Teaching scale drawings always seems like a fun, activity based concept to learn. But what makes it really important for students is that it helps them apply proportions in a real-life way. When they really understand scale drawings, they are also that much better at solving and understanding proportional relationships. I already talked about how I chunk out the learning targets for this skill here. And I’ve shared in an earlier post about my first experience teaching with a discovery lab. Now I’m excited to share with you the discovery lab and foldable notes I used to teach scale drawings and proportional relationships. [Read more…] about Teaching Scale Drawings through Discovery
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Using I Can Statements in a Math Interactive Notebook
When Common Core became the standards a few years ago I was also introduced to I Can statements. I was taking some graduate classes at that time for instructional design and we were learning about lesson objectives. The common wisdom is that lesson objectives should have what students would be able to do at the end of the lesson and be measurable. Then, I heard about I Can statements. What struck me as important was how they were written from the point of view of the student. This was very intriguing to me, but I didn’t know what to do with it.
[Read more…] about Using I Can Statements in a Math Interactive Notebook
Teaching Scale Drawings with I Can Statements
Scale drawings are a relatively fun topic to teach. Students grasp this concept more easily than some because it is very visual. Today I’m going to share with you how I teach scale drawings using “I Can” statements as my guide. [Read more…] about Teaching Scale Drawings with I Can Statements
Christmas Trivia Game for the Secondary Classroom
One of my favorite school memories came from a high school chemistry teacher right before Christmas. Every year, he hosted a science themed Christmas trivia game. And it was a big deal. Classes competed against each other. Everyone looked forward to it. He really made it a special event. The questions were challenging and yet somehow (loosely) related to the science we were studying.
With my own classroom, I wanted to create a similar experience. A few years back I found the addictive trivia game Wits and Wagers. It was so much fun to play with family and friends, and I realized that it would make a great holiday game in my classroom. [Read more…] about Christmas Trivia Game for the Secondary Classroom
Christmas Math Activities: 5 Ideas for the Week Before Winter Break
We all know that the week before winter break can be hectic! It’s so tempting to pop in a movie and call the last day or two a movie day. But in the middle school students often have 6+ classes and watching movies all day can create their own set of problems. Students get silly. Parents get annoyed that all their kids did was watch a whole bunch of random holiday movies. And we’re giving away a chunk of our limited instructional time. So, if you’re looking for an alternative to the Christmas movie, we put together this video to share 5 Christmas activity ideas to consider: [Read more…] about Christmas Math Activities: 5 Ideas for the Week Before Winter Break
