Thank Goodness for Thanksgiving Break

Those who are not teachers are always saying, "...but you get so many breaks...", and thank goodness we do. As I was heading into this week off I was so thankful, because I was starting to be ornery to my kids, to my coworkers, to friends. 


But one great thing happened this week: A young man, who misses a lot of school, who is troubled in so many ways, but is more intelligent then he gives himself credit (or other people give him, for that matter too!), walked into class on Thursday with a 52%. He walked out with a 71%. Turning in missing work does wonders!!!!!!!  He beamed when I told him his updated grade.  Hopefully, he keeps up the work through the rest of the semester.


I also received this dedication: 

For the record: I always want to help him, and he does come in to ask, although this student spends more time in the hallway then he does him class. And not that he is a behavior issue because he is mean and defiant, he just has some focus issues. 


I can't decide if this is suppose to be funny, sweet, or if its making fun of me?!?!?!?!?!


Oh and this was on his English project...nothing to do with actual math class. 


UPDATE:
Last week, this same student move their desk into my "space" (aka right up next to my desk) because he missed me. This was during a quiz, so I tried to not make a big deal of it. I wish I had had someone else take a picture because the situation can not be described in words. 

All or Nothing Quiz

A few weeks back I gave the students an opportunity to get 100% on a quiz. The catch...I was super picky on formulas, work and notation, and if they were not 100% correct, they got a 0% (which I never put in the book, but the students still freaked out). I called it an All or Nothing Quiz.

I have 4 Geometry classes and about 70 students in those sections. I gave the kids an incentive of a sweet treat if everyone in one section got 100% on the first try. I was sure one of the classes could do it. Boy was I wrong!!!

Only 8 students got 100% the first try and boy did I upset some kids.

The type of problems that I put on the quiz: Draw an angle of a specific measure; Measure an angle; distance formula; 2 multi-step, variable on both sides problem.

Students didn't get 100% for things like: not writing the distance formula (and a formula is an equation, NOT an expression!!!!), not labeling the angle correctly (including arrowheads on the rays), giving a positive answer when it should have been negative.

I got responses of the sorts: "you gave me a zero because I didn't write d =?", "Just because I didn't label the angle I have to do this again?", or "my negative is up here, just not on the answer!"

I kind of felt bad, but I wanted them to be aware of the little things that effect their grade. These are things that they normally loose points for, but very little in the scheme of their entire grade. But those little things will be really big things later on. And actually the writing the whole formula is huge because they don't know how to work backwards in equations...because they do not write the ENTIRE formula!

I felt bad until one of our book study sessions. We are reading two books, which is another whole post in itself. But I did get something from from the book that my group is reading: Driven By Data - A Practical Guide to Improve Instruction. There is a section called "Increasing Rigor Throughout the Lesson", and guess what? I AM DOING SOME OF THESE THINGS!!!! YAY!!!

From the document:

Model "Right is right": press to get the 100 percent correct answer.

I take this as, "I can do these all or nothing quizzes and the students hate them because they hold them accountable".

I still have 3 or 4 kids that haven't got a 100% yet, I am going to have to follow-up with them this coming week.

TIME: ‘Digital Literacy’ Will Never Replace The Traditional Kind Read

I follow Education Nation put out by MSNBC. I think that they post great articles and are a supporter of educators. Not that I agree with EVERYTHING they put out, I would say I probably agree with 90%.

This morning they posted an article by Time Magazine by Annie Murphy Paul talking about how digital literacy is important but not as import as traditional learning.

Some of my favorite quotes from the article:

1) "It would seem clear that what Leu’s seventh graders really require is knowledge: some basic familiarity with the biology of sea-dwelling creatures that would have tipped them off that the website was a whopper (say, when it explained that the tree octopus’s natural predator is the sasquatch)."

HAHA Sasquatch!!! Although I shouldn't laugh to hard, because my father makes a really convincing argument on the existence of such a creature.

2) "In their view, skills trump knowledge, developing “literacies” is more important than learning mere content, and all facts are now Googleable and therefore unworthy of committing to memory."

I think that learning "how to learn" and "literacy skills" are important. I am not a huge proponent of the need to plug and chug to just have to regurgitate the knowledge for some end of the year assessment. But that is where are education system is and that is what is expected of our students when then entire post secondary institutions. But then again, I do believe in a classical type of education. So I guess I am a little wishy washy.

3) “But if you focus on the delivery mechanism and not the content, you’re doing kids a disservice.”

I agree, so maybe I am not as wishy washy as I thought.

4) "Just because you can Google the date of Black Thursday doesn’t mean you understand why the Great Depression happened or how it compares to our recent economic slump."

WHY WHY WHY? Even in my math classes I ask my students "WHY?" They hate it! HAHA

5) But such skills can’t be separated from the knowledge that gives rise to them. To innovate, you have to know what came before. To collaborate, you have to contribute knowledge to the joint venture. And to evaluate, you have to compare new information against knowledge you’ve already mastered.

TRUE THAT!!!!!!!!!

6) At Google and all these places, we make technology as brain-dead easy to use as possible. There’s no reason why kids can’t figure it out when they get older.” What they won’t figure out is deep reading, advanced math, scientific reasoning — unless we teach them.

YES, they NEED US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great Article...and it mentions Sasquatch.

Warm-Ups

Since day one of teaching I liked the idea of a warm-up or bellringer. Originally I had student do it on a half a sheet of paper and turn them in. The result: these sheets of paper would just pile up on my desk (or at this time I didn’t really have a desk so they would pile on my in roll-a-desk), and I wouldn’t get around to grading them for weeks because I had to lesson plan or grade quizzes and homework. Then I had student do them in there notebooks at the beginning of each day, but then I didn’t check notebooks like I originally intended because I was always planning or grading quizzes and homework.

New solution: I created a warm-up sheet where each day students date the box and complete the warm-up in this box. Then at the end of the chapter I collect them. I decided this was AWESOME and I was so clever…until I collected them the first time...

A lot of students did not put any effort or pride into completing these. Students didn’t even number them when there was more than once problem to do. Problems were out of order in the boxes, and one student even had 3 different sheets even though there were only 5 days of warm-ups!

When I handed this set back, I explained that next time the warm-ups needed to be in chronological order, as well as be numbered if there is more than 1 problem. If you are absent a day, it is your responsibility to get the warm up. Once a week I am uploading a document with the warm-ups on the class website where the student can go to get the problems. I think some of them think I am kidding. But I think I have covered my butt by having it in multiple places that things need to be turned in to me in order and if they aren’t they will not be graded. Hopefully, there won’t be any arguments, but I keep you posted.

Read Direction Much?

I ask you, what is UNCLEAR about the following statement:

"Put the letter of the answer on the line. Failure to do so will result in a score of zero for that problem"

Apparently everything!!! Multiple students received a score of zero on the first page of their Ch 1 test today.

I hate to read directions (that's why I don't bake), but it is a necessary evil of this world. I beg of you to please don't let students get away with NOT reading directions.

The Bully, the Bullied and the Bystander

Barbara Coloroso...ever heard of her? If not look her up. She is a educator, who speaks about parenting, conflict resolution, and bullying.

She spoke to our students about bullying, they seemed engaged, but let's see if what she said translates to our school culture.

She then spoke to parents and community members. Again, she had great things to say.

I would write more, but I am so tired from this week. I will write more after I start reading her book 'The Bully, the Bullied and the Bystander".

Gettin' Triggy With It...AMAZING!

Amazing. So hope that one day I can be this creative with my class.

Must watch Gettin' Triggy With it