I Was Born this Way (a Geometry Teacher)

There are always good and bad days as a teacher, and being a geometry teacher is no different. Do I love teaching rule after rule on chords in circles? Absolutely not, they are unnecessary and annoyingly similar yet different. Terrible.

However, there are lessons that I literally can't wait to teach all year. Today was one of those lessons: a basic introduction to geometric solids or 3D shapes in geometry. You're jealous you're not one of my students right now, correct?!

My students discussing the smaller models I gave them to name after the lesson

I like this lesson because it is so tangible for my students. English language learners are always grasping for something concrete to hold onto and a cube provides a pretty solid grip. It's also a good lesson because these solids show up everywhere in the real world so it's easy for the kids to relate. One of my girls said the cylinder was like toilet paper; that was a new one I hadn't heard before :)

A look at the "skins" and diagrams I drew to go along with

This year was definitely better than last year because I worked out all of the kinks from my first year teaching. As a department, we have nice clear models of the four basic solids (cube, cylinder, cone, pyramid) which come in very handy during this chapter obviously. And this year I took it a little further and wrapped those models up in colorful paper. Then in class, as we were writing down the proper definitions of each solid, I was also able to engage students in a constant dialogue regarding the "skins" and what they would look like "unwrapped." We talked about the similarities between them, like how cones and cylinders both have at least one base of a circle. Then we discussed the differences, like how cones don't have any defined sides while pyramids always have triangle sides.

It was a lesson that went all hour, 50 minutes, and I have never seen my class so engaged in a basic lecture. Well, I guess that's because it wasn't exactly a basic lecture- I was "undressing models" in front of class! Get it? Taking off the colorful paper of the geometric models I had! I know, I'm clever. My students think so too...perhaps.