Even though I do not blog regularly, I follow quite a few blogs. Every time I get on my computer, I log into my Google Reader account and check what some of my favorite bloggers are writing about. I have several math teacher blogs that I follow, and I have taken ideas from them. Below is a list of some of the math teacher blogs that I follow. There are so many more out there, and these bloggers have links on their blogs to other great math bloggers. Hope you enjoy them too!
f(t)
Math Teacher Mambo
Math Be Brave
Learning in Mathland
MAthNotations
dy/dan
Continious Everywhere but Differentiable Nowhere
The Exponential Curve
MathsClass
Point of Inflection
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Balance
Balance is still something I have to work on. I hate to admit it, but I devoted more time to work than I did to my family this year. I am always working. This year it has been because I am co-teaching brand new class. This class does not have a textbook and there was not any guidance, just to prepare students to take Algebra 1. This class took a lot of planning, and even though it was a co-taught class, I did all the planning.
So instead of play games with my kids, or read to my kids, or just talk with my kids ... I would plan and grade and write tests and try to figure out how to prepare my students for Algebra 1. I stayed up until 11 or 12 most nights this year, and was up by 5am every day, sometimes earlier. I was exhausted all year long, and hoped to catch up on sleep over the weekend. Not healthy. I hope to have more balance in my life next year.
So instead of play games with my kids, or read to my kids, or just talk with my kids ... I would plan and grade and write tests and try to figure out how to prepare my students for Algebra 1. I stayed up until 11 or 12 most nights this year, and was up by 5am every day, sometimes earlier. I was exhausted all year long, and hoped to catch up on sleep over the weekend. Not healthy. I hope to have more balance in my life next year.
CoTeaching
Another new endeavour this year was co-teaching. I learned a lot about co-teaching and what makes for a successful co-teaching experience. Teachers that have similar teaching philosophies are a must. But you also need teachers that are equally committed to the course, willing to share the work load, and willing to sit down and plan what is right for the students in the course.
Any other opinions on co-teaching and what makes for a successful co-teaching experience, both for the teachers and the students?
A New Course
I taught a new course this year. The course did not exist prior to this year, there is not a textbook to go along with the course, and the course was targeted for struggling students. The class was titled Algebra Foundations, and that is exactly what it was. The students assigned to this class had taken Pre-Algebra but did poorly in the course or came from a Special Education Pre-Algebra Pull-Out class. The goal of the course was to prepare the students for Algebra 1, so they would go into Algebra 1 and be successful the following year.
I spent a lot of time with the state standards for both the Pre-Algebra (7th grade) and Algebra (8th grade) to determine what the curriculum would look like. I revisited the standards often to guide what would be taught and how in depth we would go. What did these students have to master (not just be exposed to) to be successful in Algebra 1. Everything we did I created from scratch; lessons, assignments, activities, games, worksheets, etc. So much time went into this class ... hours, and hours, and hours, and hours. I had no idea how much time went into creating new class.
There were some rewards that came out of this new class. There were some students that had MCA scores go up significantly ... very rewarding!
I spent a lot of time with the state standards for both the Pre-Algebra (7th grade) and Algebra (8th grade) to determine what the curriculum would look like. I revisited the standards often to guide what would be taught and how in depth we would go. What did these students have to master (not just be exposed to) to be successful in Algebra 1. Everything we did I created from scratch; lessons, assignments, activities, games, worksheets, etc. So much time went into this class ... hours, and hours, and hours, and hours. I had no idea how much time went into creating new class.
There were some rewards that came out of this new class. There were some students that had MCA scores go up significantly ... very rewarding!
What is S.W.A.T.?
In our school S.W.A.T. stands for School Wide Achievement Time. It is something that we had approximately about twice a month, where every teacher in the building held an hour long "option" for students. Most of the options were either an academic intervention or enrichment for students, but there were also some recreational/hobby options. As teachers, we could pre-register students to attend enrichment or interventions for our courses. There were many questions and concerns going into this SWAT adventure this year by both staff and students. As the year is wrapping up, and reflecting on a school year with SWAT, I can only hope that we keep it going. Having time during the school day to work with only the struggling students, and work at their pace paid off huge.
I was a little nervous to have my 28 greatest struggling students all in one room at the same time and trying to help all of them. I was worried about behavior, keeping their attention, keeping them engaged and keeping them trying/working. After every single SWAT this year, I would be smiling and thinking, "this is why I am a teacher, I just made a difference and helped a kid realize they could be successful in math". About every other week I had my students that were struggling the most with what we were learning, we would practice, review, or sometimes pre-learn concepts before the rest of the class. I rarely had a behavior issue, they worked hard, they said "I get in now", and they raised their grades. Most of the kids I had come to my math SWATs would not have come in for extra help before or after school, it just was not an option for many of them. Being able to give them the extra attention, I got to know the students better. The students realized that I wanted to see them be successful an was willing to work with them where ever they were at. Because these students knew I wanted to see them succeed and cared about them, I did not have behavior issues when they were back in their "regular" class.
I hope SWAT sticks around. Every week we had a SWAT, I dreaded doing the extra planning for it, but after the SWAT I was so glad I did it. It is nice to hear students walking out the door saying, "Thanks for helping me, I get it now!"
I was a little nervous to have my 28 greatest struggling students all in one room at the same time and trying to help all of them. I was worried about behavior, keeping their attention, keeping them engaged and keeping them trying/working. After every single SWAT this year, I would be smiling and thinking, "this is why I am a teacher, I just made a difference and helped a kid realize they could be successful in math". About every other week I had my students that were struggling the most with what we were learning, we would practice, review, or sometimes pre-learn concepts before the rest of the class. I rarely had a behavior issue, they worked hard, they said "I get in now", and they raised their grades. Most of the kids I had come to my math SWATs would not have come in for extra help before or after school, it just was not an option for many of them. Being able to give them the extra attention, I got to know the students better. The students realized that I wanted to see them be successful an was willing to work with them where ever they were at. Because these students knew I wanted to see them succeed and cared about them, I did not have behavior issues when they were back in their "regular" class.
I hope SWAT sticks around. Every week we had a SWAT, I dreaded doing the extra planning for it, but after the SWAT I was so glad I did it. It is nice to hear students walking out the door saying, "Thanks for helping me, I get it now!"
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Trying New Activities
This past week we had a block schedule to accommodate Science MCA testing. The block schedule allowed me to try new things in my classroom and during our Saber Pause (academic advisory) time that I don't always have time for.
In my classroom we did activities in Algebra that got students out of their seats and talking about math. First each student was given a post-it with a different polynomial on it. They needed to classify their polynomial and then put it on one of the 8 papers around the room that was titled with various polynomial classifications. Students rotated through stations in groups of 4 and made corrections to polynomials identified incorrectly. They then put the polynomials in standard form and grouped them by their leading coefficients.
The next activity had students moving through stations that were pods of desks to review for their upcoming test. When they only have 2-3 minutes to work on a problem, and they see the timer counting down, they work together better to figure out how to solve the problem and come up with an answer they agree on. It is a great activity.
Lastly, I assigned students to create a problem from a specific section that we had covered. They then passed the problem to the person behind them, and students had to solve other students' problems. They passed the paper again and another student checked the solution for accuracy. The activity had students creating, solving, and checking problems - they were all actively involved in problem solving!
The block schedule allowed for a lot of movement and for students to reinforce material to mastery, it was fantastic!
In my classroom we did activities in Algebra that got students out of their seats and talking about math. First each student was given a post-it with a different polynomial on it. They needed to classify their polynomial and then put it on one of the 8 papers around the room that was titled with various polynomial classifications. Students rotated through stations in groups of 4 and made corrections to polynomials identified incorrectly. They then put the polynomials in standard form and grouped them by their leading coefficients.
The next activity had students moving through stations that were pods of desks to review for their upcoming test. When they only have 2-3 minutes to work on a problem, and they see the timer counting down, they work together better to figure out how to solve the problem and come up with an answer they agree on. It is a great activity.
Lastly, I assigned students to create a problem from a specific section that we had covered. They then passed the problem to the person behind them, and students had to solve other students' problems. They passed the paper again and another student checked the solution for accuracy. The activity had students creating, solving, and checking problems - they were all actively involved in problem solving!
The block schedule allowed for a lot of movement and for students to reinforce material to mastery, it was fantastic!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Intervention Committee
I have been part of a committee at the Junior High that is working on “Response to Intervention”. It has been eye opening for me. Realizing what we do when students struggle, and then later fail. It became clear that we do not have enough strategic interventions in place for when students are struggling. It is frequently too late in the quarter when we identify students that are struggling and failing, and even if they are identified, we don’t have standard processes in place to help them out. Some of these students legitimately struggle, other are choosing to not to learn. Both of these groups of students need intervention. The focus of the committee is how we identify these students, and then what strategic and systematic approach will we have so all students will have access to the same interventions.
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