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.