Monday Must Reads: Volume 65

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Wow! It’s been a long time since I last sat down in April to put together a Monday Must Reads post. I usually take a break from these posts during the summer, but the craziness of this pandemic meant an extra long break this time. Anyway…I’m excited to be sharing with you today some of the awesomeness of other teachers on twitter that has been sitting in my Twitter likes for the last five months. I hope you find some inspiring ideas to use in your own classroom. There are a ton more digital ideas than normal in this Monday’s round-up, but I guess that’s to be expected.

Monday Must Reads

Check out this open middle math problem from Stephanie Minor. I LOVE seeing how teachers are incorporating critical thinking tasks in their virtual classrooms. I have so much to learn about being an excellent digital teacher,

Image Source: https://twitter.com/minor_math/status/1304472883306131457

Need to type a weird symbol into your Desmos activity? Druin recommends coolsymbol.com. I am definitely going to need this site this year. I couldn’t figure out how to get the degree symbol the other day, so I just ended up writing out the word degrees.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/druinok/status/1305206739680350211

Druin also shares a great teacher hack for taking attendance through a Desmos activity.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/druinok/status/1300058303112900609

Looking for a prompt to help you get to know your students better? Check out this one from Todd Feitelson. That student response is priceless.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/toddf9/status/1304447633671495681

Benjamin Dickman shares a fun bit of trivia that I’m going to save for when we get to logarithms this year in Algebra 2.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/benjamindickman/status/1304167496816226309

Lisa Navarro Garcia proves that teaching virtually doesn’t mean that you have to give up the train game.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/lisagarcia28/status/1304466858632859648

Mary Williams shares some great slides from a Desmos activity with credit to Luke Walsh and Carole Pryor. I LOVE the emoji slide.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/merryfwilliams/status/1304367956948910081

Lisa Biber shares an excellent idea for getting students to engage more in google meets.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/LisaBiber/status/1304207528172158980

I really like this idea for a Zoom game from David Butler.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/DavidKButlerUoA/status/1304241850186825729

David Butler continues to inspire with a new take on the numbers game he created seven years ago. I think this would make a great game to play collaboratively with students during distance learning. Even though I’ve never met David in person, he inspires me to be a better teacher with each idea that he shares on twitter. I admire how he always shares the process he goes through to solve a math(s) problem or create a puzzle. Too often, we just share our shiny finished products and not the beautifully messy path that got us there.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/DavidKButlerUoA/status/1302349517698641920

Mark Kaercher shares an idea for using the Desmos graphing calculator to teach students to solve multi-step equations. As long as the graph doesn’t change, they have done a valid operation to both sides of the equation. Brilliant!

Image Source: https://twitter.com/shskaercher/status/1303809584277139456

Alyson Eaglen highlights an excellent breakout room structure from Miranda Lambourne that incorporates some math history into the classroom in a fun way.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/aleaglen/status/1303766868579278848

Want to teach your students to play SET? You MUST check out this Desmos activity from Greta Bergman. It is AMAZING.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/g_brgmn/status/1303120827773333513

Mr. Q shares a great math find in a newspaper article from 1978. Can your students spot what is wrong with this alleged prime?

Image Source: https://twitter.com/literallyjustq/status/1303064490561470468

Anna Vance shares some brilliant Google Classroom ideas in this thread. I am definitely stealing her idea of having a “Template” classroom. Be sure to check out the entire thread for even more awesomeness and examples.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/TypeAMathLand/status/1301595518007681024

Allyson Klovekorn demonstrates how to use Jamboard to allow students to participate in a Which One Doesn’t Blog (WODB) activity. The virtual sticky notes are an idea worth stealing/borrowing!

Image Source: https://twitter.com/Miss_Klovekorn/status/1298349243397214208

Looking to get your kids interacting on Zoom/Google Meet more? Check out this number scavenger hunt idea shared by Casey. She claims she got the idea from someone else, but we’re going to give her the credit for sharing it with all of us!

Image Source: https://twitter.com/cmmteach/status/1298303747722903553

Looking for some interesting data to analyze? Check out Erick Lee‘s latest data collection project involving grocery store receipts.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/TheErickLee/status/1297193863925440513

Love fun fonts? Love math? Check out this find shared by algoritmic.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/algoritmic/status/1293860862126628864

Liz Coleman shares that the cooperative counting to 10 game works well via video-conferencing as well. Good to know!

Image Source: https://twitter.com/bikecoffeeteach/status/1294435974236139521

Needing to rethink manipulatives this year? Check out this idea from Lauren Bohm.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/MrsLaurenBohm/status/1292500055820312578

Need an example of a bad graph? Check this one out – especially the edit from Miss Neutrino!

Image Source: https://twitter.com/MissNeutrino/status/1291775584016769031

I’m glad that Jo Morgan shared this old textbook find since I missed it the first time around.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/mathsjem/status/1290014776236490752

I love this warm-up question from John Rowe.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/MrJohnRowe/status/1288681780698968065

Madeline Gorley shares a great idea for helping students stay organized during this strange time of distance learning.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/MadelineGorley/status/1248655660788723712

Teaching calculus? Check out this Which One Doesn’t Belong activity from Howie Hua.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/howie_hua/status/1284632290107068416

Don’t teach calculus? That’s okay. Howie also shares a great fraction task that might interest you.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/howie_hua/status/1281635544565313539

How cool is this hundreds table from Emma Bothma?!?

Image Source: https://twitter.com/MrsBpriSTEM/status/1283728809561337856

This columbus cube tower shared by Amy Castle looks like a fun origami project. I’m adding this to my list to make someday.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/AmyJCast/status/1283883192022433794

Keith Anliker shares an idea for using balloons in chemistry class.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/KeithAnliker/status/1283498408175534081

Jshm shares a lovely scientific notation task.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/jshmtn/status/1283295364880257024

Amy Hogan shares a statistical valentine.

Image Source: https://twitter.com/alittlestats/status/1228083615881482241

Can you tell how long it’s been since I’ve done a Monday Must Reads post. Here’s another Valentine’s activity from Nancy Fitzpatrick. This one involves area of irregular objects.