Author: Jon Orr

MEL3E – Day 19

by Jon Orr

Our warm up today was on making change:

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This one was an easy Monday morning warm up. We had a discussion on getting change back and rounding to the nearest nickel since we eliminated pennies.

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I then presented this picture and asked “Tell me something you notice”

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Students noticed:

  • parts are blacked out.
  • the date and time
  • the location
  • it was a withdrawal of $200.

We guessed at the bank balance and then revealed….

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Whoa!! We talked about what we could buy with that much money!

We did this all over again with this image:

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They noticed the same things as before but with the addition of the $3 charge. Most knew that this was possibly a charge for withdrawing money from an ATM that is not from your bank. I say most, because I have one 17 year old that does not have or ever had a bank account. Everyday is in complete amazement….and frustration.

We looked at the balance:

screen-shot-2016-10-03-at-11-52-46-amWe talked about negative balance and overdraft. We came to the conclusion that we don’t want this to happen to us….which led us into today’s goal: Keeping track of transactions and updating our balance.

I borrowed elements of this activity from an iTunes U course called Consumer Mathematics. The course has lots of activities that overlap with our MEL3E course! If you have an iOS device you can subscribe to get the resources.

I modified the activity slightly.

I handed out a copy of the transaction recording sheet.

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Click to grab the PDF

I placed 18 numbered scenarios around the room (I hid one in a hard to find place!). We completed scenario 1 and 2 together as a class as examples. Next, each student rolled 3 dice. The total sum on the dice told them what transaction to go to next.

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Individually they visited the transactions and updated their balance. I voiced “Who will be the first to run out of money?” while they moved around. If they rolled the same number as one they visited already they HAD to do that one again. It added some riskiness to the activity…..You would be wiped out if you had station 13 come up more than once. But if you had station 6 come up more than once you were jumping for joy! Everyone had to do 12 transactions and then fill out the bottom part of the sheet.

As a group they wouldn’t say out loud that they were excited to get up….but I think they appreciated moving around the room instead of just sitting at a desk.

The original task from the iTunes U course had them scan a QR code that would send them to Google’s Dice Roller to “roll the dice”. I opted out of that today since our internet hasn’t been reliable at all this semester…..We had enough dice to share around.

Tomorrow we’ll practice some more transactions!

More on Compound Interest, Financial Literacy and More

If you are interested in finding more ways to bring out financial literacy concepts in your classroom, consider subscribing to my podcast called Invested Teacher on Apple, Spotify, YouTube and other platforms. While we focus on how we as educators can better manage and invest our money, we also have episodes where we chat about how we can share that financial learning with our students, too.

Pentomino Puzzles

by Jon Orr

A few years ago I was introduced to a series of activities (through my then districts math consultant) that builds a driving need for students to createscreen-shot-2016-09-30-at-8-14-39-am, simplify, and solve linear equations. I used the activity for a few years in a row while I taught grade 9 academic. Since then I had forgotten all about it (funny how that goes) UNTIL NOW!

The activity ran as a series of challenge puzzles around Pentominoes and a giant hundred grid chart.

Activity 1: Explore

Ask students in groups to choose this tile and place it on the hundreds chart so that it covers a sum of 135. The task seems so simple to start but unpacks some great math.

Allow them to determine this sum anyway they like.

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I circulate and listen to their strategies. I give them very little feedback at this point. After a few minutes I choose some of those groups I heard interesting strategies to share..then let any other group share out their strategy.

img_2198Activity 2: Keep Exploring

I have them use the same tile and try again. Place the tile so that it covers a sum of 420. Listen to those strategies! Most groups that didn’t have a strategy before will try to adopt a strategy they heard last round. At this point most students will catch the strategy “If I divide the sum by 5, being like the average then I should have the middle number in the shape.”

This is where I stop and have a formal discussion as to why dividing by 5 here works? Will this always work? Will this always work with other shapes? What other shapes will this work with then?

We formalize the strategy.

Our big problem to start is not knowing where to place the tile. Let’s say I label the middle square n. What will the square immediately to the right of n always be? The left? The top? The bottom? Have them check this out by placing the tile repeatedly back on the grid.

Now let’s add all of those expressions up

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The middle square must be a multiple of 5!!! I have them try this strategy out by throwing out another sum and have them place the tile.

Look at another tile!

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We go back and outline that we could have chosen a different square to label n. Which results in a new equation and solves for different value…..but results in the same placement of the tile!!

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We continue by me having them select different tiles, giving them sums, having them create equations and solving them. I love how hands-on this lesson is. Holding the tiles adds some “realness” which I feel drives the need to solve these equations.

However,

this year when I remembered this activity I wasn’t sure I still had the tiles kicking around (I found them later). I immediately made a digital version with Explain Everything.

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The digital version gives each student their own copy and while working in groups can chat about what strategy worked and what didn’t. Before on the paper version….only one student could hold the tile. Also, when students have to voice their strategy through Explain Everything they have to have careful thought. They think about the words they want to use. We this careful thought they get to make their thinking visible for me!

One new addition to the activity I get to make here is that they can create their own pentomino…..and then their own puzzle to share with their classmates.

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Since then I also created the activity with some help from the team over at Desmos

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Click to access and rune the teacher.desmos.com activity

I love their new conversation tools….I get to pause the class and discuss when needed!

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Students can even sketch their new tile and create an expression to match! screen-shot-2016-09-30-at-9-24-03-am

 

Desmos even added some nice extension questions. Love it! screen-shot-2016-09-30-at-9-24-23-am

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In the future the next time I explore this lesson I see a blend of hands on tiles with digital support. I think having the best of both worlds here can pack a powerful 1-2-3-4-5 punch!

Pick your favourite!

Download the Explain Everything Pentomino Puzzles .xpl file. 

Access the Desmos Activity

 

 

MEL3E – Day 18

by Jon Orr

Originally I had planned a warm up from Which One Doesn’t Belong on reading clocks.

Instead I changed my mind and we played 20 questions. We played two rounds. The first round I picked an object in the room and the class together had 20 questions to try and figure out what I picked. The second round had them picking an object while I tried to guess it within 20 questions. It’s a fun way to start class which builds a positive atmosphere. Once in a while I pick a math related object.

We used the next 25 minutes to finish our quizzes/assessments from yesterday. I keep forgetting how much time some of my students need to process information. That’s one of the big hurdles for this course. — One student will need only 20 minutes for an activity but 2 students will need 40 minutes. The mastery days have helped with this hurdle. It allows students to work on things they need to work on. Today the students who didn’t need extra time on the quiz worked on finishing up their Bank Search work from earlier this week.

After everyone was finished their quiz we tried to keep going with our Monopoly game from last week. I had taken pictures last week so everyone got back their money and deeds. This time around however was pretty brutal…..hardly any of them were into playing the game. One student was adamant that he was not playing. He did play, but made it clear he was mad during his turn. Everyone had at least two turns today and showed that they could find the tax or discount when needed…….but it was clear that this was stupid. I think it’s time to retire this game!

fullsizerenderTomorrow is a PD here in our board. See you Monday!

MEL3E – Day 17

by Jon Orr

Our warm up today stretched back to our first week of class.

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I’m feeling pretty confident that we are getting better at many of our skills through our warm ups. It was nice to also see the students using appropriate terminology when discussing pay-period.

For the next 35 minutes the students worked on their Mastery work through their portfolio with FreshGrade.

Here is a shot of what they are seeing on their portfolio page. They get to see where they stand on our course expectations, they see evidence of their work for those expectations, and the best part…the next steps. Remember, they get to choose (click on) one of the expectations and attempt new questions to show me improvement. These expectations will be accessible all year…even as we introduce new ones. The portfolio is a great way to document my observations (pictures), conversations (notes or audio), and the work they produce.

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My view of the gradebook on the iPad app is below. As I see improvement (or the opposite) I can click on the current “stars” and update them.

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For the last part of class the students put away the devices and upgrade work and we wrote our second quiz. Not all finished so we’ll finish those tomorrow as we pick up our game of Monopoly from last week.