2016, A New Year, A New Semester

Well, we've been in school for two days, and, so far, it's not going too bad. I wanted to share some of the happenings that have been going on the past two days.

Geometry

I had the students make a foldable with the basic definitions of geometry (points, lines, planes, parallel lines, skew lines, collinear, coplanar, ray, line segment). I will attach a picture later. We also did another foldable on the types of angles. Once again, pictures will come soon.

Today we did a Kahoot, which is this neat tool where students can use their cell phones to answer questions, and it gives immediate feedback. Also, there are tons of Kahoots that have been shared by many people, and that's been helpful. So, I had the students go into groups of 2-3, and one person needed to have a smartphone that connected to Wi-Fi. The kids seemed to enjoy it, but there were some technological issues. One student wasn't able to connect to the Wi-Fi, but his partner was able to do so. Another group wasn't able to submit their answers, but they were confident they had the right answers. All of the students seemed to have a good time, but I had one student who did not want to work with anyone and did not want to do the activity. That was a disappointment for sure.

Algebra II

We've been discussing complex numbers in Algebra II. I used this neat foldable from Julie Reulbach over at I Speak Math, which has been a blessing, since it covers so many topics with complex numbers. I have also integrated this with my Complex Numbers Powerpoint. We worked on adding, subtracting, multiplying complex numbers today, and most seemed to catch on pretty well. We are going to do more work on multiplying tomorrow because substituting -1 in place of i^2 is throwing some for some loops. Also, basic math is also getting in the way, which is where effective feedback comes in handy. I feel more confident in their abilities to solve problems involving complex numbers.

All Classes

I stole a great icebreaker idea from Julie Reulbach, which allowed students to write three things about themselves, and other classmates introduced each other. I even participated. The kids seemed to enjoy this, especially being allowed to throw paper in the classroom. After this, I showed them a "Facts about Mr. Schoolcraft that You May (or May Not) Want to Know" Our librarian just happened to stop by my classroom as I was showing this to students, and he even emailed me and said that he loved the powerpoint. If you want a link to it, just shoot me a comment or email.

I hope your new semester and year are off to a great start!!!!