Classroom Chef.

  While attending a technology conference, I ran across the classroom chef.  No, he's not someone you'll see competing on chopped, cake wars, or American's worst cooks. You will find him in the math classroom.

He has a menu page with appetizers, entrees, side dishes, desserts, and the take out menu.  Each type is composed of several different activities.  I checked out the page on triangle congruence where students created away to prove they knew all the postulates without necessarily being totally dry.

In case you don't know the name, you may have heard of his Mullet ratio study.  The Mullet ratio compares the part of the haircut that parties/the business part.  This is a great 5 to 6 day activity which he said got student participation.

He also has a whole collection of "Would you rather?" an activity which presents students with a choice of two things and the student has to justify their selection.  For instance "Would you rather 5 6cm pencils or 7 5cm pencils.  Explain your choice."

Those "Would you rather" will make some great warm-ups when I get back.  There is no right answer and it requires my students to justify their answers.  Many students need to practice explaining their choices.  Often mine will state they just guessed which is really what they did.

Another activity is one where they take a Desmos graph and play with numbers to see how these change the original creation.   I find it cool to play with the graphs. 

Yes, the author made a book and I'm going through it slowly.  The author goes with the idea of getting students to take over their learning rather than teachers doing the leading.  So far, the material in the book is great. 

Between this book and an all day session I attended yesterday, I feel like I am finally understanding how to create a more student focused learning.  I'll keep you posted.  Have a good day.