Musings from Mrs. Galvan

Desmos is reason enough to lobby your school for a 1:1 program. I had my students make their own Desmen , or Deswomen , exactly how Fawn directed her students , with lines and parabolas only. We had 20 minutes of class time. Some finished their faces in class, others did a little more. They turned theirs in via their blogs. Check them out: Sirus Claudia Will Keon Opal Brandon Bella Brigid Bryce Kelly

I have used this prompt for my kiddos' math blogs for two whole years and I really like it. They are to research a create their own RTD system word problem. This works really well as a partner project in which they edit a google slides file together. We are a 1:1 laptop school, so I am able to give them bits of time during class for partners to collaborate, though I do start the assignment with nearly an entire class period dedicated to researching and writing. Learning to work backwards to write a math problem is challenging for my students. During day 1 I am circulating, hovering really, questioning their work before they publish. Samples : Carly      Brigid      Bryce Here is the prompt: For this Blog post, you and a partner will research and create an RTD problem that requires a system to solve. You may choose to do a problem with wind/current speed, round-trip, total distance or one person catching up with the other. Look ...

One take away from reading Nate's post yesterday was that perhaps I need to blog more about my average (or merely passable) teaching moments. Perhaps I will receive some awesome feedback and I'll be able to upgrade these average days to awesome? Or perhaps I'll just be putting forth a more complete version of my teacher identity, demonstrating that I don't " operate in a  bloggable  state at all times." Honest, real blogging will surely bolster the mtbos , though it adds the whole surplus of blogs problem... Nonetheless, here goes: Recently I overheard kids chatting in the math department with their computers open. To my delight, they were sharing their math blogs with one another and discussing their favorite posts. Funny enough, several of them shared that their favorite was the concept summary poste r on the different forms of a linear equation. I created this particular assignment because I wanted them to clarify all three forms of a line. I also wan...

So every summer I make a grand, dream to do list... ...then every summer reality sets in with this dilemma: I want to spend time with my kids and take care of my home (where regularly during the school year, mystery sticky spots on the counter remain for weeks). So the annual question becomes how do I balance my ambition to increase innovation in the classroom and spend quality time with my little ones in a (sorta) clean house (I read Lean In ; I know I can't really "have it all"). Arg. I am (again) running out of time. What should I focus on? Here is the list: 1. Study for and retake the GRE s (my scores have long expired) and start applying to grad school. 2. Plan more PrBL tasks and games for Algebra and Geometry, even more, I want to get better at encouraging students to own the process and ask the questions and discover the concepts (less lecture... oh but what about all those videos I made to flip my classroom a few years ago. Blended learning environme...