Unit Dividers - #MTBoSBlaugust Day 15

 

It's Monday, y'all!  And we're halfway through the month!  I'm not doing so great on my Blaugust challenge, but I'm sticking with it and giving it my best shot.  Thank you to all of you who are participating in the challenge!

I love Back to School time for the fresh start, but to be honest, BTS is one of my least favorite times of the year!  So many new names and personalities to learn, setting up the class culture, and all the administrative stuff that comes with a new year just wears me out!  I'm ready for a few weeks from now when I know student names, my rosters aren't changing every day, and we're in a groove with regard to class procedures.

BUT - I did finally figure out my Unit Dividers this weekend - Go me!!

With the switch over to my new school last year, I had some issues with my notebook that I wasn't super happy with.  Our homework was online, so the notebook was mostly a place for notes, but that meant there wasn't a great delineation from unit to unit.

I knew I wanted to do some sort of divider and I had it on my to-do list ALL.SUMMER.LONG, but the procrastinator that I am, I didn't actually DO anything about it!  

I looked at so many blogs and asked on Twitter to get examples, but I ended up settling on this pretty simple template - a blank table of contents, and a set of objectives / vocabulary for the unit.  Of course, it helped that I was just out of time to figure it out - we are setting up our notebooks tomorrow and starting curriculum on Wednesday, so it was "put up or shut up" time.

We'll see how it goes! :)

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If you are interested in joining in the #MTBoSBlaugust fun, here's a post with some prompts to help you out!  The idea is just to blog / micro-blog during August to help us focus and reflect on the year ahead.  Please tag your post on Social Media with the hashtag #MTBoSBlaugust so we can support you in your blogging journey!

Organizing my Teacher Binder - #MTBoSBlaugust Day 13

 

I had planned to blog the past two days, but Thursday was our first day back with students, so I've been exhausted!  By the end of Thursday, my feet were killing me and my throat was raw from talking.  Even today has been busy with lesson planning, so I almost forgot again today!

This morning, I had several things on my to-do list - setting up my online Gradebook, syncing with Google Classroom, and printing my attendance sheets.  I'm one of those old-school teachers that really does better with paper versus electronic methods, so I like having paper records for Attendance and other things.

One of my items today was working on my Teacher Binder.  I typically blog about my Lesson Planner, but it didn't change much this year other than I'm having to use a full size planner instead of the Junior Planner since I'm teaching 3 preps this year.

But one of the most useful things in my Binder are my Class Rosters.  I downloaded my class lists today as spreadsheets, then copied the names over to my Class Roll Sheets (seen at the left).  I use these for...

Gradebook Sheets - Years ago, I used to use the Whaley paper gradebook, but now I have a section in my Teacher Binder where I have these blank rosters to record quizzes and test grades or as a general checklist if needed.  I typically have a back-up copy ready to go in case I run out of columns and need to move to a new page.

Eligibility Tracking - In another section of my Teacher Binder, I have a copy of each roster for tracking eligibility over the semester.  I make a special effort to reach out these kiddos and their parents, asking them to come in to retake a test or whatever the situation might be.  I typically put a code of "E" for email, SC for student conference, etc during that week to document my contact.

Parent Contact - Another section of my Teacher Binder is where I track Parent Contact.  I label the first few columns for the big contact items - like the Back to School Google Form, Back to School Night,  Parent Teacher Conferences, plus I also document the date and type of contact for any emails or phone calls I make.  My goal is to have a positive parent contact for every parent on my roster throughout the year.  

I'm sure there are other uses for this form as well, but those are three I find very helpful in keeping me organized!

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If you are interested in joining in the #MTBoSBlaugust fun, here's a post with some prompts to help you out!  The idea is just to blog / micro-blog during August to help us focus and reflect on the year ahead.  Please tag your post on Social Media with the hashtag #MTBoSBlaugust so we can support you in your blogging journey!

Back to School Parent Contact - #MTBoSBlaugust Day 10

 

Last night was Back to School night and I have to admit, I love the energy that students and their families bring to the building.  I've been in my classroom off and on for the past few weeks, but in the summer, the building just seems kind of sad.  The floors are newly waxed, the carpets have been cleaned, but the energy is lacking.  I should also note that I am flat-out exhausted after last night because it was VERY people-y and that's tough for an introvert like me! 

But one of my FAVORITE parts of Back to School is sending out an email and short questionnaire to the parent / guardian.  This is two-fold - to establish that first contact, sharing my email and my excitement for the new year, and to ask the parents to introduce me to their student in an effort to get to know them better.

Attached to the email is a very short Google Form with just a few questions:

- What is your name?

- What is your Student's name?

- If I need to get in touch with you, what is the best way to contact you?  If phone, what time of day works best?

- Your student is an amazing person and I would love your help in getting to know them better.  You know your student best, so please tell me about your student as a person.  I would love to hear about hopes and dreams, goals for this year and for the future, challenges and successes, activities and interests, and anything else that you would like to share about your student.  Please feel free to write as much (or as little) as you would like!

- I would also love to know more about your student on an academic level. Please tell me anything you know about how your student learns best and the classroom environment that would best encourage and develop your student as a mathematician.  If you have any suggestions about how I can be a better teacher for your student, please let me know that as well.  Again, please feel free to write as much (or as little) as you would like!

- Do you have any additional questions, comments, or concerns?

I really love reading the responses as they trickle in!

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If you are interested in joining in the #MTBoSBlaugust fun, here's a post with some prompts to help you out!  The idea is just to blog / micro-blog during August to help us focus and reflect on the year ahead.  Please tag your post on Social Media with the hashtag #MTBoSBlaugust so we can support you in your blogging journey!

Welcome to my Classroom - #MTBoSBlaugust Day 9

 

Yesterday started Year 25 for me.  Where does time go??

Today, we had a few meetings and then we had Back to School night tonight from 4-6.  I'm exhausted and my feet hurt, but we are off tomorrow and then kiddos come on Thursday!  It was so good tonight to see students from last year and have a chance to visit with them.  As someone who has mostly taught seniors, this was a first for me.  That sense of connection and belonging meant so much to me!

Around 3:30pm, I felt my room was at 'photo-ready-enough' stage to share pictures of this year's classroom.  If you want to see how much it has changed in the past year, here are photos from last August.

Now on to this year's set up...

Standing at the doorway:

You can see the boards I received last year from the grant on the north and west walls.  I love that they are magnetic!  

On 4 of the boards, I have posterboards with prompts for the first day.  Students will get sticky notes, complete the prompts and put the sticky notes on the corresponding board before coming back to the tables to do the Name Tents

The tables look a bit bare right now, but they will eventually have table buckets and dry erase boards on them.  You can also see the corner of my (not-ready) desk and cans of shaving cream.  I forgot those were there when I took the picture! LOL

Moving over toward my desk, here's a shot of the south wall.  A few changes here from last year...

- Calculator Caddy so I can do a better job of tracking calculators that haven't been returned.

- New posters above the Caddy - the Thumbs Up poster from Scaffolded Math and the 2 smaller posters are from TI

- Make 30 daily challenge from Sarah's blog (MathEqualsLove)

- New agenda board for stat!  (YAY!)

Last view is from the northwest corner, looking back at the door...

On the big board of the south wall, you can also see the other two poster-boards for the sticky-note activity.

I still have a lot to do to get ready for the year, but at this point, it's mostly paper-based stuff of lesson plans, finalizing activities, and the administrative things that come with a new year.

But for now, I think it's time to go grab my Kindle and go to bed... :)

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If you are interested in joining in the #MTBoSBlaugust fun, here's a post with some prompts to help you out!  The idea is just to blog / micro-blog during August to help us focus and reflect on the year ahead.  Please tag your post on Social Media with the hashtag #MTBoSBlaugust so we can support you in your blogging journey!

 

Geometry Reference Sheet - #MTBoSBlaugust Day 8

 

Today was the first day of Year 25!  

This summer, I had hoped to get a lot more accomplished than I did.  About 10 years ago, #Made4Math Monday was a regular occurrence and it really helped me throughout the summer to tackle those little projects that needed to happen, plus I was able to share them and get inspiration from others as well.  

After a while, most of the little projects were done and it became tough to share weekly new creations, so #Made4Math moved primarily to the summer months.  This summer, I had plans to revive it, but I just couldn't bring myself to do many projects this summer, but now that school has started, I really don't have much of a choice - ready or not, the kids are coming on Thursday!

One of the projects I did this weekend was updating my Geometry Reference Sheet that goes on the inside cover of their Interactive Notebook (INB).  

When I first blogged about this for a #Made4Math back in 2018, the notebook was for first semester only and there was a different reference sheet for the 2nd semester.  However, at my new school, I only ended up using one notebook for the entire year, so I needed to do some tweaking.

For the original (pictured left), I was thinking about various reminders they would need from pre-requisite knowledge.  As I started thinking about the revision, I decided to cut down the Perfect Squares and add in some Square Roots to hopefully help make connections.  I also decided to cut out the Pythagorean Triples and combine the formulas so that I could extend the Area / Perimeter section.

After playing with it some more, here's what I ended up with:

Click here for a PDF copy of the file

If you have any suggestions or tweaks, please let me know!

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If you are interested in joining in the #MTBoSBlaugust fun, here's a post with some prompts to help you out!  The idea is just to blog / micro-blog during August to help us focus and reflect on the year ahead.  Please tag your post on Social Media with the hashtag #MTBoSBlaugust so we can support you in your blogging journey!

Organizing Activities - #MTBoSBlaugust - Day 7

 

Today is the last day of summer!  I'm definitely not ready for this one to go yet.  Typically, I spend a good chunk of my summer outside reading, but we've had a huge heat wave this year, including 100+ degree days in June, which is NOT typical.  I think July ended up with over 20 days of triple digit heat, so this has been a summer where I've stayed indoors, shades drawn, and lots of fans & ac!

But whether I'm ready or not, tomorrow morning will come and it will be time to report for my 25th year of teaching.  Holy moly, that seems crazy to me!  25 years!  What?!?!

Over those 25 years, I've amassed a LOT of stuff.  My room has a lot of storage, but not enough - I still have boxes in my garage from when I moved to my new school last year.  I had hoped to go through them this summer, but the heat had other plans. :)

This photo is HALF of my Geometry cabinet.  Last year I had 4 sections of on-level Geometry and 2 sections of Honors Geometry.  This year, I have 2 sections of on-level and 3 of Honors.  I really like doing activities as much as I can, so I have a ton of card sorts, files, manipulatives, etc.  Here, you can see several of the card based activities on the top shelf and manipulatives on the bottom shelf - Rules, Protractors, Measuring Tapes, Ang Legs, etc.  What you don't see is there's also a file crate on the bottom right that holds all of my hanging file activities for Geometry - around the room activities, class sets of Open Middle problems, etc.  To be honest, I have more stuff than I know what to do with!  

One of my summer goals was to organize everything and make a list of what all I had in the cabinet so that I wouldn't forget to actually USE the various activities I have accumulated over the years.

This task seemed easier said than done... I thought about a list in my lesson planner or in my binder of master copies, but I discarded those ideas because I probably wouldn't LOOK at the list once I made it.

Then, yesterday morning, I had a thought!!  (Yeah, those sometimes happen!)

When planning lessons, I tend to use last year's Interactive Notebook (INB) to help me think about what I liked and didn't like about a lesson and jot "notes to my future forgetful self" about what to change.  What if I made a list of activities and had it in my INB to refer to while planning?  YES!  This could work!

So I quickly made a half-sheet template with my units listed at the top and a 2-column paper so I could track the type / location of the resource (file, cards, open middle, Desmos, etc) and the title of the resource.  After printing it off, I sat down with my very un-organized list of resources and wrote down each one on the correct unit sheet.  The sheets are double-sided so I can add new resources as I find / make them this year and will be easy to move from notebook to notebook as years progress.

It only took me until the weekend before school started to figure out this problem that has been nagging me for a year, but better late than never, right? :)

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If you are interested in joining in the #MTBoSBlaugust fun, here's a post with some prompts to help you out!  The idea is just to blog / micro-blog during August to help us focus and reflect on the year ahead.  Please tag your post on Social Media with the hashtag #MTBoSBlaugust so we can support you in your blogging journey!

Email Templates - #MTBoSBlaugust Day 6

 

Do you ever have one of those moments where you wake up in the middle of the night with an idea that you think is brilliant?  Sometimes the ideas really are... sometimes not... and sometimes you can't even remember them in the morning!

Today's idea came to me this morning as I was laying in bed reading and I truly had one of those "why have I never thought of this before?!?!" moments! 

Okay - so here's my idea... Email Templates!

I like to communicate with my students and their parents on a regular basis, so I utilize our gradebook Mass Email option a lot.  But until this morning, I had never thought of capturing those emails as templates to use over and over again instead of reinventing the wheel each time!

So once I sat down at my computer this morning, I went to Google Drive and started a new folder called Email Templates.  Then I made Google Docs for each of the emails that I would send throughout the year.  Finally, I went through last year's Sent Email box and copied the emails to paste into the G-Doc.  Thankfully this didn't take forever because I've only been at my school for one year! :)

As I use each one of these emails, I can edit in Google Docs, then copy/paste into our Gradebook Mass Email system!  

Hopefully this will save me some time this year.  One of the comments that I received multiple times in May from parents was how much they really appreciated the constant communication as teenagers are not always the best at telling their parents about upcoming events!  I'm sure there are others who were annoyed by my emails, but if it helps just one student, then it's worth it!

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If you are interested in joining in the #MTBoSBlaugust fun, here's a post with some prompts to help you out!  The idea is just to blog / micro-blog during August to help us focus and reflect on the year ahead.  Please tag your post on Social Media with the hashtag #MTBoSBlaugust so we can support you in your blogging journey!

My Favorite Friday - #MTBoSBlausut Day 5

 

Y'all, I've already messed up on my Blaugust plans!  Every year, I have hoped that I could get every day in August and every year, I have failed.  But that's okay!  What's important is that we get up and try again!!

Yesterday was our first 1/2 day back at work, then we report again on Monday.  I honestly thought I would come home and work on my pacing calendars and take some time to blog about what I learned yesterday at our ACT training, but I just wasn't feeling it!  Instead, I grabbed my Kindle and did some reading.  Why do today what you can put off 'til tomorrow, right? :)

In honor of the Friday, I am doing a My Favorite Friday post!  Years ago, at Twitter Math Camp, one of the best parts of the day was the "My Favorites" where people would get up and share 5-10 minutes of something in their practice that was a favorite.  From there, it turned into some blog posts to share just little blurbs of things you've enjoyed over the week...

My Favorite #1 - My Course Schedule!

Check it out!  I get to teach Stat again!! :)

I had taught AP Stat for 21 years at my own school, so one of the first questions I had for my new school was whether they had a stat program (NO) and if not, could we start one? (YES!)

So when it came time for enrollment, I knew I would have a few interested in taking stat, but when I received my rosters today, I have *25* enrolled in a non-AP Stat course!  Wowsers!

My hope / goal is to build the program this year and maybe next year be able to have both an on-level and an AP Stat course, but I'm so excited to be teaching Stat again!  I started mapping out my curriculum this week and I think it's going to be a really fun class.  I've never taught non-AP, so it will be some trial and error, but it's nice to know that I don't have a test looming over me in May!

The rest of my schedule is pretty nice as well - I have 3 Honors Geometry classes and 2 on-level Geometry classes.  It's going to be a good year!

My Favorite #2 - TI's new printables!

Have y'all seen the most adorable new freebies from TI (Texas Instruments)?  

Printable Stickers

Printable Posters

Printable Coloring Sheets

Now, don't get me wrong - the hold that TI has on the market has me just as floored as every other math teacher out there, but I am a sucker for cute things and the positive affirmations that go with math / calculators are just the cutest.  I might have already printed some of them for my classroom! :)

What have been some of your favorites this week?

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If you are interested in joining in the #MTBoSBlaugust fun, here's a post with some prompts to help you out!  The idea is just to blog / micro-blog during August to help us focus and reflect on the year ahead.  Please tag your post on Social Media with the hashtag #MTBoSBlaugust so we can support you in your blogging journey!

Planning out the Year - #MTBoSBlaugust Day 3

 

Back to school is RAPIDLY approaching and summer is winding down.  In general, I love our school schedule as it provides a lot of days off, but tomorrow is our first 1/2 day of PD, then we go back on Monday for staff meetings and kids come next Thursday!  In fact, kiddos were at the school today picking up their schedules, so it's official - summer is pretty much over!

Sadly that means it's time to focus!  

Today's big goal was to sit down and start looking at the nitty-gritty of lesson plans.  I don't know how other people plan, so I thought I would share my process...

First goal - Make a calendar!

Years ago, I found a calendar similar to the one pictured on the right online, but that site went away at some point, so I had to make my own.  It's okay - that allows me to use shading for our days off.  You'll notice the boxes aren't huge - this is just a "big picture" calendar and not meant for a lot of details.

Second goal - Block off even more days!

Now that I have my calendar set up and printed, I usually mark off the days that I know for sure won't be used for content - you know, those first days of school when you are setting up procedures and the days at the end of each semester for final exam review / finals.

Third goal - Figure out pacing!

Now it's time to look at my curriculum and standards and kind of give myself a general goal of each unit / chapter.  For example, Unit 1 might take ~3 weeks, so I'll mark U1 ------> for the first 3 weeks and continue on.  Of course, you are working around days off and trying to get through a certain number of units before the semester ends.  This isn't a daily schedule, this is just based on the order of topics and a general guide based on your district's curriculum map / textbook suggestion.  I usually build in an extra day or two for each unit / chapter because we all know that things happen and we need to budget flex time for things like fire drills, teacher absence, or even just needing an extra day to practice a concept.

Finally...

Now that I have a general guide for one of my preps, it's time to repeat it again for the other preps!

Getting the big picture in mind really helps me with some of the anxiety of back to school and gives me a roadmap for the semester.  After that is in place, then my brain is free to focus more on some of the day to day details of the first couple of weeks.

How do you plan out your year?  

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If you are interested in joining in the #MTBoSBlaugust fun, here's a post with some prompts to help you out!  The idea is just to blog / micro-blog during August to help us focus and reflect on the year ahead.  Please tag your post on Social Media with the hashtag #MTBoSBlaugust so we can support you in your blogging journey!

Blogging and Collaboration - #MTBoSBlaugust Day 2

 

I started blogging in 2008.  I remember early in my blogging journey that I would come home from work and open up my blog roll to see the newest posts by math teachers around the world.  I would read and learn something new almost daily.  To say the MTBoS (Math Twitter Blog-o-sphere) has had a profound impact on my life and career would be an understatement.  I have met some of my dearest friends and grown professionally because of this amazing online community.  I am blessed with colleagues locally that I met as a result of the MTBoS and I have friends across the country / globe that I turn to on a daily basis.

When I look back at old blog posts, I am sometimes hit with a profound sense of loss.  I don't always recognize my own voice and I can see moments of extreme growth in the times when I blogged regularly.  I was able to reflect and process my daily lessons as well as get feedback from teachers around the globe.  I would read about other people's struggles and triumphs on their blogs and use it to fuel my own creativity in my classroom.  As time went on, the blogs died down, many are no longer in existence and so many of the bloggers I followed left the classroom.

I read - a lot.  I always have a book in my hand, although it's usually on Kindle in today's world.  I have a huge professional library and used book stores are some of my favorite places in the world.  In the spring, I ran across a series of 3 books on Kindle Unlimited and this quote from Lean Lesson Planning really stood out to me:

How true is that?  

Now don't get me wrong, if you get a group of teachers together, they will start talking about school.  But how much of that discussion is centered around the content we teach and why?  I know we often have those hallway conversations about how to approach topic or a quick discussion about pacing, but for me, this was an area where blogs and Twitter helped fill the gap.  Why do we teach about triangle centers?  What is the best order for Right Triangles?  

Collaboration is vitally important, especially in the world we live in now.  Time with our families and self-care are priorities for many of us, but we also want to be able to create those moments for our students.  Having a collaborative team to help spread the load is more important now than ever.  

For those of us who teach in a small school, collaboration in our local community might be more difficult.  Thankfully, we are not limited to just the people in our hallway - we have the power of the internet in our hands!  

I'm grateful for the conversations and connections that Social Media has provided me over the years.  One of my goals this year is to get back to blogging and reflecting daily, to build those collaborative networks, and to spend more time sharing practices with others.  As a friend of mine often says... "We are better together"

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If you are interested in joining in the #MTBoSBlaugust fun, here's a post with some prompts to help you out!  The idea is just to blog / micro-blog during August to help us focus and reflect on the year ahead.  Please tag your post on Social Media with the hashtag #MTBoSBlaugust so we can support you in your blogging journey!

My Word of 2022-2023 - #MTBoSBlaugust Day 1

 

It's August 1.... I don't know how this year has flown by so quickly, but it has!  The past few years have been a struggle for all of us as we have learned to cope with the effects of a pandemic, both at home and in the classroom.  Pre-pandemic times both seem like it was a very long time ago, yet also like no time has passed at all.  Teaching in a pandemic has been difficult and I know I was not at my best.  However, a new year is ahead of us and it's time to get back to being a reflective learner and teacher, so #MTBoSBlaugust is back to help us get back into the groove!  You can read more of the details on this post - we would love to have you join in the fun!

My Word of 2022-2023

A few years ago, inspired by @pamjwilson, I started coming up with a word of the year to help guide me in setting goals.  While I usually do a personal word for the calendar year, I also started doing a "teacher word" to help guide me during the school year.  Several years ago, Pam sent me the beads to make a word of the year bracelet so I would always have that visual reminder on my wrist.

My word for 2022-2023 is Moments.

I've known this was going to be my word since January 2022 when I read the book The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath.  While the Heath brothers do not write specifically for education, many of their books have  great take-aways for teachers and The Power of Moments was no exception!

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book as it related to education:  

"Even though high school students log more time in the classroom than anywhere else, their most memorable experiences rarely take place there."

"A math professor said, “I want them to think of math as fun and interesting in its own right, not just practical. . . . When they see a link to a math story, I want them to click it.” "

"How much of your current syllabus will advance your students toward the dreams you have for them?" 

"A few minutes can change a life. These moments didn’t just happen; thoughtful teachers made them happen." 

One of my favorite examples in the book is about a hotel at Disney.  It's not the fanciest hotel, but it has the Popsicle Hotline.  You can call in and order your favorite flavor of popsicle, which is delivered on a silver platter by a white-gloved employee at no charge.  Moments like that doesn't take a lot of extra work or effort, but can elevate an average hotel stay to something that is memorable.  

In the classroom, we can do the same thing.  We can take those worksheets and elevate them using a game.  We can use some of those application problems and actually DO the experiment or gather the data and see what happens.  As the professor said in the quote above, we can make math fun and interesting for our students!

So this year, I am challenging myself to make moments for my students - to make the math meaningful and memorable.  I want to help them make connections, to be proud of their accomplishments, and to elevate some of the ordinary into the extraordinary.