Skip to main content

First Week....whew!

Whelp...

Well I made it through the first week. I maybe underestimated the stress of learning a whole bunch of new systems AND transitioning midyear to a bunch of students who did NOT have a great educational experience in 7th grade math the first semester. It was a LONG week. 

Especially learning a new learning management system and gradebook. If anyone has some pro-tips about Schoology or PowerSchool for the girl who has only used Skyward and Canvas, I would really really appreciate them. 

I am so grateful again to the amazing energy and enthusiasm for Mr. Aaron Skiles, my co-teacher. He is new to math and to the profession and he is going to be AMAZING. He rocked week one....and oh yeah, his wife just had a baby who is still in the NICU. Look at him slaying with students. 

Also grateful for the leadership of Harshman for trusting me. There were some low moments but definitely some high moments as well. There was some Desmos Magic. Some great group work, and some magic with the game of 24 today. 

My goals for the year continue to be to allow students to play with math on a regular basis, to get kids comfortable talking to each other, and to help students be comfortable with making mistakes. I'm feeling pretty good about the first two but I need some help on the second. And of course figure out how to be an effective math coach and help get Mr. Skiles going strong.  













Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Estimation 180 as a Number Sense Review

I have been back at teaching middle school for a month now. It has been challenging, amazing, and also so deeply tiring! Years ago I read that the biggest barrier to high school and middle school is lack of mastery of number sense from elementary school. I've tried lots of things as daily routines to help students close this gap but my favorite by far is an idea I got from 4th cohort Desmos Fellow friend Sarah Furman. Sarah shared that she uses Andrew Stadel's Estimation 180 problems but gives her students a clue that allows them to review a key number sense skill.  I decided to try it in my classroom and I don't really have words for how amazing it has been. Here is what I do: I give them an Estimation 180 problem that is either from Andrew Stadel's amazing website ( http://www.estimation180.com/ ) or one that I created about myself, my family, or my community: I ask students to write their first guess down. I walk around to get a sense of what they are w...

The Pet House Project: Math Art Instead of Math Tests

Are you still giving tests in virtual math classes? Math teachers are so tied to tests they some times cling to them like a life preserver. My biggest struggles around testing are usually other math teachers. If this pandemic does anything good I hope it helps us evaluate how we assessing in math classes.  With traditional math tests, students have gotten good at finding ways to get other people or computers to do the thinking for them. (Photo Math). This is of course even easier to do when your teacher isn't there watching you take the test and you take it at home. One way that other contents get around this is through essays and projects. Those are much harder to just ask a computer to solve for you.  But math teachers don't usually do this....in part because they aren't sure how to make it happen. I'm writing this as a way to share an example.  Right before winter break we squeezed in the first half of Unit 3: Linear Relationships. I saved a lot of it for January but...

Desmos ALL the Things

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...