On the first day of school, I promised all my students that I'd do my best to make math relevant and challenging. I also promised to never waste their time, therefore they could expect to do math every day in my class, including the last day of class.

I did not promise them that math would be fun because doing math is always fun to me. I am not ashamed to share here that I gave out math puzzles at my kids' birthday parties when they were younger (I actually shared this bit on Twitter), also at a baby shower that I gave, and... get ready for this... at my own wedding. Straight up.

(I know I wasted my kids' time when I gave them three benchmark tests during the year and spent days reviewing for the state test.)
 

Math 6

I called this lesson How Many Regions? (Adapted from AIMS)

I gave each student a piece of 4-by-4-inch paper and a handful of 6-inch long thin strips of construction paper. Each strip placed on the square paper would represent a "cut."

Question: What is the maximum number of regions that you can divide the square into using n number of "cuts"? 

We did the first two cuts together as a class, and each student kept track of the data in their journal.

Because the goal was to get the maximum number of regions from the cuts, the kids learned quickly that the cuts needed to intersect. For example, two non-intersecting cuts created only 3 regions. A kid yelled out, "Parallel cuts!" Gotta forgive kids who blurt out academic language!

This class has been working with a pattern worksheet almost every Monday in my class, so they know to look for a recursive rule and try to find the equation for the n^th term. Recursively, they saw the pattern, so it didn't take long for them to figure out that for any n (cuts), the maximum number of regions is the sum of n and the number of regions from the previous n.

With 30 seconds left of class, I told them my gift to them was to try and figure out the equation. Matt asked, "Can I email you then over the summer?"


Algebra 1

Our 8th graders' last day of classes was yesterday (Wednesday). They'll show up this evening for their promotional ceremony, dressed to the hilt, the girls in their 7-inch heels.

I needed a quick one-period lesson, so I had them make 2012 Clocks. This is a common assignment: using all 4 digits in "2012" and each digit only once, they had to create expressions that would equal to the hours of 1 through 12 on a clock.

They were engaged and busy because if they didn't use class time wisely, then they'd have to sacrifice their hair-and-make-up time today to get it in to the mean teacher who didn't-even-give-us-the-last-class-to-sign-yearbooks-and-hug-each-other.