Desmos on Chromebooks, Take 1

As I stated in my previous blog post, our students received Chromebooks. After taking yesterday to have kids get comfortable with them, we went full force with them today! 

In my Algebra 2 classes, we did the Quadratic Transformations I activity created by Mary Bourassa. We did our First Five, which was our weekly WODB, also created by Mary Bourassa! I tried to be patient with students as we were doing this activity. I think that they caught on well when the quadratic graph was translated up and down the y-axis. I think that some students got confused with the parenthesis, which tells whether the graph moves left or right on the x-axis. We will recap tomorrow. My kids LOVED the slider feature, which allowed them to see how the graph moved. I stated that this is one of the many reasons I am tickled to death that we have Chromebooks. 

In Geometry, we started on rigid motions by discussing translations. This lesson didn't go as well as I would have liked because some students were confused by the pre-image and the image. Also, I think some students were confused as to where to start translating. Further from that, I had forgotten that students had not used Desmos before on their own devices, so I probably should have done a better job with that. Let's talk positive, though. I think that most of the students were engaged with the lesson, but we are going to do some practice by hand tomorrow before going to reflections, also on Desmos. 

In summary, I am tickled that we have Chromebooks, but I need to more cognizant of a few things. The first thing that I need to be cognizant of is that many students are not used to the Chromebooks yet. Also, students are not used to the format of these style of lessons, so we will have to learn together. The moral is that technology is amazing, but it is only effective if we, as teachers, execute its uses effectively. 

Hello, Chromebooks!

The day has finally arrived. Chromebooks have been delivered and issued at my school!! We were first informed of this project in January, and to be honest, I thought this wouldn't happen. In late March, we had another inservice day on Chromebooks. I was pumped from that point onward. I was somewhat envious of schools that had technology, and ours had extremely limited access. It also made me hurt for my students. Let's make this happier, shall we?

Students were issued their Chromebooks yesterday afternoon, and I felt honored to be a teacher giving students in my advisory group their Chromebooks. Today, though, was the first full day of using Chromebooks in class. I prepared a presentation that allowed students to sign up for Google Classroom, Edulastic, Delta Math, and Classkick. I also had students download the Desmos app for Chromebooks.

I also wanted to give students a few minutes to get familiar with their Chromebooks. So, I gave them the last few minutes of class to play around with them. I also went over my procedures for Chromebooks.

However, the real fun begins tomorrow. We are doing a couple of Desmos Activity Builder lessons on Quadratic Transformations in Algebra 2, and we are doing a Desmos activity on translations and reflections tomorrow and Thursday in Geometry. I also have been switching some of my quiz formats to Google Forms. I am still thinking through managing behavior on that, though.

The only behavior issues I saw were lots of chatting when I was trying to explain stuff. I told students that I wouldn't talk above them while explain Chromebook information. I also stated that I would only answer one question at a time. That helped a bit! I also noticed students were using the chat feature on their computers. We will also have to fix this as well.

I think this is a major paradigm shift for our students and the state of education in our district, and I'm ecstatic to be a part of it!

My 10%

At Twitter Math Camp this summer, Dylan Kane discussed about how, as teachers, we should change approximately ten percent of what we do in our classrooms. He also mentioned that it is reasonable to expect teachers to change ten percent, and that it was indeed imperative that we do so. Conversely, Dylan stated that it is not fair to expect teachers to change more than the ten percent. Let me tell you about what my ten percent is for this semester and this school year.

• Make it Stick 
• After attending a session on the book Make it Stick, I used a brochure from Meg Craig and gave it to my students. I am trying to use some of the strategies such as lagging homework and frequent review. I am also trying to use the spaced and interleaved practice, especially once we get the Chromebooks, and I can do a better job of assessing this. Also, I am trying to incorporate mini-quizzes in some of my lessons. I still have a lot of work to do with this. 
• Chromebooks 
• Our students are getting Chromebooks on September 1 for use at school, and I cannot wait to put them to use. I plan on using Quizzizz and Kahoot for formative assessment and fun activities as well as incorporating Delta Math for homework/independent practice. I also plan on using Pear Deck and Nearpod for some of my lessons. I also plan on using Desmos and Desmos Activity Builder for lessons. I also want to utilize Google Forms and Edulastic for quizzes and tests. 
• Standards-Based Grading (or something like it) 
• I had several conversations with people at TMC about standards based grading. I really liked Anna Vance's idea on grading on a 5 to 10 scale. I took Anna's idea and modified it to a 1-10 scale to better meet the needs of my students. I also write the standard on my quizzes for students to see. I also increased the number of retakes to unlimited so that students can continually make progress in mastering the standards.  Quizzes and tests also count for 70% of a student's grade versus 45 percent in the previous school year. I am more cognizant of how I create and align my assessments. 
• Sequencing 
• I changed around a few things in Geometry. I decided to place volume after the "Tools of Geometry" unit. I also chose to teach Pythagorean Theorem with the Distance Formula at the beginning instead of waiting until trigonometry to teach Pythagorean Theorem. I also decided to group lines, angles, and triangles together into one large unit. For Algebra 2, I have kept the pacing somewhat similar. 
• Mindset shifts
• I have taken some ideas from Jo Boaler's book, Mathematical Mindsets, such as how she does group roles and grouping of students, encouraging retakes, and encouraging a positive climate for math. I think that I have had some buy-in on the increasing amount of feedback I give and not putting grades on tests until after the feedback. I think I also have buy-in on the 1-10 scale and standards-based grading. 
• The Close  
• Tracy Johnson Zager stated in her TMC keynote that we, as teachers, need to never forget the close. I am not 100% there, but I would self-assess at 50 percent. I am getting there though. I am being more cognizant on having students give summaries of what they learned as well as make connections between concepts. As I said, I still have lots of work to do in this regard as well. 

I would love to hear what you chose as your 10% and see what compares and contrasts. Take care! 

New Year, Newly Decorated Classroom!

Hey guys!

It's hard to believe that another school year is upon us. Summer went by way too fast! One of my favorite parts of another school year starting is that I get to go in and decorate my classroom. Let me tell you about the process.

Our school was really fortunate to get new student tables and chairs, so goodbye desks! Also, our school is getting Chromebooks and is (finally) going 1:1.

Before I did anything, I took the calculators out of their case, labeled them, and put them in my organizer. I bought a shoe organizer from Walmart, and I wrote 1 through 24 to label them. Then I borrowed my girlfriend's label maker and labeled them with my initials 1-24 to organize. I have used this system for two years, and it works like a charm. I can see what calculators are missing very quickly!

I then hung my poster that my girlfriend's sister in New Mexico made for me. She is a graphic designer, and I think she did an awesome job on this. These (of course) are my guidelines and consequences. I hang this in a visible place in the front of the classroom. 

I bought this banner at Target for $3. I thought it was neat, but I had no idea what to do with it. My girlfriend and I proposed putting a saying on it. She (being the genius she is) came up with "Math Rules" and we went with it. I don't draw at all (even though I'm a geometry teacher). So, she did all of that as well. 

My friend, coworker, and neighbor across the hall, Samantha, made this sign for me to hang on my door knob. It's neat as well! 

My girlfriend's mom, who lives in St. Thomas, bought me this poster. It's a poster of a painting of Charlotte Amalie Harbor. I hung it in my classroom. The small sign was a gift from my girlfriend at Christmas. The C-Bulldogs is a school thing. Go Dogs!

I got the idea of the poster from a Twitter conversation from several months ago. So, I made it on Google Slides, saved it as a PDF, and took it to Staples to have it made into a poster. 

I bought the sign at Hobby Lobby for a couple of dollars and used Command Strips to hang it. 

For the bulletin board, I got several inspirations. The first part, "Solve It!" came from Sarah Carter's blog. I was trying to think of a way to make this work as a bulletin board and do something different from last year. So I came up with Solve It! as a way to encourage problem solving strategies. The "Group Work Roles" inspiration came from Jo Boaler's new book, Mathematical Mindsets. I really liked the way that she did her group roles in the book, so I decided to make signs for this. The third part also came from her book, but I got the quotes from Sarah Carter and from MashUp Math's new E-book. For those, I made Google Slides and printed them off to put on the bulletin board. 

You gotta have systems to run your classroom! The clipboards are my sign-in/out sheet and my tardy sheet. This way I have documentation for when students are out of the classroom and tardy to class. The second picture is of my recycling bins. I want to encourage students to recycle, especially since I try to recycle myself. It's a good habit to get into, and it's great for the Earth! 

I made two signs from the resources from the TMC16 presentation "Talk Less, Smile More", and they talk about claims and warrants being the two parts of a mathematical argument. 

The next part I got from here.  I wanted to incorporate the Mathematical Practices in my classroom and have them in a visible area. I also wanted them to be in student-friendly terms. I took the resources from the link, and I made a Google Slide presentation. I then printed it off and displayed at the front of my classroom. 

I got these quotes from a display at the school where my girlfriend's mom works. I then took the quotes, and, you guessed it, made Google Slides, and printed them off. I placed them at the whiteboard at the back of my room. 

Then I had to organize my supplies. I bought containers at the Dollar Tree and labeled them. For the inbox and outbox, I just used drawers I had from the past, and I labeled them by block. Then I bought a crate at Walmart to put in my whiteboards. Then I used a plastic shoe container to put the markers. I bought "erasers" by buying some washcloths at Kmart, and my girlfriend cut them up into smaller pieces. 

I bought the TEACH and LEARN signs at Target for $3 each! I think they are a great addition. 

Now I will leave you with some pics of the room all the way around it! Enjoy! 

#TMC Day 3

The last full day of TMC. Let me say that TMC is the best PD I have ever had the opportunity to experience, but at day 3, your brain goes into overload and you are really, really tired. However, I learned a bit on day 3!

This was the last day of the morning session, and we discussed about the barriers and the benefits to implementing the system of intervention that Michelle Naidu (@park_star) was discussing. Her method of intervention dealt with centers that were constructed out of science fair board and the various activities that went along with the intervention. I need to review these in more detail. I liked the ideas so much, but creating all of the resources was overwhelming. Michelle stated that it took about three years to fully implement her system. Here are the barriers and benefits.

Barriers

·      Time

·      Admin support

·      Additional resource costs

·      Some students still don’t get done

·      Attendance

·      Cognitive Issues

·      Photocopying

·      Budget/materials

Benefits

·      Deep understanding of curriculum/standards

·      Everything is planned

·      Ability to respond to student need (almost) immediately

·      Better understanding of student thinking

·      Increased resiliency

·      Student ownership over learning

·      Attendance

·      Behavior

·      Mathematical language

After lunch, we had My Favorites again, and I really enjoyed Joel Bezaire's (@joelbezaire) Variable Analysis game, Gregory Taylor's (@mathtans)Musical Mathematics, and Denis Sheehan's (@MathDenisNJ) I See Math. Joel's presentation talked about a game that he created to use in his classes which required students to think. I was especially entertained by Gregory Taylor's song to the tune of a number in Sister Act, and I liked Denis's idea of a three-slide presentation: a title, image, and a vague guiding question. Denis also mentioned his book Instant Relevance: Using Today’s Experiences to Teach Tomorrow’s Lessons, which is now available on Amazon. 

I attended a session by Andre Verner on Directed Discovery Mathematics. I liked his ideas, and I am glad I went to the session, but I would have liked to have learned how to write these style of lessons. I thought that Andre was a very good speaker, and I liked how he had several examples of his activities and shared his link to his website, which is above. 

Monday afternoon was flex sessions, which were optional. I went to Elizabeth Statmore (@cheesemonkeysf and Jasmine Walker's (@jaz_math) session on Exeter Math problems. I really learned a lot in a short amount of time, and one of my future goals is to work through one of the problem sets. That may have to wait until winter or next summer.

After the session, I had to go to the Mall of America to get some dress clothes. I found out the night before that my grandfather in West Virginia had passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer's. So, I went to the mall for the evening, tried my best to find some decent clothes, which I did, thankfully. Then I returned to campus. During lunch, I had to call the airlines to get my flight (sort-of) rerouted to Charlotte. My original flight went from Minneapolis to Charlotte then from Charlotte to Knoxville. I found out that my grandfather's funeral was at 12:00 noon in WV on Wednesday, and my flight didn't get back to Knoxville until 11:15 that night. My cousin, who lives in Charlotte, said that she would pick me up at the airport there, and we would ride to West Virginia together to the funeral. I had also mentioned this idea to my girlfriend the previous night as well. Therefore, I called American Airlines, and I explained the situation. They agreed to let me change my flight and get off at Charlotte, but the problem was that I had a big suitcase, and I had to pay to tag my suitcase to Charlotte instead of Knoxville. What a stress!