12.29.2014

Organizing Your Accessories


While I have written many times about organizing tips in the classroom, I've never thought about sharing how I organized things at home.

These ideas all came from Pinterest.

I live alone in a four bedroom home so I have a 'beauty' room which is dedicated to all my accessories and getting ready. Yes, that's a thing.


Scarf Bar- bathroom towel bar and shower curtain rings that open and close (bars and hooks from Ross, rings from Wal-Mart)


Jewelry Bar- bathroom towel bar and shower curtain S-hooks



Perfume stand- plate glued to glass candlestick, both from Dollar Tree


Feather Earring Holder- painted empty frame (yard sale) and ribbn (Hobby Lobby) glued to the back in strips


Shoe Bar- PVC pipe (Lowe's) and wire hangers (Wal-Mart) cut and bent up and outwards to fit in each shoe, instructions here


Boots- I stand them on my closet shelf with empty Pringles' cans to help them keep their shape



Purses- just hung normally on a hanger but the best way I've found yet of storing them, if you have the closet space of course



Beauty Box- this like the teacher toolbox that is all over the internet, I just made it for my extra makeup and nail polish. I printed labels on scrapbook paper and taped it in each drawer. I also spay painted it black to match my room.



Dress Bar- I use this to pick out my clothes ahead of time, I've recently started picking out clothes for the whole school week, instructions here


Sunglasses holder- I hot glued clothes pins (matching ones with glitter, obvi) inside my closet to organize all of my sunglasses.



My secret to organizing things is to take note of what annoys you. If it's bothering you, it probably needs to be organized. All of these ideas came from pet peeves...knots in my necklaces, slumpy boots, broken sunglasses in the bottom of my purse, tubs of purses and shoes to sort through, broken make-up, etc. And of course Pinterest ideas!!!

12.26.2014

Five Ingredient Cheesecake

Ingredients

1 can sweetened condensed milk
8 oz cream cheese softened
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 graham cracker pie crust

Directions:

Mix milk and cream cheese. Add in lemon juice and vanilla. Pour into crust and chill for at least two hours before serving.



11.19.2014

Algebra 1 Unit 2: Structure of Expressions Interactive Notebook

Still teaching from Engage NY curriculum but now transitioning into making my own INB pages and using their materials for handouts.





I'm confused by the way Engage NY introduces the distributive property by multiplying polynomials.


This page came from Engage NY. I really liked the concept of flow chart proofs and the students took to it pretty well.


I got this sorting activity from here and I really adore the neither column. It had some subtle differences that students had to look twice at.





 Using perimeter is one of my favorite ways to practice adding polynomials.



Another sort (my favorite!) from here, but maybe not the best idea since students can just multiply the first two terms and figure it out. This was at the end of a lot of practice so I already felt confident that students knew the process.

Here are the files:

11.18.2014

Algebra 1 Unit 1: Graphing Stories Interactive Notebook

I'm trying out the Engage NY Algebra I curriculum this year, by my own choice. I'm doing a pretty terrible job and going at a snails pace but I'm really trying to stick it out for the year. I want to see if it makes a difference. So everything below is straight from their materials, found here.













I couldn't really bring myself to write captions because none of this came from me. I'm basically showing you how I used it in an INB.

Here is a folder of the files, again, all from Engage NY, just remixed a bit to fit my style. And because I can't leave anything alone.



11.17.2014

Trig: Unit 2 Right Triangle Trig Interactive Notebook



Page 23-24 introduced the trig ratios used in right triangle trig. The triangle manipulative was made with transparencies and was stolen straight from here.




I made the bottom flaps myself.


These neon envelopes came from the Dollar Tree and I only have 8 trig students so each student got their 3 envelopes. I used Pam's trig ratio cards and wrote symbols in each corner. Students sorted into their envelopes. I later showed them the answers and they wrote the correct symbols on the envelopes so that they could later go back and quiz themselves.


Page 25-26 The LHP starts with students setting up the ratio without solving anything.



The RHP has them set up the ratio and solve.

Page 27-28 LHP Students set up the ratio for an angle without solving.


 RHP Students set up the ratio for an angle and use the inverse ratio to solve for the missing angle.



Page 29-30 LHP Students read the word problem and match it to the correct diagram, then write the variable in the correct place.


RHP Students draw their own diagram, write the variable in the correct place, and then choose the correct ratio and solve.


Page 31-32 We wrote what students might be given on baby post-its and then what method to start with underneath.




The actual solving triangles part of this was given to be by @rawrdimus. Thanks!


The right hand page was just me helping them to organize their work.

Here are the files.

11.16.2014

Word Problems with Hints


In our second unit of trig, we were doing right triangle trig which of course includes word problems. As predicted, the hardest part for them was converting  the word problems to diagrams. Second hardest was knowing where to put the variable.

We did notes in our INB over them, did a worksheet of 10 more problems as a class, and then I thought of this idea.

I found word problem worksheets that already had diagrams. I copied the words into powerpoint.



I printed out each one and placed it in a page protector. Then I made index card 'hints'.


The first was a picture. I cut out the diagrams from the original worksheet and taped them to index cards. Next hint was which trig ratio to use. I just wrote sin, cos, or tan on each card, nothing more. The third index card was the answer.


I put all the index cards into an envelope and put the envelope in the back of the page protector.

I stood them up along the white board and let students pick. Students were separated into pairs and I gave them a sheet to show their work.



My idea was that students could have ownership- they decided if or when they needed hints, how many hints they needed, and if they needed my help or not.

And of course every teacher's favorite- self-checking!