Return to School: MFM2P - Day 1

 It's lunchtime so I'm going to quickly get my thoughts down:

Misses:

Bathroom record - sanitize hands, write down your name and time out on the whiteboard, when you return sanitize your hands and then record your time back in.

Break time - go outside, walk around, stay at least 6 feet apart and take off your mask. You aren't allowed to leave school grounds.

Hits:

We went over the Covid protocols as they stand for now, establishing some new schedules and routines as we went along (bathroom location, scheduled start, break, and finish times).

As a warmup I started with an 11x17 problem:

- draw an 11x17 rectangle on grid paper

- fill it with as few squares as possible

I modelled an example that took 8 squares, and challenged them to do better. Most were able to fill it with 7. When asked if 6 was possible, most felt it wasn’t because of the odd dimensions. So, I asked them to try it with a 12x18 which many were able to fill with only 3 squares.

Students were reissued their Chromebooks which gave us a chance to connect to Google Classroom and Knowledgehook. To finish, I gave them the “Cutting Metal Task” in Google Slides courtesy of Fawn Nguyen...I just changed the units to imperial as a lead in to our first unit.

Afternoon at the Museum

Last Wednesday, I took my daughter Layne (7), her friend Lucy, and Xander (4) to the Fort Frances Museum to take part in a beading workshop that was being put on by the Métis Nation of Ontario. The hosts—Sabrina and Linda—were wonderful at explaining the process, and providing expert assistance as we stumbled our way through our first attempt at beading.

It's been a very long time since I've worked with a needle and thread, but thanks to the home economics program that I took part in when I was in grade 8, it didn't take long to get comfortable. The process itself was beyond Xander's ability, so the two of us worked as a team: he would place the bead on the needle, and I would thread it though the felt. We had a pretty good system going, and as I tacked each bead in place, he would get the next one ready.

The steps were clearly laid out for us on these diagrams, with Linda explaining how to tack the first circle of beads, and then the "two-bead" method for the remainder of the pattern.

Lucy and Layne struggled when they missed a stitch, or poked themselves in the finger, or pulled the thread out of the needle—which was the worst because threading the eye of the needle can be a feat in itself. But it was worth it. With a little help, some snacks, and a healthy amount of perseverance, we were each able to create a beaded key chain.

Compared to one of the exemplars, it's clear that we could use some more practice ;)

After we finished, we took some time to explore the displays of local history, and this "Fire Bag" put what we had accomplished into perspective. Both girls and I were amazed at the size, detail, and the amount of time and patience it must have taken to complete such a beautiful piece.

On our way out we stopped to explore the Freemasonry exhibit on the main floor when it hit me that I need to spend more time learning and documenting our family history. I told my kids that they're great-grandfather (my grandfather) was a Mason, but I really don't know anything else about his involvement. However, I'm really happy that they had this opportunity to experience a traditional Métis activity. It's been a while since I've done any research on our family's histories, which I need to do while our parents and my wife's grandparents are able to pass on their knowledge and stories.

High Fives

I just need to get this written down while it's still relatively fresh in my mind...too long to tweet about in any kind of detail, so this is "gonna" be a  little messy.

First Class:
We were going through our first visual pattern in my grade 9 applied math class (MFM1P1) a la Michael Fenton, with a couple variations...I keep the column of 5, and add columns of 3 each time which I find helpful when it comes to developing the equation intuitively.
eg: Stage #10 looks like this

After they draw stage 10, I ask them how many circles they used (32) and how they calculated their answer. If necessary I ask for a few different ways to come up with 32, until someone says "3 times 10 plus 2," which is what I'm pulling for.

Oh yeah, this post is supposed to be about high fives...so anyways, while we are making our table of values, J asks, "What about high fives?" Alright, I bite. I ask him, "What do you mean 'what about high fives'?" and he responds by saying that if there's two people, they can only high five each other, but then if there's 3 people, they can have 3 high fives. At this point I realize that, seemingly out of nowhere, he's asking about the handshake problem. (I love the curiosity and initiative, so I decide to run with it) Teaching Tangent Time: I say let's pause from our visual pattern, and check this out. I have J and another student stand up and high five each other, while I start recording the results in a table on the whiteboard. I ask another student to join, and for the 3 of them to high five each other....this continues until we have 6 students all high fiving each other, and the following table on the board.

I tell J "you have enough info to get started, try to figure it out for our next class," and we return back to our visual pattern as a whole class. BTW our grade 9s are one-to-one with Chromebooks this year, and I've got a fever for more Desmos :)

Next Class:

The first thing I ask J is if he's figured out his high five problem, but he says no. I anticipated that this might happen, so I had thought up a way for us to model this in class...walk off home runs!

I start with 1 student getting zero high fives in the corner of the class, and when the next student joins him in the corner, they get to high five. Then we add another student to the pair in the corner, and another, and another. As we add each student they start over trying to high five each other, and I record the results in a table on the board (like yesterday). By the time we have 6 students in the corner, someone complains that there's not enough room and we should spread out along the wall. Yes, yes we should!

Once the 6 are lined up I ask, "It took 15 high fives for all of you to high five each other, let's start there and count on as the next student joins and high fives each of you." Off we went, adding one student at a time to the group, counting on as they high fived everyone that was already lined up. I tried to hype it up like they are your teammates lined up at home plate after you just hit a walk home run in the World Series. The EA in our class is the best! She even stepped in as the DH for a student. Here's what it looked like:

Were they as excited as me? Nope.

Did it run perfectly? No way.

Was it an active way to model the "handshake problem"? You bet.

But most importantly, students discovered how the non-linear pattern grew. Maybe next class we will develop the equation, or try some counting circles.

Survivor: Coral Island - Week #2

Thursday: I placed two hidden immunity idols in the school, wrapped with a message explaining their use. In class we reviewed the rules of Survivor.

Friday: I left tree mail in the class with the instructions that someone is to read them aloud after the opening exercises. Apparently they struggled to make sense of what was written (I was trying to be cryptic), but they all made it to the gym for the challenges.
The four team names they came up with are:
Hufflepuff Honey Badgers (blue)
Ghosts (pink)
Immortals (green)
Delta Miners (grey)

This was my script and notes from the 75 minute period:

Record each component of the challenges, and tribal councils with an iPad.

Challenge #1 - Meet in the small gym (I used red font to highlight Jeff's repeated lines)

“Come on in, guys! Let's get to today's reward & immunity challenge. Here is how it's gonna work.”

2 players with one basketball have to make 5 free throws (4 basketballs-1 at each hoop), once both players are back at half, then the next 2 players can run over to the end and untie their 3 bags of puzzle pieces (cloth drawstring bags from outdoor ed - 4 different colours) tied to hockey nets.

The remaining 2 players then assemble their puzzle in the gym's center circle (24 piece puzzles from the dollar store).

*5 free throws were too many, next time I would cut it to 3 so that there wasn't a large gap between teams early on in the competition...made it stressful for the players still shooting.

FIRST 2 teams to finish win immunity and 1st also wins a reward, the others will go to tribal council where someone will be eliminated. 3 of the tribes had to sit out one player from this challenge so that the teams were balanced.

“I’ll give you a minute to strategize.”

“Survivors ready...go!”

Winning groups get team immunity idol/reward (the reward is clue #1 for a hidden immunity idol) and get to go read in the library, 3rd place team goes as well, but will be called back to vote after the 4th place team is finished. 4th place team, stay for tribal in the small gym. After elimination, individual student records a message to the audience. 4th place team then goes to the library, and the 3rd place team comes back for tribal council.

*I scrapped the idea of recording a parting message, just in case anyone was upset or angry.
*Ghosts finished first, winning immunity and reward, and Immortals won immunity with 2nd place.

Discuss the game, and encourage feedback from players:

"It is time to vote. You can vote for any other member of your tribe, even if they are absent today. You cannot vote for yourself, and you cannot spoil your ballot."

One at a time, everyone goes into the equipment room, and writes down the name of the person they want to vote out. As each player casts their vote, they are to hold the ballot up and record it with the iPad. Players can record a message to the camera if they so choose. eg: I'm sorry, or I'm glad it's not me.

I'll go tally the votes.Once the votes are read, the decision is final, the person voted out will be asked to stay, and the others are to leave the tribal council area immediately.I'll read the votes.

*Once the 4th place tribe voted off a player, they went to the library, and sent the 3rd place tribe to the gym for their tribal council.
*After the first player was voted off I asked her to stay and I quickly explained that each evicted player was now becoming part of the "crew" responsible for next week's Survivor challenges. Like the crew in the real game, they aren't allowed to divulge anything to the players.
*We had a tie, so they voted again, except the tribe members could only vote for one of the tied players (who were no longer allowed to cast a vote themselves).
*Victoria and Ellie were the first 2 eliminated from the game.

Challenge #2 - In the gym

Each team has 5 minutes to build the tallest plastic cup tower (4x50 red 16 oz cups, cloth tape measure). Players who sat out the last challenge can not sit out this challenge.

Top 2 are safe, 1st also gets a reward (Clue #2 for a hidden immunity idol. Tiebreak if necessary-stack cups back into each other)
*Same result as the first challenge...Ghosts won, and Immortals came second.

2nd tribal council (repeat the process described above)
*Ashton and Raegen were the next 2 eliminated from Survivor: Coral Island.

*5 minutes was too long to stack the cups...3 minutes might be better to get a balance of speed and strategy.

Eliminated students plan next week's challenges, and will record video during the class. With the footage they capture they will make their own "Previously on Survivor" 60 second summary trailer.

**The process went a little too long, and took the whole period. Tribal council was the slowest part where each person walks over into the gym equipment room to cast their vote so the remaining tribe members can't see or hear who they voted for. While each person votes, the rest of us sit there and wait...it's kind of painful.

Survivor: Coral Island - Week #1

This semester I've been having "Fun Fridays" with my grade 10 English class. Initially it was to encourage the students to read for their own enjoyment, and play games (to build our classroom community, get the kids working together, and learn more about each other through play). Last week I had the bright idea to try something different, and start playing Survivor in our class. I want to help students improve their oral communication, teamwork, problem solving, and use of technology through the game of Survivor as a media studies unit. Also, I am a fan of the show, and we are currently studying Lord of the Flies. To see if this is something I should go ahead with I bounced some ideas of a colleague, and he's helping me to get the ball rolling by figuring out how this could work. I took his advice and mapped out the rest of the school year to figure out how many people need to be eliminated each week so that this will work for my class of 32 students

Week #1

I went out and purchased 8 packs of Goody headbands* for about the same price as one actual Survivor buff.

*actual colours used are different than those illustrated.

This gave me "buffs" for four tribes (blue, green, pink, grey) and two other colours (cyan, purple) for if and when we realign the tribes into two teams. To prep for next week I'll need materials for the challenges, team immunity idols, and maybe a hidden immunity idol...or two.

This was my lesson plan to kick things off:

Day 36

Fun Friday, April 1

Read 8:50-9:20

Post the following in Classroom:

How well did you read? Complete the following self-assessment.

http://goo.gl/forms/F7yp3La75e

Are you enjoying what you are reading? If not, check out

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/teen/the-best-young-adult-books-of-2015/ for some inspiration.

PLAY Opening Theme while students are completing the survey.

Poll students to see who hasn't watched before. (3 haven't)

Watch clips from an episode of Survivor (finish Wed. assignment).

Cook Islands Introduction - Explain "tribes"

Cagayan Team Immunity - Explain "immunity"

Gabon Individual Immunity - Highlight the shift from team to individual play

One World Tribal Council - This is how you are eliminated from the game

Survivor: Coral Island

For a grand prize of $10,000 and the title of “Sole Survivor”

Here are your tribes: Get to know each other, we start playing next Friday.

Blue Green Pink Grey

Name your tribe, and create a flag with your tribe name and each player’s name (11x17 paper and pencil crayons). Post on the back bulletin board.

Closer:

Lord of the Flies influence

Week #4 My Lesson

Starter:

My grade 9 applied math class went something like this on Friday:

A number of students remembered the song from Sesame Street and I'm hoping they all understood the concept. One student was a being a smartass, so I ran with it, and we checked each of the plates to make sure that there was only one with 3 cookies.

Next, I put this up on the board, and asked "Which One Doesn't Belong?"

Almost instantly someone said "They grey one," but right away someone else argues "It could be the hexagon too," and the discussion begins. I have the students explain to me why each one of the shapes doesn't belong, and when their logic was flawed, another student was pointing it out before I had to. The obtuse triangle was the most challenging, but they figured out a reason that they could agree on: exactly one obtuse angle.

To set them up to try this task independently, I had them fold a blank paper into fourths, and asked them to reason why each one of the following doesn’t belong.

They worked on them for a few minutes, and then we took them up together, and I focused on reinforcing the appropriate language eg: increasing, negative, direct, origin, quadrant, intercept, etc. I'm looking forward to using these for our math starter as we move from linear relations into algebra, and then into measurement & geometry.
*Next class I think we will try Desmos' Polygraph:Lines to further build their vocabulary.

Activity #1:

SolveMe Mobiles 

- login to save your progress

- create your own and challenge someone else

After they were all connected and had a chance to explore, we went through an example on the board to highlight the various features: weight, balance, pencil, and success. Initially, I thought they would have been ready to move on sooner from the SolveMe Mobiles, but for those that found it easy, they were eager to jump ahead to harder levels, and create their own massive challenges. I let them run with it, and instead of moving on to the next activity I decided to save it for another day.

*Students needed the whole URL to access the site on the iPad, if you left off /Mobiles they weren't able to connect by pressing play.

Closer:

This was not in my original lesson plan, however when a student suggested we should play Kahoot, I said "Sounds great." I had planned on closing with a problem in honour of 100s day for the last 10 minutes of class...but I'm flexible. Many of the students remember bringing in things like cheerios, and stickers when they were in the primary grades, yet they hadn't done anything in recent years. While they were playing with Mobiles, I found a suitable Kahoot for us to play that was all about 100. It was a fun way to wrap up class on Friday, and a couple of the questions were quite challenging.

*This year I have been using Knowledgehook Gameshows in math class rather than Kahoot because A: They have premade questions that match my curriculum, and B: The scoring is better since it emphasizes accuracy over speed.

My Favourite Problem

Hands down, the following is my favourite problem from this school year.

I put this up on the IWB for my grade 9 applied classes, and after a brief discussion they had their problem:

When will he be able to use his iPod again?

Assume the picture was just taken (10:45 am, January 5, 2016). Off they went to work on the vertical non-permanent surfaces (VNPS) HT @alexoverwijk in their visibly random groups (VRGs) via Superteachertools HT @fawnpnguyen.

Plenty of great discussion and learning about units of time, and rates. We ended up with a few different solutions, but were any of them correct?

To be honest, I doesn't matter if anyone was correct, it was just really fun to see the vast majority actively engaged in problem solving. Bonus learning: Days in each month, days in a year, weeks in a year, "what's a leap year?" and what to do if this ever happens to you.

*This blog post was created entirely on my iPhone.