercise to Blogging to updating Google Classroom.  

What habits do you track?  What method works best for you?

If you want a copy of the PDF - click here!

#Made4Math - Creating a Scavenger Hunt

 

Happy Monday!  

Over 10 years ago, in June 2012, @pamjwilson and I started a blog series called #Made4Math Mondays.  Since then, so many wonderful ideas have been shared from the MTBoS.  I kept up with my weekly Monday posts for a long time before it ended up being just a summer thing and then trickled into a very sporadic posting.  But I do miss those Mondays - it was a great way to push myself creatively and to come up with new ideas for my classroom.

This year has been a lot about creativity for me.  For the past few years, students have been pretty passive participants in the classroom, either due to being online or due to COVID restrictions that kept us from doing more active learning.  One of my subgoals this year was to have kids up and around the classroom at least once a week, so an Around the Room Scavenger Hunt is a go-to activity for me!

If you've never used a scavenger hunt, you can see an example at the right.  There are 13 problems on this one, which is just about right for the size of my classroom.  Each page has a problem at the bottom and a "Previous Answer" spot at the top.  Kids start at any problem, record the letter from the top corner, work the problem and go find its answer.  If they work through the problems correctly, they should end up back where they started.  This scavenger hunt is one I made about a month ago for Triangle Sum Theorem and Exterior Angle Theorem.  The problems are from a Kuta worksheet.

Why I love Scavenger Hunts:

• Gets kids up and moving
• Only takes about 15-20 minutes, so it's a good post-lesson practice
• Kids are more willing to do 13 problems here than a 5-6 question worksheet - go figure!
• Low stakes - the answers are somewhere in the room!
• Kids can work with a different partner
• Promotes mathematical discussion
• I love hearing the "productive noise" that occurs during these!

Okay - are you ready to make your own?  All you need is a copy of the template and 13 problems, each with a unique answer!  Here we go...

When you open the template, it looks a lot like a blank Powerpoint file.  I like to start out with the file in Slide Sorter Mode, so it looks very similar to the image on the left.

The first screen is a place for you to record your answer key / order.  The rest of the screens are currently in alphabetical order, but I find it easiest to go ahead and scramble them at this point so I can just add my problems in order from screen to screen.  After I'm done with all of my problems, I will put it back into alphabetical order so I can print the file to post in my classroom or print to PDF to post on my LMS for absent students.  

To add the problems, I just use the Snipping Tool function to copy and paste into the blank section at the bottom of each page, adding any textboxes that I need, then type its answer at the top of the next page in the Previous Answer box.  You'll notice that the Previous Answer uses a colon instead of a dash to hopefully reduce confusion with negative answers!  You can use any problems you have on hand, but you do need to make sure that each problem has a unique answer and no duplicates!

I often use scavenger hunts to practice a couple of concepts together, as a way to break up our test review days, or as practice after lecture to get them up and moving.  

When we do a scavenger hunt, I give students a  half-page recording sheet seen at the right.  They record the order of stations at the top, then they have boxes below to show any work.  I also put any formulas or tips / hints that I feel might be helpful.  One thing I like about the recording sheet is that I can easily check their work with my answer sheet since I just need to shift the paper to see if the letters line up!  

In case you missed them above, here are the files:

• Scavenger Hunt Template
• Recording Sheet Template

Unit Dividers - #MTBoSBlaugust Day 15

 

It's Monday, y'all!  And we're halfway through the month!  I'm not doing so great on my Blaugust challenge, but I'm sticking with it and giving it my best shot.  Thank you to all of you who are participating in the challenge!

I love Back to School time for the fresh start, but to be honest, BTS is one of my least favorite times of the year!  So many new names and personalities to learn, setting up the class culture, and all the administrative stuff that comes with a new year just wears me out!  I'm ready for a few weeks from now when I know student names, my rosters aren't changing every day, and we're in a groove with regard to class procedures.

BUT - I did finally figure out my Unit Dividers this weekend - Go me!!

With the switch over to my new school last year, I had some issues with my notebook that I wasn't super happy with.  Our homework was online, so the notebook was mostly a place for notes, but that meant there wasn't a great delineation from unit to unit.

I knew I wanted to do some sort of divider and I had it on my to-do list ALL.SUMMER.LONG, but the procrastinator that I am, I didn't actually DO anything about it!  

I looked at so many blogs and asked on Twitter to get examples, but I ended up settling on this pretty simple template - a blank table of contents, and a set of objectives / vocabulary for the unit.  Of course, it helped that I was just out of time to figure it out - we are setting up our notebooks tomorrow and starting curriculum on Wednesday, so it was "put up or shut up" time.

We'll see how it goes! :)

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If you are interested in joining in the #MTBoSBlaugust fun, here's a post with some prompts to help you out!  The idea is just to blog / micro-blog during August to help us focus and reflect on the year ahead.  Please tag your post on Social Media with the hashtag #MTBoSBlaugust so we can support you in your blogging journey!

Geometry Reference Sheet - #MTBoSBlaugust Day 8

 

Today was the first day of Year 25!  

This summer, I had hoped to get a lot more accomplished than I did.  About 10 years ago, #Made4Math Monday was a regular occurrence and it really helped me throughout the summer to tackle those little projects that needed to happen, plus I was able to share them and get inspiration from others as well.  

After a while, most of the little projects were done and it became tough to share weekly new creations, so #Made4Math moved primarily to the summer months.  This summer, I had plans to revive it, but I just couldn't bring myself to do many projects this summer, but now that school has started, I really don't have much of a choice - ready or not, the kids are coming on Thursday!

One of the projects I did this weekend was updating my Geometry Reference Sheet that goes on the inside cover of their Interactive Notebook (INB).  

When I first blogged about this for a #Made4Math back in 2018, the notebook was for first semester only and there was a different reference sheet for the 2nd semester.  However, at my new school, I only ended up using one notebook for the entire year, so I needed to do some tweaking.

For the original (pictured left), I was thinking about various reminders they would need from pre-requisite knowledge.  As I started thinking about the revision, I decided to cut down the Perfect Squares and add in some Square Roots to hopefully help make connections.  I also decided to cut out the Pythagorean Triples and combine the formulas so that I could extend the Area / Perimeter section.

After playing with it some more, here's what I ended up with:

Click here for a PDF copy of the file

If you have any suggestions or tweaks, please let me know!

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If you are interested in joining in the #MTBoSBlaugust fun, here's a post with some prompts to help you out!  The idea is just to blog / micro-blog during August to help us focus and reflect on the year ahead.  Please tag your post on Social Media with the hashtag #MTBoSBlaugust so we can support you in your blogging journey!

#Made4Math - Birthday Pencils and Planner

 

It's my last Monday of summer, y'all!!!  How in the world does July go so fast?!?!

I'm changing schools this year, so I officially report on Friday for new teacher orientation and I'm so not ready for school!  My room is mostly done, but I have yet to even think about lesson plans!  Part of that is I don't know yet what the COVID protocols will be for this school year - will I be able to get back to group work?  Using my INBs?  Just so much unknown.  But I did get a chance to meet the rest of my department last week, so that was fun!  I am excited about the change and to try something new.

Since this is my last Monday of summer, I have soooooo much on my to-do list and very little is actually ready to show you, but here we go...

In case you are new to #Made4Math, it is a weekly blog challenge to share a project or creation for your classroom.  I love reading your posts, so please join in the fun using the hashtag #Made4Math on Twitter, IG, or blogging about your project. 

Here are last week's posts in case you missed them:

Farica (@Nerd_QED) shared about a lesson plan revamp

Jane (@extraneousroot) shared about assessments and math songs

Elissa (@misscalcul8) shared some photos of her classroom revamp

I shared an update on my Play Table and a few new puzzles to print

We would love for you to join in the #Made4Math fun - Post your creations on Twitter, blog, or IG with the hashtag #Made4Math!

Now on to this week's projects!

Project #1 - Birthday Pencils

In early July, I found these pencils in the Target Dollar Spot and I just LOVED their positive affirmations! I honestly have no idea how many students I have this year, but I quickly purchased all of the packs that I could find.

I've always been really bad at the whole birthday thing, but going to a new school, I really want to try harder this year to recognize student birthdays and I thought these pencils might just do the trick! I pulled up my trusty PowerPoint, made a few shapes, added some free clipart and a cute font and I was on my way!

I made 6 flags per page, printed them out on various colors of paper and then I'll cut them out, snip a spot near the top and poke the pencil through!  I've not cut them all out yet because my pencils are at school and I really don't want to transport hundreds of little flags - I have made an example here for you though! 

On my first try, I decided to use a hole punch to make holes, but the snipped lines were easier and worked better, so snipped lines it is :)

If you want a copy of the Happy Birthday flags, click here to download a PDF.

Project #2 - Lesson Planner

This project isn't quite complete, but I'm working on it!  If you've been around for a while, you know that I love making my own planner for the year.  Last year was the first time I tried using a Junior sized planner and I found out that I LOVED it!

Here are some previous posts on the planner:
- Junior Planner Reflection

- Lesson Planner

With the return to school, I need to get my act together, so I've started working on my planner...

One thing that I love doing is making my own covers out of plastic pocket folders.  Here, you will see that I cut down a blue / silver folder from Dollar General and I'm using pink discs and pink cardstock for my dividers (not pictured).  I LOVE discbound notebooks and if you've never tried one, I HIGHLY recommend that you give it a shot!

Here's a copy of the 2021-2022 monthly calendars if you want your own - print them two to a page, flip on short edge, cut them apart and use the Junior size on your punch to make your calendar!  The rest of my planner won't change much, so you can use the links in the posts above if you want to make your own planner!

Okay, that's it for me today... Until next time, keep creating and sharing!

#Made4Math - A Play Table Update

 

This past week FLEW by and now it's time for another #Made4Math Monday post!

I'm telling you - the month of July has to be the shortest one of the year for teachers... so much to do, so little time to get it done :)

August is now here and school will start soon, so this past week was spent working on my classroom.  It' STILL not done, but it's closer than it was last Monday, so I'll take that as progress! :)

In case you are new to #Made4Math, it is a weekly blog challenge to share a project or creation for your classroom.  I love reading your posts, so please join in the fun using the hashtag #Made4Math on Twitter, IG, or blogging about your project. 

Here are last week's posts in case you missed them:

Kim (@LogicalPoetry) shared some new labels for her classroom

Jane (@extraneousroot) shared how to do a Geometry Make-Over

I shared about some new labels and clipboard stands for my classroom

We would love for you to join in the #Made4Math fun - Post your creations on Twitter, blog, or IG with the hashtag #Made4Math!

Now on to this week's projects!

Project #1 - A Made4Math Update

A few weeks ago, I shared about the Puzzle and Play Corner in my classroom, but at that time, I hadn't finished it. It's now done! :) On the left is the original photo I shared on that post.

Last Monday, a friend came to help me unpack and she was amazing in helping me unpack all of the puzzles and games and neatly organize them into the Sterlite drawers! I had also laminated a title and put up a border on the Cartesian plane. You can see the binders hiding in the corner. I had ordered a table skirt from Amazon to hide the clutter, but it took a while to get here. My friend and I went to IKEA on Tuesday, so no work got done that day, but on Wednesday, I was back at it by putting up the Mental Math board and installing that table skirt to hide the Sterlite drawers. In the windowsill, you can find some mathy books to read, including my favorite "Introductory Calculus for Infants" Project #2 - Some New Puzzles!

Of course, with the play table now done, I decided I needed some new puzzles.  Pre-COVID, I had one of those Page a Day calendars with Mensa Puzzles and I kept several of them to create for the table.  Of course, I couldn't have my table last year, so my Mensa Calendar stack stayed on my desk until this summer.

You can print them here:

Line Up!

Star Search

Don't forget to share your creations on Twitter, IG, or blog! Until next time - keep creating and sharing!

#Made4Math - Clipboard Stands and Labels

 

I swear that Monday just keeps getting here quicker and quicker each week that we get closer to school!  How are we already at the end of July???  I have just under 3 weeks before I officially go back, but between now and then, we are hosting a math conference, so in reality, summer is pretty much over and I have a TON left to do!

So I guess that means that I need to get my act in gear and share out the #Made4Math projects from this week! 

In case you are new to #Made4Math, it is a weekly blog challenge to share a project or creation for your classroom.  I love reading your posts, so please join in the fun using the hashtag #Made4Math on Twitter, IG, or blogging about your project. 

Here are last week's posts in case you missed them:
Jane (@extraneousroot) shared this amazing Geometry Aerobics dance activity that I really want to try!

Kim (@logicalpoetry) shared some classroom decor on the habits of mathematicians - totally printing this one out for my classroom!

Sandra (@sandramiller_tx) shared this beautiful piece of fractal art for students to cut and make!

I shared my "Play Learn Grow" Corner with my Puzzle table

We would love for you to join in the #Made4Math fun - Post your creations on Twitter, blog, or IG with the hashtag #Made4Math!

Now on to this week's projects!

Project #1 - Clipboard Stands

I wish I could say that I actually created these, but I didn't :)  

Over the years, I've had situations where students have made makeshift stands or easels for group problems so that everyone could see them easily but they were flimsy or would fall over easily.  Earlier this summer, I had this thought of making a stand for my small whiteboards to create an "easel" but I didn't have the tools to make it.  I looked online and found some instructions for it and also found that I could purchase a similar setup for about $10 per stand.  Ummm - I'll pass!  

I was talking to my sister about it a few weeks ago and she said she thought she could do them - sounds great to me!  This weekend, she popped into town and brought me a box of these stands.  They will work with clipboards or my individual dry erase markers and I have enough to go on each table - yay!

Project #2 - Label ALL THE THINGS

Like every classroom, mine has a lot of Sterlite drawer storage :)  However, with a new room, things are in new places and needs new labels!

My bigger drawers weren't labeled at all and my smaller drawers were a very dated black and white pattern, so it was time for something new :)

Thanks to some free digital paper and my trusty Aldi laminator, I now have new labels for my classroom when I go up later today.  Sadly, I don't have an "after picture" yet because they were waxing the floors!

That's it for me!  Until next time, keep creating and sharing!!!

#Made4Math - Play Learn Grow

 

It's Monday again and what a week it was!  This week was one of those where I was busy every single day, so the week flew by.  This typically wouldn't be a problem but summertime is already on warp speed after July 4, so add in a busy week and it was on triple time or something.  We're now down to 4 weeks before school starts and my garage looks like I haven't made a dent with regard to moving into my new room.  This week, they will be waxing the floors, so maybe that will force me to start thinking about the first days of school since I won't be able to work in my room.

In case you are new to #Made4Math, it is a weekly blog challenge to share a project or creation for your classroom.  I love reading your posts, so please join in the fun using the hashtag #Made4Math on Twitter, IG, or blogging about your project. 

Here are last week's posts in case you missed them:
@pamjwilson shares a TMC throwback with Mirror, Mirror: Tools for Teacher & Student Learning Reflection

@extraneousroot shares some documents she created to support Building Thinking Classrooms - I really really love her Geometry notebook idea!

I shared a first look at my new classroom 

We would love for you to join in the #Made4Math fun - Post your creations on Twitter, blog, or IG with the hashtag #Made4Math!

Now on to this week's project - Play Table

This week is a continuation of one of last week's projects. In my new classroom, there was a green cartesian plane in the front corner of the room.

My goal in that corner is to bring back my puzzle / play table! If you've never tried having a play table, I urge you right now to go read Sara Van Der Werf's post on why you need one, then go to Sarah Carter's blog to start your Puzzle Collection

When I first saw my new room, the cartesian plane was covered in square cork tiles.  After removing them, you can still see on the photo at the left all of the white foam adhesive squares.  

I asked on Twitter (of course) about how to remove the adhesive without damaging the board and several people suggested Goo Gone.  I happened to have a bottle at home, so I tried it.  

After several hours of using Goo Gone, plastic putty knives, and a LOT of elbow grease, the squares were mostly gone, but due to some residue, the board still isn't fully functional.  However, as you can see in the photo above, it looks a TON better than it did before!  

You can see the table below the board which is where the puzzle of the week will be... the blue bulletin board will host the Mental Math Challenge and I wanted to use the cartesian plane as an area to highlight some weekly tidbits about math...

So I started out thinking about what all I wanted to include.  I knew I really liked the idea of the Math Joke of the week from Sarah Carter's blog but that left me 3 more quadrants to go!  What should I do??

I settled on these 4 topics:

• Math Jokes (See link above)
• Math Fun Facts  (Click to download)
• Math Quotes (Click to download)
• Mathematician of the Week (See link below)

So then I spent time scouring the internet for facts and quotes, dumping them into a Google Doc until I had enough for one each week.  By the time I found enough and then made them into a printable format, I really didn't want to go through all of that for the mathematicians too, but thankfully Nathan Day had already made a set and I was able to go to our local office supply store to print them in color.

Now that I had all of my sets printed, I put them in binders / sheet protectors, hung up some titles and some small command hooks and I'm mostly ready to go!  I still have to title my display, which I think will be Play - Learn - Grow (thanks @pamjwilson for the title idea!)

I still need a few finishing touches, but my play table area is almost done!

Until next week - keep creating and sharing! :)

#Made4Math - New Classroom!

Wow - how is it already Monday again?!?!?

#Made4Math is a weekly challenge to create something for your classroom.  I love seeing each of your posts as it helps motivate and inspire me to work on projects for my own classroom!

Last Week's #Made4Math Posts:

@pamjwilson shared about the hypsometers for indirect measurement - I know these will come in handy for Geometry teachers! View the post here: pamjwilson.wordpress.com/2021/07/05/ind… @extraneousroot explored some options for VNPS for those of reading Building Thinking Classrooms! View her post here: planejanepoints.blogspot.com/2021/07/made-4… I finally made a set of Quarantiles (although I did mess up and had to make some more! LOL) - Read my post here: http://statteacher.blogspot.com/2021/07/made4math-is-back.html

We would love for you to join in the #Made4Math fun - Post your creations on Twitter, blog, or IG with the hashtag #Made4Math!

Now on to this week's creations....

This week was a whirlwind with getting the keys to my new room, then leaving for a short vacation, then coming home to sheer exhaustion! :)  

Project #1 - Welcome to my New Classroom!

As you may (or may not) know, I am switching schools this year!  After 21 years at my previous district, I am jumping to a smaller district that is closer to my house.  Part of the reason for bringing back #Made4Math (other than much needed motivation) was due to this switch!

While this project is definitely NOT a completed project, I wanted to show off my new space and what I was able to get accomplished prior to going on vacation!

Upper Left - This was taken when I toured the room right after accepting the job.  

Upper Right - This was how I found the room on Tuesday morning - carpets cleaned and the tables were stacked.  Getting the tables placed into groups was one of my first tasks!

Lower Right - I also wanted to get rid of the blue paper on the bulletin boards as well as the cork board tiles - the front already looks better!  

Lower Left - Tables are set up, new fabric is on the boards and all the cork board tiles have been removed!  My next goal is to put up border and clean the adhesive residue off of the Cartesian Plane.  Hopefully that will happen this week!  

Project #2 - Word of the Year Bracelet

After working in my room, it was time to leave for vacation!  I had a delightful long weekend with some #MTBoS friends and it was just the rejuvenation I needed!  Four women from four different states who originally met on Twitter and linked by our love of math - does it get any better than that?

A few years ago, I stumbled across the One Word Challenge, which was the idea of using a word to guide your year instead of making New Year Resolutions. Of course, for teachers, our "New Year" is more tied to the school year rather than the calendar year, so why not come up with a word to guide your school year?

During our trip, one of our adventures was to visit the botancial gardnes and they were having a Lego exhibit. Hubs is a HUGE Lego fan and we have more Lego sets around my house than I care to admit. But what I didn't know was what the word "Lego" meant...

Lego is an abbreviation of two Danish words 'leg godt' which means "Play Well". In Latin, the word "lego" means to put together or connect. My goal this year is to make connections with my students and colleagues and to help my students make connections with math. I also want us to find the joy and beauty of mathematics by playing with math.

On our last night together, we made some bracelets to remind us of our time together. The beads on the sides are the initials of the amazing #MTBoS math teachers I spent the weekend with, written in Morse Code, to remind me of this trip and of the amazing math teacher community that turned into life long friends.

Project #3 - New Office Chair!

After working in my room earlier in the week, I had put in some Amazon orders that arrived while I was away.

Of course, after the equivalent of a multi-day slumber party, I was pretty exhausted and so my productivity this weekend was mostly limited to naptime!! LoL

But while I was away on vacation, my new desk chair was delivered and during my nap on the couch yesterday afternoon, the cats decided to play "Queen of the Mountain" and chasing each other off the box, which woke me up. Obviously that meant it was time to put the chair together and take it up to school! I was pretty impressed with how easy it was to put together, so hopefully it lives up to the reviews! I liked that it was the same color blue as my new school colors!

And like any good cat, Kenzie had to be the first one to try it out... I think she approves :)

So there you have it - another #Made4Math in the books!

Don't forget to share your creations on Twitter, blog, or IG!

#Made4Math is Back!!

Holy Moly - It's been 9 years since we started Made4Math!!

You can read more about the beginnings of M4M or over on Pam's blog.

In 2012, Made4Math was inspired by a blog series called Monday Made It, hosted by Tara at 4th grade Frolics.  The basic idea was that on Mondays, we would share something we had created for our Math classrooms - maybe a new lesson, a new activity, an organizational idea for the classroom - the sky was the limit!  We kept M4M going for a few years and honestly it really helped me stay accountable.  This accountability is a great thing now as I'm getting ready to start a new job in a new district and I really need some accountability as I navigate through classroom organization again! :)

We would LOVE to have you join in the party - all you need to do is get your creative juices flowing and either blog, tweet, or IG your creations with the hashtag #Made4Math so we can steal your ideas get inspiration from you!

Here are my Made4Math projects this week...

Project #1 - Quarantiles

Last year, during lockdown, Nat Banting shared a project on Twitter and on his blog that he called Quarantiles.  I was so excited to make these last year for the Puzzle Table, but when the COVID restrictions came down, I knew that my beloved Puzzle / Play Table would not make an appearance and so my tiles were on the back burner.  Fast forward a year and I have zero clue what happened to those supplies that I purchased in Summer 2020, so I bought some more.  I ended up buying a pack of 100 2" squares on Amazon and the paint supplies at Dollar General.

After I made them, I realized that I messed up on one of the sets, so I have purchased another package of 100 to correct my error and add in a couple more colors.  All in all, these were super easy to make so I am curious how the kids react!  I do need to come up with a better storage box for them :)  If you search through the hashtag on Twitter, you'll find some really cool creations and even a coloring sheet where you can make a paper set of tiles!

Project #2 - Laws of Logic

At my new school, I'll be mostly teaching Geometry, so I've been going through some old Geometry files for any activities or things that I want to use.  Sadly, all of my classroom supplies are boxed up in my garage, so I'm going off memory on lessons and activities that I need to work on!

But one early topic that I know gives kids trouble are the Laws of Logic and what conclusions can be drawn.  I've used this card sort before once students knew what the LoD / LoS were, but I've never tried letting them actually come up with the laws and reasoning themselves!  This past week, I was going through some files from a textbook my first year of teaching (1998) and found this worksheet in a Lab Manual from Addison Wesley.  I liked that it asked the kids to sort the statements and see if they could come up with a conclusion.  I typed up the sentences (get the file here), printed on colored paper and cut them out.  Each group will get a set of sentences to sort and hopefully use those to discuss what would be a logical conclusion, leading us (hopefully) into the Laws of Logic!

More Projects Coming Next Week!

I will get my keys to my new room this week, so hopefully I will have some room pictures (and projects) to share with you next week, but until then, don't forget to share your creations with us using the hashtag #Made4Math.  I look forward to seeing your ideas!

#MTBoSBlaugust - Junior Calendar

It's time to get serious about this planning thing, y'all!

Our district decided on Monday night to start back in distance learning until the numbers decline in our county.  I know it was a really tough decision and honestly, it was a no-win situation as there wasn't a decision would make everyone happy.  However, that means I really need to get myself into gear because teachers report back next week and I've gotten nothing physically done for school! Eeeekkkk!

So today, I decided to start with some planning and organization :)

This summer, I decided to try a Junior Arc Notebook for my summer notebook.  I had purchaed some Junior Arc covers a few years ago at Staples on clearance for 50 cents and had never used them, so there's no time like the present, right? :)  

A few definitions might be needed here:

The Arc System is the discbound notebook system that can be found at Staples.  There are other discbound systems as well, such as the Happy Planner, but they all pretty much work the same.  I LOVE discbound notebooks as they are so simple for inserting and taking out pages.  It works like a 3-ring binder, but with the ease of a spiral notebook.  Best of both worlds! :)

The Junior notebook is for half size pages, so if you take a regular 8.5x11 page in landscape format and cut it in half, you now have a Junior notebook.  

A Summer notebook is an idea I borrowed from my dear friend Rachel and you can read more about it on her blog, but the idea is to have a place to jot down ideas that you run across during the summer.  I've used this idea for the past few summers, but once school started, I often forgot to reference those ideas I had recorded!  So, that moves us on to....

Merging my summer notebook and my teacher planner!

This is still very much a work in progress, but I got my monthly calendars done today!  I'm waiting to do the weekly lesson planning pages until I have a bit more information about what this year will look like, but I wanted to share the monthly pages with you! :)  During the summer, my weekly calendar was more of a way to keep track of appointments, so I'll share that too :)

The dividers are printed on cardstock and there are 6 dividers - Calendar, To Do List, AP Stat, Forensics, Technology, and Other Notes

Behind the other dividers are just half-page note sheets.  For my courses, each page has a title with chapter so that I can file ideas on the appropriate chapter page.

Here are the files if you want them:
Monthly Calendar - will need KG Payphone font

Dividers - will need KG Second Chances Solid font

Notebook Pages - will need KG Melonheadz font

Weekly Appointment Calendar

#Made4Math - One Word

It's the first week of January and this is my 2nd blog post of 2020 - yay for keeping my blogging goal so far! :)

It's also the first Monday back to school for the spring semester and that alarm clock is definitely NOT my friend!  During the summer, I do a great job of not messing up my schedule because the sun streams into my bedroom bright and early, but in the winter, it's just a little too easy to stay snuggled under the covers until the sun finally comes out.

I don't know about you, but the first week back to school for me is about reestablishing relationships, reviewing procedures, and the normal housekeeping details that come with a new semester, which includes setting up new notebooks!

This year, I decided to add a goal sheet to my notebook set-up and thought I'd share it with you too!

On the front, it asks them for their "One Word for 2020".

On the inside, it asks why they chose that word plus asks for two goals - one related to my class and one of their choice (personal or academic) plus 2-3 action items to help them achieve their goal.

My word this year is Courage.  The reasons are a bit more than I want to go into right now, but I need courage to release some control, courage to move out of my comfort zone, and courage to step up.

Click here for the PDF file!

#MTBoSBlaugust - A Puzzle and Some Forms

This month, I am participating in a blogging challenge called #MTBoSBlaugust.  To read posts from other participants, click on the logo above.

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Today was our last work day before kids come tomorrow!

To be honest, when I left on Friday, I was feeling pretty good.  Then I got to school day and it's like, "Wait, what??? Kids TOMORROW??" and my brain totally shut down and wigged out on me!

So instead of getting my lesson plans done (which I finally finished a whopping 10 minutes ago), I had a flurry of activity getting some forms and such for organizing purposes done. :)

M4M #1 - QBits Puzzle

As you know, I've been working on my puzzle table to make sure I have some fresh puzzles available for my returning students.

I ran across this puzzle last week in one of my Puzzle Books and it reminded me a lot of Panda Squares, so of course I had to type it up! :)

The idea is to put the 16 smaller squares into the grid so that matching colors touch along each side.

If you would like the file, click here


M4M #2 - Forms and More Forms

I'm a list maker... and a form maker... :)

If I can figure out a way to put something into an organized format, I probably will!

At the left, you can see my Student Aide To-Do list, a "Why were you Tardy" note, and a "Please put away your cell phone" note.  I realized after the fact that I should have made the cell phone note into a laminated paper so I could reuse them... Oh well. :)


Now it's time to head to bed... those kiddos will be there tomorrow!! :)  Have a great night all!

#Made4Math - Last Monday of Summer!

This month, I am participating in a blogging challenge called #MTBoSBlaugust.  To read posts from other participants, click on the logo above.

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It's Monday again!!

Today is my last Monday of Summer 2019.  We officially report back on Wednesday and kids come next week.  As a result, I've been back and forth on trying to get things done versus trying to shut down and enjoy the last few days of break.  I am teaching the same preps this year, so I've not been extremely motivated on the lesson plan front, but I guess I probably should get on that soon! :)

But first, let's take a look at the pretties for this week! :)

Made4Math #1 - Sum It Up Puzzle

I've been trying to find some new puzzles for my puzzle table this summer.  While digging around in my stack of books, I found this series called Solve It that I had picked up years ago at Mardel.

While flipping through the book, I ran across this number puzzle that reminded me a lot of an Open Middle problem :)  Since I already have sets of 1 to 9 tiles, it was pretty simple just to make a page for the puzzle frame and a new puzzle is done! :)

If you want to download the file, click here


Made4Math #2 - Notes from the Teacher

Last spring, I ran across this tweet from Emily DeLuca about writing 4 notes per day to her students.  I loved the idea, but just didn't follow through with it.

So I'm going to *try* to do better this year!  I made a couple of pages of small notes on PPT - the first page just says "A Note from Mrs. ____", while the second page can be seen at the left.  I printed them on colored paper, cut them out, and now I have some notes to slip to students daily!

I would love some ideas for growth mindset / positive affirmations that wouldn't sound weird coming from your 40-something year old math teacher... any ideas? :)

If you want this file, click here.  You will need the Sunberry font


Made4Math #3 - Teaching Binder and Meeting Binder

I've already posted about my binders this week, but here they are all finished!

On the left is the meetings binder all bound with the small discs and a nifty little pocket that I made from a letter size page of cardstock.  Just fold it in half, cut at a diagonal, hole punch, and tape the bottom!

On the right is my teaching binder - isn't that cover just lovely?? :)  I added a nameplate and a couple of dividers and it's ready for the new year!


I know many of you are heading back to school this week, so best wishes on a new year!  :)