Happy Halloween

From my pumpkins to yours!

It always amazes/inspires me when teachers make the most of the seasons like this one that used pumpkins to teach estimating of height and weight and teach circumference!  Way to go!

Katie

Positive Attitudes Win!

I had the pleasure this fall to coach a 7th and 8th grade girls Intramural basketball team.  I always find girls sports more enjoyable because middle school girls just love to talk and so do I!

So it was our second game of the season and we were playing a team that had some not so nice girls that had some bad attitudes.  Along with bad attitudes, they were pretty physical too.  This really got to my team and all they could focus on was the negatives of the game.  After we lost that game 10-0, we vowed the next time we played them, we would have a better attitude.

Believe it or not, the next time we faced them we won.  Not because we had more talent but because we didn't let their actions get to us.   After we won that game, we did not lose a single game after that and went on to be intramural champs!  I am so proud of my 'Green Lanterns'

Bringing Integers to Life!

When I was in my first year of teaching, I had stumped upon this activity somewhere.  I wish I tracked everything during that time but lets be serious, I was barely keeping my head above water.

The concept behind this integer activity is to get kids out of their seat moving while seeing if they make any connections from adding integers to subtracting integers.  

Directions: 

1. Start on the first number in the problem

2. Face the negative numbers for subtraction and the positive numbers for addition. 

3. Walk forwards for positive number and backwards for negative numbers. 

Check out this short clip.   Kids love this activity!  It isn't perfect so I haven't posted it on TPT yet.  If you would like it, leave a comment and I will send it to you!

This year kids cheered when I rolled out the GIANT number lines.  It really has nothing to do with anything but it sure felt good that they were excited!

Katie 

The Little Things in Life

There are times as a teacher that you tired, have more grading than imaginable, way behind in your class, students are acting up amongst other things then one little thing cheers up your day.  When I came back to my desk after the passing period, this instantly made my day better.  

Say hello to a piece of gum left on my grade book by a student after the previous class.  

We've hit Integer Season!

An important topic in 7th grade is integer operations.  This is the first time that adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing integers are formally introduced.  I went about it differently this year than 2 years ago.  CMP3 suggested using chips to introduce addition, so that's what I tried!

I really liked it.  I felt that students really grasped the idea of adding integers.  They could see when adding a positive and negative number which had more and that determined the sign of the sum.

I also found that this concept really helped those struggling students.  This is a picture I snapped while helping a student one on one build her confidence in solving. 

After the introduction, I set students on a journey with a partner to answer questions from our online book.  This is where I saw students helping students the most.  They were explaining it in terms that made sense to them.  

The journey through integers is not always easy but I highly suggest using chips.  After using chips, I also taught students how to use the number line to add integers.  I left it up to the students which way of reasoning worked for them and never actually taught a formal way to add integers.  I would say 93% of students are confident in their integer abilities.  The other 7% I am working with daily.  

What are some methods of teaching integers you have tried?  Even if they didn't work, we can always learn from mistakes!

Katie