Parallel Lines INB Sneak Peek

File for the Post: Parallel Lines INB Sneak Peek

Below are some interactive notebook ideas for a Parallel Lines unit.

Parallel Lines, Skew Lines, and Parallel Planes Foldable: 

This is a newly created foldable that I am planning to use with Mrs. Atwood's activity for introducing parallel lines, skew lines, and parallel planes. Students will discuss whether two lines are parallel or skew. 

Parallel Lines Cut by a Transversal Foldable: 

I have used this foldable for the past three years but I do need to change "Same-Side Exterior Angles" to "Consecutive Interior Angles" (ducks head in shame). I really haven't changed this setup in the past 3 years since it seems to be working. We also play a dance, dance, transversal game with our fingers on the foldable (my room is way too small for students to be able to stand up). Students find it funny and always get a good laugh out of it :) 

Congruent Vs. Supplementary Card Sort and Chart: 

These pages are really aimed to help my ELL and special education students. I find that card sorts really help my lower level students. After this, students make a group poster over parallel lines (I will upload a picture as soon as I get back to work). 

Parallel Lines w/ Algebra INB Pages:

This is pretty simple but students will be doing 6 example problems in their notebook. After this, I am planning for students to logon to their Google Classroom account and complete the following "maze activity."You can find the Google activity when you click here.

Any other fun parallel lines foldables or activities out there? Thanks for reading!

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Google Collinear and Coplanar Digital Activity

File for the post: Google Collinear and Coplanar Digital Activity

I was able to successfully reserve Chromebooks for my Points, Lines, and Planes unit. I really wanted an activity that goes well with these interactive notebook pages. 

I decided to go with a Google Slides activity for my special education resource classes that they can draw and text on. Students are able to move the dots on questions 1-4 and able to circle and insert textboxes on questions 5-7. 

I want students to draw shapes and label them based on the questions. For example, on question 8, I want students to draw two lines, name them, and label their intersection.

Any other fun digital activities out there over points, lines, and planes?

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Triangle Congruence Proofs Book

I received a lot of requests to upload my Triangles Congruence Proofs Book so I'm going to upload the document to this post. I made this for my special education inclusion classes so that they are given some hints to filling out the two column proofs. If you want one without the scrambled statements and reasons, let me know and I can upload one that is blank. Also, if I made any mistakes, please let me know and I will fix them as soon as possible since I will be teaching this topic in November.

I know that teachers prefer different ways to teaching proofs. I prefer to go through the givens until I reach a congruency statement. I have students highlight the congruency statements so that they know once they reach three congruences, then they have proved the two triangles congruent.

I also have my students label their picture as they go through the givens.

Also, if you need help copying the pages let me know. I tried to make it where you copy the pages front to back as you go through the document. For example, pages 1 and 2 of the PDF will be copied front to back.

Here is the file: 
Triangle Congruence Proofs Book

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Class Sizes

I teach at a big school that has over 3,500 students and over 200 teachers. I absolutely love the school that I work with but with that big of a population, big class sizes become very common. Last year, I had over 30 students in every class. At the beginning of the year, my class sizes started off at 25-27 but gradually increased throughout the school year. By the end of the school year, the pre-AP classes have class sizes ranging from 15-20 students while the on-level classes have about 30 students.

My classroom management is actually better with larger class sizes. Crazy, huh? Maybe, it's because my demeanor changes and I know that I could lose control of a big class if I don't enforce our classroom rules consistently and fairly.

These are my student statistics: 35% of my students are in special education, 10% are English Language Learners, 30% are regular on-level students, and 25% dropped from pre-AP. So, I have students that need a lot of assistance and some that can teach themselves the material without any help. I have students that finish assignments twenty minutes early and some that finish two days later.

I've already looked at my class sizes this year and some classes are over 25 already.... So maybe some class sizes will reach 35 students this year???

I'm looking for more instructional strategies that will allow students to help each other more while I can focus on the students who need my assistance the most. I love the "green pen" idea so I stocked up on 25 green pens. :)

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Google Slides for Group Work w/ Points, Lines, and Planes

This post is an digital version of a previous activity (click here). I decided to do a digital version because I have two new geometry resource classes that have very small class sizes. One class has 9 students and the other has 5 students. My goal is to reserve our technology (iPads, computer lab, or Chromebooks) on a rotation so I am able to "go digital."

There are two options for this activity and I am undecided on which one I want to use.

Option 1: Students work on it independently and are able to draw on every slide. Students share the Google Slides with their teacher when they are finished.






Option 2: Students find the slide with their name on it (they will only write on this slide). With this option, students are able to see other classmates work. I may assign one problem to each student and then go back over it as a class. If I decide to have students edit the same file, then I will copy and paste the second slide and write down each student's name at the top.








For more detailed information on using collaborative Google Slides, click here.


Here is the Google Slide if you wish to use this: Points, Lines, and Planes Showcase

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New School Year Goals

This month, I am participating in the #MTBoSBlaugust challenge. You can find a list of participants when you Click Here. My goal is to blog every day this month!

Here are several of my goals this school year:

1. Encourage others to try something new. 
There are two Geometry teachers on my team that will not incorporate technology, activities, or foldables into their teaching. I really want to encourage them this year to step outside of their comfort zone and be able to successfully implement some new strategies. I am currently trying to come up with good ways to help make this happen.


2. Blog at lease once a week.
I want to blog at least once a week. I found that blogging allows me to reflect on what went well, what sucked, or what needs improvement.  Countless ideas and activities were born in the middle of writing a blog post.  I'm still relatively new to blogging (started in January) but I hope to be able to go back and search for previous lessons and see what did/did not work.


3. Ask more questions.
I want to ask more questions. I know I ask a lot of questions after a lesson, but I feel like I don't ask enough questions during a lesson. I'm going to print a list of questions to put on my desk to help remind me.


4. Attend more extra-curricular activities.
Students notice whenever a teacher attends extra-curricular activities. Anytime a student sees me at an extra-curricular activity, their faces light up and they get so excited! When students see you at their games or events, they start to realize that you care. This helps promote a positive school culture and a positive classroom environment. I do not understand why some teachers complain about having to attend "one" campus service event a year. I find it exciting and fun to be able to interact with past, current, and future students in a different school setting.


5. Be able to balance home, work, and school life. 
I am definitely an overachiever. I always put too much on my plate and this year, I decided to go back to school to get my masters.  I am nervous to see how going back to school will play out when I am back at work. I hope to find a schedule that allows me to balance my work, home, and school life efficiently without getting too stressed out.


6. Keep up with my half marathon training plan. 
I started running in February and I completed my first half marathon in April. I finished with a time of 2 hrs and 17 mins, which is not bad since it my first race ever. I signed up for the Houston Chevron Half Marathon in January and my goal is to run it in under 2 hours! I start my training plan this week and I need to motivate myself to stick with it to achieve my goals. "She believed she could so she did."

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