Musings from Mrs. Galvan

The following post can also be seen on Chalkup . I stand at the door of my classroom, greeting my 6th period algebra students as they peel themselves from the herd of middle schoolers thundering down the hallway. As my last student makes his way to me and we exchange hellos, inside the classroom, students are already taking their binders from their enormous backpacks while continuing their conversations. Without prompting, their conversations shift to discussing the homework. “Hey did you get number three?” asked one student to her seat partner. Before her partner can answer, another overhears and eagerly jumps in to point out what she did in order to get number three correct. On the other side of the room another student, the appointed classroom manager, takes her completed homework to the front of the room where a document camera is on and ready to project. Seeing her, students quiet. She asks, “Does anyone have any questions?” Hands shoot up and a student requests to see nu...

Inspired by Sam's Attacks and Counterattacks , my lesson on medians and altitudes was much more student centered than before.  To begin class, I showed this image and asked students to work with their partners to write an if-then definition for median.  After, they passed their paper to another pair with a new goal to try to draw diagram that fulfills the definition before them but that clearly isn't  a median. Some definitions weren't specific enough (omitted the word triangle or "from the vertex").  While others assumed that all triangles would be equilateral and hence that a median bisects the triangle. I walked around and helped students who needed help thinking of ways to disprove faulty definitions. Then the papers were returned to their original owners for them to improve their wording. I gathered student responses and together we agreed on a definition to add to our flashcard deck: "If a segment is drawn from the vertex of a triangle...

Using this video for a trajectory lesson in my algebra 1 class today and tomorrow as a 3 Act. Start video at 1 minute in. The shot happens around 1:55. Pause the video after the jump, then resume for Act 3. See below video for Act 2 Image. Does anyone know how I can edit a video found online? TIA. :) KMSP-TV

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...

There are many lessons in Algebra that in typical math teacher fashion, I just love . Wind-Current rate-time-distance problems are one of them for me. Usually I present a few examples and tell a (true) story of how I have used this knowledge outside of my math teacher role... in my real life... out in the REAL WORLD! They ooh and ahh. They question that I have a real life. *sigh* They listen attentively to my telling of how on two separate occasions I have won the Half-way to Hawaii game. I don't know which airlines play and which do not, but every time I have flown to Hawaii, they play the game of finding when the plane will be half-way there. The captain gives you the rate of the plane, the distance, the time the plane took off and the rate of any tail or head wind. Of course, there is an element of chance involved in the game. Speeds aren't constant the entire flight, but I use my algebra skills to make my educated guess. I have been lucky to win twice. My students are e...

Any lesson that ends with eating cookies is a winner. We scratched the surface of the Double Stuffed Oreo questio n today in my Algebra classes. We made the double stuff assumption, solved the system and tested it with the Triple Double data. Multiple students said things like, "I'm questioning my entire childhood!" Oh drama. #middleschool My handout. We really  just scratched the surface of this. I am in awe of how thoroughly this question has been investigate by... Chris D . Chris L . Dan A. Julie Nathan

Last Wednesday was fun thanks to an early morning lesson reboot. Usually in Geometry I give the following directions on a review day:  "Do these review problems with a partner and ask for help as needed."   Instead, I copied the same problems on separate papers to quickly make a game of Solve Crumple Toss (it went well in Algebra ; again thank you to Kate  for the idea). The goal, reviewing key topics from chapter 4 (diagram-less proofs, detour proofs, perpendicular bisectors, coordinate geometry, oh my!), was the same. The execution made for a much more engaging, dare I say fun, class. Today's reboot was not last minute (go me!), because earlier this month I saw Julie's blog post about Jessica's Dance-Dance-Transversal idea. Then Justin tweeted that Kate posted the power point and I was set! I love the Mtbos! Anywho, the kiddos had fun dancing and everyone knows their angle relationships. I am no longer feeling bad about my geometry ...

My algebra students are finishing a unit on writing linear equations. Their culminating project is an experiment. They balance special cups outfitted with pipe cleaner hooks over a strand of spaghetti. Then, they carefully add pennies to the cup until the spaghetti strand breaks. They record the number of pennies and repeat the experiment with 2, 3, 4 and 5 strands. They use the data to explore the concepts of a scatter plot, best fit line, writing equations, slope and intercept. They will use their equation to make predictions and consider how thicker spaghetti or heavier pennies would affect the experiment. The energy in the room today was great. They love trying to see who can get the most pennies. Today definitely fulfilled my ongoing goal of having fun in math class. #joyful Here is a video of students conducting their first round: Here are two examples of their blog summaries (these are from last year): Carolyn Sidney

I remembered last year's reflection on this lesson at 5am. I heaved a sigh, skipped a shower (tmi?), skipped making coffee and quickly made a few small improvements. Normally, I ask aloud for students' shoe size and height in inches (I am still in search of reliable questions to ask students to illustrate direct and indirect variation; please share!). This year I made it a google form. Loading... This didn't take long and was an easy way to add a bit of variety and 1:1-ness to my lesson. Around 5:30 am, I made a discovery that was a real lucky break: You can paste a table into desmos and it will plot the points! Amazing. I am sure everyone else already knew that as I am famously late to knowing things, but this really made my day. I was going for indirect variation by plotting extra curricular hours and hours of sleep. Students confessed to not sleeping because of other reasons... go figure. :) The rest of my lesson was the same as before. I have b...

So I am reading Elizabeth Green's  Building a Better Teacher which in part discusses a style of teaching math in which students get to talk through concepts rather than taking notes while teachers stand and deliver. The teachers doing this call it "This kind of teaching" or "TKOT." I like David Wees' summary of TKOT here . Also, my pedagogic goals have focused in recent years on engagement. As such, I am striving to play more games and do more problem based learning (PrBL) tasks in class. Thank you MtBos ! This means that my brain is aflutter every night at bed time. I can't fall asleep until I make a mental plan to improve my plan for the next day. Overall, I haven't been getting a ton of sleep, but my lessons are improving. However, I am still struggling in two areas. One, I am overwhelmed by possibility. I get stymied by the sheer amount of materials available online. Though a lot of the lesson I find are good to illustrate a concept and not ...

So last year I began making a concerted effort to have fun in class... and while I made clear progress on that front in Algebra, I have been less successful in geometry. Yes, my geometry students create digital portfolios and complete engaging projects and tasks . Yes they use geogebra .... ...but we don't play enough. It is quite evident that they desire to do so. I have a handful of students this year in geometry that had me last year for algebra. These kids are wondering when we are going to play zombie grudge and I am giving them lessons that look like this: That agenda just screams fun! Remember my excuse to be boring though. With our school's schedule I only have 135 class sessions that are 40 minutes each. That has to cover a rigorous proof based course (We use Geometry: for Enjoyment and Challenge ) and allow time for assessments. My colleagues are regularly confounded that I have any  time to blog, use geogebra, or generally do anything other than te...

While I was not officially trying to start a 180 blog... more like I was planning on blogging occasionally, I still take a photo of my agenda everyday and photos just need to be published. Hence, my thought to blog occasionally became a secret goal to blog daily, or almost daily. This wishy-washy goal for blogging resulted in almost a month of zero blog action. I can't just blame the weak goal setting - like all of us, my free periods are spent helping kids, planning, meeting, eating, making lists online, making lists on post-its and especially implementing standards based grading for Algebra. Things have improved on the SBG front. I used to grade assessments a page at a time. Now I grade one student at a time which I think helped to make grading the unit 2 tests go faster. But because part of my plan involves frequent skill checks that need a quick turn around for grading and because I am still learning how to use Active Grade, I can't call myself an efficient Standards Base...

Last week was busy in Algebra. I realize that I haven't written much about Geometry this year, so perhaps soon, but for now, I am happy to relay that my 3 Algebra classes are going well with one complaint: Standards Based Grading is taking a lot of time. Grading is always the "one thing" that teachers tend to wish they didn't have to do. Often I hear, "I love being with my students, but the grading is killing me!" I love seeing progress and seeing what they have learned, but like many teachers, I too wish it would happen faster. This year, it seems that I made it take even longer with my choice to give standards based grading a go. Maybe I am doing it wrong? :( Here is my method: I keep a spreadsheet  with students' names down the side and the skills across the top. Each time I see an error, I mark in the appropriate skill column. Then I consider the number of errors vs the number of opportunities and give each skill a score out of 4 (which for the u...

I am still saying that I won't blog very often, yet I find myself with an extra hour this Friday afternoon, so why not sum up the week? Well, maybe just today. Today in Algebra we went over last night's homework on evaluating expressions and solving linear equations then we reviewed solving equations containing fractions. It was a short lesson followed by practice. They learned these skills last year in pre-algebra but are in need of a wee bit of practice. Then they took their first Learning Target Quiz on which they sought to demonstrate... I can follow the order of operations. I can manage arithmetic of positive and negative whole numbers. I can attend to precision by being careful in my work and reading (no transfer errors, no dropped signs, legible handwriting, follows directions).  I just got done checking them and converting their "scores" into my rubric... 0 Undetermined I left the problem blank or wrote something completely unrelated to ...

It is summer.... finally... I am writing this sitting, in shorts and a T-shirt, in my kitchen while one kid naps and the other is on the Ipad (#motheroftheyear, #learningapps). I finally feel relaxed and have a bit of time to write about my year. I assigned my students to write reflections, so it is only fitting that I write one too. So here is the prompt I gave my students to guide their reflection. Responses varied greatly. Some did the bare minimum and some wrote detailed, insightful commentaries on their year. One kid even mentioned that he learned to value process over product. I nearly fell off the couch with joy. As for me, I feel like I have a lot to polish . I want improve my prompts, rubrics and system for grading and giving feedback. I had many a late night trying to grade every blog post and write something of value to each student. I did an okay job, but the time it took still didn't merit what I felt was mediocre feedback from me. There has a to be a better, sprea...