Hi everyone,      Guess what? I'm back for awhile. Those of you who follow me know that I retired a year ago and haven't posted anything since then. Our family has been very busy with a wedding and a graduation. It was so nice to have the time to really enjoy and savor every moment of these very special times with our kids. So just as things were slowing down a bit, a friend of mine that I taught with for many many years called me to say she was going back to teaching after 7 years off. She wanted to use interactive notebooks with her classes but didn't know where to start ..read more

Hi everyone. Well it is official, I actually retired in June. During the summer I didn't feel any different but with the school year beginning last week, it now feels real. I'm looking forward to taking a fall vacation, something I could never do when I was teaching.  As much as I wanted to do lots of posts last year it was just too hectic. But now I have the time to clear out the over 60 posts I started that are sitting in my draft box. So I will be coming back from time to time to share them. I know the first unit we covered in 8th grade was exponents so here are a couple of interactiv ..read more

     In Algebra we are working on Slope-Intercept Form. I'm trying to flip my two Algebra classes, but it is not as easy as it sounds to do this. My two classes are very different from each other. Actually they are polar opposites! My one class does all of the work I give them with only two students that I need to follow up with. My other Algebra class has about 3/4 of the class that do not do the work required and it is a daily struggle to keep them motivated and up to date on their work. They have been watching videos and completing their notes at home then we are doing activi ..read more

         Last week, in my Pre-Algebra classes we learned about like and unlike terms. We completed this foldable from Sarah at everybody is a genius  on combining like terms. All of the foldables on this page require no prep work. The students do all the cutting, writing and folding.      These are pages I have used with my students in the past. I spruced them up a bit to look better. I like how this page turned out. These are matchbook foldables and I love them because they are small and we use up lots of my leftover bits of paper. W ..read more

      I made a goal to write a post everyday until the end of the school year. Well, that lasted for a total of one day. It amazes me that people can do that! I just can't find the time. Now my new more realistic goal is three times a week. They may be short posts or they might be all pictures but I will post them.        In 8th grade Pre-Algebra we finished studying Similarity. I'm pleased with how well my students are working on their interactive notebooks. Being able to cut, color, tape and assemble our foldables is such a wonderful sensory activity ..read more

     In yesterday's post I told you that I would be sharing what I am doing in my 8th grade Pre-Algebra and Algebra classes everyday until I retire at the end of this school year. So here we go...       In Pre-Algebra we started like and unlike terms. I pulled out my container that has pieces of colored paper that I have saved over the year and we made these foldables. See this post: Like terms, Unlike terms INB pages.  After we did the top of the notebook page the students did a Rally Coach activity with this worksheet at teacherspayteachers.com:  ..read more

     The  countdown has begun. I have only 77 more teaching days with my students until I retire. I have decided to let you follow me in my last semester and to write a daily post to tell you what we are doing in class. There are so many things I want to do with my students that I have never tried like stations and a flipped classroom. These are the two that I have decided to do for the rest of the year. It's now or never so enjoy the journey with me. I'm also pulling out all of my fun activities I have taught over the years to teach one more time. Please leave suggestions ..read more

I'm catching up on posts that have been sitting in my draft box forever. This is an activity that I did at the beginning of the school year. It was so much fun.? On twitter I saw a tweet from   Megan Schmidt @Vegan Math Beagle about this activity by Sara Van Der Werf and I decided to use it the second week of school. At the beginning of the school year I always do group activities for students that are fun and get the kids talking and working together. OK, I had way too much fun doing this activity with my kids in all of my 8th grade math classes.  I changed Sara's d ..read more

     This is the third year that my students have completed my Transformation Summative Assessment Project. See my previous posts Here, year one, and Here, year two, for examples, details and the rubric for this project. And yes, you read correctly,this is the last year I will be doing this project. It makes me sad ? because I have so much fun watching the students complete these. I am retiring at the end of the school year and I am happy that so many people have enjoyed and used this as an assessment with their students.      This year th ..read more

     Last year I taught an 8th grade collababorative math class. My class consisted of 12 special education students with IEP's, 4 students with 504 plans and 12 general education students who scored between 2nd and 4th grade level in math. I also had a special education teacher and teacher assistant to help in the classroom. This was truly the most challenging class I have ever taught. Trying to cover the standards with such a diverse group took lots and lots of planning.        My favorite unit with this class was Pythagorean Theorem. They really understoo ..read more