Trig Lasers

One of the things I don't get to do often, but love to do is observe other teachers. I get to see how they run the classroom, how their routines are set-up, and sometimes see really cool lessons. In Basic Geometry Mr. Fick and Ms. Groth had a lesson they were talking about that seemed really cool to observe. They had a bunch of different targets printed, lasers, and protractors.

To review the trigonometry they have been practicing in class. Ms. Groth had one student come up and set a target on the front wall of the classroom. She had already set a piece of tape on the ground, she wanted to know the angle that would make it so a laser would shine and hit the target. She asked the class what angle they thought it would be and students guessed. She then asked what other information is needed to know so they could accurately calculate the angle. A couple of students said the height and the distance. Those two students came up and measured both of those. Students were given a handout to write down and then calculate the given angle.

Ms. Groth then did another example where she already gave them the angle and height and they had to calculate the distance away.

I think a great extension to what I saw would to give each pair of students a target, laser, and compass. Then have students calculate their own. Or possibly have some sort of putt-putt kind of station moving from one target to the next.

Employment Tests in Math

In Algebra 2 I give ACT and geometry review questions for bell-ringers.

In Algebra for bell-ringer I normally review the previous material from the day before.

In Standards that I teach, I normally review the previous material, but on every Friday I gave the students a challenge.  I gave them an interesting problem or viral question that I saw the day before on Facebook or Twitter.

I was thinking about keeping that Friday tradition, but instead of reviewing the previous days material, I thought I could look for gaps in their learning by giving them employment tests that are given to cashiers, engineers, bank tellers, accountants, sales managers, and clerical bookkeeping.

Here is an example I found: https://www.resourceassociates.com/samplereports/aptitude-tests-for-employment.pdf

Dueling with Math Snowballs

A great lesson idea stems from Jenna Krambeck at Elkhorn Ridge Middle School in Elkhorn, NE.  (You can visit her site here: http://elkhornbltf.wikispaces.com/ )

Dueling with Math Snowballs, now she is a reading teacher at Elkhorn so I have adapted this lesson from her.  You start with a simple snowball fight.  Students write down math problems on a half sheet or full sheet of paper and students fling their paper across the room.  For more math snowball information check it out here.

To put this in perspective, students are in groups and it is their job to solve the problem.  First team with 5 points wins.

The game proceeds as a student from a particular group walks up and picks up a piece of paper and challenges a group to solve a particular problem.  If they get the problem correct they get a point, if they guess incorrectly the team who selected the problem has a chance to steal.

This is dueling, because the student has the choice of selecting a group to send a problem to battle.

Could you use this small review game in your classroom?  What could you change to better adapt it to your students?