Google Drive! What are you waiting for Math Teachers?

Here it is.  You need to post EVERYTHING (except tests/quizzes) in Google Drive.  Homework.  Review Tests.  Class notes.  Class worksheets.  Goals.  Calendars.  Answer Keys.  It is so easy and your students will use the things you post.  Your students will use it on the bus, waiting at the doctor, while watching tv, and as a passenger in a car.  Make your class convenient for them.  They will reward you with accessing them often.  One of the best things about this system is that your students can never say that they lost something that you handed out.  Please see my folder that I use for my Precalculus Students:  Precalculus Student Folder  An added benefit of Google Drive is that when the students are viewing the documents, they have a preview of each document.  This is very convenient.   By the way, your students can't change anything in the folder.  They can only view it and download it.   Here is a short video on how to do this.  Or you could take the steps below.

How do you do this?
1.  Sign up for Google account.  https://accounts.google.com/SignUp  If you have a gmail account, then you already have a google account.
2.  Go to Google Drive.  https://drive.google.com
3.   Make a folder for your class.  For example Precalculus Student Folder  Do this by clicking the RED CREATE button and then click Folder naming it as you wish.
4.  Make sure this folder is public.  Right click on the folder itself and then click share.  Or check mark the folder, and then click on More at the top drop down box and click SHARE.   Change the access to PUBLIC.  At the same time grab the link for the folder.  
5.  Use the link on a blog or web-page that you own.  Just paste it to a location that the students can easily get to.  I like to make it smaller at www.tinyurl.com  This is an easy site that you can shorten long urls to be your own unique name.  Of course it will have tinyurl.com at the beginning.  I have renamed a url calendar at www.tinyurl.com/mrlsladkeypc.
6.  Download Google Drive onto your laptop.  This will enable you to store files directly to your folder on your laptop and thus straight to your students. https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375078?hl=en
7.  Now, you can start putting things into this folder.  Remember that anything you put into this folder can be seen by your students.  You can actually put word files, pictures, powerpoints, movie clips and pdfs.    I would start by creating unit folders within this master folder.  Things like Chapter 1 Functions.  They will all have public permissions because your master folder is already public.  Here is the best thing of all.  Whenever you make a worksheet, simply drop a copy into your Student Folder on your Google Drive and your students will be able to access it.  Give it a try and let me know how it turns out.
Best,
Dave

Geogebra: The Unit Circle and the Reference Angle.

A couple of colleagues of mine have been showing me things in Geogebra.  I tried it this week with a unit circle problem.  It turned out great.  I had each student/pair with a computer in front of them.  We went over the Unit Circle and the students used the laptop or iPad to maneuver around the GeogebraTube post that I had made.  My colleague called this COMPANION Technology.  (They used it with their learning) Many of the students started out using the digital Unit Circle and manipulating it.  However, as time went on, many stopped using the digital technology and just did the work in their head or on paper. There was a homework assignment that involved the digital Unit Circle that I had made in Geogebra.  About half of the students ended up needing it.  The next day the unit circle questions and discussions were amazing.  They really had a conceptual grasp of it.
Here is the link to the http://geogebratube.com/student/m69795  to see the unit circle geogebra worksheet.  Please note the questions at the bottom of the page.

Steps I took to get this up and running.
1.  Download Geogebra to your desktop.  http://www.geogebra.org/cms/en/download/
2.  Make an interactive Geogebra File.  (see intro to geogebra youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwNru3Znsfk  I used this video to help me:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG0F49XBJO0
3.  Save the file to a place where you can remember to retrieve it.
4.  Go to Geogebratube.org  http://geogebratube.org/  You will need to login.
5.  Upload your file to Geogebratube and fill in all needed information.
6.  Get the link of your upload and distribute it to your students.

I hope you can give Geogebra a try,
Dave

I'm Still Deciding about Flipping the Classroom

The Flipped Classroom Craze is out.  I'm still not completely sold on it.  I need more convincing that it will work for me.   (Flipping the class is having students do traditional classwork at home online through videos or websites and then doing activities and homework in class)  Here are my thoughts.  Please give me yours.  

Pros

• There is value in having students doing preparatory work before class instead of work that is all after the fact (homework)
• I like the idea of having more 1 on 1 time with my students.
• Homework will get a better start because you will have a network of people including the teacher to help you.
• Differentiated learning is much easier to accomplish in this setting.

Cons

• Watching a video is not always the best way of learning something
• Class discussions and engaging activities are vital in the learning process and they might be limited in the completely flipped classroom.
• The classroom environment will be less about the whole team and more about the individual
• Structured learning will decrease
• Not all students have easy access to the internet. 

Moot Point

• Not all students will prepare for the class.  This means that in the flipped classroom they might not do the prep work before class.  In the traditional class they might not do the homework.

I think a combination of flipping and regular might be a possibility for me.  I'm not ready to jump ship completely to flipped, but I like many of the Pros of flipping the classroom.  One thing I do know is that I don't want my students to watch a long "lecture" every night.  I would have to incorporate great online investigations (Geogebra or Desmos Calculator activities)  and some things they could discover on their own and then gather them back the next day to discuss what they did.

STILL DECIDING!!!!!!

Helping our MATH students through EXERCISE!

Please join me in a Move and Learn Journey.  Paul Zientarski talks about how we can use PE Class and Math Class to work together to help our students.   Paul Zientarski was the PE Department Chair at Naperville Central High School for many years.  He was the pioneer along with Phil Lawler for the Learning Readiness PE Program (LRPE).  More information is at his website www.learningreadinesspe.com  There a a few videos that you will find very interesting.  I have listed them here:

Why do kids do better in school after exercise? 
What happens to your brain after you exercise? 
A Program that has PE directly before MATH and ENGLISH Classes: LRPE 
What Steps Should a PE Teacher take to start a LRPE (Learning Readiness Physical Education) Prog
What is the Ideal PE class to help students physically and academically? 
There is tremendous value in heart rate monitors in school part 1 
There is tremendous value in heart rate monitors in school part 2 
There are challenges when implementing the LRPE prgram 
What a student should do BEFORE their Standardized Test. 
What roles do the Administrator and Classroom Teacher play in the LRPE program 

Why do kids do better in school after exercise? 

What happens to your brain after you exercise? 

A Program that has PE directly before MATH and ENGLISH Classes: LRPE 

What Steps Should a PE Teacher take to start a LRPE (Learning Readiness Physical Education) Prog

What is the Ideal PE class to help students physically and academically? 

There is tremendous value in heart rate monitors in school 

There is tremendous value in heart rate monitors in school part 2 

There are challenges when implementing the LRPE prgram 

What a student should do BEFORE their Standardized Test. 

What roles do the Administrator and Classroom Teacher play in the LRPE program 

Paul Zientarski is a retired PE Teacher and Instructional Coordinator at Naperville Central High School in Naperville IL.  He along with Phil Lawler are the pioneers of the "Learning Readiness P.E. program.  This is where students take an activity based PE class before their core academic classes like Math and English.  He is a speaker and consultant.  You can follow Paul at @PaulZientarski on twitter.  His website is at www.learningreadinesspe.com


Follow @PaulZientarski    Follow @dsladkey

Just DO MATH!

Do MATH!  This summer I keep on thinking how I want my students to do math.  Actually DO MATH.  Meaning I want them to use their hands to explore and accomplish MATH.  I want them to measure with a ruler or tape measure.  I want them to use a protractor.  I want them to investigate with some actual data that they have collected.  I want them to construct.  I want them to cut and paste.  I want them to use pipe cleaners.  I want them to use Wikistix to create a graph.  They should be actually constructing something and numbers should be going through their heads.

Let me give you two phrases and you choose the one you like the best.
1.  Regurgitate math
2.  Experience math
Exactly.  I would choose 2 also.  But what do we make our students choose time and time again? Yep, #1.  

Here is the origin of this idea Do MATH.  Last spring I had my Precalculus students use a 30-60-90 triangle in a video.  Basically they had to construct a 30-60-90 triangle to help them explain some other concept that we were covering. Interestingly, the students didn't have any trouble with the concept we were covering but they did have major questions of "How do I make a 30-60-90 triangle?"  This was just mind-boggling to me.  These are the students who could tell you the exact distances of each side of a 30-60-90 triangle for just about any length of any side.  Now they wanted to know how to construct it?  Well, I had to rethink my own teaching.  Have I ever taught them how to make a 30-60-90 triangle?  Have they ever had the practical end of the trigonometry?  So I realized that my students are not at fault.  I AM AT FAULT!!!!!  I need to have my students DO MATH.  I will make time because I don't want my students to walk out of my class without some practical knowledge of their math instead of just theory.

WikiStix

Here are the ideas that I have been thinking about.  I have included the level for when this might be covered. You will notice there are a lot of Introduction to Algebra and Precalculus Ideas.  That is what I'm teaching now.
1.  Precalculus:  Construct a 30-60-90 triangle with cardboard or some other material.  One side must be at least 10 inches.   Justify in two ways that you know this is exactly a 30-60-90 triangle.    Others:  Construct a 45-45-90 triangle.
2.  Introduction to Algebra:  Build a Balance Scale.  Use any materials needed for the project.  You will be using pennies as your "weights".  You will be required to show the penny weight of a few different objects.  Notes:  I see this as an important link in how to solve equations.  This scale could be used when solving different equations.
3.  Introduction to Algebra:  Create a number line on the floor with blue masking tape.  You should mark out the numbers from -5 to 5.  Each number should have 10.5 inches between them.  You will be using these to add and subtract integers by standing up and moving to a problem.
4.  Precalculus:  Make a WikiStix parabola.  You must make it to be at least 15 inches in one direction.  You must be ready to justify why you know this is a parabola.   You must give the equation for the parabola.
Other ideas:  Create a sine graph. Create a  tangent graph.
5.  Introduction to Algebra:  Create a circle and  rectangle that have exactly 50 square inches of area inside.
6.  Precalculus:  Create a WikiStix triangle that shows how the ambiguous case is solved.


I have so many questions about this.
1.  Should I have a DO MATH day?  This might take up the whole class period.
2.  Should I have a DO MATH segment?  This would take up only a 15 minute class segment.
3.  How often should this happen?  Once a week?  Once a month?
4.  Ideas?  I definitely would need some ideas for this to occur.  See below for my short list.  Please comment and add to them.

All the Best,
Dave

Top 10 Important Things from this Semester (SMARTBoard Notebook File)

The Sunday School Teacher in Church yesterday made a Top 10 activity with bible stories.  He put 10 poster sized papers on the wall that had information on it.  The posters were folded to hide the info.  He then asked us to guess his top 10 miracles of Jesus.  People guessed and then he revealed any that were accurately given.  He had made a key so that when people guessed, he could just look at his key and find the right poster to reveal.  I decided that was a pretty cool idea and modified it for my class.  I'm using it for my final exam review sessions.  You can see a few of the slides below.  I had the students work with their partner to come up with a few guesses so in case they got called, they would be ready.  Feel free to download and edit as much or as little as you like.

My Top 10 Precalculus Trig Ideas for the Semester (SMART Notebook File)

PDF of My Top 10 Precalculus Trig Ideas for the Semester

Top 10 SMART Notebook File (empty...ready to fill in)

Opening Slide

Slide Number 1

Graphing Polar Coordinates with your FEET. Move and Learn!

This video demonstrates students plotting polar coordinates by actually moving their feet. It's just another way to move and learn. When you physically plot the point with your feet it cements the process in your mind. Use blue masking tape on the ground and plot some points with your students. It's as easy as that. 

The students are plotting the point (3, 150 degrees) on the ground.  They found out another way to plot it was (3, -210 degrees)

I would you encourage you to buy some blue tape and plot ANY type of point or graph with FEET!  You will be amazed at the retention that your students will have.

Want more move and learn?  www.learningreadinesspe.com