Absolute Value functions hold a dear place in my heart. I love the "V" shape graph that is produced and I love that the absolute value graph is ALWAYS symmetric. Once again, the summer math revision team at Fulton County did a great job at providing awesome graphic organizers to use for this topic. We completed each sheet in class--this was a review lesson of a topic covered in the fall so it went very quickly and throughout the lesson I heard my students say "Ah, it makes sense now." That is always good to hear!
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The math Fulton County School summer revision team had this great sheet to use when teaching how to solve absolute value inequalities. I love it! ! It is easy to read, easy to fill out, clear, and a great tool for students to use while learning the different situations when solving absolute value inequalities.
I covered solving absolute value equations with my freshman today. It is a concept that students typically catch on quickly to. The only new part is setting the equation inside the absolute value bars to the same and opposite to the number that the equation is equal to. Once again, for these topics I like to end the class with an interactive activity rather then drill and kill problems. I found the game modeled after "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." I divided my class into 2 groups and then showed the site on my projector and we played! To make things easier on me, I assigned one person in each group to be the official answer. I just listened to that person. The game is great and my students enjoyed it. The one snag...it was easy so once a team got picked they got all the questions right and never switched to the other team. I guess it is a good problem to have--the team that won the coin toss got all the problems right! Reflection/Changes: 1) Will have students play against each other 1 to 1 in the computer lab 2) Will have all students write and work out each problem http://www.math-play.com/Absolute-Value-Equations/Absolute-Value-Equations.html Enjoy!I have attached a copy of the notes that I distributed to my students.
In Math 3 Support a big goal of mine for the Conic Unit is that students will be able to quickly identify if a given equation is a parabola, circle, ellipse, or a hyperbola. If my students can identify that quickly they will know what the standard form should look like before they begin the process of completing the square. As I was goggling conic activities, I ran across a great 16 page link that will just conics (yay!) and tied every topic to the GPS standard (double yay!) The last pages have a "Name that Conic" game. I enjoy using games in support since it breaks up the ordinary and all my students like to complete against each other. I let my students break themselves up into 8 equal groups and then rearrange the desks into groups. Directions: 1) Each group is given 1 small envelope with 5 notes cards. They get 2 minutes to "Name that Conic" and write their answers of the corresponding line of the answer sheet and place the index cards back in the envelope. 2) After two minutes say "Rotate". Each group will pass their envelope clockwise and receive a new envelope. 3) Repeat the cycle until each group has seen each envelope. 4) Collect and score the answer sheets. Link to 16 pages of great conic activities/handouts linked to GPS Standards--MM3G2a,b,c. The "Name that Conic" game is on pages 12-16. http://www.ciclt.net/ul/okresa/Math3Unit%202Lesson%204%20plan.pdf To extend the activity into an entire class, I included 6 problems in which the students had to identify which conic section was represented and then write the equation in standard form. Warning: There is a good bit of prep work for this activity. It would be a great one to have a student aid or a student who finishes early to cut/label for you! Teaching conics is awesome! I really enjoy that this topic allows me and my students to be creative in numerous ways. I was discussing with a fellow teacher that I was having my students identify if a given equation was a parabola, circle, ellipse, or a hyperbola. She suggested creating a flowchart for them--in order for to write an equation in standard form it is beneficial to know which standard form it needs to be in based off the given equation. What a great idea! But instead of me creating the flowchart for my students I started them off and had them finish it. I wanted this to be something that they created and therefore took ownership. I am also always up for fun colors and decorations so this meet that wish as well! I quickly realized after my first support class that my students were not that familiar with how flowcharts were created and lacked the background to make one. I did not expect this obstacle. For my next support class I took more of a class approach and started to walk through it more together. That worked a little bit better. The flowchart was a somewhat crash-and-burn activity Obstacles I did not expect: 1) Students unfamiliarity with reading flow-charts 2) Student unfamiliarity with creating flow-charts 3) Some students were not real sure the differences between the 4 conic sections If I do this activity again, I will introduce the idea of flowcharts with an example from a teen magazine. There are silly ones that get the idea of how to read a flo-chart. Then I would have my students create a silly flowchart with a topic they are familiar with (example: how to tell what Twilight character you are, what your favorite sport it, etc...). Then I would have them create a flowchart for conics. Georgia has brought in a good bit of probability and stats into the high school math curriculum. Which I LOVE! There is a new movement (well discussion of a movement) to switch the focus of getting students prepared for statistics as opposed to calculus. The reasoning being that most careers need more stats than calculus. For those careers that are more heavy in calculus it is assumed that those students choosing those paths are stronger in mathematics and can master concepts with less instruction time. I see the value in both. Stats is a little more easy to show students how they will use in the world they live in presently. This is why I love teaching the multiplication counting principle--it is easy for students to understand and easy to make connections to the real world. After I teach the multiplication counting principle, I have students break-up into groups and create a restaurant to answer the following questions. 1) Name a restaurant you and your group will open 2) Create a menu with at least 2 different food categories 3) Find the total number of combinations available at your restaurant using… a. the Multiplication Principle of Counting b.a tree diagram 4) Write and solve a probability problem pertaining to your eatery This activity also serves as a great refresher of past concepts and reinforcing how each is different but connected at the same time!
First off, this idea is in no way unique to me. The ideas that love to use in class are typically ones that I "steal" from other teachers. I am starting to cover sequences in my algebra course. Students typically catch on quickly and I try to stay away from drill and kill type practice especially for problems like sequences. A great way for students to get practice of procedural concepts in a "fun" way is Math BINGO. I give each student a sheet at the beginning of class and place 16 numbers they use to fill in each square. After we go over a problem or two (where they will find the first 6 terms of the sequence) I turn to this game. I pass out beans or BINGO markers and we play. When I call out the sequence I will write the rule of sequence on the board and speak what nth term I want them to find. By verbalizing that part, my students have to be able to understand the vocabulary used to correctly answer the question. And any opportunity I can use for them to follow directions is a plus! To make it last longer I will set a certain rule. For example, to BINGO the student will have to have 2 columns filled or 1 column and 1 row filled. I will usually play one more "sequence rule" after someone has won. (They always beg for another round though...be ready for that!) It's quick, it's easy to understand, and it shakes up the ordinary. It also can be edited to fit any topic. I used this with my Math 3 Support students to review solving expressions with logs and natural logs. The possibilities are endless! The file below is of the cards I use. Each page has 4 cards. If you want this to last the entire class, I would double side it so each student could have 2 cards with 2 different set of numbers of each side.
Technology has changed how we all receive information. Learning is no exception. While there are some annoying parts of technology-constantly having to tell me students to turn off their cellphones--there are many great teaching strategies to use. YouTube is my favorite source! Why? 1st: If a student is absent I can send them to a YouTube video to watch to learn the lesson (reserve learning-which I do plan on trying at some point this school year) 2nd: Use it to re-teach a lesson--this is especially beneficial to my support students 3rd: Introduce a topic or make a problem more interactive to support a lesson in class How I use YouTube in each of those 3 categories... 1st and 2nd: YayMath is produced by an energetic teacher that has enertaining videos on topics covering Algebra, Algebra II and Geometry. I also encourage students who are gone to watch other videos when they missed a day or do not understand an objective and cannot come in for extra help. For my support students, YouTube provides another way to address an objective in a more exciting way then me writing on the board. It provides a 3rd presenter (1st: Math 3 Teacher, 2nd: Math 3 Support Teacher) on a topic. 3rd: I will use YouTube videos to introduce the Quadratic Formula Song, my Barbie Bungee Project, and the Fibonacci Sequence YouTube is awesome! Just make sure that you watch a video completely before you show it to your students. This source provides a great way to make math a little more interactive and my students enjoy hearing a different voice (and especially when I do not sing for them, they really really appreciate not having to hear me sing!) During November 2010, I went to the Tennessee Independent Schools Bi-Annual conference held at the Baylor School in Chattanooga, TN. I was impressed with Baylor's picturesque campus, campus dormitories (which I did convince a teacher from Baylor to sneak me into on-way, way larger than my closet of a room at Tech), and their amazing math department who are incredible innovative. My first post about chalking was from one of the teachers from Baylor. I sat through a presentation on how a 7th grade teacher had her Pre-Algebra kiddos create an 3-D animal from paper towel rolls, shoe boxes, and similar material and then find the area and volume of their animal. Her Algebra students where jealous so she had them draw animals on graph paper (using all straight lines) and then find the equations of particular lines. This the part that I borrowed! I did this project with my 7th graders in Memphis and then my 9th graders in Atlanta. The class subjects are the same so the material was relevant to both. For both classes I asked them to draw an animal on graph paper using only straight lines. I did not tell them what the purpose was. My 7th graders completed this while having a sub one day and my 9th graders completed this for homework the night after a test (100% completion rate!) I also had them go over their final animal in pen. I then collected them and made a photocopy of them. The students got the original back and their copy. I asked them to decorate the copy and use the original to somehow label the lines they defined on a separate sheet of paper. The final version included the original animal, the decorated animal, and then the equation sheet on a poster board with the rubric on the back. Reflections: 1st: Will do this project again 2nd: Took forever to grade so may consider this a partner project to lessen the grading part 3rd: Will allow more class-time to work on the project 4th: Will use strong student examples from the past in the introduction of this project 5th: May expand theme on animals to something like school spirit
My juniors have started their venture into conics. In my support class, we have started to cover circles. I wanted a quick, decorative activity that would take less than 15 minutes but would still have my students solving problems. I allowed my students to either work by themselves or with one other person. Each grouping got a plate and had to label/find the following on it: 1) Label the radius and center of the paper plates 2) Find the radius and center of the circle described by the equation: _________________ 3) Write the equation of the circle with a center of _____ and radius of _____ 4) Create an equation for a circle and identify the center and radius of it I had each group tack their finished plate to my board and my class votes on the prettiest one--that group received a 120 on the assignment Pictures are below: |
Natalie Turbiville
Educator who loves math and working with students. Archives
May 2016
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