Drawing on the Windows

So we have been in school since the middle of August and every day I'm trying to find new ways to keep my students engaged.  The other day I decided that instead of using the whiteboards or the SMART board I would use the 6 giant windows that I have in my classroom.

My Geometry class is currently working on solving for the missing angles using our awesome Algebra skills! We are focusing on complementary and supplementary angles.

I drew six different problems ranging in difficulty level as you move down the line of windows. Immediately when my students came in the door they saw the drawings on the windows...How I don't know cause they are hard to see until till you get up close.  They had a great time solving each of the problems and asked if they could draw on the windows too.  I decided to have them come up with their own problems and work them out, just to make sure they worked out in the end.  I wanted them to create problems where none of the angles were given, and where each angle contained variables.  This way they had to solve for the missing variable first and then plug it in to find the measure of each angle.

Many of them complained at first saying "This is to hard" but after a few minutes they began to make a game out of it, seeing who could come up with the hardest problem. It took many of them about 15 minutes to come up with their own, but they were excellent problems and they were proud of themselves.  So after checking each of their problems I let them draw them up on the windows. (You can see two of their examples below).

It's a little hard to see but the problem is 5x +4, x-2, and 3x +7.  Courtesy of a student.

Sorry for the store shed being in the way but this problem was 3x, 4x, and 3x.  Again courtesy of a student.

It was probably one of the best days in class that we have had in about a week and as the day went on other classes were upset that they didn't get to do math on the windows.

All that we used were Expo dry eraser markers to draw on the windows, and they easily come off with a rag.  If it gets dry, like mine did because it sat over night, a little windex takes them write off.