I'm Thankful!

In honor of Thanksgiving next week, I decided to write about what I am thankful for:

• An AMAZING Math Team at my Site and in the District.  The road hasn't been easy with our implementation of CCSS, but we stick together and work harder so that it's the best for our students.
• A FANTASTIC AVID Site team.  Our Coordinator works so hard on a limited budget.  We've raised hundreds of $ so we can take the kids to UCLA and UCI next month.
• Two TA's (and an acting TA) who are the BOMB.  Without them I would be drowning in paperwork and even more stressed.
• A soccer team and athletic program that have allowed me to contribute, even with my other commitments.  
• My Freshman AVID students who remind me every day why I teach!!  They drive me crazy sometimes, but we are a family. Below you can see the pictures I presented each student with positive words their classmates used to describe them.
• And of course my family who supports my long hours, stressed nights, and extra spending.

2014 Fall Freshman AVID

Foundation Gala

Saturday night was our school Foundation Fundraising Gala.  Our Foundation does so much to support our athletics, arts, and other campus programs, and this Gala is a huge source of that monetary support.  This was my second year attending.  The evening starts with a Silent Auction, then dinner, Live Auction, and Fund-a-Program Paddle Raise.  This year they had a photo booth, so groups were busy taking funny pictures! My husband and I wondered the silent auction for an hour and placed a few bids here and there.  We actually donated several of our photography prints and framed them neatly, so really we kept walking around having a competition on who could get the highest bid (he won with his picture of the Chicago River that got $65; my photo of the beloved Mr. Padre Statue got $45). We were seated at a table with two of my favorite colleagues too!! 

Overall, the evening was nice and helped to raise a lot of money (although I think more was raised last year). It's nice to get dressed up and out there, and shopping for a new dress the night before isn't too bad either!

My hunie and I

Mathies in attendance being goofy!

My CMC-S Reflection

October 24-25 I got the opportunity with some of my amazing team members to attend the 2014 California Mathematics Council South Conference in Palm Springs. The focus of the conference this year was "Common Core Mathematics: Building Competent and Confident Problem Solvers."  This was my first time ever attending this conference, so I didn't know what to expect.

Streets of Palm Springs

So first, Palm Springs doesn't seem to have much going on!  Everything was close and within walking distance, so that was super nice. But not too many options for food around us.

Here are the sessions I attended and my take-aways:

1. The Art of Questioning: Transforming your PLC.  

Session Description: When we analyze student work collaboratively, we build a toolkit of questions from a broader perspective. Practice teaming to develop push and probe questions to use for making instructional adjustments and serving all learners to make sense of problems.

Reflection: Working ahead to decide on questions that can get students to think and question more. Also working with a team to develop (we all don't need to do everything!) Really looking at what students do and mistakes they may make to understand what is going on and those misconceptions they may have. Don't just give the information to students.

2.  Attacking Finance Problems Algebraically

Session Description: Hybrid of algebra 1, 2, probability, statistics and precalculus topics form the basis of this UC a-g level 'c' approved math modeling course in financial problem solving. Reading, writing, discussion and projects are an integral part of the course.

Reflection: FANTASTIC session!  This would be a great course for us to add to our District after Integrated 2. Would allow students another math option, especially those that are not ready for Integrated 3.   Spoke with publisher and requested a copy of the text also. Will request information for UC approval so that we can bring it to Math Leadership, Curriculum Council, and the Board.

3.  Statistics, Sports, and Real Research

Session Description: Perform an experiment from a new multi-disciplinary course integrating CCSS Statistics, Sports Analytics, Sports Medicine and authentic student research.

Reflection: Additional course we could consider adding to our math classes. Would bring variety and offer additional options following the Integrated sequence. Students could be taken before an AP Stats class. Not sure if this would work too well right now at our site, but could be considered in the future.

4. Desmos: Infinite Graphing Power

Session Description: Supercharge students' problem-solving toolset with Desmos, the free online graohing calculator. Learning more about Desmos and the capabilities of the program within our classroom.

Reflection: WOW! Can do so much with this program in our math classes. Takes a little bit to set up a problem, but then students can link to it and explore the graphs - important with transformations of graphs - and discover the effects of changing "things" in the equation without actually graphing by hand. Can also insert a table of information, do linear regression. Great for exploring EVERYTHING! Can do graphs in radians and also set up polar graph instead of grid. Discovering equations for "real-life" math pictures too (parabolas - bridges)

I attempted to attend the session on using Google Forms for Assessment, but it was already packed and full before I was able to get there. One of my colleagues was able to go though, so we were at least able to share information.

My amazing Team (minus 1 who we missed dearly)

I was happy to have the opportunity to attend (and the funding to make it happen for all of us).  I look forward to going again next year!!