a teacher...

a teacher....

I love my job.  I get paid to play sports and to hang out with kids all day.  The relationships you build can last a lifetime.  Just in the past year, I've watched one of my oldest and favorite (I know we're not supposed to have favorites but I do haha) play college football for the University of Colorado.  I've seen a young lady turn into a wife when I attended her wedding.  And in just a few weeks, I'll have 2 former students in my own bridal party.

In middle school, I didn't get math.  There's students that don't get the "lecture" method of teaching, and I was one of them!  From time to time, I try to get outside of the box and even do crafty stuff in my classroom to help those kids that still "just don't get it."

Whether it's ideas I've gotten from old teachers of mine, teachers I teach with,
or ....Pinterest. :)
Here are a few of our things that we've done recently...feel free to steal!

 **It's amazing what kids will do and how much they'll pay attention to you if you give them colored post-its!  All of the kids got 4 post-its, all in different colors.  We drew adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing symbols on each one.  We talked about INTEGERS in class and the different rules for each operations.  Under the post-it, the kids had to write the rules for that operations and give an example...

They refer back to this sheet in their notes spiral A TON!  Like I said, amazing what colored post-its will do!

This past week, we've been working on Angles and Types of Lines.  For the angles, I printed out 2 red arrows for each kid and they had to make a foldable for all the types of angles.  I brought each kid a brad as well.  They can use the foldable for their notes, and the red arrows actually move so they can make a acute, right, obtuse, or a straight angle.

 And last...our Types of Lines.  I saw on Pinterest that a teacher had done a lesson using toothpicks.  So I headed on over to WalMart and bought toothpicks and garage sale dots.  The students had to make a example of each type of line or angle.  They loved it and they were so quiet and on task!  Hallelujah!

Until next time...I'm off to mold young minds... ha