Exploring MTBos Post #8

My mentor has this awesome idea for how she wants to run her classes.  Ideally, she would like to start her classes with a short video that presents a problem that can be solved with mathematics.  She wants to make the real-world connections up front so that students are immediately interested. 

The idea is awesome, but where are the videos?  We've both said that we could spend a ton of time looking for videos and create activities based on them, but we are so very short on time.  I've told her about Mathalicious before.  She signed up, but hasn't found anything she can use yet.

From Explore MTBos, I learned about Collaborative Mathematics, a website that introduces problems with videos.  It's still not quite what she needs, but it certainly is a step in the right direction.  Although this website has the videos with the problems, they're not content specific.  She would like a video to introduce each topic in Algebra II. 

I think we'll get to where she wants eventually.  It is going to take some time through. 

Exploring MTBos Post #7

A Day in My Life - Monday, November 25

4:45 am - Alarm goes off for the first time.

4:54 am - Alarm goes off for the second time.

5:01 am - I finally get out of bed, shower, get ready for work, and eat breakfast.

6:15 am - I leave for work.

6:55 am - I arrive at work.  I among the first teachers there and I succeed in reaching my objective - I'm the first one at the copier.

7:05 am - I sign in and get everything ready for the day.  I check and respond to my emails, I modify my SMART Notebook file for the day, I get everything ready for the Geometry activity, I lay out all of the handouts I need, I update my homework board, my daily objectives, and the date.

8:05 am - The first bell rings and the students start arriving.

8:14 am - A period begins.  I check homework while students complete the Do Now.  We go over the homework together.  We do a proof activity.  The activity takes up most of the class period.  I pass out homework and the make-up quiz I'm giving for Thanksgiving break.  (It turned out that giving them break assignment on Monday was the best thing ever.  We had a snow day on Tuesday.)

8:56 am - A period ends.

9:00 am - B period begins.  B period is one of my preps.  However, during this period I share my classroom with a study hall.  I love having the chance to chit chat with another teacher.  Usually during this period I get a call from another study hall teacher asking if my students can come to my room for extra help.  This day however, I am left in near solitude to get some work done.  This is vital because I have to squeeze a week's worth of work into two days because our week is shortened for Thanksgiving.

9:46 am - C period begins.  This is another Geometry class, so the activity is the same as it was for A period.

10:32 am - D period begins.  This is a Contemporary Math class.  Since we only have 2 days this week before Thanksgiving break, and we finished our last unit on Friday, I promised them a movie day.  We started watching "Stand and Deliver".  While the movie is on, students are finishing work in their portfolios to prepare them for grading.

11:18 am - E period begins.  This is my other prep period.  This period I share my classroom with another math teacher.  It is challenging because even though this teacher is wonderfully gracious in saying that this is my classroom and I can do as like as long as it is not disruptive, I hate running in and out all period.  I try to either stay in the room the whole time doing work quietly in the back or outside of the classroom running around.  I usually eat lunch now because I usually have students come in during my lunch period because it is also their lunch period.  Today, when I go to the faculty room to heat up my lunch, I end up talking to another teacher that answers an email that I sent to her that morning.  I also end up talking to a sub that is currently in school to become a math teacher.  During this time I am also able to call a photographer for my wedding, but I have to leave a message.

12:00 pm - Y-lunch begins.  I go back to my classroom and check emails again.  Students come in and eat their lunch in my classroom.  I have a wonderful group of students that come in.  During this time we either chit chat or get work done, but usually we do both.  Since we are working on proof, I spend some time helping students with their proof homework.   

12:38 pm - F period begins.  This is my last Geometry class of the day.  We do the same activity we did for A and C periods.

1:24 pm - G period begins.  This is my study hall period.

2:10 pm - H period begins.  This is my other Contemporary Math class.  We do the same thing we did for D period.

2:52 pm - H period ends.  I have 8 minutes to clean up my classroom and get all of my things together so I don't spend the next 3 hours with nothing to do.

3:00 pm - PM Program begins.  This year I signed up to stay for 3 hours after school to help the students that are out for OSS when they come in to complete the work that they are missing.  Before PM program begins, I am able to call the photographer back because she called me during a class.  During PM program I am able to complete my lesson plans for the following week while helping the students that were assigned OSS.

6:00 pm - PM program ends.  I make the mistake of not staying late to make copies.  I submit the completed work to teachers' mailboxes and go back to my classroom to get my coat and purse, and finally, I leave.

6:45 pm - I arrive home.  I eat dinner and settle in.

7:10 pm - I finish some other work that I need to get done for the following week.

8:20 pm - Finally done with my work for the day, I brush my teeth and get ready for bed.  I spend some time laying down and unwinding so I can fall asleep.

9:30 ish pm - I finally fall asleep so I can do it all again the next day.  Except the next day is a snow day! :)

Exploring MTBos Post #6

Once upon a time, I used Google Reader.  This was during grad school which was way before I even thought of blogging, using Twitter, and before there even was a MTBos.  So while I thought it was great, I didn't really ever use it because I had no actual need to use it.  Now I see where it would come in handy, and it no longer exists.  (Why did they get rid of it anyway?)

I know this is going to sound weird, but I actually really love going through each individual blog and checking to see if there are any new posts.  I think it's more fun that way.  As an adult, it's the closest I come to running downstairs to see if Santa ate the cookies and left the presents.  However, being as busy as I have been lately (as evidenced by my absence), I can definitely make good use of a reader.  I decided to sign up for InoReader.  I like it so far, I just wish there was an app for it.

For right now, my plan for future professional development is to attend webinars when they interest me.  (I usually attend KDP and ASCD webinars because I'm more interested in what they offer.)  What I love about these webinars is that they are usually few and far between.  This gives me the chance to make plans around them so I can attend without becoming overwhelmed about the other work I have going on.  I also plan to continue attending Geometry Chat on Twitter.  I hope to do more for professional development during the summer, but as I'm thinking about it I don't know how practical that will be while planning, having, and recovering from my wedding. 

I also plan to continue blogging.  I love blogging and getting my ideas down.  I love sharing things with other educators.  I've tried to schedule one blog post a week.  It's definitely gotten away from me though.  Part of it was the MTBos missions that required waiting for something to happen (a Twitter chat or a day to pass).  Mostly it's been my excessive busyness.  I've been waiting for the chance to figuratively breathe.  First we had to complete self-reflections from last year and goals to go with them.  Then we had our SLOs due.  This was absolutely nerve-wracking, especially when I found out that I had to completely change my local SLO three hours before they were due.  So of course once SLOs were done, I was contacted that I would be observed soon and had to fill out the according paperwork.  Now that my observation is done, I have to complete the observation reflection.  I'm praying that once this is done I have an actual break from all of this paperwork and can focus on teaching, blogging, and finding balance in my life. 

The virtual filing cabinet idea is interesting.  I've already been using Live Binder for this, but I often forget to add the resources I find to it.  Now that I'm reflecting on it though, I realize that when I find a resource I like, I often deal with it right away.  If it is a file I can save, I save it.  If it something that I want to print, I print it.  I like taking care of things right away.  It keeps my To-Do list from growing even longer.

No matter how much or how little time I have to explore or participate in MTBos, I look forward to the new ideas I know it will offer in the future.

Geometry Interactive Notebook - The Fourth Unit

Our fourth unit in Geometry this year is Transformations.  This is bittersweet for me.  I love teaching this unit, and next year Common Core is going change it.  From the materials my state has provided on exactly what is expected under Common Core, transformations are done through constructions.  I anticipate this to be a nightmare.

What I especially loved about teaching Transformations this year was that I learned so much from teaching it last year.  I was able to anticipate pit falls, and guide students around them.  I also love teaching transformations before congruent triangle proofs.  I feel like I'm giving my students a more concrete context from which they can work with proofs.

In the notebook, we started with the usual pages:  unit pocket (36), table of contents (37), and vocabulary (38).  I've changed how I do vocabulary a little bit.  Instead of stopping in the middle of a lesson to have students fill out the vocabulary flaps, I pre-printed each vocabulary word, definition, and a fact/characteristic.  I left it up to the students to fill in the example and nonexample.  I gave students the vocabulary words on the first day and we glued them all in at once.  (This did not work so well because I forgot to remind students to fill these in.  What I need to do next time is stop during the lesson and give students a chance to fill in their example/nonexamples or have students do so at the end of the lesson.)

Most of the pages we did in this unit were pretty simple.  We took notes on Translations and glued in mini-graphs of our examples (39).

We did the same for reflections (40).  In my notebook, I did the graphs on a graph post-it note (a.k.a. the greatest thing ever!).  For my students, I made mini-graphs using SMART Notebook and Microsoft Word for them to glue in.

Rotations was by far my favorite page (42).  I borrowed this awesome idea from The Radical Rational (@pamjwilson).  To be completely honest, in the past I just memorized the rules, saw that they produced a rotation and encouraged my students to memorize the rules without ever really understanding them myself.  Thanks to this innovation, I was able to have my students stop and think about what is happening during the rotation, and we discovered the rules of rotation together.  In our notebooks, we color coded a set of axes and attached them to the page using brads.  (I bought a pack of 100 at Michael's for $2.99 - and used a 40% off coupon.)  With the brads we are able to rotate our little axes in our notebooks - so exciting!  We used the rest of the page for notes.

We took notes on Compositions of Transformations (43).

Page 44 is dedicated to Properties of Transformations.  On this day we did a little exploration activity.  I gave students a worksheet with three sets of questions.  Each set related to a congruence transformation.  Students graphed quadrilaterals, completed a transformation, and then analyzed whether the transformation changed the orientation or parallelism of the quadrilateral. 

Next unit is Congruent Triangles.  This will be interesting. 

Exploring MTBos Post #5

So, I sort of skipped mission #4.  Not intentionally.  It's just that it is very difficult for my busy body self to sit down and dedicate an entire hour to doing nothing but listening.  I will do it.  Eventually.  Just not anytime in the next few days.

I've already discussed my initial feelings about Twitter in Exploring MTBos Post #2.  However, at the time I only touched upon Geometry Chat (#geomchat).  Geometry Chat is my absolute favorite reason for using Twitter.  Like I said before, I work in a small school, so it's great having the opportunity to connect with other Geometry teachers.

I have learned so much from participating in Geometry Chat.  It is so reassuring to hear that other teachers have the same problems as I do.  We have also found some awesome solutions.  I love being able to share with other teachers, and that what I have to say is considered and valued, not dismissed just because I'm a newer teacher.

Tonight's Geometry Chat wasn't as fast-paced as it normally it is. Our moderator was tied up at work, and so there was a lull in the conversation.  I learned about tasks and found some great resources from the other participants, so I met my objective by participating.   

For me, Geometry Chat starts at my bed time (9 pm because of my commute), so I'm usually pretty tired during the chat.  This is the only disadvantage of Geometry Chat.

Geometry Interactive Notebook - The Third Unit

My third unit is Coordinate Geometry.  I'm starting this unit with the usual pages:  unit pocket page (25), unit table of contents (26), and unit vocabulary (27).  Since I've been receiving complaints about the Interactive Notebooks (and thus feeling uninspired), I kept the pages in this unit pretty simple.

The first pages (28-29) are dedicated to reviewing writing linear equations.  I've included an insert to glue detailing the coordinate plane, slope basics, and a chart comparing equations of lines.  The rest of the page is used for practice space and listing steps for writing equations.

The second set of pages (30-31) is all about parallel and perpendicular lines.  I included a small foldable comparing theorems for slopes of parallel and perpendicular lines and comparing processes for writing equations of parallel and perpendicular lines.  The rest of the of page is practice space for determining if lines are parallel, perpendicular, or neither and for writing equations of parallel and perpendicular lines.

Page 32 is the midpoint formula.  The foldable on this page details using the formula.  I created the foldable to illustrate isolating the x-values and the y-values to determine the midpoint.  The rest of page is practice space.

Page 33 is for equations of perpendicular bisectors.  The whole page is used as practice space.

On page 34, students will staple in a worksheet for systems of linear quadratics.

Lastly, page 35 is for the distance formula.  The whole page is used for practice space.