Looking for "a few minutes at a time" resources

[Michael Gier]

Hey Benton, I have a skill deficit. I need to find a library of "what to do when it's still 15 minutes until the end of class but I've done all the lesson I was prepared for and they've done all the homework I assigned" activities. Something interesting, challenging, and most of all at least marginally relevant to the school/math environment.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

[Jeff Carter]

A few quick suggestions~ I often find this is a good time to pass back any graded papers, or post grades, or catch up on any missing assignments. From a quick instructional standpoint, it is a great time to verbally check their understanding by asking lots of questions about the day's lesson, or from lessons from earlier in the school year. Sometimes it can be a good time to build relationships, and simply visit with students about what is going on in their lives or even open up about whats going on in your world (a great opportunity to share your blogs). If there are any upcoming events I inform them about those: such as homecoming, fire drills, bus evac drill this week, I find that most of the time they are totally unaware of such things.(it could be as simple as reading the bulletin to them), I think you'll find that with experience this becomes a problem that will mutate into never having enough time to do the things you plan, but I can sympathize with the fear of having a class full of students with nothing to do for twenty minutes.

[Jeanette Westfall]

Games, games, games! This is the chance to REALLY interact with the kids. Play math bingo (geeky but they love it). Or take pieces of actual games and use them in class (I used Scattegories dice and papers copied on our copier, but then I was teaching Comm Arts). Try a few "mind bogglers." I have the books in my office. Jincy Trotter at Lafayette used to pose these to kids regularly and then they would talk about them all day in several classes until someone finally figured it out. It was total coolness.

[Kerry Shepherd]

I won't pretend to have a skill surplus to offer, but you could pose "are you smarter than a 5th grader" questions, have an ACT math question of the day, discuss how people in the "real world" use math every day. But I agree with other posts that it is a great time to get to know your students. I've been amazed with what I discover during those "unguarded" moments. If you could find media clips of math -- "Rain Man," "Good Will Hunting," "Seven," etc.

Good luck!

Kerry

[Kelly Lock]

I like brain teasers. I have a drawer full of them. Some are as simple as a picture on the page that can be viewed from different angles to make a different "scene" and some are more complex. I was thinking of pulling these out soon myself. I actually used them a few years ago with some "advanced" kids and then my "regular" kids saw them, and they got hooked. I started using them as a start of the hour activity, and when I didn't have one, they got really mad at me.
I also saw a teacher a few years back hang a Sudoko like problem on large sheets of butcher paper and as the kids finished their work, they had to go to the paper and try to figure out the pattern. They were asked to write their names by what they had posted so everyone knew that "answer" was theirs. As one Sudoko-like "problem" was solved the teacher hung another one. Another one had, on butcher paper, again, a requirement to create a math problem that always equaled zero or nine, etc. The requirement was something like there had to be more than three numbers, a letter (I'm an English teacher--don't remember what those letters are called!). The kids had to go to the butcher paper and create the math problem on their own--and it couldn't be like any one else's already listed. So if 2x +4 +1= 9 was already there, then they had to come up with something else. This was changed every so often once the teacher thought all patterns had been created and/or the kids were bored with that "concept". It worked well as a teaching too, too. If they were working on fractions, then fractions were included in the equation, etc. Does that make any sense at all?

[Melissa O'Dell]

board races are always fun, 2 or 3 people at the board and you call out a relevant problem, could also use the jeopard powerpoint if you have it made up ahead of time and play with groups in the class, if you are doing this with geo kids, www.myclasszone.com has pre-made games and activities that go with the chapter you are working in