My students notice and wonder

Today in Geometry, I asked my students what they noticed about a pair of perpendicular lines.  There were a several students who stated observations.  Then one student said "I wonder how we can tell if the lines are parallel without having to graph them."  She jumped to wonder before I even asked!!  SUCCESS!

My geometry students have become amazing thinkers!

First day of school mathematics!!

Today was the first day of school! Sometimes no matter how well you plan, you need to fill 3 - 5 minutes at the end of the hour.  Today I asked students questions about the day. I made the questions mostly mathematical answers. It was fun and made students think!
(I had told students that this was my 25th year of teaching and had shared a variety of information about myself.)
Sample questions.
1. How many school years have I taught?
2. Do I have more children or more chickens?
3. How many years have I lived in Collinsville?
4. What percentage of your semester grade will come from test grades?
5. Which is greater the age of my son in years or the age of my chickens in weeks?

They had NO CLUE that they were doing math!!

Geometry...My Style of Thinking!

I am starting a new year at a new school with a new prep.  A return to Geometry!!

After a summer with 10 days of PD included, I am ready to try new things and make my students work harder than me. My plan includes the following:
1. A lot of "What do you notice?" and "What do you wonder?" throughout many, if not all, daily plans.
2. Giving my students a change to guess and learn that a wrong guess is NOT a mistake. It is chance to learn more.
3. Go and talk - I just read about this idea a few days ago and love it! Have students stand up, walk up to another person, look them in the eye and discuss mathematics!
4. Creating Mathematicians who are constantly thinking.

This is a short blog post with more to come. My goal is to share my thoughts and ideas at least weekly.  More to come...