I Tell Lame Jokes
I recently had my 8th graders conduct surveys to collect qualitative and quantitative data. I used this opportunity to integrate several pieces of technology, including the advanced uploading of files...
View ArticleWord Problem Help
I've been running into some problems with my algebra students lately. We have been solving systems of linear equations and inequalities and they have been doing just fine with solving these when they...
View ArticleTeach Lazy
The book that I have been reading for my online grad class is an extended handout of the book Windows on the Future by Ian Jukes and Ted McCain. Here is a quote from the book that I particularly liked....
View ArticleFactoring is Fun!
This is the comment that I got from several of my students this year. Our high school uses CPM for struggling algebra students, and one of the teachers showed me the "Diamond Problem" method for...
View ArticleHands-On Binomial Squares
How many of your algebra students do this?How do we get them to stop doing that? You could show them a visualization similar to this and hope they remember it, but chances are they won't. Why not have...
View ArticleHands-On Difference of Squares
This activity is similar to the hands-on paper activity I posted the other day with binomial squares. This one will help students visualize the difference of squares.Start by getting a square piece of...
View ArticleWCYDWT: Basketball
This is probably just a ripoff of Dan's similar post, but I think students will have more fun with this using the same idea. Go check out this Multiplayer Basketball game. Have fun, I'll see you back...
View ArticleMath Formulas Bookmark
I made a bookmark that contains several formulas and conversions for my students to use in their textbooks. Many textbooks have this information on the inside cover or on a few of the resource pages in...
View ArticleSMART Board Training
Last spring I conducted an inservice session about the SMART Board. I was planning to share some of the lesser known features that some teachers might not use, but the people that attended wanted to...
View ArticleMy Standards-Based Grading Plan
Along with a lot of my fellow math edubloggers, I am planning on giving Standards-Based Grading (SBG) a shot next year. I've read lots of blog posts and had some conversations on Twitter to help me...
View ArticleOrganizing Those Stolen...err Borrowed...Lessons
Amber at Maximizing Learning wrote a post a little while ago about how she has found so many great lessons via blogs but has a hard time keeping them organized. I commented on the same problem, but not...
View ArticleThe Mathematical Genius
I never watch 20/20, but I somehow caught the show the night this story was on. I showed it to my 8th graders the day before the holiday break. Before I showed the video, I asked them to draw at least...
View ArticleGratuitous Plug: Alternative to Whiteboards
I don't know how I missed Frank's post on "The $2 Interactive Whiteboard" when it was originally written, but I caught later when it was awarded the 2010 Most Influential Blog Post. After reading it, I...
View ArticleA Penny for Your Thoughts
Here's a little hypothetical situation for you. Let's say that you are part of a district that has two middle schools. Neither school is very large -- one has around 95 students and the other 120. You...
View ArticleWCYDWT: Parking Lots
I'm convinced something pretty good can be made out of this problem.When I first looked at this problem, I wondered if the dimensions of the parking lot were even reasonable. I was surprised to find...
View ArticleWMC Day 1
I attended five sessions at the Wisconsin Math Council Conference today. Here are a few of things worth sharing.Dance Dance GeometryThis came from a session on inviting play into your math classroom...
View ArticleWMC Day 2
Four more sessions were on the schedule today and I saw some pretty amazing things done by classroom teachers.The early-riser session was on improving students' understanding of math vocabulary by...
View ArticleSchool Year Recap
I've been wanting to write a year-in-review post for a while, but between summer school and grad class assignments I haven't found much time or motivation. Here's some of the highlights and lowlights...
View ArticleWCYDWT: Basketball Update
A while back, I posted about an online basketball game that I felt could be used in a quadratics lesson. I finally had a chance to try it out this year. Here's what I came up with.The day before this...
View ArticleReaction Time Test
I wanted to review mean, median, mode, and range with my students by having them use data that was meaningful to them. I saw this reaction time test and thought this would be fun way to review these...
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