Catching Up

I can't believe it's been a month since I've written last! There has been a lot going on in my classroom and I guess things have just been a touch hectic. Because I'm a fan of bullet point lists, here's what's been going on in Milan.

• My cheerleaders have cheered at a total of one game. The last two have been cancelled due to the other teams not having enough players to put on the field. I guess this happens when you play class 1A football. We've got a game Monday that's about 90 minutes away, and then a game October 15th at home.
• In class, we've worked our way through two workshop topics: place value and multiplication/division. I tell you, it's slowly showing results. I'm still helping a few to really grasp the process of long division, and there are a few kids who mix up multiples and factors, but overall I feel like this is going well. I have yet to grade their post-tests for multiplication/division, but I'm hoping the results are there. I still have their pre-tests to compare them with, so we'll see how they're doing. Monday marks the start of decimals. I'm just lucky that the calendar and other assignments worked out to give me until Thursday to get all those pre-tests graded!
• We've had two PD days so far, and I'm hoping that they all go as smoothly as this has. 
• They gave us MAP data, which is our standardized test in Missouri. I've been looking at the scores that my 5th graders made last year. They also gave me the current 6th graders information, but because that wasn't my teaching's results, I'm not quite sure what to do with it. I offered it to the 6th grade teacher, though, so he could look at it. 
• Our other PD day dealt with differentiated instruction. I've been doing well with this, I think, but it makes me nervous to have others look at my work and decide if what I'm doing is actually differentiation. There's a lot of tension from other teachers during these meetings, though. Most of it stems from the district not wanting to group students from classroom to classroom, but wanting us to group them within the one class. Personally, I know that having my lower students all together at once would help me a lot because I could cater more to them as a class, and the same goes for my high learners. And it'd be a lot easier to do that than rotated workshops. But you work with what you've got, I suppose.
• Homecoming in a small district means EVERYONE gets way too excited about the occasion. I had 5th graders bouncing off the wall because it was homecoming week. This never happened during my student teaching, and it never happened when I was growing up, either. I don't think we even knew what and when homecoming was when I was in elementary school. And being in charge of cheerleaders means having to participate. And having way too much going on. Which leads to getting behind in grading the week before a 6 week grade check goes home.

Can we discuss how we've already made it through 6 weeks of school?! Only 30 to go. Which doesn't sound like a lot when I really stop and think about it. How am I going to cram everything else into 30 weeks?!

Everybody Up Up! Or: Why am I in Charge of Cheerleaders?!

Things have been going fantastically in 5th grade math. We've been getting into the swing of math workshop and I feel like the kids are catching on, though I don't know how much differentiation is really going on; I'm thinking the kids are getting it though. I gave them exit tickets today, so we'll have to look at those and see how they did. At this point, I really feel like their understanding of expanded notation has increased tenfold, and if that's what I get out of math workshop, then I feel like this is a success.

My post today is mostly thanks to my cheerleaders. I have no problem being up at the front of a classroom, in the spotlight. I thrive on it for the most part (until my administrator comes in, and then I have to keep myself from freezing up and stumbling over what I'm doing), and really feel at home helping the kids. But this coaching thing...man, am I still getting used to it!

Our first pep assembly is on Friday, and the girls are going to be introduced. That is, I get to introduce them. Eeek! I've been practicing what it's going to look and sound like, but I do not have any desire to be in front of the entire school talking. And when I say entire school, I mean the whole school 5th through 12th grade. But they're doing such a great job; they picked out a good crowd cheer and are doing an elevator lift in it. They are so nervous, but I'm so excited for them. They've worked hard and come far in the past four weeks, and I really feel like they have earned the chance to do what they're doing. I'm a little nervous about what happens if they drop our flier, but we talked about it (and will talk about it again), and I know they are usually spot on for two or three during practice. It's when we do it six times in a row that we start getting a little iffy.

All I have to say is: thank God we have a week and a half until our first game!!!

MS Sunday Funday: Advisory

This week's MS Sunday Funday topic is advisory. Now, I will preface what I write by saying that my experience with advisory is four days in length, and I have not seen its full effect just yet, but from what I've gathered and what I've been told, here's a basic rundown of what advisory class looks like 5-12 in my school.

Advisory is an 8th period class, and we get 45 minutes at the end of the day. These kids are what I'd label, for all intents and purposes (and because I'm still trying to get out of my elementary mindframe) my home room. I see them for about 15 minutes in the morning before I send them off to specials, and they are my first class of the day.

We use advisory for a varied amount of things, included but not limited to:

• PBS lessons: As a way to remind them of the expectations that were laid out at the beginning of the year, we teach PBS lessons on Mondays. Each teacher 5-12 has one or two assigned weeks and is in charge of creating a slideshow/lesson plan for the MS/HS community to present to their advisory classes
• Targeted Tutoring: in a few weeks, my grade level groups should have a firm grasp on which students need some extra help in our given subject. So, one or two days per week (likely two for me as I've got one of those "serious" subjects that's graded with a standardized test), the students that I have on my targeted tutoring list will come to my room during advisory for specific, additional help during math. I already have plans to do lots of reteaching of multiplication and division facts during this time, as I have a dismal amount of students who are able to rattle them off in a proficient amount of time and that frightens me a little. They got 80 seconds to do 20 problems in division and only a handful of them got even 50% of them correct? Yeah. Worried about testing in the Spring just a bit.
• PBS Goals & Rewards: Students in each advisory, at least at the MS level, pick a goal to aim for. There's a variety of things from extra recess to a pizza party, to being able to bring in handheld gaming devices and board games from home. When they earn enough CAT tags (our way of telling students to keep up the good work when we catch them doing something good) as a class, they get to have a reward day on Fridays. We need 500 of these lovely tags before they get to the game day that they all so eagerly chose (and to which I upped the ante by saying I'd try to bring my Wii in...I must have a death wish).
• ZAP room: When a student does NOT turn in homework when it is due, they get a ZAP (zeros aren't permitted), this sheet must be filled out by the students, taken home to be signed, and brought in the next morning along with the finished homework assignment. If they don't bring it in finished, they go to the ZAP room until they do get it completed. So far, no ZAPs. Let's see what Monday brings. My personal policy on ZAPs is that if they finish their homework the day it was due (say, in advisory class) and get it to me before we go home for the day, they do not have to get the ZAP sheet signed, but it does say in the gradebook that they received a ZAP.
• Study Hall. Pretty basic right there.

Pie Chart Intervention

So we use PBS as our behavior management system at my school. So far, so good. The students earn something called CAT tags for doing the things they are supposed to, and as a class they set a goal to meet. Once the class gets to that goal, they earn a reward and then get to choose a new goal. My students decided that they would like to have a Game Day, where they can bring in their iPods, PSPs, DSs, Wiis, etc to class and play games on a Friday during advisory. The teachers are in charge of posting the goals for the class as well as the progress on their goals. Being the nerdy math teacher I am (read: awesome math teacher), I made my kids help me figure out their daily average, and the number of days it would take them to reach their goal based on their current CAT tag collecting. They actually upped the ante by 50% today, but that's just a fun fact.

What I'm really amused by is that I put a pie chart up on the board whereas the rest of the teachers just put the goal and how many they have. Either I'm going to get a lot of flack for being a nerdy math teacher (read: awesome math teacher) or I'm going to get told that that's really not how we do it. But, the way I see it, the kids helped me come up with those calculations so I'm posting their results. The pie chart shows that we are 27% of the way to our goal. So twelve school days from now we should, theoretically, have the 500 we need. Theoretically.

Even more amusing, I've been vegging and watching How I Met Your Mother tonight and the episode where Marshall has to have a chart/graph intervention came on.

I'm pretty sure my co-workers are going to stage an intervention for me when they get back for work next week. :)

I Survived! My First Day in the Classroom

Well, I'd have to say that the day, overall, was a pretty big success. We are a PBS school, so there are a lot of things that we had to go through today that took up more time than I anticipated given this is the first time doing all of this. It took me probably 45 minutes to go through my expectations and telling the kids a little about me.

They really liked the me bag stuff (talking about the travel I've done was a big hit, the kids loved the postcards I brought from different places I've been), and I even got a positive response to the mad minutes I gave out. The kids were fairly respectful, but I already have a few that I know I'm going to have to keep an eye on, but I'm sure that's to be expected. If I had to compare today to my first day of student teaching, I think today was very smooth and had a lot less to deal with discipline-wise. And that's fantastic to know.

Tomorrow will bring more mad minutes (and I can't wait to see how they do with subtraction; I gave them a wide cushion on time in addition and about half in each class passed), pulling out textbooks for the first time, and a few more get to know you activities since we didn't really get to do a lot of the kids telling ME about THEM! The only thing I'm concerned about not getting to today is my game expectations discussion; I have a cooperative game for them to play to show me (while I have the time to walk around and observe) that they can handle playing games in small groups. If they can handle it now, they'll have the opportunity to play some related games when we get to math workshop.

For now, it's time to get home. Had a good day, got to see my cheerleaders and check in with them, and make sure that everything is going good. Gotta do dishes tonight, cook dinner, and then veg for a few hours when I get home (even though it's already 7 pm)!

So how did your first day go, if you've had it already? If not, what are some of your plans for the day? What do you do to amp yourself up for the day?

Inner Turmoil, Plans and Goals for 2012, and Balancing Saxon Math

My Delimna

I've been having a major power struggle in my head over the past few weeks. I've got a very specific idea of how a mathematics classroom should be run. I touted this in my interview with the district and, to me, I feel like my thoughts were one of my biggest selling points as an educator (and ultimately what got me the job; and not just any teaching job, I mean middle school math).

To me, a math classroom should have the following things:

• pre-assessments for each unit of study
• tiered instruction
• opportunity for students to learn from mistakes
• flexible instruction (ie if the kids understand the concept, why waste my instruction time on teaching it)

Now, these are all things that I think can be done in a workshop setting, easy peasy. And I would love to have my ENTIRE math block set up in a math workshop setting, because the idea truly resonates with me as an educator. But my problem is that our district curriculum text is Saxon Math.

I've seen good things out of Saxon, don't get me wrong. But for a teacher who wants to tier and really get to the heart of understanding on each standard/expectation I'm supposed to cover, it really does NOT get the job done. In addition to that, based on the differentiated instruction PD we had on Friday, my philosophies are exactly in line with the district's goals and visions. They want us to tier, they want us to provide learning opportunities to our students in this matter. But what they want and what they have provided for me to teach just do not align whatsoever.

The Lightbulb Came On!

My question for the past few weeks has been this: where do I go from here? How do I couple my personal philosophies of education with a textbook that just does NOT support this type of instruction? And last night, at about 12:30 am (it's been one of those weekends), I had an epiphany. I'm given 90 minutes to teach, why shouldn't I use that 90 minutes to really give my students a well rounded mathematics education!

The first 45 minutes of class will be used for the textbook. We will do calendar math, a mad minute, and a lesson from the textbook. Any time left between the start of class and the mid-class bells (because the other classes still switch in between periods) will be theirs to work on their lesson homework.

After the bell, the kids will be expected to switch gears, physically and mentally. It is their opportunity to sharpen pencils, turn in work, throw anything they may need to away, etc. It is also the time when we will switch from Saxon math to math workshop. Using a sequencing guide that I've found that aligns to the Missouri GLEs (since we have not quite got ourselves to CCS yet in our district), I'm going to teach mini lessons on each GLE. The kids will rotate between time with me at the smart board, independent practice, and a game (very loosely using that phrase for the time being). The last 45 minutes will be used for rotating and such. 10 minutes for a whole group explanation of the day, 10 minutes in each rotation, and 5 minutes to wrap things up at the end.

I can't tell you how excited I am to have things finally fall into place as far as my plan book is concerned. It feels like there's a huge weight no longer on my shoulders, and I've got a course of action. I went from having one day of school planned out to having three weeks of school planned out. It's going to require lots of legwork on my end to make math workshop work, but it's something I want. It's something that I feel my students need in order to achieve. And I'm so excited that I get to work on the implementation of all of this.

MS Sunday Funday: Setup and Goals

Okay, so I know this is a little off topic compared to the rest of my post, but I found a great sharing resource for Middle School Math and I really want to try and participate each week.

This week, the topic is Classroom Setup and Goals. I've talked a little about the routine of my classroom above, and I feel like that's more important at this point than the physical set up (though that may be because I don't have photos of my current set up really up and going), so now I'm going to switch to goals for the year.

STOP

• Worrying so much about the school year. I know I've got the skills and tools to make this a great one, so my fretting is doing nothing but bringing down my self-esteem.
• Neglecting my health. I've become prone to skipping meals in the last few weeks because I've been so caught up in getting things ready that I don't stop to eat. Or go to the bathroom. Or do all those other things that my body needs and I should really do but don't because I don't think I've got the time (or just lose track of time).
• Overbooking myself in general.

CONTINUE

• Finding solid, engaging activities for my students during math workshop.
• Blogging, I really want to get my ideas out there and my thoughts on paper.
• Motivating my JV cheerleaders to do their very best and to be ambassadors for the school and for the program.

START

• Running again. I've let it slip the last few weeks.
• Getting into the swing of things; lesson plans finished for the next week by Friday, making copies the week before.
• Recording students success/struggles in math so when the time comes, I can really serve them in our Targeted Tutoring program.
• Figuring out the nitty gritty details of my classroom rules and procedures.

First Day Plans (Among Other Things)

I tried to make a post back on Monday but for some reason it didn't work out. Teacher meetings started on Tuesday, and so far things are going well. I've got orientation night tonight and let me tell you, I'm EXTREMELY nervous about how this is going to go. I've got a few minor things in my room that are still crazy out of place, and then I've just got a lot on my plate at this time. But I'm really enjoying the team I'm working with and getting to know them all.

I've found a few good ideas for the first day of school, and here is what I plan on doing on Tuesday when they all come back (same plan, times 3 for 90 minutes each):

• Rules & Procedures: We will be going over my behavior matrix for the classroom.
• Me Bag: I'm going to introduce myself to my students using a 'Me Bag' filled with fun things about myself. Their homework for the night will be to bring a bag with 5 items that tell me something about them that will be shared on Thursday and Friday. The bags will not be due until Thursday to give them plenty of time to think about it.
• Calendar Math: I've made a smartboard math activity. Even though I have 5th grade, I feel like the things I'll be asking are challenging enough for them to do so. For those of you who want more information, I got a lot of my ideas from Teaching in Room 6.
• Mad Minute: Four days a week we will be doing mad minutes. This is an idea that I got from my student teaching class and feel is important, especially when I have 90 minutes for mathematics. The kids will all start out with 80 seconds to do 20 problems. If they pass the 20 problems this week, they will get 70 seconds next week. This is repeated for all four operations and is done every week.
• All About Me Cubes: I found a pattern to make a 3D cube that I'm going to have the students fill out. Each side will have to tell me something specific, that way there is some uniformity to this.
• How Much Is Your Name Worth: If there is time, we are going to do another activity I found online where the students have to add up the cost of their names if each letter is given its numerical order as a value (ie, A=$1, B=$2, etc). There is also a graphing activity that can be done on the next day, so if I have to push this back to Wednesday, I can do both the first and second day activities on Wednesday.

 So, what do you all think? It should cover 90 minutes, correct? Anything YOU would add if you were a math only teacher?