Back-to-School Night

I hate back-to-school night for a few reasons:
(1) It ends so late considering I get to school shortly after 6am and do not leave until 9:30pm that day. Not only is that day exhausting, but the following day is exhausting too.
(2) 8 minutes is just not enough time to explain the course to the families that come.

But, I do love getting to meet the parents that do attend!

For my resource classes (in which I usually have very few families join me), I have another PowerPoint (similar to my Day 1 presentation) for the parents that highlights the information I want to talk about.

I also have a hand-out for them to take home because I know (from having gone to these nights for my younger brother) that they will not remember most of what I say by the time they get home and unwind.

And, as a very small token of my appreciation for them taking the time to come meet their students' teachers, I leave them with a tiny (and cheesy) gift.

The back of the card is actually useful and contains my email address and school phone extension. 

For my co-taught classes, my co-teacher typically runs the show with me as a friendly face next to him. I do pipe in when he forgets important things (like to point out our contact information on the board). For these classes, we just have a hand-out very similar to the course outline we give out on the first day. Actually, it is the same paper. We just run the copies off again.

And that's the end of the exhausting night! Thankfully Back-to-School Night is Thursday night, so there is only one school day to be exhausted before I can hopefully recuperate over my birthday weekend. :)

Fun fact: My first year, Back-to-School night was actually on my birthday! boo.

Hopefully this weekend I will get around to blogging about the beginning of our first unit... and snap some pictures of our first INB pages! I LOVE our INBs so far. I am SO glad I did not decide to ditch them this year even though we are 1-1 with Chromebooks. My students benefit from hand-written notes and modeling (not me policing their youtube/facebook/twitter/tumblr usage while pretending to do work!).

2 days down, 178 to go!

The rosters for my co-taught CP classes are continually changing so we are starting "actual" math lessons on Monday. My resource rosters usually do not change too much, so we had some fun the past two days. You can check out my plans in a previous post - as usual, I wanted to do too much and it just did not fit.

I have two highlights, both of which occurred Friday:

(1) My period 4/5 class completed Five Easy Pieces and it was WONDERFUL. I loved them talking in groups and actually completing the activity. One girl remarked "I know there's variables and stuff, but this doesn't feel like math class. It's fun." WIN!

(2) I asked my students to complete a short welcome survey (by Monday, so I am still missing many of them). One of my students, who I heard horror stories about, had a really successful two days AND he completed his survey AND he mentioned in it that he wants to go to Fordham and be a photographer. HE HAS A GOAL. That gives us something to work toward, especially if he does start acting like the student he was last year. But so far so good.

Other than that, I already feel behind. I have no lesson plans written for next week yet. I have not even sent an email home to all the parents introducing myself and our class yet. That's all on this weekend's agenda! EEK! So much to do - I need another summer to prepare! :)

2 Days of "Professional Development"

Of course the hottest week of the entire summer is our first week back at the hot-box (I mean school). We have two days of so-called professional development before the students arrive.

Today was filled with meetings. Filled. Tomorrow morning is relatively free, then another 3-hour meeting in the afternoon. I'm looking forward to only having to get my staff photo taken in the morning and then getting some time to plan some of our CP courses with my co-teacher. I have my resource classes set to go for Thursday!

Blogovin'

Why have I not tried the glorious peace-of-mind that is Bloglovin' before this week?!?

I have been reading blogs for years, even if I have not really started one of my own until this summer - Bloglovin' makes it super easy to keep up with everyone and I have not had any technical issues all week.

Needless to say, I am in L-O-V-E!!! (and now following even more blogs - I may never keep up!) :) :)

Day 2 Plans

School has not even started yet for teachers and I'm already freaking out about not having enough accomplished. You can check out my Day 1 plans here. Now it is on to Day 2.

If students remember back to Day 1 when we went through the class routine of checking my Google Site for the day's agenda, then hopefully students will come in, sit down, and open up their Chromebooks to get started. On my Site, there will be a link to the Friday Funny (YAY FRIDAY!). I have a Pinterest board full of goofy pictures, comics, and sayings that I will work my way through on Friday's. A quick discussion will tie this right into Day 1's homework which was a welcome survey that asked them to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses as teenagers, as students, and as learners of mathematics.

Next Up: True Colors. I used this one as my starting point to create my version.

Then onto a Multiple Intelligences inventory. I really liked Sarah's but tweaked it a tad.

Then there's a quick graphic organizer to fill out that summarizes the information from these two surveys which we will put in our INBs when we get them next week!

Then, in groups of two or three, students will complete a shortened version of Five Easy Pieces. It's about time we get our problem-solving brains turned on! I have never used this activity before, so I cannot wait to see how it goes.

To wrap-up, students will have to create a six-word summary (idea borrowed from here!) about the first two days of class. I can't wait to see (a) how many students have summaries that are not six words, and (b) what they actually write.

Students will be given a Screening Test as homework (they will have a few nights to complete it). BLAH. BORING. But, I need data, data everywhere, so this is a good starting point.

Google Drive - I love you. Now please sync.

Can I just say that I LOVE Google Drive? I love that I can have my drive installed on several different computers and that most of the time, they sync efficiently and effectively! Except for times like now when items I just created on my home computer are not synced and I am not able to work on them from my school computer. Cue frustration mode.

Day i^4 plans (a work in progress)

Well, the kiddos do not arrive until September 4th. Teachers report back on September 2nd (good 'ole NJ - after Labor Day. Go ahead and laugh when it's June and we are still in school). I went in this past week to bring supplies up to my different classrooms and to unpack my workstation (the teachers that do not have their own classrooms have desks in communal workrooms). It is a decent amount of space, but even in my third year of teaching I already have WAY TOO MUCH STUFF. Ugh. I am neurotic, what can I say?

Anyway, onto my Day 1 plans. Day 1 is insanely boring. I would LOVE to do something fun, but the truth is it's just not fun. The first day is run on an extended homeroom schedule so the classes are shortened. I would rather get all of the boring stuff out of the way and then have fun starting on Day 2!

When students walk in, they are going to complete a brief "Math Attitudes" survey as the day's warm-up. Then I have a cute PowerPoint to highlight the topics covered in the Course Outline (even I would fall asleep if I went through that with them line by line).

Side note: when we do get around to starting our INBs (I'm thinking Day 3 - start fresh on a Monday?!), this sheet will be toward the front with a reminder of our class expectations. 

Sorry! I just grabbed a screen-shot right from Word, so pardon the red squiggly lines! :) And yes, there are hashtags in my list of expectations. Gotta get their attention somehow, right?!

Okay, back to Day 1. After we review key aspects from the Course Outline, I will lead students on a walk-through of my Google Site & Calendar on their Chromebooks (if they all picked them up over the summer that will be FANTASTIC, but I'm not expecting it - so I'm going to project my computer as well).

The class calendar is embedded right on my site. Since it is also shared with all of them they get annoyed when it pops up on their phones! ;-)

Also on my Google Site, I post the day's agenda. Here's Day 1, which reminds me that I forgot to mention that we take time during my PowerPoint to sign up for Remind alerts as a class. 

Mostly the parents just have homework on the first day. But I also created a quick survey about previous math classes and students' reflections about their work ethic, sense of responsibility, and friends they would like to work with in the class. This is a Google Form that they can complete right from my site. Cool!

Students will also complete the Who I Am graphic organizer (I know you have seen it, so no picture) which I have reduced to actually fit in their INBs. First I want to collect them and learn about my students though. So we will tape it in our notebooks next week. 

And then we will wrap-up the day with this idea stolen from Math=Love. I saw in her post that she has a different hashtag for this school year, but I'll still steal this one. :)

If time allows, it's puzzle time. Oh boy I do love puzzles. I picked up a dozen of these gems from a party store and I am IN LOVE. 

I plan to take the pieces out of the handy little containers before the start of school so that there is no peeking at a correct solution. And as a bribe, if any of my students complete their puzzle before the end of the period, they win a homework pass (with the exclusion that they cannot use it on any of the first day's homework or the screening test they will get on Day 2).

And that's it. That's Day 1 in a nutshell.... But, my plans may change. That is nearly two weeks away.

Kiddos arrive September 4th! ANXIETY!

Classroom!

While I am still a travelling teacher and still must share classroom space throughout the day, I am happy to say that the room where my resource classes are located.... will actually house some of my math stuff this year. I have one small bulletin board to use (so instead of having the entire board dedicated to a theme, it is an organized mish-mosh of things I want displayed. I'll probably end up switching things out as the year progresses).

 The quote on the bottom left will be changed out weekly. The pink sheet is where I plan to write the date as a math problem each day. And the yellow sheet is where I plan to write that night's hw assignment. The small calendar on the right will be a paper log of homework assignments and assessments. Googling math posters, I found that awesome sign on the top right. Then, because my kiddos can never remember horizontal and vertical (nor do they know what the horizon means, so that does not help) and because integer operations are so difficult for them, I have labeled each direction and provided a number line. YAY! Lastly, the "Fist to Five" Check is a quick way I ask students to tell me how they are doing. I'm sure I modified something I saw on Pinterest, but I can't find the pin to give credit. I'm sorry! :(  Up close, it looks like this:

 Also, I FINALLY get to keep some of my supplies in the room, which is extremely important as I am going gung-ho with INBs this year. Last year I was INB-crazy for the first couple months and then failed miserably. This year, I have a significant number of INB pages already created so I am sticking to it! So, I have space for tape & glue, scissors, and colored pencils and other assorted INB supplies. There's also room to keep their notebooks in the classroom so they do not get lost or destroyed in the black holes that they call "lockers" and "backpacks". Additionally, I have a cup of pencils - you would think 16, 17, and 18-year old people could come to class with at least a pencil? Nope! Oh and my super awesome 3-drawer paper holder for plain, lined, and graph paper. :)

Let me tell you... it was a rocky time in August trying to secure space for me in this room, and I may have made a few enemies in the process (oops), but I can't lug all that stuff around all day!



Goals!

I have always been an organized person. Everyone always says I probably have a mild form of OCD and they are probably right. However, this is the year of true organization. I want to maintain a binder for my co-taught college prep level classes that contains completed notes, completed study guides, and a log of their homework assignments to reference for the days when our building's internet decides it does not want to work (i.e., ALL the time).

I want to make sure I really focus on monitoring student learning, getting all students involved, and making the knowledge stick. I want to get the kids up (we have a TINY classroom space - probably smaller than some of their closets at home) as much as I can, interacting with each other as much as I can, and engaged in the material more than I have in the past. My enthusiasm is not enough. THEY need to own it.

The goal that has been my goal for 3 years - classroom management. Ugh. I have some ideas. Hopefully they come to fruition. Looking at my rosters and talking to colleagues, I have a tough crowd this year. The big thing I need to focus on for classroom management to be more successful is ROUTINE.

DATA COLLECTION for my students' IEPs. Enough said. It needs to get done frequently, accurately, and consistently. I have 54 students with IEPs... I need to be on top of this stuff!



Anxiety!

This year my district is 1-1. In grades K-4, each student has access to a Nexus tablet that are housed in the classrooms. And every student in grades 5-12 has a Chromebook that they take to and from school each day. It is going to be a year of transition for me as I am going from having basically no technology (not even a working projector half the time) to LOTS of technology. This makes me excited, but more anxious. I want to introduce classwork with the Chromebooks slowly. I know I want to do INBs instead of trying to find a way to take notes on the Chromebook. Typing math is just too time-consuming!! The interactive aspect will be so much better for my students. I have a whole room full of struggling learners. So, here's my plan: each day, students will need to use their (hopefully charged) Chromebooks to access my Google Site and view the day's agenda. There will be a warm-up to complete (Mental Math Mondays, then a variety of warm-up problems Tues - Thurs, and Friday Funnies) which will almost always be online. Then it's lids down! Most days I plan to have a mini-lesson, frequently involving our INBs. Then it's practice time. Some days this might be on our Chromebooks (still looking for more ideas) and some days this might be good 'ole paper and pencil. And some days I might try to squeeze some stations into that tiny classroom - wish me luck!

Again, I'll reiterate the TINY SPACE that is this classroom. (Also you can see that the other teacher will hate me because of my influx of COLOR and STUFF) :) :) :) I'm standing next to the first pair of desks, there are actually 12 crammed in there. And of course I have mostly athletic boys and it's on the second floor (hello hot and sweaty!) Good thing I'm only in this closet for two periods a day!