Well, we successfully made it through the first week of school. Yay! I told my students that today I felt jet lagged, and I hadn't even traveled anywhere. :) Honestly, it feels good to get back into the routine. I can't believe I am in my sixth year of teaching. It's been fun to reflect on how I've grown and yet, realize how much more I want to grow. I am trying some new things this year. My big project is Standards-Based Grading for Geometry and Algebra II. I'm sure I'll be blogging about that as the year goes on. I'm also serving as a mentor for a new teacher. I look forward to this role. I miss mentoring students like I did in Africa.
It should be an exciting year. There is one certainty in education--you never know what the day will hold! :)
Friday, August 19, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Guess my #
Number puzzles always fascinated me as a child. When I learned the algebra behind them,I liked them even more. :)
Now as a teacher, I like to start Alg/Alg II with this activity. The students are usually amazed when you first do them. Then you can draw them in so they don't mind writing and simplifying expressions because they want to know how it works. Here are some of the basic ones I started with:
Guess my Number
1. Pick a number between 1 and 100.
2. Double it
3. Add 100
4. Take half the result
5. Subtract the number you started with.
Number 2
1. Pick a number
2. Add 9
3. Multiply by 3
4. Subtract 6
5. Divide by 3
6. Subtract original number.
Number 3.
1. Pick a number.
2. Multiply it by 9
3. Subtract 18
4. Divide by 9
5. Subtract your original number.
6. Add 2
Then I have the kids write their own and show the algebra behind it. We are still at the basic stage, but I am still proud of their work during the first week of school.
(Dan Meyer has some great ones to help the kids move from completing puzzles to creating them.)
1. Pick a number
2. Multiply by 4
3. Subtract 10
4. Divide by 4
5. Add 5
6. Subtract number started with
1. Pick a number
2. Add 12
3. Multiply by 2
4. Subtract 4
5. Divide by 2
6. Subtract the number you started with
1. Pick a number
2. Subtract 3
3. Multiply by 3
4. Add 9
5. Divide by 3
6. Subtract the number you started with
1. Pick a number
2. Subtract 15
3. Divide by 5
4. Subtract 3
5. Multiply 5
6. Subtract the number you started with
1. Pick a number
2. Add 6
3. Multiply by 3
4. Subtract 3
5. Divide by 3
6. Subtract the number you started with
Now as a teacher, I like to start Alg/Alg II with this activity. The students are usually amazed when you first do them. Then you can draw them in so they don't mind writing and simplifying expressions because they want to know how it works. Here are some of the basic ones I started with:
Guess my Number
1. Pick a number between 1 and 100.
2. Double it
3. Add 100
4. Take half the result
5. Subtract the number you started with.
Number 2
1. Pick a number
2. Add 9
3. Multiply by 3
4. Subtract 6
5. Divide by 3
6. Subtract original number.
Number 3.
1. Pick a number.
2. Multiply it by 9
3. Subtract 18
4. Divide by 9
5. Subtract your original number.
6. Add 2
Then I have the kids write their own and show the algebra behind it. We are still at the basic stage, but I am still proud of their work during the first week of school.
(Dan Meyer has some great ones to help the kids move from completing puzzles to creating them.)
1. Pick a number
2. Multiply by 4
3. Subtract 10
4. Divide by 4
5. Add 5
6. Subtract number started with
1. Pick a number
2. Add 12
3. Multiply by 2
4. Subtract 4
5. Divide by 2
6. Subtract the number you started with
1. Pick a number
2. Subtract 3
3. Multiply by 3
4. Add 9
5. Divide by 3
6. Subtract the number you started with
1. Pick a number
2. Subtract 15
3. Divide by 5
4. Subtract 3
5. Multiply 5
6. Subtract the number you started with
1. Pick a number
2. Add 6
3. Multiply by 3
4. Subtract 3
5. Divide by 3
6. Subtract the number you started with
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