CMP3 Institute Day 3, Quotes, & Brain Brakes

Day 3 of the CMP3 Institute kind of dragged but I must admit it is much better than the one I went to a few summers ago.  We got both student and teachers editions of the first three 6th grade units, a CMP3 guide, and a packet with some interesting articles, plus, like I said before, the fact that the facilitators are actual CMP3 teachers makes such a difference (the last thing I would need is someone trying to sell me something from Pearson, with little to no actual classroom experience wasting my time).  The more we do the investigations, the more I want to just use CMP3 with my students this year.  The explorations are just so full of rich mathematics!  And that should be enough, right?!  But I still don't fully trust them when it comes to the standards.

I even brought this up to the facilitators during a break today, and asked them what they suggest doing when they see that their kids need more support on a topic that CMP3 only had one problem on.  (They have been pretty clear on not digressing too much from the curriculum)  They suggested using the ACE problems as class problems, Illustrative Mathematics and Dan Meyer's Three Acts (both of which I have heard of, but never used too deeply).  I think the key is really going to be that assessment piece and being very precise with what the standard means.  Either way, I think going back to CMP3 will be where I start with both my 6th and 7th graders.  At least for the 7th graders, they are coming from a (mostly) CMP3 6th grade classroom this past year (and 96% of them passed the state test) and after having done most of the investigations from the first two 6th grade units these past few days, I like the environment they set up and the math that they get into.  My goal next week is to have my assessments and unit plans fully done for my first (and maybe second) unit.  We also talked about dot talks which are more of an elementary school thing, but I thought might have it's place in the middle school classroom.

I also did get some great ideas for math quotes for my room thanks to someone at the PD who was working on quote posters and Calvin and Hobbes cartoon posters on their laptop today.  Some of my favorites from today include:

• "There is a difference between not knowing and not knowing yet." - Shelia Tobias
• "Mathematics is not a careful march down a well-cleared highway, but a journey into a strange wilderness, where the explorers often get lost." - W. S. Anglin
• "I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career.  I've lost almost 300 games.  26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.  I've failed over and over and over again in my life.  And that is why I succeed." - Michael Jordan
• "To make a great dream come true, the first requirement is a great capacity to dream; the second is persistence." - Cesar Chavez

OK, well I'm off to listen to a webinar on Brain Breaks by Yoga ed.  Between that and my Mindful Schools curriculum training, which I am almost done with (two more weeks to go) I am very excited to bring them both into my classroom this year.

Yeah, it's going to be a good year.