Musings from Mrs. Galvan

I have gotten behind on updating my blog. I will get more into my excuses in my next post. I know I am almost two weeks late, but I must join the bandwagon of those proclaiming the awesomeness of Edcamp. I went to EdCampLA on January 17th and ended up leading two discussions. My most recent experience giving a session at a conference had been presenting at  UCLA Mathematics Department's Philip C. Curtis Jr. Center for Mathematics and Teaching Conference last February. It was a complete flop as I failed to consider that most of the attendees would not be lucky enough to work at schools with thriving 1:1 programs... #fail So, I was quite nervous when I ended up leading a session on student blogging. Luckily, leading turned into co-leading with my friend Jed ( @mathbutler ), which turned into a friendly discussion with a great group of teachers  across  the curriculum and one administrator.  I got to share my thoughts on blogging and show a few of my students' b...

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 ...

I have had "make fun review game for algebra kiddos" on my to do list all week. I have a few review games in my back pocket thanks to the Mtbos ( White-board stamp gam e , Solve-crumple-toss ,  zombie grudge , speed-dating ), but I wanted something new. In usual fashion, I procrastinated. I came in this morning thinking that we would play zombie grudge or have a color war , but instead, inspired by Rockstar Math Teacher , I used Socrative . In 15 minutes, I had a worksheet transformed into a Socrative quiz. In class, they used white boards and we did the space race option which randomly teams up the students. As usual, the winning team got to raid my prize barrel. I was genuinely surprised by much fun the students had with this activity. Who knew that watching your rocket ship inch its way across the screen could be so motivating? If you want a socrative that reviews solving systems, including special cases and word problems, import with this code: SOC-14218779

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...