Minds on Mathematics-Using Workshop to Develop Deep Understanding in Grades 4-8 (Upcoming Book Study)

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**UPDATE 6/27**- Please see this post for information about the Minds on Math Book Study including the blog post schedule.  We will be starting this coming Saturday 6/29.  Please order your book ASAP and start posting as soon as you can.

**UPDATE 6/24**- There seems to be enough interest in doing a book study so we will move forward.  Please purchase a copy of the book as soon as possible if you are interested.  I purchased my book at Amazon and it arrived in less than a week.  I would like to get the book study up and running next week.  Of course you can join in at anytime, but it will be easier to stay on track if you get your book sooner rather than later.  I will be doing another post on the book study with more information in a few days.  We can try a hybrid study where you can post thoughts on your blog, but we can also try a chat on twitter for more.  I spent more time than I would care to admit making the Book Study Button on the side of my blog.  HTML is not my forte at all.  If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions for the book study please leave comments.  Thanks for everyone interested in joining in.  I am looking forward to a great exchange of ideas!

Hello to all my dear blog friends.  I am trying to find out if there would be enough interest to do an online book study  of Wendy Ward Hoffer's book:

Minds on Mathematics 

I purchased this and other books a few months ago.  I have skimmed the book several times, but am looking forward to doing a more in depth reading of it this summer.  I am trying to see if there is enough interest to do an online book study via blog posts or twitter chats.  I am open to doing either or both.  I would love to connect with other math teachers that are moving to a workshop delivery model of instruction in middle school math.  I have yet to find any teachers that are doing the workshop model for math that aren't elementary teachers.  

I will be taking a graduate class on math workshop model this summer with my entire 7th grade math team.  I am hoping to have the book finished by the time I take the class.  I know if I am doing an online study or chat that will keep me accountable, plus it would just be awesome to share ideas with other like minded math teachers out there.  I am lucky enough to be able to collaborate with my real life content team members.  The online book study would be a chance to connect globally with other middle school math teachers.

If you have any interest in either a blog book study or twitter chat please let me know in the comment section.  If there is enough interest we will proceed.  If not, I will still plan on reading the book and sharing what I learn on my blog.  I know it would be much more fun to collaborate with some of my amazing blog and twitter followers!

Human Coordinate Graphing

Yesterday I introduced coordinate graphing to my regular math classes.  They learn coordinate graphing in sixth grade, so they come to 7th with a pretty good grasp of the concept.  There are some students, however, that struggle with remember which is the x or y coordinate, and sometimes forget whether to go up or down or right or left for + and -.

I am very fortunate that my classroom is right next to an exit door that is used for fire drills.  I am able to take my class outside at a moment's notice to do things like walk through the steps of human coordinate graphing.

For the x coordinate students walk right for positive and left for negative.  For the y coordinate they move forward (up) for positive and backward (down) for negative.  The whole class moves together and counts aloud as they move.  I make sure we throw in some zero coordinates so they realize that zero means they do not move.  

By sixth hour (my last class) the students were a little more wound up so I actually allowed some of the boys to leapfrog their coordinates.  They loved that!

I really feel this hands feet on activity helps struggling students to get a better grasp of this concept.  All the kids love going outside and moving around while doing math.  I always tell my students that my math class  is not a spectator sport, but full contact learning.  :)

Number activity for first day

I teach 7th grade math and so the first day of school can be a bit chaotic to say the least.  We always have a special bell schedule for the first day of school and our academic class times end up being shortened.  I would say that class ends up being about 20 minutes instead of the normal 55 min.  I teach four sections of math (3 regular and 1 accelerate) and I like to be consistent in what we do the first few days of school for all four classes.

A few years ago, I decided to switch up my first day game plan.  My students see seven different teachers on the first day of school and I can only imagine how overwhelming that is and how these kids are on information overload.  Students are new to our building in 7th grade and the first day all they are worried about is getting lockers opened and not getting lost.  Due to nervousness I don't know how much they are actually "listening" to what teachers are saying.

Firs Day lesson plans from last year.

For this reason I like to get them up and moving around the classroom.  I also like to have an easy and nonthreatening activity where students can participate and get to know each other in a safe and fun manner.  After a quick and fun SMARTBoard warm-up, a brief discussion on supplies needed and quick introductions, I start asking a series of questions and students move to the number that applies to them.  I actually got this idea from one of our inservice activities and adapted it for my classroom.  It was a great way to get to know more about other teachers and everyone seemed to enjoy it (and that says a lot for an inservice activity!)

The numbers 0-12+ are posted around the perimeter of my room.

A sample list of questions:

~How many pets do you have? (then I go around and ask them to tell us about them, kids love a chance to talk about their pets)

~How old are you?  (you find out the age range of your students)

~How many siblings do you have?

~What is your birth order? (this is always interesting)

~What is the month of your birthday?

~How many extracurriculars do you participate in? (sports, dance, band, academic things )  Again the kids love to tell me about how they spend their free time.  This can also clue you in to who your introverts might be.

If I did some recording of the information we could use it to make graphs.  I have never done that before, but it could be a way to extend this activity.  

This could be easily adapted for any age student.  I can see it working really well with younger students. You may decide to adapt the number range and change up questions.  

This is really the perfect easy and fun activity to start with on the first day.  I get to know way more about my students and they get a break from a day of sitting and listening to teachers bore them with information overload.

I am linking up to Fun in First's Blog.  I have a feeling most ideas will be for primary grades, but hopefully I can find something to adapt for my math class.