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!

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!

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!

New Bloggers Initation - Week 1

Sam Shah, an amazing math teacher and blogger, spoke at Twitter Math Camp about how to encourage people to join the Math BlogTwitterSphere. As a result, he started the New Bloggers Initative and had close to 140 submissions for the first week! I have a feeling my Google Reader is definitely going to be growing as a result :)

I have the great pleasure of introducing some of these amazing new bloggers to you. Please take a moment, read through the submissions, and leave a comment to welcome them to our community. As we all know, a comment from a reader can really brighten our day. :)

Kevin Krenz - Rational Limits

Kevin Krenz (@kevin_krenz) has a blog named "Rational Limits". The first post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "[NBI] Focus on culture" and the author sums it up as follows: "Last year I learned (the hard way) that I cannot develop a classroom culture from the top down. It must be a collaborative and conscious effort. This year I plan on having students help decide on our values, class mission, and design of the physical space."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "I can help guide the development of our culture and be intentional about which values are emphasized, but I cannot create it on my own."

My thoughts... Kevin hits the nail on the head here. Our classrooms should be welcoming, warm places, but sometimes we forget that we, as the teacher, are not the only person that we are designing for. Helping students to recognize that they also have a huge role in developing the classroom culture is key.

LeeAnn Zlomek - The Algebra Toolbox

LeeAnn Zlomek (@lazlomek) has a blog named "The Algebra Toolbox". The first post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "My favorite unit - Linear Functions" and the author sums it up as follows: "I teach mostly freshmen in my Algebra I class at the high school and adults in the developmental algebra class at the community college. I use these activities (hot seat, desk hop, matching cards, foldable, songs) with both groups and they are very engaged!"

A memorable quotation from the post is: "I’ve had a couple of students make me t-shirts with the equation on it so that I don’t have to get the tattoo."

My thoughts... One word - WOW!! LeeAnn has shared a goldmine of ready to print activities for linear equations. I think my laminator will be quite busy this weekend!! :)

Maggie Acree - pitoinfinity

Maggie Acree (@pitoinfinity8) has a blog named "pitoinfinity". The first post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "It’s Official – I’m Whiteboarding! (Blog Challenge, Week 1, #3)" and the author sums it up as follows: "My post is about my quest to begin Whiteboarding. Along with this, I included other strategies I plan to implement along with Whiteboarding to have more student led experiences in my classroom."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "I am excited to be Whiteboarding this year and excited to continue to read blog posts on how well it goes."

My thoughts... I love all posts about whiteboarding. For some reason, kids so much more willing to try something on a whiteboard than on their paper. Errors can be whisked away easily, so kids are willing to take more risks with the unknown. I can't wait to get my large whiteboards made so I can try this too!

Ana Fox Chaney - Make Math

Ana Fox Chaney (@AnaFoxC) has a blog named "Make Math". The first post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "What do we do when we do math?" and the author sums it up as follows: "Why do we do math but make music? Doing is for things that have already been figured out and making is the verb for new things. Shouldn't students make math of their own - create and own the math they use rather than re-do the math they've seen done?"

A memorable quotation from the post is: "Many adults seem to feel this way – that is, weirdly cowed by the whole discipline of mathematics – like it’s looking down on them, waiting for them to show weakness."

My thoughts... I have to admit, I had to read Ana's posts a few times and let it slowly sink in. Every time I read it, I found another detail that I had missed the time before. Ana's point about the verb of "doing" vs "making" really hit home. What would happen if we did more "making" instead of just "doing" in our classrooms? I think this post will be the starting point for many deep conversations this week with my colleagues!

Cindy W - findingEMU

Cindy W (@finding_EMU) has a blog named "findingEMU". The first post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "Reflections: Why "findingEmu?"" and the author sums it up as follows: "Why did I choose such a goofy name? What does it mean about me as a teacher?"

A memorable quotation from the post is: "I don't want the "I can do it!" math, I want the deep comprehension down in their core that builds and branches off from what they DO really know and understand."

My thoughts... I have to admit, I was wondering at first why Cindy was blogging about Emus, but then I contined to read and realized she was talking about "Enduring Mathematical Understanding". Every teacher struggles with this idea - how can we help students OWN the material rather than RENT the material? I look forward to watching Cindy's journey as she helps her students develop EMUs :)

Nathan Kraft - Out Rockin' Constantly

Nathan Kraft (@nathankraft1) has a blog named "Out Rockin' Constantly". The first post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "I Still Suck at Teaching (and how I'm going to fix that)" and the author sums it up as follows: "I am implementing two new assessment and teaching strategies this year: standards-based grading and three act lessons."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "I'd like to thank Dan Meyer, Steve Leinwand, Fawn Nguyen, and Andrew Stadel who, through their expertise and great ideas, have proven to me that I still suck at teaching."

My thoughts... Nothing like a sucker punch to start your day. Nathan's raw honesty really hits home with me this morning. As he points out in his post, as soon as I think I have something figured out, I look at the amazing teachers I've met through the online community and realize how much I really suck at this. I think we all have those moments and while it may not be something that often gets mentioned, it is something that goes through each of our heads on a regular basis. Thank you to Nathan for reminding me that my daily goal should be to "suck a little bit less than I did yesterday."

Christy Wood - Hands on Math in High School

Christy Wood (@wyldbirman) has a blog named "Hands on Math in High School". The first post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "Why I Blog" and the author sums it up as follows: "My post is about why I started blogging and what I am focusing on this year. I have been applying things I have learned from other bloggers into my own practice."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "At what point did we begin thinking that students can't benefit from manipulatives?"

My thoughts... Let me just say, I <3 Christy! I found her blog way back in the summer because she had pinned one of my blog posts on pinterest. Her passion for making math fun and interesting and hands-on is one of the things that drew me toward her. We have visited several times via twitter and I really look forward to learning from her this year.

Aaron C. - Random Teaching Tangents

Aaron C. (@CarpGoesMoo) has a blog named "Random Teaching Tangents". The first post for the Blogging Initiation is titled "New Blogger Initiation 1" and the author sums it up as follows: "Who needs control groups and only tinkering with a single variable at a time? I plan to change a lot of my practices this year in order to become more efficient and less frustrated/stressed teacher. I'd rather ride the current tidal wave of paradigm shifts in education than get sucked under ..."

A memorable quotation from the post is: "To stay in this game another two decades, I’ve got to stop getting by and start meaningfully impacting some lives. Ambitious, right?"

My thoughts... Aaron sums it up well in the quotation about ambition. I love his willingness to tinker with the things that didn't work for him last year and try something new. Aaron is a blogger to watch - he definitely is not satisfied with the status quo. :)