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How I Introduce Conditional Statements

Teaching conditional statements is one of my favorite things. In fact, the entire second unit I teach (logic and proofs) is probably my favorite unit. I love how it stretches students' minds and gets them to think more critically. Since we don't have an honors geometry, it easily levels the playing field for my mixed-abilities geometry classes. One of my students' favorite days in geometry is the first day of our logic and proofs unit. Like most geometry curricula, ours starts with conditional statements. To introduce students to the concept and get them motivated, I teach them to play Minesweeper. Growing up, I had no idea how to play this logical, amazingly addictive game. And then I began teaching high school! Most of the geometry teachers in my school introduce logical reasoning with Sudoku, but since I've been Sudoku-ed out since I was 11, I decided to teach them Minesweeper.  I start by showing off my mad Minesweeper skills by beating a small grid in
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First Unit Ready to Go!

Confession - I have NEVER had an entire unit planned before school started starting the unit. But this summer, I got excited. I made the decision to not test my basic geometry students. Basic geometry is my school's non-proof-based geometry, so it has a mix of about 30-50% special education students, a few ELL students, and the rest are students who simply struggle in math. I'm sure you can guess that test days don't always go over so well and are often predicable. Several students do very well, some students bomb it, and little is gained from the test experience. That's why I plan to switch to a project-based geometry this year for my basic geometry students. We will still have a few concept quizzes to make sure procedural fluency is up-to-snuff, but my main assessment strategy will be projects. Here's a sneak peak of my first unit (fully planned!!). Some quick things to note: I teach on a block schedule (83 minutes per day, every day for a semester) A

My Plans for the First Day of Geometry - Part Two

In part one, I talked about the two things I couldn't live without in my classroom - my Google Slides agenda and printed student warm-up book. To read part one and get my two essentials, click here . As an introverted student, I remember being a nervous mess trying to keep my cool and act like I knew what I was doing on the first day of school. I dutifully would complete all tasks without gusto for the sake of - gasp - looking like I enjoyed school! I now plan the first day of school with those memories fresh in my mind. Luckily, my school doesn't do a ton of schedule-changing in the first week. This allows me to get essential tasks done on the first day and avoid unnecessary fluff. In case you missed it in the last post, here is the agenda for the first day of school: I let students pick their seats on the first day mostly because I *hate* making seating charts. I let them know of my seat-chart-making disgust. I try to go as long as possible without having a chart.

My Plans for the First Day of Geometry - Part One

Every summer I seem to wait until the last minute to start planning. With two precious weeks of summer left, I've decided to finally give in and get working on classroom material! Cue the creative excitement and work-a-holic hours! What better way to kick-off the planning than with first day essentials? For Part One of this two-part post, I'll talk about the two things that keep me sane during the school year: my classroom agenda and student warm-up books. I introduce them on day one! Those two items get class going, keep students informed, and keep them accountable. Possibly even more importantly, they keep me organized! I will link both below. My agenda is a daily Google Slide that is a one-stop-shop for all things going on in class for the day. I travel between two classrooms, so I need a traveling teacher solution to posting my target, agenda, reminders, etc. Quick notes about how I use the agenda and why I love it: I change the background to fit my mood and the