Fun Times in the Middle School

Two things happened this week that made me laugh or smile.  The first was the picture below:

 

Our male students are required to wear ties on "Eucharist days" and this particular tall student came in late to class because of an orthodontist appointment.  Well...he didn't know how to tie a tie, so his friend came to the rescue.  At one point the shorter boy tried to tie it from behind the taller one and it was quite comical!

 

The second fun thing that happened, was the girls won!  We play this wonderful Smart Board game that I acquired from some wonderful teachers at an NCTM conference.  This particular game you either win 100 points for getting the problem right or lost 100 points if your team gets it wrong.  At one point today, the girls were in the positives and the boys in the negatives...the girls said I should have taken a picture then.

 

Now I know I shouldn't celebrate one gender over the other...last time the boys won, so I was glad the girls won this time.  They said we should keep a running record to see who wins at the end of the year!  They are very competitive!

If you would like a copy of this game, shoot me an email and I can send it to you.  It can be adapted for any subject and any level...you just type in your own questions!  leslieadams@aseschool.org



Enter with Integers

Today my Pre-Algebra students reviewed adding and subtracting integers.  Last year they worked with two-colored counters and talked extensively about zero pairs.  The game "Enter with Integers", from Exploring Algebra and Pre-Algebra with Manipulatives by Don Balka, was a great way for them to refresh their memories and get up to speed.  The students did a wonderful job and once we removed the counters and practiced integer problems without the counters, I could see that they really understood how to add and subtract!

Return of the Stacking Cups!

Wow!  What a great day!  Today we did the stacking cup activity again. (See August 29 Blog Post)  This lesson is so amazing and gives me such incite on the learning level of my students.  Their thought process was completely different than last year's students.  Now, this may have been to my directions or lack or directions, but it was so cool to see the answers they came up with and what their thought process was of getting to that answer.  Here are some pictures of students engaged in the problem.

CTR our new motto!

This school year I will begin my 16th year of teaching middle schoolers!  When I began getting my room together I decided I was tired of all of my old posters, rules, decorations and needed some change in the classroom.  Of course, one of my favorite websites these days is Pinterest so I used it to help me come up with some new ideas.

My first new idea to implement is my class motto..."CTR: Choose the Right!"  I could give the students a list of all these rules about being on time, being respectful, coming prepared, but isn't it really all about doing the right thing and making good choices?  I stressed making good choices a lot at the end of last year and this motto is really what I want to teach the students.  I don't want my class to just be about making right choices to be a good student, but making right choices to be a good person.  Here is a picture of my new motto:

 

My second new addition to the classroom is another sign I saw on Pinterest.  I tend to be a very strict teacher on the outside and I definitely keep my students on task in class.  However, the more I teach, the more I love and care for my students and I don't think they get to see that side of me.  I truly mean each of these statements on my sign and I hope my students this year will feel more comfortable coming to me with questions and knowing that I really am on their side.

 Here's to a great year!!

LiftOff Summer Institute

This summer I was fortunate to be selected to attend a NASA LiftOff Summer Institute.  The institute was for science and math teachers to come to NASA in Houston and learn about all the happenings going on with space and how we can integrate activities into our classroom.  Wow, did I learn some amazing stuff!  Did you know that we currently have a space vehicle in flight to Mars?!  During our conference we learned all about NASA's mission to Mars.  I never would have imagined all the teamwork that goes into making these missions work!

Here were my top five favorite things of the week:
1)  We learned all about robots that are being designed to use in space.
2)  We had a speaker talk to us about the design of the new space suit!
3)  I got to meet two real astronauts who have both been on the International Space Station.
4)  The Neutral Buoyancy Lab!  A huge pool that has a life-size model of the ISS in it. This is where the astronauts do part of their training and practice the tasks they will perform in space.
5)  My most favorite was the Challenger Space Mission!  We did this at the Houston Museum of Natural History.  We pretended to first be on a space shuttle and our team at home had to help us land on the Moon.  Then, I got to be in Mission Control and help the next crew land on Mars.  It was all pretend, but we learned so much about working together and about what it takes to be a member of the real life Mission Control!

Here are some pictures from our week!

 Both Mr. Morris and Mrs. Wilson also attended the conference.  Here we are pictured on the Kemah Boardwalk in Galveston on the first night.

 Getting ready to enter the shuttle!  Our job was to put together a space probe and launch it...we didn't know it at the time, but this was a very important part of the mission.  I am pictured with Jennifer Pastor, a teacher from Louisiana, who we befriended during the week.  We were a great team!!

 Waiting to see if our probe launched successful..it did!

 Sitting on the other side in Mission Control.  We got a "top secret" note that said the probe had nuclear weapons on it and if we didn't instruct our crew correctly we could wipe out Earth!  We didn't wipe out Earth.

 This was my favorite astronaut that we met, Tim Kopra!  I was amazed at his strong character and values..he made you want to be a better person and teacher!

The Neutral Buoyancy Lab.  Isn't it amazing!

Recipes and Proportions

What a fun day we had last week!  My Pre-Algebra classes have been working on proportions and I really wanted to do something fun and have them see how you can use proportions in your every day life.  I decided to take a no cook salsa recipe and queso recipe and have the students increase or decrease the recipes.  We looked at the servings for each recipe and I had each class decide how many servings they wanted to make.  I did it this way because I didn't want it to be as easy as just doubling the recipe.  It was then up to them to decide how much of each ingredient we needed using proportions. 

The next day was cooking day!  The students did such a great job and I think they learned a lot more than just how to use proportions.  I couldn't believe that some of them didn't know how to use a can opener and was amazed to see how some of them had such great knife skills!  It was a great lesson all around and the students really enjoyed it!

Play Doh and Nets!

Happy New Year!  My Pre-Algebra classes are beginning the new year talking about surface area.  They are always a hard bunch to keep entertained so I decided we would explore the nets of our figures with Play Doh.  The students were deathly silent as they cut, sculpted and created their figures!  It was wonderful to see them so engaged and able to understand how to make each figure.  One of the most difficult parts of understanding how to calculate surface area and volume is to be able to visual the object or be able to draw it.  I think we took a positive step today in fully understanding what they shape looks like!  Thanks Mrs. Wilson and Ms. Wood for letting me borrow your cameras too!