Late work

I don't know if it's just me, but I often find myself with a small stack of papers that come in as late work, frequently well after the original due date.  In my district, we're not supposed to deny a child the opportunity to turn in work even if it's two months late, so sometimes work from April arrives in June.  At that point, it's not useful to me or the student since we're well beyond that concept, but I still have to grade it.

Since I assign different points whether the child was absent or just chose not to do the work on time, I often find myself going back to my attendance records to check.  This is a bit of a pain.  I've seen the binders that teachers use where students record that they have a missing assignment on the due date and they're neat but I wouldn't necessarily have that information at my fingertips if I'm grading papers at home.  I realized that I would be more efficient if this information was already recorded on the assignment.  So, I made some labels.  These can be printed on the standard 5160/8160 Avery labels that come 30 to a sheet. I wish I had some neon labels, but I'll have to be content with white for now.

Here they are, along with the directions that I'll post.  Labels are in PDF and Word in case you need to edit and I just put the directions in Word because you'll likely have a different procedure than I do.  Sorry for any wonkiness- Box doesn't love the font that I love (Noteworthy, available on Mac). 

I was totally ready to post this to Made4Math when I realized it's Friday.  I'm sure I'll concoct something else by then!  I'll be linking to The Teacher's Chair instead.  Have an awesome weekend! 










How do you keep track of the late assignments in your classroom?

Mathematically yours,
Miss B

And with that, I'm closing up shop!

Let me preface this whole post by saying that I have nothing against the teachers who sell their work on Teachers Pay Teachers.   I've just come to realize it's not for me.

In what might be the quickest 180 of my recent life, I "opened" a TPT shop last night and within 10 hours decided to close it.  Here's why:

1. I want to be a better teacher.  I don't know any teachers who wouldn't agree with this statement.  One of the best ways to get better is to receive honest, unbiased feedback from knowledgeable people and use it to make changes.  I have a better opportunity to get feedback and engage in dialogue through this blog and Twitter than I do an online store. 
2. I want ALL students to have a great math experience.  If I make something awesome, I should share it so that other students (and teachers) can benefit.  There's no joy in keeping the "secrets of success" sequestered in my four classroom walls.  I share freely with my colleagues in my building and district, so why not my colleagues in other buildings?  We're all in this together, friends.  I wouldn't let the math teacher next door buy a worksheet I made, so why should I let any other math teacher buy it? 
3. Generosity begets generosity. You know, "pay it forward" and all that jazz!  If I give something useful, it might encourage another teacher to share their good stuff.  I'm also indebted to the scores of teachers whose blogs I've read over the past several years and I need to share now that I feel I might have something worthy.
4. It's not (and never was) about the money.  I really just want feedback (see #1) so I can improve my teaching.  Save your dollar, buy yourself a drink from the vending machine, and leave me a comment when you download something.  Cheers!  :)

Special thanks to @druinok for sending me a tweet that got me started on my 180.

And, without further ado, here's the Families of Functions file that I mentioned yesterday. The first one is a Word doc but the font changed (from Noteworthy to ?), so it's formatted strangely.  Still, if you want to edit it, that would be the best one to use.  The pdf is second and it seems perfect, so use that one if you don't want to make any changes.  Download, share, and don't forget to comment! 



Mathematically yours,
Miss B

Starting in with TPT and a Freebie!

This is somewhat unconventional for a Made 4 Math Monday post, but I'm going to go with it since I've been working on it for over two hours and it's now Tuesday, not Monday!  

I've been lurking around Teachers Pay Teachers for the past few months, thanks mainly to Pinterest.  It's an interesting concept, and in the age of Common Core, I think it will gain even more followers as we're all in the transition to new curriculum and are looking for new lessons.

I decided to take the plunge and post something there in my "store."  EDIT (7/30/13): TPT really isn't for me.  You can read my reasons here and also download the file I describe below.  I'm going to continue posting files for free here on my blog for the foreseeable future. I'm not hoping to get rich off of it (ha!), but I'm just trying it out as an experiment of sorts.  There are already lots of files I've posted here for free and my box.com account says they've all had hundreds of downloads.  Perhaps for something that's a little more lengthy, I can make a dollar or two to put towards classroom supplies! My dream- earning enough to purchase an iPad (in 2020 when they're obsolete, probably)!

So, you can visit my store here!

My first item is a family of functions scrapbook I created for my students this year so they could keep track of all of the parent functions we learned in Common Core Algebra I.  Since I teach 8th grade, I talked it up as a great resource for high school courses and I stressed how important it was for them to keep it up to date so that they could be used in high school.  My students enjoyed completing the books and always asked if they could fill in a page as soon as we learned a new kind of function.  It's a bit of copying, but in my classroom, it made a difference because my students were able to find their notes on functions and compare two or more parent functions quickly.  The facing pages held examples of transformations on parent functions, so they could see how a number in the function would influence the graph.  I noticed throughout the year that my students were becoming more independent at completing the pages and that they would think about domain, range, end behavior, intervals of increase, minima, and the like before I asked about them because they knew that those questions would come up in the scrapbook.     

There's also a freebie in my store, so be sure to head over and download it!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Do you have any suggestions regarding TPT?

Mathematically yours,
Miss B

Foldable for 8 Standards of Mathematical Practice

Happy Friday, everyone! My parents were just here for a short visit, so I took a few days off from thinking about the next year too much. We spent yesterday at the beach and had crabs for lunch today before they went home. It's always good to see them!

Last week, I spotted a blog post about journaling on the math standards. Unfortunately, I can no longer recall where I read it, so please let me know if it was yours or if you also read it and remember because I want to link back to that post! I knew immediately that I wanted this to be an assignment for my left pages in my Interactive Notebook.  That list of assignments now numbers 22 and you can get it here. 

In order for my kids to journal about the standards, they would need to understand them. Enter Sarah's awesome posters she shared yesterday.  I've put these into a foldable that my students will have in the beginning "reference" section of their notebooks.  Here are some photos.  Please excuse the quality; I need to build a larger light box if I'm going to be taking pictures of open notebooks. 

The outside of the 8-door foldable lists the 8 Standards of Mathematical Practice as they are written.  I cannot begin to count how many inservices and team meetings have been dedicated to these 8 sentences!   

"8 Standards of Mathematical Practice AKA What Good Mathematicians do."
Foldable on the right side of the page, writing prompt on the left.  

I know the kids will appreciate having the standards translated into "kid speak."  I put Sarah's simplified sentences inside the flaps and will have the kids illustrate what the standards mean to them.  Then, on the left side of the page, they will answer two brief writing prompts that will serve as a baseline for the year: 

1. "The standard that I demonstrate most consistently is #___ because..." 

2. "Standard #___ is difficult for me because..."

If the foldable would be helpful in your classroom, you can download it here.



How do you make your students aware of and accountable for the 8 Standards of Mathematical Practice?  

Mathematically yours,
Miss B

Solving Equations Pinch Cards

First of all, thanks to @druinok who blogs at statteacher.blogspot.com for motivating me to write this post (and being such a good encouragement on Twitter as well).  Follow me if you like; there's a button to the right now. -->

There was some discussion on Twitter tonight about response cards.  I can't stand fumbling and missing pieces, so individual cards are not for me!  I prefer a pinch card.  If you're not familiar with them, they are long thin strips of paper (like cutting an 8.5x11" into three vertical strips).  Answers are located along the strip.  These are general usually, such as A-D for multiple choice, True and False, etc. 

Last school year, one of my favorite uses for pinch cards was solving equations.  My kids were Struggling (yes, with a capital "s") with understanding which operation to do when.  I made simple pinch cards with the four basic operations, combining like terms (now "collecting" like terms for CCSS), and distributive property.  We would look at equations and decide which step to do first.  One or more students would explain their answers and we would reach a consensus.  Then we would work together to solve that step and use the pinch cards again for subsequent steps.  I kept it to the four basic operations at first and it worked well.  Then we added in the CLT and distributive property.  We had 100% engagement (and even if at first they were copying their response from a friend, at least they were putting effort into getting the right answer)!

Here's the file.  I recommend printing it double sided so you and the kids can both see what was selected.  Laminated cardstock would be your best choice for durability. I kept them in table bins but you could also punch holes and keep them in students' binders if you'll be using them frequently.




How have you used pinch cards or response cards in your lessons?

Mathematically yours,
Miss B
 

Weekly files! And a freebie!

You've seen the colorful file system that Really Good Stuff sells, right?  I try to keep classroom expenditures that the kids don't use down super low.  I'd rather spend my money on stuff they'll touch.

So, I decided to make my own!  I spent $7 on mine instead of nearly $49, for a savings of 80%. 

Here's what you need:
5 - 7 Magazine files
My magazine files are from Target's $1 bin.  They have these polka dots, a lime green chevron, and an aqua print.  You might only want 5 files if you just want one for each day of the week.  I chose to add one for "next week" so that I can prep things as I plan ahead.  I also wanted one for "last week" so that I can take my time filing if needed and be prepared to pass out extra copies of papers my students lost (not that this ever happens, haha!).    

Optional:
free printable (below)
laminator
paper trimmer/scissors, 
adhesive of choice

Steps:
1. Assemble magazine files.
2. Choose a printable and print it on cardstock for durability.
3. Cut labels from printable into 3x3 squares.  Mat with coordinating cardstock if desired. Laminate these squares for durability.
4. Attach the labels to the short side of the magazine files.  I used Glue Dots however tape or hot glue should be just fine, too! 

Note: for now at least, I'm not attaching them to each other.  If I choose to adhere them to each other, I'll cut a piece of scrap cardboard for a base and glue them to each other as well as the base. 

Here's the printable of the labels in several colors.  You may use it yourself, but please do not redistribute it.  Send people here so they may download it themselves.  Thanks! 


Mathematically yours,
Miss B

321 Exit Ticket

I just have a simple freebie to share with everyone today.  I'm using a 321 exit ticket as part of a project I'm putting together for my Master's.  The template came out cute and I thought I might save people some time if I shared it.  Enjoy!



If you've never heard of this kind of exit ticket, you simply give kids three categories or three questions.  I like things of increasing cognitive demand.  One simple one I could use for 8th grade geometry would be:
3- Give three examples of quadrilaterals.
2- List two polygons for which the area formula is A=bh.
1- Write one question you still have OR make and solve an area problem if you have no questions. 

Mathematically yours,
Miss B