Chapter 3: Stories Categorical Data Tell, Continued (Days 15-16)
Let's get to today's Blaugust topic.
Since today's the 31st, here's the 31st topic from Shelli's old 2019 list:
- Letter to my first-year teacher self…
I choose this prompt because it's the 31st prompt on Shelli's list, and today's date is the 31st. But it's only fitting that this falls on the final day of the month, since a letter to my first-year self is exactly what I need to tie up everything that I've written in the previous Blaugust posts.
When Shelli first included this prompt in the list, she probably intended the letters to say something like, "I know teaching is tough now, but it'll become easier after a few years." But obviously, that's not what I want to write. My first year of teaching was by any stretch of the imagination a failure, and so what I need to write myself is information that would have made myself a better teacher.
The sender of this letter is my current self. The recipient of this letter is myself on the day before my very first day of teaching -- August 15th, 2016. This letter will contain a few links, but I'll be careful to link only to pages that existed before August 15th, 2016.
2021 update: The last version of this letter was written last year, and I posted it to my old blog. Since then, I've updated it to reflect decisions I've made about how I should have taught the class.
Last year, I wrote that I should "consider" avoiding the use of a certain word -- I alluded to this word last week, in my August 23rd post. Now, as I explained in that post, I don't merely want to "consider" avoid it -- I should avoid it. In fact, I don't want that word even appearing in this letter. So I am rewriting this letter to avoid mentioning that word (while still telling my past self not to use it).
With those changes, this letter supersedes the 2020 version of the letter.
From: David Walker, August 31st, 2021
To: David Walker, August 15th, 2016
Dear Past Self,
This letter serves a warning from five years in the future. Tomorrow is the first day of school, and I know that the hard work will begin. Unless I heed this warning, I won't complete this first year of teaching and only make it to the Long March.
Section 1: Classroom Management
I'm aware coming in to the year that classroom management is not a strength -- and the main reason that it isn't a strength is because I lack a strong teacher tone.
First of all, it's good to begin on a positive note. On the first day of school tomorrow, while the students are trying to learn procedures, try praising the ones who are following them. This positive start of the year will make the students more likely to listen to me as the year goes on.
I can be successful this year if I make up for the lack of teacher tone with a teacher look. The old poem goes:
No more pencils, no more books,
No more teachers' dirty looks!
So just as pencils and books are essential in the classroom, so is teacher look -- especially to someone like me who lacks teacher tone. I know that I don't have teacher tone, but I've never really tried out teacher look. I must remember the Fred Jones book, where the author refers to teacher look as the Queen Victoria look. Teacher look is the first step to becoming a good classroom manager this year.
Here are some common student sayings and how I should respond to them:
Student: I wasn't talking!
Teacher: (teacher look)
Student: I still wasn't talking!
Teacher: (say student's name, followed by teacher look)
Student: He/she really wasn't talking!
Teacher: (ignore, not even a teacher look)
Student: I'm not chewing gum! (hides gum under tongue, shows empty mouth)
Teacher: Stop hiding it under your tongue and spit it out. (plus teacher look)
Student: I'm not chewing gum! This is really paper in my mouth.
Teacher: Spit it out. You're not allowed to chew paper either. (plus teacher look)
Student: I'm eating in class because I'm hungry.
Teacher: Tough! No food in class. (plus teacher look)
Student: I'm not using a cell phone. This is really an empty phone case.
Teacher: Put it away. You're not allowed to have a phone case out either. (plus teacher look)
Student: You're the only teacher who enforces this rule.
Teacher: Tough! (plus teacher look)
Student: We act this bad in every class.
Teacher: (teacher look)
Student: Why?
Teacher: Because I said so!
When in doubt, just use teacher look.
I am a teacher. Sometimes I'll have to make unpopular decisions. I'll catch someone breaking a rule and not only will be rule breaker tell me that I'm wrong to enforce the rule, but all of the surrounding students will tell me that I'm wrong. But I must enforce the rule anyway. There might be some students who, deep down, know that I'm correct to enforce a rule, but won't say anything out of fear of being labeled a "snitch." Most of the time, no one will say anything. If I wanted to be applauded for my decisions, I should have become an entertainer, not a teacher.
Many times students will say that I am "unfair" or "mean" to enforce a rule. But I should go ahead and enforce the rule anyway. I'd much rather have every single student in class hate me for enforcing rules than have even one student like me because I let him/her get away with breaking rules.
I remember the week I subbed in a middle school class three months ago (May 2016) when one girl was bullied by other students. I expect bullying to be common here, and must stop it if I see it. The victim will probably say nothing, yet deep down will be grateful when I enforce the rules here.
I should not rely on deducting participation points as a punishment. This is because many smart students misbehave (sometimes like myself as a young student), so they rack up points for getting right answers, and then their points never become negative when they misbehave. If there are to be participation points at all, I should start each student at zero and only add, not deduct points.
Students should earn a short detention (nutrition, lunch, after school) if they repeatedly fail to follow my directions. The detention should double if they fail to serve it.
I never again want to be in a situation where I'm afraid to tell students to do something because I'm certain that they won't do it. I should emphatically tell the students to do it and be prepared to punish them if they don't.
Every time students stand up and leave their seat, I should ask them what they are doing. Even if they are merely sharpening a pencil, I should force them to declare it anyway.
One of my rules should be "Follow all adult directions the first time they are given." On the other hand, the so-called rule I blogged about, "respect order," is not a valid rule. Students respect order in class only when they respect the teacher and fear the teacher's punishment. Therefore "respect order" is a thinly disguised way of saying "respect the teacher."
In his book, Harry Wong stresses the importance of procedures. Some activities are obviously procedures (such as taking out and putting away laptops), but almost every activity can be considered a procedure (such as Warm-Up and Exit Pass). Students may complain that they have to follow these procedures at first, but I must enforce the procedures anyway. Chances are that once I enforce each procedure ten times, the students will stop complaining about it.
As for the laptop procedure, I'm currently considering labeling the laptop slots with numbers. I must not go home today (August 15th, 2016) until the slots have been numbered.
I remember subbing at middle schools in my old district where some teachers came up with the call and response, "Class Class? Yes Yes!" By the end of the first week, I should establish a similar call and response procedure and enforce it. This means that if I ask the class to be quiet and even one student is still talking, I stop and use teacher look. Otherwise, more than one student will start talking and the call and response procedure is never enforced. Until I come up with such a procedure, I should use teacher look when students talk out of turn.
As the school year is about to begin, I start wondering whether my student support aide is a good classroom manager or not. As it happens, she's excellent at classroom management -- and unless I heed this warning, the students will listen to her, not me. My having the rank of "teacher" isn't enough to prevent yet another situation where students listen to everyone in class except me. She is destined to become the new teacher of this class by next year unless I change my habits.
Many of the things I say in this letter reflect what my mentors have told me before -- most notably my master teacher from when I was student teaching. My mentors never explicitly tell me to do anything I mention in this letter, because classroom management comes naturally to them, and they do all of this without thinking. Since I'm not a natural classroom manager, I use deliberately choose to follow the actions suggested in this letter.
Section 2: Avoiding Yelling and Arguments
Because I lack a true teacher tone, whenever I raise my voice it turns into a yell. My goal should be to avoid yelling at all costs.
Once again, the easiest way to avoid yelling is to start out on a positive note. Instead of yelling at the students who are breaking rules, try praising the ones who are following them.
Often when I feel the urge to yell, it's because students are misbehaving and have convinced me that it's wrong to punish them. Instead of yelling at them, I should punish them.
Arguments often lead to yelling. Therefore, I should try to avoid arguments. There are certain things I often say that lead to arguments, so I shouldn't say them. Examples include:
"Because you're more likely to get an A."
Many students don't care about getting high grades in math or any other subject as much as I did as a young student. Often, students behave not because they want an A, but because they respect the teacher and fear punishment. Therefore I should be trying to get students to respect me and be aware that they will be punished. I might want to say this in response to a "Why?" question. My answer should be "Because I said so," not "Because you're more likely to get an A." But the chant "What grade do you want to earn? An A!" at the start of a quiz or test is a good idea.
"Because you should attend every single second of class."
Many students don't care about perfect attendance as much as I did as a young student. Often, students attend class not because they care about attendance, but because they respect the teacher and fear punishment. Therefore I should be trying to get students to respect me and be aware that they will be punished. I might want to say this in response to a question "Why can't I use the restroom or go to the drinking fountain during class?"
Last month (July 2016), I read a magazine article about a tomb guard who works around the clock without rest. I should not even mention this in class as a reason not to let students go to the restroom.
The idea of handing out restroom passes at the start of the trimester is sound, but many students whom I'm sure have passes have often lost them when they need to go. I know that I'm trying to avoid keeping track of two things (participation points and restroom passes), but there's no real way around it. I must keep track of the passes rather than expect students not to lose them.
I can either go the traditional "three passes at the start of the trimester" route for everyone or, if I don't mind keeping track, let the students earn passes for A's.
Music break is a great idea. But students should still need a pass if they leave during music break. I should get the class quiet so that students are either listening to me or singing along during break.
There's a certain word that I'm thinking of using now (2016) to describe a student who doesn't know basic math. I should definitely not use that word. But some special ed students -- and their parents -- might be offended by the concept, and this might lead to arguments. Instead, I should use a positive word to describe those who do know basic math. I've already thought of using the word "hero," but I should actually say that word in class, or "almost hero" for those who are working hard.
Either today or tomorrow (August 15th-16th, 2016), I'll receive an email from the administration that students in sixth grade and above must have uniforms on the first day of school -- the grace period is only for fifth and below. But this will lead to arguments if I try to enforce it. The email will come from the sister campus, where perhaps all middle school students have uniforms. But at our campus, some students just barely enrolled last week. I should only enforce the uniforms if the other middle school teachers are actively enforcing them. Instead, I must focus more on enforcing classroom rules.
I should enforce the no cell phone rule only in my own classroom, rather than outside. In particular, I shouldn't worry about cell phones used during P.E. at the end of the day or on field trips. Only experienced teachers are respected enough by students to enforce rules outside. I should only enforce no cell phones if the other middle school teachers are actively enforcing it (that is, by actually walking up and down during P.E. and confiscating phones). Instead, I must focus more on enforcing my classroom rules.
In fact, during P.E. time it's a good idea to hang out with the other middle school teachers and discuss our respective days.
To avoid arguments, it's okay to relax certain rules with special ed students when appropriate. In a month or two I'll finally see IEP's for special ed students. But there are some commonsense things that I can do to help special ed students even without an IEP.
To avoid arguments, it's okay to talk occasionally with students about something other than math. If I have stronger classroom management, I will feel more confident that I can have a short conversation without losing control of the class.
To avoid arguments, I should be more careful about markers. The STAPLES store sells small boxes of a dozen markers, so I should look for these. I can purchase a new box of these markers each time that a whiteboard lesson is scheduled. Then the larger markers can be reserved for teacher use on the front whiteboard.
If I tell students to do something and they don't, I should repeat the request. Then I should say "Third Time!" and repeat the request. Then I should say "Fourth Time!" and repeat the request. If by then they still refuse to do it, I should punish them. If the students comply, then thank them. The word "Finally!" should not be part of my vocabulary at this point.
When in doubt, if I feel the urge to yell and don't know what to do instead, just use teacher look.
Section 3: Avoiding Mention of Past Incidents
Sometimes, a student will ask "Why do I have to follow this rule?" Often, my answer will be something like, "To avoid (past incident) from occurring again." This isn't a good response. Instead, it's always better to answer "Because I said so."
Again, focus on the students who are following the rules and try praising them. I should set them up as examples for the other students to follow.
Sometimes, a student will claim "It's impossible to follow this rule." Often, my answer will be something like, "I was able to follow it as a young student." This isn't a good response, since usually the student will counter with "That's you, not me."
Students often say "That's impossible!" when they mean "That's difficult!" or "I don't want to." I should enforce the rules even if they claim that they're impossible to follow. They'll suddenly realize that the rules are possible to follow once they see that I'll punish them unless they follow the rules.
It might seem better to say, "The other class was able to follow rules," instead of "I was able to follow rules," but it's not. The student will counter with "That's them, not me." Indeed, I should never compare my current class to either myself or another class unless it's a favorable comparison.
If a student says, "Prove that I was talking," nothing I say or do will ever be accepted as a valid proof by that student. Instead, I should give teacher look. The idea is for "Prove it!" to disappear. If I show strong classroom management from the start, "Prove it!" will never appear.
Section 4: Faster Warm-Ups
The Illinois State text contains a Five-Minute Daily Assessment. Therefore Pappas-based questions where the answer is the date should become the Exit Pass, not the Warm-Up.
The Daily Assessment should take only five minutes. At first, students will complain that I'm not giving enough time unless I establish a procedure. At first, I should give warnings such as "Four minutes to go," "Three minutes to go," and so on. I should encourage students who haven't started working that time is running out. I should gradually give fewer minute warnings, perhaps giving only "One minute to go." In a few weeks, I should be able to dispense with all minute warnings, since students will have learned the Warm-Up procedure.
For the Exit Pass, at some point most of the students will catch on that the answer is the date and just write an answer with no work. I should not give these students credit unless they show work, even if it means denying credit to more than half the students. I should make sure to warn the students that they won't get credit unless they show the work.
In fact, the plan for tomorrow, the first day of school, should be the reverse of my original plan:
- Warm-Up: "If you don't know the answer, at least know..."
- Name Tents
- Music Break: Square One TV's "Count on It"
- Bridge Problem
- Exit Pass: 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 = ?
I was torn between whether to give "Good Luck" notes once at the end of the year, or once at the end of each trimester. I shouldn't wait until the end of the year or even the end of the trimester to connect to my students. Instead, VanDerWerf name tents allow me to connect to students from the start. While Personality Coordinates allow the students to connect to each other, Name Tents allow the teacher to connect to the students.
Section 5: Student Engagement
I never want to be in a situation hardly any student knows how to solve a problem, especially when it's a review lesson. By giving up and solving the problem myself, I'm saying that "math is just hard," which makes me no better off than the students.
Regardless of how difficult a lesson is, there should be at least a few students who can solve the problem by the time of the review. If no one can solve a problem, it means that either I didn't teach the lesson properly, or else my classroom management is so weak that students can just talk through the lesson without consequences.
If someone had told me that I would have an hour of computer time at the end of the day, and there is neither a grade for the class nor any other accountability, I would have called that person crazy, since of course the students won't do the work. Yet that's exactly what's in my current plans.
Instead, there should be an IXL accountability form. This is a form that is similar to the Warm-Up form in that it contains blank spaces for students to complete approximately ten questions. Every students gets an IXL form. Since there aren't enough laptops for the students, the students with laptops can use the IXL form as scratch paper, and I record their IXL score (0-100) on the form. The students without laptops must answer ten questions that I come up with myself (but similar to the IXL questions for the day). All ten answers must be correct, or otherwise the students must continue to redo them until they are all correct.
At the end of the day, I collect the IXL forms. The students who earn at least 70 on IXL or answer all ten written questions earn a participation point. Those who earn a perfect 100 on IXL earn a second participation point. Those who fail to reach 70 on IXL or answer ten written questions earn no points, and continued failure to reach 70 or ten results in consequences, including talking to the student as the others go out to P.E. class.
When in doubt, I should have more accountability worksheets, not fewer. It's a good idea to create worksheets for other tasks such as Illinois State projects. Yes, I fear that the copy machine will break down and so I don't want to become dependent on the copier. As for what I should do when the copier breaks down, I should cross that bridge when I reach it. Only classroom managers stronger than I should attempt to teach a class without worksheets.
I should post IXL and other passwords on the wall so that students can look up their passwords themselves rather than ask me for them over and over.
Section 6: Illinois State Implementation
Many members of the MTBoS integrate projects throughout their lessons. While these aren't the same as the "bells and whistles" of the Illinois State text, those teachers would agree that the different components of their own respective lessons can be helpful to weaker students. Therefore I owe it to the students to implement all parts of the curriculum. I will be judged by whether I implement all parts of the curriculum, including the trickier parts such as DIDAX manipulatives and die cuts.
I know that pacing guide on the Illinois State website is difficult to decipher, but I should spend more time analyzing it. The lessons are listed there in Common Core order, which is the same order as the "traditional textbook." This means that both sixth and seventh grade lessons start with all of the RP lessons, then NS and EE, and so on.
I know that I'm fond of the order of the lessons in the eighth grade STEM text. But in fact, considering that I must teach both math and science, it's better just to forget the STEM text altogether -- the only projects I should give are from the science text (from the online Illinois State science text). My counterpart at the sister charter school is basically ignoring the STEM text, and so should I.
Here are possible lesson plans for the first few weeks of school:
- Tuesday, August 16th: Name Tents, Bridge Activity (reverse order from original plans)
- Wednesday, August 17th: Rule Posters
- Thursday, August 18th: 10's Hero Quiz, Patterns (consider Sara VanDerWerf's 1-100 activity, https://www.saravanderwerf.com/100-numbers-to-get-students-talking/)
- Friday, August 19th: Building Activity
- Mon.-Tues., August 22nd-23rd: Math Benchmark Tests
- Wednesday, August 24th: Science: Parts of a Microscope
- Thursday, August 25th: Benchmarks, Day 3
- Friday, August 26th: First Science Project
- Monday, August 29th: Coding Monday
- Tuesday, August 30th: Traditional Textbook (6th-7th -- RP1, 8th: NS1)
- Wednesday, August 31st: Science Benchmark Tests (Study Island)
- Thursday, September 1st: Fraction Fever Activity (including DIDAX manipulative)
- Fri.-Mon., September 2nd-5th: Holiday
- Tuesday, September 6th: Traditional Textbook (6th-7th -- RP2, 8th: NS2)
- Wednesday, September 7th: Second Science Project
- Thursday, September 8th: Interactive Focus Tutorial, Math Assessment (RP1, NS1)
- Friday, September 9th: Continue Science Project
Then the pattern continues with coding on Mondays, math on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and science on Wednesdays and Fridays.
The Illinois State text doesn't provide many die cut lessons for middle school. One of the few that appears is the square root activity demonstrated to me last week. This lesson fits eighth grade NS2, and so it's perfect for September 15th Learning Centers.
When submitting lesson plans to the administrators, I should provide an extra copy of the lesson plans to my student support aide. She's a professional who deserves to know my lesson plans. If I lift the burden of classroom management from her shoulders, then she might be willing to help me out, especially with Learning Centers and finding materials for the STEM Projects. I should try to submit the plans as early as possible. It shouldn't take much work on my part, since the basic framework for every week is the same. All I have to do is change the Common Core standard.
I am required to give the online Illinois State homework. As usual, I should print it out and pass it out to the students. Those who complete it online can indicate so on the worksheet and turn it in, leaving the questions blank. Others can choose to answer the questions directly on the worksheet. I should pass out homework at the start of the week and collect it at the end of the week.
Consider using Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract for teaching math:
https://sis4teachers.org/2016/01/concrete-pictorial-abstract-what-is-that/
This is compatible with the Illinois State text. One way to make this fit the weekly plan with science lessons above is Concrete on Thursdays (including Learning Centers and DIDAX), Pictorial on Fridays (if the kids have finished the science project, this includes die cuts, which can begin on Thursday and extend into Friday), and Abstract on Tuesdays (traditional lesson). The homework given on Mondays matches the Abstract lesson on Tuesdays. And one way to remember this pattern is C->P->A, where Concrete leads to Pictorial, which leads to Abstract.
For the LA County Fair field trip on September 16th, I should plan my itinerary for the field trip in advance rather than walk around aimlessly with the students. In particular, we should board a tram and head out to the farm area as soon as possible.
Section 7: Online SBAC Review
The SBAC is an online test. I should be familiar with the SBAC website and what the test looks like for students, especially in the weeks leading up to the test.
http://www.caaspp.org/
I admit that the SBAC website is difficult to work with, which explains why my blog posts from three months ago (May 2016) were on PARCC review, not the SBAC. But I owe it to my students to be familiar with the SBAC website. I will be judged on how well my students are prepared to take the SBAC test online.
The multiple-choice portion of the SBAC math test is divided into two sections. The first section is non-calculator while the second is calculator. I should be familiar with how to access the calculator in the second section. I should not attempt to access the calculator in the first section.
I was shocked to find out last week that I had to teach science in addition to math. I am already aware of the transition to NGSS Standards. I should have performed a Google search for ngss site:lausd.net the instant I found out that I had to teach science. This will link to a description of how the LAUSD is making the transition. I should also check out the SBAC website to find out as much information as possible about the new California Science Test for eighth graders.
I misinterpreted administrators last week. They never said that I didn't have to teach science. What they really said was that our sister charter would get the Illinois State science textbooks. Instead, I should access the texts online. My teachers editions of the science texts will arrive in a few months.
The old test covered only eighth grade physical science, but the new test covers all three grades of middle school science. Therefore I should teach science to all three grades. I can use the LAUSD website to determine what science to teach each grade. Most likely, eighth graders get physical science and seventh graders life science, but sixth graders get the new integrated NGSS science.
I feared that teaching science would make me feel as if I have six preps. To make it easier, I can replace the Thursday STEM projects for math with science projects from the online text. It's very important to type my own worksheets for these since the students don't have copies of the text (and the Illinois State website won't let me print them). This is, in fact, exactly what my counterpart at the sister charter is doing. She is only giving the science projects, not the math projects.
Yes, it's a good idea to use the eighth grade Study Island block on Wednesdays for science. This is something that I shouldn't print. Instead, let them read the articles and answer the questions online.
Ironically, the Illinois State website actually provides arts projects for science. So I can use these as part of Wednesday Learning Centers.
It's a good idea to have the students take notes in an Interactive Notebook for science, which they can use for math as well. If I fear that some students will go the whole year without ever buying a notebook, then I can provide the first one for them. There should currently be a sale at the Staples store where each notebook costs only a quarter. There is a limit of five notebooks, but my classes are small enough that by even purchasing five per day starting today, I can buy one notebook for every student by the third week of school and the first real science lesson.
It might be tricky to schedule the science lessons. A four-week rotation might work:
- Week 1: Hero Quiz
- Week 2: Math Quiz
- Week 3: Science Assessment
- Week 4: Math Test
The math assessments listed above can be given on Thursdays -- as soon as students finish, they can start the Concrete lesson as Learning Centers for the next standard. The science assessments can be given on Fridays.
One project every two weeks fits the requirement that we submit photos of a project to Illinois State every other week. The projects occur the same weeks as the Math Quiz and Test.
If I fear that I won't be able to keep up with having three different science projects in the three grades each week, then I can start with one particular project in all three grades the second week -- one possibility is LS1 (from the Life Sciences text online). This project is about cell structure and might require the microscope -- hence the lesson on microscopes two days before the project. The students will see the microscopes around the room and be intrigued by them, so oblige them with a microscope project early. I should ask my student support aide to help me with the microscope project if I need it. Once I get accustomed to giving science projects, then I can start assigning appropriate science projects in each grade.
The idea of hero quizzes is great, but I'm not quite sure where they fit in this scheme. Ironically, they might actually fit on Thursdays before the Concrete lesson. Only one hero quiz per four week cycle is truly needed to cover the 10's and 2's through 9's. The original three-week cycle that I'd imagined doesn't fit with Illinois State. And besides, I'll have a student support aide to help me grade tests, so there's not really a need to stagger the assessments. Use the name "Hero Quiz" in order to maintain a positive tone in class.
Last week on my blog, Shelli, the leader of the Blaugust challenge, suggested signing up for a Twitter account. It's actually a great idea. As the only middle school math and science teacher at my school, I need all the help I can get, and the best place to find it is on Twitter. Two teachers in particular to pay attention to are Wendy Menard and John Berray.
I know teaching is tough now, but it'll become easier after a few years. In particular, even though there will still be a single math/science next year, two years from now there will finally be separate teachers for math and science at my school. And there's a good chance that the charter will not be renewed after the third year, so I must be successful now in order to be hired as a math teacher at a new school after my third year. But the only way that I can make it to my third year to be that math teacher is to follow the instructions in this letter.
Sincerely,
David Walker, August 31st, 2021
Returning to 2021, I write this letter from a new perspective -- that of having finally been hired as a full-time teacher, for the first time since that fateful year at the old charter school. And so I ask myself, am I now fulfilling any of the suggestions I make to my younger self in this letter? (Yes, I'm bringing up my old charter school today, only because it fits this Blaugust prompt.)
So far I've been improving my classroom management and avoiding arguments, although I must admit that I'm dealing with more mature seniors, not middle school students. And my classes here at my new school are even smaller than those at the old charter -- my largest class now (fourth period Ethnostats) is about the same as my smallest class (Math 8) at the old charter. Thus the classroom management situation now isn't quite comparable to that at my old school.
(My long-term assignment is more directly comparable since it was also at a middle school. Then again, there were many differences between the two jobs -- most notably the hybrid pandemic schedule.)
This year I've implemented some of the Sara(h) activities that I've mentioned in the letter -- most notably name tents and 1-100. On the other hand, I haven't done interactive notebooks, since I wasn't sure whether those would work in a pandemic (with shared scissors and glue sticks). Then again, the Sarah Carter Stats scrapbooks that I plan on implementing in Ethnostats might wind up becoming interactive notebooks -- if not at first, then perhaps eventually.
This year I'm not giving Hero Quizzes at all. While even high school students might need extra help with multiplication facts without a calculator, the idea of handing seniors a timed multiplication quiz looks a bit silly (and a Calculus student might be downright offended by such a quiz).
I was considering giving Hero Quizzes to high school students at some point. These quizzes wouldn't be timed multiplication quizzes, though -- instead, they would be review questions of standards that they should have learned earlier in the year, or in previous courses. Part of this is related to a cell phone policy -- at one point I was going to restrict phone use to the free time after quizzes/tests only, so giving the students more quizzes means more opportunities to use phones in class. (For Hero Quizzes, the student would have to earn an A to get the phone time, thus providing a powerful incentive.) But then I allowed the use of phones in order to access the HP online calculator. Thus the main reason for having Hero Quizzes vanished.
Oh, and speaking of quizzes and tests, five years ago, I was reluctant to use technology, such as the Illinois State website. Nowadays, after having gone through a pandemic, I fully embrace technology -- and now I'm getting ready to use DeltaMath and Illuminate for this week's tests.
My original plan five years ago was to rotate my tests so that I'm not testing all three grades at the same time, leaving me swamped with tests to grade. But that only made sense if I had full-sized classes to teach, which I didn't -- and now, with even smaller classes, there's even less need for me to stagger the class tests.
The letter suggests that I test all classes at the same time (and my original rotation idea would be applied to rotating between math and science tests, not among Math 6, 7, and 8 tests). This week, I was planning on giving tests to both Stats and Calculus. But this is contingent on setting up DeltaMath and Illuminate properly -- and as was pointed out, there's less need for me to stick to a strict pacing plan in Stats than in Calc (with an AP exam coming up in May). So if I do delay a test, it will be Stats -- and then I might find myself rotating between testing Calc and Stats.
Of course, I want to give more projects to my Ethnostats class. Some Illinois State STEM projects that I gave at the old charter school can help inspire me as I try to come up with Ethnostats projects this year.
Today in class I cover the next six pages in Stats, and Section 1.6 of the Calculus text, on inverses and logarithmic functions. In both classes, I had the students use markers on the desks. Whiteboards were especially popular at the old charter school -- I used them both for test review and as a scratch pad during IXL assignments.
Today's Calc lesson is a bit shaky though, for a reason that has dogged me since my days at the old charter school -- spending too long on the Warm-Up and homework. The problem is that today's Warm-Up was to estimate the value of x such that e^x exceeds a billion. This is a problem from Section 1.5 on exponential functions, so in particular they can't just type in ln(10^9) into a calculator. Instead, the students are supposed to use a graphing calculator to find where the graphs of y = e^x and y = 10^9 come to intersect. Yet it's basically impossible to set the correct window unless you already know what the answer is! I then compound my error by answering a question when going over the homework -- a similar problem where one has to set multiple graphing windows to find where two graphs intersect.
This forces me to rush the lesson -- one which I knew would be lengthy. Instead, I should have chosen a question which, yes, assesses whether the students have learned Section 1.5, but can be answered fast, without any need for trial-and-error graphing windows.
After school, I have yet another meeting -- this time concerning the morning Advisory class. As a matter of fact, the word "Advisory" appeared on the schedule at the old charter school -- but only on Wednesdays, between seventh grade music and lunch. But no administrator directed me to do anything in particular during "Advisory."
But Advisory at my current school is different. My Advisory class is all seniors, and I'm supposed to be preparing them for college and career. So the meeting is with the other two teachers who have senior Advisory -- one is the lone other math teacher at our school, and the other teaches history. At our school, Advisory meets each day except Monday, when all periods 1-6 meet instead.
The others were considering devoted each day of the week to a certain topic -- Tuesdays to College, Wednesdays to Career, and so on. We are trying to coordinate with the two counselors at our school so that they can come in and make presentations on certain days.
But there are problems with the schedule. First is the dual enrollment community college class that I mentioned in previous posts. The first day of that Mass Media class is today -- of my dozen students, three have apparently signed up for it. The class meets during Advisory class on Tuesdays through Thursdays, so that those students see us only on Fridays. This makes it difficult to discuss college applications with them -- especially since these kids in dual enrollment are the ones who are most likely motivated to attend college in the first place. Fridays are also taken for other activities -- this Friday will be a pep rally, and there are also district Social/Emotional Learning lessons on some Fridays as well.
For now, my partner teacher tells me to give the students a Brag Sheet to fill out. That way the students can focus on their strengths -- and use these strengths help them to decide whether to attend college, or which ones to apply to.
And so these are my plans to make this a better year than my lone year at the old charter school -- not just for me, but for my students as well. Here's to a successful year!
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