Day 14... Who has Spirit??

WE DO!!! :)

Today was our district kick-off celebration for the 2013-14 school year. Picture it... 1300 district employees packed into the High School Performing Arts Center, with all of the sites trying to win the district spirit award. In previous years, the high school teachers didn't even try because we knew one of the elementary schools would end up winning.

This year, we decided to get organized! Since the rally is at the High School and the PAC director is a High School teacher, he roped off the front of the auditorium before the doors were even unlocked and the other sites claimed their spots. The High School teachers all wore our matching 2013-14 school t-shirts, had noise-makers made of water bottles with pebbles inside, and as our crowing achievement, convinced our site principal to wear our mascot's uniform...

Needles to say... we won! :) Now I pray that my principal never finds my blog... I might be job hunting if he knows this picture is out there! :)

Day 13... Station Time!

Wednesday and Thursday are our block days. Tomorrow happens to be a Professional Day, which means the students have a 4 day weekend and I wanted to get a quiz in before the break. That means we reviewed at the beginning of the block, then quizzed the last 40 minutes. I really love using these inexpensive acrylic frames for station review activities.

Day 12... Distance Time Graphs

This week in Intermediate Algebra, we've been working on Graphing Stories. Today, we used this lesson from the MARS website.

I handed each group a large whiteboard, then showed them this graph:

I asked them to write a story to represent Tom's journey to the bus stop. Then we did a Gallery Walk around the class to read the boards. Here is my favorite board of the day...

The best part about this board is that the young man that wrote it has really struggled academically. Today was definitely a "WIN" for him. :)

Day 11... FAIL!

I failed... I forgot to take a picture...

:(

Day 10... Making Our Brains Grow

My Intermediate Algebra class was created for students who have had Algebra 1 and Geometry, but aren't ready for Algebra 2 (YET). We got a new student today from Algebra 2 and one of her first questions was "Is this easier than Algebra 2?". The young lady sitting beside her quickly answered, "Supposedly, but in here you have to THINK!" :)

Day 9... JellyBlubbers!

Today in AP, we starting looking at various sampling methods using Jelly Blubbers as our population. The goal was to estimate the true average length of the Jelly Blubber population.

Day 8... Feedback

Technically this was written on Day 7, but I didn't have a chance to read and respond until today (Day 8), so it totally counts, right? :)

As their exit slip yesterday and today (we are on block schedule), I asked my AP Stat students to do a modified 3-2-1. In other words, what are 3 things you have learned so far this week and what is 1 question you would like to ask me?

This young lady's response just made me smile.... and of course, now I'm committed to doing a Pi Day Celebration! :)

Day 7... 31derful

On Monday, my Intermediate Algebra class started the 31-derful game from Sarah over at Everybody is a Genius. We didn't have a chance to finish it on Monday, so today the cards were on their desks ready to go. The group of girls working on the above set worked very hard but when they had it down to one card, they decided to make their own wildcard. :)

I am so excited about this group of kids... we are going to have such an awesome year together!

Day 6... Getting to Know You!

Today, I gave my students an information sheet as a warmup. This student definitely had one of the more interesting answers for her future after high school....

I did have a couple of kids ask me if I actually read their answers and when I replied "yes", they seemed rather surprised. Makes me wonder how often they turn in work and the teacher doesn't bother to look at it...

Day 5... Kids Arrive!!

Kiddos came today... I think it went okay. I am horrible with names, so I had them do nameplates out of cardstock. On the front, they wrote their name and some other facts about themselves. On the back, they drew 5-7 things that represented them. On the inside, they quartered their paper to make exit tickets. Today's exit prompt was "What are you excited about this year? What are you nervous about this year?" Above is one young man's answer... love that he is excited about statistics! :) WOOT!

P.S. I kept forgetting to take a photo during the day when kids were around. The other stat teacher is across the hall from me and she came in after school and asked what my picture of the day was. It was her idea to take a pic of the nameplates. :)

Day 4... Caffeine, please!

Today was one of those days where I felt very scatterbrained! My room is mostly done, but I'm not ready for kids yet! I have Monday (mostly) planned, but that is it. :(

Needless to say, I needed a Sonic run by the time 3:30 rolled around... HAPPY HOUR! :)

The quote in the background was also something that I repeated to myself MANY times today!

Day 3... The Book Shuffle

We had time to work in our rooms today, so the great book shuffle begins! My stat books are ready for kiddos and the Algebra 2 books are ready to be relocated to their new homes...

Day 2... Door Decor

My paper cutter definitely is getting a work out this week! I decided to do the door sign that Rachel posted about last week. Of course, I didn't measure before I cut it out the first time and it was way too big. So back to the drawing board to start again! Here, I'm in the process of gluing it to colored paper before laminating and cutting again... :)

Day 1... More Labels!

We had the chance to work in our rooms this morning, then a staff meeting this afternoon. I put my laminator and paper cutter to good use as I finished up with the various labels for around the room.

(P.S. I also realized how tough this may be to take a picture every day. I remembered at 9am to take this one, then it never again crossed my mind until I sat down tonight and remembered to blog!)

Welcome to my 180 blog!

For the past few years, I have watched from the sidelines as other teachers shared their classrooms via a "180 blog". Today, I open that same door and invite you into my classroom. It is my goal to post something from my classroom every day in order to keep myself accountable for "Making Thinking Visible."

Thank you to my twitter friends for encouraging me to try this! If you have a "180 blog", please post it in the comments so I can add you to my blogroll!