Hi there,

This is my first attempt at content blogging, outside of my teacher pages and our travel blog. Glad to be here.

Thank you for inviting me and making this sound easy. I am about to start my 27 th year of teaching math, and fell as though it were my first...except that I do have some experience under my belt! And I have plenty to learn!

I am trying to stay in the Algebra 1 realm this year.

To those, who like me, can get overwhelmed by all the deliciousness of curricula and how to deliver it, I offer this bit of advice that is something I plan to stick with this year :
     I break up the days of the week by " type, "  Monday madness is heavy notes, Tickler Tuesday is for introducing the problem of the week ( I do every two weeks) or a problem solving strategy, Wacky Wednesday is for a brain teaser bell ringer, Testy Thursday, and Fun Friday. This really helps me organize activities and makes sure I don't get stuck in a "chalk and talk" mode.

As for  something I love About teaching, again with Algebra 1 emphasis, is solving systems of linear equations. I always start with word problems, and I always start with a price list from the cafeteria. There are lots of comments, but we start with guess and check, then I immediately move to having the students write their own problems...when they have the power to manipulate the total costs and items, the rest doesn't seem so scary. Ex: Oliver was hungry after football practice so he ordered 3 hot dogs and two bags of chips for....the next day he wasn't so hungry so he only ordered two hot dogs and one bag of chips for...how much does a hot dog and a bag of chips individually cost?

Cheers, Amy in Mathland