Monday Must Reads: Volume 58
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It’s already Monday once again. This summer is flying by crazy fast. At this rate, I’m afraid I will blink and it will be August 12th and time to report back. As I continue to think ahead to next school year and the ideas I want to try out, I turn once again to my twitter likes. I try to go through these on a semi-regular basis and compile my favorite ideas in a volume of Monday Must Reads to share with you all. I find that the compilation process helps me remember these great ideas and increases the likelihood that I will actually implement some of them in my own classroom.
I hope you can find some inspiring ideas in this compilation to use in your own classroom!
Spaghetti, Triangles, and Probability
Rob Maddock shares an amazing lesson that combines spaghetti, probability, and triangles.
Color Coded Quadrilateral Art Project
Color-coded quadrilateral projects from Timikia Ramsey. Amazing work! Almost makes me wish I taught geometry…
ABCs of Precalculus Book
Laura Vogel compiled her pre-calc students’ ABC list of topics covered into a picture book for her 11 month old. How cool!
Modeling Quadratics with Water Balloons
Launching water balloons sounds like a fun way to practice modeling quadratics to me! Great idea, Holly Olmscheid!
Ideas for Focusing Test Review Time
Looking for a way to figure out how to focus test review on what students really need help with? Check out this tally method from Annie Giercyk.
Card Sharks Game
Have any jumbo playing cards laying around? Check out this Card Sharks game idea from Jennifer Fairbanks!
Classroom Coloring Station
Also, check out Jennifer‘s cool coloring station in her classroom.
Laser Cut Desmos Art
Laura Montgomery takes the usual Desmos art assignment to another level with laser cutting the designs in wood for end of year gifts.
Promoting Positive Thinking
Chelsea Cleveland shares an easy way to boost students’ positive thinking.
Quadrilateral Menu
What a lovely quadrilateral task from Amie Albrecht!
Quadrilaterals Guess Who Game
Also, check out this Guess Who game for quadrilaterals from Amie Albrecht.
Senior Balloon Tradition
It doesn’t have anything to do with math, but I love this school tradition that Mandy shared.
Linear Olympics
Joel Bezaire shares a peek into his awesome Linear Olympics! Read his full blog post here.
Wow Me Project
Callie Hughes Gray shows what can happen when you give students an option to “Wow me” on a project.
Fill in the Blank Logarithm Task
Check out this amazing logarithm task from Math with P. Nik.
Scratch Off Lottery Ticket Day
I bet Bob Lochel‘s students won’t forget “Scratch Off Lottery Ticket Day” in stats class!
Surface Area and Volume Cake Project
Designing cakes in math class? Check out this lesson from Kurt Salisbury!
Sinusoidal Daylight Graphs
Elizabeth Johnson shares a real-world project for examining data of daylight from different cities.
Circle Theorems with Hula Hoops
The OMHS Math Department recommends teaching circle theorems with hula hoops. How fun!
Dream Room Project
Christina Salvatore shares an alternative to your normal end of unit test.
Rainbow Equation Activity
Nathan Vaillancourt shares a brilliant rainbow-themed equation review. I really appreciate
his inclusion of equations students hadn’t seen before as “pots of gold.”
Real-Life Composite Area Problem
Silvio Lioniello shares a real-world application of finding composite areas.
Not a Set Activity
Greta Salathé Mills offers up a new-to-me twist on SET – how many cards can you lay out that don’t form a SET?
Mini Golf Geometry Project
shares some amazing geometry project ideas.
Geometry Quilt Project
Another inspiring geometry project from Karen.
Function Aerobics
Kerri Homan engages students with function aerobics.
Calculus Deriver’s License
Teaching calculus? Check out the “derivers license” that Kerri‘s students can earn.
Golden Rectangle Art Projects
Jana Stenson shares some amazing golden rectangle art projects.
Logarithm Task
Paige Sheehan inspires with a lovely logarithm question.
Volume by Cross Sections Project
How creative is this volume by cross section project from Peltier Alg 2 PAP?
Goal Free Problems
I really like this idea of goal free problems for teaching geometry/trigonometry. Thanks for the idea, Beth Plaw!
Acting Out Opposite, Adjacent, and Hypotenuse
Ella Hereth shares a great idea for getting students to wrap their minds around opposite, adjacent, and hypotenuse in relation to right triangle trig.
Examining Staircases with Trigonometry
Paige Friedland shares a great real-world application of trig.
Mathematical Buttons
Holyrood Maths is making me think that I need to get a button/badge making machine…
Don’t Panic Problems
Jed‘s approach of starting his pre-calc classes with “Don’t Panic!” problems is refreshing and inspiring.
Proving Trig Identities Desmos Activity
My trig students really excelled at proving trig identities this year. But, when I put a question on their final that asked them to justify each step, it was like I had asked the impossible of them. So, this idea from Coach Perales really caught my eye.
Christmas Tree Nim
I first learned to play Nim as a sixth grader in math class. I’ve always played with physical objects like stones, pencils, popsicle sticks, etc. So, I was super intrigued to see nim played on paper. Thanks to Donna Buckley for the idea! Plus, they look like cute little Christmas trees!
Quadratics Task
I think we could all learn something from this approach by Sam Aguiar of giving students a quadratics problem on their assessment that they had never seen before.
Dot to Dot Math Tasks
This dot to dot approach from Math with P Nik could be applied to so many different math topics!
Life Sized Angle Problems
Alice Aspinall takes angle practice to a whole new level.
Unit Circle Races
I’m super inspired by these unit circle medals from Janene Ward!
Quadratics Just Enough Information Activity
Nat Banting shares a brilliant use of Desmos for giving students “just enough” information and asking them to figure out the rest.
Trigonometry: The Answer is…
Becky Hall shares an interesting last assessment question. I believe the extra grading time would be worth it to see what students are able to come up with!
Paper Version of Egg Roulette
Ray Stuckey shares how to play a paper-based version of egg roulette.
Pi Day Poster Contest
Mrs. Richardson shares a great pi day idea – a poster contest.
Until next time, keep sharing your awesome ideas!
