A Quick Update on Year 11

Wow, so where has the time gone?  I am surprised (and a little disappointed in myself) for not writing on here more this year.  Even though I was teaching less classes and students this year than the year before, this year brought a lot of new opportunities for me...

• I taught two sections of 8th grade Algebra 1 and one section of 7th grade.  All of my 8th graders took the Algebra 1 Regents, and all my 7th graders took the NY State Common Core Math Test.
• One class in each grade was an integrated co-teaching class with some co-teaching challenges in the beginning of the year.
• My 8th graders were the first group of 6th graders that I ever taught, and to date, the only group of students I have had for three years in a row.
• I unofficially became the 8th grade coordinator which meant coordinating fundraising, planning a senior trip, coordinating an 8th grade t-shirt, ordering caps and gowns, and planning/making a graduation happen, all of which I have never really done before.
• My elective this year was also Memory Makers, which made the middle school yearbook, which, again, was something I had never done before.
• My school started an National Junior Honor Society chapter, and I was the chapter advisor.
• This was my first year of Math for America Master Teacher Fellowship.
• I participated in my Algebra for All cohort sessions.

So this year was busy.  Tuesday was our last day of school, but I went in yesterday and today to inventory all of the math manipulatives (which I have wanted to do for three years now), organize all of the CMP3 textbooks, and finish cleaning up my room.  I will say that even though I haven't been good writing on here, I did keep up with #teach180 on Twitter for the most part, which I am proud of.  

I do want to hold myself accountable and write more on here in the next couple of days, so here are some things I would like to go deeper into:

• Reflecting on my EOY student survey & Algebra 1 Regents data
• Glows & grows from this past school year
• Curriculum planning for next year 
• Assuming I will be the 8th grade coordinator again next year, being more organized with everything including my Memory Makers yearbook elective & the NJHS
• My experience with having my students research & present Math Chats this year and how I might be more organized with that this year
• Now that I have inventoried all of the math manipulatives, thoughtfully plan out how I will use them nest school year
• Read A More Beautiful Question, which I found in my school's book room today  
• Last summer I participated in Brilliant.org's 100 Day Challenge, but unfortunately, they are not doing it this year, but I want to do something to explore math content-wise, so I will look into either their Problems of the Week or Khan Academy 

Like I said, I kind of regret not writing more on here this year, but now that summer is here, I hope to relax and reflect on here a little bit so I can re-charge for the new year.

Exponential Functions, Percents, NJHS, CS4All, Big Apple Award Nomination

It seems like just yesterday it was summer vacation, and now here we are, with holiday music playing.  Fellow teachers, we have made it to Thanksgiving week!  Looking over my plans from last December, I really enjoyed what I was doing with my classes last year.  Since my pacing is a little different this year, I'm not in the same place as last year, but I think I can make it work.

8th Grade Algebra 1 & Exponential Functions

Currently, my 8th grade Algebra 1 students are wrapping up their unit on exponential functions, which I have really enjoyed this year.  In addition to the Lunar Rover project, they investigated Decaying Dice, Paper Folding, Human Population Growth, How to Survive a Zombie Attack(which didn't go as smoothly as I had planned, and are currently working on their final project, where they are analyzing data from five regions affected by the Zika virus, including total population, number of infected people, and weekly growth rate, (1) come up with a mathematical model for the growth of the virus, (2) determine the critical point when half the population could be infected, and then (3) choose a country/region that they feel should receive aid over the other countries and write a formal persuasive letter to the US government with at least three pieces of evidence supporting their argument.  I got it from my Math for America Social Justice PLT.  I launched it yesterday, and they will be working on it next week, and every student was engaged!  I launched it with this video, then we did a notice and wonder looking at a bar graph and scatter plot of Zika data, and then they began their work with their tables, coming up with their models & discussing implications of their models.  I love the cross curricular & social justice connections and am looking forward to reading their letters.  This project is new to me, but I already know it will be one of my favorites of the year.  After Thanksgiving we begin quadratics.

7th Grade & Percents

My field trip to the Museum of American Finance with my 7th graders last week was fun.  I wasn't totally happy with how the Illustrative curriculum was going with percents, so I decided this week they would work on this Store Sales & Profit Analysis project, and they loved it!  Engagement was high and I was able to check in with students one-on-one and address misconceptions as they were coming up.  I had done a modified version of this last year, but added to it this year and love how it came out.

Next week, they are working on their Hourly Wage project (which I do with my 7th graders every year) only this year I took out the suggested careers (because I feel like in the past it has limited them) and they are going to be researching their own, picking one, modeling it mathematically, and calculating hot long they would make in a day, week, year, and how long they would have to work to purchase various things.  I like that I made it more personal this year as it seems to really hook this class.  After Thanksgiving, we will do a little work with similar figures, and then begin our unit on expressions and equations.

NJHS

This week, we begin sharing info about our new NJHS chapter with our students.  This our first year and I am the chapter advisor.  I was happy that so many students were showing interest.  We just wrapped up the first marking period, and will be using cumulative averages from marking periods 1 & 2 to begin looking at students to invite.  I am really glad that we have been able to bring this program to our school this year.

Memory Makers

I love my elective.  These past couple of weeks, we have been working on making cards & posters showing our gratitude for the people in our lives (friends, family, teachers, etc...).  After Thanksgiving, we will be shifting our focus more on working on the school yearbook (which I am also the adviser for and is new to me this year) and I know things will get busy fast, but I think it will be fun.  I have a good group of students, who are creative, and I know will do an awesome job making the yearbook great. 

CS4All Hack League

This morning I attended a PL for the CS4All Hack League by Games for Change and the Institute of Play and is part of NYC's Computer Science for All initiative.  Myself and the programing teacher at my school went, and even though I was out of my element, I had a great time and learned a lot and am looking forward to supporting him in running a Hackathon at our school next month.  Even though our school isn't fully a part of CS4All, it's nice to be a part of both Computer Science for All and Algebra for All.

Big Apple Award Nomination

Lastly, I was very honored to be nominated for the Big Apple Award this week!  I have never been nominated before, and it was a nice little surprise.  Even if I am not invited to actually apply for it (I'll find out in the winter if I am), I felt very appreciated.

Some of the discussions happening in my class this week...

Here are some of the discussions happening in my math classroom this week:

7th grade: "How should cities address excessive force by police?"  (Good Cop, Bad Cop) and "How much should states spend on schools and police?" (Police, Academy) 

8th grade/ Algebra 1: "Do social networks make us more connected?" (Connected)

All three of these address high school level Common Core math standards, and will result in either a Socratic Seminar or some sort of debate where students will have to defend their argument using evidence from their work, as well as outside resources.  Yeah, I am pretty excited to see where they go with it.  Mathalicious is definitely one of my favorite and most used resources of the past two years!

Logo Transformation Project, Fundamental Counting Principle, Coke Project, 3 Act Tasks, & Einstein's Puzzle

Just have time for a quick update before I head over to a Paint Nite event with some friends, as I work to maintain a balanced work & social life. Teaching five classes across three grades this year has me in a constant state of being behind (especially when it comes to grading) but I must say, I have been pushing myself out of my comfort zone and trying lots of new projects and activities with my classes this year, that I am proud of myself.

8th Grade/ Algebra 1 Geometry
Today my 8th graders started their end of unit assessment performance task on geometric transformations.  I was inspired by this Transformation Summative Assessment Project from Equation Freak and this logo transformation mini-project.  They were really into it during our double period today.  Later on this week we will start Say it With Symbols, and this Friday I will do my first 3 Act Task with them, Coin Counting!  I am nervous since it will be my first, but I've been wanting to do one for a while.

7th Grade Probability 
My 7th graders will be exploring the Fundamental Counting Principle this week with Pair-Analysis (and this TED Talk on the Paradox of Choice... hmm maybe there's a Socratic Seminar in there somewhere?) and VA-NITY PL88, both from Mathalicious, and then on Friday I want to try the Yellow Starburst 3 Act Task with them.  Look at me trying two different 3 Act Tasks in the same week ;)  I read through Confessions of a MS Math Teacher's blog post on it here, which led me to their post on their first attempt at a 3 Act Task using The Price is Right, which would fit in nicely with our unit on probability, since we've analyzed Wheel of Fortune twice so far this unit (both again through Mathalicious).  Next week, hopefully we will explore the probability of bottle flipping (which every MS teacher is probably familiar with this year).

6th Grade Geometry
My 6th graders started their Coke Engineering Design project this week, which, ironically, has a connection to 3 Act Tasks, that I just learned about this week, even though I did the project last year.  I do think that I am going to push back their presentations until after mid-winter recess in two weeks, instead of rushing them to be done next week.

Math Club
This week in math club we took a crack at Einstein's Puzzle (which probably wasn't made by him) and other logic puzzles, which they all enjoyed.  Engagement was really high, and I was really proud of the students who hadn't solved it yet, and didn't listen or watch when we played the rest of the TED Ed video with the solution because they wanted to keep working on it.

So I am excited for the next two weeks and then get to breathe a bit and enjoy mid-winter break.  Work hard, play hard, right? ;)

December/January Projects & Tasks

So, in keeping with my goal to get back into blogging on here, here I am.  I want to first reflect on December, which is usually a crazy month for us teachers, but I must say, this was probably my smoothest (and most fun) December yet.

6th Grade
My 6th graders finished up Let's Be Rational and I modified this Operations with Fractions Cookbook Project for their unit project and they came out awesome.  They really went above and beyond, which was adorable.  This week we started Covering & Surrounding, which will end with their biggest project of the year, The Coke Package Design Project.  I switched this unit with Decimal Ops, to follow CMP3s suggested pacing order this year, so we'll see how that goes.  The Coke Project will take us right up to Mid-Winter Recess next month.

7th Grade
My 7th graders finished up Moving Straight Ahead and and then I extended the Desmos Marbleslides to include all the Desmos Linear activities, which both they & I loved.  Last year, I didn't introduce my 7th graders to Desmos until the end of the year, and I am glad I moved it up and fit it into this unit this year.  I also modified this amazing Road Trip Project as their unit project.  One of my classes finished it before Winter Break, and my other class is working on it this week.  I wish I knew about this project last year because it is super fun and a great real-world connection to linear relationships.  Our next unit is What Do You Expect? on probability and expected value, which has so many fun experiments, and I found this unfinished 3 Act Task on bottle flipping (it's big in 7th grade right now) from Dan Meyer and want to look into how I can bring it into my classroom (more to come).

8th grade Algebra 1
Last but not least, my 8th graders finished up Looking for Pythagoras last month and we learned how crazy the Pythagoreans and their cult of numbers really were.  Two of my favorite tasks included having them create their own Wheel's of Theodorus (which became by December bulletin board) and this awesome task from NASA (yes, the NASA) where they had to analyze different routes for the Lunar Rover and create a proposal with their recommendations.  This week we started Butterflies, Pinwheels, and Wallpaper.

All three grades had some really great Mathalicious tasks, that fit nicely into our December units.  Next week all three grades will be taking their second interim assessment of the year, so I will get some testing data to look at.  I also got picked to score the Algebra 1 Regents at the end of the month, which I am grateful for, since this is my first year teaching algebra 1 in a while.  Last month myself and the Living Environment teacher attended one day of NY Ed Tech Week and in two weeks I signed up for the Google Teacher's Lounge, which I am curious about, and of course, I have been keeping up with the MTBoS on Twitter.

In a few weeks, we will be at the halfway point of another school year.  Even though teaching five classes across three grades is a lot (I am forever behind on grading) I really do enjoy what I do, and I am very lucky about that.  Hopefully I can keep this up an continue to grow and get better at what I do.  Here's to an inspiring start to the new year!