College Wall Decorations

Saturday, my wonderful hubby took me to Michael's (Arts & Crafts) and bought me a new cutting mat and a blade for my Silhouette Cameo.  I haven't been able to use it for a while, but hadn't been properly inspired to go out of town to buy the needed supplies.  After shopping, we went to the movies and didn't get home til midnight.

I got up early(ish) on Sunday and started creating.  When I move into my "new" room, I want to start a college wall.  I graduated from Florida Atlantic University and my hubby and I love the Florida Gators, so I started with those 2 teams.  Sometime back in the fall, I found 5 plain white pennants for $1 at Dollar Tree, so I decided to do pennants for each team.  I ended up making 2 of each team, one horizontal, one vertical.  I used push pins to prop them up on my bulletin board to take the pics...see below...

After I got those done and I was again bored, hubby suggested I make a Steelers pennant for his boss.  So once again inspired, I got to work.  Then, for our friend that is going through chemo for breast cancer, I made the breast cancer awareness ribbon with the Steelers logo...see below...

Ideas for Next Year

It's always around this time of the year that I start thinking about the next year.  I write pages and pages of ideas, mine and those "borrowed" from other teachers (Thank you blogs and Pinterest!!).  Two years ago, I kept it all in a word document, which I reprinted last year and adjusted.  Last year, I used most of a 70-page spiral.  Since we can not use electronics during FCAT End of Course Testing, I couldn't use my computer.  As I proctored for 6 days (3 for Algebra 1 and 3 for Geometry) in the computer lab, I fantasized about how I wanted my room to be organized and decorated.  On my walks around the lab, I would stop by and write an idea or sketch a picture.  Over the next 3 months, I would read and reread my notes, changing and tweaking til I thought it was perfect.

Well, I have pulled out last year's spiral and printed the previous year's ideas.  The big difference is that I am supposed to be moving rooms at the end of this school year.  We will find out the first week in May if they will be starting demo of half of our old school and construction of the new one on the same land this summer or next.  I have been promised an existing room on the other side of the school, since my room will be in the first phase of demo.  A couple of other teachers will be placed in existing rooms, while 7 others will get rented portables.

I am extremely excited about my "new" location.  It's not quite as big as my room now, but is laid out a little better (has a foyer and an attached office).  The principal told me about the relocation a month ago and due to my slight, ok not so slight, OCD, I have made a floor plan of the room with 6 different arrangements in MS Excel.  Here is one of them... The left side of the room will be for students daily.  The right side is where my desk and supplies will be located along with occasionally used student computers.  BTW, Lys (on pic in pink) is my daughter Alyssa.  She uses my room as her locker because I am conveniently located.  The green rectangles are 2 (1.5'x2') tables.

Here are the wall layouts with ideas...

I will post pictures as I clean and organize the new room.

Instant Data

A while back I pinned a site about obtaining data and displaying it in a way that was easy to read.  This week I used that idea for my Math for College Readiness students.  They were assigned the "Are You Ready?" section at the beginning of chapter 11 and were told to do the best they could, that I wanted to see what they know and it wouldn't be taken as a grade.

Ahead of time I created the answer sheet below.

After they were done, they graded their own work and shaded all of the ones that were incorrect.  They were more inclined to mark them wrong because they knew I wasn't actually taking it for a grade, but using it to drive my instruction (not the words I use with them!).  I used my handy dandy paper trimmer (that I couldn't live without!!) and trimmed the answer sheets down to the strip of boxes, which had their name in the top box and lesson number at the bottom.

I used a 12'x18' sheet of paper and glued them down, lining up the problem numbers.  Now at a glance I can see which ones I need to work on for the whole class and which ones to differentiate.  At the end of the chapter, I am going to assign the even problems from the same "Are You Ready?" and compare the results to the pre-test.

Here's what it looks like for 1st period...

And a close-up of the data...

Probability Vocabulary Foldable

I redesigned the Probability Unit in PreCalc this year.  My unit plan looks like this:

• Experimental & Theoretical Probability, Odds
• Mutually Exclusive/Inclusive Events – Adding Probabilities
• Independent/Dependent Events – Multiplying Probabilities (with and without replacement)
• Counting Principle
• Factorial
• Permutations
• Combinations
• Binomial Theorem
• Pascal’s Triangle
• Sierpinski’s Gasket

I created a fill-in foldable for the definitions and formulas and posted it today on TpT.  Here's the list of vocabulary: 

• probability
• odds
• experimental
• theoretical
• mutually exclusive
• inclusive
• complement
• independent
• dependent
• counting principle
• factorial
• permutations
• combinations
• Binomial Thm

 Front cover of foldable

Middle pages of foldable (preview on TpT)

I am still contemplating uploading my entire unit of notes/examples and worksheets.