Sunday, August 19, 2012

Why I Blog

As part of a new blogger initiative by some people I have recently e-met on Twitter, I am posting to a prompt about blogging; Why I blog.

Here is my very first blog post.

I want to be a better teacher. I want to engage my students. I felt like I was not doing well enough in my classroom, and I was listening to teachers outside of my discipline talking about projects and presentations and wonderful things, and all I could think about was my boring math lessons. I tried to make it interesting. I noticed that when students had things in their hands, they were more interested in what was going on. I was also lucky, as I was teaching Geometry at the time, and I could have lots of manipulatives with shapes, solids, nets, etc.

Now I am teaching Algebra 2. I am trying to figure out how to incorporate more hands on math (hence the name of my blog). Everything I find on the internet is elementary math related. Very frustrating. At what point did we begin thinking that students can't benefit from manipulatives?

So this year, I want to work on my practice. I am starting the year using interactive notebooks. I am using foldables with them. I am adding in vocab, as one of 3 main focuses for my school is vocabulary. And I am looking for hands on ideas. Here is a sample shot from my Algebra 2 interactive notebook. (you may note that there have been edits on the paper-thank you for the pencil and eraser!)

The learning goal will be on the left with the vocab (frayer model foldable courtesy of @mathequalslove)

On the right, I will have notecards printed with the patters. Students will be able to look for the next figure in a pattern by using movement. What I have written will be for notes for students and absent students.

So, if you have any hands on math ideas, please share!﻿


  1. Generally students don't like maths,they think its very difficult to solve it but they can take help of online tutors.Online tutoring is very helpful in studies of students as those students who can't bear the fees of tutor,they can take help of e-tutors.
    operation of sets

  2. You can totally do it Christy! I believe in you 150%! You are going to rock it this year! You know I will pester you if you don't. I think the biggest part is getting the students to "buy in" to anything you are doing. If they aren't on board, life can be miserable. Keep that smile going and be proud of everything you do! Reflect after and notate what to change for next time.

  3. Thank you Jennifer!! I really felt good today after meeting my first batch of students (we are on block schedule). I started off with a little about me, made them laugh. Went over procedures, CHAMPS, and Social Competencies as well as school rules. Not as much fun as math, but setting up the foundation.

  4. I agree with all you said about making Algebra 2 fun - I'm in that same boat! But together, we can make it happen :)
