So here was my plan for my three subjects. For all three subjects, I made a "16 things you should know about me" slide show. (The idea I got from John Mahlstedt at TMC two years ago) It went over GREAT with Geometry and Pre-Calculus because they thought a few of the slides were hilarious...I may have mentioned my grandmother on 3 of the 16 slides. And yes, one of the slides detailed my most embarrassing moment of running full-speed into a tree when I was in middle school. So, they got to know me pretty well. The 6th graders didn't seem to think it was so funny, but I haven't quite pinned down how much sarcasm I can really use with them yet (if any). After that, the plan deviated a bit depending on the subject.
6th graders-
I am having them do Estimation180 as their warm-ups. They got SO into it, it was awesome! And, they got really close to Andrew Stadel's height, so I was impressed. I also had them working on Fawn Nguyen's Noah's Ark problem. One of the girls literally used the words "so engaging" when describing the problem, and I had a huge math-party in my head. Only one group solved it by the end of class, but there were really good problem solving conversations happening. A few students actually asked if they could take it home to finish as homework, OMG sure!
In other news, things about 6th graders that I need to work on: 1) UGH, I think I need a hand signal of some sort to get their attention. 2) I definitely need to be that teacher that makes kids wait to ask questions until after instructions. Usually I am so thrilled with high schoolers when they have any questions at all that I will immediately answer anything. This is a bad idea in middle school. I am still learning.
Geometry-
This class only has 8 students in it. Pinch me. I'm having students do Number Talks for their warm-ups in Geometry. This is the first time I have tried it, and I really like it so far. The thought processes were interesting to hear, and I think it will get even better over time. Side note, the first NT is "are there more feet in a mile or seconds in a day?" Students in Guatemala don't know how many feet are in a mile because they use kilometers...
The "Get to know you" Activity was interesting- I called it 3C's. I gave each student a piece of construction paper. I had them take a marker and draw a line down the middle. On one side, I had them list 3C's: 1) Their favorite cartoon character 2) Their ideal car 3) Their ideal career. Then I had them trade papers with a partner, and repeat the following words outloud: "I am sorry. What I am about to do has no reflection on what I think of you as a person." And then I had them draw a portrait of the person they traded papers with on the other side of the construction paper....hehehe. After everyone was done, we had a gallery walk. When students saw something they liked on another person's paper, or if they had that in common, they put a check mark by it. It was nice for everyone to see at the end how many people identified with their answers.
I also had students in Geometry do the Stacking Cups activity that Dan Meyer blogged about. The engagement was definitely there, but I think it was too easy for them. I am making a mental note to step up my game for the Geometry students this year :)
Pre-Calculus-
One of my Pre-Cal classes has 18 students and the other one has 12, so the atmosphere was very different in both. The first thing I did with them was Fawn Nguyen's Visual Patterns #1. There were students in class who had trouble finding the equation for the number of squares (n^2), and there were students who were writing recursive formulas for the number of toothpicks. Even though the gap was quite large, I think everyone found an entry point into the activity.
After a few "get to know you" activities, I had them do a simple version of Sam Shaw's Headbandz. I created heabandz for everyone that had parent function graphs and their equations. Students were instructed to find their partner. After this "simple version," I did a harder version where students had to match the graph and equation when there were transformations on the parent functions. I think it was both a great ice breaker for the class as well as a nice little review of Algebra 2 functions.
The last thing I did with Pre-Cal was a "What I learned last year in Algebra 2" chalktalk. This was a silent activity where students were writing on the whiteboard things that they remember from algebra 2. It ranged from small skills to large concepts, and students could build off of what others were writing. It lasted about 10 minutes. The coolest part of the activity was hearing students say, "I don't remember ANYTHING from Algebra 2" before the activity started and then hearing them say "WOW, we actually did learn all of that.." at the end.
Okay, my wrists hurt from typing. I know I did not attach any documents (mainly because 90% of what I did with all of my classes was taken from the MTBoS anyways!), but if you would like a copy of anything just let me know! Blog post #2, done! Peace out.
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