Dot Paper Pictures aka End of the year project 3

As an introduction to M.C. Escher, I have my students look at a book of his pictures and then we look at a PowerPoint all about symmetry.  Next week we’ll do tessellations, but today I gave each student dot paper.  Each had to draw at least 5 different shapes in the first quadrant and there had to be no major empty space.  Then we reflected into each of the remaining three quadrants.  On Monday we’ll watch a video about tessellations, color our dot pictures, and then prepare for the tessellation project.

History and math…End of the year project 2

The second project I have my students do is an acrosstic about a different mathematician from history.  We watched a short video on Isaac Newton together and made an acrosstic for him first so that my students understood what to do, and then I gave them short summaries about various mathematicians.  Then the idea was for them to go home and tell someone older than them what they learned, but of the students who did it, I’m pretty sure they just shoved the papers in front of their parents and aksed them to sign rather than actually talking to them about what they learned.  Oh well.  It was at least pseudo-entertaining to them for one day.

One of those days…

I had “one of those days” on Thursday.  A student tagged on one of my tables, the custodian wouldn’t give me grafitti remover, someone else stole a bunch of markers and pens off of my desk, and I lost my cool with one of my bad classes.  After I cooled off I cleaned off the tagging, got over the $5 markers, and wrote a letter apologizing to the class with whom I lost it.  Today when they came in I gave them the letter, gave individual appolgies to students I was really hard on, and then told them they were in the wrong as well.  I think they got it because they worked silently for the entire hour.  At the end I rewarded each of them with a sticker and told them we would be back to projects on Monday.  I’ve been blessed in that everytime I’ve had “one of those days,” the next one always seems to go well.

Standards Posters aka end of the year project 1

Tomorrow my students begin a 2-day project centered on the CA 7th-grade math standards.  I know standards are a hot topic, but I sort of appreciate them.  Yes, there is something inherently wrong with “teaching to the test” which is guided by the standards, but something inside of me agrees that there should be a set of, well, standards, to which we are all trying to help our students attain.  Anyway, this project helps both me and the students reflect back on what we’ve learned this year.  I assign each student (or two students) a 7th-grade standard. 

First they copy the standard word for word in the center of a piece of paper.  The rest of the page is divided into four quadrants. 

In the first quadrant, it is their job to re-write the standard in their own words.  I essentially tell them to tell me what they think they are supposed to have mastered in this standard.  This way I see if they truly understood what was expected of them. 

In a second box the students are to provide the definitions of any key vocabulary in the standard itself or related to the content in the standard. 

For the third box, students must find at least one lesson in the book that addresses this standard and provide three different types of problems related to that standard. 

Finally, the fourth box is for real-world application.  If students cannot think of something on their own, I have them look at the word problems in the sections they got the sample problems.  This way students make a connection between the math in their book and the real world outside.

I make them create a rough draft on a piece of notebook paper first.  Once their draft is approved, they are given construction paper and art supplies to make it look great.  Then the posters are used the next year as my standards posters and I have automatic student work and great looking standards posters!

I know it’s hokey, and a lot of teachers don’t care much for standards, but hey, this gives my students something to do for two days after grades are done and the points really don’t matter anymore. 

This is a little different from last year where I did not directly relate the standards to the posters.  I’ll let you know how it goes. 

End of the year project 2 soon to follow…

Student Evaluations…and other life updates…

There’s something satisfying in teaching adults who truly give you feedback about your teaching.  I taught an adjunct writing class last semester and just got my student evaluations back.  I was really apprehensive when I taught it because it was my first time, and I was significantly younger than all of my students.  It took a while for me to get used to correcting people who I would typically defer to, but it seems as though they were alright with it.  I got nothing but great reviews!  What a way to begin a 3-day weekend!  Now I get to go grade essays from the current term of those students.

 

On another note, students in this class are saying that it is the hardest class they have to take in the gen ed requirements.  It’s just a basic ENG 123 intro to researching kind of class.  I don’t think it’s that hard, but I do grade hard.  But isn’t that what you do when you want your students aren’t producing the quality of work necessary and you want them to improve?

In other news, there are 9 days left of the traditional school year, and I can’t wait.  I gave final exams yesterday and have about 10 parents I now need to call to inform them that their students will be failing my class because they failed the final.  Goody.  We push so much toward testing that once they are over the students are tired and done being at school and their teachers are not that far behind.  However, for the next two weeks we are going to do some creative projects that I hope my students enjoy.  I’ve got to do something that gets me some buy in.  My principal especially likes to come see what’s going on these last few days, and he expects high quality instruction up to the very last moment.  I’ll update you on projects as they come as I am trying to get back into the habit of blogging!