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! ;-)

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.