Taking Risk can = Temporary Failure

 

                What do you do when you plan an activity and it is EPIC failure?  When you try new things in the classroom there is a HUGE risk that there will be lessons that fail, COUNT ON IT.  I created this amazing, YES AMAZING activity.  My student aide cut it up, my intern teacher helped but it in the Ziplocs, and I got the activity ready.  Somehow we mixed up the bags.  IT HAPPENS.  Always have a back-up plan!!  This is just part of teaching life.

 

                After AGAIN sorting the bags I was ready for the activity.  The next day the activity went off without a hitch.  This is a matching the quadratic attributes to include:

                                                Standard Form

                                                Graph

                                                Roots

                                                Factor Form

                                                Vertex

                                                Axis of Symmetry

                                                And vertical shifts.

 I loved the math talk and watching all of the pieces of a quadratic fall in place for the students.  Check out my TpT store for this activity. 

Shhhh I love LISTS!

How do you stay organized? 

This is always a struggle for me.  Here is my dirty little secret…….I AM A LIST MAKE….there I have admitted it.  I have tried multiple ways to keep my list where I can 1) use them 2) not lose them 3) NOT PUT TO MUCH ON IT.  For years I used a calendar but as my district has gone to outlook calendar that was to redundant for me.  I have tried multiple apps to do a to-do list but I have to admit I hate them.  I need the satisfaction of marking off or physically removing them.  The past year I have used a journal and this worked well except I always had more to do than I could get accomplished so I felt defeated.   

 

After must (ok way too much) thought I figured out I could always get 6 things done a day.  That was doable without being overwhelming.  So I came up with this chart.  I love that I can remove the stickies when I am done.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE the colors (shhhh do not tell anyone I love creative cute things).  I did laminate it to hold up to daily use. 

 

There is a copy of this for FREE in my TPT store.

 What do you do to stay organized?

Are you addicted to Task Cards yet?

 Kill and Drill..... I was asked if I believed in kill and drill in math class.  My instant reaction was "No of course not"  I know that this is the evil in math classes.  But when I thought about it and I admit had sleepless nights pondering this.  I do not believe in mindless worksheets and do the same style problem over and over.  BUT  and this is a BIG BUT I do believe that working problems until you have the basics down is critical.  You can not have critical thinking problems unless students have the basics of that topic in math.

The question is how do you get students to complete multiple basic problems?  Enter TASK CARDS.  These can be used with any style questions but I have been using them when I want students to really practice basic problems.  The students love them because they get to choose their grade.  There are 40 cards and this is the grading system I use.

The students LOVE that they get to choose their grade.  I love that most of my students made the CHOICE do try for a 100.  That means they did 40 problems in less than 45 minutes.  Think about this what would happen if I had given them a 40 problem worksheet? These are the task cards for this day...

These are basic "naked math" questions but before we can do critical thinking they have to be able to do them.  Here is how I am using task cards...

• Students work in pairs 
• They can choose the grade that they want.
• Students complete the problem on white boards and then bring it to me to see if they are correct.  If they are correct GREAT they get the credit.  If there is a mistake the student has 2 choices.  1) go back and correct the question and if correct they still get credit.  OR  I will explain it but the card does not count.
• I have done these multiple times and it is ALWAYS amazing.  The students speak math, fully engaged, and LOTS OF PRACTICE.

This is a WIN-WIN for me in the classroom.  

Check out my TpT for a free set of these.  EducatorJennTPT