Mathematical Share-a-thon

Wouldn’t it be nice if you opened your email and up popped a series of mathematical supports?

Let’s start the year off right. Below I have listed ten resources that I think every math teacher should be exposed to. Add them to your math toolbox and enjoy. Your task is to continue this share-a-thon. Take the time to write a quick email listing your ten mathematical resources and send it out to as many math teachers as you can (the more the merrier). Ask these teachers to then do the same. A little exponential growth would be a good thing.

Be creative and don’t worry if your resources are not web based, books are a good thing too! Can’t think of ten? That’s okay. The idea of this mathematical share-a-thon is to support one another in this sometimes lonely field of teaching. Let’s share the wealth we have stored in our file cabinets and join together to spread the joy of mathematics.

Katrina’s Ten Mathematical Resources

1. Mathalicious contains CCSS lessons which ask real questions in open-ended ways requiring students to problem solve and think critically.

2. Yummy Math provides teachers with real-life lessons to bring into their math classrooms. Concepts are explored that are interesting to students with the goal of increasing mathematical engagement, reasoning, critical thinking and communication.

3. Livebinders is a bookmarking tool with resources galore. Create and organize your own materials. Search through other professional binders to find math content sorted by tabs. All the research is done for you here. You just have to do a quick search. Try searching for “CCSS” and you will be amazed what comes up!

4. TeachersPayTeachers is open marketplace where teachers buy, sell and share teacher created resources. Creating an account is free and you can download resources for as low as $1.

5. Formulator Tarsia is a free software download. With Tarsia you can create mathematical learning activities (jigsaws, domino activities, card sorting activities, etc) to print out, save and exchange for classroom use.

6. NRICH is an online resource which offers free enrichment materials to help inspire and engage learners.

7. Pinterest is the latest crave in visual bookmarking. The teacher resources to be shared are too vast to name. Take the time to investigate this tool and you will truly be amazed at the resources readily available to you. Follow my Pinterest boards www.pinterest.com/theboss1000/ and I will follow you back. You can even collaborate with a colleague, like Lynn Dizazzo and I have....check our our boards http://www.pinterest.com/pendesk/

8. Teaching Channel is rich with mathematical videos, lessons and general teaching resources. This collection is a phenomenal showcase of effective teacher videos to inspire teacher learning and instruction. Check out the new videos related to the CCSS!

9.  Ole Miss Math Contest adds some worldwide competition to the classroom. Students use various mathematical skills to work through the challenge of the week for some friendly math competition. If they are lucky, they may even win an Ole Miss Rebels t-shirt.

10. 101 Questions is Dan Meyer’s latest mathematical creation. Dan posts photos and then poses his big question, “What’s the first question that comes to mind?” Great hooks for lesson starters.

Don’t forget to share your ten!

Even better share them on Twitter....I can be found @mrskatrinahall and @pendeskllc

Sharing a Light on PLNs

Reading through several Tweets and blogs I fell upon a fun way to connect with professionals, extend our PLNs and an opportunity to continue with the blogging challenge for 2014.  

According to the Dyslexic Professor @mbfxc, what started as the Sunshine Award (not sure what this award really is or was) has now become an opportunity for bloggers to share a little about themselves and learn about other members of the blogging community. 

So here are the rules...

• Acknowledge the nominating blogger (I was not nominate but inspired by @mbfxc)
• Share 11 random facts about yourself
• Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you
• List 11 bloggers. They should be bloggers you believe deserve a little recognition and a little blogging love!
• Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer and let all the bloggers know they’ve been nominated. (You cannot nominate the blogger who nominated you.)

11 Random Facts About Me...

1. I am not a morning person (which is odd since I wake up very early) and prefer to be more active at night.
2. My major in college was computer science but I decided to change (with only 2 classes left) to change to secondary education in mathematics.  Wish my advisor told me to stay finish the two classes and then continue with a teacher certification after.
3. I love great white sharks.  I do not scuba dive so going into a shark cage is not an option but I would like to see airjaws off the coast of Australia some day.
4. Summer is my absolute favorite time of year.  I couldn't live without it.
5. If I had not married and had children, I would be living on a tropical island.
6. I have had several pets in my life....fish, birds, rabbits, hamsters, dogs, cats and more  No large animals and no serpents of any kind.
7. Buying a new handbag makes me very happy:)
8. I have been a student for the majority of my life.  Starting from preschool right through  today as a doctoral student.  
9. I have been tracking the weather for some time to determine the best place to retire....California is out.
10. My Boston Terrier is a calming factor for me.  Whenever I have a bad day, playing with him helps me to de-stress and focus on the good things in life.
11. There are teachers who I have worked with in the past and work with now, who inspire me me everyday.  Thank you! 

Answers to the Questions from the Bloggers Who Nominated Me
Since I was not nominated I am just going to answer the questions which the Dyslexic Professor answered.

• Why did you start blogging? I find myself learning so much from other bloggers and feel as if it truly is a great way to share lesson, ideas, thoughts and reflections.   

• If you could possess only one piece of hardware, what would it be? I would surely keep my iPad.  This would let me stay involved in so many ways...social media, learning, friendships, etc.

• What was your favorite lesson to teach in the classroom? I love the unit on exponential growth which I extend into a project where students make a difference in the world.

• If education wasn't an option in any form, what would you be instead?  If I had to work  then I would venture into owning a small restaurant.  If I did not have to choose a "career" then I would be a beach reader for sure.  The beach and books are the best for me.

• What was the title of the last book you read for fun? And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

• What was the hardest lesson you learned? That mistakes are a mandatory process for true learning to occur.

• What is your favorite movie of all time? Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the Wizard of Oz

• What's your proudest moment? My proudest moments (I have three) is having all three of my children.  Nothing can beat these moments.

• Have you ever cried at a YouTube video? No....This sounds insensitive but I guess I have not seen the "right" videos.

• How do you explain your job to people?  My job is like a circus where I appear to be the ringmaster but the students are the true focus.  It is my job to guide them to show their talents and strengthen their recognition.

• What's the biggest prize/money you've ever won? Hmmmm.....I rarely win raffles or prizes but I did win a football pool a fews ago which was pretty funny since football is the only sport I do not enjoy watching.....sorry :(

11 Bloggers I Want to Know More About...

A few who I hope will start blogging...

1. Steve Capraro @mrcapraro 
2. Lynn Dizazzo @mrsdizazzo 
3. Amy Bouchard @msamybouchard
4. Susan Connelly @connellysue
5. Laura DeRose @hypatiahistory
6. Karen Coutu @karencoutu

Bloggers who challenge me as a learner and I want to know more about...

1. Julie Reulbach @jreulbach
2. Cathy Yenca @mathcathy
3. Mary Dooms @mary_dooms
4. Robin Nehila @Radical_Robin
5. Colin Graham @ColinTGraham
6. Denise Gaskins @letsplaymath
7. Leslie Nielson @InnovativeEdu
8. Patricia Hensley @loonyhiker 
9. Angela Maiers, @AngelaMaiers
10. Sandy Kinell @EdTechSandyK
11. Jacqui Murray @askateacher
12. YOU! (If you haven't been tagged yet, don't let that stop you! Write a similar post and tag some folks. Be sure to Tweet me and let me know you did it, or leave a comment below!)

11 Questions For the Bloggers I Want to Know More About...

• What made you venture in to the arena of education?
• What has been your greatest failure from which you learned the most?
• How would you transform education?
• What is one item from your bucket list that you have yet to complete?
• What is the best advise you would share with a new teacher?
• If you change one thing in your life, what would it be and why?
• If you could meet any individual in the world, who would that be and why?  (past or present)
• What aspect of education keeps you in this field?
• What is the most inspiring book you have read?
• What is one word you would use to describe yourself?
• What inspires you?

All original work in this post by Sandy Kendell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. 

Elementary or Not?

Have you read the 512 Ants on Sullivan Street by Carol Losi? This is very short, rhyming story which I use to model exponential growth with my 7th graders.  Yes, I use this grade 2/3 with middle schoolers.

Reading this corny (or at least middle schoolers think it is) children's book is an easy way to introduce the powers of 2 when it comes to ants at a picnic.  We read the story aloud with no breaks and no prior discussion.  Then ask why I may be asking them to read such a story in math class.  The reply is typically "because it talks about doubling."  We then take turns reading sections of the text as a student to models the number of ants which join the parade at each stage of the story.  Our natural transition is to create a table, look for patterns, graph the data, discuss our findings and make predictions as to what would happen if this trend were to continue.

We take this introductory lesson to the next level by utilizing Excel to create tables, write functions and to graph the data.  Adding extensions as to what would happen if the ants tripled or quadrupled is common at this point.  How might the data change if only 2 ants joined it at each stage?  Can students predict at which point the ants will be over 1,000?

Taking this discussion to real life is the best part.  We talk about when exponential growth may be a positive and when it may be a negative....a great tie into science, cell growth, and bacteria spreading.

This next stage is to take the focus from a negative (i.e. the spread of illness) to a positive.  How can WE use exponential growth to to make a positive change in the world?  This leads into a great introduction to a Pay It Forward movement where each student is just one individual who can complete a good deed to 2 (or more individuals) asking for nothing in return but to simply pay it forward to 2 others....spreading kindness:)

Students brainstorm ways to spread kindness exponentially and put it into action.  We blog during to hear about challenges they encounter, ways to finalize their ideas and hear about the progress.  Their final task is to create a final project summarizing their kind deed, the mathematics behind it (a table, graph, pattern, function, etc.), photos, and a reflection.

The movie Pay It Forward makes a strong connection for students.  However, I have a clean-films version which has been edited (beyond PG-13) for school.  You may want to preview the content prior to showing this movie to your students.

Taking on the Blogging Challenge

The start of a new year and I have yet again set the goal of blogging.  I am consistently following, reading, commenting and learning from others' blogs but have failed to be keep my commitment of blogging.  The goal is to make a schedulers time to blog....

Happily, I found a blogging challenge via Paula Naigle (@pinaugle) on Twitter.  Thank you!

In the trenches by Kelly Hines started a self initiated blogging challenge for folks.  The best part of this challenge is that she gives prompts for those who are newbies and/or have writers block....or is that now called bloggers block???

This is directly from Kelly Hines and will be my calendar to get started (again).

If you decide to take on Kelly's challenge then she has asked us to please share via Twitter, on her blog or as she says....somewhere.

Here we go again!

Math Autobiographies and Saving Paper

At the start of the year, I like to learn about the math backgrounds of my students.  In the past I would have students write their autobiographies (by hand or using the computer) and then give me a paper copy.  

Last, year I tried to be a bit more creative and gave students options of how they might want to create an autobiography.  Although the students were creative I feel as if it was a lot more work than was really needed for both the students and myself.  And it was a challenge to display some of the creative pieces because students had shared personal experiences.  As a result I had beautiful projects which I could not hang up.

This year I have reverted back to the typical format of the autobiography but in order to save paper students are uploading their work to my Dropbox using DROPitTOme.  This is free and very easy to use.  The only problem I have run into is that students have saved their documents using exactly the same file names.  This means this latest upload is saved and the previous work is "deleted."  Thank goodness Dropbox allows me to see and recover previous versions. If you are interested in using Dropbox or DROPitTOme with students make sure you ask them to save the document with their name within the file name. It will save you a great deal of work!

In the end I am getting exactly what I need and we are saving a great deal of paper in the process:)

Vistaprint for the Classroom

This summer I became addicted to VistaPrint.  First I bought a coupon for VistaPrint from LivingSocial.  I was sad to discover that I could not get the discounted values which VistaPrint offers when using my LivingSocial coupon.  But then I joined Vistaprint Ideas for Teachers on FaceBook and found out the there is a trick to getting the discounted prices and using the coupon in one transaction.  I then purchased a coupon on Groupon.

Here is the trick to the trade:
1. Go into VP through your Groupon link. 
2. Fill up your cart with goodies galore.
3. Enter in your Groupon code.
4. Go to your email and pick your best email offer from VP. 
5. Click on it and go back to your cart. It SHOULD combine the two offers. 


Here is what I ordered this summer:



Small Lawn Signs (without the metal stand):

 

Small Car Magnets:

 

Sad that I didn't catch the lowercase "is"

Address Labels:

Postcards:

 

Business Cards:

Small Rubber Stamp:

AND....I was able to choose two free items.  I think it can be a bit tricky to find the free items.  I actually had to do a search online for free VP items.  My free items included:


T-Shirts:

Pen:

Small Rubber Stamps:

Business Cards:

Flat Invitations:

I did use different email and mailing addressesto get multiple items....another trick.

First Day of Class

Our first "real" day of seventh grade math class is complete!

This year I began class with students watching the Pixar animation  "For the Birds."

Students were asked to watch the movie and then write about what they saw.  Students were also prompted to think of possible reasons as to why their math teacher would be showing this during our first math class. After writing quietly, I then asked students to share what they saw and possible reasons as to why I had show For the Birds.  Their responses were right on! 

Listening to one another, accepting one another's uniqueness, laughing with one another and not at one another, not making fun of others and realizing that if you laugh at somebody then sooner or later they may be laughing at your are all core ideas which they shared.