Goals for 2017-2018

At the start of every year I always set some sort of goal for myself and this year I find my goal area needs to be on mistakes.  As teachers we always say "It's okay to make mistakes", "Mistakes mean we are trying" and "Mistakes are how we learn" but for me that's about as far as it went.  So are we really saying mistakes are ok?  Does this really encourage students to take more risks and to make mistakes?

This past school year I cam across the video below on how this teacher grades her tests.  It is worth watching but if you don't have time here is a quick but "does no justice" recap: She highlights the mistakes that students make on their tests, no grade is put on the test, grades are put in their online grade book the day AFTER they have received the test back, and she celebrates her favorite mistakes.  Students work together to recognize where they have made mistakes and work to correct them.  

          

I just love the idea of only highlighting the mistakes made on the test.  This way students are more focused on the learning and content rather than what grade they received.   She said it perfectly when she talks about how students get their test back, look at the grade, and then throw it away never to look at it again.  When this happens I feel we are saying that the material we taught really wasn't that important, and that the grade they received is acceptable, even when it may not be.

My most favorite part is how she celebrates mistakes.  She displays a photocopy of a mistake that a student or many students made, and calls them her favorite mistakes.  The class works in their groups and then together as a whole to identify the mistake that was made and then how to correct it.  She also brings to the students attention parts that may be wrong by highlighting them, but she doesn't necessarily take points off for it.

I've been teaching for 10 years, this will be my 11th year, and this past year when students only focused on their grades it really started to get to me.  I knew I needed to change something about how I was running my class.  Standards Based Grading was something I brought into my room about 5 years ago and it helped get the kids to focus more on the learning but the level put at the top of the paper was still sparking the conversations I was hoping to eliminate.

So my goal for the 2017-2018 school year is to highlight mistakes, enter grades in the following day, celebrate my favorite mistakes, and hopefully get my students to focus more on the math and less on their grades.  Wish me luck and we will see how this year goes!

Domain and Range

In previous years I've always taught Domain and Range when I taught Graphing Functions/Equations (see my previous post) and it was enough for my students to grasp the concept.  However my Algebra 1 group last year, and again this year, needed so much more than what I've previously done.  Some years they are able to catch on quickly while other years need more explanation and practice.  So prior to my Graphing Functions/Equations page I designed one that just focused on Domain and Range to help these groups out.

We started with how to identify Domain and Range, what's the proper way and what happens if a number repeats.

I had the students pick two colored highlighters (one for domain and one for range).  I use a lot of color on my pages but it's always for a good reason.  We don't ever just use color to use it.

As a whole class we went through the different situations they would be presented with: XY Table, Set of Ordered Pairs, Maps, or a Graph.

For the XY Table they had to highlight the Domain and Range then write them in proper order.

For the Ordered Pairs they had to highlight each number that represented the Domain and which ones represented the Range. Then write them in proper order.

For the Map they had to again highlight the Domain and Range then put them in order.

The Graph took a bit more effort on our part.  I gave my students the option to either write out each point as an ordered pair or we could make it into an XY Table.  They prefered the table and found it easier to use so we went with it.  They again had to highlight and write the Domain and Range in proper order.

On the right side of the notebook we defined Domain and Range and then they were given the 5 different examples.  For each they were asked to find the Domain and Range.  Some understood it and no longer needed to use the highlighters while others relied on them for quite awhile. I always allow my students to use materials like highlighters and such on their progress checks, so some of them were still using it even on progress check day while most had stopped using them long before.

This is how the pages look side by side.  How do you teach Domain and Range?  What tricks do you use to help them remember the difference?  I'm always up for some new, fun ideas :)

Laws of Exponents

Every time I teach a unit on Polynomials (I know with my population of students) that I will need to start off going over the different Laws of Exponents.  In the past it always turned out to be a jumbled mess of notes that the students could never use or refer back to because you pretty much needed deciphering key just to understand it.  I tired a good handful of different foldables to get the information across but it just never worked.  I gave up and went on a google search to find someone way smarter than me who had already figured out what I couldn't.  Lo and behold Mrs. Williams came to the rescue with an awesome foldable, check out her blog!

Here are my instructions on how to put it together and the problems I used...

Materials Needed:

2 - 8 1/2" x 11" sheets of paper (2 different colors)

Scissors

Favorite writing utensil  

Start with one of your colored sheets.  Fold it in half and cut it.  Then fold one of the halves in half and cut it again.  You will need 2 of the strips you just made.

 

                                          So now here are the supplies each student will need!
                                     



Take the large sheet of paper and turn it so it's landscape, fold it in half, and then fold it in half again.  It should be folded like an accordion.  Lay it on the desk so that it looks like a W when you look at it from the front. (This is super important!)

Grab the middle part of the W and cut it into 4 equal sections just until the fold. (If you don't cut to the fold the smaller strips will be hard to weave in and out.)

Now lay it back down on the table, again so it's a W, and weave the two smaller pieces in.  The center should look like a checker board.  Now you are done!

 

 

The magic to this foldable is if you put the two center pieces together, to make a point in the middle, you can pull the two pieces of paper apart to reveal a secret section.  This foldable always blows the kids minds!

         

Here is how I used it for the Laws of Exponents.

Assigned Seating Problems and Groupings

When it comes to seating arrangements in my classroom I'm a groups/pods/tables/etc. kind of teacher.  I try to instill in my students a sense of collaboration and teamwork.  I love when they work together to solve problems and enjoy seeing students helping and supporting one another.  The only issue I find with groups is that I tend to only have the students work with those in their group.  I hate deciding who is going to work with who and I needed to find a different way to do things.

A fellow coworker of mine numbers her desks, this way when it is time to assign students to a seat she gives them a number and they find their desk rather than trying to give them directions to their desk which they inevitably never locate correctly.  So I decided to do that this year, but being the teacher that I am I had to make it different and my own (not that there was anything wrong with her method, but she's an English teacher so she didn't see the Math possibilities behind this genius idea).  

Here is what I did…

                 

I have 24 desks in my room and I put them into 6 groups of 4 desks.  Each desk is numbered 1-24 using a blue, green, red, purple pattern (repeated for all 6 groups).  I then created a seating chart like I normally would but put their number and color in each box.  I made sure that for each of my classes I had the same number of kids sitting in each color seat.  

On the 1st day of school, I always greet the students in the hallway making sure they are in the right class and helping others find their way around.  HERE IS THE MATH BEHIND THIS GENIUS IDEA!! This year I will be giving each of my students an index card that has a math problem on it with their name.  The answer to their problem lets them know what number desk they are assigned to.  I'm excited about starting with math as soon as they walk in the door!  I differentiated the problems on the cards based on the ability level of my students (the ones I've had before) I focused on solving linear equations but for my freshmen I gave them Order of Operation problems since this is a skill I know their former teacher was working on with them.  Some of my other ideas to shake up my groups is to have them work with their same color peers, maybe do even and odds, greens with purples and reds with blues, etc.  Can't wait to see how this goes on Wednesday for our 1st day of school!

Whiteboard Folders

The unit my students struggle with the most in Algebra is Writing Linear Equations.  Even though the concept of only needing the Slope and Y-intercept to write the equation is a pretty straight forward concept my students struggle because of all the different types of problems they come across.  They are never to sure which method they need to use.

Since all of my students are at different levels, some understand the more basic problems but struggle with the harder ones, and some are completely lost.  This is defiantly a unit I have to differentiate for my students.  So I came up with these whiteboard folders for all of the different Writing Linear Equation problems they will come across.

Supplies you'll need:

Colored Paper, Laminator, Manilla Folder, Scissors, Hot Glue Gun, Marker

How to make the folders…

1st: I hot laminated colored paper.

2nd: Cut almost all of the front cover of the folders off, leaving about 3 inches (this give the kids enough room on the laminated paper to do the work).

3rd: Hot glued the laminated colored paper to the inside of the folder.

4th: On the cut front cover I numbered and wrote out the problems, one type of problem per folder.

5th: Cut the front cover so each problem is it's own flap.

6th: On the inside of the flap write the answer to each problem.

7th: The folder tab has what type of problems they are on it.

I made folders for problems when you have the Slope and Y-Intercept, Slope and One Point, From a Graph, Two Points, Parallel Lines and Perpendicular Lines.  The students wrote on the laminated paper using a dry erase marker and wipe them clean.  These folders allowed students to practice and get immediate feedback by checking their own answers.  I've also used them where students pair up, one is the teacher the other is the student.  While one student works the problem out on a regular whiteboard the "teacher" can check the "students" answers using the folder.

School Supply Craziness

For any of you who already use the interactive notebooks in your classrooms you already know this, but for those who are just starting, a good amount of school supplies are needed on a regular basis to complete each of the pages.

These supplies are the ones my students use on a regular basis:

     ~ Markers (thin and thick)
     ~ Colored Pencils & Sharpener
     ~ Crayons
     ~ Highlighters (6 different colors)
     ~ Glue Stick
     ~ Tape
     ~ Ruler, Compass, Protractor
     ~ Scissors

First Year Supply Organization:

In my classroom I have these AMAZING cabinets that have all of these bins.  Each bin has it's own specific item that goes in it and each bin is labeled. 

Whenever we were working on putting a page together I would take out ALL of the bins that we needed and set them on my supply table.

So why didn't this method work?

#1: This way took up a lot of my time throughout the day, each of my 3 math classes on any given day could be using different supplies so I would have to change them out constantly. So instead of greeting students as they came into the room I was spending my time getting the supplies ready.

#2: Students would always forget to grab all of the supplies that they needed, so they would get up to get what they forgot during the lesson and would lose out on instruction.

Second Year Supply Organization:

After my first year I did a lot of reflecting on the interactive notebook, my pages, the process, distribution, etc.  The supply organization/distribution was enough to quit doing the notebooks but I knew they were working for my students.  So I found a different way to get organized.

I wanted to get some sort of bin that all of the supplies we use could go into but stay neat and organized.  I went out looking for a shower caddie because I knew they had sections.  I found these ones at Walmart for $0.95 each over the summer when they had the college stuff out.

This is what each of the bins look like after the supplies were added.  Each table (groups of 4-5 tables) had one and the students shared supplies. 

These worked out so much better then the larger bins.  The most difficult part was making sure the students kept them organized.  After me nagging them about keeping them clean they learned it was better to just do what I wanted then having to listen to me.

What I liked about this the most was that students NEVER had to get up out of their seat to get supplies, no more forgetting and no more loss of instruction. 

Functions Continued...

I love my students and wouldn't change them for the world, but so often they have a hard time with math that has multiple steps.

We were working on function and they needed practice, but not just sit at their desks and work on a worksheet practice.  So I decided to make these huge posters, one poster for each of the three steps for graphing a function.  

This activity got my students up and moving around the room while still working on practice.  The few feet between each step made a big difference.  It gave them time to stop thinking about what they just did and focus on what they are to do next.  To them it made each problem seem like three easy tasks.

I had three sets of these posters and even though it was only three problems worth of practice they got each of them correct.

At the end of the hour I gave them an exit ticket over these types of problems and found that most of my students were ready to move on the next day.  I did have to work with one student who has been struggling all year, but this activity gave me the time to do just that.

Function Machines

It's been awhile and I'm so far behind in my blogging.  So here we go...

Before winter break we talked about functions.  For many of my students this year is the first time they have seen anything Algebra so we keep it pretty simple.  I started off talking about a Function Machine, I like to use a pop machine as my class example.  We talk about how if we push the Pepsi button we should get a Pepsi out, but if we push the Pepsi button and a Mt. Dew pops out then our machine doesn't function properly.  I went into how for every input you have exactly one output.  Many of them understood after the pop machine example.

I gave students this chart to put in their ISN.  The top box was Graphing Functions From a Table.  I taught them how to create an XY table and how the values create points that we put onto a graph.  Then we found a few extra points that were on the line but not in our table.

We then moved onto Graphing a Function.  I gave them y = 2x - 1 and we decided we would use the values -1, 0, 1, and 2 for X.  The students plugged the values into the equation and solved for Y.  Then graphed the points.  I again made them find some extra points that were on the line but not in our graph.

Doing the extra points helped my students see that the line does not stop just because we ran out of points to graph.


We then moved on to their practice.

We defined the terms Domain and Range, each one getting their own color.  After we defined them we went back to the left side of our notebook and highlighted which values represented the Domain, and which represented the Range.

I then gave them two functions which they had to give values for x and plug them in to find the y.  After they were done they had to graph their points and then find a few that were not in their chart.  Again they lighted the Domain and Range Values.

As an activity I asked my students to create their own function machine.  It gave them time to be creative, though this class is not at all creative so many of them just drew boxes as their machines.

They were asked to create an equation, but not draw it on their page.  They had to create the XY Table, filling in both sets of values.  The students then went around and had to figure out what everyones equation was.