11 days away from Winter Break...

...not that things have been bad, but come on, who can resist 11 whole days off from work!  On a serious note though, sometimes I really can't believe that work can feel like this.  Yes, it's work, but its different.  I really am enjoying my job this year.

Arts Elective
Last Friday was our Arts Elective presentation.  The 6th grade class that took Drama, but on some awesome, thought-provoking skits, the 7th graders made an amazingly funny music video, and my young artists showcased their work in the hall and in a slideshow that I put together.  It was really great!  This Friday I get my new group of artists, my 7th graders, and I am looking forward to working with them.  I have a better idea about how I want to structure the 10 weeks, and I think it will work out well.  The first difference is that I am going to have them create sketchbooks  the first day (so that they don't have to go out and by them) and we can use them throughout the class to sketch and take notes.  I am looking forward to Visual Art 2.0!

Informal Feedback
The day we got back from Thanksgiving Break, my principal did an informal walkthrough with one of my 6th grade classes.  Here was my feedback:

Glows

Student-to-Student Discussion

Students provided clarification for one another. The majority of students used accountable talk techniques (agree/disagree, paraphrasing other speakers). The majority of students tracked speakers. You paraphrased when necessary and stayed out of the discussion (only intervened when necessary). Continue to encourage these discussions with your class. It was great to see them talking their was through these ideas.

Mathematics Vocabulary

Students used appropriate vocabulary. They used this vocabulary such as absolute value, negative number line, denominators to talk through their understanding of the hierarchy and patterns inherent in fractions. It is evident that using appropriate contextual vocabulary is the norm in your class. Keep this up!

Grow

Student Participation

Eight students contributed to the discussion. While rich, we encourage you to cold call students who have not contributed to share their perspectives or questions. You can allow them to pass if they do not think they can contribute with the expectation that they will participate next time.

So I will work on encouraging more discussion from the quieter students, maybe giving them time to tall at their table first before the whole group.  I was proud that I didn't intervene much and that my students were really taking ownership of the discussion, since that is something I wanted to work on since my last informal.

Curriculum Updates
My 6th graders are finishing up Comparing Bits & Pieces (unit 2) and will begin "Let's Be Rational" (unit 3) next week.  My 7th graders finished up "Comparing & Scaling" (unit 2) last week and began "Moving Straight Ahead" (unit 3) this week.  I am a little worried about my pacing with my 6th graders, especially since 6th grade is new to me.  I have this month all planned out, but I plan on reevaluating and revising my pacing calendar over the Winter Break.

Mathalicious
This is probably what I am most excited about!  This week, at the recommendation of the science teacher who taught math last year, I signed up for a Mathalicious account and I love the lessons they have on there!  In fact this week, my 6th graders will be learning about the jen ratio and explore how the media affects our happiness.  This will also be the bulletin board piece at the end of the month, which is cool.  I highly recommend this resource for any middle or high school math teacher.  I can't wait to see what other lessons we do!

Students vs Teachers Volleyball Game
Our students have been studying volleyball in PE the past couple of weeks and yesterday we decided to do a Student-Teacher Volleyball game on the Tuesday before Winter Break!  I love doing things like that and I think it'll be fun.

Advisory
Lastly, last week I started restructuring advisory differently.  We started sitting in circles and literally using a microphone for the "one mic rule."  I do see some improvements.  We've been discussing our service project and so far it's been good.  During yesterday's weekend check-in a lot of them shared, which was nice, so I think the circle helped.  I hope to keep building on this momentum.  I also want to use some ideas from The Advisory Book.  I am confident we will get there!

Math Club
My math club has been working on designing their own board games the past couple of weeks.  The Thursday before Winter Break, they will be presenting their board games to each other, Shark-Tank style.  Their games are looking pretty awesome.  Plus today, the science teacher asked me if I wanted to do some rocket launcher STEM projects with the math club in January (which of course I said yes to) so I am super excited for January, since we'll have that and the Math Counts gold-level project to work on.  I go back and forth between if I want to continue Math Club in the Spring or come up with another elective (maybe photography or mindful yoga) - we'll see.

November Updates

There comes a point in the school year where everything is due at once.  November is that month.  Grades are due.  Informal observations may be happening.  Bulletin boards must be updated.  And oh yeah, you still need to keep planning and grading as usual.  Last week for the first time, I have felt a little stressed.  I am feeling better after last Wednesday (I had my first official informal observation by my AP) but I still have some grading to finish up.

Superintendent Visit:
On October 30th (yes, the day before Halloween) we had our first visit from the Superintendent.  He visited one of my 6th grade classes with my Principal.  I was a little stressed out the night before because I wasn't sure which class he'd visit (math club, 6th grade, or art) but it went well.  Here was my feedback:

• Glow
• Your classroom procedures and expectations are firmly in place. There was no time wasted and your expectation of getting started on time is firm. Your knowledge of content and academic vocabulary were evident in your responses and your student's responses. Continue to implement efficient time management. In addition, continue to ensure that academic vocabulary is modeled by you and used by your students.
• Grow
• During the share outs, students did not respond to one another. You paraphrased responses and/or asked for more ideas. For future lessons, challenge the students to directly respond to one another using evidence to support their claims. You can even ask students to paraphrase each others' comments.

Moving forward, I would like to build on that, and do less talking.  This was the beginning of the lesson, so I must be mindful of that, but I know it's something I can work on.

Getting Mail:
It took two months, but I am finally getting mail delivered to my new school.  I had ordered shelves for all my lovely math manipulatives and they finally came (after being delivered to the wrong school) and my National Math Club Box finally came (after being sent back twice).  Also my Scholastic Math Magazines are coming in now.  So yay!

7th Grade Unit 2 & Interim Assessments:
After much thought, I decided to skip my next 7th grade unit (Stretching & Shrinking) and go right into Comparing & Scaling (my kids did one of my favorite problems from there today - The Orange Juice Problem).  Most of my 7th graders did really well on the unit 1 assessment, and I don't think all of Stretching & Shrinking is necessary, so I decided to skip it for time.  I may pull out one or two problems from there, but so far I am happy with my decision.  I am loving both of my current units (Comparing Bits & Pieces (6th grade) and Comparing & Scaling (7th grade).  Comparing & Scaling definitely has some of my favorite CMP problems.  (I might even give some to my 6th graders)

Both grades will be taking their first interim assessment (IA) (which I created) later on this week, so that will give me a better idea of where they stand in terms of overall standard mastery.  Both IA's have about 20 questions (all released state test questions)  It's meant to be done in one class period, and they will have some time with calculators.  I'm also going to try to use Flubaroo to help with the data analysis, since we don't have a scantron machine.

Student-Led Conferences (SLCs)
Last Tuesday I gave my colleagues a PD on student-led conferences, and today we started preparing our students for them in advisory.  I felt really good about how things went.  I was happy to share my knowledge and experience with my team and then to work together to make SLCs our own.  We're all even using You Can Book Me to schedule them.  I've been preparing the slides everyone is using during advisory and our kids have been working hard.  Even though conferences are always a long day, I am looking forward to them next week.

Video Intervisitations:
We also started video intervisitations last week.  I had shared the template that we used to use at my old school, and we watched a video of our science teacher and used the template to give her warm and cool feedback.  I volunteered to go next, so I will be videotaped sometime in the next couple of weeks and then we will watch the video and my colleagues will give me feedback.  Based off my informal feedback, I might record one of my Socratic Seminars with my 6th graders.

Informal:
Speaking of informal observations, I had my first one with my AP last week.  I was happy with how it went.  I got Effective in all categories except 3c (Engaging Students in Learning) and 3d (Using Assessment in Instruction), where I got Developing.  Here were my Glows and Grows:

Glows

• Instructional materials and resources - Experienced teachers provide students with meaningful instructional materials and resources and provide opportunities for students to make good choices about the materials they use. In this lesson, students were able to decide whether or not the use of a calculator or ruler would help them be more efficient in completing the task at hand. Anna should continue to allow students to make smart choices about the materials and resources they use to make meaning from their work.
• Teacher interactions with students, both words and actions - Strong instruction requires supportive interactions between teachers and students. During the lesson, Anna created an environment of respect and rapport through the use of a respectful tone, countdowns, and her interactions. When a student corrected her about the date, Anna thanked them for their observation. When a student said, “But you’re the teacher, shouldn’t you know the answer?” Anna demonstrated patience and humor by responding, “But it’s no fun if I know the answer” and proceeded to continue the lesson. Anna should continue to engage in supportive interactions like these in order to help her students be successful.

Grow (Next Step)

• Discussion techniques & student participation - At the beginning of the lesson, students engaged in whole-group discussion where Anna posed questions and students responded. In highly effective classrooms, students pose questions to one another and respond using accountable talk to extend their thinking. In this lesson, "A" used accountable talk when he said, “I want to add on to "C" .” Anna should build on this practice by encouraging students to call on one another and paraphrase each other’s thinking with limited teacher support. For example, students can use some of the Socratic Seminar techniques to deepen their questioning and discussion during more traditional lessons such as this one. Additionally, Anna can begin encouraging student to student discussion by asking students to paraphrase each other’s thinking (“Can someone tell us what "A" just said?”) and asking them to call on one another. Practicing these skills explicitly will teach the students to call on one another without teacher support in future lessons.

My AP's Grow feedback was really helpful and I was able to implement it the next day.  During the Launch and Summarize, instead of having individual students answer my questions (ping-pong style) I have been having whoever answers, call on another student to add on to the discussion.  So it is slowly becoming their discussion, and not necessarily going through me. I want to keep developing this practice and my goal is to speak as little as possible and let my students really own their discussion.  Something that has been helping with that is the my Document Camera is finally working, so I am finally having students put their work under the cam and have them explain their thinking.  My 6th graders are much better at showing their work than my 7th graders (who just write down their final answer).

On a slightly unrelated note, one of my 6th graders, who had never participated in a class discussion before, rose his hand this week to share and my co-teacher and I were so proud of him!  (I feel like only a teacher or parent would appreciate this).  I was so proud of him - definitely a highlight of my week!

Math Club & Art:
I am very happy to report that my Friday morning math club is now Silver Level Math Counts Club! So the next step is to work on a gold-level project and we can become a gold-level club.  I am so proud of them.  This Friday is also our Canstruction trip and the first trip that I am organizing.  I think it's going to be great!

I survived the first full week of school, and I got a cold to prove it!

It wasn't a bad cold, more annoying than anything, but yes, the school year is *now* officially official.  A couple things to share about this past week:

* I painted with my art class for the first time last Friday.  It was messy, but I survived.  It was a two-week project, so we will be finishing it up this Friday (luckily only a couple of them need to actually finish painting).  They are coming out so good.  I really am so impressed.  Even more than the actual works, we had a great discussion before we started painting, using the elements of art.  This week they'll also be doing a formal pop art critique, so I am pretty excited with how are is going.  After this week, there are only six more sessions before we switch classes.  I am really enjoying teaching art.

* Speaking of electives, my Math Club this week will be exploring an engineering project on building towers, which I am super excited about!

* This week we finally got our grading system, Jupiter Ed, up and running, and I have at least two pieces of graded work in for all of my classes!  (yay me!)  I have never used this system before, but after a short PD on it from our literacy teacher (who is all about blended learning) and I am really impressed with it, specially with the potential for standards-based grading and parent communication aspect.   

* This week I had my first informal baseline observation.  My principal and AP came into my last period ICT class yesterday, and it went well.  My students were exploring when finding the common factors of numbers might be useful.  I was happy with how the lesson went, and the feedback I got today from my principal was positive and helpful.  Moving forward, I am going to work more on class discourse and discussions, which lead me to my next topic...

* I am trying my first socratic seminar ever this Friday!  I have always wanted to do a socratic seminar in math, especially since my social studies colleague last year was amazing at it, so after talking it over with my co-teacher today, and seeing how this Friday's lesson was kinda bland, we decided to try it this week.  The 6th graders have been doing them in their literature class, so they are familiar with the expectations, and I am excited about it.  My big concern (besides having never done one before) is that the questions my 6th graders will be discussing aren't really big, philosophical, open ended questions, but rather they will be exploring different approaches to finding the least common multiple and greatest common factors.  I am really excited to try something new that I have never tried before and always wanted to.  I will be sure to share the outcome next time.  

* Something that has been on my mind, especially this past week as we continue to move through the first unit on integers and rational numbers, is challenging my 7th graders.  Our first unit is on working with integers and rational numbers, which most of them already know how to do, being G&T.  They will do any work I assign in class, but the investigations we have been working on are all about understanding conceptually how integers work, and I am finding that, again most of them, already know this.  Today I even suggested playing the Stock Market Game, and about 10 of them said they had already done it in 5th grade.  So moving forward, finding challenging and meaningful math for them to explore will be a much bigger focus of mine, because CMP3 might be too easy for them.  

  

*Lastly, and this is a silly update, yesterday my boyfriend found this article on how much it would cost to build the Death Star, so of course the first person I thought of was my advisee who is obsessed with Star Wars, and I couldn't wait to share it with him this morning.  He was so excited, it might have been my favorite moment of the day.

So that's where I am.  Learning, trying new things, and nerd-ing it out, as usual.  I am pretty lucky to get to do what I do for a living <3