Leading From the Classroom

 I have a new Saturday morning ritual. I get up before the kids and make coffee and sit in the basement and grade portfolios. But it's actually fun. (unlike grading tests) I am only 2 weeks and 4 slides in BUT THIS IS SO FUN!  I was deeply inspired by Adele's (@mathinct678) Blog Post Here.   And as soon as I heard we were 1-1 I wanted to find a way to try this.... After each class (we meet twice a week virtually) students are responsible for creating 2 portfolio slides summarizing their learning. These are from a template that I share with them via Schoology (our LMS).  Schoology makes it so easy to assign a Google Slide Presentation. It automatically copies my template into their google drives AND shares with me. When I grade I can do it through my Schoology account and I don't have to wade through the unorganized swamp that "Shared with Me" can become. I can comment in the Schoology Gradebook or Insert comments directly into the Slide Show.  My first slid...

Well, I just wrapped up week one of virtual school. It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't horrible. I tried some new things and some things went really well.  The BEST decision I made was to have a two week Unit 0 where we practice using the tech and the tools. This was so smart. Here are our learning goals for Unit 0 and my plan. (This is student facing...and coded and linked) I am SO glad I did this. Some things that I tried that went well.  Digital Four Fours (From Week of Inspirational Math )  We did this on the first day and I loved the chance students had to collaborate digitally.  Virtual Emoji Graphs (also from Week of Inspirational Math)  We explored these after watching the math is visual videos from YouCubed and Jo's Emoji Graph. We brainstormed some ideas for visual graphs like this with no numbers. I gave students the option to create one digitally OR on paper. Love the idea of a Google Doc for a quick digital brainstorm. The brainstorm is like my check...

I lost two former students this past spring to two different and tragedies that are devastating young black men.  I lost one student to COVID. Though none of us are immune--COVID is killing black men at alarmingly higher rates that white people. I remember Andre as a sweet and smiling young man who loved video games and (like a lot of Freshman) would much rather be playing them sneakily on his chromebook than doing his math assignments.  The second former student I lost to the bullet of a Police Gun. I remember McHale as a polite and quiet student.  In the cases of both these students, I also taught their sisters. I'm haunted by the fact that as I think back to our relationships I was much much closer to each of their sisters. I wonder how I might have let my own biases and prejudices get in my way and I want to be better for young black men in the future.  I remember Andre and McHale and I will do the hard work to get better for them. May their memory be a blessing....

My district was not prepared for E-Learning. When the initial order came to close the schools on March 13, we were one week away from Spring Break. They didn't do anything for that first week.  After Spring Break the governor closed the schools through April and the district send out a their plan. They mailed work home to students and asked teachers to create videos and lessons to support the completion of that work through Schoology. I EDIT EVERYTHING. I THRIVE ON EDITING MY MATERIALS and ADJUSTING PACING. I CAN'T TEACH SOMETHING I CAN'T EDIT. But I had literally just started this job two months before, so I prepared to bite my tongue, but it wasn't as bad as I thought.  The first two weeks of that home learning period they used I-Ready Home Learning packets from Curriculum Resources. These weren't horrible and I created video tutoring lessons to post in Schoology, got good at Schoology links and pages, and hosted zoom tutoring calls. I figured out the home learnin...

I know that these past few days or weeks have been hard on all of us teachers. Like many of you, I am anxious about what happens next, worried about my own students and their access to basic services, unsure of how to explain all of this to my 6 year old and my 2 year old. Also, because I literally cannot fathom how I can actually do remote learning for my 7th grade math students in a way that is at least a little bit equitable in a district that is not 1-1, I'm focusing on my own children instead, so allow me to transform my teacher blog to a space where I can share some of the fun I've had homeschooling during the pandemic. Homeschooling M (Kindergarten)  M attends a Spanish Immersion Kindergarten. His school day is mostly in Spanish with maybe 1.5 hours of English reading instruction. He is bilingual but his other mom is the one who has always spoken to him in Spanish. I am not fluent, but because I don't direct a state wide non-profit trying to respond to a pandemi...