First Days 2018-2019

Friday- met with each class for 22 minutes; asked them to write their name, birthday, and favorite candy on cutout balloons for my birthday bulletin board; played Hedbanz to promote conversation and questioning; passed out brag bracelets with Remind code, IG account, and a reminder to bring their composition notebook.

Monday- passed out dry erase markers, mechanical pencils, pencil pouch, binders, and rubber bands; did mental math, introduced Google Classroom and Delta Math; students left private comments for me to respond, added duck tape and stickers to our notebooks, labeled our binders, hole punched and put in rubber bands

Tuesday- Tough Guess Tuesday and introduced the bell ringer form for M/T/F; students again responded in private comments, played Kahoot to introduce procedures and such, added dividers and tabs to our binders, put in a ribbon bookmark in our notebooks, colored our first INB page, a Math Tools pocket, and took a Mathematical Smartness survey.

No one else can use this but I'm going to introduce/play Kahoot with classroom procedures....teaches my freshmen and reminds my 'oldies'. Maybe it will spark an idea for you? https://t.co/pgATlNDPYB

— Elissa Miller 🦄 (@misscalcul8) August 13, 2018

Interactive Notebooks vs. Binders

I've gotten this question a lot in the last few weeks so that must mean I need to blog about it.

I love INBs but I also use binders and people ask me how or why I use both.

My curriculum came with notes in the Cornell style on a regular portrait 8.5x11 page. I reformatted them to fit on on a landscape 8.5x11 page. We cut those in half and then tape one on the left hand page and one on the right hand page. If the notes are more than one page then I make it front to back and we fold them in half so that each side is a full page. Of course the back is blank because they tape that into the notebook.

Every skill has two pages, the left and right. I don't start page numbers until the first skill so Skill #1 is page 1-2. This helps everyone keep track. So when we get so Skill #27, I already know the page numbers will be 53-54.

I do a new table of contents for every unit. It has 8 spaces for skills so I will break that up into two tests over four skills each. Each unit is a different color of paper and has a colored tab.

I do not give homework. My curriculum came with activities and homework. So if there is an activity planned for that specific skill, I turn the homework into a review game.

A typical week would go like this:

• Monday-introduce new skill; fill in and tape notes into notebook
• Tuesday- use notebook to do a review game or practice activity; end class with a quiz over that skill
• Wendnesday- pass back quizzes and offer retakes; pass out new skill notes to fill in and tape into notebook
• Thursday- finish notes, do practice activity
• Friday- quiz over second skill, pass out new skill notes to fill in and tape into notebook
• After 4-5 skills, do a study guide. Students work independently, check their answers that I've hung up on a cabinet, and ask for extra help where needed.
• After study guide, students take tests and are allowed to use their notebooks

Quizzes I offer retakes but no notebook. Tests I do not offer retakes but I allow them to use the notebook. This motivates them to do a good job of taking notes because they know how useful the notebook will be. I don't think they should need the notes for a one skill quiz that they've been focused on two days in a row. But after 4-5 skills, there are more things to remember. And I'm not focused on what they can memorize but how they can use it.

The Feltron Project

Nothing like waiting 10 years to try an idea you read, right? Oh yeah, I wasn't even teaching then. ;)

This project was introduced to me by Dan Meyer here and his post-mortem here. He tried it before Google Docs, Forms, and Sheets were really a thing so that is a major thing that I will be changing. I also don't plan on devoting as much time in the end as he did so it's probably not going to go well? 

I love lists and I see all the time how students need more experience with spreadsheets so this seems like a fun way to do it. I'm thinking I will ask students to track 3 things of their choosing and then one that we all do together. But the one we do together, I want to be the same for every single course.

I don't really even know how to introduce it or explain it but...I want to do it?

I came up with a list of possible things to track (some based on what I know about my kids):

Data Doc

• Quiz grades
• Test grades
• Attendance
• Snap streaks
• Instagram likes
• Netflix seasons/episodes
• YouTube videos watched
• Points scored
• Money made/spent
• Books read
• Texts sent/received
• Miles traveled
• Fish caught
• Geese/turkey/deer shot
• Sodas consumed
• Fast food I eat
• Hours of sleep
• Temperature
• Minutes of sports watched
• Songs listened to

Also I really enjoy making cute powerpoints so I hope that part can be kind of fun for them as well. Obviously this needs work and structure but I had to at least get the thoughts out there.

Any ideas?

2018-2019 New Year's Resolutions

I didn't have any definite resolutions off the top of my head so I decided to look at last year's. I had a really great year but of course I didn't accomplish everything. Which gives me some automatic resolutions for this year ;)

• Incorporate #VNPS once per unit (I'm planning to implement this in a big way in Geometry)
• Incorporate a debate prompt of some sort once per unit (I'm not sure if it will be a debate prompt as much as discussion but I want to post something in Google Classroom, have students type up their response and then all hit send at the same. That way no one can copy responses and then everyone has to read and respond to at least one other person's response. What do you think?)
• Upgrade interactive notebook pages whenever possible to be succinct and easy to follow independently (My focus this year/next summer will be videos of me teaching through the notes to post in classroom)
• Make better use of Google Classroom (Killin it)
• Bring back concept attainment, my favorite way to teach! (Since I haven't been creating much lately and I'm mostly reusing what I did last year, I am hoping to invest my thinking time this year toward creating a giant powerpoint for each prep of concept attainment introductions to each skill
• Amplify voices in the #MTBoS, even when my voice seems silent (Continuing it)

My instinct is to add something new to the list but why? 

This is plenty.

This is enough.

Year 10.

I love my room more and more each year! It helps to not redo everything every year. Here's to my second 'best year ever'!