Love is in the Air

With Valentine's Day this past week, math class found some ways to celebrate ;)

First my Algebra students, who have been practicing graphing using Desmos.com got a surprise warm up.

They thought it was pretty corny. But they know to expect corny with me.

My 6th graders practice combining like terms and using the distributive property. They got to do a coloring page based on answering math problems. The page had lots of hearts, but unfortunately I don't have photos of that one.

 My 7th graders went Speed Dating.

Yes, Speed Dating. They love/hate that I call this activity speed dating. The idea behind the activity is that each student gets assigned one problem. They make sure they know the answer to the problem and exactly how to solve it. In essence, they become the "expert" of that problem. The students rotate around the room going on a "date" with a person. You trade "expert problems" with the other person. They solve yours, you solve theirs. If the person gets the wrong answer or doesn't know what to do, you get to help because you are the expert. Until the buzzer goes off and it's time to date someone else. They find it very amusing yet awkward. Here are two shots of a speed date.

 

FOUR Book Reviews

Wow, I've been a bit neglectful of this blog. Sorry for that! To make up for it, I will post FOUR book reviews in one post!

Heartless

by Marissa Meyer

I was so excited for this book. I loved Marisa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles series. A prequel to Alice in Wonderland sounded like a fun route to go after the conclusion of her first series. However, I just didn't have the same reaction to this book as I did to the Lunar Chronicles. I can't put my finger on what it was about the book that just didn't sit in the same way with me. I didn't care for the characters as much, I couldn't imagine the world as much, and I didn't fall into the story as much. Maybe it's a perfectly fine book, but going into the reading of it with Lunar Chronicles in the back of my mind, I couldn't help but be let down a bit.

Wires and Nerve

by Marissa Meyer

After being let down by Heartless, this book brought my spirits back up. This is a graphic novel sequel to the Lunar Chronicles series. The story follows Iko  helping Earth with the aftermath of the series and dealing with being a unique android. All the main characters from the series have a feature in this book so you can see what happened to them and what they are up to. Some characters have more of a prominent role than others, so I would love to have seen more from some of the others, but there is a Part 2 coming out soon. As someone who isn't the biggest reader of graphic novels, I thought it was a fun and quick read. The characters weren't quite like I imagined in my head, but it wasn't distracting, and made it fun to see the story played out in pictures. Now I just have to countdown to Part 2!

By Your Side

by Kasie West

Kasie West is an author I always preorder her books once I see that there's a new one coming out. She writes fun, simple, clean YA stories. I feel comfortable having her books in my classroom library because even though she deals with high school characters, she keeps it clean enough that I don't have to worry about levels of appropriateness. This book is about a girl who gets locked into a library over a long weekend by accident and finds out she's not alone -- there's a boy with a bad reputation stuck in there too. This book was entertaining and I appreciated how, unlike some of her other books, this one gave the main male character development and his own arc. However, I can't say I loved this one. I just felt like some of the plot points and storylines didn't play out well. One of my best friends read this book too and we disagree on our opinions. I would rank this low on the list of Kasie West's books -- she would rank this up at the top as one of her bests. I guess you will have to read it and decide it for yourself.

A Monster Calls

by Patrick Ness

Out of the four books in this post, this is the only one that's not "new". It came out in 2011. I never read it, but I am also one of those people who always wants to read the book before seeing the movie version. This book deliver exactly what it promised -- a gut wrenching tear jerker. The story is about a boy who's mother is sick with cancer. He is struggling to deal with it, and a Monster comes and tells him stories, that at the end deliver a message to him. Quick read that stays with you. I can't even imagine how it will play out on the screen. I knew there was a Monster that comes to the boy, but I didn't except so much of it to be stories told. It causes the book to feel a bit didactic at times and I fear can be a turn off for some students. But then again, this book is not for everyone. The other day a student told me she loved books that make her cry, so of course I had to recommend this book. You need to be ready for a book like this.

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.