#TMC16 Google Your Feedback to Students {Jessica Rice}

Google Your Feedback to Students
Jessica Rice
Monday 2:45-3:45

AutoCrat

Similar to a mail merge, autocrat will pull data from a spreadsheet and put into a customizable template.

Use << tags >> to pull specific columns into a specific place. 

It creates individual documents that can be shared or emailed out to kids.

While grading tests, type your feedback into a spreadsheet. Use autocrat to pull that feedback into a template that sends a doc to students. Students can read your feedback and then reflect on it in an empty column. Since you created the document and shared with them, anything they type can be seen.

If a column of the spreadsheet has an email address, you can email/share the new document with students/staff/parents.

Hack: View student work in google docs in grid view to see if students have answered.

Hack: Use colored boxes where you want students to type in an answer.

Flubaroo

-Grades multiple choice and short answer
-Hand grade certain columns
-Can have more than one correct answer by separating answers with %or
-Can set amount of points per question
-Can email a grade
-Check accuracy and regrade before hand grading or they will all disappear
-Can hand grade, gives points and written feedback
-Can include answer key and message in email

Hack: In Google Chrome, click the hamburger to select new incognito window. Opens a new window that isn't logged in to any accounts.

Google Classroom
-Shows student work that is due in all classes.
-Creates folders for each class and assignment
-Shows teachers the assignments that are done and not done

#TMC16: More Than Resources {Dylan Kane}

More Than Resources
Dylan Kane
Monday Keynote 1:30-2:30

What was an experience that made you a better teacher? What were the conditions?

Personally, it was reading so many different blog posts from a variety of teachers that gave me a window into their classrooms and teaching styles. And then asking those people for help and having them ask me questions and push me out of my comfort zone.

Two Lessons

1. My intuition isn't very good
-We see what we want to see

2. There are no easy fixes
-We can't just plug good ideas into the classroom and expect magic
-We have skills to build around good ideas to make them work

Clever ideas /= coherent curriculum

The amount of time you practice is not as important as how you use that time.

Deliberate Practice
-gets you out of your comfort zone
-is focused
-involved feedback
-has well-defined, specific goals

Resources
-Intentional Talk
-Open Middle problems

It's valuable to break down what we don't have so we know how to build.

"Everything works somewhere and nothing works everywhere." -Dylan Williams

Our expertise is in knowing our students, schools, and communities well enough to know how and which tools to use and when.

It's unrealistic and unprofessional to ask teachers to change more than 10% of what they do.
It's also unrealistic and unprofessional to not expect them to change.

Call to Action

• What will your 10% be? 
• How can you be more purposeful about it?
• How can this community create tools that are more useful for more teachers?

#TMC16 Make It Stick: Applications in the Classroom {Anna Hester}

Make It Stick: Applications in the Classroom
Anna Hester
Sunday 2:45-3:45
tinyurl.com/makeitsticktmc

We are really bad judges of how well we know something.

Brain science shows that what is most effective for learning is not intuitive.

Replace:
-reading/highlighting notes with retrieval
-massed practice with spaced and interleaved practice
-step-by-step directions with generation
-feeling prepared with testing against objective standards

Retrieval: any low stakes assessment that happens during the lesson
-The more students struggle with retrieval, the better they get at it.

Reflection: ask questions about the topic and performance
-Regularly incorporate time for reflection.
-Give students time to self-assess on quizzes and tests.

Spaced Practice: allow at least one day between practicing topics
-It interrupts the forgetting cycle and avoids the familiarity trap.
-Don't chunk maternal and move on to something new.
-Requires one of the biggest shifts but students feel less progress
-Never allow material to disappear completely
-Easy learning isn't the best learning. Learning is hard!

Interleaved Practice
-practice problems of different types verse all one type
-students need to practice switching between problem types and identify similarities and differences
-incorporate earlier types of problems in with new material
-alternate problem types
-spiral warmup/homework

Generation
-ask students to try problems they don't know how to solve
-their brain recognizes a gap and better recognizes where the new instruction should go; this filled gap stays better
-solving a problem > memorizing a solution
-discovery lesson
-predict what the lesson is about
-higher order questions
-provide closure/corrective feedback

Elaboration: form of reflection
-express what you've learning in your own words and connect
-brain dump
-free recall, fill blank page for 10 minutes
-summary sheet in INB at the end of the unit
-make your own study guide

Failure
-the easier something is, the less power it has for memory
-paradigm shift: failure is necessary for learning
-growth mindset
-effort full remembering makes the brain recon solidity knowledge which strengthens connections

Cultivate a classroom culture where:
-students see failure as normal
-the nature of math is discussed
-it's safe to ask questions
-they won't be mocked for not understanding
-we are less helpful
-there is a growth mindset
-errors are a turn in the road, not the end of the road

Calibration
-replace an experience or feeling with an objective way to measure
-the test shouldn't be the first time students have tested their knowledge
-low stakes quizzes
-cumulative quizzes/tests
-provide practice tests
-write your own questions and trade with a partner
-three possible answers on board, find someone who disagrees

Applications
-model how we learn
-teach students how NOT to study
-provide support so they experience benefits of good studying
-be honest about what you're doing and why
-move from study groups to testing groups

#TMC16: What Do We Have to Learn from Each Other? {Tracy Zager}

What Do We Have to Learn from Each Other?
Tracy Zager
Sunday Keynote 1:30-2:30

Tribe time is valuable!

Elementary math is a field of it's own that deserves it's own study and respect.

In the US we base our math identity on how far we go in our own math education. In other countries it's about depth.

Content and pedagogy shouldn't be pitted against each other just like elementary and secondary shouldn't be.

Content and pedagogy and the pillars of a bridge; it doesn't make sense to have one and not the other.
They allow us to build pedagogical content knowledge on them.

PCK: How can I create the environment so that my students, who I know, can learn the math they need to know?

We all need to work on all the things.

Elementary teachers tend to have strong pedagogy because they've never been able to lecture. Secondary teachers tend to have strong content knowledge because they can.

Story #1: When an elementary teacher learns content from secondary

People need a respectful environment to engage in math at their own pace. We can offer that by not letting strong students or ourselves to jump in too early. {I need to be better about this as a way to my honor my students' effort}

Story #2: When a secondary teacher learns pedagogy from an elementary

A thread about how to close class. "Never skip the close!"

We focus on hooks because we have disengaged kids,

Closing question: What do you understand better at the end of class?

Story #3:

Extraordinary things happen when we all discuss math preK-16+.

This is unheard of in our brick and mortar buildings.

Call to Action

What would it take to make vertical collaboration thinkable IRL?

What are the obstacles to collaboration? Can we tear them down?

What are the conditions for collaboration?

What first steps can I take?

#TMC16: Race, Math, and What We're Not Talking About {Jose Luis Vilson}

Race, Math, and What We're Not Talking About
Jose Luis Vilson
Saturday Keynote 1:30-2:30

Who gets to decide what is relevant? Why does relevance matter?

The general public watches too many movies.
-Teachers aren't supposed to be complicated or have feelings

The general public thinks we generally do a good job
-Except for one or two bad apples
-That spoil the whole bunch

The general public has a hard time with educators as people who talk about things other than teaching.

Math teachers:
-ask critical questions
-ask these questions of themselves and others
-prepare for teachable moments
-expect non-closure
-stand on principles of inquiry and openness
-allow for multiple pathways
-complete, correct, and consistent

Why do we ask students to do the things we wouldn't want for ourselves?

Getting uncomfortable is part of the process.
Learning math is a journey, not a destination.
Learning is not linear, but a piece wise function.
Cheating off the smart kids in class is ephemeral at best.
Beyond pee breaks.

Our most disadvantaged students need access to higher order math.

The math doesn't add for them: students of color are suspended at disproportionate rates

Over testing and rigor ratchets up school closures and privatization

Math is one of the largest gatekeepers
-dropout rates
-college and career readiness

If we are not agents of change then we are agents of status quo.

If students don't see compassion and empathy in their school system, why would they even want to discuss or share social justice issues? If you create a safe place from the jump, you can do anything and have those hard conversations at any time.

We have students that are capable of more than we are. Cultivate and get out of the way.

Our understandings of the culture of our students are key to how students approach math.

People of color don't need mascots, they need people who are going to do the work.

White teachers in predominantly white areas can talk about what it means to be white in America and how that has changed over time.