#Made4Math Monday

So this isn't too mathy, but it's a cute AND EASY way to make a scarf!  (Plus, it's called an infinity scarf, so that counts, right?)

I saw a friend of mine at church wearing a green scarf yesterday that I loved... she said that she had made it (and she's not crafty) and had found the directions on #pinterest.  So this morning I rounded up a couple of old tshirts that I knew would never be worn again and gave it a shot.  (Just so you know, I chose not to use my favorite NKOTB shirt from high school. Gotta save it for 80s day at school!  Or 90s.)

It's really easy. You cut across the shirt to cut off the arms and cut along the bottom to get rid of the hem. Then it's just a matter of cutting horizontal strips about 1" wide, leaving a margin of an inch or so.

Once you've done this you pull on each loop, which stretches it out and curls it up. Gather the non-cut section together, tie it with a piece of the shirt (I cut it from a sleeve) and voila!  Done.  These directions might help you out a little more.

Here's my girl with a finished product:

And because we had time, we ran over to the closest Goodwill store to buy a few more shirts (pink, orange, green, and blue). Can't wait until they get out of the dryer so I can make some more!  (I've got this one in mind, too.)

I'm not a scarf-wearing girl, but I think they look so cute when other people have them on!  I think it's all about having the confidence to pull it off.  I'm going to give it a shot tomorrow!

#Made4Math: Trig Stuff

We're at the point in Precalc where I'm going to start expecting the kids to *know* the values on the unit circle. Some of them won't put in any more time than we do in class (and it'll show) but many of them will spend some time learning those crazy ordered pairs.

I have a few things that I give them to help out a bit.

1. Trig Wheel of Values
A colleague gave me this a few years back and I think it's a lot of fun. It's a great way to turn a degrees angle into radians and review its ordered pair. And it's cute!

You start with two circles (one with degrees, one with radians and ordered pairs). When you assemble correctly you can see an easy conversion from one to the other. If I happen to get to the store, I usually pick up some of those brass brads to stick through the center to keep the circles together.

2. Today in class we played Around the World (remember playing that in 3rd grade?) with sin/cos/tan values. I let the kids reference their unit circle, but that'll be the last time that happens! I put the cards together on Quizlet, then embedded the deck on Schoology (our online environment). Here's my deck:


3. I'll probably put the Finger Trick for Trig out there for the kids, too. Seen this one?


If you're interested in any of my other random precalc stuff, here's a link to some stuff I put on box.net a couple of years ago. It's not greatly up to date, but it's someplace to start!

#Made4Math Monday: iPad apps

A couple of years ago the principal at my school decided that she wanted to get a test group of teachers to try out the iPad in the classroom.  (I blogged about it here and here.) After some issues with the first one I was given (issues being that I dropped a bowl on it) I was given another new one last spring.

At that time I wasn't quite sure what to do with it but have since discovered a few uses in the classroom as a teacher-organizational tool.


1.  Three Ring (yes, I used it as a #Made4Math earlier this year)

I love this app as a way to keep track of my SWHHW slips for kids who don't do an assignment. What's even better is that since then they've added parent access.  You enter the parent's email address and they receive notifications when I add something to their child's account.  It's not just picture-taking, either. You can also take a video or add an audio file.





2.  GoodNotes
I've been grading 2 - 3 problems from the Precalc assignments on an almost-daily basis this year. My problem is that when a kid turns in a homework late I'm not sure which ones I graded. I just bought this app ($4.99 in the iTunes store) this weekend and plan to use it to keep track of what I'm grading for each section. I can set up notebooks for each class and within each notebook have a notebook for each chapter.  Here's what it looks like so far:

This is my precalc shelf with an example picture (because you can take pictures of things to pull in your notebook... or import a pic already on your iPad) and my Chapter 4 notebook.  (They have cute designs for the front of the notebooks!)

Within each notebook you can set up pages. You can either write or insert text, highlight, move stuff around, etc. The dark part at the bottom is a movable "hand guard" that gives you a place to rest your hand while writing.  So far I'm pretty pleased with it!

3.  Explain Everything

I've made some "talk throughs" this year for my Algebra 1 and Precalc classes right before a test or quiz. They request certain problems (from a review, usually) that I make a screencast for and work out for them.  The last time I did these I found this app called Explain Everything ($2.99) that was very easy to use.  It's pretty similar to Educreations but what I liked most is that you can record yourself talking through individual slides, then the app will save them all together as one file.  So if you mess up one little thing (not that I would ever do that!) it saves you from re-recording the whole talk. This is one that I made for my Algebra 1 kids who can't add or subtract a fraction to save their lives.

I also recently discovered the finger swipes on the iPad (this is an iPad 3, I think) to scroll between apps without having to go to the home screen first. Awesome.

And this isn't so much school related, but I'm in a couple of fantasy football leagues so I also have both the Yahoo and ESPN app for those. :)  It's all about your priorities, people.

#Made4math: Exit slip update

I posted earlier how I was using exit slips in class now (in my general level Alg1). The kids just accept it as something they need to do and I don't give them their assignment until they've turned in their slip.

I have three bins out for the kids to turn their work into; a green, a yellow, and a red (see this post).  I ask them to put their paper in green if they're confident in the answers, yellow if they're not sure, and red if they have no clue.  Several people have asked me if the kids actually do this (or if there's a "stigma" attached to the yellow/red) and I'm happy to report that they do!  That doesn't always mean that the green results are good or the yellow/red are bad, but it's about the kids' confidence level with the material.

These are a couple of yellow submissions from today.  The top paper was pretty good and just messed up one of the negatives (on #4) but she didn't have the confidence to go green. The bottom is a student who struggles and needs a few days to get most concepts... yet she "kinda" gets this.

The great thing is that I use my exit slips to help focus attention on the kids who I know need it. Tomorrow I'll be sure to reassure student #1 that she's doing great and sit with student #2 to work through more problems.

I don't return the papers to the kids and have seen the idea of creating a laminated exit slip to use over and over again... I may go this route if I can be sure the markers (or whiteboard crayons, since I have some) will erase easily.

And for a REAL #Made4Math:  I'm pretty darn proud of this google site that I set up for my precalc kids to do some fractal explorations.  I showed them some of the PBS Nova video in class on Friday and they were disappointed that we didn't have time to watch it all!

Organization (#Made4Math)

I found a new website on Friday that I'm going to use for my #Made4Math submission (and this is just a total coincidence because it's a Monday and I was typing this today!).

I've been keeping track of students who don't turn in assignments using Hedge's SWHHW form.  But after having the students fill out the quarter-sheet piece of paper, I wasn't sure what to do with them.  I'd been throwing them in a little crate with the idea of one day sorting them to go so I could talk with parents at conferences about why their son/daughter wasn't doing their homework.  But you all know they were never going to get organized!

Until I saw an app called Three Ring.  It's billed as an app to "Quickly and easily digitize student work and build the resource for authentic assessment in your classroom."  I guess you could use it to take pictures or videos of student work/performances so you have evidence?  Anyway, I'm using it to take pictures of each of the forms the kids fill out (using my iPad, but I think you could do it on your phone, too), and then I can assign it to an individual student (or class, if necessary). It's searchable by student or class.

Here's the link to Three Ring in the app store.

#Made4Math August 13

How did it get to be August 13th already?! So much to do, so little time.

I finished up my room last week at school so I'm hoping to not go in this week. There's definitely stuff I could get done (like copies and such) but I'd rather spend time with the kids doing fun stuff. As long as they're not fighting, anyway.

So my #made4math today is the sticker I made for each of my kids. Last summer I bought a couple of packs of Avery shipping stickers. The Avery website has templates that you can pick from to create your stickers, one of which includes a QR code generator.  I typed in the information that I wanted on it, printed, and voila! Stickers.

I passed them out to the kids on the first day and told them to stick it on their school-issued planner. Last year I kept a blog for each class and had the QR code go there; this year we're using a platform called Schoology so that's where the code goes.

I don't think too many kids actually used the QR code (or knew what it was until I told them) but some of the more techy ones thought it was pretty cool.   Dan Bowdoin just posted on his blog some neat ideas to use QR codes in the classroom that I'd like to try.

#Made4Math August 6

I admit it. I'm crafted out.

Two weeks from today I'll be reporting back to school (for two days of inservice) before the kids come on the 22nd... at this point I'm starting to think of more concrete things that I want/need to get done before school starts.

I started with revamping my first-day google form (that I linked to here). I thought it would be fun to add some pages to it so that it would take the kids to different questions depending on what class they were in. After doing this I discovered that I didn't really have different questions to ask, but I went ahead and changed some wording. Like, instead of "List the teachers you've had at Anderson" for the precalc kids, I put "List your 8th grade teacher" for the freshmen. I know. Probably a huge waste of time... but it gave me some practice with the pages option!  My new survey is here.

I found out on Wednesday (thanks to @mseiler) that my Integrated Algebra 1 (which isn't Integrated... it's just the name for our General class because they didn't want to call it General) is going to be 7th period. Seriously?  I think the general classes should all be held in the morning (before the kids have really woken up!) and definitely not 7th period. Oh well. This just reinforces my ideas to use Warm Ups, INBs, foldables, and exit slips. I want to keep these guys as busy as possible so I don't have to hear the constant whining about how hot it is in my classroom at 1:30 pm everyday.

Things on my to-do list:
1. Polish up my class syllabi.
2. Do a layout of what order to do Honors Alg 1... should I leave in the Chapter 2 basics?  @druinok (I think) mentioned a post on Math Tales From the Spring discussing what to start the year with.  I have trouble teaching adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing positive and negative numbers with my Honors Algebra 1 kids. Maybe I'll do a 2-day boot camp and throw in fractions.  (Though I like to do a "Fun Fraction Friday" review with them every week too.)
3.  Get the even answers to summer precalc work on their Schoology page.
4.  Check with @approx_normal to see what she does with her SWHHW no-homework page.
5. Find things to do the first couple of days at school that don't involve the INB. I'd rather wait until after the first weekend to make sure kids have time to get a composition notebook.

A few things to take note of:

• If you're a middle school teacher, check out Julie Reulbach's blog. She posted a survey as well as a Middle School Sunday Funday idea
• If you're a high school teacher, please fill out Lisa Henry's survey.
• Megan Hayes-Golding is rocking the INB. Her newest post deals with what to do with homework... and that pesky LHP problem.
• Sam Shah put together a welcome site for new math teacher tweeters/bloggers. If this describes you or you're considering tweeting/blogging, please check it out.

Olympic stuff:

• Just watched a guy do a hammer throw on the Olympics after spinning around a bunch. Wonder what his angular and linear velocity were?!  Might have to find a clip for precalc; here's one from the 2004 Olympics.
• A (non-math) teacher friend just posted this link on fb about how many feet Usain Bolt would've beaten previous 100-m Olympic gold medalists by. I'm thinking that I'll need to re-do my 400-m world record times activity that I use in Precalc for linear regression. What a great update!

Sorry this isn't really #Made4Math-y (if you don't count my revamped gform).   I'm all over the place tonight. Must sleep.

#Made4Math Monday (an update)

I stopped by school today just to drop some stuff off and ended up staying for a couple hours trying to fix my blackboard (which I posted pics of yesterday and just didn't like).

I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out now!

I started by taking down all of the wrapping paper that I'd put up. I found some forgotten border in my closet (some of which is pretty cute) and sectioned off a part of the chalkboard to use as a place to write assignments. We'd stopped at a nearby KMart where I found the colored tape. Now I'll just need to find my chalk holder - I hate the feeling of chalk on my hands!

Then I put up the yellow paper (the type from the big roll in the paper room).  I surrounded it by a cute red border with yellow pencils that I'd found at Walmart on one of my shopping trips ($.88).

I finished up with an orange section, again surrounded by a border I'd gotten at Walmart for $.88.

The natives (aka my 5- and 8-year old) were getting restless, so I had to leave the last section of board to finish up next time I go.  But I'm much happier with how it looks now, and I can even use the boards with their magnetic capabilities (see the clips attached?).

Many thanks to all of you who commented on my last post with ideas!  :)

#Made4Math July 30

(Had to switch from putting the week number because I've totally lost track!)

I have a couple little things this week to show off (not that I'm trying to make up for missing last week or anything!).

First, I bought some modge podge (which spell check doesn't like at all!) and made some magazine-wrapped feather-topped pencils. In the meanwhile, my daughter took care of a small can of Pringles, so here are my fancy pencils in their new little home!

I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the big black chalkboard that I never write on in my classroom. @druinok suggested I either cover it with a fun fabric or wrapping paper to help liven it up. The kids and I went in to school a couple of weeks ago and I did the wrapping paper thing, but I'm not sure I'll keep it.

I definitely need to re-do the middle section; that roll was a little too short! I'm either going to leave it blank but separate into three sections using border or put up some plain paper separated by border. Today I made some letters out of my fun scrapbook paper for each class.

I made big (3"- 4") letters in word using the Ice Age font, cut them out, traced them, and then cut those out. It took me a little longer than I thought it would despite - or because of - my two helpers, one of whom is still figuring out the cutting straight lines thing and really can't do curves. But she wanted to help!

I may run up to school today with the kids to get my letters up and figure out what to put them on (plain paper or no paper at all).  I also need to stop at the DMV and get a new driver's license... mine disappeared somewhere in St. Louis last weekend!   Oops.

It's #Made4Math Monday!

Around 10:00 on Sunday night I started thinking about what I could do for this week's #Made4Math Monday. I know, I know - what's the hurry?

I did some searching on Pinterest, which led me to a blog where they showed making magazine holders out of cereal boxes. We certainly have plenty of cereal boxes around here (although they all have cereal in them!) and I have a large stack of composition notebooks on my dining room table that will need a home in my classroom. That sealed the deal for me.

I had to empty one of the kids' cereal boxes (No, I did not eat it - this stuff is nasty! Just put the bag in the cupboard where it will either go stale or get eaten by one of our dogs.)

Then I did a little measuring. The site I'd seen said to keep the box at least 5" high in the front and out at least 3" at the top.  I cut some of the height from the box because the composition notebooks are kinda small.

I ended up using some scrapbook paper that I'd bought this summer for projects such as this! I picked out a few pages that have the same color but different pattern so all of my boxes will color coordinate. (I'll need to empty some more cereal boxes for that! But I have time.)

To attach the scrapbook paper on the box, I used a little glue gun that I have. It looks like there's something called mod podge which would work well, too. I sealed the edges with some clear tape.  I'm so not a crafter, but I think this turned out pretty cute!

#Made4Math Monday (Week 2)

I had a lot of ideas running through my head after last week's post. First, I thought I'd steal @druinok's pringle can idea.

Luckily I have several friends who eat Pringles on a regular basis (saves me the calories!) and we're willing to share their empties. Add in some cool duck tape and voila! Pretty storage cans.

My plan was to go to school on Friday and get a bunch of stuff laminated (because I love me some laminating!). Luckily, I called first and checked to make sure that I could get to it; because of some painting they're doing in the media center the laminator wasn't accessible.  Boo. 

So this week I'm going to go non-creative and share what I put together last year when trying to do some planning for Precalc.  For the first time I'd given summer work to help me avoid having to spend weeks reviewing Algebra 2 topics once school started.  So then I had to go through the first chapter in the precalc book to figure out what had been reviewed and what needed to be.  

Here's what I've come up with for my first two chapters (working on chapter 3 + was on my #summerlist!)

Here's what I'm giving to fill in some of the holes...

Here's the rest of my chapter 1 stuff... still trying to figure out what exactly I want to do this year!

#Made4math Attempt #1

A few days ago there were some rumblings around the twittersphere (thanks to @druinok and @pamjwilson) about bringing craftiness into the math classroom.  A challenge was sent out for people to make something and post a link to it on Monday.  I'm hoping that's not every Monday (as I'm sure I'll run out of ideas pretty soon) but I thought I'd give it a shot.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a whole lot of time today to throw much together. One idea I'd had, though, was to post the "Be Less Helpful" phrase somewhere in my room so that I remember to do it (it's such a struggle for me not to give in and make the kids do some thinking on their own).

So here's what I came up with:

It's a $3 frame with "Be Less Helpful" in Raditad font (which you can find here).  I printed it in red, yellow, and green to remind me of the stoplight idea I'd like to try to use in class this year (more on that later.... or you can go to Simplifying Radicals to read about it).

I might decorate the frame a bit (my 5 year old picked out some glitter glue the other day at the store) but for now that's all I've got.

I'll try my best to come up with something better for next week... maybe using that fun scrapbook paper I bought today?