Movin' On Up!

Nothing too exciting - just get to move from MA to MA + 15 since I finished my ed-tech certificate program in August and I'm on the BOE agenda for tonight.

Back-To-School-Night!

Back to School Night is TOMORROW! Unlike last year, I have nothing prepared. I guess I will just be tweaking my handout and presentation from last year to talk about new course changes (such as Class Cash - post coming soon!).

I'm already exhausted.. not sure how I am going to be able to stay at school until 9:30PM tomorrow. Oyyy. Consider that I usually leave my house at 6AM and that I will not be getting home until at least 10PM. I call that a long day!

#GoogleClassroom Extension!

So, on my twitter feed the other day was an announcement for a new Google Classroom Extension.

Seriously, if you use Google Classroom, GO GET IT NOW!

Once you add it to Chrome, it looks like this in the upper-right side of your browser:

Why is it awesome? Well, if all of your students add the extension, you can instantaneously push websites to them or post announcements/assignments right from there without having to go into Google Classroom.

It's handy!

Thanks, Google!

#MyGoalForTheYear

On the first day of school, my exit ticket for the students was to write a statement to go along with #MyGoalForTheYear. I told them I wanted it to be something they could attain by June, so writing down "to be a doctor" was not a good example because as hard as they worked, they would not be a doctor in 10 months. Mostly, these were grade based, but I want to share them anyway. (Note: I did not have time to do this with my last class).

#MyGoalForTheYear
* obtain an A-B average throughout this year for every class
* is to not miss a lot of homework
* graduate
* get straight As
* get above a C in all my classes
* As and Bs all year =)
* pass all my classes
* pass Algebra 2 with an 85 or more
* pass my classes and graduate on time
* pass this class with a 100%
* get an A so I don't have to take the final exam
* get good grades
* receive no grade lower than a B
* my goal would be to get my own pet. we just moved into our new house so I want to have my own responsibility. (I did encourage them to think OUTSIDE of the confines of school. So I really liked reading this one!)
* prepare to go to India this summer
* pass
* pass and graduate with my class
* get As and Bs in my classes
* maintain all As and Bs
* end this class with B

What does this tell me? My students are actually more motivated than last year. Or, at least they are starting out that way. I think that's great because they are more willing to think and to work.

I'm excited for the year!

#MyGoalForTheYear is to continue to push and motivate my students to think critically and mathematically and to help them mature, both academically and personally.

So NOT ready.

I have come to the realization today that I am so not ready for school to start next week. Despite all of the time and effort I have put in to planning and creating materials this summer, I feel as unprepared beginning year 4 as I did beginning year 1. Is this the curse of being a bit too obsessive for my own good? Perhaps. I am excited to meet my new, big kiddos, though!

Do-Now Revamp

 Still trying to get ahead a little bit.. I started making the first two weeks worth of do-now activities. Some days will be skill/content review from previous days, and some will just get my kids to think. Remember, I teach special ed, so what looks like it will take 30 seconds will actually take several minutes.

By the way, I found that nifty balance scale here: http://solveme.edc.org/Mobiles.html

There are many more; I think I will use one once a week!

Students will respond most days in ONE Google Form. Last year, I tried having a Form for each day and quickly gave up on that idea. Google will automatically time-stamp (including the date) for me, so that is one less thing the kids need to do. 

 

Lesson Planning

I have found the last few years that my lesson plans start out excellent, but then as the year goes on, they become more and more bare.

I am hoping to eliminate that decline in formal plan quality this year by getting a jump start!

First, I took all of my units and color-coded them in the gradebook/lesson planner. I added one lesson for each topic under each unit. There are 11 units total, but here is one screen shot.

Then, I took each unit and wrote a "Unit Plan". I included a unit summary, enduring understandings, essential questions, learning targets, interdisciplinary connections, and 21st century connections. There is also space in each unit to include a unit rationale and formative assessments. I have not completed those for any of the 11 units yet. I also attached all of the standards that will be addressed throughout the unit. 

Then, I went through the lesson plans for the first semester (and aim to have the year done before school starts) and inputted the specific learning target, essential question, and standard(s) to be addressed. That way, during the school year the only parts I need to fill out are the procedures, assessments, and homework! I am hoping since I  have the somewhat tedious part done, that I will not feel exhausted and tired of writing formal lesson plans during the year. 

I guess time will tell if this time and effort was well spent! :)

Organization! :-D

Alas, tomorrow will be both a sad and happy day. My brother (who am I kidding, he is really like my child) is off to college. I will be dropping him off with all of his stuff. I hope he has a great time, while also being successful academically. I hope he is more excited tomorrow; lately, he has been rather indifferent. My best friend, whom I have essentially raised for a few years, is moving out, but I know he will do great things! *very proud*

Anyway, that being said, I have not been doing much preparatory work for school the last few days, as I have been helping him pack and trying to spend more time with him.

However, I did start organizing my materials for the first few weeks. I have always been a very organized person, but this year, I may be even more crazier. Besides having binders for each unit, now everything is in sheet protectors! No more holes in the side of the "master" copies.

I also started sorting through all of my task cards, cart sorts, etc. and organizing and labeling them! I bought these poly envelopes because they were colorful, durable, and convenient. Why do I say convenient? Well, I am in three different classrooms during the day... and never the same room two periods in a row. So, I need something small and portable to stick in my backpack. :-)

Not colorful, you say? How about when you see the first tub? They are now in chronological order as well.

Hopefully I keep up with the organization and put everything back in its rightful place as we use it. 

Spoiler: I do not have a textbook for my resource level courses.

Spoiler Alert: I do not have a textbook for my resource level (special education) Algebra 2 courses. Why? "It's not in the budget this year." (or any subsequent year apparently).

This is both a positive and a negative for me. It's a positive because I actually like making my own materials. It's a negative when I have a parent like last year who insists on having material at home (in advance) so that he can try to work with the child. While I would much rather have 12 overly concerned parents than the nonexistent ones (which is what I typically find for my resource level classes), last year I had nothing pre-made as far in advance as he would have preferred. This led to a multitude of issues and headaches for me throughout the year... in just dealing with that one parent.

So, I vowed to myself that this summer I would get ahead making guided notes so that I can have them posted in advance in my Google Site. My curriculum has 11 units; I have created guided notes for 5 of those units. That is some definite progress!

This allows me to post the guided notes early as an outline, but because I still do not have a textbook per say, gives me the flexibility to change them throughout the year if need be. I am not bound to a bound book, so to speak.

I pull examples for these guided notes from a variety of places: our old college-prep level textbook, our new college-prep level textbook, a plethora of workbooks I have acquired in just a few short years, and my brain. I have my special education course organized following the same curriculum as the college-prep general education course (by law), but I have the flexibility to tailor the instruction to fit my students' needs. For example, while we will cover logarithms every year, we may not go AS in depth as the regular level class, because we have to spend more time on reviewing the fundamentals of algebra in the beginning of the year. I can set the pace for the course; I am not bound to the pacing calendar the way we are in my co-taught regular level course.

I can't tell you how many years I have started to blog in late summer and then stopped as soon as school started. The next summer I would go through and delete most of those posts and say "Hey, I'm starting over!". This year, I actually want to continue to blog throughout the school year.

I know very few people follow this blog now... and probably very few will in the future. That's okay. It is more a place for me to consciously think about aspects of my classroom and my teaching. If I blog about it, I will think about it more. Reflection is key. This forces me to do just that!

Formative! (My new favorite tech find!)

Introducing... formative... my new favorite tech resource!

I was looking at different apps or sites I have used in the past (Exit Ticket, Socrative, etc.) and saying "man, I wish these were a tad more user-friendly and math-friendly". Well, folks, enter formative. I have only been playing around with it for a few days, but I am currently in l.o.v.e.

You have two main options: (1) create a new assessment, or (2) upload an existing file.

I'm going to start with option 2, actually. Sometimes you already have a great worksheet made up and want to use it... but want to go green. My district is 1-1. Last year I felt like I was making too many copies but I did not want to recreate EVERYTHING I used all year. Well, you can upload a worksheet and have the students answer questions there. It will look something like this while you are creating it:

You can choose between four different question types/answer options:

Multiple Choice
Text
Drawing
Take Picture

Here I used "text" and "drawing". I can foresee using "take picture" in the future to have students snap a picture of their work for complicated problems that they cannot simply type their answer or equation in. Like I said... more math-friendly than Exit Ticket or Socrative.. at least so far!

When students complete the assignment, you can see live results. Not only can you designate an answer key, but you can grade them right there and then... on a scale. So if the question is worth 10 points, you can award 10 or 7 or 3 or whatever you want! SO EASY! 

Back to the beginning... option 1 is to create a new assessment. Want to create a quick exit ticket? There you go! Want to create a new quiz or assessment from scratch? There you go! You have the same answer options as above, but you get to create the question and/or prompt.

Are you in l.o.v.e. yet with Formative? Go check it out! 

Data, Data Everywhere

As a Special Education teacher, I am responsible for reading, monitoring, and upholding 56 student IEPs this year. That's a lot to keep track of - here is how I do it.

First, I create a cheat-sheat accommodations chart for each class period to serve as a snapshot. Which student gets to use a calculator? Which student requires a copy of my notes? Which student needs restroom reminders? Etc.

I also include a quick reference for who their Case Manager and Guidance Counselor are, as well as either their Study Skills teacher if they have elected to take that course. 

That's the easy part. Then there is all of the data. 

In addition to keeping track of students' assessment scores and struggles with particular concepts, I have a page for each student for each marking period to track progress toward their individual IEP goals.

The top, which I cut off, contains personal information: name, course, marking period, case manager, etc.

I have one for each marking period. As their IEP meetings occur during the year, the goals will change and I will run off a new sheet for the next marking period. I track weekly progress quantitatively and then I have a ton of space at the bottom of the page (and on the back) for anecdotal comments. 

This year I bought a bunch of address labels and I plan to keep them with me on a clipboard. I will jot down anecdotal notes on the address labels as I observe something in the classroom. At the end of the day, I can stick them on the back of the students' data page in my binder to reference when I want to write comments or progress reports. 

Day 1 - 2015

This is a draft of my Day 1 ideas for September 2015 for my resource level Algebra 2 courses.

When the students enter, the warm-up will be projected on the board. I want to get them in the habit of completing a do-now activity each day. Obviously, I also included directions to sign up for my Remind alerts.

The boring stuff needs to happen. I'll distribute the Course Outline (which parents need to sign) and the Family Info Sheet. But I made the information from the Course Outline into a fun and quick presentation. I had done this last year so I just needed to tweak it with changes I am implementing in my special ed classes. For example, Class Cash. I am going to reward students for participation, preparedness, and positive behavior with Class Cash. At the end of the marking period, this will become a participation grade. 

There must be math on the first day! Unfortunately, I know a lot of my students have tremendous anxiety about coming to school so I did not want to give them a group activity that involved a lot of social skills on day 1. That just comes with the population I teach. I also know that a lot of my students will not have picked up their Chromebooks yet, so I needed something that could be done on paper. Enter this Math Symbols worksheet. You would be amazed how many high-schoolers do not know what some of these symbols are. Hopefully working together with a partner, this will be an easy introduction and get their math minds out of summer mode! 

Like last year, I want my students to fill out a Welcome Survey for homework on Day 1 so that I can start to get to know them both as quirky teenagers and as budding mathematicians! :)

That's Day 1 in a nutshell for my resource level classes. I am planning to get started with content right away on Day 2!

Small Changes

The first day of school is quickly approaching! Teachers return on September 1st, and students come back on the 3rd!

Something that I thought I liked last year, but ended up being really annoyed with was how much "extra" stuff I did in the beginning of the year before getting into the math! It seemed like a good idea at the time - my True Colors survey, a Multiple Intelligence Survey, and some activities. However, in reality, it just ate up a good 3 days when really two of those should have been spent on getting started with content.

This year, I'm going to plan for a much shorter course introduction.

One thing I want to start is Google Classroom. It seems really easy to add announcements each day. I am currently planning to post an abbreviated agenda each day - the warm-up, what we are learning, etc. I can also post assignments. I just wish it was connected to Google Calendar. Also, It seems like I can integrate it with a Google Drive folder to share materials.

What I do not know is if this is better or worse than a Google Site. I guess I really need to think about using both of them in tandem to accomplish what I want. The Google Classroom for announcements and the Google Site as a file cabinet and calendar. Hmm... 

I also created a Google Form to streamline do-now activities. Google will automatically collect their usernames and timestamp.

I had wanted to use Google Forms for do-nows last year, but after the first three weeks of school, I had so many forms and so many spreadsheets, I simply quit. This way, I can have the do-now projected on the board, but all of the responses go to one central location. I hope that will work out better. 

This summer I still want to blog about:

- My first day of school plans

- General ideas for my resource level course

- Big changes in my CP co-taught course

- Anything else I can think of :)

A Word of Advice from...

A few weeks before school ended, I was absent and had students complete a guided letter with advice for next year's students. Some of them took it seriously; others goofed around. I wanted to share their insight here (original grammar, and punctuation included).

A word of advice about Ms. L... 

* She very nice and she likes to see people actually working. She loves baking too!

* Shes nice and fun

* She is a great teacher but you have to do her work and she will get upset. Listen the first time she says something.

* She's very outgoing. She's such a fun teacher to have.

* Don't talk over her. She loves math.

* One of the nicest teachers in the school.

* The teacher is overall good. In other classes you can't fall behind but in this one you really can't afford to.

* To take notes because a majority of notes are then used on your tests/quizzes.

* As long as you do your work and listen to her you will be okay. Just focus in class and don't talk while she is teaching.

* She's really nice.

* Glue the chalk to her hands.

* Keep on her good side. Do not upset her. Be good students. 

* She can get mad.

* Don't be super late every day. 

* Well, get on her good side because in the summer time she will lock the windows and the door so it will be a firey pit. But she is very willing to help you out anytime. 

* She can get off topic very easily and you will hear many "fun facts" throughout the year because she is full of them. She is NOT a yeller.

* She can be a tough nut in class especially with her work. Don't be a pain in the rear end for Ms. L by annoying her with off topic questions or keep talking over her during class.

* Do your homework

* Pay attention, have fun.

* Keep doing the PoWs.

* RUN AWAY. LOL. Give her a chance, don't hate her until like 2 months in. She is the best, just focus and treat her with respect and she will do the same to you.

* She hates the color orange.

* She's really chill. If you just go through her lesson, you always have time at the end.

Three things you MUST do to be successful:

* Don't slack off! Do the PoWs! Try your best!

* Don't sleep in class. Participate. Distract her into fun conversations.

* Do the PoWs. Not wear highlighter orange shirts. Understand her sarcasm.

* Write down the notes if you don't understand something. Always ask questions. Always do your study guides.

* PAY ATTENTION. Copy everything on the board. Don't make her mad.

* Work hard. Study. Listen.

* Pay attention. Study even when you're not told to do so because there are a lot of tests and barely any homework assignments. Do the PoWs.

* Study. Pay attention. Take good notes.

* Do your homework/PoWs. Write all your notes down. Always pay attention.

* Pay attention. Take notes. Don't sleep in class.

* Work hard. Focus. Listen.

* Complete the work. Listen to Ms. L. Study the work.

* Do PoWs. Keep your notebook up to date. Study.

* Do PoW every week. Keep organized notebook. Study.

* Study, helps a lot with quizzes. Pay attention to her in class. Do the PoW.

* Take good notes and fill out your notebooks. Always do the PoWs. Just listen and pay attention.

* Do well on projects. Do well on HW and PoWs. Do well on tests and quizzes.

* Pay attention. Keep a neat notebook. Do the PoWs.

* Do the PoWs. Do the work. Study.

* Pass school. Work hard. Don't give up.

* Do the PoWs. Keep your notebook filled in so you can use it for quizzes. Ask questions even if you think they are stupid. 

* Do PoWs. Study and review your notes. Keep your notebook organized.

* Do the PoWs. Make sure you don't take advantage of her let you use your phone during class and still pay attention. Do the projects. 

Your favorite part of class will be...

* Kahoot and learning new math stuff!

* When we got off topic and talked about life. Also working on the board.

* Learning the Quadratic Formula (there's a song). She also makes really good food!

* When we play Kahoot!

* How easy the class will be if you pay attention.

* My favorite part of class was in MP4 because it was the easiest marking period.

* For me, going to the bathroom it's not personal I just really hate math no matter the teacher. 

* I always left that I got the help I needed.

* The fun times Miss L is to let you have as long as you are a good class.

* Finishing the year.

* Being with your friends.

* Being able to get the help I need for my work. I will miss the teacher. Having a lot of fun.

* Silent ball.

* Very nice teacher.

* Engaging her when she gets off topic. Some of her stories are funny.

* In all honesty, every time you walk into her classroom you'll always have a good time. She makes learning fun and easy. For me, there was not one thing I did not like about her class. I learned a lot this year.

* Playing games with Ms. L. Once class is done such as hangman. Also, I can use my notes on quizzes.

* Doing the PoWs

* The days where we barely do work.

* Only having PoWs for homework

* The way she teaches is very clear. She also lets you have fun as long as you do what you are told to do.

* Silent ball. 

* The time you have at the end. lmao.

Then they had the freedom to write any other anecdotes or words of advice. I will share a few other gems from there.

* Be sure you never get on Ms. L's bad side, or disrespect her because if you do, I WILL BE THERE SO WATCH OUT!

* I love Ms. L. She made my year better. She is very sensitive like me so we get along very well. Just be good to her. I know shes just a teacher to you, but she is my friend also a person, so treat her with respect. 

* If you want help with Spanish you can practice on Ms. L. She just happened to be my Spanish teacher this year too.

* Be sure you always count the number of times she drops the chalk. She does it quite often and don't listen to the excuses she has for dropping it. 

* On a personal note, she loves to bake! She hates the color orange. She is always SUPER hyper so good luck. She is always smiling and laughing. You will love her and her class. 

* Ask her about the family feud episode (pork) and prepare to laugh. 

* She also has as many math pun shirts than you can count.

* The hardest part of this class is day 1 to day 180. Good luck.

I am really going to miss my two resource classes from this year. There were some really awesome kids and some trouble-makers that also left an impression. I hope they stop by to visit and impart their wisdom on next year's crew! :) 

Keep, Change, Start, Stop for 2015-2016

On the last day with my resource level students this year, I asked them to write short reflections on the year. They needed to list one thing I should keep for next year, one thing to change for next year, one thing to start doing next year, and one thing to stop doing.

Keep
* PoWs because they help a lot with grades
* letting us do study guides in class and being sarcastic
* letting students use their notes and study guides on tests and quizzes
* the notebook and the amount of homework
* the PoWs because they are easy points
* throwing new things at them
* keep doing the PoWs! keep the notebook as well. they were such a great idea.
* the PoWs
* PoWs
* keep PoWs. they are easy points that can help grades
* the PoWs
* the PoWs
* Playing the tower game
* keep PoWs and notebook checks; use study guides for tests and quizzes
* keep the PoWs they help with keeping up grades
* you should keep the way you organize stuff
* PoW
* PoWs
* keep the work, it's good for people to understand
* the notebook
* letting people use notebooks on tests
* easy in class

Change
* nothing
* the PoWs to every other week maybe?
* PoWs, maybe make them easy for students to solve that way they can get an A
* do more Kahoots
* nothing it's perfect
* nothing
* I wouldn't change really anything but if I had to chose it would be do more fun group projects
* the projects
* nothing
* having to tape everything in notebooks. I think a binder is better
* the worksheets
* no make up work or test policy
* start giving a little more HW
* less paperwork
* give more homework, it will help give more grades
* don't change anything
* classroom if you can, way too hot
* change seats more
* the questions on the PoWs
* how hard some of the PoWs are
* closing door when you get mad
* play Kahoot more often

Start
* giving more extra credit and fun projects
* giving "catch up on notebook" days
* making some quizzes and tests using memorization, people wanting to memorize certain formulas for careers
* none
* IDK what to say
* something like you always do
* start doing more Kahoots and winners get homework passes
* a page to keep track of the TOC for the notebook
* more PoWs
* only let people use their notebooks on quizzes if the notebook is organized and updated
* doing Kahoots before every test
* giving HW assignments every day based on completion and correctness
* assigning more projects
* more projects
* playing more fun activities that involve the lesson
* more group work
* buying new math shirts for next year
* taking off points for disruptions of class
* start having more hands-on activities
* using Kahoot more
* more 1 on 1 with students
* parties

Stop
* nothing
* nothing because you don't do anything bad I can think of
* making up PoWs that are hard to do and make sure they're relevant to what you're teaching the students
* the PoWs - I just don't like them, that's why
* drop. And hop hop :D
* drop and roll
* there isntohing I would want you to stop because I liked everything about the class
* nothing
* nothing
* nothing really to stop. but maybe making PoWs less hard
* doing projects
* giving out a lot of tests
* nothing
* dropping chalk
* giving a final and midterm
* nothing
* dropping the chalk
* stop being silent and teach even if kids are talking. if they don't listen its on them not you.
* stop students more from misbehaving and have them show more respect
* giving projects
* nothing, everything is ok :)
* making class so complicated

My take-aways
* PoWs are a hit, but change them up a bit for next year.
* HW - give more
* My students truly pick up on how frequently I drop chalk! ;-)