Sweet summertime....

Another year has come and gone and what a year it has been!

This past week...
Thursday we had a Professional Development day and Neighbor Teacher and I presented on our implementation of Standards Based Grading. We had a classroom full of teachers, mostly math, but a few from other subjects too. The presentation was supposed to be 1 hour, but many people stayed over for about 30 extra minutes to ask questions. Overall, I was really pleased with how well the presentation went and I am excited to see where next year takes us in terms of assessment. From the questions and comments, I think several of my colleagues will be trying SBG next year in their classrooms. After the presentation, I started packing my classroom as I will be moving to our new math and science facility next year. After 30 boxes, my cabinets are completely empty and I am headed back up there today to do my desk area.

Next week...
One of the future goals of the math and science departments is to create inquiry based collaborative projects and lessons. This next week, several of us will be gathering for a two day workshop to learn about this initiative. I'm eager to see what the outcome of the workshop will be.

Over the summer...
As always, it will be a busy summer. In addition to next weeks workshop, I have three more weeks of workshops planned, several items on my to-do list for next school year, unpacking my new classroom, and lots of naps :)

Things to keep... Things to change...

Yesterday was my favorite day of the year. It was my annual "Trash Me" day. That is the day that I tell my kids to let me have it, tell me what they liked and dislked about the class, what needs to be kept, and what needs to be revised or even tossed completely. I tell them it's okay to tell me the honest truth and to feel free to tell me that I'm the worst teacher they've ever had and they wouldn't wish me on their worst enemy and I won't take it personally. For me, it's the most rewarding day of the year because the kids really are brutally honest and that's what allows me to grow from year to year. I start out by asking them to get out a piece of paper, then they free write for a few minutes. Then, I open it up to verbal discussion and write their comments on the board.

Here are some of their comments:
- Really liked working with a group/partner, but many felt they were too dependent on their partner, so they struggled when working independently. (My response: This year is the first year I've gone to almost a completely active classroom. As a result, the students worked on labs and activities almost daily to learn the material. While I did appreciate the reduced dependence on me as the teacher, I
did not anticipate the increased dependence on their groupmates.)

- Students felt the Gallery Walk activity was very successful. It forced them to read over the previous groups work and look for error and to see different ways that other students did the steps. (My response: I'm glad they felt this was useful, I had never used it before and now I will try to find ways to use it more often)

- Students appreciated that homework was only required for remediation/reassessments. The majority felt that we worked so hard in class (remember, they are the ones working, I don't lecture much at all), so additional homework they felt was unnecessary for most students. However, they did recognize that sometimes they needed to work more on a concept in order to really get it. (My response: I totally agreed with them here)

- One suggestion they had was to do more FR questions at a time. We do a weekly Free Response question, but many of them requested a monthly/quarterly Free Response practice that was multiple FRs at a time over mixed topics to help them prepare on pacing and seeing multiple topics at a time. (My response: I think this is a great suggestion and I will definitely implement it for next year)

Overall, I really appreciated their honest feedback and I will admit that this is the first year that I've had more positive comments than negative comments. I always learn so much from their suggestions and feel that this is one of the best growth opportunities for me from year to year. Now that the AP exam is said and done, I love reflecting on my year and planning for next year :)

Random Thoughts...

Tomorrow afternoon is the AP exam... I've done what I can do, now it's up to the kiddos.

Now the race to the end begins... Graduations, assemblies, banquets, final exams, professional development, packing up.... Seems like every day on my calendar has something written.

I've started my to-do list for the summer and it keeps growing. Sometimes I look at it and think "Dang, I really did a horrible job this year"... I know that's not true, but it's so easy to get overwhelmed by all of the things I would like to improve upon. I need to trim and edit the list to a manageable level...

Two more weeks....

Looking Back... Looking Forward....

It's that time of year where I start reflecting on the past and looking toward the future. We now have one month left of school and a lot to get done in that month. The Algebra 2 End of Course exam is just days away and the AP exam is coming in a few short weeks. The month of April has just flown by and here we are at the end of it!!

Yesterday I got to see my new classroom for the first time. My district is building a new math and science facility and in just a few short months, I will be moving in. It is bittersweet for me - I'm excited to have the amenities that come with the new facility, but very sad to leave my current hall-mates that have helped me through thick and thin. Some of the perks of the new room - a thermostat that *I* can control, lights that turn on automatically when you enter the room, and light controls both by the door and by the teacher station, which will be great for videos, etc, lots of white board space and the ever important storage.

As I look back on this year, here's my list of things that I'm really excited about:

• Standards Based Grading really worked well for me in Algebra 2. The kids really took ownership of their grades and realized that the important thing was that they learned the material. I am extremely proud of how well my kids adapted and how much they matured over the year.
  
• Converting AP to a completely active classroom. I really couldn't tell you the last time I lectured in AP. Instead, I set it up as a lab style classroom where the kids worked daily in groups, really emphasizing that "productive struggle" we keep hearing about.
  
• My online PLC via Twitter - I learn so much from these people! From the online book clubs to just having a network of like-minded educators, this has been one of my most rewarding professional activities from the year.
  
• Vertical Team - several of my colleagues and I have been working this semester on vocabulary alignment, Pre-AP ideas, and opening the lines of communication, all of which were sorely needed.
  
• Overall, because of the things listed above, this was my best year ever!!
  

Things to think about for next year...

• Flipping my classroom - making videos to teach, review and refresh concepts from earlier in the year
  
• Standards Based Grading for my AP classes
  
• Determining which labs were most effective for AP and which need to be revised
  
• Integration of articles into my AP classes
  
• More technology - in the new facility, we are supposed to have laptop carts in our classrooms. If so, I would like to work more with google forms, wikis, blogs, etc to really integrate technology
  
• Pre-AP integration - Assuming that I am still teaching Algebra 2 (we've not gotten our schedules yet), I would like to work on more Pre-AP activities.
  

It's going to be a very busy summer..

Developing Understanding in Algebra and Geometry

Last week, my district brought in a Pre-AP math consultant to work with us on Pre-AP Strategies. Initally, most of us were not pleased with having to miss a day of school to attend a PD day, mainly because we had missed 2 weeks of school in February due to a blizzard and we have end of course exams coming in mid April, so a lost instructional day was not high on our to-do list. However, we were also very grateful that the district was trying to bring in PD that would be applicable and ready to implement. In a nutshell, we had a great day :) Here are some tidbits of knowledge that I took from it...

General comments
"You (the student) will feel uncomfortable in this room! Your brain will hurt daily!"

The "Rule of 4" should be on every assessment and potentially every problem.

Make the kids communicate in complete mathematical sentences. Communication helps ALL kids - the answer alone does not. With just the answer, the struggling kid still doesn't know what to do or where to start.

Students should be asked to read, interpret, communicate, draw, label, compute, and explain/justify on a regular basis.

We as teachers should not have to put "Show all work" on every test - this should be an implied directive that they do no matter what.

More Specific Ideas
One of the key components of the workshop was the focus on how to communicate mathematically both your process and your product. One of the activities she used came from the Math Connections book by Dale Seymour. She used the "What are you likely to be asked" activity, but in the Amazon link, you can see an example of the "How do you know" activity. I can really see both of these as great warmup/journal prompts or even as exit slips.

Another idea she had was based on the game "Would you rather?" I think it would be neat to sit down and brainstorm a bunch of these for various courses. This again could be a neat journal activity.

She also refered us to the Algebra Lab website and we looked at the All Tied Up in Knots problem, which explores a system of equations using two ropes, tying knots in each of them and measuring their length. This could be a great pre-ap Algebra problem as you could go into what the y-intercept and slope really mean, which is a vital skill in AP Statistics. I'm eager to go through the other activities on that site to see what else I could use in my classes.

We also explored some neat geometry problems such as constructing a tangram using compass/straightedge, a fun manipulative proof the Pythagorean Theorem, 3D solid constructions using pipecleaner pieces and coffee straws, and peeling an orange to discover that the surface area of a sphere is 4(pi)r^2.

All in all, it was a fun and productive day that really allowed us to get some creative juices flowing.

Mastery of Objectives

So during a discussion on twitter today, @misscalcul8 and I were discussing the number of objectives taught per week. On average, in Algebra 2, I would say I cover 3-4 objectives. Her question, and a very valid one was this:

So how do you teach to mastery in one day of experience with a LT? I don't meant that critically.

Now that response is way over 140 characters, so I told her I would blog my answer :)

In short, the answer is "You don't." Mastery is not a one-day process - it is a long term process that differs for every child. You have to continue spiraling the curriculum so that over time, mastery is obtaining. Some of you may have seen the "forgetting curve"...

Here's how the forgetting curve works for me...
On the first day of an objective, I teach, they take notes, do problems, etc like normal. Then the next day, I give a "Checkpoint" - this is an ungraded formative assessment so I can provide written feedback and correct errors. On day 3, they get the checkpoint back, look over it, read my notes. (Note: during days 2 and 3, I am teaching new, but related objectives that I try to continue tying into each other). A few days later, there is some kind of cumulative activity to see how objectives work together, review multiple objectives, etc. There are also Jing videos that I have created and put on the class website that they are supposed to refer to if they need additional instruction. About once a week, there is a SBG quiz that covers that week's objectives. Again, lots of written feedback if needed. Over the next few weeks they are working on those objectives using self-check materials, the Jing videos, tutoring, etc so they can reassess. (In order to reassess, they must provide evidence that they have worked on mastering the objective)

In a nutshell -
From start to finish, the student has seen and worked with the objective many many many times, so that they are constantly bringing it to the forefront of their mind, spiraling the material so that they will achieve mastery.

Definitely longer than 140 characters :)

Spring Break :)

I have been meaning to post for a few days, but I'm struggling with forming coherent thoughts right now... This post will be somewhat of a rambling one, so bear with me...

At school, some of the teachers have decided to get together for lunch once a week in order to discuss vertical alignment. This has caused me to pull out old Pre-AP materials from workshops, do some research online, and even do a few calculus problems. What I have learned is that at the time I took calculus in high school and college, I really was clueless about what was going on. It makes so much more sense now that I've taught geometry and algebra 2 and have the conceptual maturity to get it!

As an extension of that, I've really been feeling a need to do a better job in Algebra 2, specifically with making connections. So I am going to steal borrow from the wisdom of my amazing blogger and twitter friends to rework the exponential/logarithm chapter with more active learning techniques. That was part of my goal today and I have 1 lesson done out of 8.. woot! :)

While I definitely enjoy having a break and being able to sleep in, I really am not a fan of this time of the school year. For some reason, each year in March and April, I look back over the year and thing, gosh, I did a cruddy job :( Then I start my to-do list of things to do better next year and the cycle repeats itself....

I need a nap...