Beginning ISN pages for 2016-2017

I started INB's the second year that I started teaching. My first year of teaching, I did note-packets, and I absolutely HATED it so I decided to find a new way to present material to students. I found several blogs to help start my INB journey and three blogs that I used a lot were Math Equals Love, Everybody is a Genius, and Mrs. Hesters Classroom. These three blogs helped me SOO much and without them, I definitely would not be as organized and as efficient in INB's as I am now.

I am going to try Plickers in all of my classes next year. Students do not need to download any app (only teachers) and teachers can view live results of students answers just by having students hold up their card. I made 6 copies of the cards (one set for each class period) and I am going to ask the librarians to laminate them for me so that students can tape them on the front cover of their INB. To the right is a Geometry formula chart that I created for students to write down the formulas in as we learn them. I am in the process of typing all of the formulas in the formula chart so that I can make a class poster for students to reference in case they missed any formulas.

The next page after our formula chart is "Geometry Symbols." I made it this past week because I want students to write down all Geometry symbols that we learn!

I use the same classroom information/expectations pages that Sarah Rubin (everybodyisagenius.blogspot.com) has on her blog. I may decide to change it up over the summer, but for now, I like it. :) I want to go over the class information/expectations with the students and then have students write down where to find the tutorial times, class website, remind 101, and absent work on the "Reference Sheet." 

As I am writing this post, I just realized that I forgot to add Socrative on the "Reference Sheet" so I am going to go back and edit it. *We use Socrative.com at least 2 times per unit and I want students to write down our room name. 

This is my first year having a "Work in Progress" folder but I am teaching a new class (Basic Geometry) and I am not sure how my time will plan out so I made this folder for students to put worksheets in that are incomplete or in "a work of progress."

I will also make a post in the very near future on my classroom procedures with INB's. 

Update: I uploaded the files.. However, I cannot find the geometry formula chart so I will re-make it again and upload in the future :)

• Geometry Symbols
• Work in Progress Folder
• Editable Reference Sheet (need KG All of Me & KG The Fighter)

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Start, Continue, Stop

Start:

• Using Pickers  (I want students to glue them down in their INB)
• Using Desmos 
• Google Classroom (may be hard without being 1:1 but I think I can do it)
• NearPod Lessons
• Project Based Learning units
• Asking more questions
• Calling parents (why do I have such a phobia of this? Weird, right?)
• Being nicer
• Attending more extra-curricular activities

Continue:

• Interactive Notebooks
• Socrative 
• Sharing lessons and resources with other teachers
• Cold Calling on students 
• Holding students accountable
• Color-Coding my notes
• Vertical Whiteboarding
• Flexible Grouping

Stop:

• Making excuses for students
• Drinking so much caffeine
• Being sarcastic 

2

Current Year's Classroom Decorations

I always get such nice compliments about my classroom decorations when another teacher comes in my room. So I am decided to share some pictures/labels of my current classroom. My current classroom has a Chevron theme but, I think that I am going to change it to watercolors next year. Still undecided.

When students walk into my room: 

• Students pick up any papers that I have laid out in the bins on the bookshelf.
• If they were absent, they look in the absent work folder and find their class period with their missing work (It takes me less than 10 minutes at the end of each day to staple all student's absent work and stick them in their class period).
• If students are missing assignments, then they look in the extra papers folder for their missing work (I have extra papers separated by notes, assignments, homework, and review).
• I picked up the bookshelf from Walmart for $10 and the bins at Target. I put moroccan shelf liner (couldn't find chevron) on the back of the book shelf. 

Once they pick up their handouts, they grab their INB from their class period crate (if they left it in the basket). I picked up these crates at Walmart for $2 (back to school sale). 

Students Desks and Materials:

• On most days, I have students arranged into groups of 4 with a supply bin and trash bucket on their desk (the trash bucket is SO helpful in keeping my room clean). I have a person from each group empty it out the last 2 minutes of class. 
• I picked up the supply bins from Walmart and the trash buckets at the dollar store. I'm going to replace the trash buckets over the summer since several buckets have cracked.
• Materials in the supply bin varies on the activity that we are doing for the day but EVERYDAY students have highlighters and calculators.

Classroom Board

• We're required to write the objective and essential questions on our board everyday. We don't have to do it by week but, I like to front-load students with our agenda for the upcoming week. If I forget to write on my board, students are QUICK to ask me "what are we doing today?"
• I have a TOC and WWK section for those who are tardy the beginning of the class period. I like to do math dates (courtesy of Sarah Carter :))

Classroom Organization:

• Students turn work into these trays according to their class period. Any papers that are in here are papers that need to be graded.

• Once I grade the papers and put them in the grade-book, I stick them in the wire baskets on my bookshelf according to class periods. It helps remind me to pass back these papers.  I bought the wire baskets from Target.

• I have a bookshelf in the back of my classroom that I never used for the previous 2 years. This year, I decided to buy the blue bins for a dollar at the dollar store and  put the copies that I will be using in the "designated day" spot. This system has helped me with organization and with what handouts I still need to make copies of and what days I have not yet planned for. 

Miscellaneous Classroom Decorations:

• I put all of my extra supplies in the following storage container (labeled of course) just in case a group runs out of supplies. Students know exactly where to find new supplies without asking me or interrupting the lesson. 

• My Geometry word wall that I try to keep updated throughout the year. You can find those classroom posters when you click here

• A picture of my filing cabinet that I also put shelf liner on :) and on top of that, a printer that I use when our workroom printer runs out of ink (received for free from a fellow math teacher).

• Below is something new this year that students actually came up with. The previous 2 years I have put important documents or posters on the black sheet. However, this year it all started with one sticky note that a student wrote and stuck up there. The black is a small bed sheet that I stapled up there and covered up the edges with that chevron border. I love this because on the worst days, I can be reminded that I do make a difference and that I am appreciated by some. :)

• My "no name" papers door that I share with my next door teacher neighbor. The posters are from Sarah Rubin at everybodyisagenius.blogspot.com. You should check out her blog, her classroom posters are amazing!

• My exit ticket door that I will be using more of next year. I like to post it on the back of the door because when students open it, they can stick it into any folder without their peers looking and they are more honest about their level of understanding. I saw the concept on Pinterest and I loved it. You can find the exit slips when you click here

• My fancy chevron calculator labels that I stick on the back of my calculators. My calculators are always returned to me if a student leaves it out in the hallways after one of our class activities. :)

You can find the following labels here:

• Classroom Labels

*I included my chevron calculator labels and desk numbers in it as well :)

0

Circles (Part 2) Stations Review

Today is the LAST Monday of the school year for me! Some students have totally checked out at this point but MOST have continued to give my class 100%. I am actually very surprised by this because this is the end of my 3rd year of teaching and for the past 2 years, it's been the other way around.

Our last test is tomorrow and I decided to try out something new for our last review. I posted the following 9 stations outside in the hallway and had students work it out on the answer document. The lines on some of the problems are where students showed their work.

A student conversations that I had about this activity:
Student: Mrs, Newell.... did you make this last minute or something?
Me: No, I finished this last week sometime. Why do you ask?
Student: Because, you didn't add any QR codes that we could use Snapchat to scan for help.

Why didn't I think of this?! I will definitely be adding it to the stations next year as "hints", not answers, but clues as to how to set up the problem. For example, on station C, "Angles in a circle add up to equal 360 degrees."

Next year, I do not want to hang the stations up on the walls in the hallways. I want to separate the desks into 9 groups and have students rotate and have visual aids and manipulative's at each station. Yup, now that I wrote that idea out, I will definitely be doing that next year!

Anyone else have students towards the end of the year that hate the "getting-up-out-of-your-seat" activities?


You can find the following documents when you click here:

• Circle Stations
• Circle Stations Answer Document

3

Arcs and Chords

Here are the INB pages for arcs and chords in circles. We went over past vocabulary terms on the following Theorems page, highlighted key words, and filled in the blanks. This is a new page that I made and I am so glad I did because I love when I see a page filled with important geometry terms.

After we filled out the theorem sheet, we filled out the foldable. I would say that the second theorem ("In a circle, if a diameter (or radius) is perpendicular to a chord, then it bisects the chord and its arc") was the most difficult of the three. I made 2 typos that I forgot to fix last year that are shown in the pictures below, but it's fixed now. Also, I did add "find DE" to question 3 because that questions always seems to throw some students off when I ask them. 

Students worked on their arcs and chords HW and had the most questions on #6. Maybe edit question 4 on the foldable to reflect that question for next year?

Thoughts?

You can find the files that I used in this lesson when you click here:

• Arcs and Chords Foldable
• Arcs and Chords Theorems

2

Sector Area and Arc Length

Today was the last teaching day of the year for me =( Why am I so sad about this? Maybe, because I had the BEST students this year and have formed relationships with so many of these kids. Some of the teachers around me are counting down the days until they get rid of their students but, I am trying to make every last day count because I firmly believe that it might be one of the last days of the year that end up mattering the most and I make a point to make every minute count. 

We went over finding the arc length and sector area of circles through this foldable that I created last year. I did make some minor edits that I really ended up liking! We filled out the yellow sector area and arc length graphic organizer before starting the foldable. I know that it's not in the pictures but underneath the yellow graphic organizer, I had students write down Arc Length = Crust of Pizza and Sector Area = Slice of Pizza..... Students seemed to understand the difference after that food analogy!

I can't really post any misunderstandings that students had over this lesson because students ROCKED it! However, I did make it a point that to mention that this was the last time that I will probably ever teach them (this actually shocked quite a few). 

After the foldable, I handed them their very last HW assignment =( Many were too excited and finished it too fast. 

I will be posting yesterday's lessons over arcs and chords tonight or tomorrow (depending on how long I want to procrasinate studying for my test). 

You can find the files that I used here:

• Sector Area and Arc Length Foldable
• Sector Area and Arc Length Graphic Organizer

2

#MTBoS30: Points, Lines, and Planes

I am in the process of looking through this years INB's and picking out my favorite foldables and activities to write about. I found this one today and decided to do 2 blog posts today so I can finish off May with 30 blog posts!

Students first completed the 6 vocabulary foldable on the right side. After the foldable, students independently completed the points, lines, and planes cut and paste activity on the left side. I had students cut up the boxes and rearrange them according to the correct definition, diagram, and naming of the terms. Note: Many students switched around "line" and "opposite rays" diagrams/naming.

After the notes, students were handed the following assignment to complete.

Next year in my basic geometry classes, I am going to see if the librarians at my school can make half size posters of the cut and paste chart and have these hung up around the classroom as "stations" and have students work together to complete the chart. 

I will also be editing the Points, Lines, and Planes HW to best fit the needs of my basic geometry classes next year :)

Are there any more high school level fun points, lines, and planes activities that teachers do every year?

You can find the files that I used here:

• Points, Lines, and Planes Foldable
• Points, Lines, and Planes Cut and Paste Chart

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