Vocab, Vocab, Vocab.

Trying to blog more frequently, and be less rambly while doing so.  Yay!

Lately, the three teachers that teach geometry in my department have been running into a problem with students getting lost in the vocabulary, theorems, postulates, and terms of geometry as of late.  On our quizzes, that's been the area where students have been losing the most points.  As the geometry fundamentals teacher (support guy), I wanted to try to find a way to help reinforce these ideas for our students, but in a little different way.

This led me to Attempt #1:  Term Puzzle



This is a puzzle that I have seen our Accelerated Algebra 2 and Pre-calculus teacher use for review in class.  In fact, it actually came from our Spanish teacher and he had written a little Flash program to create them for his students.  I ended up creating mine in SMART Notebook, and it worked just as easily (maybe moreso due to the equations and math notation needed).

I printed the sheet onto card stock, cut up the squares, and placed them into snack size baggies.  I paired the students up using playing cards, and handed them a baggie.  Their job was to match the term to its description, and complete the entire 4x4 grid.  I put some "unmatchable" terms on the corner pieces so as to not totally give away the corners.  It took about 10-15 minutes for the quickest students to complete, and about 30-35 minutes for the slowest.

Attempt #2:  Memory Tournament



With this, I took the same 24 pairs of terms/descriptions as I used in the puzzle, but then made 48 squares in SMART Notebook.  Each item got its own square.  Once again, I will cut into squares, put in baggies, and pair up kids.  This time, it's TOURNAMENT STYLE!

Students are paired up, and will match terms to their descriptions.  While they are playing (for the first 2 rounds), I will have the correct pairings projected on the screen, so they can check to see if they have a correct pair.  I feel that they are still thinking of what the correct pairing is, and this is just a way for them to self-check their work.  Starting with Round 3, the "key" will disappear as they will have already seen it twice.

I do realize that I should have gone with an odd number of pairings, and that can be left up to the teacher.  Just remove 1, 3, or 5 pairs to get an odd pairing and eliminate the possibility of ties.  Switch them out with other pairings in later rounds...whatever.  Have fun with it.

On page three of the attached file, you will see my SMARTBoard tournament grid.  I enter names into the brackets and Infinite Clone them to advance them in the tournament.  There is also another blank grid on another page of the Notebook file for the consolation bracket.

I'm in probably the most "creative" stretch of my teaching career right now due to us starting block scheduling, and even moreso, the Math Twitter Blogosphere of AWESOMENESS!!

Thank you to all of you out there doing amazing things in your classroom, inspiring students, and inspiring teachers!!

What a year so far...

This school thus far can be summed up in one word:  CHANGE.

Some change for the better, some change for the different. (I will not say worse, as I don't know if that's the case yet...I have an open mind).  Here is a snapshot of what I am talking about:

• new graduation credit requirements kick in this year for our class of 2017
• with this comes a requirement of 3 years of math
• all of our students are starting at least with Algebra 1
• our HS is now running an alternating block schedule for the first time in history
• there are no study halls; there is, however, a 40-minute enrichment/intervention period M, T, Th, F for students to use as a study hall, go see a teacher for help, or be requested by teachers for remediation/interventions

This week added to the "fun": it's standardized testing time again at our high school, which means our sophomores come in at 7:45 and test until 10:30 or 11:00 3 of the 5 days this week.  The rest of the students come in afterwards, and we run a shortened schedule the rest of the day.  We also had Parent-Teacher conferences on the other 2 days that we weren't testing, and then a faculty meeting tonight after school.  Whew.

What did some of all of this, for me, is a chance during the testing, to start creating some things inspired by the Math Twitter Blogosphere.  I've gotten a TON of great ideas from you guys, and I wanted to actually feel like I could contribute for a change.

I have taught geometry for the past six years, but this year, I am only teaching a geometry fundamentals class.  Think of it as a support class, strictly pass/fail, that students are in in addition to their regular geometry class.

I don't give homework.
I don't give quizzes.
I don't give tests.
We play with geometry whenever possible.

With that in mind, the course is entering congruent triangle phase, with proving triangles congruent coming soon thereafter.  I wanted to find a way to get students to investigate and discover why SSS, SAS, ASA, and AAS all work, but also explore they 'whys' of why the other situations don't necessarily work.

I bring you:  Geometry Hold 'Em

NOTE:  The real only connection to Texas Hold 'Em is the three cards face down in the middle.  There's no bidding, no scoring, no poker faces...yet.

In a nutshell, students will use patty paper and draw what comes up on each card one step at a time.  It could be an angle, it could be a side.  There are instances where triangles won't work due to angles not adding up correctly in an AAA setup, or sides not working due to the Triangle Inequality in a SSS setup.  I want students to run into these scenarios, catch them, and explain to me why a triangle can't be formed.

I've embedded the file below, so take what you want.  If you would like the editable Word document, just contact me.  I will be trying this with my students next week, and I will report back with results.


Please comment :)