Monthly Archives: September 2014

Reality Bites

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After teaching the same grades and the same subjects for the past four years I felt I was finally becoming a much better teacher.  I still had terrible teaching days.  And never did a day go by that I did not plan to make my lessons better for next year. 

But now I am new again.  New school, new subjects, new colleagues, new kids, new everything.  Subjects I’ve never taught.  And I feel pretty sucky again.  I am back at the beginning.  But it is worse now.  Because when I was sucky before, I didn’t realize how sucky I was.  But, after working so hard for the past four years to get better, and then actually having moments when I WAS better, I now know just how bad I am.  And it is killing me.  I am working non-stop to make it better.  But there are not enough hours in the day.  You don’t become better instantly just by knowing what it feels like and wanting it.  It takes time.  It takes time to truly know your subject and to curate your resources.  It takes time to develop an amazing lesson, much less an amazing curriculum.

I have to develop the lessons because I CANNOT with a straight face go in and teach this example for histograms.  I know it would make my life so much easier, but I CAN NOT DO IT.  I mean, I doubt any of my students even know what an MP3 player IS.  

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Also, middle school students give you their souls on day 1.  They are still little kids and they just trust you from the start.  But I quickly remembered that high school students do not.  You have to earn their trust.  You have to prove to them that you do care about them and that you will work hard for them.  Then they will trust you and work hard for you.  To earn their trust I work hard on my lessons for them.  I try to make it engaging so they will know that I care, I try to make it about them so they will be interested in the math.  So I do this instead, but it takes time. 

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Thankfully, I have a wonderful community of people that have been there before, and are willing to help me.  I don’t have to recreate the wheel.  (How did people even TEACH before blogs and Twitter?!?)  However, it still takes time finding all of these wheels and then tailoring them to my needs.  But I can’t even do this for every lesson for every day, and it’s killing me.  I need to sleep.  I need to be a Mom.  I hate being a perfectionist.  Reality Bites. 

Construction Instruction Booklet (Foldable)

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Yikes!  Constructions!  There are many steps to follow.  My students are working really hard but I felt that they (and I) could use a little reminder / reference guide for the most basic constructions.  I made a layered booklet foldable.  Each each page contained instructions for one construction with an example for them to construct.

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I love the layered book because of the way the information can be organized.  I made it half sized so it would fit in their composition booklets.  I made a ppt to show the students with folding instructions so I wouldn’t have to fold all of them myself.  Cutting and sorting them was enough work!

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I copied the instructions from the Math Open Ref site as it is what I have shown my students as we have done each construction.  My students and I have really enjoyed the videos on the Math Open Ref site.  The most ingenious part is the fact that you can select “auto repeat” so that the video plays over and over again.  I loop this video while I walk around helping students.  It’s a game changer.

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After the students used their notes (and the Math Open Ref site or me if needed) to finish all of the examples in the foldable, I glued or stapled it in the center, then they glued them into their INB’s.

I have included the Word and pdf versions of the file on Box, as well as the in class ppt I used to help them fold it.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Crappy Fiskars Compass Fix

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Thank you Fiskars for mass producing a truly CRAPPY compass and distributing it in big box stores.  

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Most of my students came in with this compass.  Right out of the package it is not tight and will not hold a measure.  Constructions are hard enough for beginners without this hurdle, and has kept me much busier helping poor students gently draw arcs than I should be.  I haven’t had time to even look at the compass to see if it could be improved.  I just assumed it was a plastic piece of junk (btw, it IS).  But today, one of my students said, “All you have to do is tighten the screw.”  Eureka.  And yes, I gave her a lollipop.  Bless you Jordan.

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First of all, you shouldn’t have to tighten the screw on EVERY LAST COMPASS right out of the package.  Second, I know it won’t stay tight for long, if at all.  Shame on you Fiskars.

But if you are stuck with this compass, at least you have a temporary fix.  

 

Geometry Chat is BACK! Tonight on Twitter at 9PM EST

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Please join us tonight for Geometry Chat at 9PM EST.  Geometry Chat will be held the first Thursday of each month.  Just follow the hashtag, #geomchat, to see all of the action!  Also, be sure to include the #geomchat hashtag when you reply so everyone can read your tweets.  This also ensures that the entire chat will be Storified for others to read later.  

Also, if you’re tweets are private, others will not be able to see your replies, so you can make yourself unprotected just for the chat, and the re-protect yourself after the chat is over if you would like.

We hope to see you all there!  

Geometry Construction Challenges – Compass, Patty Paper, and Euclid the Game

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First of all, Euclid the Game is an amazing Geogebra based construction game!  THANK YOU to @mathhombre John Golden and @mrhodotnet.  It’s fun, challenging, and teaches students the basics of construction AND Geogebra all at once for the (double) win!  I told my students that it was a problem solving game.   So I would not tell them what to do, and I would not tell them the answers, even if they BEGGED (and they did – it was awesome).  But NO, I told them that they would have to THINK.  This was great for some of my freshmen, who want me to explain everything to them, step by step.  I felt today was a giant leap forward towards becoming independent learnings and being positively frustrated problem solvers.  After a while I did help students who were still stuck in the tutorial.  But basically, they all figured it out, and begged to go on.  It was awesome.

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We do constructions by hand at my school.  We start with a compass, then throw a little patty paper into the mix.  (Fun fact – Most students couldn’t guess what patty paper was actually used for.)  I have never constructed before.  Ever.  Not only learning it, but teaching it was a huge challenge that first day.  But now I am in the groove.  Although I did seriously underestimated the skill and dexterity the smart notebook compass took to master, much less all of the nuances.  After two days of painstakingly using that damn thing, I am still not even close.  At one point I just grabbed a regular compass and (gasp!) an actual piece of paper and had students gather around me so I could demonstrate.  I also “sketched” a construction freehand on the board.  Sigh.  That smart board hates me now, but I do think it will grow to love me!  I’m persistent.  I would love to throw in some Geogebra constructions to the mix, and that is why I introduced them to Euclid the Game.  But right now I am just trying to keep my head above water.  My mantra?  “Keep swimming Dory!” 

I loved Euclid the Game because students were learning how to construct things that we haven’t done in class yet.  I did Euclid the Game after only teaching them copying a segment and an angle.  So, as I am introducing new constructions now they are saying things like, “Oh yeah, you just need to find the intersection of those two points!”  It really makes my job so much easier!  It’s also more fun for them because they feel more involved.  

Finally, I’d love to give an extra special thanks to Jen Silverman who made a Geogebra Geometry Constructions “crash course” for me (note: for teachers, not classroom use)!  She is one of the kindest and most giving people in this community!  Also thanks to all of the other amazing members of the #mtbos that sent links to my construction SOS call on Twitter.  Again, I can’t even begin to express how grateful I am for this community.  How did anyone ever teach math before Twitter?  Thank goodness I don’t have to!