Day 72: Virtual Diabetes

After my disastrous picture yesterday, I had to really up my game.  So I did this:

Answers I got from friends on Facebook:

We function in base 10 because Chuck Norris has 10 fingers.  That is the only reason
Chuck Norris knows every digit of pi.
90 degree angles are only "right" because Chuck Norris said so.
Chuck Norris once roundhouse kicked an integer.  This was how fractions were invented.
Chuck Norris is his won abelian group.
X solves for Chuck Norris.

If you have better ones, please add them in the comments!

After I received my copy of Chocolate Fix, and read a blog post about using it to teach congruent triangles, I decided I wanted to do it in class.

So I spend the morning making a basic Promethean flipchart with a board, pieces and clues for 7 puzzles of increasing difficulty.  After I explained the basic rules, we went over the first puzzle together.  In geometry, I had them work the rest individually or with their groups.  After it seemed like most of the groups were done, I had them tell me where to place 1 piece along with their reasoning of WHY that piece went where they put it.

My most frequent question today was "How do you know that it goes here and not here?"  They did an amazing job of explaining their reasons, using conditional statements.

"If we put this piece in the top, then the pink triangle will overlap with the square and that can't happen."

We made it through all of the puzzles and had a little bit of time to talk about Mr. Vaudrey's Mullet Lesson and Mr. Kraft's Toothpicks.  They were VERY excited and claimed that they would be the class to help put me on the map of math ed bloggers.  I'm touched that they want to help me!


We did the same activity in pre-algebra with anticipated results.  After a slow start, the kids got REALLY into it, working on white boards, paper and, one group with the physical board.  They were hunched over the board, arguing animatedly about which piece went where.

Their attention waned fairly quickly when the puzzles got harder, however, because, as I've stated before, the main problem that the students in this class have is their lack of persistence.  If they don't get something solved in 20 seconds, they give up.  With the intermediate level puzzles, they stuck with them until they were solved: 8-10 minutes.  With the advanced, they gave up after 3 and they only glanced at the expert before quitting.

Lesson for the next time I do this activity:  Have several clue pages already printed out for kids who finish a puzzle early.


In between classes, I spent 45 minutes reordering objects on my Promethean Board so that colored objects and shapes would always be on top when we slid clues around.

I know how to use my time wisely!

In the second class, the kids were MUCH more interested and engaged and lasted all the way through, asking if they could play with the pieces on the board.  This type of activity was CLEARLY up their alley!


I am VERY ready for this weekend.  Today was a good day, but this was a VERY long and trying week.

Day 67: GAMES!!!

I have no coherent plan for my classes.  At some point, I'll write a longer post about curricula, but that won't be today.  I have a general idea of my goals.  I want my students to be able to leave my room as better critical thinkers than when they came in.  I'm finding myself caring MUCH less about the mathematics than about the problem solving skills.  To this end, I have been mixing up my activities, not letting anyone get too comfortable, but still feeling safe.  I want them to be able to adapt to whatever situation they are thrown into and find a way to deal with it, work through it and find a satisfactory solution (satisfactory to them.)

So today was game day!!

I have quite a collection of games on various topics, but all basically surrounding logic, planning and strategy.  Several of them are pattern recognition and identification as well.  Most of them are chosen because they are more obscure and I want kids branching out and learning new games, developing new strategies.  I gave a very brief introduction to each game and then used ClassDojo to pick students at random to choose the games they wanted to play.

In geometry, the engagement level was 100%!

Students persisted in learning the rules of complicated games because it looked cool and stuck with them until the end.  There were cooperative games, and competitive games, group games and solo games!  The games range from concrete mathematical skills to abstract linguistic skills and more.  Students had a great variety to choose from and if they didn't like one, they went and picked another.  They did an amazing job of taking turns and joining groups they wouldn't normally join so they could try out a new game.

They took the time to patiently explain the rules of games to others as they joined a group.

In pre-algebra, the students worked with EXACTLY the same level of persistence that they display with everything else they do.  The kids who give up easily on my assignments gave up and moved to another game when the rules took too long to understand.  The kids who work hard and persist in my assignments, regardless of difficulty, stayed with their games until completion AND chose more complicated games.

I may not be up on my educational theory, but I think this may be a great counterexample to the idea of "engagement."  If I have students who never engage, regardless of  my lessons or activities, then those clearly there is something else at play other than how "engaging" my lessons are.

At the same time, several students didn't want to take the time to read the instructions or find out how certain games were played, so they made up their own rules!  It was fascinating to see how these games, many of which they had never seen before, could be played in ways other than intended.  I think this speaks volumes for allowing students to explore their environments.


I worry deeply about the thought that ALL students are able to be engaged, if only the teacher were good enough, or able to find the secret formula.

I think there are some students who simply will not engage in the traditional public school setting.  I think there is a place where every kid can thrive and become the best they can, but it isn't always in an environment that I can offer. 

With that said, I can never know which kids are the ones who won't engage.  It's always possible that I just haven't hit the right activity or lesson to pull them in.  Also, I have a strong personality and I know that there are some kids who will never work for me, no matter how I try to engage them.  Just because I know that there are kids who will never engage doesn't mean I can ever stop trying.

I have to ALWAYS try to engage every student.  I just can't beat myself up if it doesn't happen.  I tell my students that they should be proud of whatever grade they earn, as long as they worked to the best of their ability.  I need to apply this to myself.

Not every student can get an A on every test in every class.

Not every teacher can engage every student.

But we have to teach as though we can.



Game days clearly need to happen more often.  I have to figure out how.  I can't have it as a "reward" because I think it implies that games are only for rewards instead of as a means to learning.  I might set it up as a station and assign kids certain days while I work with others.