Pi R Scared

Factoring can be fun.   These activities have students practice factoring in an interactive way.  The factoring maze would be a great first activity since all of the leading coefficients are 1.  The maze can be printed or done in Google Slides.  The factoring bingo would be an activity to sum up the material.  The bingo includes greatest common factors, leading coefficients that are prime, and leading coefficients that are greater than 1.  I like to play self paced bingo with my students but you can play live online or print for students.  Factoring Bingo Factoring Maze Leading Coefficient of 1  

  The Equatio Extension is a must have if you teach math.  You can find the extension in the Chrome Web Store. The extension has a 30 day trial and if you love it, which I do, you can fill out a teacher form and use it for free.  Equatio can be used on Google Slides, Google Docs, Google Forms, and more.  Equatio has many nice features, I like the ease of use the most.  Once you open the extension is appears at the bottom of your screen and you can type, write, or do a mix of both to insert equations into your work.  Unlike equations in Google Docs, it stays open until you close it so no longer clicking every time you want to insert a new equation. Hope you find it as helpful as I have.    

  Walkabouts are one of my favorite activities to do with students, since we are virtual I've learned how to make digital ones.  A literal equations walkabout is below, others can be found on the free activities page. To make your own, open google slides and select a background.  Next, pick what shape you want your answers to be, I typically use a rectangle, rounded rectangle, or circle.  After you select your shape, pick the color you want.  You will fill in all the shapes with the answers to the problems, you can either type right on the shape or I use the equatio extension to insert my equations(it's free). Once you have all of your answers, insert a new slide.  I copy one of the shapes from the answer board and put it on this slide.  Click inside the shape and put the words answer board or return to answer board.  You will link this shape back to the answer board by clicking the shape, click on link in the toolbar and then select the slide num...

    Mazes are one of my favorite activities to make and the students enjoy doing them.  All of these mazes contain a digital version and a printable version. Order of Operations Maze Parallel and Perpendicular Lines from Slope-Intercept Form Maze Parallel and Perpendicular Lines from Different Forms Maze Combine Like Terms Maze - one with just combining and one distribute and combine Learn how to make your own mazes below. 

  Baseball season may be coming to a close but you can still knock it out of the park with these activities. Students are presented with 2-3 equations to solve. Each tome they solve an equation they select the result, a ball, strike, or hit.  After all 3 answers are input they see the results of their math, either a hit or foul ball/out.  The game ends when they hit a home run.    Baseball One Step Equations Baseball Two Step Equations Baseball Distribute Equations Baseball Combine Like Terms and Variables on Both Sides Equations Baseball Mixed Equations Let’s Play Ball. 

It's been a struggle to see what each student is doing virtually in live time but whiteboard.fi was a game changer.   Start by clicking new class and then select the settings that you prefer.  I share the link with my students in the chat for them to click on instead of typing in the information.   To start click toggle my whiteboard and write your problem or insert your picture.  You can add a coordinate grid to your problem if you want.  Once you have the problem the way you want click push and select how you want it to go to students, I do push page.  This will appear on students screens.  Once the students have it you can watch their work in live time as they write on their whiteboards. The picture above is from my class working on writing equations of a line.  This was incredibly helpful to me because I could see where each student was in the process and their thought process.  Some students pulled up the graph paper and graph...

  Virtual teaching can be a challenge and keeping students engaged can require extra work. I’ve been mixing up activities, trying group work, and games but what I’ve found works best is the wheel.  I put the students names or group on the wheel. I spin it for questions or participation. After each spin it gives you the option to remove them. I do not remove them, if you do then they can tune out; by leaving them they always have to be prepared. As a side note, it provides a great lesson in probability. One day this week I used the wheel during a game and it landed on team 4, 4 consecutive times.