Blogs I Follow

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

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.

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!

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!"