Humble Brag

So this is kind of a big deal….

The String Theory High School Algebra 1 was named one of the best courses of 2014!!!!

This is huge and I think I have earned the right to brag because we put in so much hard work to create the course. We made this course in our first year teaching in a 1:1 iPad school and it is wonderful to be recognized for our hard work. We also made it on the top chart  on iTunes and have 10,000 subscribers world wide (that is nuts).

I am happy to know that people are liking our course and the content we are creating. It is so funny to think about a teacher in another state (or even country) using our materials in their class to teach their own students.

End of Year Reflection

Now that we are approaching the end of the year, I am looking back on my last two years teaching at String Theory and can’t believe how much I have learned. I have been thinking about how much I have grown as a teacher while working at String Theory in particular with the use of technology in the classroom.

The school I previously worked at was an urban high school that seriously lacked technology. Most of our teaching was by using overhead projectors and one set of classroom textbooks. Going from this method to 1:1 iPad was  a huge transition. After surviving this transition, I feel that I have become a better educator.

One of my greatest achievements this year was planning the sophomore class trip to Gettysburg. This was a huge undertaking, but I am glad that I took on this challenge. The trip is coming up and now I am getting excited. I think the trip will be a great experience for myself as well as for my students.

One of my biggest challenges from this year was revamping the iTunesU courses my team created last year. We had to go through all our old materials and update/edit them and also make projects and activities better. The best example of this was the FBI project that I posted about previously. Last year, I had 5 suspects and all students completed the same problems. This year, I expanded it to include 10 suspects and each group investigated different suspects.

Money Money Money

This year, my class had the privilege of partnering with a great organization called SILAF. SILAF stands for student investment lab and fund and we have the opportunity to learn about financial literacy and the stock market. This was a unique opportunity because we were not using pretend money to invest in the stock market, we used real cash and the students got to learn about different stocks and make decisions about what to invest in. The money comes from the various donors recruited by the organization. We invested in Apple, Starbucks and Activision. The lessons that we learned we aligned to the common core and the students learned a great deal about stocks and investments.
The best part is with the profit we can go on a class trip to celebrate our success. Our plan is go take the students to the Philadelphia Zoo and for lunch to celebrate.

Chaperoning Fun

This year, I volunteered to be one of the chaperones for the freshmen semi-formal dance, and it was a great time. I helped the organizer, the lovely Ms. Cammisa-Cantz decorate the ballroom before the students arrived. The dance was at the Sheraton Hotel, which is conveniently located right next to our school. The kids were dressed to the nine and looked fantastic. Me and my fellow teachers had a goal to photo bomb as many student photos as we could (we were extremely successful). Here are some great pictures from the night.

 

CSI in the Classroom

Nothing like a good criminal investigations to liven up geometry. I am super proud of this project which I introduced last year to my geometry students and revamped it this year for my current class.

The basic premise is that teams of students will work to build a case and present their findings to the court. Hopefully, they are convincing enough to win the verdict. Students are given the location of crimes in our school and must determine who committed those crimes based on the location of their iPad at various times. The students must use Law of Sines and Law of Cosines to find the location on a map and make a case about whether a suspect is guilty or innocent.

I created a map of our school and make the students the suspects, so they really wants to know how is guilty. The stars show where the crimes were committed so they need to use trigonometry to pinpoint the location of the suspect during the same time.

I love this project and it really gets the kids thinking about how math (more specifically geometry) is used in the real world. Last year, I gave all the kids the same 5 suspects, so once one student figured out the crime, everyone soon knew who was guilty. This year, I bumped it up to 20 suspects (yes a lot more work, but totally worth it) and gave each group of students a case file with 2 or 3 suspects to investigate. This way, the students have no idea if their suspects are guilty or innocent, so they need to be the ones to prove it.

Here is  a copy of the project guidelines:

Law of sines:cosines FBI project student copy pdf

 

 

Amazing New App

I have to share about this new app because I think it is awesome. Its called Class Kick and I just start playing around with it and really plan to use it next year. The best thing about Class Kick is that you can view students progress as they work and address student understanding easily.  The app is really easy to use and its free (even better!) First, you prep an assignment (works great for student practice worksheet). You can either create the assignment in class kick or upload it from your computer. You can add pdf files, pictures, videos, links or audio recordings to the assignment.  Then, you can assign it to your students and they can annotate right on the document. The thing that I love most about class kick is that you can see your students working in real time and it proves instant student feedback. But wait, there’s more…students can raise their hand in the app and ask for help. This notification will come up on the teacher’s iPad as well as other classmates iPads. The teacher can know exactly how each student is working during the class period.

Here’s a quick video so you can see for yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6IE_gWCpP8

Spring Fever

Spring is in the air, the weather is getting warmer and we are in the final stretch of the school year. To my students this means one thing, summer is almost here. While my students are daydreaming about summer vacation, warm weather and a long awaited break from school, I am still trying to teach the remaining concepts of the school year and prepare them for the Keystone Exams which they take in May. I have been trying to think of fun activities to engage my students and make them want to learn and stay focused before the testing next month.

We completed this scavenger hunt activity to review solving equations and they LOVED IT! Immediately when they entered the class, they knew we were doing a scavenger hunt and got excited. Every student in the class was engaged and working diligently for the entire class period.

Here is a copy of the scavenger hunt:

equation sccenger hunt pdf

All you need to do is print out the problems and post them around your classroom. Students can start at any problem and once they solve it, they go find the next problem based on their previous solution. There is a student sheet at the end where your students can show their work.

Next week, I am excited to try this systems of equations maze with my students. The problems are all word problems on systems of equations which are an important topic in Algebra 1 and also a difficult one for students to master. I am hoping this maze helps my students with word problem practice and solving systems of equations.

Here is a copy of the maze:

systems word problem maze pdf

You print out the problems and create stations, have 2-3 students start at each station. Once they solve their problem the solution corresponds to the next station. In the end, they should solve all 8 problems and show work on the student sheet.

Hello world!

Welcome to my page!

I’ve always wanted to start a blog, so here goes. I started reading math teacher blogs during my first year teaching (almost 5 years ago!) and found it extremely helpful. It is my hope that this blog will serve as a place to reflect on my math teaching and give me an opportunity to share my knowledge and experience with others.  Hopefully you will find it helpful and also find some great resources to use in your classrooms.