I love teaching Trigonometry. It has an arc that my brain can follow. It feels rigorous, 

but knowable. Here is how I plan out my introductory lesson for Integrated Math 2 or 

Geometry: If you just want the project, skip to the end. (But then

you miss Boat Balls). 

Day 0: Any Pythagorean Thing you want to do. I found a hokey Alpine Skiing Slalom course 

that the Ss had to figure out the side lengths for going down a hill. From TES. Link here 

(so you get all of chapter 4 that I don’t use, but the PDF is in there). 

This was an assessment day for similar triangles and proportions, so that is why I called it Day 0.

Day 1: Everyone made a 20-70-90 right triangle. We named the opposite and adjacent. 

(The hypotenuse is the hypotenuse is the hypotentuse!!!!) We put them on the VNPS and 

looked at everyone’s ratios and noticed and wondered. We the  looked at a 

0 degree to 90 degree trig table (sine, cosine, tangent only) to notice and wonder further. 

Then we took summary notes. Again, I have a silly worksheet–they did 6 problems 

and I gave them the answers (not in order) on a GS. We made a big deal of which sides are opp, 

adj and hyp and annotated the problems before they left. 

Love me Jamboard!

Day 2: Then we got real! There is ONE wheelchair accessible ramp at out school.

 (In front of Early Childhood). Every team got a yard stick and were sent to see if the ramp was 

ADA compliant. That was there only instructions. Most figured out to use the chart and work 

backwards. Some figured out to use the calculator and the INV key. 

We came in and compared notes and determined that there must be something more accurate. 

 

Day 3 was the inverse operation to give the angle given the sides lengths.

Day 4: We started with watching Boat Balls. Yes! Boatballs! (stopping and starting) and 

asking what do we notice and wonder? What do we need to know? What do we know? 

What is going on??? Then we annotated a silly worksheet that had a mix of everything on it. 

Then we learned about angle of 

depression and angle of elevation (or nether) and did some silly word problems

Day 5 we downloaded the AnglePro App. We went outside and students needed to measure 

the height of the flagpole, the height of the columns, the height of the columns in the library 

and one other thing, complete with drawings. 

Their CYU work was something I found in Ghana in 2009 or 2010 Called In the Park. 

The Students did this work and then had to draw in something that required the Pythagorean 

Theorem to solve. (So six Triangles) 

Day 6: PROJECT!!!! (I added they could make it digitally) 

 (At his point a DeltaMath Take Home Assessment was given due int 5 days time–a chipper) 

In groups of one, two or three, Students needed to create their own, “In the…” 

Magic happened! They got 2.5 days to work on them in class. Here is the rubric.

Make sure to check the sketch work before they commit it to the project. 

At the Met

Att the Christmas Market

We will see how much they remember from a three week winterbreak 

(First time kiddos were allowed to travel, so we got an extension for return quarantine if 

necessary). Happy New Year. If you use the project, please let me know how it goes.

 This is a heartwarming story. We don't get to tell them often enough. 

I used Geoff Krall's (Author of Necessary Conditions) Where Does a Letter Occur in a Word matching activity as a soft open to our after mid-winter break first day back in my small 9th grade Math class. 

From Geoff: Think about the letter y:

 New School.

My year feels like it starts in August. That is the "new" year for me. After 24 years in the same huge comprehensive public high school, (with two odd years, one for a leave where I ended up starting this blog and teaching 4 sections of Algebra 1 in my daughters' local high school, and one for a year teaching in Ghana) I returned to my dream job of teaching overseas for good. Accepting a job for as long as they will have me. 

How to go back over 80 days of lessons to look for the highlights? How in the heck do you do that? My lesson plan book isn't detailed enough, and having three preps to look through each set of Google Slides is way too daunting. Oh so now a new idea is arising, at the end of the day/week, jot the best of, worst of. Do any of you already do that? Make notes to yourself? "Do that again!" "Meh." "Change for next year!" I never do the first two, and absolutely do the the last one.

What I kept up from remote learning even though we were face to face:

• Google Slides. They got better and more useful. I was able to make copies from day to day and they kept ME organized. 
  
  
  

Note, this was written On October 25, 2020. I will update for my new year's blog bc @druinok is the queen of inspiration. Hello Dear Friends! I don't know what will be the outcome of this post, will it be more math-y or more adventure? You will have to read on to see.

Being At A New School:

I highly recommend it. There is nothing to up one's game then being the new teacher. I haven't been the newest to a school in my-daughter-just graduated-from-college-and-I-had-her-after-working-at-the-same-school-for-two-years years. I am more gracious with myself and making a greater effort to observe without judgment. 

Benefits of being newest: None. JK. There are many:feeling like you were hired with a purpose, not leftovers. feeling that honor as a talent, as a professional, and that your Master's Degree means something and your self driven PD has not been for naught. Being re-inspired by observing new colleagues, learning new routines, and ways to engage and care for students. I could not have done this without the support, intelligence, and care of the MathTwitterBlogOsphere, I truly mean it. 

While I have lots of favorite materials, I am mostly limiting myself to my comfort routines: opener that lends itself to "how does this make sense and now-I-am-less-anxious to learn something new," our everything notebooks, (oh Miss Amy, the trees, the trees), and the "Welcome Mat." I have three preps, Gr 9 Math Foundations (grade 8 standards), Integrated Math 1 (10th graders that had Foundations last year) and Integrated Math 2 (10th grade). I am trying to look through everything with a new lens. (Though relying on last years resource pages for Math 1 and 2). 

The Ss are keenly aware that I have a lot of energy, that I truly care about their welfare and am passionate about math education. They are however, not sure that their nonlinear, non-my-way-or-the-highway, teaching is the sure thing to fill them full of the handy knowledge that will make them successful IB students. As in "Keep, Change, Flip." I am like, WTF? (I didn't say that, but I wanted to!) What are you talking about? 'We know how to divide fractions Miss." But do you know why? Are you supposed to have more or less pieces? Can you draw a picture? There is so MUCH I want to share with them, working with the less confident students forces me to slow down, and take apart the learning step by step.

Having to be your best self everyday is refreshing. (tiring too, sleep 9.5 to 10 hours on weekend nights!) Not making any assumptions about your students, where they come from, how they think, what they think is refreshing too. 

Public vs. Private School:

If you are still reading this, I want to share a little about the IB (International Baccalaureate) and the school. I am at a private 2-3 yrs old to grade 12 international school with 820 students on Cayman Island. To say it is different from the 1750 Students at the comprehensive public high school school I taught at in Northern California for all those years is an understatement. I have gone from 140 students for .83FTE, to 45 for 1.0 FTE. I work longer hours, have more preps and more meetings, homeroom, and houses, and I am not  nearly as exhausted. We are face to face, what a blessing! 

Hello Friends! I hope you and yours are healthy and taking care of each other.

Yesterday we conducted teaching interviews online. From years of experience both on interview panels and being a successful interviewee, I thought I would share some pointers with you. Please share and please let me know when you get the job!

PS These are all real examples, I did not make any of them up!

Please do NOT:

1) assume teaching is causal and show up in jeans or wrinkled clothing. (Many re-entry programs offer free professional clothing)


2) start every sentence with Me, My, I

as in "My students love me or when I took the SAT..." or when asked how you will contribute to a team say, "I don't know..."

3) assume all students are created equal or have access to the same resources.











4) ask "Where are you located?" or "How many students are in your school?" or "What physical safety measures are in place in the classroom?"

5) answer tech questions generically as in "I love computers," and "Computers are very useful."
and finally, oh friend, when conducting an online interview, please don't show the shelves in your frat house living room.

Please Do these things instead:

•  Do your research! All districts and schools have websites. Many have WASC reports or, in California, we have the The California School Dashboard. Check out a local newspaper for the school sports pages or what how the Oddessy of the Mind team did in their last competition. What was the last play, musical, or band performance of the school? Find a friend of a friend of a friend whose kid goes to the school. Know what curriculum they use in advance.

• Show that you are committed to healthy, positive relationships with students. Be specific. Mention a student by name, a colleague by name, or talk about how you connected with a student's family. 

• Have a good failure story. Make sure you talk about how you corrected course and who you reached out to help you.