Visual Vocabulary is back!  And we’re now fully digital (I used the iPad app Adobe Ideas to create the sketches below).  This round I focus on mechanical tools for the math classroom:

Paper and Pencil

Ruler

Graph Paper

Protractor

Calculator

I’ve been thinking a lot this summer about how I want to set up my future classroom (I don’t yet have my own – subbing, for the time being, is too darn enjoyable).  I want to dedicate a section of one wall to keeping track of the tools that we have available to us in the course.  I imagine these tools being both mechanical, as in the sketches above, as well as conceptual – each course will have its own list of conceptual tools that grows throughout the year.  As we discuss new topics and introduce new conceptual tools, we can add those tools to the wall for future reference.  Students will then be able to quickly see the topics that we have explored, and I will have something to point to when connecting new material to old.  An added bonus – these sketches will be a useful resource for language learners.

This is definitely just a start.  What other tools should I add to the toolbox?

The sketches seen here are part of a project called Visual Vocabulary.  In addition to helping me build my own visual vocabulary, my hope is that these small sketches might serve as a resource for others who are new to visual note taking and are trying to develop their skills.