Bouncy Balls #MTBoSBlaugust #oldisnew

Wondering what I should blog about for #MTBoSBlaugust, I went back to posts from early days of The Radical Rational and ran across this post “And They’re Off!”  I really like where I was at that point in my teaching.  I have felt for a while – that was the beginning of my “peak” years – when I felt I was really reflective, purposefully planning and assessing, providing opportunities for student thinking and them asking questions.

As I read through the post, I had a flashback to late spring – seeing my tube of bouncy balls in my storage cabinet and thinking – I’ve not had these out for a while.  So, I see Week 1 this year as a perfect opportunity – Do a little WCYDWT? – offering up the bouncy ball.

Hopefully the discussions will lead to data collection ideas – and then we can talk about what things we are measuring in their ideas.  What would the graphs of this data look like compared to that….  eventually leading to the idea of discrete (# bounces vs drop height)  or continuous (height of ball over a 10 second time period after dropping it).

Or maybe discussions of different “shapes” of graphs and why this maybe happens?

I have used bouncy balls several times in class and kids always love them.

What are some “cost efficient” data collection ideas you can share?

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Reading 2019 #MTBoSBlaugust #mtbos

Life gets crazy for me whenever school is in session, so that’s why I try my best to fill much of my summer with reading that never gets done August to May.  This summer is no different.  I did not get as much read as I had liked, but quality over quantity always.

 

Along with these summer reads, a post from Amy on her use of Stand and Talks from Sara led back to this Global Math from Sara.  It is a great resource and introduction if you are not familiar with the structure.  It would be a perfect PLC video.  S&T will definitely be in the lineup on a regular basis this school year!  I constantly find myself looking at graphs, questions and asking – how could this be tweaked into a stand and talk?

I have a couple of more titles – I’d hoped to finish before school started, but I think they’ll have to be the “keep in the car to read while waiting to pick up at band rehearsals” books – Five Practices into Practice and Routines for Reasoning.

Its been a productive and good break this summer.  I’ll share more in later posts about specific take a ways from my reading.

So what’s been on your reading list and what were your take a ways?