Minds+On


 * Minds on Ideas **

The religion class I was going to teach had to do with "winning" and what it really meant to win. To start of the class I split the class into two groups in made them make a human knot. To do this everyone puts in their right hand, then, using their left hand every student must hold onto another students right hand (preferably not the person next to them). Then I got the students to race and see who could undo the knot first. The kids loved it and they really understood afterward when we talked, how important teamwork is.
 * Human Knot (Kathryn)**

I am 1/7 of a week. What am I? From: []
 * Riddle to introduce Multiplying fractions (Hailey)**

**Quotes - Retell, Reflect, & Relate (Rubina)** Since language is the first course taught in my classroom, the teacher put a quote up for the day: "Do not fear mistakes, there are none" - Miles Davis. In their language books they are expected to retell (paraphrase) what the quote means, reflect about the meaning and finally relate the significance of the quote with their life. I think these are 3 easy steps to get the students engaged in whatever they are doing at the moment. Note, the use of quotes is extraordinary, however, one can use pictures and music to change it up. Good strategy that could be made better my using quotes of people the students might recognize (e.g. "My heroes are the ones who survived doing it wrong, who made mistakes, but recovered from them." Bono)

I'm really not sure where to post this, but I wanted to share. I was teaching grade 8 science, and I thought that at the end of the unit on cells, we'd look at some slides with the microscope (And make our own using pond water). I brought in some GIANTMicrobe stuffed toys to show the class. They're kind of cute version of microbes, complete with a information booklet about the microbe. The students loved them and I had a lot asking where they could buy their own. http://www.giantmicrobes.com/us/main/giantmicrobes-originals/
 * Giant Microbes (Lisa) **

When I taught algebra, I would always use everyday life topics to model equations. I promised them at the beginning that I would show them exactly how algebra is used in real-life applications. In fact, to start the unit, I had them look at two tables outlining the cost of two cell phone companies which offer 200 free minutes and how much the person who is committed to these plans has to pay if they were to go over their limit. This topic became interesting because almost half the class owns a cell phone or has a family member that owns one. Because the topic had meaning to them, it stimulated their long-term memory and they eventually understood how expensive things can get if they are not responsible with their plans. Some also figured out how privileged they were to have parents who pay for these expensive cell phones.
 * Use topics that relate to students (Christe M.)**

Furthermore, as hooks for other classes, I used the following three examples:

__ 1) Let’s say you only have $20.00 to spend on gas today and gas is $1.20 a litre. How many litres could you buy? __

Let x = # of litres of gas [because that’s what we want to find out and don’t know]

1.20(x) = 20.00 [every litre of gas goes up by $1.20] x = 16.666 litres

So you’d be able to get around 17 litres for 20 dollars; and as you get older, you’ll be able to do these things in your head and it will become more automatic to you.


 * This next one really excited the students! But first start off by asking a general question like: What's your favourite entertainment system?**

__ 2) Let’s say you need to buy a NEW XBox 360. You have $800 to spend on everything. You know a new system costs $300 and an extra controller is $40. Assuming a game costs $60, how many games could you get? __

Let x = the number of Games

$800 = $300 + $40 +$60x 800=460+60x 360=60x x = 6 Games

__ 3) For the last one let’s say you are all grown up now and have to move across country for a new job. Let’s use Toronto to Vancouver, which is around 4000 km of driving. How much money do you need to save for gas if the national average is for gas is $1.20/litre? __

Let x = amount of money you need to save

4000 = 1.20x x = ?