Tag: engagement

  • Different Cooperative strategies

    In my last post, Why I won’t use Direct Instruction, I was provocative and challenged some of the typical thinking about math instruction. The post generated some terrific conversation, both here and on Twitter, and although I have not changed my mind for my own classroom use, I do admit there may be times when…

  • High Fives revisited

    A late in the day #BlAugust post. Yesterday Jennifer tweeted this at me, and I teared up a little. Thanks to @gwaddellnvhs for the idea and inspiration https://t.co/Jv4KM6DkEb — Jennifer Abel (@abel_jennifer) August 21, 2016 And the tweet it refers to is this one: #MTBoSBlaugust post: How I Changed My Classroom Culture Through High-Fives https://t.co/YoCHLMzsF0…

  • HS teachers, up your game

    I have been in Elementary school classrooms this semester observing my learners teach lessons. They are amazing, and the UTeach model of teacher education is one with which I am completely on board. My learners will have spent so much time in the classroom being observed and getting feedback that they will have no choice…

  • AP Stats projects

    Wow, it has been a while since I posted anything, and I need to share a ton of things I have done. I predict that I will post a lot in the next several weeks. The school year is winding down, but my learners are ramping up. Grad school is down for the summer (with…

  • An email I just sent to my dept

    I just sent this email to my department today. The subject was “If you still assign drill and kill problems”. I am posting the text of the email without comment. It was spurred by a conversation on Twitter with @DDmeyer and @JStevens009. Text is below: Good morning all, Hate to be the bearer of unwelcome…

  • Notes, Pacing & lesson idea

    One thing I am really working on in AP Stats is the amount of notes, the lack of notes, and the engagement of my learners. AP Stats is one of those courses where the amount of vocab to assimilate is so huge, that it cannot all be done by activities. I have found that a…

  • I Have, Who Has in Stats; Speed dating in Alg2

      Today was mostly successful for my learners! Yay. I am behind in the book keeping / grading department so I won’t talk about that much. This is always my downfall, and it is so easy to have a conflict of interest between grading effectively and timely, and time spent producing interesting fun lessons that…

  • Day One of AP Stats and Honors Alg2

    My goal this year is to blog more. As in, blog almost everyday. The secret to writing better is to write more. Therefore, I am going to write more as practice for writing. It is something I need to do as a professional. Here is to the effort. —– I don’t give out the syllabus…

  • Manipulatives in teaching Trig content

    My Algebra 2 Honors learners were struggling with radians and the unit circle so I broke out the creative guns and went all manipulatives on them. It worked. The file I used is a PDF I created in Publisher that you can download here from this link. It is very simple, but very effective. It…

  • Thank you, Kate

    This post is a quick one, to simply thank Kate Nowak for saying something publicly that I have said privately for a couple of years now. In her post on the NCTM Technology strand, (which everyone should read first. It is okay, I will wait. …. Still here, still waiting, it is okay, really, go…