Day 36- A long day

Here's a sort of day in the life on my really long day today! 

5:30- alarm clock
5:39- stumble out of bed
6:40- leave home
6:45- enter classroom and begin grading the paper I should have done before leaving yesterday as well as print papers to be copied and make an answer key for next week's warm up
7:25- inquire with secretary re: sub for tomorrow
7:28- realize breakfast hasn't been delivered to my classroom; find out it will be late
7:30- children arrive and begin working in Math 8
7:45- collect and count donations for our grade's donation to the March of Dimes while kids are working on integer boot camp
8:00- lay out procedures for tomorrow's walkathon since I'll be absent and poor sub has 5 pages of plans to read over. 
8:10- go over homework with students
8:25- continue stacking cups investigation
9:00- planning period begins; start counting up donations and filling out paperwork to turn money in to the office; roll coins
9:20- turn in money
9:25- check mailbox
9:30- furiously grade more papers before a meeting
9:50- meeting with math team to plan upcoming unit
10:20- first group of Algebra students arrive
10:30- escort Algebra students to lunch; eat lunch
10:55- last bathroom break of the day, check mailbox again
11:00- pick up kids from lunch; teach Algebra.  Today we did a warm up, checked homework (lots of questions on these literal equations), and worked in our teams to solve literal equations using task cards.
12:15- classes switch; repeat Algebra.
1:40- classes switch; French students arrive.  Today we did a warm up, took a short quiz on pronouns, and used our classroom object vocabulary to ask and answer questions on paper and then with a inside-outside circle type structure.
2:25- school day is over, dismissal process begins
2:40- all students are finally dismissed
2:45- staff picture
2:55- school wide department meetings (as opposed to the grade level department meeting in the AM)
3:30- meeting ends, discussion ensues about tomorrow's conference
4:10- return to classroom to grade papers, lay out materials for sub, write up my plans on the front whiteboard (I always leave VERY specific instructions for my students so they can't tell me, "But the sub didn't tell us..."), clean off my desk, track boot camp data, prepare materials for the walkathon, etc
7:20- leave school

That was a killer day.  I hope this NCTM conference is worth it!

Day 35- Observation

I was observed by my principal this morning doing my take on the stacking cups lesson I saw here.  We just finished data collection today and started graphing, so I'm eager to see how the analysis piece goes tomorrow and what feedback my principal has. 

Day 34- New Statistics

I just have to capture an unusual conversation I had today.  My students completed a "Numbers About Me" project in August as a cover to their ISNs.  One of my students told me today, "You know, I'm going to have to update this in January.  One of my statistics will be outdated then."  When I asked which one, she pointed to the drawing of her siblings.  "There's going to be a new baby."  That's the kind of precious thing I expect to hear in elementary school, but not in middle school.  I told her to keep her cover as it was a snapshot of her life in August. 

Day 33- First MIR

This year, my school started a new paperwork procedure for discipline.  Now, we have forms called "Minor Incident Reports" or MIRs that we fill out in triplicate for any offenses.  Each form also requires a parent contact.  The idea is to keep parents better informed as to any discipline issues so that they can be supportive.  I had to write my first MIR today for a student who I don't teach who was acting up in the hallway.  Isn't that just the way? 

Here's hoping the rest of the year continues to go as smoothly as the first 7 weeks have! 

Day 32- Can we keep working on this?

Mountain Climber, an activity I posted about earlier this week, is seriously a gold mine for me.  Yesterday, my kids were disappointed when I told them we'd already spent two days on it and we wouldn't be working on it for a third day in a row.  Their faces looked like I'd cancelled Christmas.  Who am I to tell kids they can't do challenging math problems?  "On Thursday," I promised, "we can finish.  We just need to do something slightly different today."  So, the kids got back with their groups and labored their way through the final tiers of Linear Programming Mountain Climber.  Rarely discouraged, they worked tirelessly to get correct answers.  Some of them worked on problems over and over to find and correct mistakes.  That mountain kept them working.  I didn't have groups give up; they kept going and going until we ran out of time.

Moral of the story: sketch a crude mountain, find some playing pieces, and come up with a series of problems that increase in difficulty.  Watch in amazement.  

Day 31- Subjects and verbs, oh my!

This week, we've started learning grammar in French class.  It started off so simply, I didn't anticipate the number of problems my students would have.  So far, they just need to be able to identify a subject and a verb.  They're having some trouble doing that in English, so the French is interesting!  

I guess they don't mind learning grammar! 



While the kids were waiting for dismissal, they asked me if I liked the color green.  They pointed out that all of my dry erase markers on the ledge were green and there were lots of other green things in my room.  Then, one of the girls pointed out how everything in my room is color coded (the one organizational thing I have going for me), and someone else said my room looks like a rainbow.  What a polite way to point out that I am not an owner of a "pinnable" classroom!  :)  My kids are gems, and I wouldn't trade them for anything! 

Day 30- Discovering slope-intercept form

Students in Math 8 graphed some functions last week by using function tables to evaluate the function for several x values and plotting the points.  Today, we discovered slope is the coefficient of x and the y-intercept is represented by the constant.  Tomorrow, we'll summarize these findings with a foldable. 

Day 29- Mountain Climber

I LOVE mountain climber and so do my kids.  They get competitive (which is not the point, but it happens anyway) and they get really insistent on being right.  I love that this activity makes them attend to precision and has them talking about math.

Here's a picture of the board and a link to my original post on the topic. 

Day 28- Linear Programming

I'm trying to talk less this year.  Lead less, even.  Coach more. 

Today, we spent an hour working in teams on 2 to 3 linear programming word problems.  I really enjoyed listening to the conversations that groups had and I tried to be as unhelpful as possible to make the students rely on themselves.  They did a very good job at this.  One question came up often at the beginning of their work time, but once they made it past that stumbling block, they rolled through the remaining steps and problems successfully.  As with any other year, the hardest part of linear programming for students is taking the words and translating them into inequalities. 

I used my stoplight cups today for groups to signal when they needed help and they were pretty well-received.  :)

Day 27- Homework chat

Today wasn't particularly photo-worthy.  The most remarkable thing today was how much time I spent going over the previous night's homework.  This year, I've saved a lot of time going over homework by having students go over their work with a partner and then ask questions that they couldn't figure out with their partner.  We went over every one of the six questions that I'd assigned.  Every one. 

As much as that derails a lesson plan, it was a good use of our day.  My kids hadn't grasped the idea that a system of linear equations has an infinite number of solutions (unless it has none).  We had a long discussion around this point and one of my girls said, "I'm glad we spent so much time on this homework because last night I really didn't get how a system of inequalities could have infinitely many solutions and now I see it."  OK, time well spent! 

Day 26: Comining Like Terms and Distributive Property

Thanks to Julie and Nora for this idea.  My students were engaged, discussed the ideas, and really got the concept of multiplying the number outside the parentheses by the terms inside without me stating it explicitly.   

Day 25: L'annuaire de la classe

We're learning our numbers up to 30 in French class and today I had the students interview each other to make a phone book of the class. 

I gave each student a small card with a French first name and a French phone number.  I gave them different names than the French names they use in class so that they might have to practice saying, spelling, and writing unfamiliar names.  Students had to ask each other for their name, how to spell the name, and what their phone number was.  Then they met a new partner and recorded more in their "phone book."  We spent about 15 minutes on this and it was our first extended period of time in class that I expected students to speak entirely in French.  They did pretty well; I heard bits of English, but overall they tried hard not to! 

Here's an example of the cards the students used:

Day 24: Linear Programming with K'Nex

We had a little K'Nex factory churning out "quarks" and "bots" today in Advanced Algebra.  I used this activity to introduce linear programming in a non-threatening way.  It also turned out to be perfect because we had a modified schedule (which I'd forgotten about over the weekend), so our class periods were much shorter than usual and this took up the perfect amount of time. 

I was surprised just how few of my students had ever seen or used K'Nex before.  One student asked me if I'd made a typo on the handout and had meant to write "Kleenex" instead of "K'Nex." 

Day 23- Visual Patterns

Looking at www.visualpatterns.org, I thought it was pretty simple and I worried that my students would find it too easy to continue the patterns.  Boy, did I underestimate how difficult some of my student would find completing a table for a linear pattern!  I'm so glad I started this exploration with some unifix cubes and pattern #2 because we had some great conversations!  We'll use a few more patterns next week and use this to segue into writing function rules. 

Day 22- Quizzes

Just a quick post to say that this was a serious boring day of teaching because my quizzes for all classes aligned and I didn't get to spend much time with the kiddos.

The French map quiz really stumped some of my French students!

Day 21- Gallery Walk

We made some posters for a gallery walk on systems.  Each group chose a word problem to present and made up a second similar problem dubbed a "you try" for their classmates to try to solve.  Their solution to the "you try" was recorded behind a hidden flap.  After students completed the posters, we hung them around the room and did a gallery walk.  They spent 5 minutes per poster answering the "you try" and leaving comments on post-its. 

Day 20- How to find slope

We worked on these slope cards today and will finish them tomorrow.  The cards were a mixture of representations of slope and they had to find each one. 

Day 19- Thanks, Santa!

Sometime in the summer, I read about Redditgift's teacher gift exchange.  Essentially, teachers could sign up to receive a gift from a randomly assigned donor.  Teachers were asked to make a short wish list valued around $20 and they would be matched up with a donor who signed up to send a gift. 

I tried to honor the $20 limit, so I asked for colored pencils, dry erase markers, glue sticks, and card stock.  I explained that my students were using interactive notebooks for the first time and that these materials would help us keep that going throughout the year.  Well over half of my students are economically disadvantaged, so it's rare for supplies to be replenished mid-year.

My "Santa" was so generous and went well beyond the suggested donation.  Santa sent 12 boxes of colored pencils, 18 glue sticks, and 20 dry erase markers.  According to the site, there's a second box on the way and I can't even imagine what might be in there!    Thank you so much, Santa!

Day 18- French skits

For anyone here just for math posts, sorry.  This one's all about French class.

We did our first skits today in French class.  We've learned basic vocabulary for greetings, asking someone's name, inquiring as to how someone is, and for saying goodbye.  They put this together into a skit. 

I had a semi-rough first few weeks with these kids because a) there are 27 in a beginning language class (eep!) and b) several of the boys in particular want to ask SO many questions (usually relevant) that it's incredibly easy to divert from the lesson plan for a "teachable moment."  I'm new at teaching a language, so I'm not sure exactly how many of these cultural tidbits we need to discuss as soon as they're brought up!  Sometimes in answering their questions, I end up giving them something to laugh about.  After all, what American middle school student wouldn't snicker at the thought of air kisses on the cheeks or eating snails?

Anyway, in the middle of last week, I basically laid out to my class in clear terms that French I is an elective.  We had over 60 students apply to be in the class and 27 slots, so there are 30-some students who want to be in the class but aren't.  I let them know that the course earns a high school credit and for most of these students, French I is the only high school credit they'll have prior to 9th grade.  So, we have serious academic work to be done and done well.  And I told them that if they didn't want to be in the class, we could have a little conversation with the guidance counselor and change their schedules so a student who truly wanted the course could be there.  The whole notion of changing schedules four weeks into the year is really unlikely, but the conversation seems to have worked.  I've noticed a much better work ethic the past few classes and I'm proud! 

Day 17- In which my students discover slope

We've been building up to this for a week.  My students "discovered" how to find the slope of a line given two points.

Back up to early last week.  We used Fawn's steepness worksheet to start exploring slope via a discussion of steepness of staircases.  Initially, a lot of my students wanted to count the number of steps.  This created some bizarre conclusions like "F is steeper than E."  Given the opportunity to  measure, the diagonal seemed to be the length of choice.  With a little prodding, a few at least started measuring the angle of elevation.  I brought the class together and asked how reasonable it seemed to say that F was the steepest (since it had the longest diagonal).  Most kids agreed that this didn't make sense and I asked what else they could measure.  The steps and risers were suggested, and they were off again.  I had to troubleshoot measuring at this point (no, there are no fifths on any customary ruler I've ever seen), and we tied this back into 7th grade ratios.  I asked students how we can compare two numbers and they remembered ratios.  We set up the ratios for slope and reduced each one until we could compare them.  Realizing how many different denominators we had, someone suggested dividing and comparing the decimals.  We did so and came up with our final ranking.

In all of that discussion, the gem that emerged was a student's comment, "Couldn't we graph these?"  Bingo!  That was my in.  The following day, we evaluated some functions and plotted the points.  We connected the lines.  I asked, "Can you tell which one is most steep?  Least steep?" They chose their answers.  I wondered aloud, "Wouldn't it be nice if we could compare these numerically?"  They agreed.  "Let's draw some steps on this line."  The kids instinctively knew how to draw the slope triangles (something that's not always been super easy for my students in the past) and we were off and running in no time.  We did a few examples of finding slope on graphs, they did a few themselves, and they were telling me how easy it was.

I honestly forget how I made this next segue, so forgive the gap.  I showed students a graph where the lattice points weren't marked.  When I asked about finding its slope, they were a bit lost.  I asked them to tell me everything they knew about the graph.  They told me it was "a function, a diagonal line, in the first and fourth quadrants, and negative."  Out of ideas, they stopped.  I drew a line that met their criteria but wasn't the same as the given line.  "Does my line work?" They told me it didn't and I prodded them to give more criteria.   A student told me an ordered pair that fell on the line. I drew a line intersecting through that point.  Another student suggested a second ordered pair and I redrew my line on top of the given line.

Then we considered our criteria.  We decided that it was important that we indicate the graph was a line and that it crossed through the two points we'd listed.  The other criteria were redundant.  I challenged them to find a way to calculate the slope of the line without counting.  "How could you find out how long this part of the step is?"  They decided to subtract the coordinates.  "What should we do then?"  Divide and simplify. 

"What if I gave you points that didn't fit so nicely on the graph paper?  You wouldn't want to count all these squares, I'm sure."  I tossed an ordered pair on the board, something like (40, 125) and (100, 65).  They told me to subtract the y's, subtract the x's, then write them as a fraction and reduce. Enter Mr. Sweeney's song.  The best part of this song is that Mr. Sweeney's doppelganger is my school's math specialist and the kids can't help but exclaim, "That's Mr. A!" as soon as the video starts. 


Anyway, it was an exciting morning in my classroom and I thought I'd share. 

Day 16- The pictures are optional, right?

So, it's not surprising at all to me that I've struggled to get pictures every day.  I just don't think to take pictures during the day. 

I used these problems on writing and solving systems of linear equations for stations today.  My classes are big, so I ran stations with half the kids doing stations and the other half doing some independent work then we traded spots halfway through the time.  It worked pretty well, but it took much longer than I expected.  Four minutes per problem wasn't enough.  Problem 3 was definitely the trickiest for the students. 

Day 15- Accents and punctuation marks posters

These posters are now up in my classroom to help students with their accents and punctuation in French.

 

 Today's big excitement was in Math class, not French.  We were doing a web-based assessment that identifies students' needs in math and our entire district's internet went down.  Not knowing how long the outage would be, I kept my students at the computers and had them work on their notebooks.  Now instead of having just a handful of kids who needed to finish, I have 3/4 of my class in need of extra time.  It wasn't an amazing day, but it could have been worse!

Day 14- Notebook Checks on the Horizon

This week, I'm starting to grade my students' Interactive Notebooks for the first time.  Today, we reviewed the rubric that I gave them during the first week of school.  We flipped through a student's notebook and gave it a mock grade as an example.  Tomrorow through Thursday, I'll take 25-27 notebooks each day and on Friday I will take any stragglers from earlier in the week.  This sign reminds students of impending notebook checks and alerts them to which pages I'll check. 

Day 13- Systems foldable

The students are loving the foldables.  As one boy put it today, "They keep me focused."  I'm enjoying them too, because I feel like I'm making choices to condense notes and hopefully make them more readable for the students. 

Here's a little booklet we made today on solving systems of equations.  The students made their own, but I wanted a digital version for the future and just hadn't got it done earlier this week in time to get copies made.  (We have a wonderful staff member who runs our copy room.  We are expected to give a day's notice on everything we need copied, barring an instructional emergency.)

Day 12- Please leave the building

We're having a heat wave here in Maryland today and it's been in the mid-90s which is strange for September.  We found out around 2:15 that we had to clear out the building and unplug all electronics no later than 3pm.  The kids only leave at 2:40, so that made for an interesting scramble.  Therefore, I don't have a picture to share today.  Just darkness! 

Day 11- Something Unexpected

When I created my list of left-side assignments this summer, I assumed that some would be more popular than others because kids would assume that they were "easy."  I did not expect that the first time I assigned a choice of left side assignment that I would get items of as high a quality as I did.

Here's a song about Standard Form, to the tune of Justin's Bieber's "Baby."

I was also impressed by a couple of comic strips, a set of flashcards, and by the student who typed his page-long assignment with one hand since no one was home to help him and he is in a giant splint following a sports injury. 

Day 10- Integer Rules

We've been reviewing our integer rules in Math 8 lately.  The students have had some trouble remembering them since the summer and I'm going to give each set of rules a few days on our warm up to try to get everything refreshed.  This went into our notebook last week and today we reviewed subtraction, so we filled out that flap. 

Day 9- ISNs Galore

Just a few of the composition books I covered in clear vinyl from Flexcon this week.  My kids' ISNs are going to be awesome!  Thank you Flexcon for your support!  (If you're in or around central MA, check out Flexcon's free School Stock program.)

Day 8- soda machines

Just a quick note to self: I am so glad I introduced functions and relations with soda machines and gumball machines.  My kids can analyze whether something is or isn't a function with much more clarity than I remember students having in the past. 

Yeah, my picture is clip art.  Maybe I didn't actually remember to take one today...

Day 7- Card sort

We sorted cards with graphs and equivalent forms of linear equations today in Advanced Algebra.

Day 6- Problem of the Week

Thanks to Jessica, I had an idea for today's photo! 

This is my Problem of the Week board.  It's on the end of one of my bookcases.  Right now, it's pretty plain because my students haven't had any lengthy independent work where they're finishing at drastically different times.  So, we still have week 1 up waiting for attention. 

Day 5- Inside Outside Circle

I love Kagan structures.  Today I introduced my classes to inside-outside circle.  They made the cards with point-slope form equations on one side and the given slope and point on the other.  This kept things moving and got the students discussing math.  Score! 

I wish I had taken a picture of whiteboards in my period 7/8 class.  I challenged them to write point-slope from two points and also give slope-intercept form.  I wouldn't tell them if they were right (which they hated), but they spent a good 15 minutes discussing strategy.  There were some great moments, like when one group thought they had found the y-intercept and graphed the equations to find they had parallel lines.  "Oh, that means our y-intercept is wrong," one of them commented.  Back to the drawing board they went.  The discussions were so rich that I didn't cut them off until the very last minute to get things wrapped up at the end of class, but I made time to point out the SOMP I'd witnessed: "Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them," "Look for and make use of structure," "Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others," etc.  We didn't discuss the right answer.  I'm not sure if that was a brilliant idea or evidence of poor timing.  I like the idea that they left my room having had a rich discussion and no one left with the idea that they did all that work just to be wrong.  I don't like that there wasn't a clear conclusion to the problem I'd posed.  We'll follow up with more examples on Tuesday.  

Day 4- Foldables!

Overheard in my classroom today: "I love doing notes on foldables!"  We'll see if the enthusiasm lasts.  For now, I enjoy it and am having a good time.  I cannot, cannot, cannot wait for Tuesday when I get to set up the composition books with the kids for their ISNs and really get into things!  I gave them a week to get their materials and now I wish I had required them sooner!  For now, we're just tucking these in a folder and saying a prayer we don't lose them before Tuesday! 

Don't you just love Kimberly Geswein fonts?  They're adorable! 

Day 3: Attention-grabbing chant

This is our attention-grabbing chant.  I introduced it today with pleasing results.  I'm going to keep using it this week and I suspect they'll have their part memorized by early next week. :)

Day 2

Back for more action today!  We worked on our Multiple Intelligences, Learning Styles, and True Color Personality today.  Thanks to Sarah at Everybody is a Genius and Sarah at Math Equals Love for sharing their ideas and links on the topic.  I took the surveys and summaries and condensed them into a little booklet (three front and back pages folded in half).  We worked through it today and I was fascinated to learn a couple of things:

1. My Math 8 class (on grade level) is composed of exactly half auditory learners.  Before I did the survey I suspected that more of my advanced students would be auditory learners since that's what teachers fall back on when they're being lazy.  Wrong!  Fully 1/2 and 2/3 of my two advanced classes are kinesthetic learners. 

2. 20/28 and 19/29 students in my advanced groups are orange when it comes to the true colors personality.  Yikes!  Teachers are generally gold (very organized and planned).  I'm green (scientific) but gold is a very close second.  Oranges tend to be spontaneous, risk takers who enjoy a lot of action.  I'll be busy keeping these classes engaged and out of trouble this year!

Here's a picture of my booklet.  :)

  

Day 1

Ah, the first day of school!  It was busy and exciting but yet oddly calm.  The group we had in 8th grade last year was very difficult and already I can see this year's group may be a much-needed breath of fresh air. 

This year, we've become a PBIS school.  Our slogan is "We show wildcat PRIDE!"  The kids are getting a lesson last period each day this week on one of the 5 words.  They really got into the lesson on being prepared and had some great ideas to share.  "Miss B," one of them asked, "does taking a shower count as being prepared?"  Oh my goodness, yes!  My class is adorable! 

Day 0

I can't believe I spent 8-3 at school on a Saturday, but I did.  I've spent more time getting ready this year than any other year and I still felt unprepared until today.  Now that I have copies of everything I need for the first day, I can relax somewhat! 

My class is now starting to show two sides- math and French!  I'm thrilled to start teaching French one period a day this year!

Day -1

Today was the last day of prep before school opens on Monday!

Homework incentive board.  :)

Day -2

Today was the BEST day of my teaching career thus far.  That's strange, because kids are my favorite part of my job and there were no kids around.  What happened?  Well, I get to teach French I during our school's intervention/enrichment period this year.  Huzzah!  I've been asking for this opportunity since I started 5 years ago.  The position's been open, but there's always been a great need for math.  With our transition to common core I'm actually freed up to not teach a math intervention. 

My picture, therefore, is not of my classroom, but rather of some of the books I collected when I lived in France with the idea I'd one day get to teach French.  This is my dream come true!

Other great things: My computer is fixed and my hard drive was in tact so I didn't lose any files.  I was really sweating that!  Plus, my math team did an hour plus of awesome planning for our function unit today and I'm excited to get that started! 

Mathematically (and linguistically) yours,
Miss B

Day -3

Three days until the kiddos arrive!  Today we spent the morning in meetings learning about evaluations, instructional technology, PBIS, and Common Core.  Thankfully, the afternoon was ours to spend as we chose, following our traditional potluck luncheon.

Here's a new area in my room this year, all set up to welcome students' messages about their upcoming events in the school and community.  I want to attend one rec sport or performance per month this year.  I tend to do the events that happen at school, but find that I'm not all that well informed about the ones held elsewhere.  I'm hoping the kids will let me know and I can support them when my schedule allows.   (I saw this idea on another blog, someone who teaches high school stats, I think, but I can't find the link.  It was Ms. ApproxNormal!  Check out hers here.)

The collection of flyswatters isn't an indication of a pest problem, but rather awaiting rounds of the flyswatter game this year.  If you're unfamiliar, you put vocabulary on the board, give 2 students flyswatters, give a description of the vocabulary, and the first person to smack the right term earns a point for the team.  Best with small groups!

Day -4

Today was my first (paid) day back at work, so I thought it would also be a good time to start posting my daily photos.

Ready for ISNs

Mathematically yours, 

Miss B

180 Days of Math Classes

I just saw a fun idea over on Twitter and I'm going to (try to) jump on the bandwagon this year, along with everything else I'll be doing in 13-14.

Much like the 365 bloggers or Project Life scrapbookers, I'll be posting once a day for the 180 days of school.  You can expect lots of these to be just photos with minimal captions.  I'll try to keep up with semi-regular posts of interesting ideas and thoughts as well.  To see all of my 180 posts, just use the tab at the top of my blog. My first day of teaching is August 26th, but I might start with a few sneak peeks of my classroom the week prior. 

Several other tweeps are going to do this as well and I'll add links to their 180s below.  If you're joining in, leave me a comment with a link so I can add to this list.  Also note what subject/grade you teach if it's not clear from your title.  Thanks!

170ish Days of Math (Out of the Zone)
180 Days of Math Post-its (Teacher Leaders)
180 Days of Geometry (Crazy Math Teacher Lady)
180 Days (Restructuring Algebra) 
Peek Inside my Classrooom (druinok)
Window of Opportunity (Shlager)