Homework - September 26th - Ratios

Today we learned about ratios in class. Ratios are a comparison between two (or more) quantities. For example, if I wanted to write the ratio of the number of shoes I have to the number of sneakers I have, I would write the ratio 5:2, because I own 5 pairs of shoes and 2 pairs of sneakers. There are two other ways we can represent ratios. We  can also write ratios as a fraction (5/2), or we can just write it out (5 to 2).

We can also represent ratios using a drawing. We call this a Tape Diagram.

The video below will help you with tonight's homework (9/26/2016). If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment and I'll get back as soon as possible!

Homework - SOLVE - September 21st (Step V/E)

Today we spent some more time with step V and E of solve. Remember that SOLVE is a set of problem solving steps that make it easier for us to solve challenging word problems. If you need to review the first two steps (S and O), click here.

Today we went over Steps V and E in class:

Step V (Verify your plan with action) -
Estimate your answer.
Carry out your plan.



We want to estimate what the answer might be so when we finally solve the problem, our answer should be reasonable (that is, it should be close to the estimate)

Step E (Examine your results) -
Compare your answer to the question
Compare your answer to the estimate
Is your answer accurate? 
Write your answer in a complete sentence

In step E of solve we compare our answer to the estimate to see if our answer is reasonable, and we also check our work (we can use the opposite or inverse operations) to see if our answer is accurate. Lastly, we answer the question in a full complete sentence.

The following videos should help with the homework for September 21st. If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I will reply as soon as possible!

Homework - SOLVE - September 16th

Today we spent a little more time covering the third step of the S.O.L.V.E. method, Step L. Remember that SOLVE is a set of problem solving steps that make it easier for us to solve challenging word problems. If you need to review the first two steps (S and O), click here.

Today we went over Step L in class:

Step L (Line up a Plan) -
Writing a plan in words with no numbers.
Choose an operation or operations.

The reason why we write a plan in words with no numbers is because doing this helps us focus on what the numbers in a word problem represent. In other words, when writing a plan, instead of using numbers, we use what the numbers stand for. 

The following videos should help with the homework for September 16th. If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I will reply as soon as possible!

Homework - Solve Step L

Today we went over the third step of the S.O.L.V.E. Method in class, Step L. Remember that SOLVE is a set of problem solving steps that make it easier for us to solve challenging word problems. If you need to review the first two steps (S and O), click here.

Today we went over Step L in class:

Step L (Line up a Plan) -
Writing a plan in words with no numbers.
Choose an operation or operations.

The reason why we write a plan in words with no numbers is because doing this helps us focus on what the numbers in a word problem represent. In other words, when writing a plan, instead of using numbers, we use what the numbers stand for. 

The following videos should help with the homework for 9/14 ~ 9/15. If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I will reply as soon as possible!

Homework - Solve Step S and Step O

We have been going over the first two steps of the S.O.L.V.E. Method in class. SOLVE is a set of problem solving steps that make it easier for us to solve challenging word problems. We have gone over the following two steps in class:

Step S (Study the Problem) -
- Underlining the question
- Restate what the problem is asking you to find (Do NOT re-write the question, but restate the question in your own words)
              
Step O (Organize the Facts) -
- Identifying the facts (placing a marker after each fact)
- Eliminating the unimportant facts (crossing out facts that do not help us solve the question)
- Listing the important facts (listing facts that are important to solving the question)


The following video should help with the homework for 9/13 ~ 9/14. If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I will reply as soon as possible!

This Year's Classroom

 

I found many mathematically-themed quotes online and I found the "How to learn math" poster from pinterest and used colored cardstock to create my own on the bulletin in the back of my classroom. Plenty of cool ideas. Bought a laminator and 3mil pouch paper and used recollections colored 65lb cardstock to decorate. The borders were from dkclassroom outlet and the background of each bulletin is fabric. I got the large letter blocks from Michaels and used magnetic tape to place them onto my whiteboard. I use a bath and body works fragrance plugin/throw to give the room a fresh scent.

Accountable Talk Cards

This year I am thinking about adding accountable talk cards to my reward system. I am giving students these cards to use at any time during the lesson.. The cards can be differentiated depending on what groups you want to use specific cards. I am going to increase their chances of receiving a gold token the more they use their cards. 

The idea is to increase engagement and have the students reach a point where they are actively using the language all the time. The two cards I will use are "I notice you..." in order to positively reinforce particular things (i.e. students using math terms/vocabulary like "numerator" or "denominator", or to point out a particular detail in the way in which they solved a problem), and "can you tell me why you think that?" in order to get them to explain. 

I have never taught with this sort of structure in place so I am excited to see how it turns out! I am sure the kids will be excited to use them as the power to learn and grow in math is now in their hands. Time to update that powerpoint.....

Summer School 2016!

Summer school 2016 is here! The students have been learning things they didn't really get throughout the school year, or brushing up on their knowledge of rates. In this video the kids are just taking turns quizzing each other using a book from Pearson on Ratios & Rates.

Summer Summer Summertime!

Wow, I haven't updated since March! The school year ended on a positive note and it seems like the entire year was a blur. My hypothesis is that the more experienced you become, the more you know what to expect, the easier things are to manage, and the faster the years go by.

This summer we've been using ratios and rates from Pearson for the first domain. I will probably pull resources from IXL or A-Net and even the 2016 released questions to count towards the student portfolios. This summer session is comprised of two groups of students. Some of whom I'm assuming did not do so well on the test, and the others whom just did not produce any work all year. Nevertheless, the days have been going fast (we're on day 3) and pretty soon it will be time for another vacation.

This summer my plan is to come up with a group-management system. I feel that when I group students, they fall into three categories:

A) Students that do all of their work all of the time and actually discuss the work and attempt to complete the problems (what I want to focus on this year and what I want my new system to address)

B) A group where one or two students produce work but they mostly work individually, and the third student does not produce anything or attempts to just copy from their group members


C) Students that do not produce any sort of answer or work, are heavily off task, and do not attempt to discuss the problem

The biggest part of the problem obviously stems from the fact that a large portion of students are far behind where they are supposed to be and simply do not understand the work or problem. And so, they shut down, tune out, or act out. However, I would be content if the kids made serious attempts to work together to try to at least discuss the problems and attempt to come up with a solution. I have been thinking about using the wheel as a template. Going to spend some time this month thinking about it. Stay tuned! P.S. - Kudos to you if you know what song the title of this post refers to!

The Pi!

So late but sooooo worth it! These apple pies came out great and I used graham cracker pie crust. Now I should get the students to use the recipe to find out how much of each ingredient we'd need to make apple pies for 2 classes....