Warm Up

ICTM Western Regional Presentation – Thinking Mathematically from Minute One

laviemathématique

Here are my slides and documents from my presentation for the ICTM Western Regional Math Conference on 4/28/17. Please reach out to me if you have any questions or want to bounce ideas off me!

Thinking Mathematically from Minute One Slides

Downloads:
Handout: .docx (editable)       .pdf
Warm Up Sheet: .docx (editable)    .pdf

Screen Shot 2017-04-27 at 9.45.50 AMscreen-shot-2017-01-27-at-10-57-49-pm

Links:

Please share with me if you end up using any of the resources that were shared in this presentation. I love to hear how you make these things work in your classroom!

MMC Thinking Mathematically in Daily Warm Ups Presentation

laviemathématique

Here are my slides and documents from my presentation for the MMC Conference of Workshops on 1/28/17. Please reach out to me if you have any questions or want to bounce ideas off me!

Thinking Mathematically in Daily Warm Ups Google Slides

Downloads:
Handout: .docx     .pdf
Warm Up Sheet: .docx (editable)    .pdf

screen-shot-2017-01-27-at-10-57-25-pmscreen-shot-2017-01-27-at-10-57-49-pm

Links:

Please share with me if you end up using any of the resources that were shared in this presentation. I love to hear how you make these things work in your classroom!

 

 

I Have A Real Hard Time With Number Talks And I Need Help

laviemathématique ,

I Have A Real Hard Time With Number Talks And I Need Help

That’s it.

Well it could be, but I’ll elaborate 🙂

So I really do like the concept of number talks. Using things like Fawn’s http://www.mathtalks.net/ and http://www.visualpatterns.org/. Using Sara’s Visual Pattern strategy. Doing dot talks and having the kids use a thumbs up and then additional fingers to indicate how many ways they can visualize or find the solution. I think it’s great and I want to do it all in my classes. But I just haven’t been able to get it to work. It’s always just like 10% of the class that is actually into it, others just putting a thumbs up so I can move on and then saying “I don’t know” when I ask them to share. These number talk days also take the longest out of all my warm ups, probably because I want to go farther into them than most students want to. And it kills me because we’d get great work done on the patterns or number talks, but really it would be me and a few other students and the others would just be checked out, waiting for me to finish so they could copy it down.

As I’m writing this, I am realizing Dylan just basically posted about the same thing, and he actually put out a possible solution. Thank you Dylan. The issue I see in my classes for Dylan’s method is that it just takes a lot of time. I no longer have the luxury of the 90 minute block. I have 50 minutes, and that’s not a lot of time. But it might be a good idea to try this with partner work for a little bit next semester. Maybe I can shave it to 1-2 minutes on your own, 1 minute partner share, 1-2 minutes full class discussion? Maybe I just stay satisfied with not getting to the formula in the warm up unless we fly through it.

I will say this, though: I have way more students engaged in the visual patterns than in the number talks, like which is greater out of 88 x 36 or 86 x 38. I think numbers just freak some kids out.

I really really really want to keep doing visual patterns at least in my warm ups, but I just don’t know if I can make it actually happen for all of my students. Any other helpful hints? Does anyone else have this experience?

Une note incohérente, mais j’ai besoin d’aide.

Warm Up Plan for This Year #MTBoSBlaugust

laviemathématique ,

MTBOSBlaugust2016

I probably should have had a plan before the school year started, but here’s what I’m thinking for warm ups this year:

Monday – Estimation 180

Tuesday – Number Talk/Visual Patterns like what Sara says (even though she says to do it all in a row instead of once per week but oh well)

Wednesday – Notice and Wonder with 101qs

Thursday – Debate with Would You Rather Math and Which One Doesn’t Belong

Friday – Reflection (one good thing, what you learned, what you need help with) and a different warm up each week. Set, counting circles, graphing stories, other fun things from Lisa and Jessica’s TMC16 session. That could be a terrible idea or maybe it’ll be great. I don’t know. We’ll see.

I want to go back to having a sheet for warm ups. Here’s what I have so far. What do you guys think I should change? I’ll make it all pretty this weekend.

Daily Warm Up Sheet (docx)

Daily Warm Up Sheet (pdf)

M’aidez s’il vous plaît.

Teacher Report Card Results (Part 3) #MTBoS30

laviemathématique , ,

This is the part that I made optional for my students. It’s very specific to certain things I do in my classroom. Parts 1 and 2 are here and here.

Which Daily Warm Up was your favorite? (34 responses)

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What do you think the benefits to the Daily Warm Ups were? (34 responses)
  • They got your brain going before you had to try and comprehend the lesson which helps in first hour classes.
  • give you time in the morning before going straight to serious math, got everybody talking as a class
  • to get your brain flowing
  • It got our brains going in the morning and helped us get rolling.
  • They got us thinking early in the morning.
  • Set our brains up to get ready to learn and understand math, especially in the morning.
  • Gets our brain thinking early and ready to focus.
  • gives us sometime to wake up and start thinking
  • It was a fun and positive way to start the class off and it got everyone involved
  • Wake your brain up and prepare you for math
  • woke you up
  • Helps us to prepare our brains for math and thinking in the morning before we start the lesson
  • To start thinking about math
  • Review on the math skills
  • Since this is 1st hour i think it wakes your brain up. like a little eyeopener.
  • They were just fun.
  • They were to help get our brains functioning in a mathematical way
  • There weren’t many in my opinion. Especially in the calculus level, this really didn’t have
  • It got us focused on class and we were able to get a little of that crazy energy out.
  • so we know what we are doing and if we learned how to do it
  • having some fun in class
  • getting your brain started
  • To get our minds ready for math class, especially with it being first hour.
  • It gets the class started on math and getting involved in class
  • Exercise the brain before learning something new
  • It forces you to think
  • We begin to think about things mathematically
  • Gives you a chance to warm up a little.
  • Helps get your mind focused on math
  • Get us thinking
  • they got us distracted from distractions and got us thinking about math
  • It starts the class of fun and happy it also wakes people up
  • i think they were fun and smart but they weren’t long enough
  • It’s fun

What do you think the drawbacks to the Daily Warm Ups were? (34 responses)

  • Sometimes they took up a lot of time, or people obviously weren’t paying attention every now and then.
  • takes up time especially when people refuse to answer
  • they can be boring and not all students want to participate
  • Takes up class work time at the end of the period.
  • People didn’t want to participate.
  • Not everyone wanted to answer
  • Sometimes we get off topic
  • sometimes they were boring but the estimation was always fun.
  • People didn’t always take it seriously
  • I don’t think there were any
  • using time
  • Took time away from actually learning stuff that we need to go over
  • IDK
  • Took times away from class and could get the class off topic
  • I really don’t think there were any.
  • Took up instruction time and time to practice and work.
  • Some of them were very simple and elementary.
  • They wasted a little bit of time.
  • Sometimes they took a turn then we would start talking about other things but we eventually bring it back to math.
  • I don’t know
  • it takes up some time
  • nothing
  • It took up some time.
  • None!
  • Time Consuming
  • Sometimes getting sidetracked.
  • We were spending less time on learning and our assignments.
  • Might take up a little bit of time.
  • Might take up too much class time
  • They’re tedious
  • we would get off topic soooo bad
  • Some were hard or a little boring. (Yes still have homework presentations but not make everyone have to)
  • idk
  • Sometimes it took up time bc our class talked

Do you believe Ms. Walczak should continue to require Homework Presentations for her classes? (34 responses)

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How many Homework Presentations do you think should be required in a semester in Ms. Walczak’s class? (34 responses)

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Do you think homework should be included in a grade? (This means going around and checking for completion or collecting homework) (34 responses)

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Why? (34 responses)

  • People need homework grades to balance out test grades. People should know in advance if the homework will be graded though.
  • You put effort into learning the material and keeping up with the class so its nice to get some part of your grade that reflects that and it can keep your grade steady
    because the students are not going to do it if you don’t check it
  • i mean yes and no some people don’t take the time to do it but they might already understand the topic so why would they waste their time on homework.
  • I want my work to be counted, and homework grades help to balance out test scores.
  • It should be checked to make sure they understand what they’re doing, because they will not succeed on tests if they don’t know what’s going on.
  • If you do it I think that you should get points to help your grade in the long run.
  • It has to be.
  • I like the idea of having homework as an optional practice
  • If students need a better grade it gives them a chance to get there grade up.
  • because sometimes homework are in subject that we are not comfortable with
  • It is their own fault if they don’t want to do the extra work and don’t understand what we are doing.
  • It would make me want to do my Hw always because it will be some sort of grade
  • Completion grade would be nice to balance out test grades and to get students to do their homework which would be extra review, also not too much homework so not like homework everyday of the week like maybe no homework fridays would be really nice or mondays
  • because that is what is really gonna help people for the assessments.
  • Because grades should also reflect the efforts put in by the students.
  • This is a college level course and students should be prepared for the ways college classes function.
  • Not always, though. You should give homework like once a week, and make sure they know it’s graded. It’s not necessary, because I still learned a lot in Calculus and not once did I even attempt to do the homework. However, I feel like we spent a lot of time reviewing what we learned because by the time I came back to class I forgot everything. I don’t like homework, but if you gave just a few problems for them to do for a participation grade, it might help keep their grades up and also help solidify the information. They might feel more confident with the work if they did some homework every now and then.
  • I think the homework presentations are a good replacement for actual graded homework.
  • because people won’t do it and you can surprise them
  • Because there is so much homework on classes that it’s hard to remember witch ones I have left to do and try to remember everything
  • becasue it puts to much stress on some kids who have lots of other hw
  • It is only for our benefit and they’re easy points.
  • It is just practice for you in the long run so you shouldn’t grade them on how they practice
  • If you know the material you shouldn’t have to learn it again
  • Because it forces you to learn the problems
  • Homework is a big part of learning and helps our grade quite a bit.
  • You should have to do your homework that is assigned.
  • A lot of time, I don’t understand the material when we get to the homework portion of it.
  • Every other teacher does it and it’s a good influence for kids to get their work done.
  • it’s an incentive!
  • I did absolutely no homework in this class I am pretty sure
  • well i think the dice rolling idea is smart because i liked that
  • It can better your grade

[I wish I would have split this into a Why and then a different Why Not but oh well]

What is the purpose of homework? (34 responses)

  • To get better at the subject at hand, and to make sure you’re able to do it without a teacher.
  • to make sure you know how to do the work that you learned in class
  • to review for the test
  • To help improve a skill that needs practice.
  • To practice before a test.
  • To better your understanding and try to do it by yourself without needing teacher’s help.
  • To help you better understand the material.
  • From my perspective i didnt have to do homework everyday to understand it. Most people do it to learn it, but it clicked with me.
  • extra practice to prepare for quizzes and tests
  • Extra practice to help you learn the subject better
  • practice
  • To help better understand the subject we are learning
  • To practice the skill that we are learning in class
  • To review and go over questions in class
  • to practice and study the material
  • To give students extra practice of the material.
  • Practice of the problems
  • I kind of just explained that in the previous question. It would just help solidify the information and help remember how to do the problems with some extra practice.
  • To prepare us for the tests.
  • to know what we are doing right or wrong
  • to make sure you know and understand what you learned in class that day
  • to learn by yourself and understand
  • To help prepare us and practice for our quizzes.
  • To practice for a quiz/test and your final
  • Learn the new material
  • To help learn the topic
  • To practice and further understand the topics.
  • To prepare you for the test.
  • Reviewing material
  • Extra practice for students
  • to keep our minds refreshed on what we learned
  • Extra practice for the tests
  • to get some work done at home so you dont forget it everyday when u come back the
    next day
  • to practice for the test

What comments do you have about the way Ms. Walczak graded assessments in class? (30 responses)

  • none
  • none
  • I like how if you made a calculating error, that didn’t mean you didn’t know how to do something. definitely props to you on that one.
  • I think i liked the dice rolling it was clever and gave us leeway on the days that it was not for colpletion.
  • It got really confusing, because I didn’t understand what all the different marks meant.
  • I like the way she does.
  • It works pretty good. It takes some pressure of us knowing that we can always reassess anything which makes us do better.
  • I loved the way the assesments were graded because it wasn’t really on how many you missed, it was more how much you actually understood about the unit and the parts of the unit.
  • None
  • I liked it. It made students do their homework just in case you rolled a 6.
  • I like the way that you grade Test and Quizzes
  • I dont know never did one
  • they should be worth more points like each question
  • ‘Twas good.
  • I was just confused with how you marked the answers with the different letters, but that isn’t a huge deal/
  • I really liked the way you graded our tests. It was nice to see how close we were and how to fix the problems. It was really nice and helped me learn a lot actually.
  • I think you graded them fairly
  • no
  • its good
  • I really like the way she grades.
  • I like her grading
  • It’s walczastic
  • You were fair and I appreciated that
  • It took quite a bit of getting used to, but when I didn’t do well on a quiz or test
  • Nothing.
  • I liked it
  • I enjoy that we were rewarded every once in a while
  • it was fair & i like that you are open to revision and guilt us into sometimes it helps though
  • None you should continue the dice to grade
  • I like it

[I should have been more clear that I was referring to my quizzes and tests]

Did you ever reassess any goals/assessments? (34 responses)

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What comments do you have about the reassessment process in Ms. Walczak’s class? (31 responses)

  • none
  • none
  • I don’t like doing book work, so possibly if you want to change it up, use a worksheet instead.
  • I LOVED IT
  • I liked it, because it allowed me to raise my grade.
  • Although I haven’t done it, I like that she gives you a chance to reassess so you can get a better grade.
  • It is awesome! It allows me to learn material more in depth.
  • It worked well. I usally waited until i would understand better when we used later on.
  • I wish the reassessment process was a bit easier, just because there is a lot of steps to it
  • None
  • I think that it is a good process
  • I dont know never did it
  • i like it
  • None.
  • I think it is well orchestrated and the process should be continued.
  • I loved it. It helped keep grades up and really helped me understand where I went wrong. I understood the process more after I had to correct my tests and do it over.
  • I think the reassessment process was great. There was always a chance to do better.
  • nope
  • It’s a bit too much
  • its great
  • I love love love the reassessment method. I wish all teachers did this.
  • None!
  • They worked pretty well
  • I think that if you recieved a 3 instead of a 4, you should have to correct your mistake and maybe explain what they did wrong.
  • It’s good.
  • Too complicated (but I understand why it’s like that)
  • It’s a wonderful and helpful thing
  • it was kind of confusing still and i felt like i bothered you staying after and asking dumb questions hahhahaa
  • It was helpful
  • i dont like how we have to do problems to see if we can get the next reassesment right becuase i just need to learn how to do them
  • complicated

Do you feel that if you were absent for Ms. Walczak’s class you would be able to get caught up fairly easily? (34 responses)

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What comments do you have about Ms. Walczak’s absent work procedure? (30 responses)

  • none
  • none
  • none
  • I don’t know if having someone fill out a form is necessary
  • I think that because she moves soooo fast that she needs to have a required after school 20 min meeting to explain everything that happened
  • Its good that they have one of the classmates fill out the little paper so we arent lost
  • It was well organized, but I still didn’t understand what I missed.
  • It works fine.
  • Fine. I was never behind.
  • Its nice to get the notes but I need an explanation on how to do it so I can learn
  • I liked liked having the papers and what we did filled out for me, it helped me jump right back into the class the next day.
  • None
  • Maybe have the student to come in for srt
  • i think it is good
  • They were okay.
  • The procedure is fine, when I am not there for a lecture, it is hard for me to learn what I missed and what is being taught.
  • It was nice, we didn’t have to do much. And the fact that we always review a lot in class helped.
  • I think that procedure is pretty fair. I came in on my own time and I learned the material then.
  • its was good
  • I missed the day where we went over the quadratic formula and I still feel confused about that to this day.
  • None!
  • Pretty simple and works
  • The procedure was almost as good as Limp Bizkit
  • I always just ask for my homework, and you give it to me so I think that works pretty great.
  • I haven’t missed.
  • Don’t have students do the absent sheet because they don’t fill everything out
  • i feel like it wasn’t enforced in our class as much as it should have been
  • None it was also helpful she always kept the students up to date
  • its good for me becuase i never miss any days but idk about others
  • i can’t recall participating

What concept was the most memorable for you this year? Why? (30 responses)

  • Trigonometry, it’s easier for me than most of the other stuff we did.
  • When we divided polynomials. it was so much fun!!!
  • Trig. It was really fun.
  • Quadratic functions, because it took a long time, but I finally understood it.
  • Polynomials, because they were awful and I hated them.
  • The project about guessing the weight of a cow and making a graph about it.
  • Trig. I felt like I could solve anything.
  • probably graphing and such because we worked on it a lot and found some great tools
  • Matrices because they were fairly simple
  • the game that looks like “kahoot” on the chromebook (I don’t remember the name of this game )
  • I liked doing the trig. It was easy to learn and I enjoyed using formulas.
  • Trig
  • The cosine and other functions because we went over them a lot
  • The Quadratic fomula
  • Derivatives. Mrs. Walczak did a good job explaining what a derivative is.
  • Derivatives and integrals
  • Petals around the rose. Polar bears around the ice hole. Planets around the sun.
  • Integrals on the calculator
  • exponents
  • The trig. I loved trig.
  • I liked the midpoint and distance. I don’t know why it is just fun
  • Graphing system of equations to form a picture.
  • I’m not exactly sure to be honest.
  • I really enjoyed and remember trigonometry. It was really fun being able to solve so many triangles.
  • Pretty fair
  • Quadratic formula. It was a challenge when first introduced and once mastered it was really helpful for the rest of the year.
  • derivatives! i know derivatives because i had to learn them every day!
  • Quadratic formula it was fun and we did nice activities
  • probably aleks
  • quadratic

What concept was the most difficult for you this year? Why? (31 responses)

  • Writing equations for graphs, I could just never remember how to do it.
  • matrix everything
  • Porabolas
  • I think that probibility was because not the fact that it was too hard or anything its just one of the most boring things i ever learn in math classes.
  • Probability, I do not understand it at all.
  • Law of Sines/Cosines because our prior sub Geometry teacher before Mr. Mac (for us kids who double blocked) did not teach us as well about SOHCAHTOA and that stuff correctly.
  • Trig haha. But I learned it now!
  • nothing really. Maybe absolute value graphing.
  • Some of the concepts during mid first semester were a little bit tough and the hard
  • polynomials were difficult as well.
  • Probability because I didn’t quite understand it
  • It was quadriadic form because It was sometimes confusing
  • The slope intercept. There were too many things to remember in such little time and
  • I forgot a lot of them.
  • Propobity
  • probability because I missed the review day
  • vertex form things
  • Volume using integration. I didn’t really pay attention, it’s probably my own fault.
  • I’m not sure.
  • Why you wouldn’t laugh at our jokes. Or why you’re not engaged. Or the volume using integration, that too.
  • Derivatives
  • graphing
  • The quadratic formula. It was so complicated.
  • I am not sure
  • None, Because I myself am walczastic.
  • Same thing I can’t quite pick it out.
  • I had a hard time with matrices and the first trig quiz. I wasn’t there for part of matrices so I was a little behind the whole time, and I was just having a bad testing day when I made up the first trig quiz. I could not remember what I was doing.
  • The Guassian thing
  • Probability because I’ve never learned about percentages before or fractions or anything of the sort so this was a bit of a challenge but I like challenges so I was able to over come it.
  • integrals – OMG HELP
  • Polynomials monomials It was hard for me to concentrate
  • none
  • SEQUENCE

What else should Ms. Walczak have asked about in this survey? (24 responses)

  • Nothing
  • Nothing
  • i thought this was an extremely thorough survey!
  • ???
  • Your grade in class
  • Nothing. It was good!
  • Nothing, you covered alot
  • nothing
  • Nothing you asked everything i think
  • You pretty much overed it so I do not know
  • I think you covered it. Maybe what kinds of candy to pass out for next year (blue jolly ranchers).
  • Candy. Basically you should fill the bag with blue jolly ranchers only.
  • nothing else
  • nothing it covered mostly everything 🙂
  • Nothing!
  • What makes Ms. Walczak walczastic
  • You covered everything well
  • I think you’ve covered pretty much everything. I was really thorough.
  • You’re good!
  • “Did you enjoy Ms. Walczak’s first year here?” because I did
  • what can i do to make the class more fun hahahaha
  • Think she covered it all…maybe how did you feel in this class survey like safe or bullied and stuff like that
  • idk but i think theres acouple more
  • IDK

I am so happy that these students decided to continue the survey and answer these questions. They really did help me. I am glad they find benefits to my procedures and they have valid points about the drawbacks. These comments show me what I need to work on and what I should continue.

Mes étudiants me manqueront mais je verrai beaucoup d’eux l’année prochaine.

Student Submitted Daily Warm Ups #MTBoS30

laviemathématique ,

For the month of May, I offered students the chance to submit their own Daily Warm Up. There were 14 school days in May before final exams and I received 15 from students! I only allowed 4 Questions warm ups because I knew those would go quick. I required students to submit a picture or video, give a reason for why this is a good warm up, and give at least two possible responses for the warm up. They could submit Questions (only 4), Estimation, Would You Rather, Which One Doesn’t Belong, or something else. Estimation was the most common. I only got one Which One Doesn’t Belong.

Here’s an example from a student:

Screen Shot 2016-05-28 at 11.15.55 AM.png

She said it’s a good warm up “because you have to use problem solving and there’s the cds for comparing”. She provided the real answer of 4.4 lbs and an underestimate of 1 lb and an overestimate of 20 lbs. She was so proud of this warm up and it was great to see students in the class trying to get information out of her so they could guess closest!

I also had one student submit the game Make 24. My students had so much fun playing it! It’s kind of like Set where students want to find the answer first, so it was a little tough to keep people interested once other students started raising their hand – would have to put some procedures in place if I had this as a warm up next year. But I think this could be a great warm up to reinforce the order of operations and mental math!

The best part about this was that students took pride in their work and other students could see that it wasn’t that difficult to do but got a lot of recognition for being great.

Je suis tellement impressionnée par mes étudiants.