Saved from "boring" math lectures.

I've noticed that quarter 3 is always a tough quarter. Its the middle of Winter, not much sunlight outside and its also one of our longest quarters. So, I decided to try and incorporate quick and fun activities to the beginning and end of my algebra lessons. I researched a lot of math tricks and mind tricks that I thought my students would love. I first used the tricks as class motivators before my lessons and eventually turned them into incentives to earn for the end of the hour. The tricks, (most of which I find on youtube) have become such a hit in my classes that using it as an incentive for the end of the period has also helped in the classroom behavior in my room.

Nearly everyday my students walk into the room and immediately ask me if they get to do a "trick" that day or what the trick might be about. These tricks have also helped me create a better relationship with many of my students. It has helped me see that many of them love puzzles and all the crazy educational things you can find on the sites. Not only do many of the problems involve students to use a deeper level of thinking, but they also help them with their problem solving skills. We many times take the trick and turn it into an algebra problem and find out HOW it was done. I think this has sparked many of my students to create their own.

Homework and Incentives

I have had a hard time getting students to care about the effort they put into their work. I noticed that homework completion started to become a problem as soon as the points were taken away from it. I've been told that giving points for homework is not the "correct" thing to do. As homework is supposed to be used as practice and how can you grade practice? I have read about grading and what is the "right" way to do it. Grading should be more standards based and not inflated by extra points (such as giving points for homework assignments). I am hoping to tweek my grading system and start the year (2011-2012 school year) with grading only by standards. However, this year I have been changing my mind left and right as to what is the correct way. I have not given points for homework at all this year and now I feel obligated to start for quarter 4. The reason I want to start giving points is because I have noticed almost a direct correlation between homework completion and the percent of students who are earning a grade of D (65%) or lower. One of my classes had 91% homework completion, and a failure rate of 9%. Another class had a homework completion of 47% and a failure rate of 49%. After speaking with many students, they have mentioned that it is hard to feel obligated to do the homework if it is not giving them points. So, instead of giving points during quarter 3, I created an incentive for all of my classes. The class with the highest homework completion was to be rewarded. (I brought in suckers that they were able to have on the last day of quarter 3). The students were excited and proud that they were the "winning" class. It has almost started a competition between all of my algebra classes. I am looking forward to quarter 4 in order to see if this drive continues.