Whetting the interest ...

How do you whet students' appetite for upcoming activities?  Do you prefer to just spring it on them?  Or do you put a teaser out there?  Just curious.  Most often I don't use a teaser ... so I'm trying out that idea this week.

In two weeks we will wrap up our study of rational functions by studying applications.  We still have to conquer the skills of adding, subtracting and solving equations.

When we get to the applications, I plan to have students illustrate examples by creating comics.  So today in Remind and in Google Classroom, I sent them this announcement and included a comic for them ...

Coming soon! An opportunity to make comics in math class! Check out ToonDoo ... create a free individual account. Play around with the tools. The assignment will come in late April!

I'll let you know in a day or two if anyone mentions it!

Creative comic relief

Today we worked through a traditional lesson once again, this time on solving rational equations and applying that skill to motion problems.  The lesson went well, I think, but I know I didn't collect enough formative assessment to determine with certainty that students can handle the problems on their own!

We still have work rate problems to complete ... and then time for some extra practice.  We need a little relief from the traditional practice ... I'm thinking a bit of comic relief is in order!

I'm going to ask students to put a problem in comic strip format.  I'm planning to use http://www.comicmaster.org.uk/ ...

Here is my sample to share with students ...