As I am organizing for next year, I am going to post some of the resources that I created for the year. The first one that I am sharing is my videos and notes for constructions. I find that my students had a difficult time getting started with any constructions. I attribute the difficulty with a couple of things:
1. The compasses that they were using were the standard cheapy compasses that come too many to a pack. The compasses broke quickly or could not maintain form. The next compasses that I used were the flat ones and I really did not like the muscle motion and the notched numbers. I settled later in the year on Circle Perfect Compasses.
2. I typically teach using inquiry methods. I have yet to determine a way to teach students how to use a compass using inquiry. While I can teach using traditional methods, I feel like I did something wrong to the students after doing them.
My videos were created on Robocompass using their pseudo language to make constructions. They have created quite a nifty tool for making constructions. I used the tool and did a screen recording with Quicktime. I took all of the videos and looped them in a Keynote file. I find that the videos were effective in teaching the students the basics, but they did not remember if they did not keep doing it throughout the year.
The notes were created in Notability and saved as a pdf file. I have created two versions of the notes. One is without the construction completed and the other is with the construction.
Videos
Notes with Constructions
Notes without Constructions
If you have the time, let me know how you would use these resources to teach the topic. I would love to hear it.
Eric
Math Reflections and Other Compositions 