I am going to get better at this…. I am going to get better at this…

Ok, so I honestly have no clue how all my teacher blogger idols do this. How does one prepare amazing lessons, teach all day, grade any work, prepare to reteach, get everything done for administration, get home, straighten up, cook dinner, watch those oh so necessary TV shows with some more grading in hand, format those amazing lessons for TpT, upload them, and then blog about it and still have time to sleep? I have totally been neglecting this blog, and though some really great things have been happening in my classroom that I have found on TpT or created myself, I haven't gotten to share at all. But, as I always say, I am going to get better at this. And this time maybe I mean it… maybe.

Anyway, I'll start with the most recent thing in my classroom. On Thursday we celebrated Pi Day. We began math by reading the beginning of Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi. As I always do with these books, I read up until the quest to solve begins to peak students interests, but not give away the answer as we work to explore. 

I also found a lot of resources in Meredith Anderson's Pi Day Pack. We made Pi Crowns to practice measuring in centimeters, measured the circumference and the diameter of circles with yarn to find Pi and practice nonstandard measurement, and we did some Pi Logic Puzzles to get our brains working in a different way. 

My students love to explore math concepts and were shocked to find out that the circumference is always three of the diameter and a little bit left over. When they found out that little bit was a decimal that kept on going F  O  R- E  V- E R they were even more amazed. We also enjoyed pie and ice cream to celebrate. 

Also, I have found a classroom changing app. At a PD I went to for gifted teachers in my district, one of the presenters introduced Plickers. Plickers is a smart phone app that allows teachers to poll students using QR codes printed on paper. It is a great way to assess students and give immediate feedback. I did this instructional video on Plickers for my technology class. It gives a quick overview on how to use Plickers in the classroom. 

Well thats all for now! Happy teaching!