i think she really means it…

My Totally Awesome, Super Cool Husband

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 | Sara the Teacher, Sara the Wife

It’s the time off year most teachers dread…4 more weeks of school! I mean, we’ve already taken the state tests, what more could we possibly teach? Lots! In fact, there aren’t enough days in the school year to get it all in. However, this is also the time of year most students have checked-out. Their brains are full and all they can focus on is summer vacation. Especially 8th graders!

This creates a particularly interesting challenge for me. I teach the 8th graders who hate math (and usually school in general). If I thought the first 10 months of school weren’t challenging enough, June is definitely going to push me to my limit! I’m running low on patience, and my creativity is in short supply. Yet, I still have 4 more weeks of 90-minute periods with rambunctious teenagers. What ever am I going to do?!

Games. That’s what I’ll do! I’ll find a way to trick them into learning for at least 3 more weeks (it really is hopeless to do anything productive the last week of school!). This week, we’re doing a bit of geometry review. If only there was a bingo game that practiced geometric terms and definitions. Well, there isn’t one appropriate for teenagers (I teach remedial kids, but they’re still 13, they’re not going to play “baby” games). Alas, Lakeshore had nothing worth buying. Like most materials I store in my classroom, I’ll have to make it myself.

Have you ever made a Bingo game before? It really isn’t difficult…unless of course you want to make 20 unique game boards. I mean, you can only cut and paste so many times before Microsoft Word freaks out and asks for the rest of the afternoon off.

Enter my Totally Awesome, Super Cool Husband…

He created a program, a computer program, that generates 20 unique game boards…and he did it in one evening! WOW!! No more cut and paste for me! No need to create 20 different tables and cut-and-paste each square. Now I have a computer program to do all the work and an exciting Geometry Bingo game for my students to play tomorrow.

The last three weeks are definitely looking up…just think of the possibilities! Algebra Bingo, Decimal Bingo, Fraction Bingo, Percent Bingo, Division Bingo, Place Value Bingo…

Thanks, Nate…you’re my hero!

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