Mathsational

I typically spread my course info and getting to know you type stuff throughout the first four days of class.  I then save the second half of each class for actual content.  I feel like I do better to set up the expectations for the class if my students see content and have a homework assignment from day 1. That said, we have a class called 'primetime' at my school.  This is basically like a home room, but we only meet 9 times per year.  We meet for progress reports and report cards as well as other special information (graduation practice info, locker cleanout, etc) throughout the year.  I will be meeting with this group for two hours on the first day of school.  One hour of that time is for class meetings and the other half is planned by the teacher.  Typically we read important passages in the handbook and give out school documents (free and reduced lunch, picture day, yearbook order forms, parking pass applications, and such). This year, I was ...

I'm really not a fan of icebreakers.  I don't like for kids to feel uncomfortable and many icebreakers feel that way.  This is an activity that I do most years with all of my classes at some point during the first week of school, typically around day 3.  I'm careful to avoid the words 'fun' or 'game' in general because I don't like to hear kids say "I thought this was supposed to be fun." or "This is a dumb game." I call this activity "I Like."  The entire class sits in a circle facing inward, either on the floor or in chairs.  If anyone is wearing a skirt or dress, then chairs are better.  I usually start by standing up and saying something such as "I like to ride roller coasters."  Then everyone in the class that also likes to ride roller coasters stands up.  After about 3 seconds the person to my left either stands or remains standing and says something such as "I like pizza."  Then everyone tha...

My main goal for this year is to get 100% buy in from students.  I realize that 100% is unlikely, but I'm already pretty darned close.  I'd say about 5% of my kids LOVE my class and about 5% HATE it and go so far as to completely disengage.  The other 90% have variable levels of engagement ranging from compliance to true internal motivation.  I'm most worried about the 5% that are disengaged as well as a kiddos who are just going through the motions to avoid a negative consequence. One of my plans to reach this goal is to incorporate more student reflection.  I want the students to reflect after each station in my hybrid classroom.  I want them to think about the effort that they put into the assignment, their perceived success on the assignment and their actions when they were stuck.  I think this may help some kids who simply do not realize what to do when they are stuck and those that feel like 25%-75% effort is enough. The other thing that...

Oh how I wish I could be seriously planning for my first few days of classes.  I just got summoned to district jury duty.  This will be the fourth time that I have had jury duty.  Last year, I actually got called to local court twice in five months.  I was not all that worried about the second call because I know I was excused for a year.  When I called to let them know that I had just served, the lady on the phone was surprised to find that my name was in the pool three times.  I'm under the impression she fixed that, but who knows.  I wrote to the court to request a postponement until next summer.  At the very least, any time that is not during the first few days of school.  I certainly don't want to leave a substitute in charge of building a classroom culture for me during those very important first few days of class. I also have a jam packed curriculum, especially in algebra 2.  This past year, I messed up with pacing and had ...

Julie at I Speak Math  has been kind enough to organize a group of algebra 2 teachers on twitter.  You are welcome to join us by posting to the hashtag and blogging once per month or so about your algebra 2 class.  It was recommended that our first post consist of our scope and sequence so that we can determine which teachers might be teaching similar topics at the same time.  Hopefully this will aide in collaboration.  I am using standards based grading.  I number my objects as #.#  The first number is the unit number and the second number is the objective number within that unit.  The first year I did this, I just numbered from about 1 to 130.  It made making changes to the list more difficult.  Now when I need to add or subtract a topic, I don't need to renumber all of the objectives, just the ones in the same unit. Here is my list.  Notice the complete absence of probability, data analysis and matrices :(  I do need ...

The presenter at my first session recommended the book The STEM Shift  for teacher leaders wanting to start a STEM program in their schools.  It makes a good staff wide read as a possible option of professional development. She also recommended contacting local colleges, technical schools, and employers in STEM fields to set up classroom visits or field strips.  Many are happy to work with groups of students. At another session, the presenter recommended Engineering by Design as a k-12 STEM curriculum.  In many cases you can get free access through your local intermediate unit.  The curriculum in dense enough that it could be a stand alone class, or teachers could pull individual lessons for use. If you are looking for a free resource to evaluate your current STEM program and want some directions for the future, check out the evaluation tool at Carnegie STEM Excellence Pathway .   Finally, there there is a huge need for computer progra...

The first session that I attended today was about augmented vs virtual reality.  Augmented reality is like Pokemon Go and the funny face apps.  When you look at your screen, you see the real world with a mix of imaginary features.  Virtual reality is more like full on imaginary surroundings, like virtual field trips using google cardboard. The augmented reality resource that I might be able to use in my classroom is Aurasma .  It is a free app that allows you to create your own AR experience.  You could use this to create an AR word wall, diagram, book report, or worksheet.  Check it out.  It seems pretty neat. The second session that I attended was about using the concrete - representational - abstract (CRA) in middle school geometry.  We explored the volume of prisms.   I presented during the last session.   Here are my resources from the day. Looking forward to another day of learning at STEMathon day 2!