Posts

Classroom Blogging Activity

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Creating Visual Math Problems Introduction:               I was inspired by Dan Meyer’s Three Act Tasks. These problems start with act one which is a video or photo that leads to a mathematical question. In act two, students ask questions to gain information that they need to answer the question. In act three, students solve the problem to find the answer to the question and another photo or the rest of the video is revealed to show the correct answer. Course:               This activity was designed for a middle school algebra class. Learning Objectives: 1.       Students will create a visual math problem using either a photo or a video and post it on the classroom blog. 2.       Students will comment on each other’s problems by asking questions, sharing their strategy for solving the problem along with their solution, and giving feedback on other student’s strategies/solutions. Standards: 1.       Common Core State Standard A-CED: Create equations
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Blogging Plan

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Since I will be starting a new job as a middle school math teacher, my blog posts for the next two months will focus on this journey. Also, because I will be so busy getting my classroom set up, learning the curriculum, etc. I will just be posting one blog post a week. I will start out posting every Tuesday before the school year starts and then after that, I will move to blogging on Sundays. Here is what I plan to post over the next two months: Tuesday, August 20 th : Desmos Blog               I will be attending a training on the program Desmos. I have used Desmos before but this class will teach me how to create my own activities. I am very excited about this class and would like to share what I learn on my blog. Tuesday, August 27 th : Classroom Setup Blog               This week I will be setting up my classroom. Since I have posted about this before, I thought I would post an update including pictures of my progress. Tuesday, September 3 rd : Twas the Night
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EdTech Awards

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I recently learned that EdTech Digest each year has EdTech Awards. I thought I would check out the 2019 winners to see if I could discover any new tools I could use in my classroom. Here is the complete list of finalists and award winners: https://edtechdigest.com/2019-finalists-winners/ I started by looking through the list of The EdTech Cool Tools Awards which was broken up into sections by type of tool. In the Adaptive Technology Solution section, MobyMax won. This did not surprise me because I have used MobyMax before and loved it. MobyMax is kind of like Khan Academy or IXL except more adaptive. Students take an assessment and MobyMax determines what areas of math they don’t understand. Students then work on those areas until they have mastered them. This is a great tool to help students fill in gaps in learning. Each student gets to work on just the areas they need and not the areas they don’t. Here’s the link to Moby Max: https://www.mobymax.com/ The only problem with Moby M
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Probability of Game Shows

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I took a probability class in college and I absolutely loved it. I thought it was such a fascinating and fun area of math and I couldn't wait to teach it. A few years ago, I was teaching and I explained to my students that our next math unit would be on probability. Immediately, the class erupted into groans. I asked why and they told me that probability was boring. I was so surprised because I thought they would be excited. My students were all highly capable and most of them loved math so I figured they would like probability. I then began thinking about how I could make probability more fun for them. Then it came to me...game shows. Many game shows involve probability. I thought it would be fun to look at how likely you are to win different game shows. I created and found many different activities and have now taught them for a couple of years in a row. They are always a huge hit! Below I will share some of my favorites: The Price is Right: This was one of my favorite game sh
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Grading Homework

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How to grade homework has been something I have struggled with ever since I became a teacher. Some teachers grade for completion and correctness. This means a student must complete all of the questions and get all of the answers correct to receive full credit. Other teachers just grade for completion and effort. In this case, students would have to attempt all the questions but they could still get full points even if they got some incorrect. Also, some teachers just check if the homework is complete or incomplete and do not give any points for it. Then there are even teachers who don't score or check homework at all. They just believe it is practice for the students but not a part of their grade. Right now, I usually focus on completion. Because I teach math, I know students are going to make mistakes on their homework and I don't want to penalize them for that. I do give points for completed homework but I have considered getting rid of points and just putting in my grade b
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Crash Course Video on EdTech

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I love Crash Course! If you haven't heard of Crash Course it was created by John and Hank Green. John and Hank have a well known YouTube channel called the Vlog Brothers and John has written many popular young adult novels. When they started Crash Course, John would make videos about humanities and Hank would make videos about science. They now have a partnership with PBS which allowed them to make more courses and hire more people. This particular video is from a course on computer science which is hosted by Carrie Ann. In this video, they included a quote from Thomas Edison who said in 1913, "books will soon be obsolete in the schools. It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture. Our school system will be completely changed in the next ten years." I thought this was fascinating that he made this prediction so long ago. Although he wasn't exactly correct, videos have become a very important part of education. In this video, Car
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Podcast About The Math Myth

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I had heard of the book, The Math Myth , and was curious to learn more about it. I found this podcast that is an interview with the author Andrew Hacker. Although I disagreed with many of the arguments that he made against math, I did agree with some of his points. The author points out that the high school drop out rate is 1 in 5. He believes that this has to do with the fact that students are forced to take higher-level math in high school. I agree that for some students this is the reason they drop out, but you can't blame math as the sole reason students drop out. There are many other factors that lead students to drop out of high school. Andrew Hacker says that, "mathematics is a barrier that everyone has to cross." He gives an example that if you want to study modern dance at Princeton you still have to be really good at math and get a very high score on the SAT. He is right that math is not necessary if you want to study dance, but you could make an argument fo
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