Witnessing Student Growth...#winning

As I have written about before, this year I am implementing Standards Based Grading. Here's how it looks in my classroom:

Students take quizzes often. Usually, there are 2-3 skills on a quiz, but each skill is separated. Here's an example of a decimals operations quiz my 7th grade general classes recently took.

Multiply & Divide Decimals Quiz 

Students get a score for each specific skill, and this is what goes in the gradebook - not the overall score. Since there's just a few problems for each skill, I have decided that mastery is missing 0-1 problems. If a student missed  0-1 problems, then I don't require them to re-quiz. If they miss more than 1 question, they are required to re-quiz on that specific section. I give re-quizzes on Friday. Students that do not have to re-quiz are given game time on their Chromebooks. They love this incentive!!

I am LOVING this way of grading. It is holding students accountable for their learning. If they don't master the skill the first quiz, they know they have to re-quiz on it on Friday. And if they still don't master it the 2nd time, they know they will be re-quizzing again. I have only had about 10 of my 100+ students that have needed to re-quiz a 2nd time. Most students are mastering the skill on their 1st re-quiz. This, to me, is such a win!

When settings up their interactive notebooks at the beginning of the year, I had students title 4 pages "Quiz Forms." After every quiz and re-quiz, students write in their score for each section of the quiz. This way, come Friday when it's time to requiz, they look there to see what specific sections they need to re-quiz on. Not gonna lie - this has been a struggle for many general students. I should have went around to every single kid after returning the first quiz to ensure they had done this correctly. I will definitely do that next year. Those who did it right the first time are okay. Others, not so much. I even saw this past week where one kid had glued in an actual quiz in the quiz form section. (Insert blushing emoji). I then tore the quiz out, and I went through and wrote in every quiz and score in his notebook. (Insert impatient/annoyed emoji).

I wish I had a picture of a notebook that was done correctly. I will take a picture this week and add it here.

My original plan was to make the quiz report forms myself and have the student just fill in the score and glue them in. I did that for my first class, but I just had my other classes hand write them in. Maybe I will start creating these for general classes.

Many of my advanced students are making careless errors on their quizzes...forgetting a negative sign, adding when they were supposed to be subtracting, etc. Making them re-quiz because of these mistakes forces them to be more and more careful with each quiz.

Re-quizzing has definitely allowed me to see student growth and has helped me to also identify weaknesses.

After classes have taken the 1st quiz on a topic. I grade them and sort them low-high. The following day, students work with a partner on making corrections. I do not grade the corrections. It is just for their learning. I take a quiz from the top of the stack (a low score), and a quiz from the bottom (a high score). The two students get together, and they know that if they have the high score, they have to actually teach and help the other student - not just show them their answers. This has been so beneficial! I hear the "ooooh, I see what I did" and "man, I can't believe I forgot that."
((music to my teacher ears!))

First 3 Days of School

I should definitely be writing this week's lesson plans right now, but obviously, I'm not. I can't believe I'm already procrastinating.
pssshh. yeah, right! I wouldn't expect anything else.

We started school this past Wednesday. Like all teachers, I stress procedures those first few days. However, I also really want students to have fun and enjoy being in class. I want them to leave my room excited about what they're doing in math. That's half the battle. If kids know that you (gasp) actually like them and if they enjoy being in your class, they're more motivated and more likely to work hard for you. So, I tried to make those first three days a mix of learning procedures and having fun.

Day 1 - Wednesday:
When students enter my room the first day, there is a small tub of Play-Doh on their desks. The first thing I have them do after welcoming them in is use the Play-Doh to create something that represents them. They LOVE this. It It's so out-of-the-norm for them to be able to do something like this at school, so they are typically pretty excited and chatty during this time. That's okay. That's what I want to happen. I give them more time than actually needed for this because I use that time to walk around to each group of students and talk to them. I ask questions, figure out if I've had their siblings before, find out who their 6th grade math teacher was and what level math they were in, find out what they did over the summer....basically anything to get them to open up to me so that relationships can start to form.

Then I go over a "Who is Mrs. Brown?" powerpoint to introduce myself. It just has pictures so students can see that I'm more than just their math teacher.

The next thing I do is spend some time going over just 3 procedures that they will need to know for the following day - Supplies, Beginning of Class, End of class. I save the rest for the next day.

If there is time left, (and this year there was),  we play a name game. Each student has to think of an adjective to describe them that starts with the same letter that their name starts with. For example, it could be Smart Suzie, Sassy Suzie, Lovely Liz, etc. The first student says their adjective and their name, and then the next student has to say theirs and everyone that's went before them. The kids like this, especially when I split the class in half and make it a competition, but it is mainly more for me to help remember names.

Day 2 - Thursday:
I finish procedures on the 2nd day. However, instead of me just using a powerpoint and rambling on about them, I want the students to interact with them. I printed out the powerpoint that I use, and put 1 copy on each group of desks. Students rotate reading them aloud in their groups. I include written descriptions of important procedures and memes in the powerpoint!! They LOVE reading the memes aloud! My favorite to hear the students "act out" is the "ain't nobody got time for that" one.
TOO FUNNY!

After they've finished reading in their groups, I give each student a half sheet of colored paper, and they have to write down two things they learned about homework, late work, rules/consequences, and rewards. Then I call on students to discuss what they learned.

Once finished with procedures, I have them work on covers for their interactive notebooks. I go around the room and let students choose which color paper they want. They are allowed to decorate it however they'd like. This week, we will begin taping their covers to their interactive notebooks with packaging tape. This helps to personalize the notebook to them so they will (hopefully) find it important and be more likely to keep up with it. It also makes the cover a bit more sturdy.

Day 3 - Friday:
We play Musical Chairs on Friday. This is really not a game. No one wins. No one gets out. It's just the  name of the activity. I got this activity from the teacher I student-taught under. I knew I would love it.

I created 15 get-to-know-you type questions. I put 1 card on each desk. When the music is on, students flip their cards over and answer the question. When the music stops, students rotate to the next desk.

After Musical Chairs, students finish their notebook covers, and I pass out workbooks.



What do your first days look like?

Excitement for 2015-2016

My husband has informed me a couple of times that I'm more of a glass half empty kinda person than a glass half full. I beg to differ. I don't think I'm a negative person. At all. But I do think I am very realistic. Sometimes what's realistic is negative, and sometimes what's realistic is positive. I am not one to sugar coat anything, (and I typically always find those people annoying). I appreciate honesty. Tell it like it is - nothing more, nothing less. Don't try to make something out to be something that it's not. Shoot straight with me. Keep it 100, and we might just be BFFs!

Tomorrow is our third day back at school for teachers. At the start of the school year, stress levels can sometimes be high because there's so much to get done before the kids arrive. It's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle, so I decided to write a post focusing on the positives. I would truly hate if others thought of me as being glass half empty. If it's just my husband, cool. Others, not cool.

There really is a lot to be excited about this school year!

1.) New Schedule - The 7th grade schedule has changed from teaching one class before planning to two. I think I am going to love this change. The kids usually get pretty rowdy after their enrichment courses, and then they still have 3 more core classes to go. This allows us to get in one more class period before they leave us for enrichment classes.

2.) Teaching a New Section - I will be teaching one 8th grade class this year first thing in the morning. I have never taught 8th graders, so I'm excited to see if I will mesh well with them. I student taught with 6th graders and then had one 6th grade class my first year teaching. So, after this year, I will have taught all three levels. I'm interested in seeing if teaching 8th grade is something I may be interested in in the future.

3.) Coaching Volleyball at the Middle School - I have coached volleyball for several years. My friend and I had our first team of developmental (11 and under) players our senior year in high school.  After that, I've coached JV at Lugoff-Elgin High, a 16s club team, several seasons of 15s club, and this past year was the assistant Varsity and interim head Varsity when the head coach was on maternity leave. This year I will be the assistant coach at the middle school I teach at. I have never coached this level. I'm suppperrr excited to be able to work with girls on basic fundamentals because they are so, so important. It's frustrating at the high school level when there are players that still do some things incorrectly or haven't fully mastered basic skills. It's much harder to break them of those bad habits at that point. I will definitely miss the high school girls and the fast-paced game, but I can't wait for this new experience.

4.) Co-Teaching - This year I will be co-teaching two classes with a new teacher to the school. I LOVE doing lots of group work, stations, and activities that have kids up out of their seats and moving around the room. And I often pull small groups of students and work with them directly for some extra tutoring while other students are working independently. Having another teacher in the room is going to be so wonderful for this!!!

5.) New Way of Grading - As mentioned in a previous post, I will be transitioning to more Standards Based Grading. I still have some reservations and questions/thoughts that I need to figure out, but that's also another reason why I'm stoked about co-teaching. We will be able to bounce ideas off of one another and figure out what's going to work best for us and our students. I'm worried that it may be too much to implement this with all classes, so right now I'm thinking of just doing it with the classes that are being co-taught. Not 100% sure on this though.

OOOOHH and I got new carpet in my room! It's the small things, y'all!

See Tim, I can be a glass half full sometimes!

School Supplies

I am all about a good deal - especially on school supplies. Office Depot has different school supplies on sale each week starting on Sundays. Last week they had Sharpie singles for $0.25, 4-pack glue sticks for $0.25, and 5-pack highlighters for $0.25. Although I was on vacation at the beach last week, I had to go find a store.

I ended up getting a total of 12 Sharpies, 24 glue sticks, and 60 highlighters for about $8!!!              CRAAAY-ZEEE!!

They have lots more deals this week. After church and lunch, my husband and I stopped by for 100-pack notecards for $0.01 and 10-pack pens for $0.01. While there, I saw that they have plastic folders that I need for $0.60.

I ended up with 8 plastic folders, 6 100-pack index cards, and 9 10-pack of pens for under $6!!

Last year, I had students use glue sticks in their interactive notebooks, and they about drove me insane. Tops to the glue sticks magically disappeared ALL the time (yet I would find them on the floor all over the room once students were gone), the glue sticks would dry out, and students were always needing new ones. I stocked up at the beginning of the year thanks to Office Depot, but it was still a pain to always be handing them out.

So, this year I want to try tape instead. I have a feeling the girls will enjoy using their own colored or patterned tape, but I need to have some for students who do not have any. Please let me know if you see any good deals!!!

Math Calendar FREEBIE!

I finished my Masters Degree in November of 2014. Many of the books and articles we were required to read stressed the importance of two key ideas in helping our students learn mathematics - having students experience a "productive struggle" and providing them with opportunities for cumulative review.

Here are two books that I found the most helpful:

In my three l o n g short years of teaching, I have learned so, SO much about what it means to be an effective teacher. I think most teachers can relate to this: you have an AwEsOmE lesson planned. you have spent hours preparing. you have researched (more like pinterest) ideas. you have gathered materials. you've made copies. you've laminated. you have manipulatives and visuals and sometimes even a song! you have hands-on activities, games, and stations. You deliver the lesson. And you NAILED IT! (high five!) Students had fun AND learned. It's a win-win. And you even have assessment data to prove it.

Fast forward 2 months later. You bring up the exact same topic to the class.
*crickets*
*dazed, blank stares*

"Really?!? Y'all don't remember this?!" Teacher bangs head on a concrete wall. 


Students HAVE to have cumulative review. And if not, stop what you're doing. Go ahead and get some band-aids....Cuz you gon' need 'em!

After looking on Pinterest a couple of years ago, I decided that Math Calendars would be a neat way for students to consistently review previously learned material. So, I created a couple and LOVED them, but I never found the time to create more. These are also the most purchased items in my Teacher's Pay Teacher's Store. I really like these because there's so much flexibility in the way that you could potentially use them. You could keep them in the classroom and have students complete one a day, or have them work on a week at a time and check them in class as you go.

I typically pass them out on the first day of the month. Students are responsible for taking them home and keeping up with them. They are due back around the second of the following month. I really stress the importance of students showing work on the back or another sheet of paper in order to receive any credit. I won't accept it until I see where they have shown work.  I often give students "work time" in class. When students tell me they don't have anything to do (yeah, right) because they have finished their classwork and homework and have no missing work, my first question back to them is "have you finished your math calendar for this month?" And that's the end of that conversation. :)  I also sometimes have students work on their calendar as their warm up assignment in class. This helps to keep them on students' mind so that they are not forgotten about until the 30th of the month. Because time management is such a struggle for 7th graders, I give a few extra credit points if they are turned in early.


Here is the 7th Grade Math Calendar I just finished up for October 2015. It will cover everything we have done in August and September. The calendar is editable so you could change the month, days, problems, etc. I will have both my 7th grade general and advanced class use this one. It could also be used for advanced 6th grade classes or for low-level 8th grade classes.

Topics in the calendar (and covered in August and September in my classroom):

• Integers
• Decimals 
• Fractions
• Absolute Value
• Classifying Rational Numbers 

Here is a FREEBIE of an old calendar. Use it to get an idea of what my review calendars look like. 

Enjoy!

Pimping My Classroom

Anybody remember the show "Pimp My Ride?"

If she doesn't know what Pimp My Ride is, SHE'S TOO YOUNG FOR YOU, BRO! 
Did I really just say that?

   ANNDD create a meme?

 Well, I'm going to be Pimping My Classroom for next year. Should I even be using those words in the same sentence - pimp, classroom?!? Good thing my blog is fresh (insert blushing emoji).

For the past few years my classroom has been decorated with lots of colors - black and white, hot pink, neon green, and turquoise. And, it's cute, now. Don't get it twisted. But, I want a change. I'm thinking of just going to black, white, gray, and turquoise.

Before:

Teacher Toolbox
Thanks Pinterest!

View of the back of the classroom

Check out those awesome scale drawings!!

Front of Room

I will be taking everything pink and green down and replacing it with turquoise. I can't wait to decorate with what I've already bought!

Dollar Tree Finds!!!

Absolutely LOVE these!! (from Ross)

Y'all. I have the nosiest cutest dog. She has to check out everything that's going on.

Next Steps:
-get turquoise fabric for back bulletin boards
-get turquoise ribbon to replace the pink and green on my cart, desk, and table
-get turquoise rug

It's a smile, it's a kiss, it's a sip of wine, it's...

SUMMERTIME! Nobody said it better than my main squeeze, Kenny Chesney.

I'm two weeks into my summer break, and I.am.absolutely.loving.it!!!!  But before you know it, it'll be mid-August, my little seventh grade darlings will be entering the halls, and it will soon be gettin' real in room 207! :)

Before the school year ended I made a list of my professional goals for this summer:

1.) Look more into Standards-Based Grading
2.) Create more Math Calendars (especially since I will be teaching a new prep this year - 8th grade!)
3.) Use Blendspace to create more flipped lessons
4.) Create and/or find more foldables for students' Interactive Notebooks
5.) Create warm-ups
6.) Go ahead and customize some things in Digits for my 8th grade class

Now...I just have to DO these things...And in comes the struggle.