Menus Project Day 2

I have been working on a Menus Project in class pertaining to Linear Functions. I have attached a link to the form HERE! A lot of students have started doing some very creative items with the Side Dishes. Hopefully I can have some students video tape there songs or dances and upload them to the internet. Most students have been doing a great job with the entree portion of the project. Students have been using the window function and table to determine the best fit for there graph. The final projects should be finished by Wednesday, and hopefully I can upload some of the work before break.

Graphing Calculator Take Two

I tried using another graphing calculator activity in class today. It worked better, however I had to go step by step for almost every problem. Students were forgetting to put in a variable or forgetting to put in parentheses. Any minor problem that you could think of came up when the class was given some individual time to work. I will be trying this with my other two classes and hopefully it works a little better. This time I will try to simplify the equations I give them, and give them less problems to hopefully speed up the process.

Graphing Calculators

Probably one of the hardest things to teach to students is how to use a graphing calculator. Today I tried to introduce how to use the trace, window, and tables in a graphing calculator. Even with the use of the document camera, students still have issues following along step by step. Some of the issues are with error messages and some of them are with lack of willingness to try. Most of the students that paid attention did see some success with the graphing calculator activity. Even going through step by step with these forms of technology as aid, how do we help the unmotivated?

Battleship Coordinate Geometry Review

Last week I used a Battleship Review game to help my students remember how to plot points. This exercise worked really well every time I had done it in my prior years of Algebra and Pre-Algebra. The most tedious part of the game is having students set up their game boards. With the help of my document camera it was quite easy to explain the step-by-step directions of setting up the board. It had taken probably about 15 minutes before to have students set up their boards, with the document camera we saved about 3-5 minutes per class.

Document Cameras in Class

I have recently been using my document camera to guide students through different types of problems. This technology has been useful with dealing with Special Education students who need visual accommodations. I plan on using this form of technology to guide students through a Battleship Review game in the next couple days. More will follow.

Blogs or Websites

What is better? A blog or a website. Blogs are useful because they are easier to create. To create a website you need to have more knowledge of basic web language. Knowing and implementing this language can be just too tedious. Maintaining a website can take an absorbent amount of time, because of the changes to code. Creating a blog can be as easy as selecting a template and posting a question. Blogs are designed to carry conversations between people or groups. This allows a single meeting place at the time convienent to each person's schedule. Overall, blogs are easier to create and maintain for the tech-challenged and the tech-savvy person to use.

Playoffs

The PGA golf playoffs are underway. How many ways are math involved in sports?

Welcome Back!

Welcome to the start of the 2010-2011 school year!

Welcome!

WELCOME TO THE FIRST POST FOR CORCORAN'S NEW MATH BLOG! BE SURE TO CHECK BACK PERIODICALLY TO CATCH UP ON REGENTS REVIEW MATERIALS!

One of the best review sites is www.regentsprep.org <---- This is helpful for all regents exams.