Practice with a Raffle

Yesterday, my pre-algebra peeps learned to factor monomials. As much as the term "skill, drill, kill" (is that what it is?) is not often deemed good math teaching, I do believe there is a place for it in the math classroom. Factoring monomials is one of those skills that students just need to be able to do. Quickly. Automatically.

Idea: To make the day more fun than a worksheet, I took a couple of worksheets (one from Kuta, obviously) and made a few copies. Then I cut each question out so it was on its own slip of paper. I had two stacks at the front of the room. Students factored the monomials, wrote their name on the back, and put it in the box. At the end of class, I would draw a name from the box and as long as the answer was correct, that student would win a Werther's Original!

My students were very into it! Of course, I was walking around checking for understanding and correcting any mistakes I saw. It was good to see a healthy, competitive side to them again. Sometimes trashketball gets a bit heated. I am DEFINITELY going to do this again.

I became a game show host and the kids learned about calculating standard deviation

Is it lame to post twice in one day? Probably. But I still have energy and zest so I'm at it again! I was feeling nostalgic for my being-in-the-classroom-to-teach-math days so I wanted to share one of my proud, creative moments. I combined the game show Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader with... calculating standard deviation! Months later, the echos of the Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader day still reverberated through the halls. Ha. Not really, but I did keep the interest of a class full of freshmen for about 30 minutes which is also an accomplishment.

Here's what I did:

1. Had students complete an Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader quiz of about 20 questions as a silent warm-up.

2. I read the answers aloud and students self-graded and wrote their total correct at the bottom of their paper.

3. I'm very proud of this one - Used a random name generator to call on 10 students (perfectly tied in to unbiased sampling, which we had just learned about) and had them share their scores with the class.

4. We all wrote down their scores as a class.

5. I then provided the students with a scaffolded worksheet on how to calculate the standard deviation of a sample by hand.

6. Students did practice problems.

7. Showed students how to do it in five seconds on their calculator.

8. Tuned out the complains of angry students for not telling them the "shortcut" sooner.

9. Basked in the glory of my successful lesson.

Here's the activity if you want a better look!