Here are the categories:
Mental Math Monday: 10 middle school mental math problems that I read aloud (no repeats!)
Tough Guess Tuesday: estimation180.com photos that students estimate how many
Which One Doesn't Belong Wednesday: wodb.ca four photos that students can name something unique for each
Throw Back Thursday: practice questions from the Algebra I portion of SAT practice tests and simplifying radicals; I haven't been teaching this soon enough (although in reality it's never needed, it still is for testing) so I'm addressing it through bell ringers because it worked really well for factoring last year
Factoring Friday: 3-4 factoring problems for everyone 9-12 which has made a WORLD of difference for my Algebra II class. The factoring categories are:
- GCF
- Four Term
- Four Term with GCF
- Trinomial a = 1
- Trinomial a = 1 with GCF
- Trinomial a > 1
- Trinomial a > 1 with GCF
- Difference of Two Squares
- Difference of Two Squares with GCF
- Mixed (last 6 Friday slides)
Last year I used Google Forms for the second year. After a while, it was a huge struggle to get them to quickly sign in to their chrome books and click answers so I basically went to only using them on Fridays to do the weekly wrap up. I'm considering using Pear Deck this year but not sure if I can deal with the chrome book issue any better.
The font is Forget Me Not. I also made the first slide link to every Monday slide so that you can jump ahead to the correct week of school if needed.
I'm completely revamping my bellringer system for this year, and you've given me a ton of inspiration! One question: do you allow students to write out work for the mental math Monday or do you require them to do it all mentally?
ReplyDeleteYes, they use dry erase markers and work the problems out on their desks.
DeleteThis is SO amazing! Thank you for sharing! What classes do you use these for? Would they be appropriate for a Geometry class (before they've done Alg 2)
ReplyDeleteThank you!
I use them for Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, and Trig. The content for Mental Math Monday is middle school level. Thursday is SAT prep but mostly Algebra I level. Friday is factoring. I teach factoring to Algebra I through the bell ringers and then we review it every year after. So short answer, yes they are appropriate for Geometry. :)
DeleteI'm back to Geometry this year and have appreciated your blog so much in these first few weeks of school. I'm wondering if you give your students a bell ringer sheet for them to answer or grade the bell ringers in any way?
ReplyDeleteOk, Friday afternoon teacher brain has definitely taken over. Just reread your blog post and didn't read the Google form/Pear deck paragraph thoroughly enough, I guess! Sorry!!
ReplyDeleteI'm admittedly late getting these started in my classes this year, but I had to focus on a few other changes I was planning before I could figure out how I wanted to use these. I've decided to go paper-based instead of google forms. I really wanted to do a google form to save paper, but my students really struggle with appropriate use of technology, and I think it's best for my students, personally.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, all that to say that I made an updated handout for their responses each week, and I wanted to share it in case anyone else out there is using these the environmentally-unfriendly way, like me. (; I made it in Powerpoint, because I find that text boxes are easier to move around on there compared to Word. I used a few different Kimberly Geswein free fonts (KG Part of Me and KG Eliza Schuyler Script), but the first slide is an image that should show up fine even if you don't have these fonts.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EY-hY9yosN07f_M2XQPCppceU_jND7kA/view?usp=sharing