Algebra 2 Activity Epic Success!

I have always been the type of teacher who likes to do hands-on activities. It breaks up the monotony of math lectures (yes, this math teacher admits it can get a whee bit boring) and allows for a lot of students to get involved who don't normally. I especially like discovery based learning when it comes to the younger grades because it tends to help them connect the concepts more than just examples.

This entire year I have been resisting doing too many activities of this nature with one class in particular however. I have a class of tenth graders who are all very bright, fairly motivated, and well behaved....when you lecture at them. The few activities I tried with them in the beginning of the year were a disaster! Such great little children turned into terrible angry monsters the moment I released them from their assigned seats. I try not to revisit those days in my mind, gives me shivers.

I was getting a little spring fever while planning last week though, and wanted to try an activity with them again. Why not? How bad could it be, again? We are studying exponential growth and decay and I found a cool activity in the textbook of all places involving pennies. You start with one hundred in a cup or dish. You spill all of them out on the desk and remove all of the pennies facing heads-up. After taking away the evil heads-up pennies, count what you have left. Repeat this process until you are down to one. The theory behind this is that half of the pennies should be removed each time you spill them out onto the desk. Hence, following an exponential decay model where you have a rate of 50% and a starting amount of 100. Simple enough.

So like any ambitious/perhaps stupid second-year teacher, I typed up a worksheet and went about harassing coworkers to donate to my educational fund. And to my total shock, it was what I would call an epic success in class today! I have never heard them so quiet and focused when doing an activity like this. They completed the steps and dutifully started on the critical thinking questions on the backside of the worksheet. What I'm very impressed with is the fact that they used their partners to figure it out, not automatically ask me on each step. It was honestly so great, I don't think I can accurately convey it through this blog. Great teaching moment for me!

Needless to say, I will maybe try a few more hands-on activities with that class before the end of the year!

I also like these sorts of activities because some of my students physically go
nuts sitting in a desk all day. Sure! Lay on the floor and count! Why not?!

  

Beijing with the Sisters

Well, I've been a little late on this update due to a busy week back at school, but Beijing with the sisters was a TOTAL success! I had my expectations of a good trip with maybe some stumbling blocks here and there, but I really can't say we even had even the slightest slip-up.

Ok ok, that's a little bit of a lie, we did have some issues getting to our hotel the night of our arrival. We have come to the conclusion after the fact that we ended up with a driver who was illiterate. The hotel sent me detailed, step by step directions in Chinese for a driver from the airport which he couldn't follow. So near the end of our trip, he parked the car on a corner, got out, and proceeded to ask a small schoolgirl how to get to our hotel. Pink backpack, pigtails, the whole works; she was probably 9. Eventually we made it, but it was funny to say the least.

And I guess there was my departure which was a little too close for comfort. I had a flight leaving from the Beijing Airport at 8 p.m. the night before the sisters left. I knew I wanted to get there at about 6 p.m. thus wanted to leave the hotel via taxi at about 5:15. Well, we got to drinking beers on an awesome rooftop bar in between the Drum and Bell Towers and misjudged the time it would take us to get back. Because at about 4:50 we were racing down the street to get to our hotel from the metro stop and my bag was completely unpacked still. When I opened it up in Taiwan again, my things were literally in ball form from my rushed packing. However, I did make it to the airport in plenty of time, so I can't really complain.

So like I said, minor minor travel blunders but nothing to really tarnish my memories of the trip. All in all, I had a wonderful time in Beijing, and more importantly a wonderful time with my sisters. We saw the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, and just about everything else. We had Peking Duck (YUM!) and other traditional dishes. Melissa kept us on track the whole time so we utilized every second of every day to the fullest, hence we went to bed at 9 p.m. every night! It is a trip I will not soon forget, Beijing is really a great city and it was a really amazing time I got to spend with my sisters.

Temple of Heaven

Tina on the Great Wall

Melissa in front of the Forbidden City and right across the street from Tiananmen Square (hence the picture of Mao...)

Great Wall of China

Pint Girls at the Forbidden City

Tainan Trip A Success

After about 28 hours in Tainan, we are off to China tomorrow to see the Great Wall and Mao. So before we head off to the land of restricted internet (so thankful I live in Taiwan), I figured I'd share some pictures of us in Tainan.

We told Tina, "Go put your hand in that hole in the tree" and she did it. Had to take a picture.

Big night market in downtown Tainan.