Field Trips, Formal Observations, STEM...

After Fridays, Wednesdays are probably my favorite day of the work week.  More than half the work week is over, and Mondays - Wednesdays are usually my most productive days, so Wednesdays are good.  Even though it's been hard to get out of bed the past few days (it's just so warm and cozy) work has been good.  Like last week, I am still amazed that we are almost half way done with the school year!  It is going by so fast!  And almost not a day goes by where I don't regret making the (scary) choice to try something new.  So here's what's been going on in the math (& art) middle school life the past week:

Field Trips

I scheduled my first whole-grade field trips of the year!  (My art trip in November was just one class).  My 6th graders and 7th graders are going to the Math Museum on two different days in March, which will hopefully break up the miserable school month of March a little bit.  I also scheduled our trip to the Festival of Cultures in May for the whole middle school.  Fun trips coming up!

Formal Observation/ Mathalicious

Tomorrow morning I will have my formal observation with my 7th graders.  We will be doing an inquiry investigation on linear equations using Domino's Pizza.  It hits some important 8th grade standards on equations and functions (yes, I am doing it with 7th graders!).  I am so happy with my Mathalicious subscription, I highly recommend it for any middle/high school math teacher!       

Math Club/ STEM: Building Straw Bridges

Tomorrow my Math Club will begin formally working on their Gold-level project for the National Math Club and they will also explore building straw bridges.  One of my 6th graders (who isn't even in Math Club) shared with me this game as a resource.  I am excited to see what they come up with!    

Ten Marks March Math Madness

A few years ago, my students used Ten Marks as an online resource.  It was especially engaging in March when they have a contest, March Math Madness.  I got an email from them about it this week, so I decided to check out an account.  I even had a student test it out, and I think I may use it again (at least for Math Madness) as a way to change things up.  Currently my kids use Khan Academy online, which is great, but it might be a nice change (and good motivation) to switch over for a bit.    

Interim Assessment #2

One of my classes took their second interim assessment this week.  The other two classes will take theirs in two weeks.  These are assessments that I make, using released state-test questions.  The next round will be in March and the final will be in May.  I am proud of myself for following though with this goal.  The data has been useful and I don't feel like I am over-testing them, especially since I create the tests, so I know they won't be a waste of time (like prior benchmarks given to us from the city have been).     

Parent Engagement

I finally sent out my first parent newsletter of the year this week!  I have been wanting to do it all year, but it just hasn't happened.  I like how it came out and I hope to send one out every Tuesday during our parent engagement time.  When my 6th graders start their geometry unit, Covering & Surrounding, we will also be inviting families in for the Coke Project (probably sometime next month), which should be fun.

Andy Warhol

In art this week, my students will be studying Andy Warhol work on this project.  

Working with Individual Students

I am so lucky to work at a school that is so flexible with their schedule.  Today I was able to skip lunch duty, still have my prep period, and use what would have been my prep to work with two individual students during their study hall period.  Nothing is better than being supported in working with kids one-on-one.  This is something I tried to bring to my old school, but wasn't able to make happen.  Right now this is on a week-by-week basis, but it is fantastic and I hope it continues!     

Advisory Service Project
My advisory is still working on their service project around homelessness.  I am so proud of them for taking on such a great cause.  They are really starting to own this service learning project.

G & T Extension Certification

I started looking into Gifted & Talented Extension Certification programs.  I am currently only have my secondary math certification.  The Summer Institute for Gifted Certification program at Hunter College looks promising.  My only fear is that it will be very elementary school focused (since G & T testing happens to little kids).  I know St. John's has a program too, which I believe is online (which would be nice) but I hear it's pricy.  Decisions, decisions.

First Post of 2016!

Happy New Year or as I like to call it, the almost half-way point of the school year!  There is nothing quite like making it to Winter Break!  As happy as I am with my job, nothing beats being on vacation for 11 days.  I didn't do as much work as I planned, but I have no regrets.  We've been back for three days now, and I must say, they have been quite smooth.  I'm definitely not as stressed as I was last year.  Looking back at my 2015 New Years resolutions, one of them was to "find a new (more fulfilling & balanced) job" and although I was scared to take the leap, I am so glad that ultimately I was brave enough to make a change to try something new.  Here's what's been going on in my classroom in these first few days of 2016...

Happy Teacher Challenge

Someone posted about this 30 Day Happy Teacher Challenge on one of the teacher Facebook groups that I belong to and I think it's a really cute idea, I am gonna try it!  I printed it out today and will hopefully start with day 1 tomorrow.    

Scratch Project

The Programming teacher at my school told me about a Scratch project the 6th graders are going to be starting next week, where they create a calculating machine.  So I shared with him the 6th, 7th, 8th grade, and Algebra 1 reference sheets from the state tests and they are going to use them!  I am so excited for this project.  I cannot wait to see what they come up with!

 

Math Club

After presenting the board games they designed, Shark Tank style, before the Winter Break, the Math Club will be working on a classroom redesign challenge this week and will begin looking into their gold-level project for The National Math Club.  I also would love to do another STEM project with them soon.  I was thinking maybe having them make a balloon car, but I still want to do some research.

Art

My 7th graders in art will be studying Pop artist Romero Britto this week and creating a piece inspired by him.  I also found this awesome teacher art blog to follow with some really great ideas.

CMP3

My 6th graders have been working through the Let's Be Rational unit, which focuses on operations with fractions, which I know some of them needed because the pre-assessment, but some of them are pushing back because they already know the algorithms for working with fractions.  Since this curriculum goes for conceptual knowledge, they have been doing a lot of modeling in class, which for some of them, seems unnecessary.  Today, my ICT class really wanted to discuss mathematical modeling, and I didn't want to disrupt the discussion, so I threw the lesson plan out, and we had a Socratic Seminar on mathematical modeling today instead.  They were begging not to leave when the bell rang.  It just goes to show you that sometimes the best lessons are not even planned!

My 7th graders are finally working on Moving Straight Ahead, which is all about linear relationships and I am loving it!  I am even getting to do some of the slope investigations that I used to leave out in past years.  This is always my favorite unit because I love algebra.  My next steps will be to find some good problems on Mathalicious or Illuminations or Illustrative.  I am having my formal observation with them next Thursday, so I want to make sure we do something good.  It's a great unit to be formally observed on because there is just so much you can do with linear relationships.    

Advisory Service Project

My advisory finally decided on a cause for their service project - homelessness.  I am so excited because not only did they choose it, but I think it gives us a lot of options for projects we can do.  We had been leaning towards homelessness since we read this article earlier this week and then Channel One had a segment on it today, which I think sealed the deal.  They began researching today and I cannot wait to see what they come up with!

Goals/Next Steps/Ideas for Next Time:

• Incorporating more literacy into math class
• The Package design project with my 6th graders and inviting their families in
• Standards-based grading
• Math portfolios
• Field trip ideas - Math Museum

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.