File for the Post: Linear Functions Boom Cards I am sure most of us have had those teaching days where students are done with the lesson and there are still 15-20 minutes left of class. Meanwhile, you’re just HOPING an administrator won’t do a walkthrough lol…. Introducing Boom cards! Boom cards offer an interactive and self-checking way to practice an assigned set of skills. You can assign Boom Cards to your students (paid version) or you can provide them with a Fast Play link (free version). This last Tuesday, my students flew through the lesson and we had about 20 minutes left of class. I ..read more

File for the Post: Introducing Slope Formula This week, we began our Chapter 3 “Linear Functions” unit. My team introduces Linear Functions by first teaching how to find the slope from two ordered pairs and a given table. We strongly emphasize using the slope formula, since it is on the student's Algebra 1 Formula Chart.  This year, I decided to create and laminate a “Slope Formula” template for students to write on with Expo Markers (HIGHLY recommend it)! To be honest, I didn’t think a majority of students would like to write on the sheet, but I was wrong. This was very successful ..read more

Do your Algebra 1 students struggle with finding the domain and range of continuous graphs? I created this Domain and Range flip-book a few years ago when I was teaching Algebra 1. We spend about three 50-minute class periods teaching domain and range.  Day 1: Students find the domain and range of discrete data. Highlighters are a MUST for domain and range. We have students highlight the domain and the x-axis in one color and then the range and the y-axis in a different color. This year, we did a quick scavenger hunt over the lesson as an assignment. Overall, all of the Algebra classes ..read more

We are wrapping up our “More Linear Functions” unit. For the past two years, we have split point-slope formula, parallel lines, perpendicular lines, and direct variation into a second linear functions unit.    On the first day, we kept the notes short and sweet and taught students point-slope formula and how to convert the equation to slope-intercept form. We used the same activity from last year, but I did add “boxes” to the assignment. Teaching students to use “boxes” to help substitute values into the point-slope formula really helped our struggling learners. Click here for p ..read more

Two of my personal goals this school year is to start regularly blogging and to re-join the Twitter community! My goal is to blog every day for the next 2 weeks and share ideas/activities that were successful (someone please hold me accountable lol). I don’t know about any of you guys, but last year, my students did not like to engage with each other. It was rough to get kids to talk to one another or to get students “engaged” in the classroom. Students completed an error analysis gallery walk to practice solving multi-step inequalities. For this activity, we combined other Algebra 1 classes ..read more

THIS IS MY 100TH POST! One of my goals this month is to write a blog post twice a week. I know I say that every post BUT I really want to start sharing more of my instructional materials. This past Friday, students took their test over Exponents and did extremely well. I strongly suggest introducing the rules for negative and zero exponents at the beginning of the unit. For notes, I created a flip-book over Exponents that we used for the whole unit. This was the first unit that students regularly referenced their flip-book.  On Day 1 and Day 2, we went over Product of Powers and Qu ..read more

Algebra 1 classes did their first 1-100 Game Board of the year and they loved it! First, we completed notes over graphing linear functions in standard form and then students broke into pairs to complete the Game Board activity. Create a set of game cards with 3-6 questions on each card. Keep the level of difficulty in mind when creating the amount of questions on each card. Also, create enough cards to last the whole class period. Cut the cards into strips to make it easier for you/students to pick up new cards when they need a new set. I would not recommend giving students all the car ..read more

I'm super excited to announce that I'm finally uploading my Algebra 1 Intervention Curriculum! You can find the link to the first unit here: Click Here! Do not purchase if you want to buy the whole curriculum, I will post the link (here) when it is ready. I only have the first unit posted but I will post a new unit every two weeks to create an Intervention Bundle. I'm super excited to finally have the time to be able to share this resource with all of you. Each resource has a quick lesson review, practice, "quick checks", and a review assessment. I use this review book throughout the yea ..read more

THIS YEAR.  This year has been the most challenging and the most rewarding year in my career as an educator. I began this year as a Math Instructional Coach/Interventionist with no classes and ended the year as a Math Instructional Coach/Interventionist/Algebra 1 teacher with 3 classes. My school district in Texas went through a RIF (Reduction in Force) and I had to take on several Algebra 1 classes the last week of October.   I’m going to be honest and state that I was VERY nervous to take on classes after classroom routines and procedures were already set by another teacher. I only taught fr ..read more