Using Mobiles to Solve Equations

This is a great idea for students to really show what they know with numbers and solving equations. 

I found the link on one of Resourceaholic's Gem lists. The post led me to Don Steward's Median blog. This is his activity. There are 3 posts: 'mobiles,' then 'mobile inequalities,' and finally 'mobile moments'.

I really like these activities! They are so adaptable to just about anything. Elementary students through high school students could work with adapted versions of these. Students do so much halving, doubling, sequencing, comparing, etc.

I can also see adapting this for fractions or decimals.

Maybe radians? Definitely integers...

This could even become an activity framework. It could be used for something like basic function notation, students evaluate to a number, then use that number to balance. (Almost as a self-check method)

Have a great weekend everyone!

UPDATE: There's also a website called SolveMe, which has these same types of problems, without numbers or expressions. It uses the same logic and reasoning skills, but with a bit friendlier interface. Here's the link. 

BINGO 2.0 (Nearpod App-Smash)

I had a moment during 1st period today, where I realized how different my classroom is from when I started teaching. (Yes, we were at school for a half day on a Saturday, for a snow make-up day)

My plan was to play bingo with my Math 2 students, who are working on simplifying radicals today. We also had the Ipad cart checked out, which I had intended to use for a quick Google Classroom update. Instead, the Ipads ended up being exactly the thing that took this activity to the next level. 

Whenever we play bingo in my classroom, I print out a Kuta (or similar test bank) worksheet with questions and an answer page. Usually, I print out 1 copy with 40-50 questions. I put the answer sheet under the document camera, and students copy random answers into squares on a blank bingo card. 

Quick ideas/suggestions for a last minute bingo game:

• Any worksheet with an answer key works - just copy the answers onto the board for the students to choose from. 
• Quick, repetitive type questions work best, such as complex number operations, simplifying expressions of any kind, or switching forms of linear or quadratic equations. (I'll be repeating this activity Monday with Math 3 for completing the square)
• Students can use a blank template if you have time/resources to copy one for each student. I usually have 1 class set, which we put inside sleeve protectors and use as dry erase boards. Students write on the cards with either pencils/dry erase markers. 
• Bingo chip ideas: I use foam sheets from the dollar store that I cut into 1-inch pieces several years ago. I've also used the small glass vase-fillers from the dollar store, although they make much more noise. On the few occasions that students have their own copy of the bingo template to write on, they've used markers to mark their squares. 

But here's how it changed today. We used the Nearpod app's "Draw It" feature. That meant that each time I called out a question, they showed their work and sent it to me! Each question, I had a student sample that I could scroll through, so that we could talk about any mistakes or misconceptions along the way. Below is a screen shot of the teacher's view from the app.

Nearpod has this great "share" feature after using the Draw It slides. It allows you to send the picture of any student's work, without their name, to every other student. This is such a game changer. They can see their peers' work, and discuss it without the pressure of going to the board. This is a view of what the teacher sees from the app, with the blue "Share" button in the top corner of each response. 

My students also figured out that they could take a picture of the projected question, import it into Nearpod, and then complete the work over the image.  Some choose to write the question out, as shown above.

When we review homework, this feature means they're able to snap a pic of their work from their homework page, then send it to me, without having to rewrite anything. Then we look over several responses together, and sort out any confusion. This is a great time saver, and it's definitely an app I hope to find more uses for in the future. 

Daily Quizzes - An Easy Way to Start a (kind-of) SBG System & Provide Classroom Incentives

I want to share the biggest change I've made to my classroom this year: Daily Quizzes. 

This is the brain child of one of my amazing colleagues. Last year, he did 6 question exit tickets as a homework replacement. YES. A math teacher that assigned NO HOMEWORK. 

Well, I wasn't quite ready to take that leap. However, I did like the idea of having plenty of skill-based data reports, and tying it to an incentive. So we decided as a PLC to compromise. DQs emerged from that compromise. Here's how it works.

Each day, after notes, students have around 15 minutes to start their homework. (We have 90 minute blocks.) After that initial practice time, I project a 6 question quiz on the board (My PLC creates these together ahead of time). 

Students are allowed to use their notes. Once they're finished, they bring it up to me, and I grade it immediately (It takes less than 15 seconds per quiz. I use open ended questions, and there's no partial credit. Each is right or wrong, and I spend no time at that point looking through work or evaluating mistakes.) I record their score, tell them, and keep the card (which helps keep the answers from traveling around the room). Here's a picture of my recording sheet:

The topics are along the top, and scores range from 0-6. I do give half credit VERY rarely for students that made arithmetic errors, or for answers not in best form (such as answers with negative exponents). I color code the scores at the end of a unit, on the morning of the review day. This helps me remember where our weaknesses were throughout the unit. 

0-1 are red

2 is pink

3 is orange

4 is yellow

5-6 are green

Absent is blue - I don't typically require students to make these up.

You can see the clear difference in my honors classes (above) and my regular class (below).

Another difference between honors and regular classes is the number of questions, and incentive attached. Honors classes get 5 question DQs, and students that score a perfect 5 are permitted to complete every other homework problem that's assigned that day. Regular classes get 6 questions, and students that score a 5 or 6 get to only do half the problems. 

This homework incentive has been FANTASTIC. Students take the notes seriously, because they know they're going to want to reference them during the quiz. They work furiously during that initial practice time, and even my withdrawn/shy kiddos will reach out to their group or to me to ask questions to iron out any issues during that time. 

After they get their score, they resume work on the homework assignment. I typically reserve around 20 minutes for the DQ, which means the early finishers have around 15 minutes to work in addition to the 15 they already spent. As much as they hate getting 4s, they get so competitive about the 5s and 6s. We had to start a class vs. class competition - and I think adding an extra question for my regular class puts them on a level playing field. 

Class DQ Board: 1st Regular, 2nd & 4th Honors

I go back once everyone's finished and look through work. We clarify common issues, and I give cards back so students can post them on the bragging wall (shown below), or look over their mistakes. 

Let's talk about some details on logistics:

Grading: I grade these as a single quiz grade per unit. I drop the lowest one from the unit, then average the rest. The percentage for the average out of 5 is their grade. (For the regular class, this means that they could get a quiz score over a 100 for their 6s. I haven't had an average over 102 yet this year, so I'm not concerned about giving them a few extra points for a 6. I make sure that the questions are difficult enough so that 5s and 6s aren't guaranteed.) These have completely replaced normal quizzes for me, and I'm ok with that even though they're all open note quizzes.

Supplies: I have students bring in index cards to turn in at the beginning of the year. These are in the supply bins for their groups, and most of the time we use them to complete DQs. Occasionally, they prefer using a piece of notebook paper instead, especially for problems that take up a bunch of space. 

Student Data Tracking: Students keep up with their own scores in 2 places. 

They record the score first on a page I created to go beside their Unit TOC page (from Math=Love). 

This score goes right beside their homework assignment page number and homework grade, so I can quickly check their scores as I grade homework. This means I know whether to give a 50% or a 100% for a page that has every other problem completed. They get a stamp on this page and on their punch pass for each 100%. (My blog post on punch passes is here.)

The second place they record these is at the beginning of their Reference & Warmup notebook (post on my new notebook setup is here). They record a daily I Can sentence from the board, with the corresponding page number, their DQ score that matches, and fill in a bar graph beside it. I encourage them to use this right before their test to reflect on what to spend the most time studying.

My regular students have 6 boxes, since they can score up to a 6.

 

My honors students have only 5 boxes.

As you can see, some students are a bit more colorful with their records, and there are days we run out of time for a DQ.
I have also done "Daily Double Quizzes" where we do a makeup DQ from the day before along with that day's regular DQ.
Also - note the frowny faces. They HATE getting 4s. 

I post the entire week's I Can Statements at once on the front whiteboard.

I'm painfully aware that this system is missing a couple of things: a method for reassessment, make-up DQs for absent kids, and a way to tie this info with their tests. However, it's also been the easiest transition to something close to SBG that I've ever implemented. I've been able to save time grading too, which is always great. 

Enjoy your weekend!

Friday Freebies! Comparing Linear/Quadratic/Exponential Functions

My students are testing today on the unit we introduced with Zombie Day. 

 

We used a "Fun with Functions" Cut and sort activity to practice identifying/classifying LQE functions.

 We spent plenty of time working with multiple representations of each, and how to write the equation for a function once you know what type it is.

Then we moved on to translating, with matchbook notes. 

And after seeing this blog post from Math=Love, we included a drawing of our calculator yesterday when talking about using the regression functions on our Ti-84s. 

And we practiced, and practiced, and practiced. 

We did a scavenger hunt.

We used LQE cards on the 2nd day of the unit for whole-class response practice. 

The following day, we increased the level of difficulty by using cards that said what type of L,Q, or E each example was. (The exponential card had decay on one side, growth on the other)

I wanted to do so much more with this unit, but there's only so many days left until testing season begins.

However, I do think that having a day of centers would have been better than only doing the practice in mostly whole-class settings. So I made a card sort for this unit (using this 12-block template) - we'll use it for EOC review. I wrote up the process for using a similar 9-block template in this previous post.

Here are some of the ways I'm thinking of using the LQE cards (it's a set of 48)

• printed 2 to a page, into a column sort in their ISN
• printed onto cardstock, used as Go-Fish or Memory (each exponential matches with any other exponential)
• printed onto cardstock, used as a center matching activity (3-column sort as a group onto a posterboard or table marked with 3 sections)
• center activity where students play Left-Center-Right, but to keep/receive a card, they say L/Q/E

Start the download for the card set by clicking here. It's a Word docx file, so feel free to edit it to suit your students' needs. 

Have a great weekend!

Zombie Outbreak!

One of the topics I've started teaching since NC started Common Core is comparing linear/quadratic/exponential functions. Two semesters ago, I saw this blog post where a teacher had used zombie outbreaks to have students explore exponential growth.

I switched up the lesson plan a bit, and we did 3 rounds of "zombie outbreaks" in my class, each with a different soundtrack. At this point in the semester, we've learned about linear, quadratic, and exponential functions. However, I don't tell my students which outbreak is which until we're done.

For each round, students meander around the room, and my "patient zero" student follows the rules for that round by infecting students in a certain way. (Infections are stickers on their hands). As we listen to the music, I announce every 15 seconds "End of day __, Wake up, everyone! It's the morning of day ___!" I make a big deal of everyone "freezing" at the end of the day to "sleep," and then we resume movement with waking up on the next day.

• Round 1: (Linear) Each day, the zombie "infects" 3 new people, but the new zombies cannot infect anyone.
  
• Round 2: (Quadratic) Each day, the zombie learns how to infect an additional 2 people per day (I tell them the zombie is learning to run faster each day, and so the first day is still 3 people, but then 5, 7, and so on). New zombies still cannot infect anyone.
  
• Round 3: (Exponential) Each day, every zombie is able to infect 1 person. New zombies have infection powers.

It's so funny to watch them play this - I always have a couple students that want to be infected, and a couple that don't, and run away from the zombie. The game usually turns into a mild game of tag/hide-and-seek.
Once infected, the students have to "report their infection to the CDC," which means dragging a picture of a person on the SMARTboard into a box for day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. (whichever day they got infected).

Once the rounds are complete, we record our findings in our ISNs, and discuss what patterns we see. Usually my students identify round 1 and 3 almost immediately as linear and exponential. I also usually have 1-2 students that see the square number pattern as well, which leads us to label round 2 as quadratic.

We discuss the characteristics of each function that we remember (this is a great review right after spring break), and then write the equation for each round. Then we destroy the world. :)

They research in groups online to find the population of our school, city, county, state, country, continent, and the world. Then they solve for round 1 and 2 how many days it would take to infect that population. They use a guess and check method for exponentials, since Math 1 kids don't learn logs until next year.

Things I want to improve in the future:

• predictions about each round before we start (I want them to discuss which scenario will infect the most people in a week, in a year, etc.)
• "CDC Disaster Reports" as a lesson conclusion (I'd love each group to take 1 time period, maybe a week, 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, and write up the infection rate based on each scenario)

Scavenger Hunts - and a free template!

I've truly had a very productive week this week. I am ahead in planning, and spent some time yesterday creating a template that I'd like to share. 

I don't know who came up with the idea of this type of scavenger hunt, but I use them ALL.THE.TIME.

At least once per unit. Usually more. 

Because a 10 question scavenger hunt takes me 5-10 minutes to create, and lets them practice with or without partners, usually filling up 15-30 minutes of class time. 

I have so many of these that I've handwritten. In my teacher bag, I even carry around "scavenger hunt packets" of  sets of 10 different colors of cardstock. When waiting for a meeting, it's so easy to quickly make a set of these from 10 questions scrawled out on a scrap of notebook paper.

Just in case you call them something different (or haven't heard of them), for a scavenger hunt you post a number (I typically do 10) of questions and answers around the room. You can see them posted in the picture above - a blue one on the wall, a pink one on the window. 

Each page has an answer on the outside and a question on the inside. This set was for multiplying polynomials.

Each page also has a letter to label the question. 

Students start at any question, work it out on their paper, and then search for the answer on another paper around the room. Once found, they complete the question under that answer. After they've completed the last question, that answer brings them back to where they started (which is why they can start at any letter). 

I have students work their questions out on a piece of construction paper set up with the same number of boxes as questions. They put the letter that they are working on in the smaller box. The letter sequence (which is always random) allows me to quickly check their work while I'm circulating around the room. Once complete, they attach the page in their ISN.

This is what the cards look like stored for future use - I write the answer key on a sticky label and always stick it to the back of the A card, with the topic and number of questions. When I'm ready to use a set, I quickly copy those 10 letters onto a post it which I keep in my pocket for the day.

Here's how I keep the scavenger hunts (and all other game/station activities) organized for future use:

I have 2 large milk crates with hanging files labeled by topic. 

Each activity is inside either a bag, sleeve protector, or binder clipped. 

As you can see, I'm still working on finding more activities for several of my algebra 2 topics. 

This is NOT where I keep worksheets/foldables/ISN pages. 

These bins are only for games and station activities. This is also where I keep flashcards, task cards, and non-content specific TPR materials (Yes/No cards, worksheet game boards, ABCD cards/etc.)

So back to the scavenger hunts, and on to the freebie!

I decided that I wanted a way to type these so if I'm on the go, I can quickly type up a set of questions and answers in Evernote, and then just copy and paste right before I print. So yesterday, I sat down at my laptop and made it happen.

I made a template in Word that will automatically populate a 10-question set of questions and answers. 

AND HERE'S THE AWESOME PART. 

Because of the way I have it set up, you can even use pictures/equations/screenshots for your questions or answers! Yes, that's right. You don't have to type in questions - use the snipping tool, or a web clipper like Lightshot, and it'll be done in 5 minutes, ready to print. 

Instructions are in the file - click here to download it. 

(And if you create a set for something algebra-ish, please send it my way! 

If you need help using it, email me or have the MS Word teacher at your school look at it - the file uses cross-references to bookmarked cells in the table on the first page.)

I am really so excited to start using this template - once I've made a few sets, I'll share them as well. 

Sharing your ISN with Parents

So the past few weeks, I've been dealing with a parent. You know the type. She emails you within 30 seconds of your response. He checks online grades 4 times daily to see if anything has changed. She wants a detailed explanation of at least 3 sentences beside each grade. He organizes Junior's notebook for him every night at home because "he's just not great with organizational skills." 

Honestly, these types of parents don't usually get to me. Until last week. I finally just gave in and decided to post my ISN pages - yes, every single last one of them, online. Because otherwise, I was never going to hear the end of it. And quite honestly, I think it will help my students keep track of everything. I'm envisioning a student that was absent pulling out their phone or any other internet-connected device, and updating their notebook at home based on what's online. Last summer when I worked with a middle school teacher to present on interactive notebooking for our district, I was inspired by the fact that each day, she posted not only their topic, homework, and a link to a video daily, but also pics of her ISN for each prep. 

(I said inspired - that's definitely teacher-code for saying WOW she must be awesome, and then I did nothing to improve my own system. SMH.) 

But talking with this parent finally motivated me to get it done. I've seen lots of teachers with ISNs use Slideshare with pictures, I've seen them take doc cam screenshots (which in my opinion, is probably easiest), and I've even seen some walk downstairs and scan each page every day to post it. 

My doc cam is barely good enough to use for notes - so that wasn't an option. Not to mention, I knew for sure that if the method I chose took ANY work at all, it wasn't going to happen. 

So I chose Evernote. I'd already been using it a little (I have the free version) for organizing some online resources. But I'm fairly new to it. But in about 5 seconds (literally) per prep per day, I post my pages for the day. 

I downloaded the free Evernote app onto my cell phone. I added the "widget" to my home screen. I set 2 notebooks up called Algebra 1 ISN and Algebra 2 ISN (one for each prep). I copied the link to each notebook onto my class website so students can access the notebook as public. That's it!

This is the widget on my home screen. When I want to post new pages, I click the camera button, which opens a new "photo page," and automatically starts the camera.

This is the camera started - you take as many photos as you need (I do 1 per page)
by hitting the green button.

Once you've taken pictures, it shows the number you've taken in the bottom right corner. 

Select the check once you've gotten that day's pages.

Hitting the check brings you to the "note" that contains all the pictures. 

All that's left to do is label the note with a title and place it in the correct notebook.

In green, it lists the notebook - this note is set to go into Algebra 1 ISN.

Below is the space for the title.

 I use the page numbers as the title (here, I put 65 for page 65.) 

Then hit the check, and it saves automatically. It syncs as soon as you
connect to wifi or turn on data. 

So you can see what students/parents see, click the link below - it will take you to the Algebra 1 or Algebra 2 ISN online notebook.
 (Keep in mind I JUST started doing this - there aren't many pages up yet. We started our 2nd 6 weeks notebook on Pi Day.)

https://www.evernote.com/pub/mrs_spencer_schs/algebra1isn

https://www.evernote.com/pub/mrs_spencer_schs/algebra2isn

I know if you're unfamiliar with Evernote, this process can seem like a lot. But once you get started, the daily upkeep takes only a few seconds (which is what makes it worth it for me). Email me through my profile if you want/need more info to get started, or post questions in the comment section. 

How to make a stations activity in a hurry

Hi! 

So we've had quite the busy semester so far, but my focus this semester has been to develop interactive/cooperative learning fun stuff for my Math 1 kids. I moved schools last year, and my old school had a department-wide bin of games. There weren't many in it, but it was nice to know at the beginning of the unit that I could take the folder for that topic and instantly have a couple of really good resources to use. I've made it my mission as math department chair at my new school to recreate that setup, with electronic files, interactive notebook pages, and games/stations activities. I currently have 2 milk crates filled with games and activities sorted by topic - I'm going to try to share as many of these as possible.

One of the things I recently started planning was my professional development session this summer on making your secondary classroom more engaging. With the help of a couple of AMAZING coworkers, I'll be presenting sessions on interactive notebooking, using games and centers with secondary students, and how to help students track progress with skill-based assessments (basically, my version of SBG).

As I wrote up the documentation needed for the PD for games, I realized that while I have created plenty of different activities, I don't have electronic versions of very many. The reason for that (as well as the reason I'm willing to create them) is because I can create enough of these types of card games to have a set per group in my class pretty quickly. The reason it's so quick is because I use a test generator or Kuta to print the questions, and then physically cut and tape them onto a pre-made template. 

That's the process I want to share today. 

First, print out a worksheet answer key, test with answers, or KUTA page with answers. Double the number of questions to determine the number of cards you'll need to make.

You'll need the card template (shown is a 12 card template - I've since switched to 9 cards, since they're a bit easier to play with.) Download the card template by clicking here. Print out enough of them for the number of cards you plan to make.  You'll also need scissors and tape. 

Cut out each question and answer separately. No need to worry about keeping anything in order. Don't worry if the edges aren't straight. This is where I love using KUTA worksheets - everything's aligned, and I just cut out the columns then snip it apart. Tape the pieces onto the template, one per box. They don't have be perfectly straight. I also typically lay out a page, then tape them all at once with larger strips of tape, rather than tiny pieces on each box.

I'd like to take a moment here to mention that if you're feeling ambitious, you can cut and paste screenshots of questions/pictures to use, or you could type in the template. I typically don't do that only because it takes 5 times as long to make the same type of game, and it still looks typed and neat when done this way.

Once you've got them taped, now's your opportunity to scan the page to save an electronic copy, or copy it for a neater hard copy. 

Copy your pages onto different colors of cardstock - I use a different color for each set, so if a card goes missing it's easy to figure out where it goes.

Cut apart the blocks by following the guidelines on the template. Using a template without lines around the edge not only saves cutting time, but also ensures that every bit of the page is used - no waste!

I use a large craft cutter from Michaels. Use a 40% off coupon and a teacher discount of 15%, and they're quite reasonably priced! 

Put each set into a snack or sandwich size baggie.

Put all baggies into a gallon size bag labeled with the topic, activity description, and number of sets of cards.

 

And that's it!

You now have an easy game card set that can be used as a matching activity, go fish, old maid (if you leave one card space blank per set), memory/concentration, etc. This same deck can act as any of those games, and can be reused again and again. 

Here's the scanned copy of the set I made:
  matching linear equations with their graphs. 

Enjoy!

(By the way, if you have ideas for other fun activities/games that you use in your classroom that work across different content areas, please share in the comments section. I'd love to include them in the PD session over summer, so that other teachers can make their classrooms more engaging for their students.)