#MyFavFriday - err MyFavFraturday - Ukulele

I love when we have unexpected plans.  My good friend from college, Merry, called me on Thursday asking if she, her dad, and her friend could crash in our living room on their way up to Traverse City, MI for a ukulele concert.  Naturally, we said YES!  They are on their way to see the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain...seriously jealous.  At one point this past summer, I played a bunch of their songs on youtube as my soundtrack to making birthday cookies for my husband:

Side note: that vanilla is from the Dominican Republic.

Anyways, I think I have finally found my hook for teaching math, making it beyond interesting, and have an excuse for making youtube videos about it: Math Ukulele...err Mathulele!  

I play guitar:

So, I think I could easily pick up the ukulele.

Any thoughts?  Any song ideas? 

What's your hook?

Spinning Plates

So, now that it's October, I must confess that it's getting difficult to balance grading papers, lesson plans, etc. along with trying to maintain the habits brought forth by the summer...including #made4math  Mondays and #myfavfriday.  Sometimes I feel like this...minus the dress:









This week is no exception.  Tomorrow after school, we have a faculty meeting AND parent teacher conferences.  I found out that parent teacher conferences are in the gym, so I can't even use my computer when I don't have parents to talk to.

Anyways, I hear the 2nd trimester is always easier...

(cliche pregnancy joke...NO I'M NOT PREGNANT...our school is on trimesters.)



Anyone else feeling the same way?

Mathemes

Here are some math memes I generated using a meme generator:

Algebra Quote

"The human mind has never invented a labor-saving machine equal to algebra." ~ Author Unknown

We, as 'mathematicians' (I use this term loosely here), take a situation, a set of numbers, a relationship, and find a pattern.  Then, we express that pattern as an expression or an equation.  We do this to make predictions and represent these scenarios in a concise manner.  When we see a graph or a table, we translate these into a simple equation that sums up what is there.  We save ourselves more work later by making generalizations...which is a big part of algebra.

On a slightly different note, as 'mathematicians', we even develop patterns in how we, as individuals, solve problems.  For example, the problem 1/3(x + 5) = 5x + 12, some people choose to distribute the 1/3 while others choose to multiply both sides of the equal sign by 3.  Both are correct, and, assuming one does his/her math correctly for the rest of the steps, both will receive the same answer.  However, different people choose different approaches based on their preference and how their minds work.


Questions:
Any thoughts/comments on the quote?
Are there any unique approaches you have developed for problem solving over your teaching years?

Review Games by Students for Students

As exam review each semester (and this year, each trimester), I gave students a group project worth 100 points to come up with review games for each chapter that will be on the exam.

Here is a link to my description.  Over the years, I decided to have due dates along the way for things such as writing the review questions.  That way, I could grade them ahead of time and have students correct their mistakes before presenting the game to the rest of the class.  Before I did that, the games turned into finding the REAL correct answers instead of playing the games.

Here is a link to my rubric.  I gave each group a copy of the rubric so they knew in advance how I would be grading them.  Then, I filled out a rubric for each group along the way as each due date came.

Here is a link to my reflection piece.  The students would each fill this out.  After they turned them in, I would give them a chance to discuss what they liked and what they wanted to do differently as a class.  Then, I encouraged them because most of the projects turned out really well.

Here are a few pictures of review games:

Why I am Nutter Buttersmith/The MathSmith

So, I joined a blogger initiative started by @samjshah.  One of the many prompts for the first week was to write about why you named your blog what you named it.

My story starts with my husband and his many nicknames (maybe I can get him to blog about that...we'll see...).  One of the more popular (and accepted by Bret) is "Buttersmith".  When I married him, I became "Nutter Buttersmith"...get it?  It's punny.  Bret blogged for a brief time (as you can see if you clicked on his  blog link), so around that time, I decided to create my own.  I didn't know what to do with it since my days of xanga and college rants were over.  Then, when we moved to Greenville, Ohio, I met Shannie.  Shannie likes to take pictures.  She uses her blog as a photoblog to display photos with a theme or to participate in a photo scavenger hunt.  Since I had a blog with barely any posts, I decided to join her on the monthly photo scavenger hunt.

This summer, I spent most of my days looking for a job (got RIF'd due to a drop in enrollment in the middle school), watching stuff on netflix, and going on pinterest to get some new ideas for teaching.  There, I found pins from math teacher blogs, which opened up a whole new world!

Around the time I discovered math teacher blogs and tweeps, @druinok started #made4math.  So, I decided to join the math bloggers.  But what name should I use?  Then, it came to me...The MathSmith!  I was already using Nutter Buttersmith as a photoblog, so I wanted to create a new blog to keep the 2 topics separated.  I wanted to incorporate math in my new blog name...and themathsmith was available on blogger!

So, that, in a nutshell is how I became both Nutter Buttersmith and The MathSmith!

Help, I'm in a nutshell!: