School is starting back soon!

I'm thrilled about a new year starting.  My focus this year hasn't really been on the classroom, it has been on management and lessons.  I am fortunate enough to have taught all of the courses I'm teaching in previous years!  I fell off last year (only one math class a semester doesn't give much time to focus on blogging about it).  But I'm back with a full math schedule.

Let's talk rules...

Ugh.  I hate thinking about the rules.  I know I want to keep them simple, but I always feel like I'm missing the million things I wish I could have posted, but they would become watered down.  So after a little contemplating what is important these are the rules that I came up with.

This year we have a new phone policy across the entire school for the cell phone jail.  I am stoked!!  This should cut back on referrals, but also keep me on my toes.  I should present A-game lessons.  This week I will be revealing another inspiration from this summer or a printable.  The graphic above was created using piktochart.com  It creates info-graphics that are pinterest worthy.  I want to do all my notes on their site.  I ended up getting the educator plan for $39.99/year.  Well worth it.

Pi Day

think I am posting more today just because I have so much to share from 3-14 onward. First and foremost, I took an amazing resource, shrank it down in size and used it for pi day.  Annie made an amazing resource for pi day.

I only got the fist 65 pages colored with my freshmen, but what a great testament to the patience that math requires. Comments such as "Whoa that is 6500 colored spaces!?", "I found mine", and "that is a long number" I think gave students a better understanding of the number pi, mathematics, and possibly a better grasp of how unimaginable infinity is as a mathematical term.  Even my panoramic shot couldn't capture the whole thing. Honestly, if you haven't taught figures like circles yet, this is a great activity. So check out her website here. 

Exponent Rules and Naming Polynomials

I love teacherspayteachers. The graphic organizer from all things algebra is the bomb dot com. It was a great asset prior to playing algebra wars. I had a few errors like a missing negative sign, so that needs to be fixed prior to posting it.  I cut the foldable so the kids had their chart of squares that they need to remember on the side. If you are like my students and wonder why I skipped 14 squared, I told them I have rarely used it in higher math classes. Using this logic, I probably should have put 20 squared.

I play the video by the Ohio school of mathematical magic. Yes, that is not their name, but play one of their songs in class and BAM. Magic!  The kids are humming the tune down the hallway.

Students look like I have just taught them how to cheat when I show them how to put rational exponents in the calculator. But it gets students saying this is easy. 

I tell students that radical signs remind me of division symbols. We always divide the number "under the hat" (elementary term) by the number on the outside. This time we call it the index. The only thing I had to push hard was the square root is an exponent of 1/2. 

These types of questions pop up on the EOC every year. I see kids get overwhelmed by the equation prior to seeing that they can plug it in the calculator. Input major emphasis on these word problems. 

Colors are key to learning as visual learners. Tomorrow I will take care of my kinesthetic learners taking another example from Math = Love. 

System of Inequalities quilt part 1

These were my two examples for my quiz today. Monday, I will take a picture of the final product along with a link to the activity.   This week, we pushed forward on graphing systems of inequalities and they finally got it. At least the majority did. So instead of a test or quiz, we did a scrapbook inequality project. Man, it was a blast!  I was thrilled in how most caught on after doing one together. It was easy to grade and now I have beautiful artwork for my classroom!

Systems using elimination

Let me just say, wow!  The Internet is amazing!  I posted that silly donors choose video and bam I have classroom supplies coming straight to my door.  The blog had taken to the back burner, but I am back with a few posts.  I am going to do two today, the first for my Algebra class, the second for math tech 3/geometry.

I find that substitution is a difficult method to follow out of the three.  Unless you are a math nerd like I was in high school and had plenty of experience with math relays.  So finally, we come to elimination!  I think out of the three forms, minus the calculator for graphing, that this is the easiest form to solve for students.  I showed the students how to find the lcm in the calculator (a trick I didn't learn until I went back to school for my master's degree).  Go to ALPHA then over to the right to NUM and voila!  This menu can factor using the gcd, find the lcm, and plug the absolute value into your calculator.  I mean really, why did I not know about this?!

So after teaching the method, I used these worksheets from online.  There was one error on the substitution package, but the elimination seemed to be perfect.  I had students do the cut out activity as the students homework after the notes were taken.  I love this packet because it breaks the material down into steps.  The second can be used as a gallery style activity (the way I presented it) or as a matching activity.  I loved it!  The kids seems to really catch on using elimination.  I heard a few complaints from them about the number of steps needed to solve the equations.  We are playing a review game and quizzing on the three methods prior to teaching them how to just use a matrix.  Man do kids always get mad.  "Mrs. P, why did you make us do the other forms?  The matrix is soooo easy."

Note: there are limits to using the lcm or the gcd...you can only plug in two numbers and you must keep them positive.

Adele parody: A donation plea

I had opened a donors choose page for some classroom supplies.  After a week of it being posted, I had NO DONORS!  So I thought what gets the attention of people online?  A video.  And not just a video a parody.  So apologies to Adele, for butchering her song, but I figured my readers may need a good laugh.  Plus all teachers know how we would go to any extreme for our students, well almost any extreme.  So without further adieu, I present my pitiful vocal skills in hope for raising money.  Please donate or share to the cause.  If you post it, at least I know that is one more person that has looked at my donors choose page.  Today is the last day where donations will be matched using the promo code liftoff.  Thank you in advance! Update: After an hour of the video going viral, I had my full donation.  What a great way to get supplies that you do not have in your class and may be too broke to afford on your own!  If you need ways to get your project off the ground comment below.

For those of you who have been in the car with me you know I cannot sing. This means I am desperate. My donors choose promo code (liftoff) which will match all donations ends today. So I need donors fast! I wrote the lyrics for my page. Being pressed for time it was pitiful filming, but I am hoping it is corny enough to go viral. Please donate and/or share. Google Mrs. P hands on math.
Posted by Heather Padilla on Monday, January 25, 2016

I had opened a donors choose page for some classroom supplies.  After a week of it being posted, I had NO DONORS!  So I thought what gets the attention of people online?  A video.  And not just a video a parody.  So apologies to Adele, for butchering her song, but I figured my readers may need a good laugh.  Plus all teachers know how we would go to any extreme for our students, well almost any extreme.  So without further adieu, I present my pitiful vocal skills in hope for raising money.  Please donate or share to the cause.  If you post it, at least I know that is one more person that has looked at my donors choose page.  Today is the last day where donations will be matched using the promo code liftoff.  Thank you in advance! 

Things I have learned from teachers pay teachers

I signed up for an account to sell on teacherspayteachers.com. In trying to get things started I had a reality check hit. My blog cannot be my only means for posting. Also, Pinterest is my biggest group of followers. So this means I need to get with the 21st century and really get connected. Now you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, read my posts here, soon find me on Instagram...okay my head is spinning.

Here is what I learned from all of this:

1. You can create your own fonts by going to http://www.myscriptfont.com/

I had a blast making my own letters for future worksheets posters, etc.  best part is that the font will always be royalty free for you because it is yours. 

2. Branding is key, but do not fear YouTube is here!  I learned how to make cute clip art and worksheet covers through PowerPoint. This is great because I don't have to purchase photoshop yet. 

3. When first getting started, you will not get much sleep. But hopefully in the long run it pays off and you feel as though you helped someone. 

System of Equations: Substitution

I absolutely despise teaching my lower level students the substitution method.  But the state always puts a question on the state test about the elimination and substitution methods.  Does anyone else feel this frustration?  I tend to want to jump straight to the calculator for graphing and using matrices.  But in an attempt at tutoring the other day, I had a moment of genius strike!  It inspired a creation of a worksheet...to be shared at a later date.  Note cards served their purpose in class that day.

I made the student flip the card to the other side every time he crossed the equal sign.  He said it was still a lot of work.  You know because our students are professional whiners at times, but he said it did make more sense after doing several problems like this.  Will he more than likely solve systems using a different method?  Yes, but will he recall this activity with this method?  Yes.  For some more eye candy, I have posted my latest notebook additions below.  The yellow chart came from Holt McDougal's powerpoint.

First day of the new semester!

Thanks once again to Mrs. Hagan, I had a great worksheet to share with my students and fellow teachers on the beginning of the second semester of a year long course.  My kids said some of the sweetest things in their 6 word reflections.  You can find the sheet here.  When your students cannot think of a thing they would stop you from doing, (corny jokes included) you feel affirmed that you must be teaching in a way that engages students.  I was half expecting to see some "stop giving us homework almost every night", but those didn't even pop up.  The reflections that some students did were great.  I am putting them in a class time capsule and giving them back at the end of the semester to see if anything had indeed been kept, stopped, changed, or started.

My new resolutions are crazy big for just one year, so fingers crossed I will achieve them.  First, I am going back to grad school.  This time for a degree in education.  Second, blogging more.  This is the best way to reflect on what takes place in the classroom each day.  Third, more activities!

For those of you who may not know a new addition came to our household this past August.  Being out on maternity leave made coming back to kids that hardly knew me in the middle of a semester was hard.  But after doing my own version of the flyswatter game, another genius plan from Mrs. Hagan found here, I knew I needed to do more activities that I had essentially slacked on doing. 

We were even featured in the school newspaper!  I used the game to find the x- and y- intercept for the equations below.  Tomorrow I will share what else we did in class today, but it is time for me to pick up the babies for now.

Link here

A new semester brings on the fun!

I am so excited!  I love, love, love teaching geometry!  Okay I hope you get the picture.  I am jumping up and down with enthusiasm.  It has been a few years since I have taught this subject, but I am thrilled to try out some things I have hoarded over the years and to share them with all of you!  I am going to upload my first day syllabus for this course.  I realized that new teachers are always looking for a first day letter example.  Mostly because who wants to recreate the wheel?  So I am going to share it here along with another template that I love to use.

Multi-Step activity

So my students will need tons of practice on this section.  Previous to our quiz today, I had the students walk around the class and answer each question of the set of 8.  Once they have solve a problem, they find the card matching the solution.  They should complete all 8 problems.  If they didn't solve all 8, then they need to revisit their work.  If they can't find their answer, they need to revisit their work.

I send them in groups of three or four depending on the size of the class, so there isn't a pile up.  If class all end up at the same equation, I may sit them down in groups and allow them a "runner" to get the next equation.  I'll post an update on it later today, since I didn't share any goodies yesterday.

Multi-Step Equations

   (Original)

Are you teaching Algebra 1?  Then you must check out Henrico county's Algebra 1 module site!  I love their cutouts and class activities and if I am running low on time, they have the BEST jeopardy!  I feel like I am abusing my exclamation points, but when I was a first year teacher, I was thrilled to come across this site.  Especially being a lateral entry teacher, I had not seen Algebra 1 since my 8th grade year.  It's a great refresher if nothing else.

    (Final product)

Today we used one of the graduation puzzles.  It took almost 40 minutes for the kids to complete the puzzle, but I love that they were all engaged.  It may have been because I bribed them with tickets as well.  Some gave up, so I would help them find four pieces to encourage the to keep trying.  It was interesting to see the different methods the kids used to solve the puzzle.

Cold and Flu..time to catch up!

We have covered the remainder of the review for Algebra 1 and finally cracked open the textbook today.  I don't believe in a textbook driving the curriculum for a class, rather I use it as a learning tool for my lessons.  I found myself disgusted today to hear a coworker say "Well if they don't get it the way I teach it, they need to just find a video online to learn it.  I am cannot be responsible for them not getting it, I taught it."  I can't count the number of times in just my five years of teaching that I have changed a lesson the next time I taught it or changed a method in hopes that my students understand the concept better.  (I'm off my soapbox for now.)

So here is what we have covered since my last post...

Fractions

This semester my pre-assessment pointed out that majority of my students understood fractions, so we did not spend a great deal of time in this unit as I usually do.  My creative juices must have been flowing this day, because I love how my word art turn out for Improper fractions and Mixed Numbers. 

Expressions

My kids seem to think that this is an easy unit until I ask them to write an expression into words in two different formats.  This is the first time, I really get them to see how notes can help them not only study, but understand how to do their classwork.  Thanks again to Mrs. Hagan for some foldable ideas. 

I was super excited to find a way for them to use their interactive notebook to do their expression homework. I gave them a sheet of sentences and they determined the operation for each.