Thankful that I am finally teaching again!

This is a very good way to start a job. Work one week, then get the next one off!
I'm using the week to get a better picture of my students, make new seating charts so that the weaker students aren't all sitting at the same table, and racking my brain for ways to teach my geometry students how to think "proofs," which only a few are really ready for. Having a non-math-credentialed sub for 2 weeks was not very helpful there.
But I've talked with my colleagues and have some of my own tricks up my sleeve to get their minds more focuses. Among other things, I transferred my Geometer's Sketchpad registration to my school computer, so I can at least demonstrate parallel lines and the like dynamically. I'm considering letting them work with it table by table, since we only have the one computer in the classroom. I also found some great books very inexpensively on the Key Press website. I'm looking forward to trying out Mathercize warm-ups,  which are intended to develop students' reasoning and observation skills.

Cajon Pass from the summit

We are supposed to be teaching through projects as well at our charter school. We math teachers only need to provide 2 projects a year. I'm figuring on a project involving slope in my geometry classes. I drive up through the Cajon Pass every day to and from school, which goes up to over 4000 feet on the 15 Freeway. I figured we could divide the pass up into small sections, and use a topographical map to find the y difference, (while the x-distance in the map distance (measured with a string?) Then they can each make a graph of their section, and string them along the whole wall, along with pictures from Google Earth or their own.
So back to grading papers and making new seating charts!
Happy Thanksgiving!