Elections made relevant

I'm sorry for posting this so late, but I realized that I need to teach something related to the elections taking place tomorrow or my lesson will fall flat tomorrow.  So how will I use math in the elections?  Data is live right now, so depending on when a student looks at a state will determine their outcome, especially for swing states.  We're going to use the information gathered from the exit polls .  My kids will do the math to show why each red state is red and each blue state is blue.  How?  We will multiply break down the votes by gender first.  Then, we will calculate the numbers for the two main candidates.  They will then color each state based on their findings.  We will then compare our maps to the one posted on social media.  We may even compare the maps of the different news stations and discuss the skews in data.  I will also want to prompt questions in regard to outliers and information that can skew the overall data collected (ie. voters that supported other candidates, the third party candidates, etc.)  I hope it turns out okay.  I will probably update this post with feedback in case you have school on Tuesday and would like to use this lesson. 

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. 

Geometry notes: Segment bisectors & midpoints

For students who struggle with the midpoint formula, I typically put a number line on the board, so we can count to find the exact middle. This visual typically helps. 

In geometry class, I require colored pencils. It is the only way for students to easily visualize the areas and how they relate to the part + part = whole. Or in the midpoint section how the part = the other part.