cheesemonkey wonders

cheesemonkey wonders

Sunday, September 20, 2015

DANCE DANCE TRANSVERSAL - logistics and playlists in a very crowded room (Geometry)

I originally received the very useful Dance Dance Geometry game (in PowerPoint) about six years ago from the very generous David Sladkey of Naperville High School in Naperville, Illinois. It is an amazing way to get students to practice identifying the essential angle pairs in a parallel-lines-plus-transversal situation.

A few years later, @algebrainiac (Jessica Marie) and Julie Reulbach put their own spin on it (recasting it as "Dance Dance Transversal") and gave me new ideas for how to use it.

But then... last year I arrived at my current school, with the world's tiniest classroom and 36 kids in every class. No space for everybody to move around. So no more Dance Dance Transversal for me.  *sad face*

But now... I'M BACK, BABY!

Now that Matt Vaudrey has turned me into a monster with musical cues. I've got musical cues down pat. The other day I was so pressed for time I forgot to play the theme music for my Geometry class (the opening from the old Hawaii 5-0 show), and the next day, my students said, Hey, where the heck is our theme music?!?!?

I love a self-regulating classroom.

So now I've figured out a way to do DDT even in my tiny room. Everybody gets a half-sheet-sized "game board" with two parallel lines cut by a transversal. Students will do DDT with two fingers while seated. Chair-dancing is encouraged.

I'm not sure how long it will take my students to master each level, so I've created a couple of alternate playlists in iTunes for Levels 2 and 3.

Also, at the end, we are going to have a dance-off!

Playlists for each level are as follows:

LEVEL 1 - The Honeyhive (I doubt we'll stay at Level 1, if we do it at all) 
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LEVEL 2 - Herb Alpert, Mexican Shuffle
LEVEL 2 ALT - Raymond Scott, Powerhouse (middle section only, on a loop)
LEVEL 2 ALT 2 - Herb Alpert, Spanish Flea 
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LEVEL 3 - Yakety Sax
LEVEL 3 ALT - The James Bond Theme (Original Version) 
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LEVEL 4 - Mission Impossible
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UPDATED 09/21/15:

And it was glorious. Here are two tiny video clips (one of the screen and one of the "dance"):




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