Number Sense Routines for High School

Hiya!

Welcome to the blog's new look! (I'm loving the clean, fresh feel...it's like spring cleaning, but for my screen, haha!)

I just wanted to take a quick moment today to share a Google site I built to house my favorite resources for number routines and building number sense for high school students.

We've all had students (or at least, I have!) that have been damaged in the past by teachers so concerned with a different recipe/procedure for every type of problem that their students end up uncomfortable thinking about numbers. There are plenty of quick, FUN activities that can build numeracy and just a bit of confidence, all while reinforcing classroom norms for discussion, collaboration, and problem-solving.

I even made this short link: tinyurl.com/HSnumeracy to make it easy to access. The site includes routines, links to number talks, & teacher info for implementing these types of activities and routines. There are even a few Global Math Department webinars to get you thinking! Did I mention that I love the new Google Sites? SO easy to use!

(And in case you're new around here, welcome! I've made a couple other collection websites in the past. One of my favorites is this Trello collection of review games & activities, from this post on Trello.)

My Favorite: Trello #MTBoS Blogging Initiative

Warning: This post is LONG. If you hate reading & just want my favorite thing, go here and explore. Or scroll ALL the way down. Have fun. 

Time to circle back to prompt #2 from the MTBoS Blogging Initiative. 

Here's the prompt: Our week two blogging challenge is to simply blog about one of your favorite things.  Called a “My Favorite,” it can be something that makes teaching a specific math topic work really well.  It does not have to be a lesson, but can be anything in teaching that you love!  It can also be something that you have blogged or tweeted about before.  Some ideas of favorites that have been shared are:

• A lesson (or part of one) that went great
• A game your students love to play
• A fun and/or effective way to practice facts
• A website or app you love to use in class
• An organizational trick or tip that has been life changing
• A product that you use in your classroom that you can’t live without!

My favorite thing lately is Trello, and it fits #2, 3, 4, & 5 on the list above!

Trello will change your life if you let it, I promise. ;)

I'll walk you through what it is, & the amazing education potential, and then I'll share the ways I like to use it. 

What is it?

From the Trello site:

Trello is the free, flexible, and visual way to organize anything with anyone. Drop the lengthy email threads, out-of-date spreadsheets, no-longer-so-sticky notes, and clunky software for managing your projects. Trello lets you see everything about your project in a single glance.

Trello is really the ultimate organization tool. You can very visually organize projects, lesson plans, ideas, or even use it like Pinterest. It's easy to collect and organize and reorder ideas, attachments, and links. It's incredibly easy to use on any device. Sharing is easy. Updating your progress on items is easy. And it connects with IFTTT. (Can you tell I love it yet?!? haha)

Trello has 3 parts: 

1. Boards (think like a Pinterest board - these are general topics, like Unit 1) 
2. Lists (columns, or sub-boards, such as topics within a unit)
3. Cards (individual pieces of information, like activities for a specific topic)

I should mention that cards can include labels, color coding, due dates, attachments, links, comments, pictures, and can be assigned to certain people. 

Trello is free as long as you're ok with solid colors for backgrounds instead of custom pictures. Here's the link to the welcome board shown so the hands on peeps can understand what I'm saying. 

Ok, so what? Why should I care?

Trello has infinite potential! 

In my personal life, I have boards for grocery lists, organizing quilt projects in different stages, keeping track of what's in the freezer (we do OAMC in my house), keeping track of chores & other good habits, gift ideas for family, and so much more. My husband is shared on several of these, so he can add/edit as needed. I'm a list girl, and Trello helps me keep all my lists electronically.

Professionally, I find new ways almost every week to use Trello. 

Here's the rundown. 

• Professional Development Approval & Progress
• My dept shares a board to discuss PD opportunities we will offer. We attach handouts, make to-do checklists, and communicate approval of funding all in one place. As each PD session moves through various levels of approval, its card progresses into new lists on the board, until it's finally sent to True North Logic, our county PD software.
• Brainstorming, & To-Do Lists
• categorized, with attachments or links as needed 
• I use this board as my "thoughtbox." 
• Future blog post ideas, activities or foldable ideas, etc. stay here until I get to them. 
• I have "Resource" Boards for various math topics
• the lists are things like "quadratics" and each card is a link or idea
• I also have a list of places I like to look for questions, activities, etc.
• Sorting, ordering, etc activities. 
• Example: Exponential Equations Warmup
• Students drag & drop matching cards together into a new list.
• I use Trello the same way I like to use the Post It Plus app (blog post for that is here). Trello has the advantage of being possible on ANY device, including Chromebooks. Post It Plus is iPad/iPhone only.
• I want to make some ordering activities too - FDP, integer ops, etc. 
• This is totally graph/picture/equation compatible - you just need a screenshot for the card image. 

I also use Trello to collect my favorite things - very much like Pinterest. Here's the link to my Review Games board. Most ideas are from other MTBoS blogs. 

Trello even has inspiration boards for you to look at, to get an idea of what it's capable of, in specifically education-related ways.  There are some really cool ones - I especially like the project board & classroom newsletter. 

Have fun exploring!

Review Fun: How to Play the Dice Game

This great, low-prep, EASY review game was shared with me by my classroom neighbor. He heard about it from a friend at his last school. Who knows where this game has its roots?!

SETUP:

• Game template file (Download it here) on SmartBoard
• Medium Tech: Don't have SmartNotebook software? Go to express.smarttech.com
• No/Low Tech: Use real dice and display the 1-6 choices & score on the board. 
• Change #1-4 to be 4 topic "groups" that you want to review. Have questions to read aloud or display (task cards are great for this).
• Students need to be in teams and have scrap paper/dry erase boards for their work.

GAMEPLAY:

One student from the 1st team comes up to the board and hits the dice to roll them. Their team may CHOOSE which number they want. (So if they roll a 1 and a 3, they can choose which category to answer a question from. The only time 6 is chosen is if they roll a double 6.) Teams continue to roll until they answer a question. I also make a double 5 the "special roll" where they can erase 2 points. 

I don't allow negative points, so there's no use for them to choose a 5 until another team has points.

Each correct answer earns their team 1 point. They work together to answer, and may only answer one time. If they are incorrect, I allow any other team to "steal" the point. 

WINNER:

The team with the most points wins. I keep score in the boxes at the bottom of the page. We usually play until a pre-determined time, so that the game doesn't take over an entire class period. 
WHAT I LOVE: 
Basically no prep. Works with any content.

ISSUES/THINGS TO CHANGE:
Sometimes they'll avoid a certain category. If that happens, I replace an "overused" topic with the topic they're avoiding (for example, #1 might start out as absolute value, and end up half way through the game as direct/inverse variation). I've also been known to have a "random" category on one of the numbers to fill in what I think they need. 

I also want to make students individually accountable for their answers - in the future, I can see myself using Nearpod for them to send in their responses with work, like I do with BINGO. Sometimes the tech isn't always available on the fly, so I'd love any ideas for a low-tech way to collect their work without having to grade a bunch of messy papers. 

Exam Review, An Awesome Quadratic Question, & Problem-Attic

Well, it's finally exam week.
NC has standardized tests for each subject for final exams. My kids (and I!) are just worn out.

I've yet to find a really effective method for final review. We usually play a game a day.
A couple of my favorites include:

• Auction game
• ABCD Gambling
• White-Board Wipe-Out
• Dice Game
• Ghosts in the Graveyard
• And of course lots of dry-erase board practice

We also create 1 study page for each unit, with practice problems for key topics. We typically have about 7-8 school days for review, and we do 2 units per day. The last day before exams, we play life-size Monopoly (I use the basic set up from this blog post). I typically use the released forms of the tests to practice with along the way, as well as lots of questions from problem-attic.

Problem-attic (which, by the way, if you've never heard of it, is completely AWESOME) has lots of released tests from many states, and you can search by test or topic. 

Every once in a while, I find a question I really like. Here's the one I found this year that I LOVE. (From NY Regents Alg2 Exam Jan. 2014) It's short, but it packs in quite a bit of math into one teeny little sentence. 

Using this site, you can create tests, quizzes, worksheets, etc. I typically print a couple of "flashcards" to project using my document camera, and we use them for games or dry-erase board practice. 

You can also use the flashcards function to create task cards using their questions! I use this feature all the time! I really love not having to make or pay for task cards, and you can color code sets by printing them out on colorful cardstock. There are also plenty of questions without answer choices. 

We'll be testing until Wednesday, the last day of school. I've already got my summer to-do list for school started, and I'm sure it's only going to grow over the next few days.