Questions & Activities to Make Math Better.
We have finished week 2 using the Thinking Classroom strategies in my Geometry classroom. This was the first week of content and I think we all have some wonderful takeaways! If you aren't sure what thinking classroom is, check out my first post about it. The content we started with was technically review material but… Continue reading Thinking Classroom Updates and Resources
I love to create my own digital manipulatives. I've created balance scales, algebra tiles, and rtd problem scenarios just to name a few. I know not everyone wants to take the time to create these, that's why I share mine. There are also some online resources where you don't have to create your own. Polypad… Continue reading Polypad Digital Manipulatives
I attended Howie Hua's #VirtualMath21 (you can search the hashtag on Twitter but Howie seems to have disabled his Twitter account). I really enjoy a good free conference and this one didn't disappoint. I have a few things churning in my mind, but one I wanted to share immediately was Graspable Math shared by Tim… Continue reading Graspable Math
This summer I have spent some (a lot) of my time writing curriculum for our Virtual Academy. One thing I have focused on is multiple representations of the content for each concept. I'm hoping to better meet the needs of all my learners. I broke by options into two categories, Read and Watch (Listen). Students… Continue reading Multiple Representations for Leaners
Have you seen a teenagers backpack? Three weeks into school and the protractor I asked them to buy is already in pieces in the bottom of their backpack. Books, binders, and a computer have been shoved into that backpack and the protractor is now broken. Or maybe they couldn't afford school supplies to begin with.… Continue reading Digital Manipulatives
Wow, what a crazy time! Covid-19 has turned our world upside down. I saw a post today commending other teachers for providing their resources for free during this time. It shouldn't take a pandemic for us to take care of each other. I have always provided everything for free. We need to support each other… Continue reading Algebra Practice for Virtual Learning
A lesson is only as good as the updates you make. This activity, which I first blogged about here and here, came from Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller. I love this idea and now use it as an alternative assessment activity. Please go back and read how this started for me. One reason I… Continue reading Choose Your Own Adventure *Updated*
Key features of parabolas are important to understand the why behind quadratic graphs. It seems intuitive, and it is provided an image, but often the situation is represented as a graph with only words to guide students. My students can graph them but seem to struggle with where things are on the graph. We approached… Continue reading Fly Swatter, Parabolas, & Math Snaps
I am always trying to include student discourse and critical thinking in my lessons. This activity started as a sort that we would do AFTER the lesson was completed. This year I decided to change it up and created this slide deck as a lesson opener. The students were told which ones were functions and… Continue reading Math Talk – Functions
I look for real reasons for why we use math. Students can spot BS from a mile away, probably because it STINKS! A few years ago, I realized that a spreadsheet was a great way to explore order of operations. We have to tell technology how we want it to process numbers. If we don’t,… Continue reading Order of Operations in Google Sheets
Make Math Not Suck 