#myfavfriday Cheap White Board Erasers

There are so many different versions of erasers but this is my new favorite: foam rollers!

I bought two 10 packs of black rollers from the Dollar Tree. I took out the plastic pieces and voila, instant erasers.

It's awesome that they are black because stains don't show up. We've been using them for a few weeks and only one student has even noticed that they are hair rollers.

LOL

#myfavfriday Slope Formula

I'll go ahead and warn you that this won't be the best explanation.

I'm posting about a different way (for me) of teaching the slope formula. I transition from functions to linear functions via tables. As we learn to use a function rule to create a table, we then plot the points in the table and graph.

After we are experienced with that, I teach about slope (I should blog about that too I suppose) in context and we start counting rate of change and slope.

Once we're familiar with that concept, I take students back to tables and show them how to find the slope from a table. For the first time, I translated that to ordered pairs. When I give the student's ordered pairs, they write them in a table (t-chart) and subtract to find the slope.

Here's an example:

I like this way better because there isn't as much confusion in finding x1 and y1. It doesn't matter which ordered pair you write first anyway.

Sometimes the students do write the pairs vertically instead of horizontally but overall I am much more satisfied with this method rather than the formula.

As much as I can, I am trying to get away from memorizing formulas and trying to build things conceptually. Now you may say that students have to memorize this method as well but I would respond to that that the tables are much more of a natural progression than a random formula.

Na na boo boo.

#myfavfriday Whiteboards and Pipe Cleaners

My favorite thing is having four whiteboards in my classroom. I want to say wall to wall but that's not quite accurate. I love having one next to the SMART board so I can display things and still have a space to write on. I love that I can send almost all of my classes to the board when I run out of lesson or I didn't plan anything spectacular. Super nifty.

I also loved this spur of the moment idea I had the other day. My students are struggling with looking at an equation and being able to graph the transformations so I bought some pipe cleaners and used the graph side of my white boards. I wrote a parent function on the board and added one transformation at a time.

As I wrote the transformation, they manipulated the pipe cleaner on the board. This really clicked for some of the students. One student said "Well, why didn't we do this in the first place?" and another student "This is soooo easy."

Success.

#myfavfriday mp3 Converter

Another converter I've been using is to convert Youtube videos into mp3s. This is great if you are ever in charge of a dance or if you just want to use songs in your lessons. Most of the time Youtube has the clean version of songs.

Anyway, the website is www.youtube-mp3.org and all you have to do is paste the link of the video you want to convert into the box. Click Convert Video and it works immediately. Just download the mp3 and save. It's super simple and works quickly.

I've also just started using desmos.com for graphing. Go to the site, click Launch Calculator. Type in an equation or a list of ordered pairs (with commas in between every pair) and it will automatically graph. Next click the blue Share button and choose the Image button in the bottom right hand corner. A new window opens with a picture of your graph. Right click and and choose Save As... to save the image.

See:

You can then insert them where needed.

#myfavfriday File Converter

A tool I've been using more often is this pdf to Word converter. It's free and easy and quick. Any pdf I find online I can then save to my computer, upload to this website, and the website converts it to a Word document. They send it as an attachment to my e-mail where I can download and then modify or copy and paste. Some nights this is a complete godsend. From what I've seen so far it looks almost exactly like the original pdf. Even the address is easy to remember: http://www.pdftoword.com/

Also I just bought a new six drawer organizing bin that I LOVE and then of course I had to reorganize half the room to get everything looking how I wanted. I got it from Wal-Mart for about $20 but I know it's not sold in every Wal-Mart. The drawers are 14 x 14 which is basically huge and perfect.

And last but not least, our Student Council sold 'mumpkins' this year- baby pumpkins decorated like mummies. We've tried paint, ribbon, pom poms, glue, etc and this was our best idea yet.

We wrapped the pumpkins in colored self-adhesive medical gauze, used tacky glue to attach googly eyes to the gauze, used a sharpie to draw on a mouth, wrote on leaves as tags, and stapled the tag directly onto the pumpkin. We cleaned, decorated, and tagged over 150 pumpkins in one hour...now that is efficient.

#myfavfriday Student Teacher

I realized I haven't blogged yet about my student teacher.

She is really, really good. Other than our type A personalities, we don't really have a lot in common. She is a beauty pageant queen many times over, perfect teeth, really tiny, voluminous hair, extra peppy, loves small talk, and very friendly. I'm not any of those things. She's definitely smarter than me when it comes to math.

She has her stuff together. In some ways, I feel like we are on the same level and consequently, I have really high expectations for her. She taught my Algebra I class all week and just modified my materials. The students could not believe this was the first time she's ever taught. When I observe her, I write two-column notes labeled "Go" and "Grow". That helps me balance my comments between praise and instruction. I am having a blast with 'coaching' her and just making suggestions. It's so much fun! If we could do this with teachers for a full year, there would be no stopping us. It is such a valuable process.

I like having someone to discuss and brainstorm ideas with and together we've made some changes to the pacing and created some activities. It's nice to not be so isolated. It's also nice to sit back and let someone else be in charge.

But my favorite thing of all is this...not once have I compared myself to her or wished that I was different. I am very happy being me and teaching the way that I teach. I have been surprised and found some good ideas while watching her but I'm actually feeling more and more satisfied with who I am as a teacher.

That may seem silly to you...why would I ever compare myself to someone who hasn't been a teacher yet? But I spent a lot of years in various parts of my life comparing myself, not measuring up, and wanting to be someone else. I still sometimes compare my teaching ability to you mad geniuses out there. But this year, I am just really satisfied with where I'm at and what I'm doing. I'm confident....solid.

Today I had to teach in Algebra I because she works on Fridays and I wondered if it would be weird since she has taken over the class. (Warning: Some lameness will appear shortly) But it was seriously like coming home. It just felt right and I was thinking "Yeah, these are my kids." It just felt so comfortable and the lesson went so smoothly...confirmation that I just might have a handle on this beast we call teaching.

I've rarely had this experience. I am able to admire traits about someone else without without without making myself feel bad for not having those traits.  It is possible to lift up someone else without degrading yourself.  It is possible to like myself more and more for just being me. It is possible for me to measure up and not find myself lacking.

It. Is. Possible.

#myfavfriday Questions vs. Comments

I was asked to share a "My Favorite" at this week's #globalmath department. I wanted to share something new that I hadn't blogged about yet but now I also get to blog about something new!

This idea kind of came out of nowhere but is really a mix of the mistake game and error analysis.

In Algebra I we were working on translating word problems into an inequality to solve and graph. A student had volunteered to work the problem on the board and had set it up correctly but was solving it all kinds of wrong.

The other students began glancing around and whispering back and forth because they could see her errors too. I thought to myself, how can I correct her without making her feel stupid in front of the class?

I told the students that if they saw any mistakes in her work that they must ask her a question rather than make a comment. I told them that saying "You're wrong or you messed up" is not helpful.

I felt like I could literally see the wheels turning in their brain as they thought about how to phrase their observations into a question. I guided them by telling them they could start their question with "Why did you ________?" or "Couldn't you __________?"

As they started to ask questions, the student realized her own mistake, corrected it and explained "Oh, I should have ___________".  The students picked this up easily and it has become a powerful tool. I'm trying to structure every piece of feedback I give as a question.

I feel pretty good about the questions I ask during a lesson but now as students are working and asking for help, I avoid telling them right or wrong, yes or no, but phrase every comment as a question.

For example:

• Did you find what the question is asking for?
• What do you think?
• If I tell you that you are wrong, what would you change?
• Is x alone?
• Is that your final answer?
• Does it make sense to do it that way?
• What is another way you could do it?
• Do you notice a pattern?
• Do your partners agree?

At the end, I debriefed by asking students why I made them ask questions rather than comments. Their response was that telling someone they are wrong doesn't tell them where they went wrong or how to fix it. Bazinga!

I find that the more often I ask students why I do something, the more I learn about my teaching style and my instructional choices. Sometimes what appears natural to a teacher needs some concrete student reasoning behind it. They always give me better answers than I think of on my own.
 
It never hurts to let students give purpose to what happens in the classroom.

That's everyone's favorite.

#myfavfriday Kuta Software Presentation View

I discovered this week that my Kuta software has a presentation view. You can show anywhere from 1-4 problems, with or without lines, and with or without answers. You can even zoom in!

This is so perfect. Now anytime a lesson runs short, I can just throw up some problems and use my ZAP! review game or math poker for extra practice. I don't need to make fancy powerpoints (although I'm sure I still will) because this works just as well with no help from me. Excitation!

Also, I found some cute folders at Wal-Mart, 3 for $1.00. I labeled them Algebra I, Algebra II, and Geometry. I'm keeping my originals and answer keys for the day in order to train myself to put them into my binder at the end of the day. Kinda sad that I need a folder to remind me to put it in a binder, but hey, whatever works. I had papers flying around like crazy and clutter makes me crazy.

I also used two folders for retakes; one for the forms the students fill out and one for the actual retake, which I grade, show to the student, and keep in my own files.

I'm happy to report that I've had 6 students do retakes which is about 10% of my total student population. One student's grade went down, one stayed the same, and the other four went up.

Interesting...

#myfavfriday Math Poker

Math Poker is a game I learned from Heather Hart at a NCTM conference and I've used it before. But for some reason it has been more popular this year.

The way it works is that every student starts with $100. They make a bet based on if they think they can do the problem or not, before seeing the actual problem. If they get the problem correct, they add the money to their total. If they're wrong, they subtract it. Once a student reaches $0, they must borrow money from me, the International Bank of Miller. But they only get $10 at a time and to get it, they have to randomly draw one of my index cards, and do whatever the card says.

And of course that's the best part. For example: Do a cartwheel, Hold your left foot in your right hand and hop around the room, Go to the classroom next door and say "I have a gambling problem" and walk away, Say two nice things about the principal, etc.

My freshman absolutely loved it. I used it to teach compound inequalities. We start with simple one step qualities, moving up to multi-step, variables on both sides, and then compound inequalities. I would just do one example with them and then they were so eager to continue to playing that that's all I really needed to do.

I think we played it for 3 days in a row and they thought it was SO fun. It was hardly any work on my end and all I did during class was click to the next slide. They spent three full periods working problems non-stop and I can't really ask for much better than that.

You can also have students trade papers to check for accuracy. And I guarantee you will have at least one student who will bet everything every time and eventually lose. That's what keeps the motivation going, plus just asking who has the most money gets them riled up.

Here are some links:

Inequalities Poker (ppt, doc1, doc2)
Segment Bisector Poker (ppt, doc)

If you need ideas of funny things to do for your index cards, I would be happy to share some more of what I have used.

#myfavfriday Favorite Moments

Some favorite moments from the school year:

My middle school students who told me today that I am their favorite teacher because I "let them do things other teachers won't".

When I lectured my middle school class about their behavior and a students came up afterward and apologized.

Last Friday when my students told me I had to dress older because they thought I was a student in hallways.

This week a student asked me how long I thought our newish Ag teacher would work there. When I thought he was going to complain, he instead said he was asking because he wanted to become an Ag teacher and come back and take her job. :)

When students who finished early in my Geometry class of 30 started to help other people because they could see I couldn't get to everyone on my own.

One particular student who has been 'difficult' over the past two years has really grown and matured over the summer. She is now working hard, being polite, having more patience, and is in overall more control of her behavior.

My first tutoring session today with middle schoolers who I had a chance to talk to more and who are so hilarious.

The support and encouragement I have received from people when talking about attempting Take One/ NBCT.

When I made time to work with an IEP student and realized he was more capable than I assumed. And just now when I graded his quiz and he did better than expected.

In fact, a much better batch of quizzes from all my classes compared to last week.

But mostly, the fact that we are quickly approaching October so I can finally hit my groove.

--

I did have one thing to share. I've been using my hanging file organizer for absent student work but then I had students absent on a test day and of course I wasn't going to stick the test in there. I just used a corner of the board and wrote Make Up Test and listed their names under it as a reminder to myself. Painfully obvious, but worked wonders for me.

#myfavfriday What Experience Brings

The one thing that is most necessary and hardest to find is something you cannot rush or buy.

Experience.

I love noticing little changes and fixes that I have picked up just in my measly three years of experience.

For example, actually doing whatever I plan for the students ahead of time, including making the answer key before I ever pass it out.

Learning to be flexible at the drop of a hat, including when students are just not understanding or I am called to an 'emergency' meeting, or both.

Being able to come up with random filler activities when my oh so beautifully planned lesson runs short.

Looking for problems in the set-up or structure of my lesson when it feels like everyone is failing because of my terrible teaching.

Knowing that it's okay to quit doing something that isn't working.

Seeking out my students opinions first on how to fix or change things in their classroom.

Learning when it's just time to go to sleep already!

Noticing subtle hints and changes in students behavior that I was oblivious to during my first year.

In fact, just beginning to focus on student behavior rather than my own.

Knowing every idea won't work for me and that that is okay.

Thinking ahead to questions students might ask and building them into the lesson.

Picking out that moment where something has to change right now or I will lose everybody.

That's my summary of three years...

I hope the learning from experience rate is exponential!

#myfavfriday 'Flipping' the Classroom

I've been thinking about what I wanted to write about and then trying to decide what to name it. I know flipping the classroom is such a buzz word right now and it has so many different meanings. For me, I'm kind of relating it to @cheesemonkeysf's presentation at #TMC12 about disrupting student expectations through alternative activity structures. Flipping the classroom for me has really meant flipping expectations. 

So far in Algebra II, I have not lectured once. I haven't even made any powerpoints. Everything we've done has been a handout I created that leads them step-by-step through what I want them to learn. I walk around and answer questions and we debrief together at the end. And I am loving it. It makes me feel like a good teacher that the students are doing all the work but it makes me feel like a bad teacher sometimes when I'm just sitting there or wandering around the room. Not only am I flipping the student's expectations of what math class looks like but their expectation and mine of what a good teacher looks like. I'm starting to redefine the role of a good teacher. While this may be commonplace to you, it's like a clarifying moment for me: A good teacher creates opportunities to learn but doesn't necessarily lead them. 

Plus the strengths, weaknesses, and personalities of the students come across much quicker this way. It's easy to see who is needy, independent, cry baby, willing to help others, efficient, easily distracted, a leader, etc.

In Geometry I've (thankfully) been able to use some lessons from last year. But even in my head I've been questioning how can I flip this around into something more engaging? For example, teaching the very very basics such as point, line, ray, segment, plane, etc. I stole a handout from @msrubinmath on points, lines, and planes and modified it for myself and my 'interactive students binders'. And then I wondered, how can I make this more interesting?

I numbered every box on my answer key and numbered each box on their graphic organizer.

Then I cut my answer key up into little squares and handed one to each student as they walked in the door.

Once I passed out the graphic organizer I told them to write what was on the square they had in their hand and then trade with someone else and keep trading until your chart is full. I could easily have just put this on the SMART board and make them copy it or literally hand out a copy. But by mixing things up, students could work at their own pace and not be rushed, have the chance to get up and out of their seats, have some freedom to chitchat, and focus on one piece at a time rather than a page filled with information.

Today's lesson built on that and made the graphic organizer useful. We did my hands-on naming review from last year and students used the GO as a guide for how to arrange their pieces. Again, I could have lectured on the graphic organizer and discussed each part. But I mixed things up by creating an activity that highlighted the usefulness of the GO so understanding it and using it was not a command from me but a demand of the activity. Ooh I like that. Quote, you just got bolded!

So no, I'm not making any videos to send home or anything like that but I am striving to flip everyone's expectations of what learning and teaching math looks and sounds like.

And that's my favorite.

#myfavfriday Air Fresheners

I know this might seem like a silly topic but smells are important to me. I need peace in my classroom and that involves my room being clutter-free, colorful, organized, and smelling good. I think I've posted about every one of those other topics so now I'll talk about my favorite air fresheners.

First of all, every teacher needs a can of air freshener spray, especially after lunch, after gym, and in any class with boys. My favorite is Crisp Waters by Glade. I would wear this stuff as perfume if they made it- that's how much I love it! Buy it at Wal-Mart for $.98.

I have my own personal air freshener on my desk, as I always want to have good smells wherever I am breathing. My favorite is Hawaiian Breeze by Glade in the solid air freshener, also known as "that cone thingy". Also at Wal-Mart for $.98.

Finally, my all-time favorite is the wallflower from Bath and Body Works. This is what keeps my whole classroom smelling lovely.

The last promotion I saw for these were 4 for $20- so you could get a plug in and 3 bulbs. It's a pretty good deal since the plugs and bulbs are anywhere from $6.50-$8.50 normally. I tried Farmstand Apple for the first time- seemed appropriate for the beginning of school.

 

But my absolute favorite is Eucalyptus Mint.

It sounds weird but I swear it smells like a sexy boyfriend. And hey, that might not be your thing but I bet it definitely won't put you in a bad mood!

And that's the end of my weird, never-thought-I-would-write-about-this-on-a-teaching-blog post.

#myfavfriday Favorite Review Games

I've already written two posts about my favorite review games so there's really no need for me to create the wheel.

My favorite is Review Pong and I have used it for two years now and students still are not tired of it.

Another fun one is the Balloon Pop game where students start becoming enemies and allies.

I look forward to using my newly created ZAP! game this year as well as marshmallow shooters.

#myfavfriday Grade Book with Progress Reports

My current trend seems to be sharing websites. Today is a little different but I'm still sharing a link. I found a really nice grade book template in Excel. We had a problem with our online grade book last year - some error in calculating the different weighted grades. It was mentioned that we would go to all points instead of having weighted categories. I just can't keep a paper grade book but I think I could use this one as a 'paper' back up.

Here's what the input area looks like:

What I really love is that you can click the Student Summary tab at the bottom and print out individual progress reports. It lists the student rank, letter grade, percentage, student points, total points, and the GPA (which can be modified). My favorite is the visual- a bar graph with a trend line.

It also has a box for teacher comments as well as a parent signature line. I changed the fonts and colors to what I like so here is the link to the original file and my customized file.

There should be little text bubbles that tell you how to change or fix things. I've only used it a little bit so I may not be much help but feel free to ask.

In other news, I spent hours upon hours of my life creating this powerpoint of daily bell ringers for all 36 weeks of school. I plan to use them three days a week so yes, a total of 108 slides. They are pre-Algebra skills with probability mixed in as well as standardized test questions. I plan to use these to start class in Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II since all students should be able to at least start if not complete the problems without assistance. I am trying to share it everywhere because it took so long to make that I wish someone else could have done it instead of me. So take it, be fruitful, and multiply.

Pun intended.

#myfavfriday Quick Recipe + Favorite Websites

I don't cook so this is actually my mom's recipe but it is quick and yummy and the leftovers are great to take in your lunch. We usually have cornbread and green beans with this, since I know you were wondering.

Homemade Hamburger Helper

Step One: Brown one lb. hamburger in skillet. Sprinkle in dried onion flakes to taste. When hamburger is done, drain grease and return hamburger to skillet.

Step Two: Pour into skillet 1 small can tomato sauce. Rinse out can with half cup water and add to mixture. Add 1 Tbsp. brown sugar, 1/2 tsp. chili powder, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper. Simmer on low heat.

Step Three: Meanwhile, put on water to boil in 3 quart saucepan. When water is boiling, add approximately 8 oz. pasta. I usually use rotini, but last time I did bow-tie pasta and it was great. When pasta is done, drain and add to mixture in skillet. Mix well and bring to boil. Cover the top of the mixture with shredded cheese. (I usually use colby-monterey jack mixture.) Put a lid on the skillet and turn off the heat. Steam for about 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Now what I really wanted to share is some of my favorite websites.

Resources: When I first started teaching, I used ilovemath.org constantly. It has a lot of great hands-on activities, lessons, and games. But three years into this and I've pretty much used everything I could from there. Now I've started using betterlesson.com It's a fairly new website but when I searched for lessons on composite areas at the end of last year I literally found thousands of results and some pretty high quality resources. You may stumble across some things of mine on there and I apologize for that. They are mostly from the end of my first year and beginning of my second so not awesome. If you want something of mine to actually use, you would be better off searching the Lessons tag on this blog. And one more site, http://www.lpsmath.org/algebra1_calendar.htm, is great for algebra ideas. I especially like their lessons on functions because there is a real function machine that chugs outputs from your inputs. Sometimes I use the lessons or sometimes I just use it to guide my pacing.

Storage: I use and love box.com more than other websites I've tried. I first used dropbox.com and then attempted to use sugarsync.com Both of these supposedly automatically sync your files from one computer to another. So theoretically, you could create something at home, save it, and it would automatically appear on your school computer. It never quite worked out for me but I'm pretty sure that was because our school computer server is wonky. I used googledocs for a while but I hate how it changes my files to fit their formatting. I've never had any problems with Box. I can share my folders or keep them private. I can add collaborators to my folders. I can make folders! Anyone can view my box files, even without a box account. And it prompts people to download my file so they can see it in all it's original glory. I don't have to worry about any syncing because it's internet based. I can log in anywhere and all my files are right there. It has definitely been the most consistent and convenient for me.

Hmm...I thought I had more to share but that's about all I can think of for now. 

#myfavfriday Funny T-shirt Designs

My Favorite Friday was born at #tmc12 and will now continue you on throughout the lives of our blogs. So not only is Friday my favorite day of the week, it's also my favorite day to share my favorite things with you (cue singing... "These are a few of my favorite things"... anddddddd cut!).

In this week's edition, I am sharing a favorite website. I am one of the student council sponsors at my school and so we have our own Stuco shirt design every year as well as a school pride shirt we design for the entire school. As a result, I get a ton of catalogs in the mail with really lame t-shirt designs.

But there is one catalog I look forward to. It's from http://www.midwestimpressions.com/mwiindex.html and it is just full of clever, witty, hilarious t-shirt ideas specific to different clubs even and they are just great.

Luckily, a teacher at our school also owns a shirt printing business so once we find a design we like, we take it to him and get whatever colors we want and he gives us a fantastic deal. I've never actually ordered anything from this company but I just love their ideas.

Here are a few of my fave's:

So long, farewell, to you my friends, good-bye for now, until we meet again.