Get their attention!

In my last post, I noted that many of my students this year are "orange" personality types and kinesthetic learners.  Since my classes are already larger than normal and I now know I've got some big personalities, I recognized the need to get a good "attention getting" method into place.  I don't have the loudest voice, so calling for their attention isn't quite immediate and I hate using bells!  Kagan recommends a two-part chant and lots of teachers have success with a clapping pattern.  I have always felt awkward trying to use something like this in 8th grade, but I'm going to get over it! 

I've heard the chants like, "One, two, three, eyes on me" but they seemed too elementary.  The best one just popped into my head yesterday!  I'll use that famous military cadence, that goes, "I don't know but I've been told..." I'll chant, "3 point 1 4 1 5 9" and the kids will continue in the same cadence, "2 6 5 3 5 8 9." 

Not only will I get their attention, but they'll memorize 13 digits of pi in the mean time! My neighbor in the adjoining classroom said it sounded good through the wall- she thought I was doing a song! 

Factoring Polynomials Tarsia

It's time for Made 4 Math Monday!  I have a Polynomial Factoring Tarsia/Puzzle to share today.  This mixes all of the forms of factoring that my students have been working on in the past two weeks.  I've seen lots of Tarsia examples on Pinterest but the free software is only PC compatible and I typically use a Mac.  My PC is a bit of a dinosaur, so I haven't even tried out the software yet, so I went old school on this! 

Answer Key: You'll need to check that the pieces are in the correct rotation so that the sides actually match.  The 16 pieces form an equilateral triangle.
Row 1:            N
Row 2:        A G  C
Row 3:     J  K I   B D
Row 4: O E L  F  P H  M

My other Made4Math item this week is new tubs for each table in my classroom.  We christened them today and so far, so good.  I even had a bunch of comments from my 5th period class: "Wow, you bought us new tubs!"  "Those look really good!"  It's nice to be noticed.  The materials all fit nicely when I filled them up this morning and kids didn't need much time at all to get and replace the things we used today.  I seriously hope this is my last venture into reorganizing supplies this year since we're halfway in and on the third system! 

Made for Math- New Tubs

This year has been an organizational catastrophe for me.  I'm on my fifth curriculum in as many years (two new ones this year alone), so my filing cabinets are not anywhere near as helpful as I'd like them to be.  No one should be allowed to even look at my desk right now.  I started off the year with my desks in rows and each kid had a handy pencil bag with supplies to use.  They worked great until I switched my classroom setup to groups in December following some Kagan coursework and there wasn't a place for each kid to have his own bag.  For the past two months, the communal supplies have annoyed me.  I bought some rectangular bins that worked OK but kids didn't have a specific enough home for each item, so they became a mess in just a few weeks.  I may be a mess, but I like my kids to know where things are and be able to keep at least that little aspect of the classroom organized for me! 

Yesterday, I scored at Walmart with an awesome deal.  In the clearance aisle, I found six blue shower caddies for just $1 each.  As luck would have it, there are six tables in my room!  They're about $6 each online so I saved a bunch but they're probably worth $5-6 because they're super sturdy.  They're larger than other shower caddies I've seen, so they can hold all of the supplies I like for my kids to have on hand: scissors, glue sticks, red pens, highlighters, dry erase markers, cloths to erase the markers, protractors, and compasses.  I'm going to try having a stapler on each table too, though I worry that it could be too tempting as a potential toy/weapon.  Today, I printed out labels for each of the supplies so kids see where to place them in the bins.  A layer of packing tape over the labels will seal them in and thwart graffiti.  Aren't they great?  I sort of loathe this color blue, but I'm not one of the teachers who has a perfectly matched color scheme (or even a poorly matched one for that matter), so blue will be just fine.  

As you can see in the last picture, I put 3 9oz disposable cups in one side to help separate the pens, highlighters and markers. Total project cost: $7- $6 for bins and less than $1 for cups and labels!  Yay! 

I can't wait to fill these up tomorrow and have them on the tables for my kids to use. 

I'm posting this to Made for Math Monday.  Check them out for great ideas.

Update (6/29/2013): These tubs made it through the end of the year just fine.  The kids mostly did a good job getting the materials back into the right place.  For the fall, I'm going label each item as to which tub it belongs to.  As an open container on the table, there was much more temptation for students to play with the materials than when we had the individual bags on the desks.  The staplers never caused a problem like I thought they might.  If you're interested in using these, I just found them at Walmart for $2.88 each, now in a frosted clear color instead of blue.  Check the back to school area because they also have pink and teal there for college kids. 

Mathematically yours,
Miss B

Simplifying Radicals Cootie Catcher

Back in August, I used a simple cootie catcher with my Algebra I students to help them review measures of central tendency.  I wrote the original by hand, so all I had to offer was a blank template.  The template is now available for you to download directly AND it includes folding directions.  You'll still need to write in your topics/problems/questions by hand. 

Tonight, I spent some time typing up a version for simplifying radicals.  It includes a summary of rules for simplifying single radicals as well as radical expressions involving the four operations.  There are 8 practice problems included.

You could use this a few ways in your classroom:
1. Have students complete the problems, check their work, and keep the cootie catcher as a study guide.
2. Have students work in pairs to "play" the cootie catcher game, taking turns to answer the problems.  Once both students agree that the work is correct, they can record the solution in their own cootie catcher.  They continue until all problems are complete.  This will work best if students write some numbers on the outer flaps and color the inner flaps so they're not directly choosing the problems they'll complete and there's a little bit of chance involved.   
3. Combining the ideas from above, split the class into two and distribute two versions (perhaps copied on two colors of paper).  Students solve their own problems and check with the teacher's answer key or another student who did the same version.  Two students with different colors then pair up and play the game.  As one student solves, the other student praises and coaches.  This is a version of Kagan's Rally Coach structure.  If your students need additional support, they can be teamed up with another student with the same version for the initial solving and then get a new partner for the second portion of the activity. 

We'll be doing method #3 in my classroom, but I know that not everyone is comfortable with or feels they have time for this sort of cooperative learning. 

Want your copy of two versions of this cootie catcher?  I'm trying something new to me, so bear with me and please leave a comment if it doesn't work properly.  Here's a link to the pdf file in Google docs.

Mathematically yours,
Miss B

Table Groups!

While seating students in table groups is far from a new idea, it's new in my classroom.  I have been struggling with the best way to seat students given that my classroom furniture consists of only right-handed desk/chair combos.  It's not practical to seat students side-by-side with these desks.  Putting them in groups of 3 is possible in a T shape but this set up ends up taking up more floor space than I am willing to give, even in my large classroom because I need 9 groups to accommodate all of my kids.  

Unfortunately, this style of desk isn't as flexible as single desks with separate chairs and doesn't lend itself to seating students in groups. 

I'm taking a graduate class on Kagan's Cooperative Learning Strategies.  I was already very familiar with the structures but some of the rationale on team building is new to me.  I've been enjoying the class and I came home from it last weekend inspired to change my classroom set up.  I ran through a mental inventory of what is in my classroom and I realized that I had 5 trapezoid tables that could each seat two students.  I decided to use one trapezoid table plus two of the old desks per group.  I managed to get one more table from a coworker who had extras so I had enough to make 6 groups.  Students can get in and out easily and can work together.  The best part is that my classroom now feels huge!  There is a lot of space to move around. 

Here's a table group in my redesigned classroom!

Changing my classroom set-up felt like an impossible dream until I got creative and decided to let go of some things I thought I needed (separate tables for pull out groups).  The first day of the new set up (Tuesday) was rough as my students are just not used to sitting around a table and not talking constantly.  We're working on understanding when we talk to each other and when we work alone.  Wednesday and today were nearly perfect with my lower group of students.  My advanced groups are having a harder time containing themselves but I have confidence we'll model correct behavior and have everyone in line before Christmas break.  A few students have surprised me already at how well they're working together; I listened to some awesome coaching by a few pairs when we worked on volume problems using Rally Coach.  For those of you familiar with structures, we've done Rally Coach, Showdown, Quiz Quiz Trade, Takeoff/Touchdown, Timed Pair Share, Rally Table, and more just this week. 

Have you come up with a creative solution to a near-impossible problem?  Let me know about it.  I'd love to be inspired by your great idea!

Mathematically yours,
Miss B