Hanging Wall Organizers for Absent Work

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Seriously, I cannot tell you how much this one idea has simplified my life.  The past two weeks, our school has been hit by a nasty cold bug AND strep throat.  I’ve have so many absent students!  But, with my hanging wall organizer for absent work I have been taken COMPLETELY out of the mix.

My dear friend Megan took me to the Container Store in St. Louis during TMC and showed me these fabric wall mount magazine holders.

I bought one for each subject I teach (6th and 7th grade), then I labeled each pocket for one day of the week.  The remaining bottom two pockets are make-up quizzes and returned papers for absent students.

So, when a student isn’t in class, I label their paper with their name on it and then put it in the appropriate day.  When they come back, THEY DON’T HAVE TO ASK ME FOR THE MAKE-UP WORK! 

I don’t to shuffle through my files (or my desk if I haven’t yet filed it) to find their work!  They don’t even ask me, they just go and get it!  Also, this way students can make-up quizzes during work times when other teachers are covering because they always know where  their blank quiz is.  AND, if I hand back graded papers when a student is absent, I just fold it over (so the grade doesn’t show) and put their name on the back of the paper, then put it in the holder.  They can get it when they come back to school.  If they are excited about their grade, they can even come in early morning and get it without having to ask me.  This has so greatly simplified my life.  I need more great ideas like this!  Thanks so much Megan!  🙂

Update:  The letters are from Target.  They are a pack of giant post-it letters for about $3.  To label the pockets, I used the Martha Stewart fabric labels that I got at Staples.

Join Us for “My Favorite Review Games” tonight, Sept 11th, at 9pm EST

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Tonight several math teachers will share and explain how to play their favorite in class review games! Join us live at 9 pm on Big Marker. You can ask questions or just come to watch!

Click the link below to join us!

https://www.bigmarker.com/GlobalMathDept/sept1

Amazing New Blogs – Week 3 of the Math Blogger Initiation

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I cannot believe that it is already Week Three of the Math Blogger Initiation!  Congratulations to all of the new bloggers that made it this far – especially this time of year!  The start of school is always the most stressful time for all teachers so I’m especially proud of the new bloggers that are still hanging in there!

Ms. Philosoraptor – Normalcurvasaurus

Ms. Philosoraptor has a blog named **Normalcurvasaurus**. The third post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **The Question“** and the author sums it up as follows: **This post is about students asking ‘The Question’ of ‘Why do we have to learn this?’ and what my response may be depending upon the situation.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **I have been lucky enough, or probably just do not have enough experience yet, never to have had a student ask me The Question (which ‘Why do we have to learn this?’ will be referred to from now on in this post).**

I liked the links supplied to articles in this post for “Why do we have to learn this”.  I also enjoyed the deeper explanations at the bottom for PreCalculus classes.  Sometimes students doing this higher level of math in High School lose site of why it is important.  Thanks for an informative post!

Matt Owen  – Just Tell Me the Answer

Matt Owen @_MattOwen_ has a blog named **Just Tell Me the Answer**. The third post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **Answering “The Question”“** and the author sums it up as follows: **This post is about what I plan to say to students this year when they ask “When am I ever going to use this?” Side topic: writing a post after you’ve just read someone else’s version of the same post.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **They answered The Question themselves that day.**

I enjoyed Matt’s though on focusing on predictions to answer the “Why do I have to learn this” question.  I especially LOVED his “preemptive strike” when he asks the students “Why did we do this?”  This is brilliance and I’m going to start trying to do this for as many lessons as I can!  Students always learn more and value it more when they come up with the ideas instead of you just telling them!

Nathan Kraft – Out Rockin’ Constantly

Nathan Kraft @nathankraft1 has a blog named **Out Rockin’ Constantly**. The third post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **PEMDAS must die!“** and the author sums it up as follows: **Every year I get a few eighth graders who insist that you always multiply before you divide. And you always add before you subtract. There is no doubt in my mind that the acronym, PEMDAS, is the culprit.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **They only remember PEMDAS.**

I “met” Nathan earlier in the week when he tweeted me and made me laugh.  I immediately followed him on Twitter, which led me to reading his blog post before I even knew he would be one of my new bloggers to host!  Thus, I was thrilled to get to host Nathan this week!  First, I share his PEMDAS angst.  Nathan, I went all GEMS two years ago and never looked back.  Second, I am a sucker for any singing, rapping math teacher.  You simply must head over to his blog post to listen to his “Distributive Property” song to “Teach Me How to Dougie”.  Nathan – I need a good decimal song and Sean Sweeney is having a baby this month.  Help!  🙂

Making Paper Airplanes

@makingairplanes has a blog named **Making Paper Airplanes**. The third post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **Memorizing Formulas“** and the author sums it up as follows: **Hundreds of years ago, St. Augustine hit the nail on the head when he despaired of the purpose of formulas. Something I need to work on this year is finding new ways to teach that don’t rely on me writing down formulas and students copying them. Knowing how to derive a formula and understand why it works is a skill that I have found invaluable, and hope to be able to pass it on to students.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **I want students to figure the formulas out – to be able to get to the answer the long way if they forget a formula on an assessment, to understand why the formula works the way it does and how to use it correctly.**

Written by 6th grade math teacher, this blog speaks to my heart!  I teach accelerated students who ALWAYS want the formula too!  This is the hardest thing for me to “cure” with accelerated students.  They believe in the strength of their calculation power and love to race to the next mind bender before every stopping to think, “Do my answer make sense.”.  I would love to brainstorm more ways to get student to slow down and think about the math, not just the formulas and the “right” answer.

Everything’s Rational

Vanvleettv @vanvleettv has a blog named **Everything’s Rational**. The third post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **New Blogger Initiative: Common Misconception“** and the author sums it up as follows: **This post covers a misconception that I learned is a tough one for some kids to get over in Algebra 1…and Algebra 2. It involves a special case in multiplying binomials.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **Last year I realized how much I didn’t know about how my students’ minds worked.**

First of all, you need to go and read this blog JUST for the kitten poster, “Every time you ‘distribute’ an exponent into a binomial…a little kitten dies.”  I love having students do error analysis so I’m glad that she blogged about it.  One of my favorite ways for students to do error analysis is through the “My Favorite No”, which I also first discovered on Kate’s blog.  It’s quick, easy, and your current student provide the errors so you don’t have to do “prep” work to find them.  It do this a couple of times a week with index cards.

Posts featuring all the others bloggers participating in the third week of the Math Blogging Initiation:
Julie, Fawn, Anne, Megan, Bowman, Sam, Lisa, John, Shelli, Tina, Kate, Sue

Favorite Math Class Games – MS Sunday Funday

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This week’s theme is Favorite Math Class Games.  Next week, the theme will be “Organizational Tips and Tricks”.  Also, be sure to tune into the Global Math Department this Tuesday, September 11th at 9pm, to see several teachers (including me) present their favorite math review games live!

Read the High School Sunday Funday Posts!

Also, grab the MS Sunday Funday logo at the top to link back to this page.

My Favorite Mega White Boards

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I have taught translating verbal models into algebraic expressions for many year.  However, with all of the new idea garnered at TMC and through Twitter, I really wanted to do something new this year.  I loop with 6th and 7th, and my 7th have had this lesson before.  I was sure they forgot some things, but didn’t want a vocab/lecture lesson.  I decided to use my Mega White Boards that I made after reading Frank’s post and ended the lesson with Cheesemonkey’s block game.  The entire day was a fabulous success, and I really can’t say enough good things about these giant boards.  They are large enough for students to work in individually AND together on them.

I had each group separate their board into 6 parts.  They put math symbols in each part.  I used addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, grouping symbols, and “turn around words”.  For each section, the had to come up with a word that expressed the symbol, a verbal model (word problem) and an algebraic expression.  Since it would be an algebraic expression, it had to have a variable in it. 

At first students picked which one they would do.  I heard, “I’ll do addition, you do subtraction.”  But almost immediately they were brainstorming to create the phrases together, especially on the harder ones.

The groups had a pretty easy time with the first four, but got stuck on the last two (grouping and turn around words).  I’m not sure who thought of it first, but soon all of the groups were in the “Student Center” searching for their Math Reference Notebooks that they made last year (win!).   I did not tell them what to look for, so I was very happy that they knew not only where to look but WHAT they were looking for.  Some students even found the Math Into Words poster on my wall!  Win!

After they were finished I had the groups come up and fill in the grid on the board (one group per grid).  We discussed their expressions and brainstormed more words.  Then, I gave them a new “Words to Math” graphic organizer to glue into their interactive graph books.

Finally, they were ready to play Algebraic Expression Blocking game from Cheesemonkey.  We didn’t have much time left at the end of class so I plan on breaking this game out again!

Dry Erase Index Card Necklaces

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I loved new blogger Bruce’s post “My Name is 6 x 7” where each student wears a multiplication fact (say 12 x 6) on a name tag.  Then, everyone calls that person 72 for the whole time they are wearing their multiplication name tag.  As soon as I read this, I knew I had to try it with my 6th graders!   Most of them are still having trouble with 9’s and 12’s facts.  My problem is they are only in math for 1 hour a day, so for this to be effective, they would need to wear their facts for a few days in a row in my class.  Since I didn’t want to use up 32 name tags a day (labels can get expensive), I came up with a dry-erase nametag solution.

Nora gave me the great idea in a comment on my Math Stations post about making necklaces out of index cards.  I laminated index cards, punched two holes in them, and then put string in them to make dry-erase index card necklaces.  When the students come in, they can write their fact on their necklace and wear it.  Whenever they speak, they must introduce themselves (ie – 12×6 would be called 72!  And whenever anyone speaks to them, they must call them by their multiplication name (72).

These necklaces are so cool that I am trying to think of other fun ways to use them!  Bruce said a teacher in his building puts longer problems on them.  I am thinking:

  • 10 x 10 x 10 on a card, their name is 10 cubed (or the other way around).
  • Turn the cards around so they are on their backs.
    • Put a vocab word on it and then 5 kids have to write an example on your card.  Turn it around and then see which ones are correct.
    • Write vocab words they don’t know so they can play, “Who Am I?”

That’s all I have for now.  But if you have a brilliant idea (and I’m sure that you do!), please leave it in the comments!

Amazing New Bloggers! Math Blogger Initiation, Week 2

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Congratulations to our new bloggers!  They are halfway through!  This week, I get to blog about 10 more new bloggers.  I even had time to write my comments about them.  I’m so sorry to my last week bloggers as I was an overstressed zombie and did not get to write reflections.  I am seriously in awe over how great these bloggers are and can’t wait to see all of the new material they create!

I was also assigned a blogger who stopped blogging and even deleted their blog altogether because of negative comments after Week 1 of the Initiation.  I am not sure who this is yet as I started my first week of school and did not get to read all 130 new blogs.  However, I am truly sorry that you had a negative experience.  Please know that we have all had negative comments and experiences, it is a part of social media.  But, it does not have to define us.  And, when you persevere, you will see that the many good comments and benefits will outweigh the bad.

Nutter Buttersmith @reminoodle has a blog named **The MathSmith**.

The second post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **Review Games by Students for Students“** and the author sums it up as follows: **I shared my review game project that I use to have students conduct their own exam review with games they create and implement. I included my description for the students, my rubric, my reflection piece, and some pictures of review games students have created.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **As exam review each semester (and this year, each trimester), I gave students a group project worth 100 points to come up with review games for each chapter that will be on the exam.**

My comments:
Remi is an amazing person who I adore for many reasons but especially because she crochets!  She has given me many great ideas this summer on her blog.  I love that she included such detailed instructions and all of her files in this post.  It makes the activity effortless to implement!  Also, she is posting a ton of blogs right now and will be around for the long run.  This is a site that you don’t want to miss!

Mr. Carby @NateilCarby has a blog named **Change over Time**.

The second post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **All Student Teachers Should Learn SST Procedure“** and the author sums it up as follows: **Most teachers assume other teachers know about the SST process. Most don’t. And the ones that do, don’t do it EFFECTIVELY. ** A memorable quotation from the post is: **If our job is to put students first, we need to consistent with that even if it means more paperwork in the process.**

Thank you Mr. Carby for bringing to light such an important issue!  Most teachers are not trained to handle these special needs our students have, especially if they do not have an IEP.  Being a student teacher can be daunting, especially if you do not know that you can get support from something like SST.

Lauren has a blog named **From a Math Class**.

The second post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **They Don’t Teach You That In School“** and the author sums it up as follows: **This post is about a first-year struggle with paper traffic. The system I developed for filing and staying organized is highly ineffective and causing me to lose my mind.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **It’s like trying to power my house with a potato.**

I love this post because I feel your pain Lauren!  In fact, you have inspired me to make “Organization” the Middle School Sunday Funday blogging topic after review games!  And I agree that there were so many things they didn’t teach us in “teacher school” that we really needed!

Kevin Krenz @kevin_krenz has a blog named **Rational Limits**.

The second post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **[NBI] Modeling Temperatures with GeoGebra“** and the author sums it up as follows: **One of my better lessons from my first year of teaching was having students model monthly temperatures in GeoGebra. Students had to struggle to interpret the different parts of their equations within the context. It helped trig become more concrete for them and gave me a more accurate measure of their growth. Next year I’m going to start the unit with this activity.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **The more that I grow as a teacher, the more I believe in teaching modeling with mathematics.**

Wow.  This blog is a must read.  Kevin is using Geogebra and Google Documents with his students for a fantastic modeling lesson.  Also, he has embedded every document he used into his blog with Scibd.  Don’t be fooled, this is no “baby blogger”.  Kevin is hi-tech and knows what he is doing.  Also, my favorite part of the entire post was his “next time” analysis.  You are spot on Kevin.  As I am always telling math candidates that I interview or watch teach, always start with the real world example.  It’s the hook, and students will love it!

Valerie Higgins @Valerie1121 has a blog named **Crafty Math**.

The second post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **Olympic proportions“** and the author sums it up as follows: **This exercise is an interesting review of proportions following the Olympics. It was slightly head-scratching–it wasn’t immediately obvious to students how to figure it out–but the logic behind it was automatically intriguing enough to provide a desire to figure out the true answer.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **And I thought to myself, “Self, this would be a fun exercise for the kiddos!”**

I love how Valerie showed us how Twitter gave her a terrific idea for her math class!  This is a great activity that she used to review proportions for the ACT, however as a middle school math teacher I am going to use this as a proportion lesson!  Thank you for bringing math to life Valerie and making it so interesting!

Jonathan Newman has a blog named **Hilbert’s Hotel**.

The second post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **An Assignment of Which I am (was) Proud“** and the author sums it up as follows: **I used to be a middle school teacher, but my classroom management was horrendous. I tried so many different things, and because the students knew I didn’t start the year being strict, they ate me up alive and nothing worked. However when we did this activity, the students were so silent, you could hear a pin drop. We played Coordinate Battleship!** A memorable quotation from the post is: **Most things about middle school I don’t miss, but getting to capture their attention through a silly little game where they are learning mathematics and don’t even know it is one of the little things that I do miss. **

Jonathan blogs about Coordinate Battleship in a way that I have never played it with my class!  He has the whole class play together.  I thought that this was fascinating and especially loved how he had them say “Parenthesis, three, comma, negative four, parenthesis”.  In middle school they often forget the parenthesis when they first start writing the coordinates.  When I have the students play Battleship, they do so in partners.  However, some partners mess up but it is hard to catch with so many games going on at the same time.  This ensures the entire class is learning it correctly.  Also, I love the “Torpedo” tie in at the end and wonder if my students will realize what a slope of 0 will do! 

Bruce Ferrington @BruceFerrington has a blog named **Authentic Inquiry Maths**.

The second post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **My Name is 6 x 7“** and the author sums it up as follows: **We used labels on all the kids to help practice and remember some of those harder multiplication facts. Children spoke to their friends as “49” and “56” – they really got into the swing of things and hopefully some of these times tables facts will be retained!** A memorable quotation from the post is: **For the day, all kids in Year 4 were given a sticky label with a multiplication fact written on it – this became their new name for the day.**

Bruce knocked it out of the park with this lesson.  What a great way to make memorization stick!  I teach 6th grade and they have such a tough time with their 12’s.  I am going to do this on Tuesday (and maybe all week!)  Thank you Bruce for such a fun lesson!

Matt Owen @_MattOwen_ has a blog named **Just Tell Me the Answer**.

The second post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **I Love My Google Site!“** and the author sums it up as follows: **I’m pretty darn proud of my class website. I’ve put a lot of work into it, and I kinda want to show it off! I also just want to put it out there so I can get feedback.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **My website is really the vehicle that is allowing me to make a run at standards based grading and a flipped class model.**

I knew I would love this blog with I saw the Rick Astley reference and proceeded to get “Rick-rolled”.  LOVE.  I am with you Matt, I am really proud of your Google Site!  This is something that I have always been interested in doing, and after reading Matt’s post, I may have to actually try it!  His Google Site looks amazing and I love how he is using the Google Forms as well!

Rachel Rosales @rachelrosales has a blog named **PurpleProntoPups**.

The second post for the Blogging Initiation is titled **Something to be proud of“** and the author sums it up as follows: **This is a RAFT (role, audience, format, topic) for systems of equations. It allows students to have some choice in their final product, while demonstrating knowledge of the “big picture” of systems of equations.** A memorable quotation from the post is: **Since a lot most almost everything I use has been stolen from somewhere, this was actually a difficult prompt to respond to.**

Rachel posted a RAFT on Systems of Equations and asks for our help in helping her improve it.  I am especially proud of Rachel for this blog post.  One of the most difficult things to do as new bloggers is to open up our lessons for critical viewing.  But, it is also one of the most helpful!  Please visit this site and help Rachel make a great project based lesson on Systems of Equations even better!

Update: Posts featuring all the others bloggers participating in the second week of the Math Blogging Initiation:

Julie, Fawn, Anne, Megan, Bowman, Sam, Lisa, John, @druinok, Tina, Kate, Sue

Homework Policies – MS Sunday Funday

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This week’s theme is Homework Policy.  Next week, the theme will be “Favorite Math Class Games”.

Read the High School Sunday Funday Posts!

Also, grab the MS Sunday Funday logo at the top to link back to this page.

My Favorite Friday – Food and Sleep

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Yes, I know it is Saturday.  But that is because my favorite thing I did this Friday was SLEEP!  I have been averaging about 3 to 4 hours of sleep every night this week.  For a solid week, I have been going to bed by 11pm, but I have been waking up at 3am or 4am and cannot fall back to sleep.  After an exhausting first week, I came home and tried to go to sleep immediately.  Unfortunately, my husband needed me to run an errand with him, so I didn’t make it to my bed until 7:30 pm.  Then, I slept straight through until 8am this morning.  I feel like a different person today.  I FEEL HUMAN.

My other favorite thing this week was freezer meal lunches.  Thank you so much to my beloved @cheesemonkeysf for this idea.  For the last month I have been putting yummy dinner leftovers into plastic containers or freezer ziplock bags and storing them in the freezer.  In the morning I just grab a container and go.  At lunch, I have a wonderful, hot, filling, delicious, home made meal.  When you are running on 3 hours of sleep a night, there is nothing better than a yummy lunch that you DON’T have to prepare in the hectic am rush to get to school.  We almost never eat all of our leftovers so this is a win win!

Have a great first few weeks to all of the wonderful teachers out there!  🙂

Advisory – MS Sunday Funday

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This week’s theme is Advisory.  Next week, the theme will be homework policies.  There weren’t many posts this week.  I’m not sure if many schools do not have advisory (I was asked by several teachers what Advisory was on Twitter), or that we are just in CRUNCH TIME with school starting tomorrow!

Read the High School Sunday Funday Posts!

Also, grab the MS Sunday Funday logo at the top to link back to this page.