Wed, Sept. 26

Teacher J and I finished creating a hands on activity based on a website I found for direct and indirect variation. The kids make telescopes and take measurements on three variables. On Thursday and Friday we'll do the activity and lesson 1.1 using some NUA strategies.

Friday, Sept 21

Today I subbed for a biology teacher during period 3 so she could meet with Teacher R to discuss NUA strategies for biology. I am available to do this for anybody during 3rd or 4th hour. And Teacher R can cover a math teacher's class during 3rd or 4th hour so they can meet with me.

Also, Teacher J and I are going to change Adv Alg lessons 2.1 and 2.2 to a lab with a cardboard telescope. It's a discovery lessons for direct and inverse variation. We'll use thinking maps to organize the ideas, and then we'll proceed with the lessons from the textbook. I'll keep you informed as to how it goes. I found the activity online and tagged it under AdvAlg on my del.icio.is account.

EPDM Logic Map

To review for the EPDM Ch 1 test today, I gave the students a list of about 20 words from chapter 1, including: statement, for all, negation, argument, valid, converse error, etc, etc. There job was to create a tree map that included all of the words. All of the students were able to create the tree map, and three students wrote theirs on the whiteboard. All students maps were different, and there was some good discussion and why the maps were different and why some were right, some wrong, and for some it didn't matter. It took about 10 minutes for the students to create the map and 10 minutes to discuss it. It allowed me to emphasize key points from the chapter, and it seemed to spark some engagement with the students.

When I asked these juniors what they knew about thinking maps, the class was able to list off most all of them. They were very familiar with them.

I will definitely use tree maps again for a review activity.

Adv Algebra 2.1

I spent last Friday, Monday and Tuesday looking at Ch 2 in Adv Algebra to develop lessons that integrate thinking maps and NUA thinking strategies to improve instruction.

Adv Algebra For Lesson 2.1, the students will start with a Possible Sentences activity. For each of the following words or phrases they will write one sentence that uses the word or phrase. It doesn't have to be a math sentence. 1)... is proportional to... 2) function 3) varies 4) directly proportional 5) constant. A few sentences will be shared and the words and phrases will be informally defined and discussed. The purpose of the activity is to engage the students with the words and phrases used in the lesson, and it should take about 10 minutes. Next, students will read p 72 and then use a circle map to define direct-variation function. The purpose of the circle map is to present the key word along with the ideas, symbols, and examples that are associated with it. It's a way to see the key word in addition to the orange box in the text. (5 minutes). Next, students will read example 2 and represent it first with a circle map. The key idea goes in the middle circle and all the associated parts in the outside circle. The purpose of using a circle map for a word problem is to sort out the important parts from the unimportant parts. (5 minutes). Next, students will represent example 2 with a tree map. The purpose of the tree map is to organize the important parts from the circle map. (10 minutes). Now, we'll solve the problem by finding k, etc. If time, we will do another example, and then tie it all together with a flow map.

That's the plan. I wonder how it will actually work?!

Thursday, Sept 13

I read the Thinking Strategies for Student Improvement book we received last year and found some good ideas that should work well in a math class. I would like to try them. I visited Teacher B's and Teacher RT's classroom.

I think the next step is for me to help plan and teach an entire chapter. The best candidate is Teacher J because she has Adv Alg Per 3 and then Prep during per 4. We can plan together and I can help her during period 3. Teacher S is the other possibility but I don't want to jump in with a Cog Tutor class because of the added complications of texts and computer work I am not familiar with. I think it's better if I start my "coaching" with a class with a regular book. After working with Teacher J, and blogging about it, I'll move to one of the basic classes.

I spoke with Teacher R about this strategy and she thinks it is a good idea. She is using the same model with the English Department. I will meet with her again tomorrow because she has some examples of using Thinking Maps to completely work through a science problem.

Mon., September 9

I visited Teacher JE's classroom today and she started with a comparison of mean and median. There was a place for a double bubble. After she presented about box and whisker plots I went down to Teacher T's art room to see if she ever uses Thinking Maps to describe artwork. She does but what she finds more useful than the thinking maps are the NUA strategies.

Friday, Sept 7

After being in Teacher B's 1/3 class, I consulted with Teacher R today to see how she would use Thinking Maps to solve one of the word problems from AA LM1.1A. It was really funny watching Teacher R try to solve a math problem! She misread it, then tried to do a Tree Map and screwed that up, then we tried replacing the variables with numbers and she still got it wrong. Of course, she was laughing the whole time! Anyway, what helped her the most was first doing a circle map to sort of the important words from the problem from the unimportant words. Next, she organized the important words with a Tree Map. She tried another problem that was somewhat similar and she was much, much more efficient. The Circle Map followed by a Tree Map may be a good strategy for a variety of word problems.