As the senior member of the 8th grade team, I am decidedly the "low tech queen." I believe that children need a variety of learning experiences to keep things interesting, and I am supplying the non-technical experiences. Some of the things we have done in the first 5 weeks in Math 8/Algebra 1 include: "human angles": drawing 2 huge parallel lines in chalk on the carpet and using students as the corresponding, vertical and alternate exterior angles. We have played "Math-O" (bingo) to review 2 step equations, had a scavenger hunt to practice the distributive property and combining like terms, had a relay race for simplifying radicals, used versatiles for many concepts, done a "placemat activity" for properties of numbers, and done several "pairs activities" where one student acts as "teacher" - asking questions, the other student answers, and they switch roles. I also use mini white boards on paddles for students to do problems and show answers as a formative assessment.
Mrs. Felice
