Goals for 2013-2014

I have many, many goals for this year, so I suppose I will start with my SMART goals (although don't judge because they aren't in SMART goal format yet...)

1. I am going to do more co-teaching and planning with the gifted teacher to try and get more project based learning into my advanced math class. The first unit we will be doing is Football Math this fall. Students will create a fantasy football team and have to calculate points and do other activities each week based on their players and what we are learning in class. The points are kind of similar to normal fantasy football leagues (so many points for touchdown, yards rushing etc, but they are all based on fractions of points, meaning students will have to perform operations with fractions...and no I'm not allowing them to use calculators! Each of the other activities they do for that week will be related to football and something we have either covered during that week or during a previous week and will serve as a review. More to come on this as we get closer to the NFL season, but overall I am very excited about this unit!

2. The vocabulary section of my interactive notebook was really....well....lacking last year. I did a few things with it at the beginning of the year but then it pretty much died off after we got into the year. This summer I did some research on vocabulary and found some cool vocab strategies on other's blogs and pinterest so my second SMART goal will be to develop the vocabulary section in the interactive notebook this year. This vocab will not only be mathematical vocab, but also testing vocab so that students know what they are supposed to do when they see certain words on the OAA.

Other goals I want to accomplish this year include:

• Using more technology in the classroom (QR codes, Remind101, Edmodo, Socrative, etc.)
• Develop more problem-solving strategies for my students so that they can excel on short andswer and extend response questions. 
• Teach kids how to get "one more point" on homework, quizzes, and tests. I had 12 kids that failed the state test last year and of those 12, 9 failed by 3 points or less, so I am going to stress, and stress, and stress the importance of trying to find one more point on any extended response or short answer because every point counts!! 

Starting the year off on the right foot

So the first three days are over and I've made it to the other side. I think I did a pretty good job this year of REALLY REALLY (yes, really) going over my expectations for my class and how my students should act as 7th graders in general. I am hoping that this eliminates as much bad behavior as possible. But only time will tell.

DAY 1:
The first day I introduced myself and had the kids sign up for Remind101. Some classes got through this quicker than others, so I started doing a tour of the room and discussing classroom procedures. In our intervention period, we discussed ways we can motivate the kids and they came up with a list, which was actually pretty practical. This surprised all 3 teachers because we were expecting answers like we will be motivated if you build us a swimming pool. But everything they came up with was actually a do-able reward which was cool :)

DAY 2:
Today, I really got into my classroom procedures, how the students should act, and my classroom procedures. I acted out some wrong behaviors and had students tell me what should be done instead. They seemed to really like this! We also discussed the interactive notebooks and what the difference between them and a regular notebook is. I showed them examples from last year (I asked some 8th graders if I could borrow them to show the new 7th graders what they will be making) This was very effective because they were able to see exactly how they will work and what they will look like, where last year I didn't have any samples.

DAY 3:
I still wasn't ready to get into my math lessons because I wanted to ensure my students knew how this classroom was going to operate and what was expected of them (plus it was Friday, so I wanted to do something fun) so I planned an activity for them and then I taught what I told them was their first lesson of 7th grade math. The activity dealt with my classroom expectations. I told them these were typically called rules, but I don't like calling them rules, because I feel there is a negativity associated with the word "rule" so I choose to call them expectations, as in these are just simple tasks the students are expected to do. Everyone was given a copy of "In our math classroom I..."(I modified something I found on pinterest) and I asked them to read over it silently and then pick the expectation they thought they had the most trouble with last year. Then I told them to find someone near them and brainstorm ways to fix this problem. If they were sitting there thinking I'm golden on all these, I don't need any help, I asked them to identify what they thought another 7th grader might have trouble with and give them tips. After about 10 mintes (every group was having really good discussions and coming up with really interesting ideas) we came back together as a class and made a really good list of tips. I told them they had to pick their number 1 idea for each expectation and write it under that expectation. Then we taped it into our MIN on the back of the front cover so they will see these expectations and tips every time they open their MIN. :)

Class Expectations 13-14 by Kristin Elix

Next came their first lesson of 7th grade math. This actually didn't have anything to do with 'math' per say, but more about how their math class will work. I have adopted the quote "Fair isn't always equal" as a motto in my classroom. I first heard this at a differentiated instruction conference by Rick Wormeli last spring and it has stuck with me ever since. I am really going to try to differentiate this year so that I can meet the needs of ALL of my students. While my kids were working on their class expectations activity, I taped two candy bars really high up on the wall. After we finished the expectation discussion, I told the class I needed a volunteer. Everyone saw me tape the candy bars up to the wall so everyone's hands went up. I picked a really tall kid and told him/her that if they could reach the candy bar, it was theirs. They excitedly ran up to the wall, some jumped and others just reached for the candy bar, but each of the first volunteers in each period were able to easily grab it. The all tried to give it back to me thinking I wasn't really telling them the truth that they would get to keep it, but I said, "No, no, you were able to get it, it's yours!" Everyone freaked out and now I totally had the complete attention of EVERY. KID. IN. THE. ROOM. =) I then asked for a second volunteer and again, every hand went up. I picked one of the shortest kids in the class and they went up and started jumping as high as they could to try and reach the candy bar. They asked if they could get a chair and I promptly explained, no you can't because I wouldn't be treating you and volunteer #1 equally. I didn't give volunteer #1 a chair so giving volunteer #2 a chair wouldn't be right. What happened next was pure magic in each of my classes...volunteer #2 sadly said ok and acted like they were just going to give up and go back to their seat but the rest of the class adamantly defended volunteer #2 saying I wasn't treating him/her fairly because they couldn't help it that they either needed the candy bar lowered or needed to use a chair.  (which is precisely what I was trying to get at) I told volunteer #2 that if the class could convince me to give them a chair, they could have one and the candy bar would be theirs. The class then started giving the student numerous compliments (which was so cool and something I didn't expect) and they also threw in parts about needing the chair and it's ok if he/she needs extra help because that's what's fair. I told volunteer #2 to get a chair and they were able to get the candy bar. Everyone cheered and then I concluded the lesson saying something along the lines of "In this classroom I will ALWAYS treat you fairly.  We are all on different levels (heights) when it comes to math and that's perfectly fine. As we go get further into this year, I will learn what you as a person and learner specifically need to be successful.  So when I ask you to stay after class, come to hound help, or give groups of you different assignments, I don't want to hear 'that's not fair' because just like in this lesson when you wanted me to treat them fairly not equally, and give volunteer #2 a chair, it IS FAIR because what wouldn't be fair would be to expect every one of you to do the exact same thing on the first try." I made a basketball analogy about going into the gym demonstrating a 3 point shot, giving each of them 5 minutes to practice, and then giving them their test: make it: pass, miss it: fail. "Would that be fair?" the kids screamed no way! "So when I tell some of you to make test corrections or to redo an assignment, I am asking you to do so because you need more practice in order to be successful. I know that with your dedication, along with mine, you will be successful in 7th grade and in math class, so I just have 2 questions for you. Does this concept make sense, and are you ready to start on this adventure called learning?" I'm not sure how long this lesson will last with them, but all that mattered in that moment was that I heard lots and lots of enthusiastic "YES's!":) Hopefully their first lesson of 7th grade math made an impact on them!

New Year, New Team, New Kids (and the past ones too), and Awesome Ideas!

Tomorrow starts the beginning of my third year of teaching. No idea where the past two years have gone, but I do know that they have been such a memorable experience. Last night was our open house and I am still a high from meeting my new kids and seeing the past ones. I forget how cute they are when they start 7th grade :) Oh and there's the fact that some of last year's kids came in and played a game of basketball in my room after everything was over and once they got bored they played musical chairs to their fav...T Swift. LOVED IT!!!

(Side note: After feeling like all the first day of school good vibes were sucked right after me after our morning meeting discussing test scores-my kids passed, but less kids passed the 7th grade test than the 6th grade, which isn't good-I had a moment of awesomeness before open house started. I had a mom come in with her daughter saying her daughter talked about how much she missed me and my class all throughout summer. This made me want to cry because I grew really close to her last year and I will miss this student so very much this year! And then I had another kid who didn't do too well in 7th grade as a whole come up to me and ask if he could come into my room after school and get help. He is ineligible for football and he says that isn't fun-imagine that!- and that he wants to get back on track so his life is more fun and so he can play basketball. I told him absolutely, and he was actually really shocked. He kept thanking me, promising me he would come in and then came the hook line and sinker, not that he wasn't already welcome to come in haha...He told me my room was one of the only rooms he felt comfortable in and that my confidence in him made him believe he could actually be successful in school and in life. I teared up and was totally ok with him seeing that. I once again told him he was welcome any time and then he was on his way to meet his 8th grade teachers. Then I had an epiphany. No matter what test scores say, I'm doing things right. When kids come back in saying they feel comfortable in my room and that they trust me, I have met my personal goals as a teacher. My job is to not only teach kids math, but to help raise them as well. And even though there's not a little box on the district report card or our teacher evaluations for this part of the job, there is a little box that we can check off that we've done that (and I know every teacher reading this has), and that box is in our heart, which to me, is more rewarding and memorable than a test score.)

Ok, so that was a big side note...Anywho...I am so excited to have two new teachers on our team. I have to admit, the whole summer I was very hesitant about the whole situation...with two of my biggest mentors retiring, but now that we are getting into having team meetings I am sooooo pumped! The energy and fresh ideas that they have brought is so cool and what's even cooler is that the other returning teacher and I have both come up with new ideas just through conversing with the two newbies.

So new ideas....ready, GO...

1. Using Remind101- best thing ever in my opinion. All 4 of us are going to be using this text message reminder app for both students and teachers. I will be introducing it to the kids either day 1 or 2 and then the all the other 3 teachers will have to do is send out their numbers and text codes. If you don't have any idea what I'm talking about CHECK IT OUT. Seriously. Do it right now, it will change the way you teach!

2. ClassDojo- a teacher in our building told us about this really fun way to make sure students are doing what they need to be doing both academically and behaviorly. Each student has their own account and aviator and then teachers can reward students for good behavior and doing well in class. Students can also have points taken away from their aviator for bad behavior and not turning in homework, among other things. We are hoping that it will be a fun reward system for students that also incorporates technology. Plus the aviators are super cute!

3. Socrative- This is a student response system that not only allows students to submit multiple choice answers but short answer and extended responses. You can also do true/false questions and create quizzes for students to take. Haven't played around with this one too much, so more to come at a later date, but so far I really like what I see!

4. Edmodo- I really like the concept of this Facebook-esque resource. I would love to delve more into what all it can do, but I may start this once we get further into school. I love all this technology, but I really want to make sure I do/use the technology effectively. I don't want to have all these different resources and only use them occasionally. My goal is to find a few to really use all the time in my classroom and even more so, have every one on my team use the same ones so that students have consistency within all their classes.

These are the 4 that I am going to start with  (probably in this order as well) I really want to get remind101 set up ASAP and then figure out ClassDojo. Once the students and I are comfortable with these two then I may start to integrate more into my class and lessons, but until then I will start with these. I will let you know how things go. I have a feeling students are going to be able to catch on REALLY quickly, possibly even quicker than myself, but we shall see!

I'll catch you on the flip side tomorrow after day 1 has come to a close. Hopefully I am still on the same high as I am right now! :)

Do What You Love and Love What You Do

So I was dropping a few things off at school tonight and the football team was there practicing and I saw "my boys". My heart instantly melted. For those who don't know, I had an absolutely phenomenal year last year. Like words can't even describe how good everything was. It has been said that you don't go into teaching for the money. And that is definitely true. Even though I may not have been able to survive because I wouldn't have been able to afford food, I would have taught for free last year because I felt so privileged to walk into my room everyday knowing I got to teach truly amazing kids. I wouldn't trade any amount of money for the memories and lessons that we taught each other. I created such strong bonds with so many of my students all of which was confirmed today when they were so excited to see me and their faces as well as mine lit up when we saw each other. As the daughter of two teachers, I know that there are years to remember and years to forget, but I know that this past year will be one of my absolute favorite years of all time and it was only year 2....Seriously right now, I am tearing up just thinking about all the fun we had WHILE DOING MATH!!! I know the year was good in part because of all the awesome teaching strategies and ideas I found and thought of through blogging and twitter but in all honesty it was the kids that made it so memorable (which is really what it's all about anyways) As I was thinking back on last year while driving home tonight, I realized I never blogged about the best gift I received at the end of the year. It was emotional enough already because two teacher on my team and the two biggest mentors in my teaching career were retired but then I also had to say goodbye to the amazing group of students who forever left a huge imprint on my heart and spirit. I got this note from one of my favorite girls and could not get through the entire thing without bawling my eyes out in front of her (I called her Elf because she was always in helping me after school and she in turn called me Santa...see the top of the note) I have since framed this and it is now sitting on my desk for me to look at every day and remember why I became a teacher and that no matter what the state or nation demands of us or what test scores say, I am making a difference and I love my job! (Hopefully I still won't tear up when I look at it this next year!) As I look forward to the new school year starting a week from today I am eager to meet my new group of student who I will eventually call my kids and with whom I am sure I will form new bonds. But one of the things I am most excited about is being able to see this group of crazy kids again. They will forever and always be MY KIDS and I will cherish the memories we have of their 7th grade math class. Even if I won't have them in class, I will definitely hold them to the promises they made about coming and visiting me as much as possible!

Getting to Know My Students

First before I get into the heart of the matter...I am still alive...it's been a busy summer full of tons of remodeling and no time for blogging! But as the school year is quickly approaching I am back in business! So here it goes...

I saw this idea on Pinterest the other day and have been working on my own get-to-know-you graphic organizer ever since. Looking back on last year's get to know you sheets, I was so surprised at what my kids were willing to tell me on day 1 after only knowing me for basically an hour. I plan on filling one out and hanging it on my bulletin board for the kids to look at over the course of the first few day. GETTING EXCITED!!! 

Copy of Who Are You? Sheet

Classroom Feud-Introducing Data Analysis & Statistics

Many times teachers use games as a way to review for an assessment. However, I have found that students also enjoy games as an introduction to a new unit. It gives me a hook for the unit and the kids love them and are therefore excited about the unit, and best of all, it allows me to do a pre-assessment without the kids even realizing they are being assessed!

To introduce my data analysis and statistics unit, I had my kids play classroom feud, based off of family feud. I made a powerpoint template that looks like the family feud game board. Then I transformed my room into a game show! I lined my desks up in two long rows facing each other and had a podium in the center for the kids to come up to. (I set up the buzzer system our academic team uses on the podium for the full effect.) I taped sheets of paper to the front of each desk with the names of the kids who would sit in that desk throughout the day and then we were ready to play! As the kids walked in, I had the first slide up on the board, with the theme music playing. They went NUTS!

Some of the questions that were asked were 6th grade standards, and others dealt with 7th grade standards. This is where the pre-assessment came in. I wanted to see how well they remembered what they learned last year as well as see if they had any knowledge of the 7th grade standards.

To keep things fun and point values high (why only get a few points when you can have thousands of them?!?! Especially when the points don't REALLY matter haha) I told my kids I went to the local grocery store and surveyed 2000 people. This part was hilarious because while that never, ever happened you wouldn't believe how many students said comments like "OH! My grandma said she saw a math teacher there, I didn't know it was you!" I went along with it and they think it's totally awesome the community was involved with our math class! We went through each of the questions, each student getting the opportunity to come up and use the buzzer.

I kept the rules the same as regular family feud, 3 strikes the opponent has the opportunity to steal the points, and I told the kids if I heard them sharing answers and telling teammates what to say that would be an automatic strike.

I have attached the powerpoint and survey questions. If your content fits along with the topic feel free to use the exact powerpoint and questions, but if not you can also use the powerpoint as a template and change the answers underneath, just leave your email address in the comment window and I will send you the original. Either way, feel free to use away!

Classroom Feud by Kristin Elix

Classroom Feud by Kristin Elix

"Can we stop talking, I want to take my quiz!"

So today was day two of practice OAAs/shortened morning periods, but at least it was semi exciting, because the kids took the practice math test today! Side note mini rant however- don't you think if you were taking a MATH test, you may want to bring your calculator with you to school?? Yeah, I would think so, but apparently about 40 of my kids thought otherwise. I was running around my room like a crazy person trying to find as many calculators as I could for students as quickly as possible, and I thought all was restored in the world when I handed my last kid his calculator. But then about 15 eighth graders come storming in my room asking for calculators as well. Needless to say, I was not very happy with them. So, throughout the rest of the day, I made my little speech about how if you depend on calculators to do math (which most of them do unfortunately) then they shouldn't depend on me to supply a calculator for them in case I run out. We'll see come test day in May what actually happens...

Note/worksheet center

ANYWAYS...back to solving equations. Today went very well! I had a few kids not pass one step equations the first time, but surprisingly they didn't complain when I told them to go get another worksheet and try again before taking another test. They realized their mistakes and took responsibility for them, got the worksheet and then did great on the quiz the second time around! I am seeing great things happening here. My students are taking ownership for their work. When they are stuck on something they ask someone for help, and when they succeed, the celebrate their successes and feel a sense of accomplishment.

"Best thing ever!"
During my 5th period class, I was observed for my resident educator program. No biggie, in fact I forgot she was even coming until she walked in the room! She was very impressed with the kids' ability to stay on task. Yesterday I described the scene as organized mathematical chaos, and today I just might go as far as to say it was simply organized mathematics. Because of the schedule, 5th period has had the longest amout of time to work on this unit, and today they really gelled. Students were helping one another, and waiting patiently for me to help when the help from a peer wasn't enough. They were referring back to their notes, and staying on task. At some points during the period, I would even say it was somewhat quiet because everyone was focused on working on one of their own problems.

Close up of note pages

I was very anxious to ask my kids how they thought this process was going, but I wanted to wait until my observer left, just in case they were like "This sucks! "I'm not learning anything" Not, that feedback like that wouldn't be beneficial for me to know what needs to be change, I just thought it would be better if she wasn't there ;) So after she left, I asked my kids how they liked this process of learning at their own pace, now that they have had 2 days of working like this. Everyone started screaming at once, but the screams weren't out of frustration, they were out of joy. I finally had to stop everyone and have kids talk one at a time. I asked them why, specifically, they liked the unit and got the following responses:
"I'm not bored, it's the best thing ever!"
"You are making us do the thinking and teaching rather than you teaching it to us and us sitting there taking it all in"
"I like being able to talk it out with other people and seeing what I did wrong"
"Explaining it to someone else makes me feel good!"

There was one more student with his hand up, so I called on him. I expected him to continue with the trend and say something positive about the unit. To the untrained ear, what he said may not have seemed like a positive comment, but in fact it was the most revealing comment of the day. "Can we stop talking about this and get back to work, I want to take my quiz, I'm settling for nothing less than100%!!" This coming from the kid who tries to get me off task every. single. day.!!!



All these comments were so cool! It is so heartwarming to see my kids excited about learning and doing well and not be embarrassed about it. Middle school is such a hard transition for some kids, and it's easy for them to go down the "I wanna be cool" path, which often times doesn't include liking or being good at school. I find it so reassuring to hear kids who used to moan and groan at the mention of the word ALGEBRA now be shrieking with excitement the moment they come in the door, BEGGING to solve equations.

Note pages in the INB, turned into a flip chart