I usually have 2 or 3 lessons that I am working on concurrently in some shape or another whether I am actually writing down ideas, thinking out ideas, writing out lesson plans/worksheets, etc. etc. I currently have 2 or 3 but was getting worried I was going to run dry after that and was getting nervous. I then went through some of my old notebooks that i have filled with ideas and am getting super excited. I have some really great stuff that was floating around in my notebook box - it all needs a lot of refinement, but the real-life concepts are solid and exciting. These combined hopefully with some inspirate from my members wanting to see certain lessons and I think I have over a years worth of lessons easy. Good stuff!

As I start putting some into construction you will hear more.

How can you not love the visualization of numbers? It to me is so important that students can not only make graphs, but actually read them. I don't think enough teachers & parents emphasize the reading and interpreting of graphs. Graphs tell a story and being able to interpret that story is such a wonderful skill. I just posted a lesson called Graphing Your Story that hopefully pushes students forward in this direction.

I'm also in the middle of working on a lesson request by one of my members who wanted a real-life lesson/activity based around collecting and modeling linear relationships (data that shows a constant rate of change) and I think I got something good cooking. It has another hands on activity, but will probably end up being the most logistically complicated activity - however if pulled off not only will you collect and model linear relationships, but compare them to nonlinear relationships as well. I'm pretty excited about it and think it will turn out pretty good. I just have to test it out before I post it live, but it should be done in a couple of weeks.

Both of these lessons showcase the importance of graphing, reading and interpreting graphs, and then predicting from them. A skill I enjoy and hope our students will as well.

My students always struggle with integers and more specifically, negative numbers. I am spending extra time this year preparing to teach it as well as resolving to come up with a good real-life activity. The difficulty with negative numbers is that it is actually a pretty abstract concept. What does -5 mean? You can't give me -5 apples. If i have -$100 dollars in the bank there is no money in the bank for me, it might as well be 0 - except that it has meaning. My goal is to get the students to understand what a negative means. It is money I owe in this case. The -100 represents an idea that whatever moneys i get in the future is already minus 100 since i currently have that sitting in the negative. But then you throw temperature in there which mirrors more of a counting number line than a concept. I think this is why it is easy just to teach the rules of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing negative numbers and skip over the part about what these numbers mean or represent.

A couple years ago I tried a real world math budgeting activity where they would have expenses and make income and they had to keep a checkbook. The students loved it, but it didn't emphasis the adding and subtracting of negative numbers like I hoped. I think I am going to try and work on a credit card and shopping activity that will emphasize at least both the adding and subtracting of negative numbers. Here's hoping it turns out well...

I love to create. I think it is what draws me to the internet incessantly and what has turned into being my favorite part of teaching - well 2nd behind interacting with the students. The idea of a blank slate and unlimited possibilities. Sitting and thinking, showering and thinking, driving and thinking, I am always thinking of the next lesson. I have countless notes jotted on paper and and digital platforms just ready to be made into something or to fall by the wayside when a better idea hits. The work after the idea is always more gratifying when it begins with a crisp idea. Then to shape the idea akin to a potter and his clay (seems like an overuse analogy) is half the fun. It's the challenge, battling seemingly only against myself or what happens to be in my head at that time. There is something about crafting something from nothing, standing back and admiring what you have done knowing that it will be used by myself and others to get students to understand math and hopefully appreciate it more.

I love to create these engaging lessons for the benefit of my students. They love them, they learn from them, and it enhances the educational experience. But that's not the only reason I create them. I create them because I love to create.