I just inherited two sections of Geometry. I mean, called in Tuesday, start teaching Wednesday. Yeah, so trying to figure what the kids know and don't know starting on day 10 of their 95 minute block schedules. There is so much I want to share with them, so much rich, yummy math.

Tuesday Evening I took a quick peak at the book (The previous teacher took down her website and wiped the board clean...I don't blame her...) found a few terms they should know and gave them a relatively easy worksheet on pairs of angles. The first eight problems were identification, last 14, find x.
Nothing too interesting. However, in going over the assignment in class, a CCSS click occurred. While it isn't earth shattering, the idea is that if my head wasn't in a constant state of CCSS-ness, I would have not been so clever. Already CCSS is working...on me.

The worksheet looks like this: (From Kuta Software)

I had the students mark it like this:

Then we took problems 13-22 and categorized them. The final product looked like this:


The students had to justify and critique each other's placement of the remaining problems. (Math Practices Constructing the Viable Arguments and Critiquing the Reasoning of Others).

High engagement, low prep. I like it!

Ack! I didn' save one image! However, don't stop reading, okay, you can if you want...

Systems of Linear Equations is a review for Algebra 2 students, and I hope, now that the students ARE Algebra 2 students, they will finally make the connection between the Algebraic solution to the system and its graph.

I started with this slide:

Michelle and Brian Look Fabulous!

from the most recent Woman's Day (how I got that subscription, I will never know, it just appeared one day).

Then I gave them a graph with some (fake) linear data.

The conversation was rich in two ways, the math was great, AND the opportunity to have a conversation with teenagers about health, diet, and exercise was FANTASTIC. Lots of questions about how they lost the weight, they wanted to know how long it took them to weigh their current weights, were they doing any weight training, have they maintained their weights, what kind of help did they have. Why did Michelle lose more weight, is Brian more muscular, how tall are they?

I know the issue can be extremely sensitive and I did notice one "husky" boy shifting in his seat. I emphasized that they didn't gain the weight overnight, so they weren't going to lose it quickly if they were going to maintain healthy weights. I emphasized the portion control, exercise, and cutting empty calories like alcohol (one girl told us how her mom quit drinking and lost 30 lbs!), I did emphasize body types (I have bird bones and 150 lbs would look ridiculous on me, however my daughter has her dad's bones, and 145 looks marvelous on her).

Noticing and wondering turned procedural proficiency (Blech) into something engaging and meaningful. It turns out Andrew Stadel tweeted about Noticing and Wondering in this Blog Post from Max at the Math Forum. I didn't see it until this morning after the fact. After reading the article, I can't wait until Monday!