#Made4Math - One Word

It's the first week of January and this is my 2nd blog post of 2020 - yay for keeping my blogging goal so far! :)

It's also the first Monday back to school for the spring semester and that alarm clock is definitely NOT my friend!  During the summer, I do a great job of not messing up my schedule because the sun streams into my bedroom bright and early, but in the winter, it's just a little too easy to stay snuggled under the covers until the sun finally comes out.

I don't know about you, but the first week back to school for me is about reestablishing relationships, reviewing procedures, and the normal housekeeping details that come with a new semester, which includes setting up new notebooks!

This year, I decided to add a goal sheet to my notebook set-up and thought I'd share it with you too!

On the front, it asks them for their "One Word for 2020".

On the inside, it asks why they chose that word plus asks for two goals - one related to my class and one of their choice (personal or academic) plus 2-3 action items to help them achieve their goal.

My word this year is Courage.  The reasons are a bit more than I want to go into right now, but I need courage to release some control, courage to move out of my comfort zone, and courage to step up.

Click here for the PDF file!

Happy New Year!!!

I don't know how we made it here so far, but Happy 2020!  It seems like only yesterday that I was gearing up for back to school and now we're halfway through the year.

Overall, this break has been a time of minimal interaction with the outside world.  I have read a lot and worn down my tablet battery on more than one occasion.  I have rarely put on real clothes, instead living in leggings and t-shirts, and I have generally been an absolute hermit. I have succeeded in messing up my sleep schedule, but I have relished the daily naptime and the fuzzy blanket on the sofa.  I have accomplished very little on my to-do list, but I'm (mostly) okay with that.

Today was a restless day, a day of irritability as I face the truth that school starts back in a few days.  Tomorrow, I'll head to school to clean and organize, then Sunday will be all about lesson planning again before we start back into the daily routine of life.  So, it's time to take a step back and think about the big things I want to accomplish this year...

Goals for 2020

Personal:

• Exercise / Health - I made my FitBos 2019 goal of 135 hours, but just barely.  I had too many days where I was just not in the mood to exercise or the weather wasn't cooperating or my plantar facsicitis was acting up.  However, as of the afternoon of Dec 31, I had completed 135 hours and 4 minutes :)  This year's goal is 140 hours.  I also have need to lose about 20 pounds, so that's on my radar as well.
• Specific Goal - Exercise at least 4 times a week.  Track calories via phone app
  
• Reflection Time - This is an area where I've struggled a lot.  In 2020, I would like to get back to a regular routine of personal / spiritual reflection and devotional time, as well as my professional reflection time with blogging.
• Specific Goal - Daily devotional time / journaling and blogging at least 2 times per month

Professional:

• Parent Contact - I started emailing "Student Shout Out" emails in August and while I haven't sent as many as I should, my goal is to have sent one to every student by the end of the year.  The responses I've received from the parents and students have been heart-warming and I really enjoy this time each weekend.
• Specific Goal - At least 5 emails per week
  
• Growth Zone - Overall, 2019 was good to me, but it also found me in my comfort zone a lot.  I didn't push myself as much as I could have or should have from a professional standpoint.  I'm at an awkward stage in my career where I'm definitely a veteran teacher, but with that comes a sense of disillusionment that frustrates me.  I'm not quite sure how to achieve this goal, or even how to articulate it, but I feel myself moving down the path of "ehh, no worries, that initiative will be gone within 2 years and a new one will take its place" and that's NOT okay with me.
• Specific Goal - Download new podcasts to listen to during commute, start back with #eduread books

What are your 2020 goals?

My 1st Quarter Report Card

Back in early August, I blogged about my goals for this school year.  As the first quarter comes to a close, it's time to do a reflection on how those goals are progressing... :)

Goal #1 - Thinking
Based on the book 'Why Don't Students Like School', I started this year with the goal of having students do more thinking.  Overall, I'm pleased with how this goal is progressing, but I know that I still have work to do, especially as the fatigue of winter sets in.  This goal has mostly been focused in my Geometry classes as the AP curriculum already incorporates this goal through rich problems.  Here are some of the things I've used:

• Puzzle Place - I started my puzzle table last year in January and while some students knew it was there, most didn't.  This year, I have kids that zoom right to it on Mondays and wrestle with the puzzle throughout the week.  One thing I would like to do is a "Puzzle Master" poster for students to get a star with their name on it when they've successfully solved the puzzle.  I had also thought of making a whole puzzle wall, but that went by the wayside pretty quickly :)
• Rich Problems - One of the things I worked on this summer was developing a list of rich problems for my Geometry class.  I have used several at this point with some good success.  I introduce most of them with the puzzle mindset and my students have been fairly engaged. 
• Find the Flub - This one hasn't happened - YET.  However, based on my readings on Formative Assessment, etc, I know this would be a powerful strategy to use, so I need to move it up the priority list.
• Jo Boaler - I started the year in Geometry with Jo Boaler and some of the work from her Stanford Team.  I really think this set our year off to a good start with regard to thinking skills!

Goal #2 - Vocabulary

Since both Geometry and Stat are vocabulary-heavy courses, I knew this goal was a must-do.  I'm really pleased with how this goal is going so far...

• Info Sheets - At the beginning of the unit (each quiz for Geo / each chapter for Stat), students receive an info sheet with the learning targets and vocabulary.  They do a vocabulary knowing rating at the beginning of the unit, then again at the end of the unit.  I love when students see their knowledge progressing as they rate themselves!  I don't think I use these info sheets to their best advantage, but I do like it better than what I've done in the past!
• Vocab Quizzes - This is one addition that I *really* like!  On Tuesdays, our warmup activity is a 'Terms Tuesday', where I give 10 definitions / questions and students write their answer.  I've also used things like "What is the formula for....", which isn't so much vocabulary, but definitely essential information!  I do think I want to modify this a bit next year so that students track their data and compete with themselves.

Goal #3 - Number Sense

Of all my goals, this is the one I'm enjoying the most!  This goal is mostly targeted at my Geometry students, so I need to figure out how to make it more applicable to my Stat kiddos as well.

• Number Talks - This one is a game changer!  If you haven't read about Number Talks yet, I highly encourage you to do so!  I started the year in Geometry doing these often, but I've slacked off a bit.  I need to get back to it!
• Mental Math Challenge - One of the first tasks I had my students do was the "4 4s" problem.  Now, each week on Monday, they get 4 random digits and are trying to write expressions to equal the values 1 to 24.  The level of creativity I am seeing in their expressions is amazing!  I need to figure out a way to do some sort of "creative expression" award or sticker or something.
• 1 to 9 puzzles - My students often get frustrated with these puzzles, but I love the number sense and thinking that happens when I give them a 1 to 9 puzzle and the number tiles.  
• Estimate, then Calculate - This is an area I still struggle in.  I have not implemented this well and need to look for specific places I can use this strategy.

Goal #4 - Parent Communication

While still not my favorite thing, I am getting better at this one...

• Email Class - This feature on our gradebook system is awesome, even though I haven't used it as much as I planned.  My original thought was to send a class newsletter to my parents, but yeah, that didn't happen.... Maybe next quarter :)
• Calling Parents - I have called more parents this year than I probably have in the past 5 years combined!  It's been difficult as I rarely have a time without students in my room, but I'm trying to be proactive, both by calling to celebrate successes and to nip issues before they escalate.  One thing that I did this year that I really liked was that on the back of my student information sheet, I asked students the question of "If I need to call home, who should I ask to speak to?" - This question yeilded some great information about family situations and gave the students the heads up that I woud be calling home!
• Organization - My goal is to hopefully reach out to every parent this year, so I added a section to my gradebook called "Parent Contact".  Mainly, I just printed a copy of my rosters and it gives me a place to document the date and type of contact, such as email, conference, phone, etc so I can keep track of who I've talked to.

Goal #5 - Feedback and Intervention

This goal is about to get its own blog post as this is part of my official evaluation goal... :)  

• Homework Reflection - I am *very* pleased with how the Homework Reflection form is going in geometry and I plan to implement it in Stat too.  I have already used that data with parents and students when they have asked about their grades and how to improve.  I've been able to use the data to pull students aside and talk to them about their study habits and the trends I see.  I definitely have some modifications to make, but overall, this is a keeper!
• Red Flag System - One of my summer reads was Robyn Jackson's "How to Support Struggling Students".  In the book, she talks about intervention and how to put together a "red flag" system.  This is something I want to work on in more detail and hope to have an online book study soon.
• Processing Feedback - This is still an area of growth for me.  My kids this year have been GREAT about coming in for extra help and really using the feedback I've given them, but I'm not doing as great of a job of providing time to process the feedback and helping them learn how to use it.

Overall - Good things are happening in my classroom and my students are responding positively to my nagging :)  I still have a lot of room to grow but based on the first quarter, I'm excited to see where this year takes us.

My Goals for the 2018-1019 School Year

This month, I'm participating in a blog challenge called Blaugust.  To see the list of participating blogs, click on the logo above. I would encourage to you please cheer on our participants with either a tweet or a comment on their blog during this month. It can be hard to blog on a daily (or even regular) schedule! :)  If you would like to join the blogging challenge, you can still sign-up anytime!

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I know that theoretically, time moves at a steady pace.  I also know that in real life, it doesn't.  Each year goes by faster and faster and the time from August 1 until the first bell rings to start the school year has to be the fastest time period of the year.

After a busy weekend filled with last minute purchases and document creations, I have just a few hours of summer vacation left.  I still have SO MUCH left to do but I needed to pause and think about this year's goals.

(Note:  The 5 goals listed are my *big* goals of the year, and does not include the normal on-going goals like better connections with my students, etc)

Goal #1 - Thinking
Earlier this summer, one of my EduReads was Daniel Willingham's "Why Don't Students Like School?"  Two take-aways from this book was that "Memory is the residue of thought" and "Whatever kids think about is what they will remember".

My plan:  I have already started gathering rich problems for Geometry and plan to use them often.  I want to get past the surface structures and really make sure my kids are thinking.  I have my "Making Thinking Visible" resources handy as well.  A huge part of this is going to be mindset as well, so I plan to use Jo Boaler's Week of Inspirational Math to help me out!



Goal #2 - Vocabulary
Both Geometry and Statistics are very vocabulary heavy courses and as a result, some students do not do as well as they could because of the language barrier of unfamiliar terms holds them back.

My plan:  I am working on a warmup structure for both courses to do short vocabulary based exercises and quizzes.  In addition, I've already shared the Vocabulary Knowledge Rating Charts for both courses and the Glossary for Geometry, so this plan is already underway. :)



Goal #3 - Number Sense
This goal is primarily for my Geometry students, but like many secondary math teachers, I have long lamented the lack of numeracy skills by my students.  However, I'm done griping about it and ready to DO something about it!  My main book chat this summer was on Tracy Zagar's "Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You'd Had" and she talked about the importance of Estimation and Sense-Making - traits that are sorely lacking in my classroom!

My plan:  I will implement Number Talks, mostly through Math Monday warmups after we get through the introduction phase.  I started reading Making Number Talks Matter and I'm about halfway through.  As my own arithmetic skills aren't the best, I'm really excited to work with my students on this one!  In addition, we will "Estimate, then Calculate" on many things because it drives me batty when a kiddo tells me an angle is obtuse, then tells me its measure is 34 degrees... ummm....



Goal #4 - Parent Communication
This is a weakness of mine.  I really, really, REALLY hate talking on the phone.  What should be a 2-3 minute conversation almost always ends up as 30+ minutes and then I have lost valuable planning time.  However, I recognize the importance of parent communication, so I am vowing to be better at it!

My plan:  Our attendance system has an "email class" option, so I want to use this feature at least once a month to email out a newsletter to my parents to let them know who I am and what we are learning in class.  I haven't really fleshed this one out completely and my newsletters may be totally lame at first, but I am way better with email than I am with the phone! :)



Goal #5 - Feedback and Intervention
This goal really needs its own blog post and maybe it will eventually! :)  One of my frustrations last year was that I had a few kids slip through the cracks, which led me to re-read Robyn Jackson's "How to Support Struggling Students" this summer.  In addition, Tracy Zager's book talked about that feedback is useless if kiddos don't have time to process and DO something with that feedback.

My plan:  When I give students feedback, I need to be intentional about giving them time to process and apply that feedback.  I want to have an idea of where they are PRIOR to an assessment by utilizing some of Jackson's strategies throughout instruction, but also having "red flags" in place to trigger interventions as needed to veer us back onto the right course.


What are your goals for the new year?

Organizing Rich Tasks

This month, I'm participating in a blog challenge called Blaugust.  To see the list of participating blogs, click on the logo above. I would encourage to you please cheer on our participants with either a tweet or a comment on their blog during this month. It can be hard to blog on a daily (or even regular) schedule! :)  If you would like to join the blogging challenge, you can still sign-up anytime!

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Confession time...

For years, I have had a goal of integrating rich tasks into my classroom and this year is no exception.

But... (here's the confession)... I didn't.  Or at least I didn't do it well.  There are a lot of excuses as to why, but that's not what this post is about. :)

For the first time in at least 5 years, I have the same preps as I did last year (YAY!), so I am determined that this is the year that I am going to meet my "Rich Tasks" goal.

But it's hard.  It is difficult to find good problems, to find time to sit down and sort through problems, to play with the 5 practices on how to integrate those problems.  So I had to find a way to get through some of those excuses.  I needed a way to organize the problems I did find so that when it came time to USE the problems, I could do so without additional stress.

Here's my plan:

I created a powerpoint for my Geometry book and started by making a screen for each chapter with a list of the individual lessons within each chapter.  Then, as I had time, I have populated it with problems that I've found on Open Middle, Exeter Math, Park School Math, NCTM Calendar, etc.  (I should note that I've put the source credit / link / page / number in the slide notes so that I will have access to the info but I can easily copy/paste the slides over to my working lesson PPT.)

One of the struggles I've had is what constitutes a rich task?  Mainly I've been looking for a couple of criteria:

• Accessibility - We hear about this a lot with "low floor" tasks and "multiple entry points", but I am looking for problems that all students should be able to start somewhere
• Multiple Methods - Learning is messy and part of what I love about math is that different strategies can all work well.  I want something that can create some rich dialogue on "how did you think through this problem?"
• Interesting - Now granted, I chose problems that were interesting to me.. questions that made me think, ponder, wonder, and puzzle.  And just because I found it rich doesn't mean that others would and that's okay.  

One thing I've learned about myself over the years is that if I want something to change (and be a LASTING change), I need to figure out a way to make it sustainable when the craziness of the year happens and to make it user-friendly for me so that I have fewer excuses to ignore it.

Would love to hear how you organize tasks and/or your favorite places to find tasks! :)

Reflecting on my 2017-18 Goals

Back in early August, I posted a few goals for the 2017-18 school year and with only 2 weeks left in the year, it's time to reflect on my successes and setbacks.

Things I wanted to start:

• Using Vertical Non-Permanent Surfaces - I still have work to do on this one, but overall I am pleased with my usage of VNPS.  Last summer, I moved around some things in my room to open up all of my whiteboards for student use as well as having my father-in-law cut some large boards out of shower board for me.  I did not use them as well as I could have in AP Stat, but I LOVED using whiteboards in Geometry.  I ended up not using the big boards as much as I thought I would and instead focused on using individual whiteboards.  Having these whiteboards available at ALL times really was a game changer for my classroom.
• Asking Better Questions - Umm, yeah, I'll take the big L on this one as it is still on my "I need to try that" list.  I need to focus more on this in my summer reading, so shoot me any suggestions you have!  
• Being More Involved in the MTBoS - I haven't been quite as involved in Twitter as I would like, but I am pleased to report that I have blogged over 40 times this school year, which is a HUGE accomplishment for me!  

Things I wanted to stop:

• Rescuing my students - I would like to say this was a success, but it wasn't.  With the use of whiteboarding, it was easier to monitor my students and watch their productive struggle, but I need to work on this - A LOT!  I don't even know where to begin to be honest... so many of my students would rather sit and stare at a blank page than even attempt a problem, even if it is the exact same problem as an example.  How do I move past this so we can tackle the rich problems that I really want to tackle?
• Eating lunch in my room - Yeah, another L for me.  My lunch period is with my plan period, so I often forego lunch to work in my room.  I have made it down to the lounge more this year than last year, even if it was just to get coffee :)

Things I wanted to continue:

• Formative Assessment - I think FA is one of those goals that can never be fully met, but I was able to add several new strategies to my toolkit and I tried to focus on "What did I teach? What did they learn?" as a daily mantra.  This summer, I will continue to work on fine-tuning these strategies as I am supposed to present about FA to our new district staff in August.
• Personal Health - I've had a few setbacks due to poor eating habits, BUT, I met my 2017 exercise goal with #fitbos17 and I have met EVERY monthly goal so far in 2018!  Even during the yucky cold winter months, I still pushed myself to get out and exercise - mainly because of my "boyfriend" :)  (This is a joke from hubby - I have an 81 year old neighbor man that I met last summer while he was walking his dog, his wife had just been placed in a nursing facility at the time and he was lonely for conversation.  Now, it's one of the highlights of my day!)
• High Five Fridays - This continues to be one of my favorite ways to connect with my students.  I even have students in the hallway that aren't in my classes giving me high fives or telling me "Happy Friday!"  On my end-of-year survey, a few of the students mentioned how much they looked forward to Fridays just for the High Five.  

Overall, I'm pleased with the progress I made this year.  For 20 years, I have struggled with balancing my personal and professional life and I think I found a good balance this year.  I'm still a "work in progress" and I have things to work on for next year, but to be honest, when the time comes that I no longer thing I have room to grow, then it's time for me to retire / leave the profession.

Many thanks to my students this year that helped me grow, pushed me to try new things, and put up with my craziness when things didn't go as planned.  I couldn't ask for a better group of kiddos to work with every day :)  

Mid-Year Reflection on my Goals #MTBoS12Days

Back in August, I blogged about my Goals for 2017-18 as part of the MTBoS Sunday Funday challenge.  Now that the year is halfway over, it's time to check in on my progress!

Checking In on Goal Progress 2017-18

In my original post, I said I wanted to start 3 things..

• Vertical Non-Permanent Surfaces - This goal is well on its way!  For my birthday, hubby bought me white showerboard cut into 2 ft by 4 ft boards and my Father-in-Law sanded it down and put in handholds to hang them.  I have used whiteboards more in Geometry overall, but I love that my Geometry students will often ask if they can get a whiteboard to work on.  I haven't gotten quite to where I want with VNPS, but I'm closer than I was in August! :)
• Asking Better Questions - This goal is pretty much where it was back in August.  I printed off the question stems, but I haven't done a good job of implementing these questions.  I need to go back and rethink how to integrate more intentional, richer questions into my lesson plans.  If you have any resources, I'd love to see them! :)  One of my summer list items is to go through the Exeter Math curriculum to find good Geometry problems to use with this goal.  
• More MTBoS Involvement - I'm happy to say that I've done so much better with this goal over the past few months!  To put some numbers to it, let's look at my blogging record for the Fall Semester for the past few years.  In 2017, I have blogged 16 times from September - December.  For that same time period in 2016, there was 1 (yes, only 1) blog post and in 2015, there were 9 posts in that time period.  I would like to get back to #EduRead at some point, maybe there will be time this spring!

I also said I wanted to stop 2 things...

• Rescuing my students - As happy as I am about the successes above, this goal hasn't really worked out very well.  I wanted to "be less helpful" but it's easier said than done.  I want to get to the productive struggle and it's still one of my goals, but I'm just not there yet.  I'm really hopeful for this goal this semester in Geometry as we delve into some deeper concepts.
• Eating lunch in my room - This one has been a fail.  My original goal was to get out of my room and go eat lunch in our lounge with the other teachers, but that hasn't really worked out.  My lunch time and planning period are together, so I have tried to be more intentional about using that time effectively so that I can have a better balance in my life.  This is a trade-off I'm okay with :)

And I wanted to continue with these 4 things...

• Effective Formative Assessment - This past summer, I read a lot on FA strategies and while I've used some of them, I need to go back and re-read my notes on how to use this data effectively.  I think this is a goal that others would say I use well but I personally don't think I do.  It's going to be one of those topics that is always just out of reach because the bar keeps moving slightly higher the closer I get to it.  (I hope that makes sense!).  
• Personal Health - This is another win!  I met my #fitbos17 goal of 120 hours of exercise in October and am currently around 135 hours for 2017.  Since the end of May, I've lost approximately 35 pounds and I'm at a good place in terms of physical, emotional, and mental health.  I've done well at finding balance this semester and finding time to read for fun and "choosing joy" on a regular basis.
• Instructional Strategies - I have enjoyed creating INB pages for Geometry and am ever grateful for the MTBoS in sharing ideas and Pinterest photos to spark my creativity!  I've continued with many Make It Stick strategies, like the spiraled Multiple Choice each Monday and kids have commented on how useful it was to always be reviewing older material.  I need to re-read Make It Stick this summer with an eye on how to implement it more in Geometry as well.  (Assuming I get to teach Geometry again!)  I have continued to use SBG, but I am at the place where I really need to refine it some more, specifically with remediation and reassessment.
• High Five Fridays - I love, love, love HFF and yesterday I found a stamp at Target that says #HighFive!  I can't wait to use it :) :)  I love when former students come by my room just for a High Five!

Overall, there were some definite "wins" and some definite "not yets", but I'm fairly pleased with my progress!  How did you do with your goals this year?

Goals for 2017-18

For the past several years, I have done an August blogging challenge, but this year, I just didn't have it in me.  However, I'm super excited that the #MTBoS Sunday Funday challenge is back!  This is a weekly blogging prompt that is hosted over at Julie's blog and this week's theme is "Goals"

Every week, Julie will push out a new topic, you blog about it and submit your blog post using this Google Form.  On Sunday, there will be a huge list of awesome blogs to go read! :) YAY!


Traditionally I don't make make New Year Resolutions in January because my new year comes in August as the start of a new school year.  I don't know if other teachers feel the same, but that's what works for me :)

Here's my Start - Stop - Continue for my 2017-18 goals :)

I want to START:

• Using Vertical Non-Permanent Surfaces (VNPS) in my classroom.  I have read the research and really feel convicted on this one.  That's not to say that I don't feel scared as all get out, but I want to set a goal to try this at least once per unit.
• Asking better questions.  Pam presented on this during TMC and it was part of several of the Formative Assessment books I read this summer.  I have printed off several question stem pages based on recommendations from my Twitter pals.  My goal is to use these question stems while I am lesson planning to help me develop my questioning skills.
• Being more involved in the Math Twitter Blog-o-Sphere (MTBoS).  This online teacher community has been my family for 8 years now.  However, for the past few years, I've pretty much kept to myself due to a variety of reasons and this just needs to stop.  I am a better teacher when I'm involved in the MTBoS, so my goal is to blog at least once a week with Sunday Funday and to be involved in the #geomchat and #statschat on Twitter.

I want to STOP:

• Trying to "rescue" my students.  There's a lot to be said about productive struggle and if I am trying to use rich tasks and VNPS, I need to let students have that struggle, to really own the math.  I am hoping the better questioning will help with this as well.  
• Eating lunch in my room.  I used to eat with other teachers and we had a great time.  However, last year, the environment in the lunch room was too politically charged, so I just stopped going.  I miss the fun, light-hearted conversations that we used to have, so I need to focus on "being the change."  My goal is to eat lunch with my colleagues at least 3 days a week to give myself a break from my classroom.

I want to CONTINUE:

• Learning more about effective Formative Assessment techniques.  This was the focus of most of my summer reading, which I've blogged about a few other times.  My goal is to integrate at least one FA technique per day to inform my teaching and to teach my students how to use it for their learning.
• Working on my personal health.  Over the past few years, I've gotten busy and combined with stress, did not prioritize my mental, emotional, and physical health.  This summer, with the help of #fitbos17 and some encouraging quotes that continually run through my head, I've been able to lose about 15 pounds.  My goal is to lose about 10 more pounds and I know I can do it!
• Using Interactive Notebooks (INBs) and the Make It Stick strategies in my class.  I have noticed so much more content retention since utilizing these strategies!
• High Five Fridays!  This simple technique is really a game changer when it comes to your classroom culture.  If you haven't tried it, I highly encourage you to just give it a shot.  I resisted for the first year because I am an *extremely* introverted person, but I promise you that it's worth it!

What are your goals for 2017-18?