#MTBoS12days Day 2 Success Story

Challenge 2 of #MTBoS12days  “a success story from this semester”

My first reaction is to say that my greatest success is that I survived the semester – teaching 7 classes – 6 preps (2 sections of geometry) – and supervising a study hall.  It has been tiring and it has affected my health more than usual including a bout with pneumonia – took 2 sick days – first in about 6-7 years .

A goal has been to incorporate more technology into lessons using chromebooks – the school has 2 carts of 25 shared by elementary – secondary.  So sometimes it’s a challenge to schedule where it fits into the chapter unit nicely.  Another cart of 25 hopefully will be available next semester.  Geometry classes explored Geogebra .  I had to teach myself Geogebra by just playing with it (which helps me see the struggles kids will have even with my guidance) and occasionally resorting to other helpful resources online.    If students finished early, I encouraged them to play on these sites : Euclid: The Game  Alien Angles .  I’ll probably use Geogebra with upcoming transformations and also the game Shape Mods.  (Love low tech patty paper  for transformations.  We had a chapter on each kind of transformation when I taught maths in southern Africa – the British influence was strong – we also did stretches and shears at the O’level)  Geometry classes also used Socrative to review for the semester final exam since I was able to upload pics for some of the questions.

Desmos was my go-to favorite for both levels of Algebra 2, College Algebra, and Pre-Calculus.  Algebra 2 classes explored system of equations using the Desmos calculator for the first time.  Then we explored quadratics using Desmos Polygraph: parabolas and a couple of activity builders including my own.  Pre-Calc and College Algebra explored higher polynomial functions and rational functions with Desmos and Desmos Activity Builder.  AP Calculus did use Desmos for a project for curve sketching.  At least they can keep their skills practiced from last spring.

I did try to scatter into various lessons  Which One Doesn’t Belong and Michael Serra’s What’s Wrong with This Picture and  Mathercise  (I have  older copies when Key Curriculum Press printed these).  Little time involved but great successes with class engagement.

#MTBoS12days Yule Blog Challenge

A few folks are doing a challenge – since I rarely blog, I thought I would be challenged but not feel overwhelmed.

 

#MTBoS12days Yule Blog Challenge Day 1

“My Holiday favorites” (you choose)

1. treats & recipes to share
2. inexpensive gifts to give
3. holiday memories

When my husband and I taught in southern Africa, we came back to the States for Christmas/summer break for 5 weeks to visit family and friends.    We visited a small bookstore that had a thin paperback cookbook of Scandanavian home recipes – mostly family recipes.    When we returned to Africa for the new school year I experimented with some of the recipes.  I always enjoyed sweetcorn since childhood (my dad grew some for a local canning factory on the family farm).  And scalloped corn or corn casserole or corn pudding was a favorite for the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays and throughout the winter season.   After trying various ingredient amounts, I settled on the following:

Scalloped Corn

2 Tbsp butter/margarine

2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp flour

salt and pepper to taste

3 eggs- slighly beaten

1 cup milk

1 can = ~15 oz of cream styled corn (I like Green Giant the best)

1 can – ~15 oz of whole kernal corn – drained

1 pack of saltine crackers

Melt butter in a large casserole dish, add sugar, cream corn.  Then add eggs.  Add flour, salt and pepper.  Add whole kernal corn and milk.  Add  some broken crackers to the mix – maybe 1/2 package to start with and add as much as you want.  Stir.  I usually break a few crackers on top to make a crunchy top.  Bake about an hour at 350 F  (Preheated)

Definitely high on my comfort food list 🙂

 

ICTM 2015

A week ago a colleague and I attended the ICTM Annual Meeting with guest speakers Jo Boaler on Friday and Eli Luberoff on Saturday.

Having become familiar with Jo Boaler through her writings and the MOOC course a couple of years ago, it was fun to see her in person.  I’m on the waiting list at my local library for her latest book.  As expected she spoke on growth mindset for math.   Her resources are on Youcubed.

I really wanted to hear and learn from Eli Luberoff, the CEO of Desmos.   I have been a big fan of the graphing calculator and the activities for over a year.  And Eli did not disappoint.  I found out about the latest updates. Since his 2nd session was in a small room at the opposite end of the convention center, I quickly exited the main session (maybe 700-800?) so I would get a seat which I did 🙂  I was surprised that so many had not heard of Desmos since I assumed that being at a small school that I was more isolated.  Thanks to Twitter and #MTBoS, I am more in the loop than I realized.

This afternoon I built my first Desmos activities for classes this week.  In the past I used my own version of some exploration activities with a shared link in edmodo or listing some items on the smartboard.  I’m looking forward to seeing what they are doing besides just walking around peeking over shoulders.  Tomorrow is the Pre-Calc lesson on Log graphs on the chromebooks.

Some Desmos Links

Since I’m a big fan of Desmos, I’m always looking to learn more.  So I thiught I better snag some links to help me to remember 🙂

Dynamic and Dynamite Desmos Demos – say that fast Peter, while picking your pickles

11 Places to Find Desmos Activities for Your Classroom

Beth Ferguson’s Desmos Presentation on her blog and on Desmos

Time for some reading

Summer is a great time to relax with a book.  So far I have read several mystery fiction to decompress after the school year.  Now on to some “heavier” reading:

Be Ready by Warren Wiersbe  (former pastor of Moody Church when I attended MBI) – I’m reading it while attending a Beth Moore study on 1,2 Thessalonians.

What’s Math Got to Do with It? by Jo Boaler – I took her on-line MOOC course 2 summers ago.  She is also speaking In October at the ICTM confernece.  (Last year Dan Meyer was the main speaker 🙂 The other main speaker this year is Desmos founder and CEO ,  Eli Luberoff )

Teaching AP Calculus by Lin McMullin  I really want to look at my calculus course this summer.

Off to do some reading …

Spreadsheets

We got a couple of carts of chrome books for our school P-12 this semester.  In trying to figure out how to best use them and signing them up wit teaching 6 different courses was a challenge.  I carved out 2 days for 2 classes: college algebra and pre-calculus to do an intro to spreadsheets.  The first day there were problems with the students’ passwords in getting into their google accounts.  But we managed on day 2.  So we learned how to input values, simple formatting, making a chart, using basic formulas, etc.

The students had to make a simple table and pie chart of favorite colors.  They had to edit the given colors to match the colors from their tables.  Then they had to make another sheet with values for trig. functions – mainly to explore what google sheets can do.  I know quite a bit about excel but need to explore sheets more.  So another summer project to create some ideas to expand on this tool

More ideas from others:

Excel

Volumes of Solids of Cross-Sections

I had made a couple of models several years ago, but wanted to add to my collection.  And I want to have the students to actually make some this coming new year.  I used the 2015, 2014, 2013 AP Calculus AB exam questions.  Made an enlarged graph with Desmos, made a table of values with Excel, and some corrugated cardboard from old boxes stored for that “one day I’ll use these.”  I have used small nails to pierce the cardboard base that then goes into the standing card slices.  I haven’t done that step yet since my nails are in my classroom.  I may use the stickytac to hold the slices.  Hope to post pics when I put this together.

Enjoyed looking at other examples on the web

Wesley’s blog

Bowman’s blog

Summer Blogging

Seems like blogging for me really stagnated during the school year.  Reflected a lot but just not a high priority for me to record my thoughts.  So maybe I’ll record some – what am I thinking/doing to prepared for next year.

PD time

Last Thursday and Friday I attended conferences – digesting the various sessions for nutritional value for my classroom.

Thursday was the ACSI convention – satellite links in various locations :

• Dr. Robert Marzano on The Art and Science of Teaching
• Drs. Harry and Rosemary Wong on Classroom Management
• Dr. Christian Overman – What’s the Context? Simple Tools That Bring meaning to Learning

Friday was the ICTM conference with keynote speaker Dan Meyer.  A colleague and I got to sit right up in front so easy to see him as he spoke on Math Modeling.  After lunch he spoke on the Textbook of the Future.    There were 3 other smaller sessions – but Dan Meyer was definitely the draw for many..

Now to find time to figure out how to implement ideas into my classroom.

14_15 Week 4

3 Day weekend with Labor Day

2 Days of regular classes on Tuesday and Wednesday.

1 Spiritual Emphasis Retreat for 2 full days at a camp -very hot and humid but a good time to get to know kids in various settings including workshops, chapel, meals, service projects, zipline, fishing, etc.  Left Thursday 8.30 am and returned Friday 9.30 pm.

 

Now to get ready for a full 5 day week including open house Thursday evening; volleyball, soccer games, etc.