Something New I Tried in 2022

 

Y'all, I'm halfway through the Yule Blog Challenge!  My goal was to blog 12 times over Winter Break (a play off of the 12 days of Christmas) and this is Post #6!!  I know I say this a lot, but I really do miss blogging more regularly.  I can't tell you the number of times I think "gosh, I need to blog about this", but then life happens and when I sit down at my computer I can't remember what it was I wanted to blog about!  I know I'm a better teacher when I reflect on my practice, so it's definitely an ongoing goal for me to blog on a regular basis, but it just doesn't always happen...

Anyway, today I want to share about something new I tried this semester - Blooket!

I had heard about Blooket before (Blooket.com) but had never used it until October-ish of this year.  I already was familiar with Kahoot and Quizziz and I really didn't want something else to mess with, but after receiving multiple recommendations, I decided to try it.

Before I get much further, let me say that the first time I played it, I was AMAZED at the engagement from my students!  They were asking to play again and again!  Like I said, I've used Kahoot and Quizziz before, but the student reaction is what sold me on using Blooket.

A Blooket teacher account is free which allows you to have unlimited games, assign HW, create your own question sets, use the question bank, etc.  I did end up purchasing the yearly subscription (~$35) in order to allow me to organize with folder, copy / duplicate / edit existing sets, have enhanced reports, and to give me a few more game options, but the subscription is completely not necessary to have a great Blooket experience!

When you log-in, you can create or discover sets, favorite them, etc.  Once you are ready to go, you click the Host button to choose your game mode.

Some of the games can be assigned as HW where you can put a link on Google Classroom (or other LMS) for students to play individually.  There are also special game modes for holidays, like Santa's Workshop, which is a seasonal themed version of Gold Quest.  I have not played all of the types, but my students really like Gold Quest because they can steal other people's money, so the fastest team isn't necessarily the team that wins.  They also like Fishing Frenzy and Battle Royale.  Many of the games also have various ways to slow down (or sabotage) your opponent.  For example, on Santa's Workshop, there's a sabotage that trees your screen so you have to click every tree to clear the screen before moving on to your question.

My classroom is set up in tables of 4, so I tend to play with teams and one Chromebook per group.  Once you choose a game mode, you can set the game to end at a specific time or when a specific goal is reached.  I have found a 10-12 minute game to be very engaging and a great way to practice quite a few problems in random order but not take up my entire class period!

While I don't use the results as much as I could (or should), the reports feature is pretty nice too.  You can see an overall report for the whole class with the number of questions correct vs incorrect.  I set the timer for this game at 12 minutes and every group worked 30 - 50 problems in that time frame!  I can see the group by group breakdown with how many they solved correctly / incorrectly.   Notice that there was a group that didn't miss any problems, but they still weren't the overall winners.  

You can also click on a specific group to see which questions they missed.  Since they only had 12 minutes and there were 65 questions, not every group saw every problem and that's okay.  I had also set this as a HW link so they could go through it on their own if they wanted.  Further down the reports page is the question by question breakdown where I can see how which problems were the most commonly missed.

Overall, I've really enjoyed having Blooket in my bag of tricks and it's been a great addition to my classroom!  If you've played, what are your favorite games?  If you haven't played, I encourage you to try it out!

An Ongoing Challenge

 

I changed schools in the summer of 2021.  At my previous school, I had taught AP Statistics for many years and had built that program into something I was very proud of.  When I interviewed at my new school, I had asked if they had a Stat program (no) and if they would be interested in starting one (yes), which was good news for me!  They had already done their enrollment process at the time I interviewed, so there was no Stat program for the 2021-2022 school year, but when enrollment came around in the Spring of 2022, Stat was on the list!

I didn't know what to expect, but the class made!  I ended up with 18 students enrolled in the inaugural class.  I had never taught an on-level Stat class before so I dug through my resources and tried to pull together what I saw as the most vital concepts of each unit.

Looking back, there are definitely some lessons I enjoyed and some that I felt went well.  But there are a lot more that I think could be modified and improved.  In general, the kids are college bound students who wanted another math class or knew that stat would be required for their career path (nursing, etc)

A few weeks ago, one of my Stat students came in during her aiding hour to help me with some Geometry activities and she asked why they didn't get to do as many activities as my Geometry classes.... I honestly did not have a good answer other than the difference in freshman / sophomores vs seniors, but her question got me to thinking....

So now I'm on the search for more activities for my Stat classes that aren't geared toward AP.  Thankfully we are about to start probability, so I know I can create a lot of activities there.  I think my goal with this class moving forward is to infuse more fun and joy into the curriculum.  Obviously I still have standards and content to teach, but this semester was a struggle when it came to figuring out homework and tests, so that's something I want to revisit as well.

My Stat Goals for 2023:

• More Active Learning using the list I use for Geometry
• Using more projects for assessment as possible
• Gathering real data to use / explore the concepts
• Figuring out a better HW / Testing system
• Just have FUN!  Stat is an amazing class - let's have some fun!

#Read3 (or 6!)

 

Several years ago, there was a hashtag floating around called #Read3, where you would share 3 blog posts, tweets, etc that impacted you.  Today, I'm sharing more than 3, but I couldn't narrow it down!  So here are some of the things I've read in 2022 that I want to remember....

Book - Teaching Math with Examples by Michael Pershan:

I read this book twice over the summer (and honestly need to read it again).  I've known Michael for many years and met him at TMC14 but this was the most informative book with regard to his teaching methods.  Teaching Math with Examples is also a pretty short book and a quick read, but filled with practical tips and hints on effective math teaching and learning.

While I have yet to implement these strategies, they are still on my to-do list for 2023!  When we return from Winter Break, we will be tackling triangle congruence proofs, so I need to re-read the chapter on how Michael introduces proofs to his students.  

Hashtag - #MathsTLP

A few weeks ago, I just happened to be scrolling on Twitter when the #MathsTLP thread started.  This is a UK based Sunday Twitter Chat where teachers post what they are teaching that week and others share resources and links to help them out!  It's collaborative Lesson Planning at its best!

After the Twitter chat, one of the hosts curates the links and shares them in a blog post (archive here:  https://norledgemaths.co.uk/tag/mathstlp/).  I loved this idea so much I started posting a similar idea each Sunday on my state NCTM affiliate FB page.  

Blog Post - Number Talks

First off, can I just say how much I adore Beth (@algebrasfriend)?  I've had the pleasure of knowing her for many years and have shared a few meals with her and her husband.  Beth is a retired teacher and principal, but still actively supports math education by curating links and resources to help others out.

I had been thinking about bringing back Number Talks to my classes this semester when I ran across Beth's most perfect post on Number Sense in the Secondary Classroom.  I'm really excited about starting Number Talks back up in January and I super appreciate Beth taking the time to gather those resources and share them!

Tweet - Potty Puzzlers

Jessica (@MsJBogie) is another dear friend and last year she became an Instructional Coach in her district after teaching middle school for many years.  As part of her new role, Jessica really wanted to build an awareness of math and started curating and printing monthly Potty Puzzlers to post in the bathrooms around the district.  She often shares these on her Twitter feed for others to use as well.  Every month that I see these, I think about printing it and posting it in our faculty restrooms, but I haven't done it yet.  Maybe in 2023.... :)

Podcast - Sermon Series on Anxiety

This past summer, a dear friend and former administrator shared a snippet of a sermon series on Anxiety.  The pastor was a great speaker and the series really spoke to my heart as the anxiety of a new year was approaching.  

Instagram Feed - Teachers of Oklahoma

Teachers of Oklahoma is the passion project of the 2022 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year, Rebecka Peterson.  If you don't follow Rebecka, you should!  Rebecka is one of the most positive and inspiring people I know and is totally my teacher crush!  Several years ago, Rebecka started posting daily on the One Good Thing blog, inviting each of us into her classroom and now she is travelling the state inviting us into the classrooms of teachers around Oklahoma in order to highlight the good that happens every day.  This profession can be frustrating and lonely, but this is just a reminder that you aren't alone and to "be the change"

What are some of the things you've read or listened to in 2022 that impacted you?

A favorite task of 2022

 

One of my goals this year with my Honors Geometry class was to bring in some challenging tasks.  I can't say that I've been extremely successful, but there are definitely some days that I feel like I did an okay job.

One of those days was during our Coordinate Geometry unit and the students had this task to solve:

I honestly didn't know how they would tackle it.  Some groups tried to algebraically solve it with the distance formula but quickly got bogged down in the algebra.  A few groups figured out a Pythagorean method by drawing a line at x = 7 and thinking about a right triangle:

 but then I looked over at another group and saw this...

This group drew a line 20 units long on patty paper, placed one endpoint at (-5, 14) and used the line segment like the radius of a circle to find out where the other endpoint would have an x value of 7.  I had only introduced patty paper a few days before and definitely not in this manner, so to see them make that connection and know how to use their resources to think through a problem really made me happy!

If you have any favorite geometry tasks to share, please let me know!

Student Engagement Strategies

 

Each year, as part of our evaluation, teachers in my state are required to have a yearly goal, called a Professional Learning Focus (PLF).  Here's my goal this year:

Our evaluation rubric has 20 elements, things like classroom management, leadership, instructional effectiveness, and professional growth.  Each of the 20 elements has multiple indicators for the evaluator to assess and the PLF has to align with one of those.  

After the "pandemic teaching" of the past few years, my school is mostly back to pre-pandemic times and I was determined this year to bring back more active learning to my classroom.  

Last summer, at the OKCTM Conference, Sarah Carter (@mathequalslove) was the keynote speaker and her topic was about Embracing Joy.  During her presentation, Sarah shared this photo of her lesson plan book where she highlights activities and games in order to be more mindful of their use in her classroom.  While I haven't quite gotten to the highlighting part, I loved this idea!  What if I was able to infuse joy and fun in the majority of the days?  Could I get by with minimizing the lectures / notes / homework cycle of the past few years and get back to a more active classroom?

I've taught Geometry for years, so I had a cabinet of slightly disorganized activities, so I set out to clean it up and get things labeled.  I pulled out every set of cards and made a list by chapter so I knew what I had already made, plus took a pile of binders and file folders home to organize my larger activities into a file crate.  Crazy enough, this file crate only holds activities from the 1st semester - things like Around the Room activities, Card Sorting Mats, Stations activities, etc.  In the smaller crates, there are index card boxes with Question Stacks and Task Cards.  

In general, when I'm lesson planning, I have my list of already-made activities handy, plus a list of my go-to strategies in case I need to make something.  I aim for 2-3 days a week of having some sort of activity and hopefully at least one of those days, we are moving around the room, either at the whiteboards or doing some sort of Around the Room activity.

Here's my list of strategies:

• Around the Room (Scavenger Hunt)
• Question Stack (Similar to Scav Hunt but at their tables)
• Card Sort
• Matching
• Whiteboards (either at their tables or on the big boards)
• Stations
• Bingo
• Kahoot
• Blooket

I'm always looking for new strategies, so if you have an idea to share, please let me know!

Celebrating the Fall Semester

 

What a year it has been!  At the end of the 2020-2021 school year, I left a school where I had taught for 21 years to start over at a much smaller district closer to my home.  The 2021-2022 school year brought new challenges as I had to re-establish myself as a teacher, plus dealing with the ongoing residual effects of a pandemic.

With a new school comes new traditions and thankfully the return of some older ones too!

This year, we had a full week off for Thanksgiving, so it was a good time to be thankful for each of my students.  During that break, I hand-wrote their name on a wooden ornament to hang on the Cardinal Tree.  This tradition is one I first heard about from Rebecka's post on One Good Thing and I have to admit, it is just adorable to see the students look for their name and to take a selfie by the fireplace.  There is just something so cozy about this little corner of my room and I'll be sad to take it down over Winter Break!

This week was finals week, which can always be a stressful time for kiddos!  On the last day of final exam review, I set up a hot cocoa bar and gave each kiddo a little goodie bag with an activity book, a candy cane, a pencil and eraser.  I was so proud of the students - no large messes happened and they did a great job of picking up after themselves!  It was a learning experience for me though, as I learned that many of them had no idea how to make hot cocoa!  I was also super happy that the weather cooperated and gave us appropriate hot cocoa temperatures!

All in all, it was a successful week to wrap up this semester and I'm really proud of how well my students did on their finals!

Brushing off the Blog for the Yule Blog Challenge

Today is the first day of my Winter Break!  That means it's time for me to reflect on this year and hopefully get back into a blogging habit.  I would LOVE for you to join me!  Some people celebrate 12 days of a holiday, but for me, it's about 12 days of blogging.

Your challenge... if you choose to accept it... is to blog 12 times over your Winter Break.  There are prompts listed below, but don't feel like you have to blog in this order or even use the prompts at all!  You'll also notice that there are more than 12 prompts - that's in case you want to combine some or if you don't like one or more of them!  But again, the prompts are only there as a suggestion when you don't know what else to blog about! :)

Please share your post with us in the comments or via Twitter using the hashtag #MTBoSYuleBlog - I can't wait to read your reflections on 2022!!

• A success story from 2022...
• A challenge I faced in 2022...
• A peek into my classroom...
• My favorites of 2022...  (lesson, activity, tool, strategy, memory, anything)
• #Made4Math... share something you made this year
• Something unexpected that I faced / learned...
• Something new I tried (or still want to try) this year...
• Start / Stop / Continue in 2023...
• A tool or strategy from 2022 that I will continue to use in the future...
• 3 good things from 2022...
• A look back at my professional growth...
• What I learned in 2022...
• My favorite lesson of 2022.... or one that totally flopped...
• Read 3 - 3 books, blog posts, tweets, or podcasts that impacted me in 2022...
• What's on my to-be-read pile for 2023...
• What worked (and what didn't) in 2022...
• What I'm looking forward to in 2023...
• My goals / #OneWordChallenge for 2023...

#MTBoSYuleBlog