We're BAAAaaaaackkkk

Official teacher inservice started this week. We had a gentleman come in and teach us some strategies for engaging the students. Some ideas:

A-Z review - in a group they make a small poster for a particular topic and think of terms for each of the letters (we did "dating"). In math, I guess you could be general and do "math" or maybe "geometry", etc.

A $20,000 Pyramid type of game (I think) - you play in pairs, player A has a hidden index card and mentions the subject to player B (say calculus), and then there are (say) 6 terms on the card (derivative, integral, MVTh ...) and then player A tries to get "B" to say the terms by just giving them clues.

Make an appointment - he gave us a sheet of paper with some time slots: 9am, 10am, ...., 3pm, and we were to walk around the room and make an appointment for 9, 11, 1, & 3 o'clock with 4 different people, 9 & 11 were to be in our subject area, 1 & 3 with others. Then throughout the day when he needed us to pair up, he said, "go to your 3pm appointment and ..... ". I guess this is a way to get students to work with people outside of their small circles and comfort level (find someone who is ...) , and it gets them moving around to make the appointments.

There were other activities, too, so now I feel I have a nice treasure trove to pick from.

We also get 1.5 hours each day this week for lunch. Ooh la la. That will be a big shock when we go to 30 minutes this year!

Teaching Analogy

It's Saturday, and I was at a math inservice today. After initial grumbling (wa wa wa Saturday ... wa wa wa school hasn't even started ... wa wa wa pity party), it turned out to be a very useful day. We discussed and saw examples of what made preAP assessment questions of "preAP" caliber (options chosen from multiple representations, using variables and symbols in the question instead of all numbers as coefficients and constants, testing future topics in a scaffolded way,...). I also talked with people who had taught block schedule in HS math and got some good ideas.

I loved this analogy:
Think of a student and his/her learning as a candle being made. You have to keep dipping the wick in wax, and some of it sticks the first time and as you keep dipping, more and more of it gloms onto the wick and eventually you have a finished product. ... so basically another way of plugging for a continual refresher of all topics even though they may not be in the "current" unit, so that the more times a student sees something, the more chance the knowledge have of sticking.

And finally a student joke (old?) that still makes me giggle:

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Interrupting cow.
Inter .... moooo.

Judgmental Cookie discusses Lock-Step Teaching

Ew. My math specialist friend is going back to teaching and being an instructional coach at a school that is apparently "2 steps away" from being closed due to low scores on the state exit exams. She mentions that every math subject teacher will now have common lesson plans and will have to teach the same things and plan together and do the same activities because the school is in trouble and this is their (last-ditch?) effort to right things.

That sticks in my craw. Suppose you have a teacher that is not successful and needs some help and suggestions on how to present a topic. Just because they're using a from-above sanctified activity, does not mean that it will automatically be successful. The same qualities of their teaching that makes them not successful will still be there with this worksheet (or such).

Sure, make sure they're covering the same topics, but then go in and make general teaching suggestions and follow through and update and check up on the teacher to measure if there's progress made. Don't stifle potentially new and better ideas and creativity by dictating what and how one should teach. I know my friend will do all of these things as she is awesome, but this "everybody does identical work" thing does not sit well with me.

This also does new teachers a disservice. If everything is handed to them/us, they/we will probably never learn to create their/our own activities and will always be at the whim of the textbook companies and such.

Ew.

Vicious Cycle

My Baton Rouge friend has a 4.5 year old and has to start thinking about school choices and is in a mental tug-of-war. From what she has heard, the public school system is not stellar, and since it's not stellar, many people choose to send their kids to private schools. And since they pay private school tuition, they LOUDLY squawk when asked to pay for public school improvements. And since no money goes into the public schools, then it stays not stellar.

She wants to believe in the public school system and support it, but then she's torn because she wants her child to get a good education. It's easy for me to have a knee-jerk reaction of "well put your child in public school and then work as a community of caring parents to change it" and then on the other hand, I don't have children, and I don't know what I'd do in this case. I know what I hope I'd do, but who ever really knows until they live it? Everyone wants the best for their kids.

The high school I teach at apparently has a nonstellar reputation, and people around the community think nothing of mentioning that to me. But then I teach at the school, and I know some of the great things that go on there (in addition to the bad things), so how much stock can you put in a reputation. There are good and "bad" teachers and admins and students everywhere and every school has problems of some sort.

My Summer Vacation

I read about the cool "Red Scarf" project over at Now Norma Knits and watched the video here and am now in the process of making this:

What a great idea that provides care packages for college students with no traditional family support. I remember diligently checking my mail for letters and cookies and such from my friends and family. I guess I still do, so I'd better get busy writing cards and letters of my own, so that maybe some day my box will be filled with stuff other than bills and junk and the ever-popular BedBath&Beyond 20% off coupon that you'd better USE NOW because you won't be getting another one for at LEAST a week.

I'm also furiously working on this which I need to finish before Wednesday, so I can wash it and have ready to go for my brother-in-law's wedding. I didn't want to make a full "bed" quilt that they'd have to politely use even if they didn't like the color choices, so I made a size that's suitable to cozy up with on the couch when you're watching the telly. Well, "made" is used loosely as I'm not done and am blogging instead of working on it.

Okay, off to the sweat shop ... or is it snack time?

It's Who You Know

I just returned from visiting friends in Louisiana and East Texas. Both women are active activists in their own way. One is volunteering in various ways with the Katrina aftermath, and one is highly involved in animal rescue and fostering and placing of animals.

My "Katrina" friend is surrounded by people doing good and being a community and her outlook is that people are inherently good. My "animal" friend sees the worst that people can do to animals and sees people as inherently evil. This has become a second-nature thought for both of them.

Growing up I was surrounded by a dysfunctional, alcoholic, ethically-challenged, "the world is out to get you" family, and I was sure I didn't like people and ultimately wanted a job where I worked in isolation. After I went away to college and met different sorts of people and grew up and saw "good", my outlook changed.

So now when I see my students in class and they behave in a variety of good and bad ways, I rest assured in the fact that the "bad" behaving people can only benefit from being repeatedly exposed to "good". Even though this may be how they act now, that doesn't mean that will always be their behavior.

Survey

Thanks, Tony, for the idea. Just out of curiosity, which ones do you think of as bottles when you look at the pictures? (ooh, pretty small picture and letters for an old lady's eyes)

Jar or Bottle

Last night at dinner I was opening a small spherical glass container of mustard, and my husband and I got into a discussion on whether it was a jar or a bottle. Then we started thinking of other glass containers and tried to sort them into the jar and bottle camps. Yes, I know, scintillating. Tonight maybe we'll discuss pennies: pros and cons.

Of course then I started thinking of geometry when we hit the unit of being precise with definitions of triangles and squares and such. I looked up the jar/bottle definitions via google, and I'm not completely impressed with the output. The word "wide" is used, and I think that's subjective. And the jury is still out on the mustard bar/jottle.

Enthralling Book

While I was on vacation up north, I read Rafe Esquith's, "Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire" and loved it. Even though he teaches 5th grade, I still jotted down notes on things I want to explore and think about later on for my high schoolers. Some things that resonated with me (that my tired brain can remember while my lazy body does not want to go upstairs to retrieve my 4 pages of notes):

* don't settle for mediocre
* incorporate art somehow into your curriculum
* teach manners and behavior (he lists 6 levels and has his kids strive for the highest) ***
* assign short term (1 week) and long term (1 month) projects consistently to teach time management (hmmm, this one I'd have to think how to manage and teach)

*** (the levels came from another book and were of the effect:
1. I behave because I don't want to get in trouble
2. I behave because I want a reward
3. I behave because I want to please someone
4. I behave because I follow rules
5. I behave because I have empathy for others
6. I behave because I have my own moral compass and want to do the right thing because it IS the right thing

There's much more, and it was an inspiring read.

Living in the Neighborhood

I live in a different part of town from the HS at which I teach, about 40 minutes away. Though I could do with a shorter commute, I do like the fact that when I go out in public, I don't have to have my teacher persona on all the time. I can go out without makeup and in shorts and a t-shirt and not look over my shoulder when I buy feminine supplies at the grocery store and such.

Today my husband and I were out doing a chore way down by my school. I was grungy looking, and we were hungry, and I remembered a great food place to stop at. My stomach won out over good sense, and we stopped in. I got lucky and didn't see any students while we quickly downed our food and made our escape. Whew.

Summer Slugfest

If I could get a guarantee that I wouldn't blow up enormously and be unhealthy and start to smell, I think I could pass all my days lolling on my huge couch reading, knitting, puzzling, quilting, napping, movie-ing, etc. As it is, I already sit around more than I do during the school year, so I'm having my 3rd annual let's-gain-summer-weight festival. I am lifting weights and doing step, so maybe it's all muscle. Yessssss, muscles that are so big, that my pants are getting snug. As a weight lifter (cough cough), it's hard to find clothes to encompass my muscular thighs.

Okay, off to do step and get one "step" closer to a beach body. But, as my friend reminds me, there are all sorts of beach bodies.

Blogging Question

I would like to create a website for the next school year that contains my homework assignments and news for each of my classes. I looked at schoolnotes.com and classhomework.com, but there were various things I didn't like about them: ads, layout, accessibility, so I'm thinking of simply creating a blog that I can update daily after school gets out.

I would like to have the blog divided into different math class sections, so that a student or parent can simply click on, say, precalculus, and that information is all in one place. I have not found this capability information on the web, but I believe I've seen it on other blogs (that I of course can't find now). Is there a simple way to do this with an available template, so that I don't have to write (much?) html code?

Does anyone have insight into this? Thanks in advance.

Large Classes

I was talking with my "math specialist" friend the other day, and she mentioned that she went to the NCSM meeting in Atlanta and heard something interesting. One gentleman was doing preliminary work on class size and found that some higher performing schools had up to 40 students per math class. Can you imagine? And, they seemed to do better by whatever scale they measured these things by.

His theory was that with 40 students in a class, the teacher does not have the time/resources to help each kid individually, so the kids are forced to fend for themselves and help each other out, and the process of this involves them talking math to each other and forming their own knowledge and this in turn makes them retain things better.

Either that, or maybe it's a sink or swim situation. Maybe the kids that are discipline problems or such somehow are weeded out. I don't know. But the talking it out theory gives me something to think about even though I don't have THAT many students in class.

New Principal

Next year we're going to have a new principal. We don't know who it is yet, and I don't know if they've even hired him/her (himer? herm? himher? them?). I guess I'm feeling like the kids feel at the start of each school year:

Ooh, new teacher. Will she/he be nice? Will she/he like me? Will I like her/him? Will he/she do a good job? How long will it be before he/she knows all our names? What can I/I expect?

Block Schedule

Next year our school is going to block scheduling. I'm not too happy about it (how will I successfully get the students to practice good skills every day? how can I adjust the topics so that they learn all I want them to learn? how in the world did they get 20% more work out of us without paying us 20% more?) , but since it's happening, I will use the summer to get ready. My strategy is to read a book our school provided for us (Teaching to the Block) and to scour the internet for ideas. We're going to an ABC block, I believe, Mondays (C) all 8 classes, T/Th (A) 1,3,5,7, W/F (B) 2,4,6,8.

Things I need to do:

* Plan a toolbox-full of ways to structure each class in general so they don't sit in one place for too long.
* Rearrange the topic list (especially AP calculus) so that we learn enough.
* Other stuff/issues/challenges I'm probably not aware of yet.

On top of that we're starting school 2 weeks later than usual, and I'm stressing about finishing up my AP Calculus topics in time to review for the AP exam. Deep breaths. I can do it.

Learning

This past Saturday we had our last full-day National Board Cohort meeting before the summer. Again I learned things about learning and teaching since I was in the student mode. For one activity we were to learn about 3 of the 4 portfolio entries we were to submit. There are 3 HS math teachers going through the program, so we each learned one and then "jigsaw" taught each other. There was a sheet of paper we were to fill out with prompts for information we needed to focus on. I liked this scaffolding and want to adapt it next year to help the students get used to reading math textbooks. I did a bit of it last year, but I think with our new textbook adoption, the new books will be more readable.

I learned that I hesitate to ask questions when the others seemed to be working so efficiently. There was one prompt I couldn't find an answer to, and instead of "looking dumb" and asking the others, I floundered around for a while. Sheesh, it gives me empathy for students not wanting to ask questions and such.

I also learned that I didn't like the jigsawing too much. Maybe I'm too much of a control freak, but in the back of my mind, I kept thinking, "well, I can go over this more carefully myself later". Or maybe I'm missing the point. Maybe each person concentrates really well on one topic and learns it to teach it to the others and then when the others are teaching their topic, you're to go along and skim the pages while they're teaching and ask good questions and learn that way.

We also did this brainstorming activity where we were to write down all our teaching duties and accomplishments and how we contribute to the profession. The leader gave us sticky note pads, put us in a group of 2 or 3, and we were to write one accomplishment per note. Then we were to share with each other and combine the notes and organize them into categories. At the beginning of the activity (come to find out afterwards) we were all thinking that we didn't do much and how could we think of anything. Then through the discussion with our group mates, things one person noted prompted us to remember more than we could if we were by ourselves. And then the organizing of it all made it all stick in my mind more effectively. So, I don't know how I can use this as a teacher, but I know there has to be some learning task which lends itself to this in math. Not just remembering of facts or processes, but something.

It's REALLY the last day

We just have to go in today to check out and pack up and celebrate our successes. Also, our school is named after a still-living phenomenal educator, so this person will come to our last luncheon. Good times.

Ultimately, I can say that I had good kids this year. Translation: no mean-spirited, nasty-in-class, drag-down-the-atmosphere students. Whew. I even ended up liking my pain-in-the-butt will-you-stop-TALKING students.

I had a student leave an interesting comment in my "year book". Now this kid basically stopped working in AP Calculus. He did not turn in one shred of homework the last 6 weeks. I was constantly on him, but not effectively. Anyway, in my book he wrote, "thanks for caring enough to bug me about my homework". Hmmm, that gives me incentive to keep it up.

I also worked graduation. This year, I was not in charge of a row of students, but got to stand in the back. At first I felt like an extra, but then I saw the great advantage here. As the kids filed back to their seats from walking the stage, I was in a prime hugging spot. And boy were there lots of hugs and tears. I've known a ton of these students for 3 to 4 years. I lost it a couple of times just thinking about not seeing them again.

I also snuck out "early" one day this week after finals for my 4th annual end-of-the-year matinee (Waitress). I'm usually either the only one in the theater or there's at most 2 other people. This year, there were about 10-14 people. What I want to know is, why aren't you at work people? Did you all just get done giving finals? Maybe today I'll start my 1st annual 2nd matinee during finals week tradition (Namesake).

End of the Year

Yippee! One more week of school, and it basically is all finals. Love. It. On Friday I gave my AP calculus students an in-class "final" of writing either a "Dear John" or a love letter to calculus. I handed out colored paper because for some reason, things are just more fun to do on nonwhite paper. Shockingly :), most of the letters were of the "we're breaking up" variety. I gave them specs that they had to have at least 2 compliments with explanations and at least 2 faults with justification and that they had to add something extra to "wow me" and that it had to be a page long.

Boy are they creative. Some highlights:

"I like you sister, precalculus, better"
"Things were fine until I met your crazy relatives - related rates"
"You're too complicated for me. I need a simple relationship"
"How dare you cheat on me with Physics"
"p.s. you're following me to college, not the other way around"
"thank you for making me feel special. You made me feel like I could do any problem that was thrown at me"
"I love how you make me think all the time, even though sometimes you hurt me"
"It's not you. It's me. You're cutting into my personal time"
"We had our problems and had to get counseling from Ms. Cookie. Then things got better"
"You pushed me to the limit"
"I know I won't miss your related rates, which relate to my painful headaches"

Doing Your Best

There's a girl in my precalculus class, a junior, who has spotty attendance, and by that I mean that there have been weeks at a time when she would show up maybe 3 total times. I had her 2 years ago in geometry, so I know her. I also asked her algebra 2 teacher from last year if she had any problems with her, and she mentioned her multiple absences.

When she came back from her last absences, I asked her what the deal was in a nice teacherly way, and she just shrugged. I asked her if everything was okay, and she said it was, not too convincingly. I asked her if she had someone to talk to, and she nodded. She said she was trying. So I basically left it at that, and said that if she needed help to please come in, and to make sure she got caught up.

Well, she keeps saying lately that she has a ton of work to turn in to me, and that she keeps forgetting it. She also came in after school today and got tutoring. And I don't mean the fake tutoring where the student makes a show of getting help, but just wants to quickly complete the assignment just to get the grade. She was asking good questions and actually getting it. I have a good feeling that she will turn in all her work that she's missing.

... I've started this new exercise program with these videos of weight lifting and cardio, and the trainer has all these goofy sayings, but one keeps running through my mind: do your best, and forget the rest. What a great thing to live by. As long as you're putting out your best effort, it doesn't matter what others are doing, it doesn't matter if it's not "good enough". If you can honestly say you've done your best, then that's what it's about. Now I don't know if it's this girl's best effort, but maybe it's what she can do right now. At least she's coming back and not just shrugging her shoulders and giving up because it's too much to make up. Go her.

Recent Reminders

* Sometimes students are happy when you change their seats away from their friends. Now they can concentrate on the lesson.

* Students don't always make the right choice about how they choose to study for the AP exam. No, it's not a good idea to just let them work problems without turning them in. It's too easy to let it slide.

* Just because 7th period made you grumpy, it's no reason to start 8th period in a bad mood.

* Snacks are always appreciated and may even make some students work more effectively.

* Learning is hard work. Humor helps.