#mtboschallenge Week 4: First Week of School

An InLinkz Link-up

  We have officially ended our second week of school and my students and I are finally starting to get into a good classroom routine.  Students have caught onto my “class”  “yes” routine which allows me to have students talk and re-teach each other concepts but allows me to quickly get their attention back and quiet down to move onto the next thing we are doing. Students found it strange on the first day but we are having fun with all the talking in class now. The more enthusiastic students are when they teach each other the more fun it is. Studies show when students are having fun they are able to retain and learn more information so hopefully I can tap into that part of their brains with this “Whole Brain Teaching” style. Its still a work in progress for me to remember to keep this up. But the more I do it the better it works. 

  I set my classroom up totally different this year with a table in the center of the room with supplies on it. It is working out great! Students can quickly get the materials needed for class. Its been working smoothly; students can needed materials quickly and back to their group without a wait.
 As the year progresses classroom management often gets away from me. I know part of the reason is that I do not spend enough time in the beginning of the year practicing routines, procedures and rules. I am making a point to do more of this this year. I did want to give students a list of procedures to put in their notebook but I had trouble editing it down to a short list, so that's out for now. But I do have classroom rules that I have posted and we have reviewed them daily. We have practiced some of the classroom routines and talked about expectations. I tend to get frustrated with students when they are not behaving in class the way I want them to but I must own up to not always telling students my expectations. I am not only talking but having students talk to each other about the expectations so I can listen to what they are saying and be sure that they truly understand.
 Here is my first week summary:
Day 1: Students make things with play-doh that represent themselves. I get to walk and talk informally with students. Then they share with me their creations and what it says about them. This is fun and shows me a different side of students. After that a quick power point of Mrs. Olsen's world showing where/what to do in class.
Day2: Go over classroom rules and expectations. Introduce "class" "yes" procedure. Math 7 students play a number line activity where they compare integers and the number with the greatest value wins. Its active and gives me a chance to walk around and see where students are in their understanding of the value or positive vs negative numbers.
Day 3: Review rule/procedures. Practice class/yes routine. Math 7 students play similar number line game as day 2 but today the number furthest from zero will be the winner. This game introduces the concept of absolute value without using the terminology.
Day 4: Review rules/procedures. Math 7 students play similar number line game putting the three days together. They roll to get their number and graph on the number line. After both partners have rolled they flip a coin that has n on one side and on the other the n is inside absolute value bars. If a student rolls the n they keep the number they have. If they roll the absolute value side they then take absolute value of their number. If its a change they need to move their playing piece. The winner is the number with the greatest value.
  All in all it was a good week. The activities eased students back into the school routine. They allowed them to talk and work and get their minds engaged back into school. Not bad for the first week. Just wish I was quicker at learning my students' names.

My Classroom

  I always enjoy reading posts about other teacher's classrooms so I thought I would share my classroom this year. It hasn't changed too much in the past couple years. I was tired of the same old posters and wanted it to have a warmer feel so I looked at a lot of themes in Schoolgirl Style. I decided on a black white and red theme, though this year I added a few other splashes of color. Enough talking here are some pictures.
 

 Here is the view as you walk in the door.

 These show the front of my classroom

 See the cute polka-dot skirt I sewed for my podium? The holder on the end I got from Thirty-one. (My daughter sells it so I always know when the specials are on. But on special or not it is heavy duty and  keeps things organized.)

 The Bell drawer is where all papers are handed in. The black stacking holders are where students will find their work if they were absent. It frustrated me though when students did not come in to make up graded assignments so I attach a slip to their papers now that tell them if there was something graded they need to make up. In my pre-algebra classes I have students collect and fill out the slips for the missing people in their group. If you want to see the form leave me a comment and I will come back and add it. I would do it now

 The posters I do have are to add to the classroom community. I want students to know making mistakes is a part of math, actually its just a part of learning. The poster next to it is dear to my heart because a couple students made it for me a few years back. It says "In Mrs. Olsen's World everyone loves math". And that is truly my hope.

 I love my folder holder below the mistakes poster. I place all corrected papers in there by bell. The bottom one holds my homework clipboard.

 Love my Wordle poster. Got a great deal on groupon one time so I was able to make my classroom posters for next to nothing.

 Just some math signs to decorate the wall and keep with the classroom theme. Love my calculator caddy. No problem anymore when students forget calculators. I assign calculators by the number they are on my roll, so if one goes missing I know where to look.

 I added red and black fabric to an old bulletin board to spruce it up. This where fliers or announcements go. I found the stars on clearance and my husband spray painted them to match my theme.  To the left of this bulletin board I have sign that says family and I have pictures of my children with their families. Pictures of my grandchildren. And a big family picture (that keeps falling down.) I have tried every thing to hand the picture, but I think because its over the heating/ac vent the hooks and Velcro don't stick.

 I am putting classroom supplies in the middle of the class this year. I am hoping there will be less wasted time when students need to borrow glue or scissors, etc...

OK I saved the best for last. Here is my back wall. The math sign was inspired by Julie Reulbach though honestly I don't remember what, if it was a picture on her blog? I went to check her archives back to when I saw it but its not there but I do know the idea came from her so I wanted to give credit where credit is due.

 The hanging next to the sign I found at Bed Bath and Beyond. You know their coupons never expire right? So never pay full price.

 My Wordle poster, always feeding students a love of math.

 Oh I wanted to show you the skirt I sewed for my desk. I also covered my chair.It was an ugly rust cover but I love green and this bright one is just the right splash of color in my classroom.

 So that's my classroom. I hope you enjoyed it.. I really struggle with organization but I think this year I have everything set up for a fluid organized movement in class.
 I am so looking forward to school starting tomorrow and sharing my classroom with a whole new group of students. I hope that Mrs. Olsen's World will bring them a greater love of math and a desire to keep learning!!

First Day of School Plans #mtbschallenge

 I want to join in the the #MTBoSchallenge even though I know I am a little behind. The first challenge was to write about your first week's plans. But for me as this blogging thing is still new to me so I will just write about my first day plans.
  In my middle school we work in teams for the core subjects. As a team we usually extend our homeroom so we can hand out paper work, assign lockers etc...  Once my bells begin as they will be shorter to account for the longer homeroom time so I will only have 40-45 minutes at most.
   I definitely will do my intro to Mrs. Olsen's world Power Point.

This slide is followed of pictures of previous students holding up whiteboards with things they think my  new students should know. They say things like show your work, ask questions, do your homework,  etc... Next I address where to hand in papers. Should papers be put on my desk? My reply is a bold:

This may be a slight exaggeration, but I stress to students that all papers go in the bell drawer!! If they do anything else and it gets lost its on them. I struggle with organization and having a bell drawer works great for me. I only take papers out of the drawer when I am checking or grading them.

  After this brief Power Point I hand out Play-doh to all students. I give them 5 minutes to make something that tells me one thing about them. During that time I walk around and talk with students. There is always one or two students that have no idea what to make, so I  help them brainstorm something. Letting them know it does not have to be any great thing, just something small. I love it because the students have fun with it and it gives me a glimpse of my students and their interests. One student last year made a horse head because they ride horses. Another student made a ball because they play soccer. This is a no pressure, just a have fun activity. I did this last year for the first time and really enjoyed it. I then walk around have students share what they made and why.

  I don't cover a lot on rule or routines the first day. I know the first day of school students are having rules thrown at them all day and they remember very little. I try to address the routines and rules over the next week. I used to get frustrated students did not remember the rules/routines that I explained the first day of school, then I got a clue.  I now realize the key to students following routines and class rules is repetition, repetition, repetition. I did this better last year and will work on it again this year. I get a little self conscious talking about rules and routines daily for the first week or two so I do not always keep it up as much as I should. (In the beginning of the year I sometimes feel like an awkward 7th grader myself).The review only lasts a few minutes at the beginning or end of bell done more like a game. I know it will pay off in the long run if I work on routines and have students practice them, in the beginning of the year. I also plan on revisiting the rules/routines at the end of each quarter. This is just as much for me as for the students. I want to make sure I am staying consistent with my students. 

   So that is my first day, and little of what I plan for the week. What are you planning for your first day? 

P.S This is my first time putting pictures in my blog. How'd I do? 

   

Inspired to try...

     Today I was reading a post from Andrew Stadel which led me to another post by Kate Nowak which made me think. I started blogging last year for a challenge but got frustrated with so many things I stopped. I was "going to" the middle school discussion nights on Twitter but had trouble navigating the conversations a bit, and felt like everyone knew each other and ...well I don't know anyone. Everyone was friendly, it was just me feeling inadequate. I used to love going on Twitter listening to a few conversations when I could. I checked out different blogs but last year I stopped. So here I am again wanting to try again and not knowing where to start. I want to be a better teacher. That's the truth. But I have a lot of constraints where I teach time wise. I read blogs that inspire me but wonder how can I do that? When I only have 8 days (including assessment) to teach fractions, decimals, percents and scientific notation. Changing from one form to another, comparing numbers in any and all forms. Yes I know what others would advise, I tell it to myself too: take what you can and implement it into your class. A little change here and a little change there will impact my classroom. And that's good advice. It must be as I gave it to myself. (said with a sarcastic voice).
     But there's more to the frustrated give up feeling I had last year. I work hard. Yes I know we are all teachers and work hard. Its just I am not efficient at it at all. It takes me a lot of hours and I accomplish little. So I am frustrated. If for three hours after school I feel like I accomplished something then I would feel great. But instead I feel like I searched for some great activity, found nothing, ran out of time and threw together a lesson because it had to be done. I love teaching and hate it at the same time. I hate that it takes me hours to accomplish nothing. I hate that I am always overwhelmed with school. I think if things don't change then I want to leave and do something else for a living. BUT....here's the but...when I have an 8th grade student stop by my room and tell me how much they love math this year I know I am where I am supposed to be. The student that hated math when they entered my door in 7th grade, left loving it. Yea! When I see the ''light bulb" go off in a student and they get it...really get it..I know I am where I am meant to be. So although I am not close to being ready to go back to school, I am ready to do better this year. I will read a few middle school blogs. I will try to remember middle school discussion night on Twitter. I will make myself leave school in a timely manner at least three nights a week because I need time with my family; a well rounded person makes for a better teacher.  And I will blog once a month to process what I am doing. I know no one may actually read it, and that's okay. I need to write and who knows maybe there is another over-whelmed almost ready to give-up teacher out there and they too will be inspired to keep on trying.

Organization that Works for the Disorganized Me

     This week is the Explore MTBoS challenge #6 is about Borrowing and Regrouping. How am I going to organize the information I find so it is useful. So I can find it. (Wish I was at school right now so I could insert a picture of my disorganized desk to punctuate the point of needing organization.) My need for organization is great. I struggle with all things real. Papers multiply on my desk over the course of the day and I don't know how to stop them. I would love to go electronic for everything. Get myself a good tablet that is versatile and eliminate my need for most things paper. (Someday when I have $)  So for a person that struggles with keeping organized and keeping track of things here are a few things that I have tried some that work and others not quite/
1.  I got feedly for an RSS reader. Problem is I don't often use it. I still go around to blogs randomly. I would like to use the feeder better but all the blogs I want to read I have not added. I struggle with the organization etc.. of it. So for me the jury is out on a feeder. I am not sure how to access it other than my computer (honestly I am usually more computer saavy than this.) Its on my to do list to learn more.
2. I started reading blogs a year ago and have been recording ideas in my Dropbox. I love Dropbox I do. I no longer forget my jump drive at home or work with the lesson I am working on/teaching. I keep all in my Dropbox and it is right at my finger tips where ever I am. The problem is that I do not have it organized as I should. I originally put a folder called blog stuff which I keep adding to with no inside organization. I really need to move the blog stuff to the different folders I am making by content strands. I have downloaded activities and cannot find the website from which it came and that frustrates me. I have evolved in my usage. If I find something I want to use and the blogger allows readers to download the material I always save the blog address onto the material I download. This way I can go back to where I found it and share, ask questions, thank the blogger etc... Dropbox is a keeper for me.
3. Pinterest works great too. When I am at home and I see something I like I just pin it so I can come back to it. Pinterest is my version of a virtual file cabinet. Itt is easy to pin and easy to find some great things to use. Yes I get frustrated with all the TpT stuff there. But there is also a lot of great free materials and blogs that are pinned. If more of us pin the great free materials the people that don't know any better won't have to resort to TpT instead they might find the MTBoS like I did. (Did I mention I found the blogs and MTBoS through Pinterest?)

Challenge #3 MTBos Estimation 180

       This week I looked over the challenges on the MTBoS. I went to a lot of the websites just to see what was available. I have to be honest not every one of them speak to me. I don't usually have a question when I go on 101 Questions, but I do enjoy reading the questions that people with inquiring minds have. I figure I am learning by reading their questions. 
        I want to comment on Estimation 180. I started this, this year with my pre-algebra students. They really seem to enjoy it. When students share their estimates I do not comment, I just call on students and after 5-6 students have shared their estimate with their reasoning I will click on the answer. They get so excited when they are spot on. I have to remind them that if they are close then that is great you don't have to be exact to be successful. 
        The classes that I really need to do this with is my Math 7 classes. I have been having trouble getting them to just complete a 3 problem warm-up in a timely manner so adding Estimation 180 just feels like missing more math time. But I do know that these students really need it. My goal is to start it with math 7 classes this week and find a way to build it in my daily schedule. If you haven't tried it your students will love it. If it really catches on Mr. Stadel may have to make a 6th grade, 7th grade and 8th  grade version (or whatever sequential grades are using it in a school) so students are not seeing the same ones year after year. 
Thank you to Mr. Stadel for sharing this with us. My students are learning and improving  their math sense daily.
   Confession time: We have been doing estimation 180 since the second week of school. We may miss a day here or there because of testing etc...  Last week I was asking students for their estimates (I can't for the life of me remember which one it was) But they were really out there. I slipped and said to some crazy estimation students didn't you see yesterday? Are you basing your estimation on what you saw yesterday? It was one of those things like how many papers on a roll and the next day how many in the package and their estimations made no sense at all based on the information they had learned the previous day. I try not to comment until after all students have shared and we have checked the answer. Most days we just move onto the next thing but other days I pause and we talk about the estimation and students share their victories or struggles. Thankfully I have not slipped more than once or twice and my students all still want to share their estimations so I have not ruined it.  But honestly some days I just wonder what were you thinking???

Not Sure Where I Stand.

   Having a tough time this week/month. I want to teach better, and I know better means less of me and more from the students. I have a crazy pacing guide 12 days to teach fractions, decimals, percents, scientific notation, negative exponents, and square roots AND that includes the testing day. So trying to get students to understand things at this fast rate. Oh I'm behind the pacing guide because students needed extra time for integer operations.  Just suffice to say I'm tired. I have been working at school way too late and I'm not getting anywhere. So late I'd be embarrassed to say. I am buried in paper work. Organization is not my strength so I try to work at it daily...but I'm kinda like Pigpen on Peanuts. He would come outside all clean and just standing there the dirt come to him and in seconds he would be a mess. That's me on the chance I was actually able to get all papers put away, by the end of bell one I am buried in papers again. I have tried everything. I organize and reorganize but nothing works...this year seems worse than past years. Any suggestions would be appreciated. If you are one of those naturally organized you know where everything goes people, please recognize that not every one's brain works that way. It has taken me years to realize this myself. That does not mean I can't learn. So how do I do it all? Keep organized, keep students that are struggling with/near the pacing guide. If I can get all the "stuff" in order I would have more time for real lesson planning and maybe even spend time with my family. Just a thought.

   Made a cute foldable on checkbook math. Then had students go to this fun site to practice http://themint.org/kids/get-some-practice.html .  I will say my pre-algebra students are appreciative of cute foldables.  I was going to attach the foldable but I must have left it in school. Will try to attach it later this week.