New Semester

This blogging thing is turning out to be more work than I thought.  Haven't really been forcing myself to keep up with it, which is a problem for me.

I wanted to try something new (again) with my 20s.  Working with my beliefs that active learning>passive learning.  And real life problems>worksheets.

I'm starting off my first day with Dan Meyer's "Toothpick Triangles" as an introduction to arithmetic sequences/series.  Start by posing a problem, have kids ask good questions (something that they have to practice) and then developing terminology and formula out of neccessity, or to make things easier.

I think having kids generate the problem forces them to be invested in the process.

I'm also going to start using Socrative as a tool in my classroom.  I just had an introduction to it recently and I absolutely LOVE the idea.  After all, 90% of my kids have cell phones.  It's honestly amazing how quick and easy it is to get feedback.  Love it for formative assessment.

I will hopefully blog about this lesson over the weekend.  Who starts semester 2 on a friday anyway?!