Twitter Math Camp 2016, held at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, wrapped up 8 days ago. Normally, I would have blogged right away after such a rich experience, but some extenuating circumstances led me to step back and think about the conference in a different way. You see, normally I would have written a detailed summary of each session I attended and explained how I planned to use what I'd learned in my own school. But not this time.
My flight home from #TMC16 landed at BWI around 9pm last Tuesday. I planned to stay with my parents that evening because they live much closer to the airport than I do. My parents picked me up from the airport and I texted my fiancé to let him know that I'd landed safely. He replied that he needed to attend a viewing in New Jersey the next day and asked if I would be able to go with him. When I called to find out the details, I was heartbroken to hear about the loss. His friend's 17-year-old brother Jeffrey, a rising senior in high school, had died on Saturday in a fishing accident.
By all accounts, Jeffrey was a vibrant young man. He volunteered to teach younger children and those with special needs how to play hockey. He loved to fish but often came off the boat with more than he needed, so he would share the bounty with anyone on the dock who wasn't as fortunate. He had an infectious sense of humor. Over 1500 people attended the viewing; it lasted 6 hours. The funeral
the next morning was standing room only in the large church. Though I never met Jeffrey, it is clear that his passing will leave a void in his family and his community at large.
Following the viewing and funeral, I was reflecting on what had been shared about Jeffrey. I realized one thing that seemed important: no one mentioned anything about his academics aside from a passing reference to "looking for colleges." Whether he was an exceptional student, a mediocre student, or a struggling student didn't and doesn't matter. Those grades don't make a person. What matters is the character that Jeffrey showed in his life because his loved ones will remember their joyful shared interactions much longer than his report card grades.
What I noticed this year at TMC16 was a new focus on social justice and how the climate we establish in our classrooms and schools can spill out into the greater world. Less emphasis was placed on content than at TMC14 (the only other TMC I've attended); in fact there were only a few sessions that were targeted at one specific course. I can't speak to why this shift has occurred but I am proud to be a part of the conversation about improving school for our students. After all, a good education is comprised of far more than letter grades on a report card.
How can you send the message to your students that their education is about more than grades this back to school season and beyond?
Mathematically yours,
Miss B
Showing posts with label back to school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label back to school. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Two weeks down!
How is it possible that I've already been in school for two weeks? I am not really sure, but I know that time is passing by at a rapid speed. I have a few things that have changed this year.
1. I moved to a different classroom. The new room is many times superior to the old room. My school was originally open concept with large areas for 4 classes that have since been divided with metal walls. Two interior classrooms are on the hallway with no natural light and act as a hallway to the exterior classrooms that actually have windows and outside doors. I moved from a large interior classroom shaped like a trapezoid with no closet to an almost-as-large rectangular classroom with natural light and no one passing through my room. It's been great so far. I miss two things about my old room: my amazing next door neighbor who was great to talk to between classes for a moment of sanity after a rough class and being on hall duty so as to get to see all of the students passing by.
2. I took on the role of grade level team leader. This means I get to organize our weekly meetings and act as a liaison to the administration.
3. Curriculum. There will be a year, eventually, when none of the curriculum changes from one year to the next. I'm on year 7 and that's not happened yet. I would just like to get better at one curriculum instead of constantly changing what I'm doing.
4. I am buying a house this month. I saw it and put in a contract the weekend before school started. I will close at the end of the month. So, I'm packing boxes every weekend until then!
On a totally different note, I wanted to say how much I'm enjoying my students this year. I have confidence it is going to be a great year. Unfortunately, they've already realized I'm nice. Crud. Can't I have them fooled just a little bit longer?
How do you get to know your students at the beginning of the year?
Mathematically yours,
Miss B
1. I moved to a different classroom. The new room is many times superior to the old room. My school was originally open concept with large areas for 4 classes that have since been divided with metal walls. Two interior classrooms are on the hallway with no natural light and act as a hallway to the exterior classrooms that actually have windows and outside doors. I moved from a large interior classroom shaped like a trapezoid with no closet to an almost-as-large rectangular classroom with natural light and no one passing through my room. It's been great so far. I miss two things about my old room: my amazing next door neighbor who was great to talk to between classes for a moment of sanity after a rough class and being on hall duty so as to get to see all of the students passing by.
2. I took on the role of grade level team leader. This means I get to organize our weekly meetings and act as a liaison to the administration.
3. Curriculum. There will be a year, eventually, when none of the curriculum changes from one year to the next. I'm on year 7 and that's not happened yet. I would just like to get better at one curriculum instead of constantly changing what I'm doing.
4. I am buying a house this month. I saw it and put in a contract the weekend before school started. I will close at the end of the month. So, I'm packing boxes every weekend until then!
On a totally different note, I wanted to say how much I'm enjoying my students this year. I have confidence it is going to be a great year. Unfortunately, they've already realized I'm nice. Crud. Can't I have them fooled just a little bit longer?
I assigned my students the “Numbers About Me” project that I first heard of from Sarah at Everybody is a Genius. This is my second
year giving the project and I feel like my students’ creativity came out much
more this year. Last year, I got a lot
of “my birthday is…” and “my soccer jersey number is…” but this year the kids
have stepped up the game and gotten creative, some actually doing math to figure out facts.
Here are some of the clever ideas I’ve seen:
·
BMI
·
Name ranking based on Social Security
information
·
Birth weigh
·
Height as a portion of a mile instead of feet
and inches
·
Ethnic heritage
·
Food consumption (“I once ate 5.5 tacos” or “I
usually eat 3/8 of a pizza.”)
·
Fraction of the population (“I am 1/x of the
people to live in our town.”)
·
Age in decades instead of years
·
Sports stats like batting averages
·
“Once I spent 3 hours straight on FaceTime.”
·
Number of minutes spent in an airplane this
summer
·
Miles from home to favorite summer vacation
destination
One reason I love this project is that I get to know what students want to tell me about themselves. If they're not comfortable sharing a certain statistic, they don't have to. Said differently, I learn what my students value. Many of them had photos of their siblings on their notebooks; those are students whose family is really important. I had a student lose a family member the week before school started. It was heartbreaking to see "There are x people in my family" on that notebook because I know how painful it must have been for the student to write that sentence. Other students focused on their sports stats; I know they're serious about being athletes. How do you get to know your students at the beginning of the year?
Mathematically yours,
Miss B
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Learning about my classes
For the "getting to know you" portion of the beginning of the year, I thought I would focus on some things that could really inform my instruction this school year.
I collected some great ideas from the MTBoS, of course! In the spring, I took a class on personality and I read "Showing Our True Colors" which helped me understand the behaviors of many of my students last year. By the time in the year that I took the class, I had observed my students enough to know which color family they belonged to, but this year, I thought it would be nice to start the year with that info. Thanks to Sarah at Everybody is a Genius and Sarah at Math Equals Love for sharing their ideas and links on the topic as well as learning styles and multiple intelligences. 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.
Here's how I did it. I introduced the notion that I wanted the students to know how to help themselves when it comes time to study and I want to be able to teach them in the ways that work best for them. I pointed out that when the time comes that some of them need individual help, I'll be able to give them a method tailored to their needs if I know how they learn, think, or show their skills.
We started with learning styles because I thought kids might have had at least some background knowledge there. I explained that some of us learn by hearing, others by seeing, and still others by doing. They took the survey. Then, I regrouped the students so they could sit with other people with the same learning style. I asked them to read the provided tips and tricks for that learning style and to discuss how they had used those before or if they wanted to try any that were new. We shared out. Interesting, the visual learners in one class were quick to ask if they could write notes on the paper. I pointed out that they asked to do that because they're visual learners!
Next, we did the true colors personality questionnaire. It's the hardest one for the kids, so I put it in the middle. If I'd done it first, they would have been overwhelmed. If I saved it for last, it might have been a struggle. We modeled how to fill out the chart. They had several words that they weren't familiar with but the nice thing is that there were lots of familiar words that they could lean on even when one word in the group was unknown. As it turns out, "impetuous" was on the test they'd just taken in language arts. Someone asked what it meant and I explained that it meant making decisions without thinking of the consequences. A cheer erupted- most of them had gotten it right on the test! Once the students had completed that questionnaire, I had posted colored papers around the room to correspond to the true colors. Each kid found his group, wrote his name on the colored paper so I could keep a list, and they discussed if they were like the description. The crazy thing is that 39 out of the 58 kids I teach in the afternoon are orange. Oh my goodness, we are going to need to move and be very active this year to learn! The funny thing is that even on the first day, I could tell I had a lot of energy in the afternoon groups!
Finally, we did the MI survey. We didn't get to the analysis yet- that will be tomorrow. We did fill out the graph shown in the picture below. Tomorrow we'll talk about MI and learn our strengths there.
I'm so glad I did this! I feel like it's going to be such a time saver as I plan lessons this year because I'll know better how to approach them. Hopefully this will turn into less kids needing reteaching less often because I'll meet their needs the first time. I'm also super happy that this year I decided to implement an interactive notebook. I think it will appeal to my orange students and all of the kinesthetic learners.
During the last period of the day, my principal came in and we got to talking about what a nice group of kids I have in that class. I told her how surprised I was by their learning style results (about 50% auditory, 20% kinesthetic, 30% visual) and how utterly shocked I was that so many of the kids in Advanced Algebra are orange. She's gold, so her eyes bugged out a little at those numbers, too! She really liked what I did in class today; she even asked to take a copy of the booklet with her.
Here's a look at the front of the booklet that I made. The front cover is courtesy of Sarah from Everybody is a Genius.
I collected some great ideas from the MTBoS, of course! In the spring, I took a class on personality and I read "Showing Our True Colors" which helped me understand the behaviors of many of my students last year. By the time in the year that I took the class, I had observed my students enough to know which color family they belonged to, but this year, I thought it would be nice to start the year with that info. Thanks to Sarah at Everybody is a Genius and Sarah at Math Equals Love for sharing their ideas and links on the topic as well as learning styles and multiple intelligences. 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.
Here's how I did it. I introduced the notion that I wanted the students to know how to help themselves when it comes time to study and I want to be able to teach them in the ways that work best for them. I pointed out that when the time comes that some of them need individual help, I'll be able to give them a method tailored to their needs if I know how they learn, think, or show their skills.
We started with learning styles because I thought kids might have had at least some background knowledge there. I explained that some of us learn by hearing, others by seeing, and still others by doing. They took the survey. Then, I regrouped the students so they could sit with other people with the same learning style. I asked them to read the provided tips and tricks for that learning style and to discuss how they had used those before or if they wanted to try any that were new. We shared out. Interesting, the visual learners in one class were quick to ask if they could write notes on the paper. I pointed out that they asked to do that because they're visual learners!
Next, we did the true colors personality questionnaire. It's the hardest one for the kids, so I put it in the middle. If I'd done it first, they would have been overwhelmed. If I saved it for last, it might have been a struggle. We modeled how to fill out the chart. They had several words that they weren't familiar with but the nice thing is that there were lots of familiar words that they could lean on even when one word in the group was unknown. As it turns out, "impetuous" was on the test they'd just taken in language arts. Someone asked what it meant and I explained that it meant making decisions without thinking of the consequences. A cheer erupted- most of them had gotten it right on the test! Once the students had completed that questionnaire, I had posted colored papers around the room to correspond to the true colors. Each kid found his group, wrote his name on the colored paper so I could keep a list, and they discussed if they were like the description. The crazy thing is that 39 out of the 58 kids I teach in the afternoon are orange. Oh my goodness, we are going to need to move and be very active this year to learn! The funny thing is that even on the first day, I could tell I had a lot of energy in the afternoon groups!
Finally, we did the MI survey. We didn't get to the analysis yet- that will be tomorrow. We did fill out the graph shown in the picture below. Tomorrow we'll talk about MI and learn our strengths there.
I'm so glad I did this! I feel like it's going to be such a time saver as I plan lessons this year because I'll know better how to approach them. Hopefully this will turn into less kids needing reteaching less often because I'll meet their needs the first time. I'm also super happy that this year I decided to implement an interactive notebook. I think it will appeal to my orange students and all of the kinesthetic learners.
During the last period of the day, my principal came in and we got to talking about what a nice group of kids I have in that class. I told her how surprised I was by their learning style results (about 50% auditory, 20% kinesthetic, 30% visual) and how utterly shocked I was that so many of the kids in Advanced Algebra are orange. She's gold, so her eyes bugged out a little at those numbers, too! She really liked what I did in class today; she even asked to take a copy of the booklet with her.
Here's a look at the front of the booklet that I made. The front cover is courtesy of Sarah from Everybody is a Genius.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Officially back to work!
It was the Back to School kick off today at work. We had our district wide meeting, complete with a visit from our State Superintendent. Her visit meant a lot to me; we're a very small county compared to others in our state and not located close to the state offices, so it's unusual for us to get that kind of attention. The central office had also organized a wellness fair for us. Frankly, that just added to our stress because we wanted to get to our schools to work, but I have to admit that it was well executed. At the end of the day, we met with our grade level team to discuss some of the mundane back to school items such as schedules and locker breaks.
I went back to school at 3 to do some work. My room is so close to being done! Tomorrow for sure it will be; I'll stay until it is. I will need Thursday for curriculum work!
Here's a peek at my classroom library. I bought a "real" bookcase last year to replace some very pathetic plastic crates. It makes me happy that I can offer a good number of choices and have a dozen or more math-specific books that the kids can choose. Of couse, those are the ones I featured on the top!
.JPG)
What are your favorite books for middle school math classrooms?
Mathematically yours,
Miss B
I went back to school at 3 to do some work. My room is so close to being done! Tomorrow for sure it will be; I'll stay until it is. I will need Thursday for curriculum work!
Here's a peek at my classroom library. I bought a "real" bookcase last year to replace some very pathetic plastic crates. It makes me happy that I can offer a good number of choices and have a dozen or more math-specific books that the kids can choose. Of couse, those are the ones I featured on the top!
.JPG)
Mathematically yours,
Miss B
Friday, August 16, 2013
Ch- ch- ch- changes
I spent the last week vacationing in San Diego with my family. We enjoyed the weather, the zoo, the U.S.S. Midway, and much more. As soon as I got home today, I wanted to head over to school. We weren't allowed in our rooms until this week, so I wanted to get in there as soon as I got home to get a handle on what I need to tackle in the next week!
I found a few changes are under way for 13-14. First of all, a new interactive whiteboard system was hanging on the wall. Surprise! I had a SMARTboard that never truly cooperated with my computer, so I called it the "dumb board" and used it as a screen mostly. After countless failed lessons ("OK, everyone, it looks like my computer's frozen, so I'll just switch over to a paper copy and the document camera..."), I threw in the towel and I don't think I used it once last year. It was about 8 years old, so I suppose it was time for a modern replacement. I just didn't know I was getting one! Now we'll be trained next week how to use these darlings. I'm hoping we get some new software too; the SMARTnotebook software was never my favorite.
.JPG)
We're becoming a PBIS school, so we're going to have a school-wide "acknowledgment" system instead of grade-level incentives. It sounds really promising, taking the better aspects of what we did before and making them consistent throughout the school. I think we'll be getting rid of our grade-level economy as it would be largely redundant. That's a bit sad, but it had its flaws, so I'm happy to try something new.
Oh, and I totally rearranged my classroom. I moved my desk to a different corner, put some cabinets in different spots (they're large and on wheels), and still have no idea where my document camera should live. Right now, I think I want to try to keep my old projector to use with it so I can project from my computer and document camera simultaneously. Good idea? Bad idea? I'd love input.
Other big things on the horizon for 13-14 are:
1. NBCT process
2. Teaching the new Common Core for 8th grade math (and refining the CC Algebra I course I taught last year)
3. Implementing Interactive Notebooks for the first time
4. Continuing my role as STEM representative for my school and presenting follow-up inservice on STEM/PBL to the rest of the staff.
Bring it on, 13-14!
Mathematically yours,
Miss B
I found a few changes are under way for 13-14. First of all, a new interactive whiteboard system was hanging on the wall. Surprise! I had a SMARTboard that never truly cooperated with my computer, so I called it the "dumb board" and used it as a screen mostly. After countless failed lessons ("OK, everyone, it looks like my computer's frozen, so I'll just switch over to a paper copy and the document camera..."), I threw in the towel and I don't think I used it once last year. It was about 8 years old, so I suppose it was time for a modern replacement. I just didn't know I was getting one! Now we'll be trained next week how to use these darlings. I'm hoping we get some new software too; the SMARTnotebook software was never my favorite.
.JPG)
We're becoming a PBIS school, so we're going to have a school-wide "acknowledgment" system instead of grade-level incentives. It sounds really promising, taking the better aspects of what we did before and making them consistent throughout the school. I think we'll be getting rid of our grade-level economy as it would be largely redundant. That's a bit sad, but it had its flaws, so I'm happy to try something new.
Oh, and I totally rearranged my classroom. I moved my desk to a different corner, put some cabinets in different spots (they're large and on wheels), and still have no idea where my document camera should live. Right now, I think I want to try to keep my old projector to use with it so I can project from my computer and document camera simultaneously. Good idea? Bad idea? I'd love input.
Other big things on the horizon for 13-14 are:
1. NBCT process
2. Teaching the new Common Core for 8th grade math (and refining the CC Algebra I course I taught last year)
3. Implementing Interactive Notebooks for the first time
4. Continuing my role as STEM representative for my school and presenting follow-up inservice on STEM/PBL to the rest of the staff.
Bring it on, 13-14!
Mathematically yours,
Miss B
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Interactive Notebook Covers
My classes will do Interactive Notebooks this year. I got the great idea to do "Numbers About Me" from Sarah's post. I made a direction sheet and rubric along with my first sample cover today. I'll do a couple more in other styles for my model books. This book is the book I've been working on as a trial run.
How do you ask students to cover their notebooks?
Mathematically yours,
Miss B
How do you ask students to cover their notebooks?
Mathematically yours,
Miss B
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Interactive Notebook Storage
I'm taking the plunge into interactive notebooks next year and I'm really pumped. Bring on those composition books, kiddos!
I have decided to ask my students to keep a binder and a notebook. That might sound repetitive, but I want to save the notebook for the cream-of-the-crop work and the essential ideas. I teach a full block all year (yes, 85ish minutes a day all year), so I knew one composition books wouldn't be sufficient if we did everything there and frankly, not everything is important. This is my biggest gripe when I look back at an interactive notebook I did in high school for AP U.S.- my teacher didn't help me make clear the distinctions between the important players and events from the minor ones. I want the notebook to help my kids differentiate between the big concepts and the ancillary skills.
I am still wrestling with the idea, but I'm pretty settled on the following: I'll give each student a gallon-size bag to keep their notebook and related supplies in. There will be a set of 4 bins per class in which they'll always store that bag (so 7 kids on average will share the bin). The notebooks can be taken home as required, but I'll encourage students to leave them in the room if they won't use them that night so as to minimize loss and we won't take them home for the first few weeks until we've established how useful they can be! Once they do take them home, they'll have a little card (below) to place in their bag whenever they take it home. That will help me if I need to check anything in the notebooks after school and it will serve as a reminder to them the next day of where their notebooks are. I always tell my kids to use their resources, so I can't justify making them keep their notebooks in the room forever. I also know I have students each year who take home the bare minimum. In that case, I'd rather the notebook live in my room than get smashed in a locker!
The bins are honestly one of the sturdiest plastic purchases I've made in a while. If you have a Big Lots, get yourself there ASAP if you need any baskets. The size I bought is the "mini" size and was $3.50 (minus my 20% discount = $2.80!). The toy box size with wheels was only $10 if I remember correctly. The plastic is thick and rigid, clearly of a quality that will stand up to a lot of use. They have the three colors shown and a dark blue, but I practically cleaned out my store of this size, so be quick if you want them. They're with the dorm stuff in the seasonal area. I bought a plastic shelving unit from Walmart that will hold all the bins nicely. The bins and shelf cost me $80. That's pricey for me, but I think both are of good quality and will last me many years; even if I decide to move away from notebooking they'll be useful. Another way to look at it is that I spent less than $1 per student to help them be successful this year.
What are your thoughts on keeping notebooks in the classroom or sending them home?
Mathematically yours,
Miss B
I have decided to ask my students to keep a binder and a notebook. That might sound repetitive, but I want to save the notebook for the cream-of-the-crop work and the essential ideas. I teach a full block all year (yes, 85ish minutes a day all year), so I knew one composition books wouldn't be sufficient if we did everything there and frankly, not everything is important. This is my biggest gripe when I look back at an interactive notebook I did in high school for AP U.S.- my teacher didn't help me make clear the distinctions between the important players and events from the minor ones. I want the notebook to help my kids differentiate between the big concepts and the ancillary skills.
I am still wrestling with the idea, but I'm pretty settled on the following: I'll give each student a gallon-size bag to keep their notebook and related supplies in. There will be a set of 4 bins per class in which they'll always store that bag (so 7 kids on average will share the bin). The notebooks can be taken home as required, but I'll encourage students to leave them in the room if they won't use them that night so as to minimize loss and we won't take them home for the first few weeks until we've established how useful they can be! Once they do take them home, they'll have a little card (below) to place in their bag whenever they take it home. That will help me if I need to check anything in the notebooks after school and it will serve as a reminder to them the next day of where their notebooks are. I always tell my kids to use their resources, so I can't justify making them keep their notebooks in the room forever. I also know I have students each year who take home the bare minimum. In that case, I'd rather the notebook live in my room than get smashed in a locker!
 |
| To be placed in the bag each time the notebook leaves the classroom. |
 |
| Labels for the bags. Each child will be asked to provide the materials listed (just one or two colored pencils or highlighters, not entire packs). |
 |
| The gallon-sized bags are perfect for composition books and a few accessories. |
 |
| Four bins per period. At the beginning of the year, they'll seem empty, but I wanted to make sure the bins would still work after our notebooks grew throughout the year. |
The bins are honestly one of the sturdiest plastic purchases I've made in a while. If you have a Big Lots, get yourself there ASAP if you need any baskets. The size I bought is the "mini" size and was $3.50 (minus my 20% discount = $2.80!). The toy box size with wheels was only $10 if I remember correctly. The plastic is thick and rigid, clearly of a quality that will stand up to a lot of use. They have the three colors shown and a dark blue, but I practically cleaned out my store of this size, so be quick if you want them. They're with the dorm stuff in the seasonal area. I bought a plastic shelving unit from Walmart that will hold all the bins nicely. The bins and shelf cost me $80. That's pricey for me, but I think both are of good quality and will last me many years; even if I decide to move away from notebooking they'll be useful. Another way to look at it is that I spent less than $1 per student to help them be successful this year.
What are your thoughts on keeping notebooks in the classroom or sending them home?
Mathematically yours,
Miss B
Friday, May 31, 2013
The transition to summer vacation
What is your end of year routine? Do you have one or do you just shove things in closets and head for the beach? I'm slowly developing mine and deciding what changes I need to make to allow the fall to run as smoothly as possible. My big projects to tackle on my to-do list fit into a couple of primary purposes: organize my room, prepare for a few bursts of productivity in the summer, and get a jump start on the fall.
1a. Purge the filing cabinets. Seriously. I do not need the worksheets that the last teacher left in the filing cabinets five years ago. Not only were they beneath the state standards when I took the job, but we're now implementing the much more rigorous Common Core. When in doubt, recycle. A drawer a day until the end of the year would let me come back in a good frame of mind in August.
1b. Take home and file/organize papers I want to keep and materials for lesson planning. I am a horrible filer! Horrible! In that way where I don't do it, there's a mound of papers on every surface, and I just hope no one wants anything from three months ago. New plan: sort papers out by CC standard and just keep one master of each.
2. Weed out the bookshelves. Again, I do not need other people's cast offs or left behind books. I have a half dozen really useful books I use again and again for masters. The others, not so much. Offer them up on our employee web portal and see if another teacher wants them.
3. Prep beginning of year things. This bogs me down every year. You see, teachers don't use the photocopiers at my school. At the beginning of the year, we get very bogged down since one person is doing all of our copying. Forms and worksheets I use at the beginning of every year should be copied now. I hesitate to make my syllabus yet due to the CC switchover, but it might be worth it.
4. Inventory supplies. This is a new one, but absolutely necessary. I buy more school supplies for my classroom than I care to count. Some things I've actually built up a little inventory (cap erasers, lined paper, index cards) and others I've run out of completely (spiral notebooks, red pens). I'm making a checklist of how many of each are in my room so when I get ready to purchase this summer, I'm spending wisely. This list only includes supplies that I typically buy at Staples, Walmart, or Target in large quantities. My plan is to save this list for next summer and use it to decide how much I go through so I can plan even better. Download your copy of this inventory sheet here and edit it to match your classroom's needs.
5. Map out the classroom. This is required by my school, but SO terribly helpful that I would suggest it to anyone. Before we leave in the summer, we inventory our furniture and draw a map of how it should look in our classroom so the custodians can get everything back into the correct place after they clean the floors. I usually have to nudge a few things or swap a couple of tables that look similar, but it saves me at least an hour of work.
6. Take home PD materials. I'm attending a few PD sessions this summer, one to address CC implementation and one to address the new teacher evaluation system we're using next year. I have some materials that I need to take with me and I need to make sure they're not hidden away in a cupboard where I can't access them.
1a. Purge the filing cabinets. Seriously. I do not need the worksheets that the last teacher left in the filing cabinets five years ago. Not only were they beneath the state standards when I took the job, but we're now implementing the much more rigorous Common Core. When in doubt, recycle. A drawer a day until the end of the year would let me come back in a good frame of mind in August.
1b. Take home and file/organize papers I want to keep and materials for lesson planning. I am a horrible filer! Horrible! In that way where I don't do it, there's a mound of papers on every surface, and I just hope no one wants anything from three months ago. New plan: sort papers out by CC standard and just keep one master of each.
2. Weed out the bookshelves. Again, I do not need other people's cast offs or left behind books. I have a half dozen really useful books I use again and again for masters. The others, not so much. Offer them up on our employee web portal and see if another teacher wants them.
3. Prep beginning of year things. This bogs me down every year. You see, teachers don't use the photocopiers at my school. At the beginning of the year, we get very bogged down since one person is doing all of our copying. Forms and worksheets I use at the beginning of every year should be copied now. I hesitate to make my syllabus yet due to the CC switchover, but it might be worth it.
4. Inventory supplies. This is a new one, but absolutely necessary. I buy more school supplies for my classroom than I care to count. Some things I've actually built up a little inventory (cap erasers, lined paper, index cards) and others I've run out of completely (spiral notebooks, red pens). I'm making a checklist of how many of each are in my room so when I get ready to purchase this summer, I'm spending wisely. This list only includes supplies that I typically buy at Staples, Walmart, or Target in large quantities. My plan is to save this list for next summer and use it to decide how much I go through so I can plan even better. Download your copy of this inventory sheet here and edit it to match your classroom's needs.
5. Map out the classroom. This is required by my school, but SO terribly helpful that I would suggest it to anyone. Before we leave in the summer, we inventory our furniture and draw a map of how it should look in our classroom so the custodians can get everything back into the correct place after they clean the floors. I usually have to nudge a few things or swap a couple of tables that look similar, but it saves me at least an hour of work.
6. Take home PD materials. I'm attending a few PD sessions this summer, one to address CC implementation and one to address the new teacher evaluation system we're using next year. I have some materials that I need to take with me and I need to make sure they're not hidden away in a cupboard where I can't access them.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
What to do about "I'm done!"
We all have experienced the joys trials of teaching a group of students who work at very different paces. There are those children who must be encouraged, coaxed, and refocused so that their work gets finished. There are the kids on the opposite end of the spectrum who, it seems, have finished the worksheet before their classmates have even managed to get started. What to do with the children who finish early?
Obviously, you want to ensure that they're producing their best work and not rushing through an assignment simply to be finished. I had one child who was such a pro at finishing everything quickly that I always saved my classroom chores for him (passing out papers, sorting things, taking a note to a classroom, etc). It helped him to have something physical to do because he was very prone to getting into trouble and pestering other children within seconds of being finished his work.
Other than classroom chores and the overused, "read your free reading book," there weren't many options in my classroom for early finishers. I decided that this was the year I needed to make it happen!
I'm going a totally different route with my Early Finisher choices. I'm putting together brain teasers, puzzles, pentominoes, tangrams, 24, and the like with instructions for a short activity. It's sort of an homage to elementary school math centers. Each center will be stored in a zippered pencil pouch that the kids will select and take back to their seats. I think the fabric pencil pouches will hold up and be easy for the kids to use. I put a binder ring though the zipper on each pouch so it's easy to hang. My hope is that these stations will build logical and spatial reasoning which are applicable across many subjects. The start-up cost for me was about $20 for the pouches ($1.50 each at the discount store in my town, probably at Dollar Tree but not worth the drive for me) because I already had the other materials. Most of them were sitting unused because I either didn't have enough for the whole class to use at once or because they weren't strictly related to my curriculum. This is a step in the right direction! I hope to create enough materials so I can swap these out mid-year. Every term would be awesome, but I don't have enough materials for that just yet.
I also set up my classroom library in a much more inviting way than in years past. I stacked some file crates sideways and used them as my bookshelves. I placed some books related to math in a display. I was so close to selling that pink locker storage piece because the pockets are so deep when it occurred to me that I could stuff the bottom with paper so items would sit up higher and be visible. Duh! My library last year, in comparison, had all of my books piled in one crate that was placed under a chair in a corner. Not exactly inviting! I could use some better books; most of what I have is so dated I don't even want to pick them up. I will try to make it to a library sale this year in hopes of adding some attractive books to the collection and I'll go through my books at home to see if I have any that are age appropriate for the kiddos.
Do you have any great ways to keep kids' brains active when they've finished their assignments? Please share what works for you.
Miss B
Obviously, you want to ensure that they're producing their best work and not rushing through an assignment simply to be finished. I had one child who was such a pro at finishing everything quickly that I always saved my classroom chores for him (passing out papers, sorting things, taking a note to a classroom, etc). It helped him to have something physical to do because he was very prone to getting into trouble and pestering other children within seconds of being finished his work.
Other than classroom chores and the overused, "read your free reading book," there weren't many options in my classroom for early finishers. I decided that this was the year I needed to make it happen!
I'm going a totally different route with my Early Finisher choices. I'm putting together brain teasers, puzzles, pentominoes, tangrams, 24, and the like with instructions for a short activity. It's sort of an homage to elementary school math centers. Each center will be stored in a zippered pencil pouch that the kids will select and take back to their seats. I think the fabric pencil pouches will hold up and be easy for the kids to use. I put a binder ring though the zipper on each pouch so it's easy to hang. My hope is that these stations will build logical and spatial reasoning which are applicable across many subjects. The start-up cost for me was about $20 for the pouches ($1.50 each at the discount store in my town, probably at Dollar Tree but not worth the drive for me) because I already had the other materials. Most of them were sitting unused because I either didn't have enough for the whole class to use at once or because they weren't strictly related to my curriculum. This is a step in the right direction! I hope to create enough materials so I can swap these out mid-year. Every term would be awesome, but I don't have enough materials for that just yet.
 | ||
| These pouches are left over from previous students. I purchased 12 more (not pictured) for a total of 16. |
 |
| Finally! A classroom library with a bit of character. |
Do you have any great ways to keep kids' brains active when they've finished their assignments? Please share what works for you.
Miss B
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Building Vocabulary with a Word Wall
I think most teachers are familiar with word walls. I've seen
elementary teachers organize them alphabetically. For my math students
in middle school, I organize the walls by unit theme. Each unit we
study is assigned a color so students can look for related words in the
group. We make use of our word walls in countless ways, but here are
just a few:
1. I place all of the words for a new unit on the wall. As we work our way through a unit and learn a new concept, students try to guess which word could have that meaning. This often guides us through a discussion of prefixes, suffixes, and roots as students break down the words and try to make meaning from them.
2. Students refer to the wall to help them recall words that have slipped their minds and for spelling.
3. Because I am lucky to have two metal walls, my words are most often individual strips with magnets on the back. We take them down and use them for games. One favorite game is the fly-swatter game. Give a representative from each team a fly-swatter (clean, of course), scatter the vocabulary words on the board, and give a definition, example, non-example, drawing, etc that the students have to match to the correct word. It's fast-paced and they get to smack the board, so they love it! My rules are that they may only smack the board and they must alternate turns smacking words (otherwise it looks like whack-a-mole gone bad and the kids don't pay attention to the words).
4. Review/Study. I give a final exam so I encourage my students to use the word wall to identify their weaknesses. They can read through the words and decide what to study based on what vocabulary is most difficult for them. This is true for unit tests and quizzes as well. I also find my students using the word wall when they help each other. They are frequently overheard asking each other about the words and the responses typically include the related words. I love hearing my kids use their vocabulary!
I have experienced a few set-backs with my word walls in the past. First, the words get a glare once laminated so they can be hard to read. Sometimes I end up with students who have trouble reading at a distance even with really large font sizes. So, readability is a big problem in my classroom. Second, the students can't take the wall home so they don't have that resource when they are completing assignments outside of my room. In response to those issues, I decided to do a little more with vocabulary this year.
New to my class this year will be personal word walls. Hooray! I designed a template to look like a brick wall complete with a graffiti title. Kids will be responsible for adding words to their wall when we first learn them in class. Each unit will be written in a different color and the kids will be able to place the words how they want to on the sheet though I'll encourage them to group like words in some way instead of randomly scattering them. I'm going to have the kids lightly shade or outline the boxes with colored pencil when they feel they have mastered the term. To me, that means they can describe/define it clearly, draw it accurately, and spell it correctly. I think we'll need two or more copies to fit all of our words depending on the course as each size holds about 75 words. When I taught Geometry in the past, we had nearly 300 words, so we would have needed 4 of these. I'm going to make this double sided and copy it on cardstock. They'll keep it in a sheet protector so they can use it to quiz themselves by marking things off with a dry erase marker.
If you would like to use this with your class, leave me a comment with your e-mail address and I'll send you the file.
How do you organize vocabulary with your students? What makes it meaningful to them? I'd love to hear more strategies that work with math.
Miss B
1. I place all of the words for a new unit on the wall. As we work our way through a unit and learn a new concept, students try to guess which word could have that meaning. This often guides us through a discussion of prefixes, suffixes, and roots as students break down the words and try to make meaning from them.
2. Students refer to the wall to help them recall words that have slipped their minds and for spelling.
3. Because I am lucky to have two metal walls, my words are most often individual strips with magnets on the back. We take them down and use them for games. One favorite game is the fly-swatter game. Give a representative from each team a fly-swatter (clean, of course), scatter the vocabulary words on the board, and give a definition, example, non-example, drawing, etc that the students have to match to the correct word. It's fast-paced and they get to smack the board, so they love it! My rules are that they may only smack the board and they must alternate turns smacking words (otherwise it looks like whack-a-mole gone bad and the kids don't pay attention to the words).
4. Review/Study. I give a final exam so I encourage my students to use the word wall to identify their weaknesses. They can read through the words and decide what to study based on what vocabulary is most difficult for them. This is true for unit tests and quizzes as well. I also find my students using the word wall when they help each other. They are frequently overheard asking each other about the words and the responses typically include the related words. I love hearing my kids use their vocabulary!
I have experienced a few set-backs with my word walls in the past. First, the words get a glare once laminated so they can be hard to read. Sometimes I end up with students who have trouble reading at a distance even with really large font sizes. So, readability is a big problem in my classroom. Second, the students can't take the wall home so they don't have that resource when they are completing assignments outside of my room. In response to those issues, I decided to do a little more with vocabulary this year.
New to my class this year will be personal word walls. Hooray! I designed a template to look like a brick wall complete with a graffiti title. Kids will be responsible for adding words to their wall when we first learn them in class. Each unit will be written in a different color and the kids will be able to place the words how they want to on the sheet though I'll encourage them to group like words in some way instead of randomly scattering them. I'm going to have the kids lightly shade or outline the boxes with colored pencil when they feel they have mastered the term. To me, that means they can describe/define it clearly, draw it accurately, and spell it correctly. I think we'll need two or more copies to fit all of our words depending on the course as each size holds about 75 words. When I taught Geometry in the past, we had nearly 300 words, so we would have needed 4 of these. I'm going to make this double sided and copy it on cardstock. They'll keep it in a sheet protector so they can use it to quiz themselves by marking things off with a dry erase marker.
Here's the file. You'll need the font "a dripping marker" for the title (or just choose a font that you already have).
If you would like to use this with your class, leave me a comment with your e-mail address and I'll send you the file.
How do you organize vocabulary with your students? What makes it meaningful to them? I'd love to hear more strategies that work with math.
Miss B
Flexible Grouping
This is not a new idea. It is, however, new to my classroom. I have gotten so sick of getting kids into groups and then hearing the questions, "Who's in my group?" "Where is my group meeting?" or "What group number am I?" about 25 times in two minutes. Enough is enough!
I reclaimed some wall space from other things this year so I could put up pocket charts for flexible grouping in my classroom. I want to be much more deliberate with my grouping this year. I am hoping to get at least one or two STEM PBL experiences in for my kids and I know I will need to engineer those groups so the students can be successful.
This isn't much to see yet because the class lists are far from finalized, so I haven't made name tags. I got the pocket charts from the target dollar bin and the magnetic hooks are 88 cents for four in Walmart's back to school section. Total cost is under $9 including a pack of index cards. Each color will be for one of my block classes. I haven't decided if I'm going to hang one up for my intervention period or not. We'll see.
I am trying to decide what information I want (if any) on the back of the cards. I could use state test data, but that doesn't tell me the whole picture. What sorts of things do you look at as you group students early in the year? Leave me a comment and let me know what works for you.
EDIT 9/26/12: After one month of school, I can say this system is truly working well for my classes. In addition to helping students find their groups more easily, it's eliminated the poor attitudes some students choose to display when presented with an assigned group.
I also appreciate that I can look back at the end of the day and review which students were grouped together for a particular activity.
I've also added labels for group jobs. The jobs are things like timekeeper, materials manager, sharing supervisor, etc. I'll just place the cards above the chart and say that the first person in the group is timekeeper, the second is materials manager, etc.
I just found more of these pocket charts at Goodwill for 10 cents so I got the purple ones to replace the red which didn't go with my color code (first period gets everything pink/purple, fifth gets all green, seventh gets all blue, and intervention gets red).
Miss B
I reclaimed some wall space from other things this year so I could put up pocket charts for flexible grouping in my classroom. I want to be much more deliberate with my grouping this year. I am hoping to get at least one or two STEM PBL experiences in for my kids and I know I will need to engineer those groups so the students can be successful.
This isn't much to see yet because the class lists are far from finalized, so I haven't made name tags. I got the pocket charts from the target dollar bin and the magnetic hooks are 88 cents for four in Walmart's back to school section. Total cost is under $9 including a pack of index cards. Each color will be for one of my block classes. I haven't decided if I'm going to hang one up for my intervention period or not. We'll see.
I am trying to decide what information I want (if any) on the back of the cards. I could use state test data, but that doesn't tell me the whole picture. What sorts of things do you look at as you group students early in the year? Leave me a comment and let me know what works for you.
EDIT 9/26/12: After one month of school, I can say this system is truly working well for my classes. In addition to helping students find their groups more easily, it's eliminated the poor attitudes some students choose to display when presented with an assigned group.
I also appreciate that I can look back at the end of the day and review which students were grouped together for a particular activity.
I've also added labels for group jobs. The jobs are things like timekeeper, materials manager, sharing supervisor, etc. I'll just place the cards above the chart and say that the first person in the group is timekeeper, the second is materials manager, etc.
I just found more of these pocket charts at Goodwill for 10 cents so I got the purple ones to replace the red which didn't go with my color code (first period gets everything pink/purple, fifth gets all green, seventh gets all blue, and intervention gets red).
Miss B
Classroom/Grade Level Economy
Long before I started working at my current school, the 8th grade team had established a grade level currency called "Cat Cash" after our Wildcat mascot. I'm always amazed at how much harder and longer students will work on an assignment when there's a dollar or two of Cat Cash attached to its completion. I even have kids who will choose Cat Cash over candy as a prize when we play games. They know the value of a buck!
While we give out Cat Cash for good deeds, good work, meeting goals, and other positive things, we also fine children for breaking rules (chewing gum, being unprepared for class, and - the big one - being disrespectful to substitute teachers). I've never really gotten on board with the fines as much as my co-workers.
Our rewards are typically one event per marking period. The students must pay a set amount of Cat Cash to attend the event. We try to schedule these events for half days so we aren't interrupting instruction as much. We've had movie days, the chance to each lunch in a teacher's classroom with dessert provided by the teacher, sports, a dance during the school day, and more. Our last incentive is a raffle and we let kids cash in all of their money for raffle tickets.
I'm adding a new element to the grade level economy for my students. They can look at it as a reward or a punishment- it really depends on their level of personal responsibility. I am completely fed up with freely handing out pencils, cap erasers, and the like to children who are simply not interested in being prepared for class. If you need a pencil literally every day, you are not being responsible. I am sure kids could make it through several days on one pencil if they were being careful. (Just to make it clear, I'm not talking about kids whose families cannot afford to purchase school supplies. In those instances, I am more than happy to provide a child with packs of pencils, reams of paper, binders, and the like, but I do not want to be handing out supplies on a daily basis.)
To combat this pet peeve, I'm introducing the class store. Students will have the opportunity to purchase items from the store at the very beginning of class using their Cat Cash. After that, they'll need to make do by borrowing from someone or improvising. I'm stocking the store with the bargain basement basics as well as some decorative items for fun. I don't care whether they buy the items because they want them or because they need them, but I do hope it cuts down on the pencil parade!
Do you have any tips for how to hold students personally responsible for coming prepared to class? What have you tried? Leave me a comment and let me know!
Miss B
While we give out Cat Cash for good deeds, good work, meeting goals, and other positive things, we also fine children for breaking rules (chewing gum, being unprepared for class, and - the big one - being disrespectful to substitute teachers). I've never really gotten on board with the fines as much as my co-workers.
Our rewards are typically one event per marking period. The students must pay a set amount of Cat Cash to attend the event. We try to schedule these events for half days so we aren't interrupting instruction as much. We've had movie days, the chance to each lunch in a teacher's classroom with dessert provided by the teacher, sports, a dance during the school day, and more. Our last incentive is a raffle and we let kids cash in all of their money for raffle tickets.
I'm adding a new element to the grade level economy for my students. They can look at it as a reward or a punishment- it really depends on their level of personal responsibility. I am completely fed up with freely handing out pencils, cap erasers, and the like to children who are simply not interested in being prepared for class. If you need a pencil literally every day, you are not being responsible. I am sure kids could make it through several days on one pencil if they were being careful. (Just to make it clear, I'm not talking about kids whose families cannot afford to purchase school supplies. In those instances, I am more than happy to provide a child with packs of pencils, reams of paper, binders, and the like, but I do not want to be handing out supplies on a daily basis.)
To combat this pet peeve, I'm introducing the class store. Students will have the opportunity to purchase items from the store at the very beginning of class using their Cat Cash. After that, they'll need to make do by borrowing from someone or improvising. I'm stocking the store with the bargain basement basics as well as some decorative items for fun. I don't care whether they buy the items because they want them or because they need them, but I do hope it cuts down on the pencil parade!
Miss B
Classroom DIY
After looking at the black vinyl covering on my school stool for a little too long, I was inspired to recover it. I keep seeing all these adorable classrooms on Pinterest and while I'm not going to sink hundreds into classroom decor, I was happy to cough up $2 for this project!
I purchased 5/8 of a yard of striped corduroy from Wal-mart's clearance fabric. At $3/yd, this was a steal! I love that they brought back a fabric section in my store because they have really reasonable prices on fabrics when I need them for school. I got my curtain fabric there four years ago and it was very inexpensive, too. I don't have a strict color scheme or theme, but most everything I've brought into the space is a bright or neon color. When I've chosen things with a pattern, they've been polka-dotted or striped. It's a loose theme, but I'm trying to make it look happy!
I purchased 5/8 of a yard of striped corduroy from Wal-mart's clearance fabric. At $3/yd, this was a steal! I love that they brought back a fabric section in my store because they have really reasonable prices on fabrics when I need them for school. I got my curtain fabric there four years ago and it was very inexpensive, too. I don't have a strict color scheme or theme, but most everything I've brought into the space is a bright or neon color. When I've chosen things with a pattern, they've been polka-dotted or striped. It's a loose theme, but I'm trying to make it look happy!
At first, I planned to sew a cover with elastic. Then I reconsidered the effort that would take and decided to go a more permanent and expedient route. Enter tacks and a hammer. Free! A staple gun would have been ideal but as I didn't have access to one, I got creative. I may go back and paint the legs, but I first want to check if the matching stool is still at my parents' house. I took this one from their old basement bar and wouldn't want to paint this one if the other one is still hanging around and normal looking!
Have you done anything to make your classroom take on your personality? Do you have a theme, color scheme, or design aesthetic that influences your choices? Leave me a comment and tell me all about it!
Miss B
Keeping paperwork organized
I teach 80 students in an average year, all of whom I see every day for 80 minutes. Some of these students (and often some I don't have during the blocks) are also in my 45-minute intervention or enrichment period at the end of the day. It took me a few years to find the paperwork management system that worked best for me and my classes because I am not good at managing papers. I was always that kid in school with the 2-inch thick folder and nothing clipped in her binder rings dated past September! Here's what I use in my classroom that I can actually stay on top of.
These hanging file pockets hold four things for each class: missed work
from absences, tests/quizzes that need to be made up, no name or not
finished papers, and papers to be handed back. I got these at JoAnn in
the dorm section and they've been going strong for two years already
with no signs of wear. It doesn't look like they are carrying them this
year because I couldn't find them in my store or online. In any case, I know you can find similar hanging file organizers in teacher catalogs. Lakeshore sells some here.
I teach the kids to check the top pockets any time they're absent and then to ask me about make-up work. Kids remind me to (let them) hand back papers when some are in the organizer because I am notoriously bad about remembering to pass back what I've graded.
Not pictured are the bins where students turn in their work to me. Those aren't as interesting. They're simply stacked plastic file trays labeled with the class period. Simple, and they work!
How do you organize paperwork for your students?
Miss B
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