Career Headbands

This summer I participated in an Externship grant where we explored and were able to shadow different careers to bring back to our classroom.  Since there are TEKS (state standards) about budgeting and careers, this fit perfectly into Math Models.  Even if it was not a standard, it was a wonderful activity to help our kids explore different careers.  

There are so many different paths out there that I want to show my students to help them find their place.

Of course, I had to add in a couple of fun ones... my son has wanted to be both a Jedi and Pokemon Trainer!!  

I also put descriptions for some of the more difficult to describe/guess careers.  I also provided students with a check off list of all the careers.  There are over 60!

My classes are smaller so I broke it down into front page cards and back page cards.  The students seemed to enjoy it and some learned something new!

I made a direction PowerPoint to display but also explained.

I kind of helped them out with some sample questions and hints like,
Would I work in the mall? or tell them they would work in the mall.
Is it in the medical field?
You would come across someone working this job a lot.

OR the best hint of the day by a student....  "The movie you are in came out in 1977." 😆

The first time, we only did one card each.  This could be done so many times and even as a quick Warm-Up.  

I provided each student a copy of the hint sheet in a dry erase pouch so they could mark off if they wanted.  Even looking through all the jobs, they might see or learn something new. 

And if you do not have the plastic headbands, do not fear as I have a template of one you can use with your students.  I pre-made some and laminated them to save the cutting time and be able to reuse them but if yo plan on using them a lot, I'd have them make their own to keep in their notebooks.

They seemed to enjoy it and hopefully they might have a new idea of what lays ahead in the future!  And just in case you did not know, and Ocularist makes fake eyes!

Get a copy of all my resources here for FREE!!!  the font I used for the titles and career names was A Little Sunshine which you can download for FREE here at dafont.

Enjoy!
Lisa

Headbands Are All the 'Math' Rage!

Where do I start with this little piece of genius I was taught a few summers back?!?!  There are no words for the educational value of these 6 strips of paper.  

Way back in the summer of 2016, my life was forever changed when I joined a grant through Texas Regional Collaboratives.  UTMB in Galveston had a Grant taught by Valerie Blackburn and Jennifer Clayton.  

So of course, I needed to create one for my class.  This little gem was shared and it has snowballed on our campus!  Yes, almost all levels of core math use it now. 

The first one was a little more intense than I realized and lasted way longer than I planned BUT the results were well worth it!  We spent 30 minutes in my Algebra 1 class doing the slope from tables one.  I was able to get a lot of formative assessment and in the end ALL students completed and worked diligently on 6 critical problems. 

This resulted in one of my favorite teaching moments of all time... 

Student: 'What's the point of this?'

Me: **thinking quickly of a witty response** 'When you put it on your head, you are learning by osmosis."  **secretly hoping they buy this**

Students:  'Oh my gosh, we are learning about that now in biology!! Cool!!'

Me: **thinking score cross-curricular vocabulary.**

I sent it to my principal laughing at the cross-curricular tie and it ended up going all though the district.  I even had teachers telling me students were wearing it in the cafeteria.  Later that year one student pulled it out and put it on during a test and when I asked him why, he said it made him feel smarter.  #teachermoment

Now let me share how to create your very first headband!  Any 6 problems will work and it is basically like a scavenger/mouse hunt.  You place the answer to a different problem on the left of the headband and a problem in the middle.  They solve the problem and connect/match it to the answer on a different piece forming a complete headband!

What I made a mistake of and was a reason the first time took so long was that you want to make all pieces connected like above.  The first time I had each piece with a space between and those precision cutters took forever!

AND DO NOT make them in order either... or then you have to redo and mix them all up... I've already been there, done that!

Each student recieves one copy of the headband to cut and construct.  I have a cut one projected on the board to show expectations. Sometimes I'll work one but most of the time I just demonstrate my expectations about connecting.  They solve the problem and look for the answer on another piece them solve that problem until they are back to the first piece.  Instant assessment for them which are my favorite kind of activities. 

I also have all mine designed to fit on 1 page.  Just as an FYI... these are great for those dark colored papers you might have that you can't really use for a WS.

AND don't worry, I've got templates for you as well as ALL my headbands shared below!

Another tip is to have students tape or staple them together so they can put them on right away.  And they will likely need to overlap and measure as they go.  I make them show work on the bands and just cover the answer or arrow.  One kiddo ended up making a belt instead so they can be pretty big. 

Here is what a couple of completed ones look like...

To store them, I just added a headband envelope in our notebook.

I'm not really sure how to say that I love these things!  I love seeing seniors wear them and post on their social media.  I even offer some credit for wearing them outside my class.  Anything to have kids talk about math!  

Some get creative with their'Headbands' too...

Get all resources here for FREE!!!  

I have them both in Word and PDF as always!  If you want my font, Janda Curly Girl, it is downloadable for free here!  It's one of my favorites!!

For any keys, please feel free to email me at camfan54@att.net from your school or professional account.  I've had students try and email for keys in the past but luckily their email said student! 

Enjoy the rage!!
Lisa