Thinking about the First Day of School….

I can't believe that tomorrow is August!  I've already been in my classroom for about 9 hours, prepping for the year.  However, I'm pretty excited because I've got a great team of math teachers who are all on board for new and exciting changes.

Recently, I've seen a neat activity floating around Pinterest for a first day of school math activity.  I actually got onto my Pinterest account this morning to locate it and create my own copy, but was lucky enough to stumble across a link to Donna at Math Coach's Corner who had already created a blank template!  Thanks, Donna :).  I actually love the idea that's in the picture of having the students use the activity as their insert of the front cover of their math binders.

I've been trying to think about other activities to do that day as well.  We get to see each class for about 55 minutes that day.  I don't want to bore them the very first day and I'll probably spend a bit each subsequent day going over different policies, so I'd like to have something where they can move around a bit and get to know each other.  What I've decided on (I think…), is this:

When students come in the door, they will be handed a piece of 8 ½ x 11" paper that has a single number written on it.  The number might be an integer, a square or cube root, a whole number with integer exponent, or some irrational number like pi or sqrt 2.  After some introductions and necessary paperwork, I'll have the students get up and try and put themselves in number line order from least to greatest.  It will be a little tough, because there may be some numbers they haven't been introduced to yet, but I think it will get them talking.  I did this last year (not for the first day) and they seemed to enjoy it.  There can be some good discussions about why a person/number might be in the wrong spot as they look around the room.

So basically, my day might look like this:

• Students enter classroom with number and pick up a copy of the By the Numbers activity above.
• Teacher/Student Introductions
• Pass out any paperwork.
• Introduce Number Line game and have students attempt to put themselves into the correct order.
• Class discussion about Number Line and if they are correct.
• Students return to seat and By the Number activity is introduces (I'll project my own copy).
• Students work on By the Number activity and complete as homework if not finished.

Gearing Up for the Start! Post #1 - Prep Work

I cannot believe that there is only one week left before school begins!  Officially I have to report back to work on Wednesday.  Unofficially…. I've been back on and off for about 2 ½ weeks now.  Some summer in the future I'll have enough planned and ready that I'll have at least a month where I don't have to think about school :).  Not so right now…  But that's okay, because I love everything that I've been putting together in my classroom and with my two new 8th grade math teachers!!

Here are some things I've been working on:

1. Getting supplies purchased and put together;
2. Organizing thoughts from Minds on Mathematics (book study);
3. Decorating (obviously…);
4. Creating a "Math Around the World" bulletin board and notebook;
5. Math Survival Guides (woo-hoo!!!!), aka interactive notebooks;
6. Lesson plans;
7. I'm sure there is more and I'm just not thinking of them right now… :).

I'll be posting lots more soon on all of these topics - with pictures!

One of the things I've done is to create little notes that I'm going to laminate and tape into my plan book with reminders about all of the awesome prompts that I were in Minds on Mathematics (Wendy Ward Hoffer).  A huge shout out to Melanie from Confessions of a Grade 6 Math Addict who originally created these and allowed for sharing.  I've tweaked mine some, but I loved her outlines and colors.  I think these will be great reminders to me for class discussions and reflection time in the MSGs.  

(Okay… totally cool… this is the first time I've figured out how to embed a .pdf file in my blog.  Here's the website I used.)

Speaking of plan books… I was on Pinterest the other day (can you say LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!) and came across a pin about teacher plan books from Erin Condren.  Now, I am pretty fussy about my calendar.  I use Outlook on my computer because I get a lot of meeting appointments sent my way electronically, but I'm still an old-fashioned, big picture girl.  I like to see the long term plan ahead of me, so usually a two-page monthly calendar (with lines) is what I like to have.  Our planners at school are great (and free…), but they are a little smaller than what I'd like.  I'm also not particularly fond of spending a huge amount of money when I can create something myself.  However….. with all of the checklists I'd like to have after reading Minds on Math this summer, as well as a host of other things, I tried to weigh the time it would take me to make my own versus purchasing one of these.  They are so darned cute I'll bet you can imagine what I did :).  Yep… I bought one.  I'm so excited and it's totally personalized.  I guess that means no pedicure before school starts...

August Currently

I'm linking up with Farley again for the August Currently.  This one caught me by surprise :).  I'm not ready for August…….

I've had a super-productive summer though, so I can't complain.  I've gotten a lot of things prepped for the new school year; I had a great visit with my little sis' and her girls; ALASKA - do I need to say anything else??  Now I'm back at work here and there getting my classroom ready and meeting with my two new 8th grade math teachers.  Really I'm not supposed to go back until August 14th, but there's no way I could wait until then and be ready on time.  I'm having fun browsing through my Pinterest Boards though at all the neat ideas that I've come across.

Listening - So my kiddos new favorite movie is "Pitch Perfect".  I've been doing a lot of driving them back and forth to camps and sports, so they watch it (and I get to listen) over… and over… and over… and over.  It's a good thing I like Ace of Bass.

Loving - I found some fantastic 8 ½ x 11 posters of the Mathematical Practices (you can find a link on a previous post).  They are easy to read, colorful, and fun!  I've already had them printed up on card stock at Staples and laminated at school.  Pictures to come soon…

Thinking - I need to set aside some time for ME before school begins.  I think a trip to B&N is in order to find a good book.  We are taking the kids to a Rapids game tomorrow, so that will be fun too.

Wanting - I started using the Zone eating plan recently.  How come these meals won't just put themselves together when I go into the kitchen.  I actually like the plan, but its tough when I need to make a grocery run.

Needing - To make my kiddos a priority in the next two weeks.  My son would like to go golfing a the local par 3, we need to hit the pool, and we should do some fun cooking experiments.  Just have to put it all on the calendar…

B2S Must Haves

1. Definitely those Mathematical Practices posters.  They are awesome!!
2. I've been trying to find a good way to put supplies on the tables and finally found some small caddies at Mardel in various colors.  Now to stock and label them!
3. More foldables :).  I'm totally into this and created my first one today (posting soon about that too).  If you have any great foldables for 8th grade, algebra 1, or geometry, send me a message or follow me on Pinterest!

Setting up Interactive Math Notebooks (INB, MSG)

At the Annual NCTM conference in Denver I was inspired by a booth and presentation on foldables. I am in love with them!!!  I'm not such the creative type myself, so I purchased two books full of templates ready to go.  Then, I found myself overwhelmingly inspired by all of the photos and information on Pinterest as well!  I've even gotten to the point that I had to get out of my "School" album and create and album for foldables and INBs all on its own!

So, now that I have all these resources, I decided that I actually needed to sit down and do something with them.  I've been toying with the idea of interactive notebooks for the last semester or so.  Our science team uses them and I think they have the potential to be totally cool and useful.  There are so many fantastic ideas and as much as I'd love to fit every single one of them into the notebook, I don't think that's possible!  So, here are the things I decided I wanted to do: (oh, and I'm going to call them Math Survival Guides, or MSGs)

Inside Cover & First Page:
I have two web sites the kiddos need to keep track of and I cannot tell you how many times someone would come up to me and tell me they forgot their logon information.  I decided they could glue a little strip to write that information on to the inside cover so that it is always available to them.  I'm sure I'll still get asked… but maybe a little less.  I also took one of the manilla pockets that divided the notebook into 3 sections and cut it up and glued it to the inside cover as a pocket.  I felt like this will give them a sturdy place to put items that need to be glued or flash cards.  The right side is the cover page, and I'm hoping the students will be a little more creative than I have been :).

Inside Cover w/ pocket and Cover Page

Table of Contents:

I'm still working on this page.  I am going to have them color code each unit, so you can see that Unit 1 (Geometry) is going to be green.  I'll give all the students one paperclip to hold the five pages they'll need for the TOC together so they don't have to flip through them every time they open the MSG.  I'm also going to have them include the date for each page, but I don't want to do that here since I'm hoping to use this for multiple years.  On the left I'm still thinking about what to put… rubric, standards (this is what I'm leaning towards), rules, etc.

TOC - still working on left side

The next four pages are for "reminders" of geometry formulas.  By 8th grade (according to Common Core) they should have already learned everything except for the Volume formulas, so these are basically a place for them to refer to as needed.  Notice that under each flap I've used pencil. I think color is great, and for their titles, drawings, etc I'd like them to be as creative as possible.  However, when they are doing actual math manipulation, I think it is important that they use pencil even in their notebooks.

Reminder formulas

More reminder formulas

The next four pages are the start of the real "meat" of the first unit.  We are going to start with transformations.  After looking at many, many examples, I decided that foldables and drawings will be on the left side and and response items will be on the right.  This is basically because I really dislike writing on the left side of a notebook because the spiral gets in my way the closer I get to the end of the page!  Just personal preference.  My first foldable I appropriated from tothesquareinch and I think it's fantastic!  I don't have a school budget for colored paper (*sigh*), so I added color to the actual figures instead.

Transformations #1

You'll notice my right side.  I've decided to complete one page a day on the right (remember, we have 111-minute blocks, so plenty of time).  The top (Write) part is where I may have the students put vocabulary for the day, work out a problem, jot down an important note, etc…  The middle part (Reflect) I will have them do during the middle of our class during "mini-lesson" time.  The bottom part will be completed at the end of class (sort of like an exit slip), but I won't always collect them (ohhhh, I have so much more to write about this - but another day).

Transformations graphic organizer

I'm still working on this page (transformations day #2), but I liked this graphic organizer from the Alden Schools.  I've written "What are the properties of transformations?" on the outside flap.  

I'm hoping that now that I've started this that things will move a little faster.  This is probably close to about 3 hours worth of work, but I had to make a lot of decisions about placement and other things (this is my type-A coming out here).  Let me know your thoughts and what some of your ideas for interactive notebooks are!