Arthur Benjamin & Inspiring Math

 

There are many things that I find difficult about teaching, but two of them are planning for a substitute teacher and inspiring my students.

1) Planning lessons for a substitute is really hard for me! I stress about whether my directions are clear enough, if the students will have enough time or if there will be extra time, if the substitute will even read my plans, etc.

2) Inspiring my students. Math gets a bad rapport with many students long before they ever enter my classroom. Many students have already decided that math is too hard for them, that they'll always be poor students in math. And I so desperately want to show them that it doesn't have to be that way! I believe that all students can learn - more specifically, all students can learn math! But helping them believe that for themselves is something that I struggle with.

So when I found this video by Arthur Benjamin, I was really excited - Arthur is interactive, inspiring, and he loves math! What more could a math teacher ask for?! I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did.

While I was away with the 8th graders in D.C., I left this video along with a response sheet for my 7th grade PreAlgebra class and my Geometry classes. Here are a handful of responses from my student when asked about inspiration. Hopefully I can build on these!

• “The number patterns are really cool and how they build upon each other. This shows us how amazing and diverse everything is and how immaculate God is for creating this."

• “I am not only inspired by math, but also my teacher. Having a great teacher (Mrs. Gosnell) helps the students to learn more math. You rock!”

• “Doing math inspires me to think harder and inquire different angles and viewpoints of life’s many situations and decisions."

• “Math inspires me to learn the world around us. By learning new equations/problems in math, it inspires me o learn about problems in the world around us.”

• “Mrs. Gosnell is an inspiration to me. You can see clearly how much she loves math and wants to share her knowledge with us.”

• “Personally when complex concepts all of a sudden click, I find it really cool. Also how things become so complex is really neat.”

• “I love the patterns in math. Fibonacci numbers are a perfect example of this. Patterns are inspiring.”

• “Math poses a challenge that one must strive to overcome. It inspires one to think critically and creatively and find patterns between numbers.”

• “The challenge of going through the hardships of finding an answer.”
  

Race for Inequality Graphs

This is an activity to help my kids to practice recognizing the graph of an inequality solution. I love "kill and drill" practice disguised as an activity; I love it even more if I can get them up and moving around the classroom. This short activity does both.

Materials:
--3x5 notecards
Prep:
--Copy one inequality solution onto one notecard - I cut mine in half for this part. Copy the inequality graph on a separate notecard. (I have 5 students in this particular class, so I've made 10 pairs.)
--Tape the graphs around the classroom with masking tape.

Game Time:
--Pass out two solution cards to each student.
--Students are to find the inequality graphs that match their solution cards. I'm planning to have my students check their first match with me before moving on to their second.
--The first student to find both of their matches wins!

Short and sweet :)

Math Toss and Pair-Share

In an attempt to procrastinate on my lesson plans a little bit longer, I've decided to blog about a couple of simple math "activities" that I do to keep my class a little more interesting. I say "activities" in quotes because they're not full-blown projects or even games necessarily. I just use them to try to make math problems less boring. As much as I love math, handing a student 15-20 equations and saying "You learn by doing!" is torturous, so here we are :) (I may have blogged on this first activity already... I'm not sure).

Math Toss - I borrowed/stole this activity from one of my favorite professors, Mrs. Rachel Pool. It can be adapted for several different types of problems, but I used it most recently for solving and graphing inequalities.
*Problems are given on the board. I provide 2-3 different problems and assign rows of students to do each one. They still work independently, but this gives me the opportunity to go over more than one problem after the activity.
*Students work on a half sheet of paper and are told to solve the inequality but do NOT graph (yet). When they finish, they crumple their paper into a ball. (They begin to get restless and excited at this point!)
*On my count, students are allowed to throw their "ball"... at me. I should probably be concerned that they get SO excited about throwing something at me, but I just go with it!
*Once they've tossed their ball, they come up and retrieve one (my mantra here is "It doesn't matter who it belongs to or if it's your own. Pick one up and go back to your desk"). When they get back to their desk, they check the work done and then graph the inequality.

Pros: Students are having fun and doing math, need I say more?  Students get out of their seats. Students practice evaluating someone else's work.
Cons: Students get caught up on, "Whose problem is this?" Without clear direction, they can get out of hand when throwing but I'm fairly strict in my directions so it's not usually a problem.

Pair-Share - This can also be adapted for several different types of problems. I'm using it this week with Greatest Common Factors.
*Each student makes up their own _______. For GCF this week, it will be a random number (with reasonable parameters given).
*Students are to pair up with another student and find the GCF of their two numbers.
*I usually have them pair up with a different student after this for more practice.

Pros: Students work together. Students "create" their own problem. Students get out of their seats.
Cons: If what they're supposed to make up is too complicated (perhaps an algebraic expression), it can be confusing when they pair up.

That's all I have for now... I suppose I'll have to actually finish my lesson plans now :)

Back to School

School is finally underway and our lives have been crazy busy for the last couple of weeks! I was so thankful that yesterday was Friday, but I also found myself thinking, "Where was Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday?!" I felt like I blinked and it was the weekend again!

The first day of school for CCA (my new school) was September 4. I was so ready to meet my students and finally get started! In all of my classes, I spent most of the first day telling students a little bit about myself, learning their names, encouraging them to get to know each other, etc. Many of them have been going to school together for awhile, but they were several new faces as well. For the students new to CCA, I told them that I was learning right alongside them and we would figure it out together. The first thing I noticed about my students is how polite they are! So many of them say "Thank you, Mrs. Gosnell." or "Have a great day!" as they leave my classroom. It's so sweet and I was very impressed! My favorite part of the first day was after school... At least five people (including our Head of School and my Principal) stopped by my classroom specifically to ask how my first day went. It was such a sweet blessing!

I spent the second of class going over my expectations - what I expected of students in regards to behavior, how they enter and exit the classroom, grade requirements, etc. We also worked on a post-it activity where students had an opportunity to share what they expected of me! Here are some of my favorite responses for students' expectations (direct quotes):

• "Frequent here-and-there math games..."
• "Fun, not that much homework, helpful, give candy!"
• "To make sure no matter what I know everything about Geometry I need to know."
• "Not to give us busy work but more of the stuff we need to know. You (I know you will) make us all feel equal. Love us 4ever (and ever)!
• "93% or above on a test as a class average = ice cream party. Not to be strict, but just enough to make us learn but still enjoy class."
• "Helping us actually understand geometry. Don't give up on us please!"
• "Every day we will learn something new. Help us study. Reasonable amount of homework."

I have my work cut out for me :) My kids are great and I'm truly enjoying getting to know each of them. We have an awesome school year ahead of us!

Life Numbers

I teach the Math portion of an SAT class on Tuesday and Thursday nights. It's a two hour class, so I try to do a "Brain Break" about half way through. Yes, I know it's a cheesy name - I teach Middle School, give me a break :) (Side note: Any time I do something weird "I teach Middle School" is a great excuse!) Anyways, I used for our first "Brain Break."

Life Numbers...
1) Think of three numbers that are important to your life. A special year, a jersey number, the month of your birthday, number of times you've been on a certain vacation, etc.
2) Write your name and those three numbers on one side of a note card. Write their descriptions on the other side.
3) I pick up the cards. Then I read the numbers and descriptions in no particular order. The group has to guess which number matches each description.

Students seem to like it and it's a great way to learn a few things about the students!