Hey everybody! I'm back! And to say that's accomplishment for me is an understatement :) Summertime is so sweet but  I do have to say that I wait all year for summer and then, when it comes, my mind is focused on the start of a new school year. I want to work more on reminding myself to be present in the moment, especially since my little guy is growing so fast!

Well, exciting news! I am a procrastinator. This personality flaw of mine caused me to put off signing up for TMC '14 and, as a result, I ended up having to be put on the waiting list. I did not expect to be able to go so that was definitely disappointing. Welll.....I received an e-mail a couple days ago saying...I GET TO COME!!! yay!! HOLLA!! Other teachers from my district don't know much about it or were able to sign up in time either so I'll be coming alone which is a little bit nerve-wrecking! The only ones I know are people I have collaborated with online. I'm so excited about all of the things I'm going to get the opportunity to learn.

Enough rambling. Y'all ready for some goods?
First thing I've thought about sharing is actually a unit/lesson I had to make sure graduate school (which I'll finally be F-I-N-I-S-H-E-D with in August!) Many of you have used/seen all the lessons integrating quadratics with the angry birds theme. I have used it for a couple years and enjoy the project for my kids. However, I've really wanted to integrate more cross-curricular themes into the mix as well as getting my students to view the task as something they are assigned as a part of their job. So..this is what I came up with for my unit/lesson.

Curriculum Unit Map
This map basically just tells you the unit essential questions, objectives, Core standards to be met, and what roles I want students to take on throughout the unit.

Angry Bird Unit Tasks
This is the actual unit that I create, most of which I have used in my classroom before. What I really want y'all to look at is the rich culminating task. I have to say, I am super excited to use this in class this year and am proud of how it ended up. It truly requires my kiddos to partake in a real-life task that a job might require of them. Remember--I turned this in for grad school so there are a few reflection questions I had to answer at the end as a part of the assignment. Please let me know what you think. It comes with a rubric for the rich culminating task, as well. Let me know if you want me to send you the Catapult Activity and the activities I use to teach students to write equations of quadratics in various forms. Will definitely share if anyone wants it.

I'll leave you with a couple pictures from my classroom at the beginning of last year. It pretty much stayed this way all year. I have to say I LOVE color and my kids do too!
 
 

Hope you enjoyed! Let me know if what I'm sharing is benefitting you!

Psssttt... I don't proofread :)

Brooke

Hello everyone! I have been thinking of creating a blog to share about my classroom for well over a year now but I just didn't think I had much to share when comparing my ideas to all the other awesome blogs out there. However, my sweet friend, Shelli Temple, has encouraged me so many times and I'm excited to say I finally gave in. I teach Pre-AP Algebra 2 and Bridging to Algebra 2. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my job and am blessed that I get to make a difference with teens. I hope to use this space as a reflection of who I am as a teacher, a mother, a person, and a professional. I have lots of things to share and learn! I hope you guys can find the practices and resources I share valuable! It may take me a while to get the hang of this thing and a constant motivation to keep up with it :)

One thing I really enjoyed teaching this year with my PAP students was sketching polynomials by hand. I can't remember where, but I found this awesome (what I taught as an inquiry-based/discovery lesson) somewhere. Please let me know if it was you! Love the way students were led to discover the behavior of polynomials without me have to yack at them. (Who wants to hear my country accent more than you have to? )

Graphing Polynomials Investigation

I'm also a LOVER of all things Interactive Notebooks. This was my first year and - wow, I'm in love!- and I think most of my kids became believers too! So, I made this foldable as a resource for my kiddos to put in their notebooks. I found other foldables I loved kind of covering similar concepts, consolidated, and enhance as much as I could. Some of the fonts may not show up because many of them I have downloaded on my own computer.

Graphing Polynomials Foldable

These two things are a brief overview of a couple of things I found quickly browsing through my USB. Most of my ideas and resources have stemmed from people like you reading this! Please let me know if what I'm sharing is beneficial to you and feel free to e-mail/comment me if you notice any mistakes (I'm known for my lack of proof-reading :)) or questions!

Brooke