#Made4Math Monday Week 5 - An Assortment, cont.

Here's picking up where I left off last time...I didn't want to overload you on the projects last week, so I saved some for this week:

Project #1: Wall of Fame

I have quite a collection of senior pictures from the past 8 years.  Every year, I tape the pictures on the front of my desk or a chalkboard nearby.  Then at the end of each year, I take them down and pull off the tape.  REPEAT...NO MORE!

I put the senior pictures on the blank pieces of paper (I flipped the pages so that the pictures are face down to protect the "innocent")...there ended up being 4 or 5 sheets of paper with 9 pictures each.  Now, I will post these every year and only take down a few sheets of paper instead of each individual picture.

Project #2: Math Quotes Pages

I took funky scissors from my mom's beginner scrapbook kit she gave me and cut out some math quotes that I found online.  I also cut outlines from the paper I used for the "wall of fame" lettering:

Project #3: Crochet Flower Pencil Toppers

I wanted to do something like what so many #made4math-ers have been doing lately and create custom pencil toppers to prevent students from permanently borrowing my pencils.  So, naturally, I found a crochet pattern for pencil toppers!

Once I crocheted them, I used tacky glue to get them to stay at the top of the pencils.  We'll see if it works!!!

It's Always Sunny/Signy in Algebra

So my new classroom has no windows.  My math department head (who is totally cool, btw) told me that the previous teacher put up outdoor drawings on the brick wall that has no bulletin boards, chalk boards, or dry erase boards.  This gave me a corny idea...and I think I'm gonna go with it.  Let's see if I can create my vision using Gimp (poor man's Photoshop):

I can't make up my mind whether to put sunny or signy.  Also, the lettering to sun ratio is not guaranteed to scale.  This is a loose reference to the TV show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia".  To be honest, I've never watched the TV show and know very little about it.  However, when I got the idea for the brick wall, this was the pun that came to mind...and I haven't bothered to think of any others.

I know it'll be tricky to see the yellow lettering on the brick wall, which is why I used a drop shadow on gimp.  IRL, I will cut out yellow and black letters to give the same effect.

So...opinions?  Do you like it?  Which should I use?  Sunny or signy?

#Made4Math Monday Week 4: An Assortment

So, I kinda did a lot this week...so I'll just dive in:

Project #1: DIY Dry-erase boards

I got the idea from this pin on pinterest (of course)...I had the report covers already and bought the fun duct tape at Walmart.  I used some thick paper for one and a few sheets of graph paper for the other:

Project #2: Dry Erase Board Holder FAIL.

I tried to apply @fouss' cereal box conversion to dry erase board holders...

...but as you can see, I switched her directions around... 

AND the cereal boxes were too small to begin with.  SO back to the recycling bin went the boxes...
















Project #3: Addition to my scrapbook page to continue building my bulletin board from home.  As you can see, the FAIL from before continued on here...the slice machine started out of alignment, so I had to figure that out.

Then, the adhesive stuck to the paper way too much!

However, I think it turned out alright.

Project #4: PRINGLES CANS RULER HOLDERS!!!

I had to use 2 layers of the black, green, and pink design because the "white" part was quite translucent.

BTW, mustaches are awesome.

Ok...I have a few more, but I'm going to save them for next week.  We are moving/packing, so I don't know if I'll have much of a chance to make anything more...WE'LL SEE!!!

New Widget - Common Core Standards

A friend posted a pin on pinterest for a common core standards widget/app.  You can either download this as an app for your Android or iPhone, OR you can add the widget to your blog!  Since my husband uses the iPod touch more than I do, I chose to add the common core standards as a widget to my blog.

You can see the widget to the right of my blog page (it says "common core app") and click on it and go to any set of standards for math or english.  This is going to be SO helpful for this upcoming year since we are adopting the common core standards and going through curriculum review.

BTW, I'm SO excited for next week's #Made4Math Monday...I've already been working on some stuff for it!

#Made4Math Monday Week 3 - Teacher Binder (copy cat) + Math Poster Printables

Made4Math Project #1 - Teacher Binder:

Seeing others post their Teacher Binders made me realize that it would be a great idea to have all those things in one place.  In the past, I would have a paper gradebook to coincide with my online gradebook (in case the server crashed...which once it did!), a paper lesson plan book (since there's nothing like showing your work in pencil first), and a bunch of random notebooks or papers with notes from faculty meetings (if I took notes at all).  So here's a preliminary version of my Teacher Binder:

Here is my cover.  I wanted to do something unique with the cover.  I went to Wordle and typed in my math blog site to create this word collage of words I have written on the blog.  The more you repeat a word, the bigger the word gets.  Similarly, if there's a word you only type once or twice, that word appears smaller in the wordle.  Notice Made4Math is fairly large since I mentioned Made4Math more than some of the other words.

I included a pencil pouch (idea stolen from the AVID program) because I often find myself misplacing writing utensils on my desk.  If I always have writing utensils in my binder, I can just pick that up and go without worrying about being unprepared.

I downloaded @druinok's weekly planner page and gave it a slightly colorful flair.

I printed out my new school's district calendar and dowloaded @mathastrophe's calendar.

I tried printing my tabs using the template from the dividers that I purchased, but I lost patience quickly with them being misaligned...so I write them myself.

The lesson plans and gradebook haven't been made yet since I'm not quite sure what courses I'm teaching, etc.  Don't worry...I find out for sure this week.  Plus, my new school is on trimesters, so I need to factor that in.

I used @druinok's template for meeting notes.

I used @druinok's parent communication template.

For my ideas tab, I put a whole packet of college ruled notebook paper in there.  That way, I can jot down ideas AND I'll have paper for others to borrow when the occasion arises.

For my back cover, I made a collage of some of my favorite math pins (and a few nonmath related pins).

Made4Math Project #2 - Printable Math Posters:

On pinterest, I found a cute saying: "Live. Math. Love."  Naturally this drew my attention, so I clicked the link and found a few printable posters.  I printed 3 of my favorites and bought crayola markers for the first time since high school.  I plan on laminating them for my classroom in the near future.

Warning: the link to the printables might not work today.  I went to the site and it gave an "internal server error".  I included the link anyway.  Hopefully their server will be working again so you can check out the posters!

#Made4Math Week 2 - Montuesday!

So, this weekend was quite unpredictable.  We drove up to Toledo on Thursday night.  My appointment on Friday was rescheduled to Monday due to all the power outages.  My husband was in a wedding on Saturday...and the power went out at the reception.  Apparently the transformer was damaged during the storm days prior but remained 'functional' until Stevie Wonder started singing Superstition...we didn't get back into town Monday until 9pm, so needless to say, I didn't get a chance to work on the #Made4Math Monday...

So today is Made4Math Montuesday!!  (Just go with it.)  Due to our hectic weekend, I didn't have much time to think about what I wanted to do, but I think I was pretty productive considering today turned into a busy day as well.

Often times, I throw together bulletin boards at the last minute and leave them that way for the entire school year.  All of the ideas I've seen on blogs and pins have inspired me to start slowly.  See, my mom is what some would call a scrapper.  She wants me to scrapbook with her so badly...but I just can't seem to get into it.  She gave me a whole bunch of scrapbook pages and even one of those machines that cut out letters:

I decided to use these resources to start creating a bulletin board slowly at home.

At first, I came up with this...

(the letters came from scrapbook paper that had numbers on it)

...but the gaps bothered me, so I added a cartoon 

someone gave me a while ago.

I think that if you click the picture, you might be able to read the cartoon...if you're curious.

I figured this could be in the upper lefthand corner of a bulletin board that displays the current unit.  In the near future, I will be purchasing colored tablecloths for the backgrounds of my bulletin boards...one of the many ideas I found on pinterest.

I know it's not much...but at least I tried!  I hope this coming weekend will bring the inverse of this past weekend so that I can come up with more ideas for the classroom.

#Made4Math Week 1 - Pi Guy!

So I was struggling to figure out what to do for Made4Math Monday...especially since I caught my husband's cold and don't want to go anywhere.  Then, I realized that I could combine my passion for crocheting with my passion for math...

So I crocheted a little Pi Guy!  Here is a link to the original pattern that I found...thank you Alicia.
I've never made an amigurumi before, so this was kinda exciting!!!

Here are pictures of the process (and the final product):

Here are the supplies...I must say, I was excited to bust out

the stuffing to create a "stuffed irrational"

The head...I used brown yarn instead of beads and embroidery thread.

The legs.

Oops!  Put the right leg on a little to far to the right...had to fix it.

TADA!!!

a new beginning

I have taught high school math for 8 years.  A lot has changed since I graduated back in 2004.  There are so many resources out there and great ideas, and I've decided that I want to be a part of it.

What got me started was pinterest.  That's right...I hopped on the pinning junkie bandwagon.  At first it was just to see what it was all about since everyone at work RAVED about it.  Then, I went through a phase where I mostly pinned crochet patterns...see my photoblog if you're curious about some of the projects I have done.


The other thing that inspired me was my photoblog and exploring other blogs/subscribing using blogger.  Before I got the hang of subscribing, I thought to myself, "How am I going to keep up with all of this?"  Once I got the hang of it, I went hog wild!  Through pinterest and searches, I found A TON of blogs about math!!!  I found most of them today and realized that I could easily get in the game...so here I am.  I'm not quite sure where I'm going to go with this or how it'll come about, but I think that's half the fun.

So hello, fellow math teachers, I'm Mrs. Smith...the MathSmith.