Bell Ringers 2.0

Mary motivated me to finally get around to redoing my bell ringers- and I'm pretty happy with myself too. :-)

Here's the structure:

• Mental Math Monday (source that no longer exists)
• Tough Guess Tuesday (Estimation180)
• Weigh It Wednesday (Balance Bender puzzles)
• Thoughtful Q's Thursday (101questions)
• Freaky Friday (Which One Doesn't Belong?)

I made this template (looks better once your download it) that I have copied and hole punched on Monday mornings. lying in my green basket. Students get a new one as soon as they walk into class every Monday.



Here is the Powerpoint- 180 slides of warm-ups for the ENTIRE year.



You're welcome.

Added bonus for using chevron and a pretty handwriting font! :~\

Start the slideshow. Click once and the Mental Math Monday words disappear. Click again and the mental math problems and answers show up. I have my own hand out of the same problems that I read out loud. I do not repeat, although other students can repeat the problems.  After all 10, I reveal the answers and the problems at the same time. Here is MY handout:



Click and the next slide has a picture from Estimation180. Click again and the answer is revealed. Then just keep clicking, just keep clicking.

The answer to the balance bender puzzles are in the notes section of the powerpoint when it is not in slide show view. I plan to copy the picture from the Powerpoint onto the template each week for students as well. Also, if needed I will adjust depending on how difficult the students find them. I felt like they were all really easy. But I'm the teacher. :-)

Thoughtful Questions and Which One Doesn't Belong don't have specific answers. I also plan to cover up one of the WODB and have students create their own at some point as well.

The bottom says Weekly Wrap Up where I usually ask two random questions to try to get to know the students better.

I collect these every Friday and read them and I either stamp, comment, or doodle on their responses so they know I actually read them. I do not grade them in any way, shape, or form.

My favorite part of this whole thing is that I planned my Estimation180 pictures to correspond to the time of year and seasons it is because...well, why not? I am that awesome.

(Thanks Andrew! *waves*)

Interactive Notebooks: Year End Review

I've been wanting to write this post since I started  using INBs but then after school was over, I didn't feel like I was 'allowed' to write it until I had finished sharing all of my INB pages from the year. Well that still hasn't happened and here we are so #nobodycares if I am 'allowed' or not.

General overview here:

• Thumbs up
• Using them again
• Better than what I was doing
• Keep reading for more details

Things I Loved

• Pretty!
• Organized!
• Student Reaction: "I didn't even know you could do all this stuff to a notebook!"
• Pocket for small pieces that didn't get used yet
• Milkshake straw duck taped to spine as a pencil holder
• Duck tape also helped reinforce spine so two birds, one stone
• Helped me better focus my teaching and notes by thinking about what was necessary for the notebook and the best way to organize that information
• Table of Contents
• Page numbers
• Colorful tabs
• Being able to answer questions like this: "Did you look in your notebook?"
• Highlighters- if the notes were pretty straightforward boring, highlighters were a low-prep way to spice it up
• Tiny post-its- this doesn't need explaining
• Not grading them!
• Making copies or taking pictures of my INB for students who were absent
• Notebooks were still slim and neat at the end of the year a.k.a. didn't use the whole notebook
  
  
  
  
  
  

Things I Didn't

• Bookmark- should have been cooler than it was but I don't think some people know how to use bookmarks *shocker*
• Glue sticks sucked- the glue dried out over time and little pieces fell out but it's a pain to tape a bunch of little individual pieces in the case of sorting, which I LOVE
• I didn't use the right hand pages for processing like I wanted to; too much of a control freak and I don't know if that's as possible or effective for math as it may be for other content
• I mostly gave them the beginning or easiest parts of a concept, then a handout that got more complex; when they looked back in their notebooks, they had nothing helpful. Toward the end of the year I noticed this and figured out that my notes should cover all types of whatever we're doing, not just the easiest
• Related to the previous point, I don't need so many handouts!!! Practice can be games or cards or on the desk if they have all the vitals in their notebook already
• Not one student wanted to keep their notebook at the end of the year; I feel betrayed by other INB enthusiasts. Liars!

Things I Wanted To Do and Didn't I'd Like to Do This Year

• Have a giant test at the end with no review but allowed to use the notebook- now my admin will do it for me since he no longer wants us to review in any kind of way for their End of Course Exam
• Redo the Table of Contents so that the concepts are numbered and grades are easier to track
• Make formula sheets to put in the front that students can refer to through the year (especially for Mental Math Mondays)
• Make a PPT of what every page in the notebook should look like (since I already take pictures of every page) and have students grade each other's notebooks page by page
• Color coordinate pens to each content area's INB.
• Color coordinate all handouts for each unit the same across all content areas.
• Make extra INBs for students who move in
• Laminated graph paper inside the cover
• Save last 18 pages for Would You Rather writings every other week; focus on improving by one MP standard at a time, shows growth over time (had to add one I probably won't do!)
• Actually use the Plickers cards I created and laminated and apparently cut for no reason

I've written this post in my head so many times that it doesn't seem like I covered everything so please feel free to ask any and all questions! I love talking about my ideas!

Formative Assessment Tracking

I cannot take credit for this idea- it came from a friend of mine; and I don't know what she calls it but this is what I typed when I had to create a name to save it.

It essentially looks like a seating chart, and it can be used as one.



You write or type the name of the student four times in each box. Or five, or whatever fits. At the bottom, I made a code so that I can write a letter next to that person's name. My friend uses x's, check marks, or crossing out their name. *Just do your thang honey!

I listed the most common problems I deal with: sleeping, phone out (they are not allowed to be out or on), or just not working. Next I used I and C as codes for when I'm doing formative assessment.

Basically this is just a way to give me real-time data in the classroom. I will carry multiple copies of these for each period on a clipboard. As I scan the room, I can mark the misbehavior I see. I'm actually not focusing on the negatives here, I'm focusing on what will take the least amount of time to write, which FINALLY, is the negative behaviors.

If we're doing any kind of anything at all, practice problems, worksheet, dry erase, etc etc I can ask students to show me their answers, call on specific students, or walk around and scan their answers and simply write I or C next to their names.

I can use this as much or as little as I want. I like the idea that I could have four different data points every day for every period for ever student. If I want.

I can use this for attendance, to call on people, to track behavior, to give feedback, to form groups, for a seating chart, for a sub, etc etc!

Here are some ways I'm thinking I'll use this:

"Suzy Q, I've noticed you've been sleeping in class every Monday. Is there anything going on that I can help with?"

"John Boy, you've had your phone out in class twice this week. If I see it a third time, I will have to write you a referral."

"J-lo, you've missed four problems in a row today. Let's work some problems together and see what's going wrong."

"Jimmy Crack-Corn, you've got every question right today. Do you care to help J-lo find out where she's messing up?"

And so on...

I've also already talked to my admin about how this could be used as student data for my teacher evaluation. This is not my year to be evaluated so I will "pilot" the idea this year and see how it goes.

On the bottom left, I have a place to list the type of formative assessments I used, more to hold myself accountable for variety than anything else.

On the bottom right, I have a place for my own reflection of things to change in the lesson or errors to fix. Also a great way to show growth in your teacher evaluation.

You could even use different colors of pens to get even more in-depth!

What other uses do you see for this? Are there any pitfalls?

Talking Points

I first heard about Talking Points last year at #TMC14 from Elizabeth (@cheesemonkeysf).

Brief Description: We were in groups of four and given a list of statements. One person reads the first statement out loud. They say if they agree or disagree with the statement and why. No one else can respond. Then the next person tells if they agree of disagree and their reason. It continues around the circle. No one can respond or debate. Then the person that started goes a second time and says if they still agree or disagree and why.

I tried this as a warm-up once a week on Talking Point Tuesdays. I did not implement it well and a lot of times it turned into debates or kids not giving reasons. So I am not the best example of doing this with fidelity but I did keep doing it.

Anyway, Elizabeth is the expert and just posted a link to her Talking Points for Math google drive folder.

Mine are not always about math and Elizabeth helped me with some but I wanted to share them as a resource. I did six per week and printed four to a page on pretty paper. I cut them up into strips so each student had their own and I laid them out before school started on Tuesday mornings.

There are 34 weeks of files and here they are:


For more information, see Elizabeth's posts:

Start here, then read this one, then watch this one.

#TMC15 My Favorites

My Favorites
TMC 2015
Claremont, CA

Thursday

Diana Fesmire- doctoral research study survey on people who blog, read blogs, or comment on blogs. Take it!!
Bit.ly/15blogstudy

Judy Larsen
Bit.ly/judy15study- contact info agreeing to talk with Judy. Take it!

Jonathan Claydon
"Varsity Math"- became a things with t-shirts, stickers, a sidewalk star, and Saturday laser tag

Chris Shore
Neuron stickers on a giant brain to reward the process, not the answer
'Brain surgeon' is like the captain of the class and leads discussion and writes the 'wrinkle sprinkle' (what they learned that day) on the board.

Friday

Tina Palmer
Organizing personals whiteboards by using plastic sleeves from EAI, Velcro to close, teach etiquette for students to roll their marker inside an eraser cloth, and use automotive shop ticket holders from Amazon as a cheaper alternative.

Glenn Waddell
Greet students at the door with a high five! "You're walking in my classroom and that's awesome!" We teach people, not math! I'm committing to doing this also this year!

Heather Kohn
Use a 3d printer to print 3d versions of their culminating project of graphing equations and inequalities.

Chris Shore
Rally for Roatan, Honduras service trip to bring supplies, hygiene necessities, and fitness education. Mathprojects.com

Anna Blinstein
Google classroom-paperless assignments, searchable digital drive archive of work, integration with Google, available on any device

Eli Luberhoff
Desmos updates- activity builder at teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder
Resources found at bit.ly/desmosbank

Saturday

Dan Anderson
Bit.ly/MyFavoriteMyFavorite Have students present their own 'My Favorite' math topic for two minutes at the beginning of class. Use math munch as a resource or post announcements in Google classroom.

Denis Sheeran
Google unanswerable questions. Screenshot half of a question and insert into cells in Google sheet. Unanswerable question chooser.

Brian Miller
Real World Math

#1TMCthing We will commit to making one change to our classroom and tweet it!

Bob Lochel
Egg Simulation
Is it better to go first or second? How does the probability change after each egg is chosen? Use movie and TV clips to teach probability, not just dice and cards.

Matt Baker
Bit.ly/firstlikethird A place to collect basic misconceptions that we say that confuses kids.
DeltaMath- problem bank with easy to use interface that keeps score or grades their progress, gives detailed student data, high score board, cheat detector, gives answers and example problems, also has a place for written assignments

Julie Reulbach
Kahoot Connections- spreadsheet of Kahoot users 

Karim Ani
New graphs on Mathalicious 

Sunday

Andy Pethan
Ultimate Frisbee stats simulation spreadsheet- http://goo.gl/GFcnKz
Stats concept on farmers and plots http://goo.gl/wFnCFn

Stephanie Bowyer
Algebra Art Project- draw a picture in demos using graphs

Matt Vaudrey
Music cues- you can save 23 hours a year in your classroom by using music cues for transitions. Music mandates wait time and gives an internal locus of control, it turns control over to the music. The song is now the a**hole! Start out with one song at a time until they have it and then add another. It's important to not talk over the song. mrvaudrey.com/music

Princess Choi (shout key links)
Student created videos- A boring lesson in person is also boring online. Only top students watch the teacher videos usually before or during tests. If students can just look up something on my test, it's not the devices fault, maybe I asked a dumb question. Have students create their own videos and comment on each other's work.

Amy Zimmer
Angle Sum Formulas for Sine and Cosine Or How I Got Eli Luberhoff to Do Burpees
Folding stuff (didn't understand this at all so just look at these pictures)

John Golden
Bit.ly/TMCtumblr Join Tumblr!

John Mahlstedt
Something About the Apocalypse

Here's a video of all the My Favorites from Sunday!

Saving the best for last....they rewrote the lyrics to Miley Cyrus's Party in the USA. It was sooo clever and well done, as always, and I heart it.

Party in the TMC (lyrics)