Making graphing practice more interesting

This weekend I worked on a nice little project that will hopefully encourage my students to practice their graphing. The idea is for students to use dice to fill in the blanks for slope and y intercept and then graph in their groups on dry erase boards. I just used a sharpie and notecards, then laminated with my lovely laminator (best thing ever). I added a strip of color to the side to keep the sets of cards separate.

Happy graphing!

Factoring Game: Blend of block game/connect 4

First of all, let me say this activity is completely in debt to the great blogging world out there sharing there stuff.

Inspiration: Wanting a fun activity that gives students immediate feedback about being correct, with a little competitive atmosphere.

Topic: Factoring trinomials, a =1.

Background:

I've used Maria's block games frequently with great success. It is simply amazing to me how many more problems students will do in this format. Here is the link to her factoring block and exponent block games. I've used both of these, and she has others! I thought simple factoring would be an excellent way to adapt this game.

Enter: ilovemath.org's "Algebra Connect" game. The only thing I didn't like about the description was having a 3rd player as "ref". I wanted all students to be working and accountable, plus I made it for my lower level class and wanted everyone to get a lot of practice.

What do you know - the connect grid when cut up fits perfectly on the blank game board for the block game? All I had to do was write the answers on the back of the master, photocopy on card stock, and cut!

Set up for the game

Front of a piece

Back of a piece

1st Move

Notice I love the game boards so much I laminated.

How to Play (at least how we did)
1. Each player needs some sort of marker, I use the glass pebbles you see that I got at the Dollar Tree.
2. Player 1 rolls the two die, and goes to the column and row (4 - 5 would mean column 4 and row 5) and attempts the problem. They say their answer outloud and together with player 2, checks the answer. If they are right, they claim the spot. If they are wrong it stays blank.
3. Player 2 rolls and continues in the same way.

Goal: Can be whatever you choose - 4 in a row, most on the page.

I had some kids genuinely excited to play! And that's what counts =)

Thanks for stopping by! Link up with your own Monday Made it's

Group Supply Bins - 3rd time is a charm

Background:

This is my third semester trying some sort of group supplies. Finally I think I have found a system that stays organized.The keys I've found are:

1. Labeling everything. 

2. Duck-taping everything

3. Limiting most movement of the supplies. 

4. Velcro

This is what each group has at the end of each set of desks:. 

1. White bin of supplies

2. Trash can

3. Drawer storage for blank paper and lined paper. 

 Close up of the bins:

Each bin contains:
1. Scissors
2. Markers
3. Colored pencils
4. Glue (sticks and sponge)
5. Tape dispenser
6. Regular pencils
7. Highlighters
8. Handheld pencil sharpener

Each supply has its own container. Labeling this has helped immensely. They are velcroed to the bottom of the bin, so it can be removed. Trash cans are velcroed to the side of the paper storage container.

Where do I get these supplies?
1. Sales before school starts.
2. Donation requests at open house (I'm fortunate to work at a school where many of the parents want to support teachers in this way)
3. Older teachers who don't need supplies or are retiring. (That is where a lot of my scissors especially came from)
4. The Dollar Tree (group bins, trash cans, organizers in the bins)
5. Teacher Supply Warehouse - my district has a supply center that runs by donations where teachers can "shop" for free to get supplies for the classroom. Ours is very under-utilized, check to see if your area has one. They have many things at mine that don't count towards your "points" and are really free and that is where I get a lot of the extra paper that I let the students use.


All my groups are color coded, and the supplies have a strip of duck tape at the top to indicate what group it needs to be returned to. That has greatly helped keep supplies put away this semester. It is much easier to return it to the proper place and not have to wonder why the yellow group has no colored pencils.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Spring Semester Professional Goal

Background: Midway through last semester in the middle of my unit on factoring, I realized that my grading system was not working. I had been thinking about it for a while, and finally just made up my mind to try standards based grading (SBG) for my tests and see what happened.

I loved it. I think it was a hard transition for the kids in the middle of the semester, so my goal this semester is to be more organized about how things are graded and presented. Enter: my resource website.

Over the Christmas break I went through and decided on objectives for each of my units, usually 4-6 and made a webpage just for that unit. My goal now is to link to resources for each of the objectives so students have specific places to go to read practice problems, watch a video or two, and do practice that gives them feedback.

Many of these links are to the typical sites: Khan Academy, cool math, purple math, Regents, etc. But, I'm trying to eliminate that extra need to search and evaluate what is helpful so that my students can get the help they need quickly when they need it most. I think it will also help the parents know where to direct their kids.

Also, I'm not using the district website for this endeavor since we all know how quickly they will change platforms and then all my beautiful work would be gone. I'm using the free web-service: www. weebly.com which I find to be very intuitive and easy to change.

My main website: mrs-hester.weebly.com

View of Unit 1: http://mrs-hester.weebly.com/unit-1-one-variable-equations-and-inequalities.html