Musings from Mrs. Galvan

Hello readers (all three of you)! I am so excited to announce my most recent pedagogical discovery. The key to learning new things is flashcards. I know, this discovery is cutting edge and innovative. Students make a card for every theorem or definition that has a diagram and/or a given statement on the front and the (correct) If-Then statement on the back. Then, they use the flashcards to quiz themselves or a friend. I know that I should immediately run out to publish my discovery in a journal. Maybe I should present at an upcoming conference? The world needs to know!!! All silliness aside, learning many new rules day after day is hard. They not only need to know the correct wording, they also need to master when to use each one so that they can correctly draw conclusions. In years past I hadn't required flashcards, but inspired by increased attention to learning strategies that are supported by cognitive science (read Make it Stick , you just have to), flashcards seemed t...

My 9th grade Geometry students are sitting in front of me, taking their assessment on right triangle trigonometry. I am confident that they are well prepared for the assessment and I feel satisfied because the work they did to learn the material was both rigorous, engaging and fun. My colleague, Mike, and I have for several years spent most of the 2nd semester running flipped classrooms. I tried a flipped unit for the first time back in 2009. Students watch a video, made by myself and colleague Garrett, that teaches them a new concept. They take notes on a handout and in theory, pause the video from time to time to do practice problems to self assess. I liked it because during class, students could get immediate feedback from their classmates or myself on tough problems. What it lacked was meaningful whole class discussions as students worked at different paces. Also, it was boring. This was my fault. I just handed them problem sets and walked around. I didn't take the opportun...

Have I ever mentioned that I used to also teach history? It has been since 2008, and I have always also taught math, but in my former life as high school history teacher, my classes played a variety of games aimed at learning vocabulary. They don't always translate well to math, but this one does, so long as the problems are short and can be done without paper. Step 1: Make a card set with the same number of cards as students (in classes with varying numbers of kids, some kids will hold two cards). On each card, write a question: Who has _____? Write the answer on another card: I have ____! Be sure to put a star on card #1. The last answer goes on card #1. Step 2: Explain the game to the students. Make them stand up when it is their turn. The first time will be slow. Not all students will be paying attention. There will be yelling... Assure them that it is normal for classes to not not quite understand how the game works the first time. Step 3: After 1 round, collect...

After two days of unbloggable lessons in algebra (lecture and practice with negative exponents), we finally had the skills to play a game. After our routine review of last night's homework, students took a skill quiz. They are getting used to the frequent assessments required by the shift to Standards Based Grading (though I did overhear, "Didn't we take an LTC yesterday ?"). By the way, I purchased a folder holder over winter break, which highly enhanced my reassessment system. Anyways, back to today. The kids love playing color wars . Once they are in groups, all I do is give problems on the document camera and run around the room. Class almost runs itself. I love the high energy, engaged kiddos, running around the classroom, good competitiveness, and overhearing kids discussing how to do math problems. I changed the roles a bit this time around. 

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 ...

I can't thank Kate enough for sharing Solve-Crumple-Toss . It was a hit last year with square root equations and again this year with writing linear equations. What I love especially is how determined they are to get the answers accurate so they can take a shot.This is a great way to review for a test and have class be fun. #joy I also heard, "Hey Mrs. Galvan, why do you have so many '90s songs about basketball ?" Link to handout - Copy each page on a different color and cut apart.

Last night I went to bed dreading my lesson plan for today's Algebra class. My agenda was going to say: 1. Go over homework 2. Notes: Standard Form Equations 3. Guided Practice: Standard Form Equations 4. HW: Worksheet on Standard Form Equations Even with my cute stories and getting kids to do most of the talking and problem demos, my plan would have made for a boring day in math. On the way to work this morning, I came up with a game. Since they already know how to manipulate an equation, instead of announcing a new form of a linear equation and lecturing on how to achieve this form, I gave them clues and made it a game. Students worked in teams of 4. Each team used a different color of 3 by 5 cards (hence color wars and it also made sorting the results easier). Each group member had a job (which I made up while my first period class students were turning their desks). I told them to rewrite the given equations according to the clues. After the 2nd one,...

Thank you to Kate for sharing Solve-Crumple-Toss . My students were focused on practicing, I got to do multiple, individual checks for understanding and they got to get up out of their seats. Win-win! I made a quick playlist on Spotify with basketball themed music to add to the mood of class. I didn't get any good action shots, but rest assured, there were plenty of jump shots, bank shots and even one baseball pitcher who consistently scored. I was happy that there was no gender bias in this game. Any edge that some of my basketball boys had going in was quickly reduced by bravado. :)

Unlike my inspiration for class today, Mr. Kraft , I love doing review games! But I do get bored by doing the same ones over and over.  My students got really into Zombie Grudge . I went low tech and wrote problems on cards, kept track of strikes on paper and displayed using the document camera. They were exposed to many different types of problems involving simplifying radicals and rationalizing denominators. Frankly, I think just using the mini white boards make them happy, but adding the elimination factor made it really fun. I was impressed by my students' abilities to have fun with this game without going too far and hurting feelings. Sure there were alliances and favoritism, but more importantly, there was fun and engagement. I try to have prizes for the winners on game days. Today the winners got to choose a prize from the grab bag. My grab bag is a bag of toys that my own kids (ages 2 and 4) get from the myriad of birthday parties we attend...

I have been enjoying reading Crazy Math Teacher Lady's blog a lot this year. This morning as I was perusing her latest posts, I read her post about speed dating as a way to mix up independent practice. I read her blog post at 8:02 am and my first algebra class was at 8:40 am. I scrambled to pull things together, I didn't do other things I was supposed to do, but I avoided a boring class. Here are the cards (I hand wrote answers on the back on one set). Students were invested in their problems. I started the lesson by talking about how speed dating is an efficient way for people looking for that special someone to have better odds at finding a match. Speed dating in math is a good choice for test prep in the same way as they will be exposed to a wider variety of problems and have the benefit of their classmates' coaching. For the how to on conducting this activity, check out Kate Nowak's directions here . Thank you Kate! The students really got into the dati...