Absolute Value equations and inequalities

What a frustrating day! I gave my Algebra 2A students what I call a concept check. This is what goes in my grade book instead of homework. I pick 1-2 problems from each section over the big ideas and the students do them in class with the assistance of their interactive notebook. I do this every 2-3 sections in a chapter. Today's concept check had a mistake on it and the students were constantly using the directions from the previous problem to solve the next problem. This happened even after I told them not to do this. Unfortunately, I was frustrated before I even got a chance to grade them. Then when I did grade them, I found that most of them were lost! Next year, I need to make sure that I somehow build in more time to talk about absolute value and inequalities. Even though these concepts should be review and they can use their notes, they are still struggling big time on them! They seem to struggle when evaluating absolute value expressions when there is more than one absolute value sign and solving absolute value equations. I need to make sure that I reiterate that there are 2 possible outcomes for absolute value equations. Many of my students are labeling an absolute value inequality as and or or, but they are not solving them that way. I need to review this too.

You sunk my battleship! and QR Codes

     Wow!! I really stink at keeping up with this. So my Algebra students are learning about factoring right now. I remember when I learned about factoring with a>1 I only learned guess and check. I was so frustrated and was never very good at it. I have since learned several methods, but the one from this year is by far my favorite. I got it from Math Equals Love: Slide, Divide, Bottoms Up and the X-puzzle. I have used the X-puzzle in the past, but then used factoring by grouping. I have to say my kids LOVED it. I never thought I would hear, "That's it? This is the easiest thing we have done all year." I attribute most of that success to the fact that we did X-puzzles just as a warm-up/we have 5 minutes left activity since the beginning of this chapter. I cut up old transparencies into fourths and wrote an X-puzzle with permanent marker on it. When we had extra time I would pass them out to students to finish using a wet-erase marker. Students got really good at them and even began to race each other on them. I never connected them to a specific concept; I simply called it a puzzle and said we would use it later on. To help navigate the signs, I created a signs flowchart. Every time was solved a puzzle as a class I would force students to drag them out and answer the questions. By the time we got around to actually factoring my students were experts on finding the appropriate pairs. I also used the 1/2 sheet resources found on Math Equals Love. The only thing I might change is teaching a=1 and a>1  separately. I think that with the way that I approached factoring with the X-puzzles I really don't need to break it up. To give my classes so practice used QR codes and played Battleship.
    I made up some factoring problems and put a QR code with the answer at the bottom. I let students work in pairs and gave them each 3 cards. They had 4 minutes to solve the cards and check their answers by scanning the QR code with their phone. After the 4 minutes were up we rotated the cards around the classroom. The students loved that they got to use their phones in class and they were feeling really successful. I laid down a few ground rules for the activity. Phones had to only be used to scan the codes. (Timing my students definitely helped with this.) They also had to show their work and be able to defend answers when I came around. If they didn't finish all of the cards that was okay with me as long as they were following the rules and participating. I loved that I got a chance to work one on one a little more without the students who don't need the extra help getting bored or calling out all of the answers.
     Today we played Battleship. I gave students a grid that had answers to factor problems on one side and the corresponding questions on the other side. Students chose 10 spaces to place their "battleships" then took turns factoring an equation and calling it out to their partner to see if they had sunk a battleship. This gave them instant feedback just like the QR codes and also gave them LOTS of practice factoring. I am definitely glad that I took the time to laminate the cards and had students use overhead markers to write with. It seemed to get them more engaged and saves me time in the future. I think that next year I want to add look for a GCF as my first step before they slide. Students often forgot this step and I think they will see the chapter as connected lessons that build on each other instead of 6 individual lessons/skills. I definitely want to get better at previewing/reviewing and connecting back next year. I need to look a bit further ahead in the chapter and see how I can tie it all together. Overall I feel pretty darn good about this lesson. I guess I will know for sure on Wednesday when we quiz.

Exponential Growth and Decay

     I introduced exponential growth to my Algebra students with a bit of a scenario. I offered to sell someone in the class my diamond wedding band. Of course this was met with a mixture of, "Why do you want to sell your ring?" and "Oooo me! Me! Pick me!" I chose a "lucky" buyer and brought them to the front of the classroom. I then proceeded to tell them that I would only make one deal with them. They had to give me a penny today, two pennies tomorrow, four pennies the next day, and so on for just one month. Both of my classes had students that were willing to take that bargain. I even offered to help them calculate how many pennies they would owe me each day. By the time we got to day 30 we were well into the millions. This sparked questions about how it could be so much when we only started with 1 measly penny. (Enter exponential growth) Needless to say, I still have my diamond ring.
     The next day, I went around to check homework and a whopping 5 students had completed or even attempted the assignment. I was beyond frustrated with them because about this time last semester they all stopped doing their homework and couldn't figure out why their quiz and test grades were so low. After getting on my soapbox momentarily about the importance of turning in their assignments an idea struck me. I had planned exponential  growth examples that dealt with money in savings accounts and different rates of growth, but I decided that I needed a more tangible example. So I posed the question: If you have a 55% in my class right now, but plan on bringing it up 5% over the next 6 weeks would you have a 80% at the end? Many of the students said that they would have an 85% at the end. We were able to use our exponential growth model to test this theory and they were surprised to find out that the grade would still be a C. They were really excited about these problems and by the end of class everyone in the room had the hang of it and could even apply it to the financial problems I had planned. When I introduce exponential growth I think I will start with a problem like the growth problems, but see if they can figure out whether or not a student will pass. I hope this lesson served a dual purpose and I have way more than 5 people turn in homework!

First post!

As a first year high school math teacher I  have been trolling and following several blogs all year. They have been the source of many wonderful inspirations and I love being able to relate to other teachers in the same boat as me. All year I have been telling myself that I should blog about my successes and, I hate to admit, my failures in class. If for no other reason I will have something to look back on next year when I am planning my lessons. So here I go on my maiden voyage into the blogging community. Wish me luck!