Musings from Mrs. Galvan

Yesterday's algebra class was great. We definitely fulfilled my goal of having more fun in math class. The night before last I had read an article linking curiosity with increased learning and engagement. Then yesterday's class illustrated that point perfectly. We are finishing up our unit on graphing linear equations. There are many resources available online to support this concept, so many that it was very difficult to choose. I used Dan's stacking cups . Me being me, I made a handout . I was so impressed by what seems like such a simple idea... a stack of cups... holds rigorous concepts that my students were determined to figure out. While they got that the lip height was the slope pretty easily, they wrestled with the y intercept. I resisted the urge to tell them and instead told them to measure total height for one cup, then two cups to be sure their rule worked. They were engaged for the entire class period. I heard kids debating the concepts. The curios...

My students have been working on graphing linear equations. We start off using intercepts method and then use slope-intercept. We started the lesson Not So Fast from Mathalicious as it was a great way to build from writing and evaluating expressions to interpreting slopes and rates. They give the fee schedule for determining speeding tickets and have students figure out fines for different speeds in different speed limits. They actually never graphed the equation on paper but jumped right to Desmos to compare the current speeding fine equation with their recommendation. I have said this before, but what I love about blogging in math is they get a chance to discuss their reasoning in depth which is a plus for open ended problems like this one. We could share aloud in class. That contribution  though would easily blend in with the class. Instead, by blogging, their polished responses stand for them to look back upon over the course of the year. Take a look at a few of their po...

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...

Algebra 1 Presentation Geometry Presentation

Today was my first Algebra class of the new year that was fun. I guess I equate fun with busy. It was a packed 40 minutes! One reason it was fun: we played the Whiteboard-Stamp game  (Thank you Lisa )...  ...and they got to work on their digital portfolios. Currently they are creating one variable word problems with a partner. Next week, I will assign other students to solve the problems created by their classmates.  Here is the prompt: With your partner, create a word problem with three subjects that is solvable with one variable. See pages 21 -23 of your packet for inspiration.  Be sure to solve it a few times before posting it! When you are both confident that your problem works, each of you will post it to your blog. 1. Creative Title 2. Problem that works (not too easy and not impossible) 3. An image 4. a link to your partner's blog Oh and the day was made EVEN better because our GAFE admin unlocked the chrome web store f...

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 ...