#MTBoSBlaugust day 9 - Reflecting on other Blogs

Before I actually started doing work today I decided to see if I could get some inspiration from other blogs participating in #MTBoSBlaugust and I found these 3 blogs that were new to me and gave me some inspiration and ideas for PD for my math teachers.


Questions that promote thinking by @fractionfanatic
I love how she's taken the 100 questions, whittled them down and kept them so the students are really reflecting on how else they could answer the question, how they know they are right, and really analyzing their process themselves.  I think I'm going to tweak the posters I made for my teachers last year with some sentence starters to include more of these types of questions.  

You can't pick your pollinators  by @mathymeg07

This is perfect and some of what I feel like I need to remember during the school. Yo isn't pick your pollinators and you can't pick all your coworkers.  Sometimes people are great in collaborating and some need more help in learning how to collaborate. 

Japanese Logic Puzzles for the secondary math classroom by @mathequalslove 

I'll be honest, this is one of the posts that made me wish I could run back into the classroom and start trying this with my classroom. I'll also be honest that I haven't really wanted to do any work since I've gone back to work early the last week and I might have found myself doing some of these puzzles on my own when I was searching for something other than work to do. I've found myself trying these puzzles multiple ways and I was wondering all the various ways that students would try some of the problems. I think everyone should try to incorporate this to classrooms if possible. 

#MTBoSBlaugust Day 7: Who wants to help me write this work equation?

I don't know about everyone else but when I find something that makes a job in my house a lot easier I want to turn it inti an equation. Like "Ms L spent 5 hours painting white coats on a bookshelf (including the dry time) with a traditional paint brush. Then she got annoyed with how long it was taking and decided to buy a paint sprayer. In 30 minutes she was able to set up, spray paint the bookshelf, break down and clean the paint sprayer. If she has to wait an hour between each coat, when is it the best for her to use the sprayer instead of the paint brush?"

And yes, that was the real timing of each event.

Also,  I mowed the lawn for the first time time since buying the house. It's been at least 5 weeks and I've learned that there's no equation for figuring out when we should mow the lawn. The answer is always yes, mow the lawn!

So these are some of the real world ways I'm gig to approach the students this year. And I also want to find a way to Pokémon Go in more than just the circles unit.

Count me in for #MTBoSBlaugust!!!

OK, I gotta join in on this so I can get back in the habit of blogging more regularly!

Here are some of the prompts for #MTBoSBlaugust for those interested.  I'm probably going to be going off topic on some of them since I'm no longer in the classroom but really love being an instructional coach!  I'm also in need of more ideas to diversify the lessons and activities we do in our remediation/intervention/enrichment flex time during the day and I think this will be a great way for me to see more ideas from various people.  I'm really looking forward to it!

I'm hoping to get more in the habit of blogging by participating in Blaugust and I'm looking forward to making new connections, finding new ideas, and sharing ideas and strategies with teachers from all around.

Prompts for the MTBoS Blaugust 2015

1. What do you hope to get out of Blaugust this year?
2. Show us your classroom
3. Top 5 Tips for New Teachers
4. What are your Back to School Must-Haves?
5. What would you like to Start doing this school year?  What would you like to Stop doing?  What would you like to Continue doing?
6. One time in math class… (as a teacher… or when I was a student…)
7. 5 APPS I can’t live without…
8. Something I read/learned this summer that intrigued me…
9. Pinned It, Did It and/or Pinned it, Did it, It flopped.
10. Recipe Swap for Busy Teachers
11. Something that makes your classroom unique
12. A  mentor/colleague who impacted your classroom/teaching…
13. The best teacher I ever had was …. because …
14. How do you tame the paper tiger?
15. Brain breaks for students.
16. Favorite take 5 for yourself?
17. Be the Change.. what will you do this year to impact the culture of your school and/or classroom?
18. Using your school mascot, create an acrostic of character traits you wish to instill in your students
19. What is your focus/theme/mantra for the year and why?  Create and share a notecard for your desk as a reminder.
20. What are your go to quotes?
21. Reblog an old post – reflect how you see/use it now?
22. What are your favorite formative assessment strategies?
23. Professional Growth Goal
24. What are your best organizational tips?
25. Theme song for the year? like your personal fight song?
26. What is something in your classroom that you cannot live without?
27. What’s a positive change you would like to make in your life – could be community/school/home/health?
28. Last time you belly laughed…
29. List of gratitude.
30. Describe a typical day (or hour) in your classroom.
31. What is your biggest classroom pet-peeve?
32. Link to 3 blog posts that impacted you and share why.
33. Read 3 posts from blogs you’ve never visited, give a quick take-away from each.
34. What is your greatest joy in teaching?  What is your greatest fear?
35. Tell us about you!  Post 20 facts about yourself.
36. What are your New School Year Goals or Resolutions?
37. What’s in (and on) your teacher desk?
38. Interact with a new follower and use FORE from Make It Stick reading, then introduce them in a post?
39. What’s the 10th song on your device playlist?  What memory does it conjure?
40. Text 5 people, ask them for 1 word that describes you and reflect.
41. What’s your “One Good Thing” for today?
42. What do you do on parent night / open house?
43. What’s the toughest challenge you face as a teacher today?
44. A favorite activity that is fun and leads to learning…
45. A nostalgic thing/activity in your classroom you wish to modify and improve.

Enjoy! And please tweet out your posts with #MTBoSblaugust so we can follow along!

Instructional Coaching - Year 1 - Check!!!

As I write this post it's the last day that students are on campus and taking finals for the school year.  This year as an instructional coach at a new campus has been eye opening, educational and so enlightening!  

While I have missed having my own class of kids and interacting with them on a daily basis I have not missed taking home piles of material to grade and getting frustrated with the students performance.  Instead, while working with the teachers I would attempt to find new strategies and resources that would engage them throughout the year in Professional Development while also creating lessons and activities for our built in math intervention throughout the year.

This year was also the perfect year to start as an IC since my mom spent a lot of time in the hospital this Spring.  The flexibility of being able to work remotely while staying with her in the hospital was needed and appreciated by everyone in my family and the nurses that worked with her.

I learned a lot this year and I'm looking forward to the next year where I can improve on my PD and coaching of the teachers while also preparing the students even more for their upcoming classes.

I can't wait to see what's in store for us next year!!!

Historical Images for Math encouragement

With our state testing sneaking up on us in the near future my teachers are doing after school tutorials for review and posting fun flyers around the school to get the students attention.  The math teacher for our ESL Newcomer Academy (the amazing Hannah Davis) made these images and I had to share the amazingness with the #MTBoS.  

Enjoy!!!  

Those Crazy Surface Area and Volume Formulas

Everyone just LOVES teaching surface area and volume, right?  Well, I always loved teaching the topics but when it came down to kids solving the problems and figuring out where they went wrong that's when I started going cross-eyed.  

So about 6 years ago (whoa I can't believe it's been that long!) the powers that be at my school gave the present of a triple stacked Double Blocked Geometry class.  If you're reading this and thinking "what the heck is that", well it's when you put general education students in with inclusion students and add a layer of in with resource students on top of it.  (We won't go into the legalities of this class because that will take me back to a very, very dark time.)  Because my students were all on so many different levels and spectrums I had to modify and differentiate constantly.  This little template ended up becoming my best friend when we got to the measurement unit.  Not just because it forced my students to organize their work but also because it helped me figure out exactly where they went wrong and it provided a constant procedure for them to follow.  It also made the grading process light years easier!

Before I had always told my students they had to write out the formula, then plug in the numbers, and finally give me the answer.  They would try to do that but would regularly mess up with something until I started providing them with the spaces and the lines to actually write the information in.  

It's easily been my most viewed and used resource I've ever created, not just from my personal classroom or my TpT site but also from teachers that I've shared it with randomly.  It's free and editable so feel free to share it with others and let me know if you've tweaked it for anything in your classrooms.  I'm sure the teachers I currently work with would love the additional resource as well as anyone else that happens to stumble across my little blog.  

Have fun with it!

Campus Wide Intervention

So this year at my new school we're doing campus wide intervention for the entire spring semester in an effort to try and assist all students with the upcoming EOC exams, AP exams and their coursework.  It's been great to see the kids getting a lot of help and assistance out of the 30 mins each day but the planning portion of it on my end has been a little tiring.

We have 5 math sections that are happening; Current Algebra I remediation, Algebra I EOC Retesters, Current Algebra 2 remediation, AP Calculus Test Prep and AP Stats Test Prep.  The AP math teachers are doing a great job of getting their assignments and lessons together for the intervention time but I've been making the lessons, answer keys, copies, etc for the Algebra I EOC Retesters and the Current Algebra 2 remediation.  I really think my brain is about to short circuit from the additional planning it's been putting on my plate each week along with all the other new responsibilities that I've been trying to wrap my head around this year.  But hey, if it doesn't kill you it makes you stronger, right?!

I do have to say I've found some great resources that I've used for both rotations on Teachers Pay Teachers as well as on She Loves Math for the Algebra 2 curriculum that I'm supplementing.

If anyone out there has any additional resources for the new Alg I EOC in Texas I would happily trade some of the assignments and activities I've created!  

Happy Test Prep Season! 

HELP!!! Need out of the box ideas fast!

With the end of the semester rapidly approaching I don't know why I never took into consideration the fact that my "Keys to Math" students (the TAKS remediation students) would need to take a "midterm" for me and have something put in the gradebook.  The class is a local elective and for some of them won't count one way or another but now I'm pressed to come up with a "midterm" for these students to do.

I know what you're thinking.  "Duh Sarah!!!  Come on!  It's not like you can just have a party and actually expect the kids to show up for their grade."  As far as the details of this are concerned I just texted my AP and hopefully I will hear back from him soon.

Here's my issue:
These kids don't do well on tests.  And the focus of the class was to have them all work on their individual weak objectives, reflect on their progress, work in small groups, and take ownership of their own learning.  This happened for almost all of the students and I'm super thrilled.  BUT I can't give them a traditional or they will revolt.  Plus, the students were working on their own personal weak objectives so if I did come up with a so called test it would need to be tailored to the individual student.

So here's the deal:
I'm in need of ideas, activities (preferably computer/internet based) that aren't super crazy difficult but something that kid would enjoy the fun math challenge of and I could come up with a grade of.  And everyone needs to be able to succeed at it. 

Anything and everything would be greatly appreciated!  I hope everyone's having a great week so far.

Too awesome not to share

Just followed a link from a blog to this and I LOVE it!!!
I hope everyone else enjoys it half as much as I do.

http://prezi.com/aww2hjfyil0u/math-is-not-linear/

Interested in thoughts on the "Common Core" (Common State Standards)

So I just got back from a lunch with a coworker that has hooked me into blogging about school and we share a lot of the same ideas on education and the going ons in the classroom (Yes Stacy, I'm talking about you).  One thing she brought up that I have not formed an opinion on is the Common Core movement.  I don't know if it is just because I am currently more concerned with my new upcoming class or if it's because I like to stay out of the politics of education (I just want to teach and work with kids) or if it is because my state, Texas, is not participating in creating the standards. 

I am curious as to other people's opinions, especially those that are not from Texas.  Do you know what your state is going to do with the standards?  Will everyone be giving the same assessments eventually?  I understand the move to common standards is a beneficial one and will *fingers crossed* keep all the states at the same level and prevent some states from "dumbing down" their standards so they don't get in trouble with NCLB.  I would just like to hear everyone's thoughts.  As a math teacher I feel like math doesn't change much from one state to another and it is rigid in the order that things need to be taught.  I would love to hear everyone's thoughts and opinions.

On an interesting note along with this only Texas and Alaska aren't participating in creating the standards, but Virgina is helping create them but they have already made it clear they will not adopt them.  Interesting...

Ideas and Plans so far

The high school I work at is one of the newest Marzano schools. I honestly don't know if that means anything to you guys out there in blogger-land but my principal keeps saying it's something that many people will know about and recognize. The ideas of Robert Marzano (who we fondly refer to as Bobby Jesus at times) are not new to me as my last school district embraced them and was slowly moving us down the path he presents and suggests from his work and studies.

Towards the end of the school year last year as a math team we began writing our proficiency scales to attempt to begin to slowly implement the ideas of standards based grading (sbg) in our curriculum. Of course when I started reading about all of this I got super excited, started reading ahead in the book series and said "this is what's going to make a huge difference in my Keys to Math class!" (That's my name for my TAKS math class - TAKS is our state mandated test for those not in Texas).

Shortly after the end of the school year I was honored to attend a Professional Learning Communities (PLC) conference (in Vegas) with some coworkers where I was the annoying attendee that went up to half of the presenters after their sessions, praised them for their lecture and then asked if I could email them for some of their additional resources and tools from their school.

What have I done with all of these ideas churning in my head since then until now? Well the ideas are still churning in my head :)

This is the first summer I have had off and not taught summer school in 3 years or so. Hence being a bum and laying around while taking multiple trips to the beach (one of which I am currently on) has been one of my main focuses.

But once I get back in 3 days I will be sitting down and working & planning for at least 2 hours every day (along with working out more and cleaning my apartment from top to bottom).

But regardless, where was I going with this? Oh, my plans so far. On the first day of school I will be handing my students:
- Syllabus with classroom policies
- Topics (TEKS) which we will be covering and they will be tracking their own progress
- Proficiency scales that I will be grading them on (hopefully)

From studies I have read and personal experiences I find that when you tell the students up front what you want them to know and accomplish and at what level from day 1 they do much better.

Now what exactly my first lessons are going to be, uh yea....




I know they are not going to be a traditional "you are going to take this pre-test. Please do the best you can, yada yada yada..." I plan to assess my students current abilities at the beginning of the school year using an informal formative assessment where working with a partner is permitted (Especially since I know not everyone's brain will be on and functioning). I do also have their results from the bleeping TAKS test broken down by objective. I have already crunched numbers on all the sophomores and juniors whom failed the TAKS test, have ranked the overall performance of the whole from the weakest objective to the strongest. But of course everyone is different, not to mention all of the different programs the students are going to be in! (Special Ed, 504, ATLAS-well maybe not the last one, that's just a whole 'nother can of worms)

I think right now I'm just trying to get all of these ideas out of my head so I can hopefully get maybe another 30 minutes of sleep or so before the rest of the people on this beach vacation wake up.

Anyway, happy summer and happy teaching!

What is this one about?

Why am I adding to the multitude of blogs out there about teaching you ask?

As of this upcoming school year I am going to be teaching a remediation math class to students that are struggling with passing our state mandated test to graduate. We only have about 3 more years (I believe) of this test as a graduation requirement before Texas moves to using an end of course exam requirement (STARR).

As well as the new class that I have to teach, which has no set scope and sequence or mandatory tests (so excited about that!) I am attempting to implement Standards Based Grading with this class. As of my last conversation with my AP I will have 2 sections along with my Geometry classes and I am being given free reign to experiment with ways to make these students feel successful and help them to finally pass this bleeping test.

Just a quick side note- when I was in high school (not that long ago) and I had to take our then skills based test (TAAS) required and they took away my calculator I failed the adding and subtracting portion of the exam. I wasn't the best student myself so I know what it is like to fail these tests as a student and have to retake them.

So that's a little about what this is going to be about. And of course the ventings that come from being a teacher and our education system. I would appreciate any feedback from those of you that have tried to implement these systems and your experiences.

Happy teaching!