This week we started talking about points of concurrency in my Honors Geometry class. We talked about the definitions of Incenter, Circumcenter, Centroid, and Orthocenter.
In the past I have had my students construct these points of concurrency the "old fashioned way" with a compass and straight edge. Since my students usually don't have the world's best compass, we ran into problems with the accuracy of our constructions. This year I decided to mold most of these constructions around the "Geometry Constructions Tutor Lite" App. We were able to accurately construct an Incenter and Circumcenter using the app. The vast majority of my students were able to construct their figures accurately. We were able to have a discussion that connected the types of triangles and where the points of concurrency were located.
For our discussion of the centroid, I had my students draw their medians on a triangular piece of cardboard. They were then able to discover that the centroid is the exact balance point of the triangle. They were very excited to be able to balance their triangles on one finger.
Overall, I think the lesson went pretty well. It allowed students to use technology and also do some hands-on work. It was the best of both worlds!
I know I usually write about math-related topics, but today I wanted to share some of the great things that are going on in my yearbook class.
I am a yearbook advisor at a school with just over 1100 students. Each year we order 600 yearbooks to sell to students and it always comes down to the last moment to see if we can sell them all. If we don't sell all of our books, our program ends up in debt. If our program ends up in debt, Waukesha North might not have a yearbook next year. So, we are always looking for new ways to advertise to our students and parents to make sure that all future Northstars will have a yearbook to capture their memories.
This year I have had some wonderful students want to get involved with the marketing side of yearbook. I have had students volunteer to make signs, talk with students during class and sell yearbooks at parent-teacher conferences.
This year we wanted to try some new techniques. One of the things we tried that got quite a
reaction was our "Parking Ticket" event. Students created "parking tickets" and put them on the cars in our parking lot. When it was time for students to leave for the day, many were startled by the ticket. Some were pretty upset until they read the ticket more closely and realized that it was just an advertisement. It definitely got people talking and thinking about the yearbook.
We also paired up with the people in charge of our vending machines at North. I had a couple of students meet our vending machine representative before school started in the morning. We placed address labels on many of the items in the machine to advertise our book. We kept our message simple: "Buy Your Yearbook: yearbookforever.com".
We have also tried to jumped into the digital age by creating a couple of videos to promote our book. The first video was created early in the school year. A group of students created an entertaining movie trailer to promote our book called The Unpurchased Yearbook.
This past week, another group of students took a more classic approach. They were able to incorporate photos and video to create a video that captures the moments and memories of high school.
Both groups did an amazing job with their videos. We have entered both of them in a video contest through our publishing company, Walsworth Yearbooks. If we get enough "likes" on Facebook, we could win a yearbook makeover. You can find our videos at facebook.com/yearbooks.
This week in my Honors Geometry class we looked at proving two triangles congruent. Today we built on this to prove that parts of congruent triangles are congruent using CPCTC. We started class by watching a quick video from Brightstorm that introduced CPCTC.
We then took a look at last night's homework where we were proved that we had two congruent triangles. We talked about what the proof would look like if we were trying to prove that two of the sides were congruent. We kept our proof exactly as we had constructed it, but we added that we knew that we had two congruent sides because of CPCTC.
Since my students seem to dread proof, every year I look for new ways to get my students to gain understanding. This year I tried a new activity with my students that seemed to work really well. In order to set up this activity, I needed some whiteboards and a wet-erase marker. On each whiteboard I wrote out the "given", what we needed to prove, the diagram, and the outlined structure for a two column proof.
I then had my students break up into groups of 4-5 students. The students used dry-erase markers to mark up the diagram and complete the two column proof. I was really amazed at all of the great conversations going on in the classroom today. The students were engaged and focused! They talked about the differences between the different congruence shortcuts (SSS, SAS, ASA, SAA and HL congruence) and they argued with each other about when it was time to bring in CPCTC. They weren't just focused on getting the problems done, they were worried about understanding the problems!
Once students were finished with their proof, they checked in with me to see if they had completed it correctly. Once the proof was done correctly I erased their work that was done with dry erase marker and the original problem written in wet erase marker was left behind.
Students then traveled to the other whiteboard stations. Each time a new person in the group was in charge of writing on the whiteboard.
This activity really got the students to communicate and I think we gained some great understanding. I had a couple of students who were struggling tell me that they now understand proofs! It was a great day in Geometry!
I came across a new tool this week through edpuzzle.com. The EdPuzzle website allows you to modify videos through YouTube. You can edit videos, add and voice-over and embed questions to check for student understanding.
I created a free account through EdPuzzle and then created my own video for my Honors Geometry class about SSS and SAS triangle congruence shortcuts. Once I created my video, I uploaded it to YouTube and then was able to modify it through the EdPuzzle website. Since I already had the content I wanted for my video, I focused on embedding some questions to check for student understanding.
I added two questions: one at the beginning and one at the end of my video. The video will "ask" the questions as my students are watching the video. Hopefully this will have them more engaged in the content, and the video will not just be a passive activity.
As of right now I do not have my video set up to collect data for student responses, but I think there is a way to include this as well.
Click here to see the video that I created this morning.
When you are logged into Google drive, you can create a fillable form for students. This is a handy tool if you want to collect student feedback or create a quick formative assessment. When making a Google form, you can collect short answers, long answers, checkbox responses (pick multiple), and multiple choice responses (pick one). The data is then collected and organized in a spreadsheet.
To create a Google form, click on the orange "Create" button and select "Form".
The next thing you'll notice at the top of the screen is a series of 3 checkboxes. Depending on your activity, you'll have to change which boxes are checked.
If you have the first box checked, users will be able to edit their responses after they have completed the form.
If the second box is checked, it would require a Waukesha faculty/staff login to view this form. If this is a form that you would like to share with students, you would need to uncheck this box. If you would like to require students to sign in, you would need to have the form created under a student account. You would then need to access that same student account to view the results. For example, for yearbook we would like to collect student information for the senior section in the yearbook. We want to make sure that a student is required to sign in to avoid someone submitting information for someone else. So, I had a student create the form under her account and she will then share the results with me.
This week my Honors Geometry class was busy preparing for our Unit 4 Summative Assessment on the Properties of Parallel Lines. Before each test, I give my students a practice test to help them prepare for the real thing. Since all students at Waukesha North have iPads this year, I thought we could incorporate the "Explain Everything" app into this practice test review activity. I told my students that they would use "Explain Everything" to create a 1-2 minute video that explains, step-by-step, how to do a math problem. The videos would then be uploaded to a shared folder on Google Drive.
I first asked my students to pair up. I then asked my students to choose a problem from our 16 question review assignment--they would become the class expert on that problem. Allowing the students to choose their own problem builds in differentiation. Students who have weaker skills can choose to become the expert on the less complex problems, while the students who excel can choose the more challenging ones.
Once the students had chosen their problem they began busily planning their video. Students first worked out the problem together. Groups then checked in with me to make sure that it was solved correctly. Then they began their videos. It was amazing to see how seriously the students took this assignment! If they found the smallest flaw, they would start again and make corrections. Here's an example of one of the videos created by students:
Once the students perfected their videos, they shared them with me and placed in the shared folder on Google Drive. As students were completing their review assignments at home they could consult the videos and clear up any problems they were having.
Overall, I think this activity went pretty well. As students become more familiar with the features of Explain Everything and the video sharing process, I think this process will become more efficient.
In the past I have had my students construct these points of concurrency the "old fashioned way" with a compass and straight edge. Since my students usually don't have the world's best compass, we ran into problems with the accuracy of our constructions. This year I decided to mold most of these constructions around the "Geometry Constructions Tutor Lite" App. We were able to accurately construct an Incenter and Circumcenter using the app. The vast majority of my students were able to construct their figures accurately. We were able to have a discussion that connected the types of triangles and where the points of concurrency were located..jpg)
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