Thursday, October 30, 2014

Arts Integrated Lessons for Math 1

*I will update this post with the new plans as I get them written up.*

Sequence Poems: Click here

Here we go again! NCCTM time!

Tomorrow is my second presentation of the week, at the North Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference. NCCTM has been such a boost to my morale every year that I've gone. This will be my third (or maybe 4th?) time presenting and it's such a great experience. The vendors are always great and I love seeing what other teachers in the state are up to. I usually come back with tons of ideas!

This year the conference is on Halloween so I'm pretty sure the TARDIS will make an appearance. :)  After some security issues at school today, I certainly could use a little whimsy.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

The Gap has been Bridged

Thanks to all of you who came out to my presentation today. You were a great group and wonderful to work with!

Big news and takeaways for me from the Bridging the Gap conference (in a list because I'm exhausted!):

  • Keynote: Teachers in NC could probably qualify as dealing with some form of PTSD from all of the changes we've had in the last decade.
  • My session: Adults like scissors and glue as much as the kids do! :) Also, you know that feeling when you go to a session and the ideas start bubbling up? It's even cooler when you watch it happen in your session. 
  • NASA loves giving away stuff to teachers! (On a sad note, I feel so bad for those kids who lost their experiments in the explosion today. Hopefully they will get a second chance.)
  • Biogen Idec is awesome and I love them! Yay for a chance for a $2000 or $5000 grant.
  • After the session to meet all of the nonprofit groups, I now know what speed dating feels like. 
  • App State has a really neat Computer Science workshop for teachers. If I could run away from home for the summer, I would so be there.

Now to catch up on school for the last two days of the quarter!

Then... NCCTM on Friday where I'll be sharing my Arts Integrated lesson plans for Math 1.

                                                    (Photographic evidence for my principal)

Saturday, October 25, 2014

The countdown is on...

I'm pysching myself up for this week of awesome insanity. It's going to be fun but I'm not going to be sleeping a whole lot!

  • Monday: Manifestation hearing during planning and a grading party after school with the Math Department.
  • Monday night: Drive to Raleigh. Project due for Grad School - The Educational System of Brazil.
  • Tuesday: Bridging the Gap conference!
  • Wednesday: Just a normal teaching day. Whew.
  • Thursday: Last day of the quarter attendant with the normal flood of "I'm a freshman and this is the first time I'm been held accountable for my work habits. What do you mean I'm going to fail because I didn't turn in 15 assignments?!?" Also, it's our Oktoberfest so short classes and crazy kids. Since we don't have school on Friday, I'm totally dressing up on Thursday. Katniss Everdeen will be teaching math for the day!
  • Friday: North Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conference!
  • Monday: Grades due and a rough draft of another Grad School project due. Oh, yeah. It's also the Teacher of the Year Banquet.

*Deep breaths*

So, yeah. Here goes nothing.

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I will be uploading the detailed handouts for my Kinetic Notebooks over the next few days for the conference attendees. If you have any questions, ask away in the comments!

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Coming soon to a conference near you...

I've been given the opportunity to present at two different conferences in October: the Bridging the Gap conference in Raleigh on October 28th and the North Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics annual conference on October 30-31. I'll be going over my Kinetic Notebooks at Bridging the Gap and my arts integrated lessons for Math 1 at NCCTM.

I've presented at NCCTM multiple times and loved it. This will be my first time at Bridging the Gap but I've heard great things about the conference and I'm looking forward to attending. Unfortunately, they both fall on the last week of the quarter so no sleep for me that week!

I'm also going to EdCamp NC on September 27th with no set plans to present, but you never know what will happen at EdCamp.

Hopefully I'll see you out there somewhere.

In the meantime, good luck with the ramp up for school. I'm carving out a couple of hours this morning on vacation because it's starting to get real. At least if I have to work on vacation, it comes with a great view!


Tuesday, March 4, 2014

I never liked blank space...

So this is a place holder of sorts for me. I will be filling this blog with my ideas and tricks for teaching Math 1 (aka Algebra 1).

Stay tuned...