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. 

Curriculum, curriculum, curriculum (part 2)

Every time I think I feel confident about which curriculum I am going to use next year, I end up with more questions than answers.  Ugh, it is very frustrating.

Today was day two of the CMP3 Institute and we did some more Investigations from the 6th grade unit, Prime Time, and I got some more good ideas about how to use CMP3 again in my classroom, and I left feeling pretty confident, that at least for 6th grade, CMP3 is the way to go.  Then, of course, during lunch I go back to researching and comparing CMP3 vs Engage (aka Eureka) and I have major doubts about the alignment.  All I know for sure is that I love the explorations in CMP3 (they fit my teaching style perfectly and teach mathematics deeply) but the focus & coherence of CMP3 is just not as good as Engage (see this post).

Not to add more pressure, but this little tidbit about my new school was also released yesterday, Astoria School Scores 100 Percent Passing Rate on State Math Exam: Data.  96% of my new seventh graders passed their 6th grade math exam.  Teaching G&T is going to be a whole new world for me, and as excited as I am, I feel even more pressure not to mess up.

Ugh, so much to think about in the next three weeks.  Double ugh, in exactly three weeks, tomorrow will be the first day of school.  Super excited to meet my new kids, but definitely feeling the pressure of the new year.

CMP3 Institute, 30 Day Blogging Challenge Day 3, and Summer Reading

Today was the first day of a week-long Getting to Know CMP3 Institute for Grade 6.  My new principal asked me a few weeks ago if I would be interested in attending, and although I have attended similar PDs before (and haven't always found them to be the most helpful), since 6th grade is new for me this year, I figured why not.

It was kind of slow-paced, but we went through the first four problems in Prime Time, and our presenters were actual current CMP3 teachers (not from NY, mind you, but I appreciate the fact that they are current teachers and not outsiders trying to sell me on Pearson).

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the freedom of summer vacation, but I did kind of, sort of get excited about the new school year.  Not that I don't get excited every year, but its different this year, since I'll be in a new district and school.  Lot's of good possibilities!

I also figured today was a good day for day 3 of the 30 day blogging challenge:

Day 3:
Discuss one *observation* area that you would like to improve on for your teacher evaluation.

Especially after getting back into "work mode" today, the two Danielson areas that I most want to improve on this year are 1E: Designing Coherent Instruction and 3D: Using Assessment in Instruction.  I still feel that there is a disconnect between how I want to teach my students and how I am assessing them.  It's that balance between good mathematical teaching and mastering all of the material for the state test.  I've already updated my test question bank with the released state test questions, but I still struggle with curriculum.  I want to go back to using CMP3, but like I learned in last week's blog post from EdReports, there are better curriculums aligned to the Common Core, like EngageNY.  I have lots to think about over the next three weeks.  

On a side note, I also downloaded this book a few weeks ago, and I want to read it before the school year starts back up, but I am in the middle of one of my book club books that I am really enjoying (A Man Called Ove) and don't want to put down just yet.  #summergoals