Back at it!

2017 has finally shown up! Getting back in the swing of things after that winter break was tough, for me and the students! I tried to keep things interesting with some fun activities. Here's a preview of what we did our first week back

6th Grade learned about writing ratios, simplifying ratios, and equivalent ratios using Smarties

7th Grade applied proportions to similar figures. In one of our centers, they sorted cards into similar or not similar piles.

Algebra finished learning about methods for solving systems of equations and played Chutes and Ladders to practice!

Trying to keep things interesting!

Lunar Chronicles & Graphic Novels

I wanted to share this since I have quite a few students who have recently gotten into The Lunar Chronicles series (you can read my thoughts about it here). The author, Marissa Meyer is making a graphic Novel series following a character, Iko, after the books take place. Graphic Novels are taking the literary world by storm, with many graphic novel versions of popular books coming out. Below, I list a few graphic novels my students might be interested in. However, I wanted to share a preview of the graphic novel for The Lunar Chronicles -- Wires and Nerves. Enjoy this sneak peek, and hold tight until it's released in January! (WARNING: SPOILERS TO LUNAR CHRONICLES IN THE LINK!)

http://www.avclub.com/article/lunar-chronicles-make-their-comics-debut-wires-and-246506

Graphic Novels You Might Like 

Percy Jackson Graphic Novel Series

Legend Graphic Novel Series

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Series Graphic Novel Series

A Wrinkle in Time

Sooo many books have been turned into graphic novels. Just search to see if your favorites have been revamped!

Thankful

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I want to say that I am thankful for my wonderful students. Working at Merchantville these past 4 years has been amazing. I love the building I work in and the people I work with. But most of all -- I love the students I get to interact with on a daily basis. I try my hardest to make class exciting, interesting, challenging, and educational for all the students. I always wish I could capture some of the best moments in my room, but most of the time, I don't have my phone on me or am too busy getting involved in activities. Here are a few snapshots I have of my students doing some activities this year.

My 6th graders said they like practicing skills by finding their answers on puzzle pieces

    

My Algebra class learning about rate of change by doing an experiment based on Aesop's Crow and the Pitcher Fable.

   

 They used desmos.com on our chrome books to graph the results

My apologies to my 7th grade math class. I took pictures of them doing the card sort activity they really enjoy, but somehow those photos went missing :(

I know it's early to make a New Year's Resolution, but I think one of my goals should be to start taking more photos of my students doing activities. It'll remind me of the cool things we do in the classroom and how thankful I am for students who are willing to put the effort in to learn!

Book Club Bookmarks

The Pageturners, Merchantville's Junior High book club had some fun making corner bookmarks. They came out so well that I had to take photos to share!

A corner bookmark is like origami and marks your place by wrapping around the corner of the page, such as below:

I showed a few examples, including an intricate Toothless from How To Train Your Dragon. Look at how amazingly they turned out!

Here are some more great bookmarks!!

 

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

I haven't done a book review for quite sometime, and I've had a few students ask about my opinion on this book, so I figured I would type up my thoughts on this *play* here (not a book!)

I feel like I need to include this disclaimer: I knew every plot point and twist in this play prior to reading. My close friends are all die-hard Harry Potter fans, so I knew that the next time we met, they would want to talk about the book. I didn't want to be confused, so I read a detailed summary of everything before I read the play about a month later. That might have affected by reading because I knew what was going to happen. That being said, my opinion of this story is that it is ..... okay.

You  have to go into your reading of The Cursed Child understanding that it is not a JK Rowling book. It is a play with her help in the writing. It doesn't have the intricate plot and wonderful language and details that readers have become accustomed to with Rowling's writing. It doesn't paint that beautiful, vivid image in your mind because it just a play. We get character dialogue, set descriptions, and some stage prompts. 

The plot is interesting to consider -- what would it be like to be the son of "The boy who lived"? What would it be like if he were a Slytherin and not a Gryffindor? What would it be like if a time turner still existed? It's got some fun ideas about how times could change by affecting one thing in the past. 

One thing I LOVED about this book: Scorpius Malfoy. Yes, the son of Draco Malfoy. He is by far the most interesting and relatable character in that book. He is not like Draco in the books. He is kind, and sweet, and charming, and admits to being "an enormous geek". He is self depricating in a way that brings so much humor to a relatively dark story. He is one of the best developed characters in this story, and I would definitely read a book just about him because I loved every scene he was in. 

However, the rest of the story is not as great as Scorpius. First of all, I thought the play did not depict Harry in a way that I imagine him to be as an adult. It didn't feel like Harry, based on what he does and says. Aside from Harry, the plot itself seems awkwardly paced and jumpy at times. Some plot twists seem so contrived; it's unclear whether you're reading a Harry Potter story or what seems almost like fan-fiction.

Overall, Harry Potter fans will not say no to reading this book. Who doesn't want to revisit that magical story? But I think all Harry Potter fans need to go into a reading of this by understanding it's not going to a Harry Potter book. It's just a supplement. I think that will help taper off any disappointment in the story.

Math Mahjong

I have just found a new, highly addictive math game. It's Mahjong.... but with math terms. The goal is to click the tiles to make a mathematically true equation  (but remember your order of iperstions!!). Only the tiles on the ends of each row are lit up and avaliable. So if you run out of equal signs and need to get to one, you need to incorporate all the tiles on the edge of the tile's row before it is avaliable. Once you get the hang of it, it can be fun to make challenging combinations using multiple signs. It reminds me of the Number Challenge activity I have in my classroom. Check it out below (I think the link only works on Google Chrome).


http://www.mathjong.com/ChromeMathjong.php

If I remember correctly, my high score was about 72,000. Can you beat my score??

Math Notebooks

By now, some people may have noticed that I take our class notes and notebooks pretty seriously. Why do I do that? Why do I make students keep a table of contents? Why do I make students cut out colored paper and glue it into their notebooks? Why spend time color coding things?

Well, I guess it comes from the idea that I'm not a textbook teacher. We don't have a textbook open on our desks when we're learning or investigating. Our textbook is a resources for practice problems or extra help. Instead, I like helping students understand math through discussions, investigations, reflections, and visual aides. It's great to do math this way -- but sometimes can hinder students when it comes to studying, or reviewing information. Some students just don't know what should be in their notebooks.

Let's all face it -- at one point you forgot something and needed notes to help you. Or you had a series of steps to complete and needed the list to help you remember what to do. This is why I make my students take nice notes. Because I want something user friendly and helpful to use as a resource. I want something that breaks down information in a way that they'll remember and understand it.

I've seen students when they take notes their own way. Some students blow my mind by how they highlight key words, color code problems, put stars and symbols next to big ideas. But I've also seen some with words and numbers just randomly thrown on pages, steps written in paragraph from so it's impossible to quickly follow, or the worst .... the blank notebooks from the student who "didn't need this stuff"

So we make our notebooks a bit detailed than most to ensure all the information we need, be it from a textbook, class discussion, an investigation or activity, are all in one spot; our notes are organized so that everything can be quickly found and understood; and everything is there.

Hopefully my students see that their notes are a resource --- not just something you do to make the teacher happy!