New Semester!

Welcome back to a brand new semester and a few changes to the schedule.  Our geometry unit has carried over from Semester #1 and we hope to finish it by February break.  We have been working very hard on surface area and volume of rectangular prisms, triangular prisms and cylinders:

M.O. has summarized some key points very well on her blog.  She also found a volume game sure to help out with rectangular prisms!

K.G. found a website that lists the important formulas.

K.R. linked to a youtube video tutorial that helps you to find the volume of a cylinder.

We are going to be doing a project next week that involves surface area and volume so stay tuned for that!

Dividing Fractions

We were lucky enough to snag the laptops today so we thought we should do some blogging!  We have been covering multiplying fractions for almost two weeks and our next topic is division so the students were in charge of finding out exactly how that is done.  We all had a good giggle when some found a dividing fraction song and Im sure it was stuck in many heads that afternoon!  Some students also found videos that were from the Khan Academy that went through each step for dividing fractions and many found that one to be quite helpful.  So tomorrow we will dive deeper into the world of division of fractions and continue to update you on our progress!

Multiplying Fractions

We have spent two weeks working on multiplying fractions.  We have reviewed terms such as: numerator, denominator, mixed numbers and improper fractions.  We have multiplied fractions by whole numbers and fractions by fractions.  We have modeled using rectangles, circles, number lines and counters.  Here is the beginning of our "How-to" project that the students are doing.  They are creating an instruction manual for others that can help them with multiplying fractions.  We wanted to use the computers to open up our presentation options but...alas...none availabe.  Next time!

Reflecting on Blogging Thus Far...

So as my course winds down and our computer time is non-existant until after the semester change I thought we could take the time to reflect on our blogging and computer experience in math.  From my perspective it was awesome to take time for the students to search and explore on our various topics.  It was difficult integrating it completely due to the ratio of computers to students in this school.  I would like to open up the use of the computers to allow students to demonstrate their understanding using the various tools shared with us by Alan Levine.  As a student, it was incredibly freeing and validating to be able to express myself in a way that felt true to me and I would love nothing more than to pass that feeling on to my own students.

Here are just a few of the reflections that we completed:
Krystel
Brittany
Nina

Exploring a New Topic

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bartmaguire/34324822/

Friday the students were asked to explore our next unit which is FRACTIONS!  In Math 7 they explored and worked with adding and subtracting fractions and in Math 8 we explore multiplying and dividing.  We first reviewed common fraction terms such as: improper fraction, mixed numbers, numerator, denominator, factors and multiples.  Then they were set free to find resources that supported all four operations with fractions.  Here are some of the websites that they found:

http://jamit.com.au/fraction-games.htm This site offers a variety of games that range from introductory fraction information to all four operations.

http://www.visualfractions.com/FindGrampy/findgrampy.html This site is hilarious!  There is are Grammy and Grampy characters that you must work with involving fractions.  You have to find Grampy and also feed him cookies!  It is also at an introductory level so it would be great to use at the end of the fraction unit in Math 7 or review for Math 8.

Here is TJ's blog and her in-depth explanation of our common math terminology.  She did an excellent job reviewing for us!

6 Word Stories

We were challenged to write a six-word story relating to math.  They were given the freedom to be open and honest and thoughtful when it came to summarizing their beliefs/ideas on math in to 6 words.  We brainstormed ideas together and then were given time to find an appropriate picture to go with their essay or create their essay based on a picture they found. 

For more examples, please check out my followers and their blogs!

Pythagorean Theorem: Student Work

Today we began creating Pythagorean Theorem posters to demonstrate our understanding of this ancient and often-used theorem.  It is, in fact, named after a Greek philosopher named Pythagorus.  Contrary to the belief of one my students, his last was not Theorem. :)   

After creating our informative posters we then took off around the school to see if we could spot real-life examples of right triangles.  Those right angles are everywhere and students were very creative coming up with ways to form a triangle from those right angles.