Literacy in Maths - WHY it is so important?

I always quietly laugh when I hear students ask "why are we doing spelling in Maths" or "why does it matter if my spelling is wrong, it's Maths NOT English".  

I know I'm not the only teacher who hears this from their students and NOW I can show them why it can be a problem when they're older. I saw this sign on Wednesday and just HAD to pull over and take a photo.

So I ask you: What is wrong in the below sign?

Year 12's are nearly gone!

Some flowers we have in our garden

We've been spending time outside in the garden lately and also at the Gold Coast during the weekend. We love spending time outside in the yard and pottering around.

At the moment we have a problem... our LETTUCE keeps being eaten! TOTALLY GONE. :( We're making a wire cage to go around it so whatever is snacking on it, stops! 

The year 12's have their last three lessons of Mathematics ever and they have a HUGE assignment they are finishing off. Their task: travel to two different locations around the world and complete a series of questions from latitude and longitude, GMT time, flight quotes, accommodation, transport, travel insurance, culture and history along with a full itinerary for every day that they are away! PHEW..... They had five weeks of theory and their final five weeks to complete it! It's great to see them working so hard to ensure they have covered every detail. I can't wait to show you all where some students are travelling to!

Here are some photos of our day at the coast with Kylie from DownUnderTeacher and her son, along with my husband and my step-son. The following day we also went for a long cycle to the local park which is waterfront. Look at the sunken yacht in the picture! During our last lot of bad storms around ten months ago, it was washed up on the rocks and sunk. It's a great sight to look at though! :) We then did some quad biking after that at the local park. 

I'm off to do some year 12 marking! three lessons left before they prepare to graduate and go to formal! 

Math Resources - Get 20% off on TpT NOW!

Good morning bloggers,

I have linked up with the lovely ladies from Freebielicious who are celebrating with TpT for reaching 100 000 likes on Facebook!

We are offering 10% off store wide and when you use the code FB100K at checkout, you will get an additional 10% off. That's 20% off overall!

I'm off to have a look around and hopfully to grab some amazing deals and stock up on some Christmas ideas :)

Engaging & Creative - Area of Special Quadrilaterals

I must admit, I have the most BEAUTIFUL Year 8 students who are motivated, work well, ask questions and the majority of them are self-driven. 

I really wanted to engage not only MY class in their work, but the rest of the Year 8 cohort, so I thought... Why not get permission to 'chalk up' their Year 8 eating/ sitting area so ALL Year 8 students can see what they're studying in Mathematics at the present time! 

Well the Year 8 Deputy LOVED the idea and the cleaners are happy to leave their designs around for a week or so until they look messy and then just hose them off! 

The guidelines: 

• Any simple shape (square, rectangle, triangle) and special quadrilateral could be used.
• It must be used in a creative picture as long as there were measurements on their picture.
• It needed to be large enough to easily see
• The area of one shape must be calculated somewhere near the image with full working out. 

I had some VERY creative kids (I say kids but they are all 13!!) who just LOVED this task! These are just three of the photos so I don't clutter this post too much. I am doing the same thing this coming week with more Year 8 work in their area and work in the Year 9 area on Pythagoras and Trigonometry so look out for this post later in the week. 

What type of 'chalk' or painting tasks have you done with your class? I'd love to hear about the/ see some pictures! 

On a short note, it's Max's 9th Birthday this weekend and he was so excited to get his Ju Jitsu uniform AND a sporting award from Sensei which he worked so hard to recieve! 

A busy night ahead of us making a RockClimbing cake, cupcakes and party food for tomorrow! :)

FREE Fraction Clipart - Halves, Thirds and Quarter Triangles

I have been sssooooooo BUSY with school work and writing my thesis proposal that I've neglected my blog!

So much so that I thought I would spend some time creating some simple FREEBIE fraction clipart (halves, thirds and quarter triangle) to offer as a freebie for you all! :)

To download, click on the image above, pin this FREEBIE to yours and other Pinterest boards or click here.

Please leave a comment if you download this freebie :)

Five for Friday

This Friday I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for 5 for Friday! Make sure you hop on over to her blog to link on up and post your Five. 

1 - Work Ethic Success! We've begun using MathsOnline as a tool for issuing some student homework. This is generally what each week looks like for my year 8 homework. Of the 4 blanks, two do theirs on paper, one has left and the other cherub doesn't do any homework. I am SO proud of their continual efforts and I can only hope that my year 9s begin to show such a strong commitment to work. 

2 - Max had his second Sanitarium Tryathlon on Sunday (19th May) and absolutely LOVED every part of it! It's all about giving it a go, TRYing their best and having a fantastic fun filled day. He loved in that much he wants to do a 'real' kids triathlon in December :)

3 - Today we had out school Athletics day and this is a picture from our school twitter page of some year 8 students. It was a fantastic day and the weather was perfect until the last 30minutes... then the sky opened and it rained... and rained... so everyone ended up in the hall doing the Nutbush, Macarena and Gangmanstyle until the bell went! I missed most of the day as I was on 'bubbler' duty for 3 out of the 6 hours :( 

4 - I am trying to find time to put my thesis proposal together! If only there were more hours in a day. It's on the impact of parental involvement on student achievement with Year 8 and 9 students at the school I am presently teaching at. Hoping to have it ready to submit in the next week :)

5 - I am SO thankful I bought three new pairs of shoes last week! TWO of them are boots. These boots are vinyl but keep my legs soooooo warm, my others are shorter leather boots and my third pair and maroon dress shoes which I can't wait to wear later in the year. 

Now don't forget to head on over to  Doodle Bugs Teaching to link up your 5 for Friday and check out others! 

About time I head to bed here in Australia ready for a Saturday full of marking!

 

MEGA Maths Teacher Appreciation Sale on TPT

Catch yourself a bargain with up to 28% off all of the items in my TpT store!

Maths, Maths anything maths... Worksheets... Game boards.. Cards... Math Centers... Everything you can imagine and items you've wishlisted! :)

This is to say THANK YOU to all the amazing teachers out there and to all of those who have supported my store.

Engaging Reflection & Goal Setting Activity

I got this idea from an excellent 'reach for the stars' activity I saw on Pinterest during the school holidays and adapted it for my students and for my own purpose. 

Firstly I quickly reviewed last terms Mathematics lessons and prompted them to think about their work ethic, homework, active questioning, book work, listening skills, behaviour and so on. I then asked them to think about four goals they could reach this term (not nearly impossibly goals)! 

After students had 1.5 minutes of reflection/ goal setting time. I then showed students my hand that I created with my own goals (I wish I had taken a picture of mine)! My name was on my thumb and on each of the fingers I wrote my own goals for the classroom and shared them with the class. 

Here are a few of my year 8 and 9 students goals for the term. 

This is what it looked like after my year 8 class completed this goal setting activity. So far each lesson I have reflected on the goals they made and encouraged them to always work towards reaching their goals.

I would love to hear ways in which YOU all focus on individual student goals and how do you track them?

P.S. - I told my students that during parent teacher interviews I will be bringing their hands with me so their parents can see the great goals their child has made! :)

Classroom Puffiness - SNEAKPEAK!

A very, very, verryyyy, VVERRRYYY busy week so far with the first week back for Term 2. I went into school on Sunday with Scott and Max and they helped me move around some things and put some decorations up! 

Soooooo helpful.

What took 1.5 hours would have taken me over 3 hours to do by myself.

Here are some of the decorations I made to decorate with... more pics to come! 

I've had a parent interview already, marking University Math assignments/ games along with planning resources and assessment for this term! Running my final workshop at Uni tomorrow night and then just marking marking marking to do!

I'd LOVE to hear about ways you have decorated your room this year! :)

15% off Storewide on TeachersNotebook

I thought it's about time I throw a sale on Teachers Notebook (TN) for all my amazing supporters there!

So from NOW until April 14th I have 15% off ALL items in my TN store.

I hope you can stop on over and grab yourself a bargain on some already low prices on my new & old items! :)

Below are just SOME of the items in my store for you to look at.

     

     

     

     

500 Follower Giveaway worth OVER $300!

I've linked up with Patti from A Series of 3rd Grade Events as she celebrates 500 followers!

What a great way to celebrate but to GIVEAWAY over $300 worth of TpT items!

There are THREE different Rafflecopters' to enter!!!!

PreK to 2nd

27 Great Prizes from my friends @TpT + an item of your choice from my TpT store!

3rd to 5th

40 Great Prizes from my friends @TpT + an item of your choice form my TpT store!

6th ++

12 Great Prizes from my friends @TpT + an item of your choice form my TpT store!