Category: Teaching

Name Tags/Name Tents for Student Desks — Excellent First Day and Week of School Routine

I heard about name tents last year, during an excellent professional development training from CPM (College Preparatory Mathematics). The facilitator mentioned name tents, and this website has a worksheet/paper copy ready to use. The cool thing is that inside the name tent (really a name tag that sits on the desk) is a place for students to give you feedback. During the first week, I got some positive feedback from students which was uplifting, as well as some useful information like how a couple students couldn’t see the board very well, which allowed me to move them to the front of the room.

Here’s the link. Thank you to the awesome teacher who shared this: https://www.saravanderwerf.com/week-1-day-1-name-tents-with-feedback/

Name Tents

A work-intensive but excellent way to get to know your students during the first week of school, shared by Heather Beiss, and created by Sarah VanDerWerf:

https://saravanderwerf.com/2018/08/24/using-name-tents-throughout-the-year-guest-post/

Basically, a name tent is a name tag for students to put on their desks, made of a piece of paper folded in half. However, VanDerWerf’s brilliant idea is using the inside of the name tag as an an anonymous set of weekly questions and feedback. You can collect them daily in a class folder, and distribute them back each day from the folder.

Ropes: Giant Knitting

Crochet and Knit for Math and Coral Reef Conservation

A few years ago, I learned how to crochet and knit, inspired by a lecture by mathematician Dana Taimina, and taught by friends. Through Taimina’s lecture, I learned about The Coral Reef Project. You can watch Margaret Wertheim’s TED talk here. As I love to climb, it seemed only natural to experiment with knitting and crocheting using climbing ropes.

How to Make Giant Knitting Needles

How to make giant knitting needles using tape, candle holders, and garden stakes (purchased in Boulder, CO at Greenwood Wildlife Thriftshop and McGuckin Hardware, where people were super friendly and helpful):

makinggiantknittingneedles

Thanks to Green Guru for donating used climbing ropes.