I am a passionate, empathetic, thoughtful, mindful, and reflective teacher. What am not is fastidiously organized like I don't even get "or" in my middle name. (My colleague, Danielle, on the other hand, is Crazy organized, I mean she can not have a neat stack of papers where an  ungraded paper is touching a lesson plan is touching a IEP request, let alone a pencil in her pen holder or a calculator returned upside down)
So when I asked for help to make a review stack, I didn't want to forget how I was taught. (Previously my stack always had closed loops before a student got through all the stations)

Blogging is the perfect, "make it stick" strategy.

How to make a review station stack that works:

Materials:
*Ready for lamination and fun 10 questions printed out in large font, one per paper,
*10 colored pieces of paper--repeat colors are fine,
*Glue Stick or double stick tape,
*Lots of sticky note strips
*scissors
*notepad

Step 1) Place in separated text boxes these three items like this: Where I have written Solution 1--you write "Previous Answer. "Where I wrote Question One--you write the directions for the next question, ie, "write in simple radical form."


Repeat this configuration for each of your questions.

Step 2) Print each station. Use the sticky notes to label the questions and solutions by number. Q1 with S1 etc...

Step 3) Make yourself a 4 by 3 grid on a piece of paper. Label each square going down the rows, Station 1, 2, 3...

Station 1	Station 5	Station 9
Station 2	Staion 6	Station10
Station 3	Station 7
Station 4	Station 8

Step 4) Under Station 1 write "Solution 1" This is your solution to Question 1. Underneath that, put the question (say Question 4) to a different problem. In the last box put the Question to this solution. Work your way ACROSS the grid.

Station 1 Solution 1 Question 4	Station 5 Solution 4 Question 8	Station 9 Solution 8 Question 3
Station 2 Solution 3 Question10	Staion 6 Solution10 Question 6	Station10 Solution 6 Question1
Station 3 Solution 7 Question 2	Station 7 Solution 2 Question 9
Station 4 Solution 9 Question 5	Station 8 Solution 5 Question 1

Wha-La! Have fun! Send a picture!

What types of questions do you use Stations for?

I decided to share this "favorite," because my sister, who is in a completely different field than I am, (wardrobe and costuming) thought is was so cool and she could think of so many uses for it, that if I was going to teach her, I thought what the heck, why not post it here. Without further ado:

The Mini-Book: Eight pages from one sheet. I am sure it isn't anything new, just maybe how to format it could be useful. 

Start with a sheet of paper. For the booklet to the left I used 8.5 by 11, but our copier at work does 8.5 by 14 also.




 Use this guide on the right for planning.  (Panels 4, 5, 6 and 7 will need to be in textboxes so that you can flip them over. ) Now you are ready to go to the computer. 

1) Format your blank document Choose Landscape layout and narrow margins. 
2) Insert a table, choose 4 rows by 2 columns. Drag the square in the lower right hand corner until your table fits the page. This is how much room you have to work with. 

                                                                                                            Roll curser to get blue                                                                                                                                square and drag down


3) Type and import images in the spaces. The spaces above will need to be written in text boxes so that they can be turned 180 degrees before you save and print. To flip the text box, grab the green circle and spin. 
4) To get rid of the borders, highlight all the text and choose "no Borders" 
5) Print the one page book. It will look like this: (The blue box did not appear on the copies) 
6) Fold the paper in eighths as shown in the planning picture. Open 

 it and fold as shown. The cut goes from the folded edge halfway across. 









7) Open with the folded edge up and refold! 

This is a great way for students to illustrate vocabulary, take notes, or plan a project. If you plan on using it in an interactive notebook, do not write on side 8. I left mine blank and drew in a picture before I printed it. Okay, okay, I will show you! I left the schmutz visible just to make sure my sister didn't have any false expectations of me! 

How will you use this nifty mini book?

Hey ya'all, Meg Craig over at Insert Clever Math Pun Here followed her tweep at https://mathbythemountain.wordpress.com/ who blogged about FOOD prep. So I thought I would play along because, ya know, we are talking about FOOD!

Just a disclaimer, I am from Sebastopol, California. Our former mayor owned the first dispensary, we have not one, not two, but three Waldorf inspired schools in our town, and the HS t-shirt is a blue and white tie-dye that says, "Just because I go to Analy, doesn't mean I am a hippie."

We have great soil and an agreeable climate and we grow amazing food.

That being said, eating healthy, even VEGAN, can be easy and delicious. (not a vegetarian, not a vegan, but because so many of our friends are, I have had to adapt). Oh yeah, and gluten free too.

I am NEVER without the following ingredients:
--Kosher Salt
--White Pepper
--Ginger
--Garlic
--Roasted Chili Paste
--Dark Sesame Oil
--Rice Vinegar
--Lemon or Lime
--Box of Soup Stock

So here are my two offerings, both easy, gluten and dairy free.

Black Bean Veracruzano with Salad

Black Bean Veracruzano Served with brown rice and salad:

I have found a lot of comfort in the beauty of the novelists and cinematographers of 2017. I treasure the creative spirit that allow me to suspend myself in an alternate universe every now and again.
Here are some of the highlights:

Screen Shout Outs:

This year's Jewish Film Festival:

The Women's Balcony

Menashe

The Wedding Plan

In the Big House:

The Big Sick

Ladybird

Super Quirky Movies That Made Us Laugh:

The Little Hours

Los Malcriados

And of course: Stranger Things Season 2

The Beauty and Power of the Words I Have Read This Year:

Into the Beautiful North* (I recommend EVERY teacher read this book)

My Year of Meats

The Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

The Glass Castle

A Man Named Ove

We went to see Rachel Price and Chance the Rapper and listened to Jim Doherty's (@mrdardy) play lists and listened to a lot of Choro music. I took a lot of Ukelele lessons and played a lot of the easier Beatle's tunes. I drowned out my fear by listening to Pod Save America and Pod Save the People whom had a lot of smart guests who give me hope. I marched, I wrote a zillion postcards, we started giving regularly to the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center, along with NPR and a long list of environmental groups. (the planet has a hard time protecting itself).

I ran, I rode, I hiked, I walked, and due to a foot injury in October, I have gotten back in the water and have been swimming and swimming. Now to get back on my feet, to do what I love most, run and hike, and add in yoga. (More than my morning sun salutations)

I re-read my end of the school year post from 2016-2017, and I still struggle with finding ways to capture the imagination and interest of ALL my students, I am still a terrible police woman getting better with monitoring the headphone plugging in and texting in my classroom. The BEST thing I did all year, so far, was to ask my students, "what do you need from me?" I have had 3 boys that I know of hospitalized for depression, and at least a few others students adjusting to anti-anxietal medicines. (This really scares me.)

My favorite new poster is a quote from Grace Chen (@graceachen), "We are influenced, but not wholly determined by our environment."

Maybe starting a new semester is a good time to ask that question again, "What do you need from me so that you can focus on learning?"  And, What can Ms. Z keep doing that supports you as a math learner, and what is something different Ms. Z can do support you as a math learner?

Happy New Year you all. May your year be healthy and delightfully adventurous!
#MTBoS12DaysEdutopia

We teach Integrated CPM Math 2. We struggle to get through the material that is skillfully articulated and struggle to keep our creativity while being true to the curriculum.

Sometimes you need to give your students more exposure and time than the curriculum has laid out. (As evidenced by the number of groups who got the same problem wrong on the test) Or your colleague is unhappy with the lesson described for tomorrow and it is 4:30 pm and she's been there since 6:30 am and can't stare at her screen for another second.

Like my friend, Brian http://www.mrmillermath.com/ said once, "sometimes you just need a worksheet." Here are two very different, quick ways my colleague and I handled facilitating learning in our CPM Math 2 classes that added to the curriculum provided.

Review of a concept: It took about two minutes of hunting for images before I gave up and instead decided to use a notebook warm-up instead. I hoped that as students copied the notes, they would observe what they needed.

Directions: In your notebooks for Day (27), Draw 6 squares, copy the images, what conclusions can you make about the pairs of triangles? (We first recalled the triangle congruence and triangle similarity theorems) Take 3 minutes by yourself and see what you observe, then open the discussion to your table group. What can you conclude given only the pictures and no other information?

Oops should say "Triangle" pair. 


Introducing a topic:

This teacher was uncomfortable with the guided lesson for discovering "slope triangles give the same slope angles in our CPM text." She needed something more to inspire her students to "discover" the lesson's goal.

After some running between rooms, here is what she came up with. Nothing short of brilliant!

Textbook:


Danielle's Tweak:
Give the students some index cards with the same slope in equivalent fraction form. Have students graph them on horizontal, first quadrant graph paper. Have students use protractors to discover the slope angles. Go find the other people with the same slope angle as you have. What do you notice and wonder?



I am one of the luckiest teachers alive. We are certainly better together.