Halloween

The past few years the majority of our department has dressed up with a common theme for Halloween. In 2016 we were "Pi-Rates" and 2017 we each were a digit in the Fibonacci Sequence (and ordered by height from least to greatest). We also dress up for Spirit Days and Pi-Day.

Halloween 2017

Halloween 2016

This year we started early in deciding (like mid-September) what we wanted to do for Halloween. One of the members, jokingly I think, mentioned Crayons. Well, that'll teach him because a few just took it and ran with it. Each member picked a color and made it math-y, like Radical Red, Exponential Emerald, or Octagon Orange. And one lucky member gets to be the Box.

Here is my journey: I got he cardboard from a co-worker that was perfect. I spent about 2 weeks working on my Box. I had to get the shape right; make the cuts for the head and arms; made a trip to Home Depot for finding just the right paint colors; measured out the stripes so they were as close as possible to being proportional; had a student draw out and color the crayons; sprayed, painted, and touched up until it was nearly perfect; added details until I ran out of time. Below are pictures at various points in the process.

Here is the completed front and back!! I'm thinking it looks really good. I'm also thinking I spent WAY too much time on it. When my husband mentioned a month ago to just buy one... I should have! But I also know if I had purchased one, this wouldn't be as cool and customized as it is.

Front!!

Back - look closely :-)

I plan on posting pictures of our Department after we take some tomorrow. And, if I'm lucky, I'll get some photos of my family. See, my daughter (whose 3) heard me talking about a crayon box and decided she wanted to be a Crayon too (Orange). I wasn't sure what my husband was going to do, and then a co-worker suggested a white t-shirt to color. So I'm the box, she's the crayon, and he's the paper. It's pretty good.

UPDATE:

Here is our Department.

Summer Plans

We've actually been out for almost a month now. I'm just now getting to writing after I've had time to relax and reflect. So here is a list of my plans for this summer:

1. Refine the concept mastery / standards based grading I dove into this spring in Integrated Math 2.  7/23

2. Once I've done #1, I want to look at how I can incorporate it into Financial Algebra. This may prove a little tougher since there are the procedural math skills and then the life skills they learn. But I like the idea of not counting points on the projects!

3. I'm planning to read (and finish! 🤣) Jo Bolar's Mathematical Mindsets. I've had the book for almost 2 years. So far, I'm doing pretty good- I only have 2 chapters left! 7/18

4. Getting the Level 1 and Level 2 Google for Education Certification. I started looking through and completing the Level 1 curriculum. My goal is to have Level 1 complete by mid July and level 2 by the end of August. 7/28 for Level 1.

5. I need to do A LOT of reorganizing and cleaning in my classroom. a) it just needs to be done, b) I will be sharing my classroom with another teacher and it will be there "office" so I want to create a space for whomever it'll be, and 3) inspired by Sarah Carter from Math Equals Love, I will be incorporating a puzzle table into the room. It's actually really cool because I submitted a project on Donors Choose for the table and lots of puzzles and manipulatives - it was fully funded in less than a week!! So I'm super excited to get the items and start setting it up. 

6. Non work related, I'll be enjoying (on most days, hopefully) time with my daughter. She is almost 3 and full of energy, so that will keep me very busy. I like being lazy and she needs to be out running around, so this may prove to be a tough challenge! 

7. Keeping my sanity and working on my health. I started running again back in May. Then I stepped on an uneven part of concrete, rolled my ankle, and fell, landing really hard on my knee. This happened 7 weeks ago and I'm still having some difficulty with pressure directly on my knee 😒. But I'm trying to still do some workouts, just not too much cardio. Other than that, my in-laws just moved in, so I'll be working on that adjustment.

Anyone else have a long list like me?

Concept Mastery Data

Disclaimer: I am not a Google Sheets expert! But I'm pretty good and able to eventually achieve what I'm thinking so that I'm working smarter, not harder. It takes some time, but Sheets is so valuable and such a time saver.

One thing I need to improve on with Standards Based Grading is the recording and reporting of progress. I had a long, painful process this Spring (you can read about it in this reflection post, #5). As I was looking more into options this summer, I ran across Mari Venturino's post on Tracking Data. She has a Google Sheet she keeps and she did a lot of conditional formatting and "=countif". She uses a binary approach to the mastery tasks with either a 0 or 1. I like how she determines the letter grades, and that was something I was already considering (still working out though). Her Sheet was a good starting point for me. I made a copy and started to adjust to the needs of my class and my students. Since it will include student names (alphabetical!) it won't be something I can share with students and parents. 

I've been trying to meet with students on a more regular basis to go over grades and what they need to be working on, so this wouldn't even work for that purpose. My idea was creating something where I would just need to input 1 set of information (student ID#) and then it would import the students data (scores and current grade). Enter "=vlookup"!!! I copied over some data and went to testing. It works BEAUTIFULLY! I'm so excited about this aspect - this will be a game changer to student conferences and discussions. Data Template. The letter grade assigned is based on the level they are performing at on the concepts overall. Here is the current break down that is programmed into the Sheet (subject to change, but thinking it's pretty accurate for this school year):

A… at least 85% of skills are Got it or better; no score is developing, not yet, or missing

B… at least 70% of skills are Got it or better; less than 10% of skills are developing or not yet, and zero skills are missing

C… less than 30% of skills are developing or not yet and zero skills are missing

F… more than 30% of skills are developing, not yet or missing

For the upcoming school year, I also have plans for students to record their own assessment scores. I liked the document that Everybody is a Genius posted about. I plan to make a few tweaks to it since I don't have a 3+ score. Here is my Record Sheet Template (and a second version that is portrait - I made it so it can easily go in a composition book and only 2 sides would need to be trimmed). The other thing I'm going to implement is having students do a self-assessment on the concepts (I do skills/concepts instead of the actual standard since that isn't kid friendly). I love that Sheets has the Checkbox feature now, so you can see how easy it'll be for students. Here is my First Semester Skills list and my Second Semester Skills List for Integrated Math 2. I like including the Mathematical Practices here since they are such a huge aspect of math. You will also notice I'm trying to not have too many skills, so some ideas are together (like sine and cosine are together not separate).

I also still need to figure out how I will inform parents of student progress. I only have a few more weeks though to try to figure out something!

Numeracy vs. Literacy

Earlier this week I ran across a blog post from High Heels in High School about "When will we ever use this in real life?".  Then, I read this tweet this afternoon from Dan Meyer: 

Both really struck a chord with me. This has been my soap box this school year!

Long before this, I've been asking why it's okay for people to not be able to do math, but not okay to not be able to read? One of the points our math department presents to parents at Back-to-School Night every year, twice a year actually, is that they shouldn't say "I was never good at math" at home or to their kids.

In education, literacy and numeracy are often talked about. But numeracy always comes second, like the red-headed step-child. Yet, we expect the same results - proficiency. Data for the two is collected and compared, and math always is outperformed by ELA. The way math is treated though, this shouldn't be a surprise; us math teachers face an uphill battle. And I am sooo prepared for this battle!!

At our District, the top two goals of our Board are:

1. We want our students to demonstrate high levels of literacy in English (reading, writing, and listening & speaking).
2. We want our students to have expertise in mathematics.

Red-headed step-child!

I've heard of schools that have DEAR or SSR- so much emphasis is placed on English literacy. Reality is, students are using English every day, in each of their classes. All teachers are integrating English into their curriculum. But math is lonely - other teachers steer clear of it, even saying they don't know if or have needed it. AHHHHHH!!!  In January, I gave an Ignite Talk on this topic to math teachers in my District. Just last week, I was asking where our District's Math Center was, since we have a Literacy Center. I jokingly, well half-joking, was proposing a name change to the Math and Literacy Center. And, we also just completed our state testing. Every year, English tests the first week, math the second week. Once again, we are last. I was over testing as that second week began and it was only a schedule change that affected me. I can only imagine how the students actually testing were feeling. But it's always been this way. I don't know if math scores would be any better by going first, but it's worth a try to me! 

Alright, so I'm stepping back down off my box. Let me know if you have any solutions or suggestions!!!

Emergency Sub Plans #MTBoS

As part of the #MTBoS #SundayFunday Weekly BNogging Challenge, the post this week is on "Emergency Sub Plans"  Note: I missed last weeks on Teacher Hacks! 😕

I probably should do better about having Emergency Sub Plans. I do have something in a green folder in my desk - clearly labeled, of course. I remember they are a class set of equations to solve - perfect for many courses. I'm not sure where the actual file is, so I can't share that right now, but I will link it next week when I get back to the office.

What I will say about the assignment is that it is boring! It's just about 30 equations of varying difficulty that students are suppose to solve. Hey, if they are for an Emergency I want them to just quickly work to keep students occupied.

What I will also say is that in 11 years of teaching, I've never had to use them. I had one time (during my second year) where I was really sick and didn't make it into work, deciding at 4am I was too ill. I remember just tying out what the students needed to get done - what was in my plan already to do. This instance, I was out for 2 days and the 3rd day happened to be a snow day. But I returned that Thursday and just used the time to follow up on some of the topics. It seemed to be ok. So why go through the trouble?

Now, with some of the access students have to technology, I feel I can easily push something out into Classroom. Students would know what they were expected to complete. I'm organized enough that I know what I have planned at least a week ahead of time, so that makes it easier. I also trust that my students would be able to complete assignments without me around!

One other reason I don't feel putting Emergency Sub Plans together is a priority is because I work with an ABSOLUTELY AMAZING group!! My department is so awesome and we will always help each other out. We plan together and have documents posted in Google Drive. If needed, I can send a text to my team and they would be more than happy to fill a substitute in on what needs to happen for that day.

Organization OCD #MTBoS

As part of the #MTBoS #SundayFunday Weekly Blogging Challenge, the post for this week is on "Everything Organization."

I am pretty organized! I actually am not as organized as I used to be before my daughter came 2 years ago, but I'm reminded often that my worse is still better than most best.

Emails: I struggle when I see people with numerous unread emails. I know they have a system that works for them, but it gives me anxiety sometimes - I can't have more than 25 emails in my box at a time. My system is: if it doesn't pertain to me, delete it and file away the email I've responded to that I need to save. What remains in my box is essentially the stuff I need to still do or respond to. This helps me to get those tasks completed so I can weed through my emails.

Papers and Files: I color code much of my stuff to help organize. ROYGBIV is my friend. I organize class periods that way and I organize course materials that way. For my course binders, I use a binder for each semester, with the courses going in order by color (Integrated Math 1 is red, Math 2 orange, Math 3 yellow, Financial green, Math Analysis blue, Department Chair is purple, and then AVID is Black). I still have some work in organizing my cabinet with all of them, but essentially I hardly ever use any of the books or information on the left side. Next to this cabinet is a huge corner cabinet - like so large I have to crawl into it to get anything in the back. In my 6 years, I still haven't figured out how to utilize it. In addition to my hard copies of materials in color-coded binders, I also organize my Google Drive Folders with the same color scheme.

Next to my computer, I have some folders that I file common student papers into. Papers to be graded, to be recorded into my gradebook (I keep a paper hard copy and then transfer scores into our online system), quiz corrections, assessments to be taken (for absent students), and then to-do folder.

Electronic Files: This is probably where I excel. I've always organized my files into folders. We've been a Google Apps district for like 6 years now. I was initially very resistant to using Drive since math doesn't work so well, but it has been getting better and catching up. Now that we have more teachers teaching a course, we use Drive to collaborate and have common files. As a Lead for our Math 1 and Math 2 courses, we organize our units with a Unit Plan. I link any documents or resources to it. It's like a one-stop shop for the team to get information, resources, and ideas from. My task this school year is to convert all of our Word files to Doc files. I'm about half way through both of those courses. With Financial Algebra, we used Drive from the start, which has been awesome and a life saver! I like to have as much as I can in electronic format since that helps to cut down on the papers I have to figure out how to file.

Classroom Space:  Several years ago I put up curtains on some side shelving. I keep some department supplies in 2 of them. The other 2 are student supplies - 1st one are whiteboards, erasers, and towels. The second set are more of the supplies - markers, glue sticks, compasses, protractors, scissors.

I have a clearly marked "IN" tray and "OUT" bins. And in between is where I keep the absent folder, Quiz Corrections Forms, and Request to Retest Forms. For absences, I place the name of the student on any work that was passed out and place it in the folder. I use to have a slip that went with it and stated specifics of what they missed, but I haven't used in over a year because the current course I'm teaching doesn't work that way - it's project based most days.

The past 5 years I've had my teaching station (doc cam) in the front corner - which was unusable space because of the angle to the board - and student desks arranged in groups of 4. This year I arranged things differently. I moved my DocCam to the back on a cart that I can stand at, then arranged the student desks into various table-top groupings (pairs, 3's and 4's). I figured it would provide students different situations to work in. The pairs are easily set-up to become a group of 4 when needed too.

I've taught AVID for a number of years, so that's why I have a lot of space decorated with Pennants. Last year I was lucky enough to have Seniors, so I started a wall for them with where they are going to college. It's a work in progress though - I have more students to put up, just haven't had the chance to work on it yet.

I'm sure I have more Organization Hacks, but for now this will have to do.

Financial Class Economy

Shortly after the 2016-2017 school year ended in June, I was continuing to reflect on our Financial Algebra course. I kept thinking what can we make better and how can we do it. I thought about how I didn't particularly enjoy how we did some of our banking unit - mainly checking (I also was over the project choice we had for them for that chapter). I decided I was going to tackle a modified class economy system for these high school juniors and seniors! So I spend all summer tackling and figuring out how and what to do. Here is what I have so far:

I had found a template online that I modified to make checks for student use. If students want to "purchase" something they may write a check. This would then give students practical practice with how to fill out a check. While my document has 16 checks, I've decided to only give students 8 of them. As one of the expenses, they may purchase additional checks (we have to buy them in the real world). Since I know we do not write checks for everything we purchase, I then decided to make a Form for electronic transactions. They can debit, transfer, or deposit funds. I figure it would be rare from them to transfer or deposit funds as these would be from another student, but I still wanted to give them that option. Students would be required to record all transactions they make on an Account Register. I was naive the first time teaching this course that this would be something easy for them - it wasn't! They just depend on the online bank to tell them what they have - ugh!!!! Getting students to keep track of this on their own will be huge.

While researching, I found Class Economy was mostly used in the elementary schools. We are not giving out jobs, but high school students are always told that school is their (unpaid) job. I decided that they would be paid minimum wage (currently $10.50 in CA) for the time that they are in class. Our class periods are typically about 90 minutes and we see the students every day (only for 1 semester though). So, they would be paid according to that, including all taxes taken out. Alice Keeler has a Send Comments Add-On Template (you can read about it here) that I was able to modify the Script so that I could have it email information like it was a Pay Stub (my Template). Once I have the students name and email in, all I will need to do is put in the hours for the pay period and I've programmed the cells to do the magic of the calculations! When it is pay day, I just need to push "Send Emails" and it should send the students the email with their pay information. I tested it a few times, but haven't officially run payroll for the class yet.

I just introduced it Friday to my students - it was a quick introduction. One class seemed pretty excited, though they were bummed when they asked if taxes would be taken out! The other class didn't seem as enthusiastic, but maybe that was because it was too close to the bell? I used this document to introduce it to them. It has links to my current expenses and fines, and student friendly language.

I'm just starting this journey, so hopefully I can update in a few months with some positive results. I also have thoughts of giving performance increases in October, followed shortly by some inflation.

Class Management #MTBoS #SundayFunday

As part of the #MTBoS #SundayFunday Weekly Blogging Challenge, the post for this week is on "Classroom Management."

I just started my 12th year teaching. I never feel like I am perfect with Classroom Management and I have learned over the years which battles I am willing to fight. And the management I may have for my junior and senior class will not be the same I use with my freshman and sophomore class - they just are at different maturity levels.

When I was younger, I needed to come in with a pretty tough and strict approach. I look younger than I really am. Not a bad thing I know, but when you could pass as a high school student yourself, it makes it a little tougher to gain the respect of students. Being 5' 3" doesn't help too much either. I've spent years coaching soccer, so my coaches voice often carries into the class. I end up loosening up as the year goes on, but this is how I have usually had to start.

I'm sooooooooo lucky to teach where I do. I spent my first 6 years teaching in more challenging situations than I'm currently in. These past 5 years, I've been teaching at a Dual Magnet HS - it's a choice school so the student population is way different than our surrounding schools. I really do not have discipline problems. Maybe that's partly because my students know and understand my expectations, but I think mostly because the students we have are awesome!

What do I do?

Movement: I am constantly moving about that classroom. I read my first year teaching Fred Jones' Tools for Teaching and the Zone of Proximity was something that really stuck with me (here is another article about it). My projector is mounted on the ceiling and I'm able to connect it to my DocCam in almost any location I'd like. This helps me to have a teaching station, now in the back middle of the room, where I can roam and reach students quickly and efficiently.

Facial Expressions: This probably isn't good, but I say a lot with my facial expressions. When students start to get off-task or do something I do not approve of, I give them "a look" and they usually know. I don't often have to go past that, but if behaviors continue, then I take the student aside and talk to them.

Student Conferences: I talk with students often, so if I'm really having academic or behavior issues with students I try to conference with them individually. I want to narrow down what is going on with them and see how I can help to get them back on track. This seems to help the most. It takes time and I always try to do it so they aren't feeling on-the-spot with the rest of the class.

Last Straw: It take a lot to get me annoyed and to this point. If I've talked to the student several times and changed seating arrangements, and nothing seems to get better, I finally call the parents to discuss the issues and what I've tried. I try to figure out solutions with them because the next step is for me to write a referral - these really are rare, probably averaging only 1/year (with past 2 I've done for academic dishonesty!).

Like I said - I'm not perfect and as situations come up, I may handle them differently. On the positive side, with a 4x4, we get to start a new "school year" with each semester.

New Year

It's the first of the year! In 2 days, I will be back at work and getting ready to the new term.

I'm excited to be teaching 2 sections of Financial Algebra again - I've learned so much the first time around and already have so many thoughts and ideas on how to make it better for the second time. That being said, I'm also finding that I am already overwhelming myself with wanting to create new lessons and repackaging old lessons. The past two weeks, I've spent many hours working on a HyperDoc to familiarize students with Google Suite (suited for High School students) and repackaging a career introduction (skills, interests, and abilities assessments). I think that I have finally got them completed! I'm still working on a document to go into Sheets (since we are doing finance, we use it often and I found the first time around that students had no experience with the application). And, I need to still figure out the details of our first project - career research. We did a different project for this unit, but with the additional time we have, we thought it would be better to really have students research the career they are thinking about since we will use it throughout the year. I'm hoping that I will be able to get them finished by Tuesday, but it isn't looking promising since the other 2 took so long for me to "perfect."

More time than I anticipated has been spent working on a strategy session presentation I volunteered to give. Back in November, I attended SDCUE and a session on HyperDocs. I had heard about them, but I wanted a better understanding. I had implemented a few in my class, and really enjoy the freedom it gives both myself and the students. So, I'm presenting a session about HyperDocs to any teacher that wishes to find out more! I finished my slide deck and thought that I was ready to go. But then I finished reading The HyperDoc Handbook: Digital Lesson Design Using Google Apps by Lisa Highfill, Kelly Hilton, and Sarah Landis. I felt I could make it better. I thought, if I'm giving a presentation about HyperDocs, wouldn't it be best to example it with them? So I created a Form that could go with the session. I gave opportunities for participants to Explore, Apply, and Reflect. I ask participants to explore already made hyperdocs for their content area. Then I ask for them to include the hyperlink. I will have them apply by really thinking about a lesson they plan to do this spring that maybe they could repackage. Finally, they will reflect on the idea of HyperDocs. In having participants search and include a link to a HyperDoc, I wanted to make sure that information was available for teachers to access, so I created a new Sheet and used the ImportRange function so that only those responses from the form would be visible to anyone that has the link. It's simple, but I'm pretty impressed with myself in pushing this further. My hope is that my colleagues will push themselves so that we all can push the students to achieve more!

Now that I have procrastinated an additional half-hour on the lessons I still need to work on, my resolution for this Spring Term is to Blog at least once a week with some of the resources we are using for Financial Algebra. I think we are doing some awesome stuff, and while we haven't created everything ourselves, it would still be good for me to share what we are doing.

Classroom Decor

As the new school year gets ready to start, I've been working on cleaning up my classroom and reorganizing a few things. This summer I decided I needed to fix my pennants. As I was getting more (which I got two more this summer - University of Oregon and College of Idaho!) I realized I wasn't utilizing my wall space well enough. So I lined them up a little better and attached them to the wall that students would see immediately when they walked in. Having a lot of Seniors this year, I really wanted to highlight the college mentality. And I love that I am representing different colleges than what they may be familiar with.

When I first started at my current school (2011), I had created THINK posters. I really liked this saying and I wanted to remind my students to always think. This year I saw on Pinterest an addition with Social Media. I'm constantly reminding my students about this, so I decided to add this to my wall too.

Found on Pintrest

So here is how it now looks in my room:


Here is Social Media Images File if anyone would like to have them. I'm sure I will need to change them out in the future, but for now this seemed like a good collection of frequently used media.

The last set of pictures below are just additional signs I have in my room. As a math teacher, I remind students often about the "how" and "why" explanation to problems, not just "what did you get".  And the most common question - "when will I need this?" I saw this answer in a summer school classroom a few years ago. It summed up perfectly how I felt so I recreated it (file here). I don't think I've been asked the question since I put it up last year, but a new set of students will be walking in tomorrow morning, so we will see!

 

I'm still working on reorganizing some other things. As the year gets ready to start, I realize I've spent a lot of time making sure everyone else is ready and set, but I sort of forgot about myself...oh well! I'll figure it out as I go along.

I'm Back!!

After an almost two year hiatus (pregnancy and enjoying time with my wonderful daughter), I decided that I need to start blogging again. I'm hoping that I can post more often than my last go around and offer more insight and resources into my teaching.

As I've spent the summer preparing and planning for the upcoming school year, I felt like there were a lack of resources for the 3 classes I needed to prepare: Integrated Math 1, Financial Algebra, and Senior AVID Seminar. I thought if I was feeling this way, there had to be others out there? So, I'm hoping that by writing about my journey, it may stir additional conversations and offer others a place to gather some ideas. [DISCLAIMER: I am not an expert for these courses]

We are in our third year with Common Core Integrated Math. To be honest, we are really starting our 5th year since we are on a 4x4 schedule. The transition to Common Core and Integrated was tough, not for content but more due to parent and student resistance. I think it was more misunderstanding than anything. Seeing our students go through the 3 courses has been awesome - the level of math they are doing, the conversations they are having, the interest level! The past two years we were using the Mathematics Vision Project. In January, our three District high schools came together to discuss and choose one main resource that we were going to use moving forward (prior to this each school was using a different program). I highlight main resource because it was made clear that this would not be our curriculum; that our curriculum we would develop as we went and that we would have the ability to pull different resources together! Ultimately, we decided to go with CPM (College Preparatory Mathematics) as our main resource as we felt it would be more accessible to all students. While not ecstatic that we would have to change after all the time and effort my department had put in, I knew this decision would be for the best and I was still happy that I would be able to pull in my favorite MVP lessons. So I spent most of the Spring and Summer preparing for our upcoming school year. I've got 7 teachers teaching this course; 4 of them for the first time and 3 of those are brand new to our school (2 totally fresh teachers). It's going to be crazy this Fall. I'm excited at what resources we will be putting together and looking forward to the feedback our team has.

I spent a lot of the 2014-2015 school year working with another teacher in our District to get Financial Algebra as an approved course in our District. I'm a strong supporter of financial literacy in the classroom and wish more required it. At least this course would give a third year course option to our students and get them knowledgeable for the world they are about to enter. Since I was on Maternity Leave for 1/3 of last year, I decided to hold off on offering the course until this year. We got about 140 students signed up to take the class and will be offering 4 sections of it. I'm excited that I will have 2 of the sections and my former student teacher will have 2 of them. We have already spent several hours meeting and trying to figure out how we envision the class, what we want to cover, and how we can make it relevant and applicable to each student. More on this throughout the year!

Finally, I'll also be teaching Senior AVID Seminar. I taught Freshman AVID in the past for 2 years, so I'm excited and nervous about this switch to Seniors. Again, with our 4x4 schedule, curriculum gets crazy. I'm not sure how our school has managed this schedule (I know they have!) so I'm anxious about getting into figuring all that out. I'm also excited since my first set of freshman AVID kiddos are now seniors, so it'll be nice to see where they are now.

I'm planning on making an effort to blog at least once per week with my insights of these three classes. I'll post the resources I can too! I may write about a few other things too - as a BTSA support provider, department chair, sports enthusiast!

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

Gearing Up!

Tomorrow is the BIG day - the first day of school for students!!  Us teachers had 3 days last week of professional development (our favorite, right?) and getting our classes ready.  Of course, when I went by today to triple check that everything was ready to go for tomorrow, there were several teachers there doing the same (and I'm sure even more yesterday).

 So I took a few pictures of my classroom so I can remember what it looks like before the chaos starts, and also so it may inspire others in theres.

This is what students will see when they walk in. I hand students a playing card so that is where they find the table they will be sitting at. So, that is the purple tents on the desks.

I've been writing a Quote of the Day for years now. This is the one that will greet students tomorrow.

Looking at the front of the room.  I have class norms posted to the left.



Thanks to Pintrest - I made this one to fit my needs.

Looking from my desk to the door.

I've HATED for the past two years these exposed shelves - students would put stuff there and leave trash all the time. So I went to Wal-Mart and got some tension rods and then found curtains that (almost) fit my need (small modification needed so it would work perfectly, but no one has to know!). You can also see my storage containers for student supplies - not often needed but it's for rulers, markers, protractors, compasses, scissors, glue sticks.

This is on top of my counter.  It's just a small file system for students whom are absent to pick up work and for students to grab the form to do quiz corrections and request a test retake.

 I tried really hard this summer to get organized.  Last year was the first year I didn't switch schools, so this year I really settled in to try to make it nicer.  With new course curriculum and new leadership roles, I wanted to be certain that everything was in a good location.

Oh, hope my "roommate" and there students don't mess too much up - I'm a bit OCD and not sure I'm going to be able to handle sharing.  ;-)

The Simple Things

I went to the "office" today.  As I finish a pile at home, I take it back into work and reorganize.  I wish I could say that I don't bring any more work home with me, but I always seem to bring something else to work on.  Today I took back Algebra 2 (I got through enough last week that I will be set for about the first 3 weeks of the year) and I grabbed some Geometry, since I will now be teaching a section of that in the Spring.

I've also been going into work periodically so that I can run copies of stuff that I know I am going to need that first week.  I hate waiting in line for the copy machine during the 2 days we have before school starts (as we know that's the time they always break!), so I try to get as much done as possible beforehand.  So I was STOKED when I found out we received our new machines (they are Cannon and not Xerox) since the fiscal year just started and we have a new contract.  I tested this machine a few months ago and I was SOOOO happy with what it offered.  I also found out that they are in our new staff lounge!!  Which means that come August 13th, we will have an official staff lounge.  We had just been using an empty classroom, but with the huge growth in our enrollment, we will need all available rooms for the new teachers we have hired (last count I saw 24 new additions to our site!).

The other simple pleasure I encountered upon arriving was that my classroom had just had its deep cleaning.  The custodial staff had stacked all the desks and chairs, moved the other furniture.  They completely dusted and cleaned the cabinets, counters, and other surfaces, and they had just finished with the carpet.  It looked so spotless and wonderful in there!!

My simple happiness:  New copy machines and a super clean classroom!  What more could a math teacher ask for!

Paper-Less

I've spent the last few weeks thinking about how to be more organized.  I went to my room and started cleaning things up and rearranging so that I could accomplish that task this summer and be reading for the new school year.  As I was doing that, I've created FIVE boxes full of paper ready for recycling (I save student tests and some work as record for a year, so that was 2-3 of them).  So, I started thinking, "In our world of technology, how are we not more paperless?"

I decided to research how I could use Google Forms more efficiently for this purpose (I found "10 ways" and "80 ways" that helped give me ideas).  I already have my students do a First Assignment through forms that collects information about them and math experience.  I've used the forms in the past for End-of-Course Surveys, technology surveys, and collection of information from my department.  But, I didn't feel that was enough.

This week I created multiple forms that I felt would assist me better.  As a support provider for beginning teachers, I also though about what would also assist my new teachers and what they needed to document as part of their BTSA program.  So, I created:

• AVID Get to Know You
• Math Get to Know You (recreated)
• Communication Log (document parent communication)
• Meeting Agenda/Minutes
• Professional Development Log (based on the California Standards for the Teaching Profession)

I was SOOOO excited about what I had accomplished that day.  When my husband came home from work, I started to tell him about the meeting minutes and I was so excited.  Then he drops "but I wouldn't want it as a spreadsheet.  I'd want that information as a PDF."  I responded with "well, that's just how Google Forms does it.  It automatically records the responses in a spreadsheet...I think."  Which then led me to researching further if what he was saying would be even possible.  I'm a little OCD, so not just anything would do.  I'd have to find the way to get it just perfectly.  I already had a way envisioned in my head, so it was just seeing if that was then possible.  I ran across a site that was EXACTLY what I was looking for - Merging info from google forms to a PDF document to send via email.  TJ Houston wrote a script and had an advanced explanation of how to do this.  Since I know nothing about script, this took me a little longer to accomplish then it probably should have.  My first attempt had a small error in the script, so I had to figure that out and fix it.  Second attempt, the input values loaded into the wrong places on the PDF, so then I had to figure out if that was an error in the script or something wrong with the form (it ended up being how I created the form then the order it placed in the spreadsheet - so, I had to recreate the latter part of the form).  The third attempt was a success!!!  By that time, I was so grateful because it was 2:00am and I was exhausted.  

I met the next day with a few teachers, so I decided to test the form out again and have record of our discussion and next steps.  It was so perfect!!  I was able to automatically send myself the minutes, which I then forwarded on to the other teachers.  

I am so excited about the possibility with this option!!  I'm excited to share the possibility with the staff at my school and even the District.

Now, if only I could get my students to be this excited and passionate about accomplishing math!

Something New

So, I'm taking on a new role in teaching this upcoming school year.  Well, really it started just before this last one ended.  This past school year I was "Co-Department Chair," but I am now officially the Department Chair.  Our school has been around for 5 years now and has been growing exponentially.  I was hired there only 2 years ago.  Just before I got there they had 5 teachers in the department - next year we will have 9!  Our enrollment is going up by about 300 students.

I'm nervous about taking over the department.  I don't have as much experience as some of them, but I think I'm a leader and can really get our department on the same page and moving forward as we implement Common Core (disclaimer: we actually work really well together.  We collaborate regularly and typically are on the same page).  I think the key here is getting us organized and to be together as we implement Common Core.  Like many districts, we aren't just shifting to Common Core, we are also shifting our course sequence as we are going Integrated (that discussion will be for another time).

I've spent the past couple of weeks using the internet to see what others are doing with Integrated Math for Common Core.  I was able to find some great ideas out there for so many other things, but not as much as I was hoping for with Integrated Math.  So, I decided "why not become a resource for others?"  I have a lot of great ideas of my own to become a better and more efficient teacher in the classroom.  And, as we implement Integrated Math, maybe I'll have some ideas for other's.

Now, I'll add "Bloogger" to my something new hat!