10 Ways to Get Your Students Excited About Math Month!

April is Math Awareness Month.  Math teachers promote math EVERY day but it’s nice to get your whole school on board with promoting the importance of mathematics in exciting ways! Below are 10 easy to get your whole school excited about Math Month!

1. Math Month Movie Trailer

Get EVERYONE in your school excited with an iMovie trailer!  Below are some of the movie trailers we have used at my schools.

Math Month 2012                         TMS Math Month                        POMS Math Month    

2. Spirit Days

Students (& Staff)  love to dress up!  We came up with several spirit days that we could incorporate math, such as:  

• Pajama Day (Math is Dreamy)
• Twin Day (Seeing Double)
• Nerd Day (Who doesn’t want to be a Math nerd?!)
• Dress to the Nine’s Day (Fancy clothes)
• Wear a Number day (Jerseys, etc. and find the mean, median, mode, range of the students in your class)
• Mathematician Day (dress up like a famous mathematician).
• Crazy Hair Day (math is shocking)
• Pattern Day (wear stripes, shapes, etc. and have discussions about the patterns in class)
  
         

3. Math Game Night

Get the whole community involved with a math game night during Math Month!  Whether it be bingo, board games or our school’s favorite, the 24 Game get your student’s having fun with their families.  We have found that we get more families by providing a meal (hot dogs, spaghetti, etc.).  Talk with your school’s PTO or even ask business partners for donations for prizes or food items!  They love helping out!

4. Weekly Math Challenges

At our school, each grade level posts a weekly challenge problem in common areas.  Students solve the problems on paper or electronically and turn it into a designated location.  At the end of each week a student from each grade level who solved the problem correctly gets a prize!

5. Famous Mathematicians Research

We have to make sure our students know of the important contributions and impacts made by famous mathematicians.  Have your students research famous mathematicians and create presentations in ClassFlow, Google Slides, Educreations or iMovie.

6. Door Decorating Contest/Scavenger Hunt

Our school does a Door Decorating Contest each year in an effort to promote mathematics and vocabulary.  Teachers choose a vocabulary word/concept and then students get to decorate the door based on the word/concept.  For a different spin on this, you could add a rule that the word cannot be placed on the door so that students have to guess what word/concept the door represents based on the decorations.  I’ve uploaded the editable template with all of the words/concepts we used to the ClassFlow marketplace for FREE.

                 

7. Math Calendar Problems for a Prize

We created a calendar for April with a problem for each day that students could solve and talk over with their parents. The problems reviewed basic math skills as well as current math skills. Any student who completed all of the calendar problems received a small prize.

8. Math T-Shirt Design

Let students get creative and come up with a t-shirt design involving math.  This can either be a contest for the best design (and even more fun to actually get the t-shirts made!) or have students create a wear their shirts on a certain day!

           

9. Estimation Jars

Estimation is such a necessary skill that some students tend to struggle with.  We try to make estimation fun by having jars filled with random candies or items in the cafeteria during lunch each week.  Students can make guesses and the student who guesses correctly or comes closest without going over wins the jar (or a different prize).

10. Math Quotes/Jokes on Morning Announcements

Our school does morning announcements on the TV.  During Math Month we like to add a quote by a famous mathematician, joke, or a challenge problem to get the students thinking.  

Merry ChristMATH! Math Activities for the Christmas Season

Christmas is one of my favorite holidays and I love to incorporate it into our Math classes!  Students decorate our classroom as part of relationship building, taking ownership of their classroom and creating a relaxing ambiance for learning.

Snowflake Ceiling Decorations

We were ending our rational number unit right before Thanksgiving break, and we decided we needed some snowflakes to return to.  Students were working on ordering fractions, decimals, and percents so they created paper chains out of the problems that they ordered and then added their own snowflake design to the end.  It was simple, yet made our room quite festive!

Math Vocabulary Ornaments
Vocabulary instruction is a huge initiative at our school, so we decided to have our students make ornaments that represented math vocabulary words.  We added a writing portion as well to include literacy.  Students were give a rubric, and were able to choose a word from a list.  In order to have a variety, students in the same class could not choose the same word.  Once students completed their ornament, they showed them to me and then were able to choose one of the trees in our classroom to hang it on.

This could easily be adapted to work with any content's vocabulary.   Below is a google doc link to the rubric.  I've also added it to the ClassFlow Marketplace for free, check it out here.

Ornament Rubric Google Doc

Some Examples:

     

     

 

       

      

Elf Equations

Another thing we like to do is watch the movie, Elf, which is my all time favorite Christmas movie ( and seems to be the majority of my students' as well).  In order to watch a movie at my school, we have to incorporate our content objectives.  

I created an Elf Equations activity with questions dealing with our current unit (translating, modeling and solving equations) to go along with the movie.  In the past, I've always printed copies for each student.  Our copier was broken the day I went to make copies, which gave me the idea to make it a paperless activity!  I added the questions into ClassFlow using the assessment builder, and then added the assessment into an assignment so that students could work at their own pace, and if they didn't finish during class they could finish at home.  I added the assessment into the ClassFlow Marketplace, check it out here.

  

As always, I'm continually looking for suggestions and/or feedback!  How do you incorporate Christmas and other holidays into your classroom/curriculum?

Order of Operations Medical School Part 1

My co-workers and the teachers at the Ron Clark Academy have been my inspiration for improving my teaching practice and engaging my students in exciting, real-life lessons.  Cheri Varner (@mathteacherpoms on instagram) is the one who really spear-headed the ideas for this lesson.  After reading The End of Molasses Classes by Ron Clark and hearing about how Kim Bearden transformed her classroom into a surgical center, she knew we had to do this with order of operations in our math classes.

Varner did this activity with her 6th graders (Math 6 and Pre-Algebra).   She had them decide whether or not the patients needed an operation performed (error analysis with order of operations) and if they did, they had to operate (fix the error).

                                            

           

Last week I transformed into Dr. Madison and introduced my 7th graders to "Medical School" where they would use the order of operations to save lives.

Once the students saw me, their mouths dropped, which told me that I had caught their attention.  I told them that they would be starting medical school (which would take two 80 minute class periods) and if they passed, they would get a certificate allowing them to perform surgery next week.  They totally bought into it.   We began calling each other doctor and using the student's last names.  I told the students that good doctors make sure they are consulting with other doctors to make sure they are making the right decisions and I was fine with them consulting with each other as they simplified expressions.  Later on in the class, I would hear them say, "paging, Dr. Madison for a consult, etc.".  It was hilarious.

Next, they got their devices and logged into Classflow.  I created a lesson on the basics of order of operations, with a medical theme and published it on the ClassFlow Marketplace.  You can download it for free here:  Order of Ops Mini Lesson Part 1.  There are ambulance siren sounds built in to the lesson as well as heart rate monitor sounds and even a flatline sound if students simplify incorrectly. We are trying to make the experience as real as possible.

I delivered the lesson, reviewed the order in which operations must be performed and then gave them a problem to try.  I LOVE using the creative polling feature with Classflow because it allows the students to interact with what is projected on their device.  Students were able to simplify the expression that was projected using their device (iPad, chromebook or desktop) and then submit it instead of using whiteboards or pieces of paper (unless students don't feel like they have enough space on the device).

Once the students submit, I can click on a button that brings up all of the responses and whoever is randomly chosen on the screen (you can choose someone if you prefer not to do random) gets to come up to the board to explain their thinking.  I love when someone is wrong because it allows for so much discussion to happen.

We went through several problems on order of operations in the mini lesson and then students rotated through their normal groups.  In the teacher group, we did more order of operations practice and talked about common mistakes that people make.

Our next step is to continue practicing simplifying expressions using order of operations, looking at error analysis and then simplifying using variable substitution with a mini lesson and then in small groups.  Once the mini-lesson is complete it will be published as Order of Ops - Medical School Part 2.

After that we move into surgery, which will require a complete classroom transformation (a la Ron Clark Academy) into a surgery center/hospital.  Complete with patients, gowns, hairnets, face masks, and gloves for students, etc.  All of that will be in the next post to come after the lesson.

If you have any suggestions, please share in the comments!!

Technology that Fuels our Blended Classroom

In the previous post, I mentioned that we have transformed our classroom into a blended learning environment.  In order for everything to run smoothly, we need devices and applications to work seamlessly.

As students walk into class, they look for their name on the door to find out which group they start in, Teacher, Online or Activity.  Then, they get their device (either a desktop, chromebook, or iPad, whichever they prefer) and login to ClassFlow.com, which fuels our mini-lesson.

I have been adding older lessons and creating new lessons in My Resources in ClassFlow online.  It wasn't until a few days ago that I learned about and downloaded ClassFlow Desktop.  It has become a game changer in my classroom.  Since my district has been primarily using SmartBoards for several years, my colleagues and I have TONS of SmartNotebook lessons.  With ClassFlow Desktop, I can have my SmartNotebook lesson open and still be able to use the features I love from the ClassFlow web version.

In previous years, I would have projected the SmartNotebook File, had the students use whiteboards to answer the problems and then called up one or two students to explain their thinking at the board. This week, I was able to project the Smart file, send it to my students' devices and then use the live polling feature to have my students interact with it, then send it back to me.  The increase in engagement from last year to this year was INSANE!  The students also love the fact that I can pull up the cards they sent back to me and they can SHOW and EXPLAIN their thinking to the class.  I seriously can't say enough about this platform!

After the mini-lesson, students begin in their groups and then rotate after about 20 minutes.  The online group is mainly fueled by Edpuzzle, DreamBox Learning and ClassFlow, depending on where students are at in concepts, lessons, and units.  My colleagues and I take turns creating videos that go along with our lessons and then upload them to edpuzzle, which gives us the ability to add questions that students answer as they watch the video, which provide us fantastic formative feedback.  It's great for students who are absent, parents, and students who may need to review concepts.

Once students are passed the direct instruction at the online group, they log into their DreamBox learning account.  Students play "games" that go along with our current or previous concepts and then the lessons get tailored to their levels.  On the teacher end, I am able to track their progress.

We also use ClassFlow activities/assignments in the online group between Edpuzzle and Dreambox depending on the individual student's needs.

The Activity Group is every changing depending on our students needs.  Some days students are doing hands on activities with manipulatives or completing QR code scavenger hunts with iPads to practice skills.   Some days students are doing projects fueled by Google Apps for Education, Educreations (iPad app), or iMovie (iPad app).

Educreations Project on integers

The Teacher Group is also dynamic and based on individual student needs.  We use ClassFlow lessons and activities frequently to re-teach, enrich and clear up common misconceptions.  I love the instant feedback I get from my students and they love the instant feedback and discussion we are able to have in such a small group setting.

We also use Kahoot at the teacher group to engage students while also practicing skills the students need to be successful.  The friendly competition and leaderboard motivates the students to try their best.  Based on the results after the question, we can have teachable moments about misconceptions or mistakes.

What technology fuels your blended classroom?  I'm interested in "flipping" a unit this year if anyone has any suggestions for middle school math!

Back to School & Blended Learning!

I seriously cannot contain my excitement about being back at school.  My co-teacher and I are continuing with our blended learning, station/rotation model.  There will be three groups that students rotate through:  Teacher Group, Online Group, and Activity Group.  We started this last year and for the most part it went very well, we just had to tweak a few things in an effort to make it better.

The first few weeks of school we plan to build our community of learners, practice routines and expectations, and pre-test our students so we know where they are.  I created the  pre-assessment using ClassFlow's assessment builder since their are a variety of question types.  I didn't want to just give a multiple choice pre-test because I didn't think it would give me the information that I wanted.

After my co-teacher and I analyze the results of the pre-assessment, we group the students  based on the data.  These groups are not final, as students are regrouped frequently based on formative assessments.

The teacher group allows for personalized small group instruction.  This year I will have a horseshoe table, a carpet and two camping chairs (which will be replaced soon with a loveseat) available for the teacher group station.   I will be using ClassFlow this year for creating and delivering lessons, sharing activities and assessing my students at this group.  The first "content" lesson I will be delivering to my students is available in the Class Flow Marketplace for free.  If you happen to download and/or use the lesson, I would love feedback for improvement!   I'm excited for all of the possibilities that come with this website!

 The online group is where students will be either working on assignments in ClassFlow, watching videos for enrichment or re-instruction, and/or games such as dreambox or reflex math.  Thankfully, this year, our classroom will house 10 desktop computers, 10 chromebooks, and 10 iPads.  The chromebooks and ipads will move flexibly between the activity and teacher groups while the desktops will specifically be for the online group.

The activity group will be dynamic.  I like to think of this as the station where students will process information and make it their own.  Some of the time students will be doing project based learning.  Other times they may be working with manipulatives, playing games, etc.

If you have any experiences with blended learning and/or the station/rotation model, please share how things work in your classroom.  I am always looking to connect with other educators to improve my practice and build my PLN.