Math 2: Week 1

I always find it interesting how different teachers pace different classes. We all have topics that we enjoy and love teaching and could teach for hours on hours. But then there are the topics that we dread, and trying our best to fake it until we make it and teach it the best we can. I thought I would start a series this semester of Math 2 and share what we do each week and the topics we cover.

So here we go....Math 2: Week 1

Monday: This was the first day of the new semester, and we had a teacher workday to finish up grades from the first semester and get organized to welcome into our room 90 new students. I planned out the first two weeks of lessons, made copies, and spent some time organizing my classroom.

Tuesday: First day of school!! YAY!!! I always, always, always, spend the first day of school going over classroom procedures and expectations, so my students know what to expect from day one in my classroom. After that I spend time doing different team building activities and grouping my students randomly to get to know each other. I do A LOT of group work in my classroom, so it is important to me that they are comfortable working with anyone and being able to help each other out. Here are some of the "team building" activities I did this semester:

Wednesday: We started our first unit of the semester, which is spending the week reviewing material they learned in Math 1. The topics for today was solving linear equations. I put my students in random groups and asked them the following five questions:

1. Give an example of 3 like terms

2. Give an example of 3 unlike terms

3. What operation "undoes" multiplication?

4. What operation "undoes" addition?

5. What are the steps to solving an equation?

They had to answer them as a group, and this gave me an understanding of where they were at with solving equations. Which also allowed me to scaffold our notes accordingly to not let them get bored. After the group work, we took some notes and I reminded them of the key parts of solving equations and practiced as a class. After about 15-20 minutes I sent my students back to the boards to work on solving 8 equations of varying levels together as a team.

Thursday: We finished up the notes from Wednesday on solving linear equations. After that they got time again to work in groups at the board and practice solving equations in preparation for their quiz tomorrow. Once all of the groups finished the error analysis at the boards I got them signed up for DeltaMath and they worked independently on their assignment posted there.

Friday: Quiz day!! They took their first quiz of the semester today. We got warmed up and practiced with a quizziz for the first 30 minutes of class. After that they took the quiz, and that was it for the day.