Game Based Learning

During a webinar from http://home.edweb.net/ , one of the other participants told me about a game-based platform that I can use in my classroom for quizzes, surveys and discussions. I started to test it out today and am getting excited about how I can use the website https://getkahoot.com/.

Here are two ideas so far:

1) When I create a pretest for a unit, I can have the students answer the questions on their worksheets first. Then, they can complete the Kahoot quiz as a group. I can formatively assess and check their answers all at once, rather than individually, saving me time! Plus, they will have fun because it is a game.

2) I can set up a Kahoot quiz for a math station. Students who have completed a portion of the learning program I have set up, can sit in a small group and complete a Kahoot. Then I can check in with their progress and discuss any questions they might have.

I am looking forward to exploring this website even more!

Thanks to Richard Byrne @rmbyrne 

See his blog on this teaching tool at:

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2013/11/kahoot-create-quizzes-and-surveys-your.html#.U9g65vldWSo

Trying to Be Amazing! :)

Motivate the Middle Schooler

I like to reward students because it gets them to participate and puts energy into the room. In the past, it would have been fun, and definitely motivating, to throw little “fun size” candies out to the students during a class discussion. Students perk up and all hands get raised after that first one is thrown to a student.

Unfortunately, in this age of being allergy aware and more health conscious, candy seems to me to be off-limits.

So as I was cleaning out my home desk today, I came across these fun paperclips that I had bought for myself to perk up my paperwork. 

And then I had a light-bulb moment....why not give these out in those class discussions! Students are always asking me for supplies in class!

They can be tossed out to students when peppering them with questions for a review or when trying to get them to share their reasoning and strategy for solving a problem.

I am off to find out what other cute, fun and cheap office/school supplies I can find – like erasers!

Be Amazing!

Having a GROWTH Mindset

instead of a FIXED Mindset

I just read this AMAZING post by a student and have to share it.

I am going to have my students read and respond to this at the beginning of the year!

http://andreahurtado.weebly.com/blog/the-mindset-of-a-r-e-a-l-champion

Be Amazing!!

Absolute Value and the Coordinate Plane

Every summer I like to analyze how I taught the concepts over the past year. This year we implemented a new curriculum, as well, as the Common Core State Standards. It was a lot of work but I love the challenge that change brings!

I have been reviewing how I have taught absolute value to my 7^th graders last year and I wanted to find more ways that my students could apply absolute value. I scoured worksheets, my textbook, other textbooks and the Internet on my search.

As I was looking, I got the idea from a high school geometry book to have students work on the coordinate plane, versus just a horizontal number line or a vertical number line.  In this activity that I created, students use colored pencils for fun and, also, because I believe color stimulates their brains more!

In this activity, students will graph 6 colored lines. For each line, they will write two different absolute value expressions and simplify to determine the distance between the endpoints of each line. There is also a writing activity because students need to practice expressing their mathematical reasoning and procedures in writing clearly.

I think my students will enjoy this activity and it will really help them gain a deeper understanding of how absolute value is useful for finding distance when working with integers. I also believe it is a great foundational activity for future concepts, particularly using the slope formula and the distance formula.

Click any picture above for a link to my TPT store. 

Teaching Volume in 7th grade (Part 1)

Our school uses a Singapore math curriculum, which definitely challenges my seventh graders!  Although finding the surface area and volume of cones, cylinders and spheres are testable topics in eighth grade, our math books cover this topic in the course 2 book, which is used in seventh grade.  Therefore, we have chosen to cover this chapter at the end of the year.  Using a variety of teaching methods can make this topic much more accessible to all levels of seventh graders. This blog will cover some introductory activities and using patterns to make the general volume formula accessible and meaningful to the students.

Whenever possible, manipulatives and hands-on materials should be used to help the students begin to grasp the concepts of volume and surface area.  To visualize volume, have students build something with layers. Have them use a basic shape like a circle, triangle, rectangle or square for the base of this thing you are going to build. It can be anything! Blocks, foam, cds, building bricks, even bread!  (A whole loaf would show the layers concept easily.)  Have the students measure and calculate the area of the base shape, and then multiply by the number of layers. 

When ready to introduce the general formula, V=Bh, get them to connect the bottom layer's area with the "B" (the area of the base shape). Be aware that students who have been working with the formula for the area of a two dimensional triangle tend to confuse the small "b" in the triangle formula with the large "B" in the volume formula. It is vital that they connect the AREA of the base shape with "B", not just one dimension of the base shape.

I personally have found success by NOT compartmentalizing this process. I don't teach the cylinder formula one day, the cube another day, a rectangular prism on the third day, a triangular prism on the next day, etc.  I let them explore with building with all of those shapes at different stations. The goal is to get them to recognize that there is a pattern to finding the volume of all these figures and that the letter "B" in the formula must "change" depending on the figure's shape.  For example, the formula for the rectangular prism is V = lwh and the formula changes for a cylinder to V= pi x radius squared x h. 

Seventh graders are not good at mastering too many different formulas, but they can use the V=Bh formula successfully.  I teach them to swap the "B" for the formula they have already mastered to find the area of a rectangle (lw) and then multiply by the height of the prism.  We discuss the pattern of "swapping" the "B". 

 A flyswatter is a great manipulative to use here! Swat the "B" and exchange it for the right area formula. If we have a circle for the base shape, "swat" the "B" and exchange it for pi x radius squared and then multiply by the height of the cylinder. For triangular prisms, "swat" the "B" and exchange it for (1/2 x base x height) and then multiply by the height of the prism.  Make sure to help them differentiate between the height of the 2D triangle and the height of the prism.

Teaching the concept in a mixed format adheres to the Mathematical Practice of finding and using patterns.

"B" Amazing Everyday!!
Annie

Flipping My Classroom 2013

I am taking the plunge and going full force with flipping my 7th and 8th grade math classes this year! During school last year, I practiced using this technique on several units - making mistakes but seeing great progress and enthusiasm from the students as well. This blog will be devoted to my journey this year as I work through all of the kinks, challenges and (hopefully) successes.

If you are interested in more details on flipping your classroom, I highly recommend reading Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams. It is a great resource for getting started and is a very easy, quick read for a busy teacher.