#first4weeks

Over all the beginning of the year has been a great success!
Some highlights/events to note:

• Implementation of itsLearning- it has taken some getting used to but I feel as if my students have finally learned how to (mostly) navigate though the platform and find information as needed. Although I do not feel it is entirely user friendly for middle schoolers, I think it can serve as a great starting point for many things. I hope to receive more training and become more versed in this resource.
• First menu project for the year- I was really able to get a feel for the learning styles of many of my students by starting the year with a group project. I can see what type of projects they are more comfortable with, gravitate to, who is more tech savvy and who is more hands on. I feel like I will be ale to adjust and cater to kids who need more support in the future.  

• Flexible Seating- I have encouraged my students to embrace flexible seating but I am not sure if it is quite taking off. Some are eagerly grabbing a clip board and sprawling out on the ground where as others are still afraid to get up from their chair without asking. I do have a few that prefer to stand at the back table to complete their work. I think if I add a few more options or model myself, I may have a few more takers. :)
• Padlet- This was a fun resource we have used in our meetings and I wanted to try it out with my kiddos as an introduction activity. It was very user friendly and they immediately took to it!

• QR codes- I have played around with QR codes and my students seem to love them! I hope to find others fun uses for them soon. 

• Nearpod- After going to an informational during the summer, this looks like it could be very awesome! I would consider this like a presentation on steroids. If I had the resources for my students to each have a device, it would be a very interactive way to get immediate feedback and assessment of students. I plan to try this out in table groups to start but it will not have the same interactions as I would like the kids to have. 

Thanks for reading and I love all the ideas that I am able to get from everyone in this group.  Thank you again!

"You must go slow to go fast"

After attending ISTE & Tots for Tech this summer I had a vision and numerous ideas of things I wanted to implement in MY dream classroom ... then I remembered, it is not my classroom.  With my change in position (which I LOVE), I had to change my mindset from the start.

Me, being me, I wanted to share all of my ideas with my collaborating teacher and have her incorporate everything on day one.  Quickly learning this wasn't going to work, I learned the most important coaching lesson thus far: "You have to go slow to go fast"

Four weeks later, we are making progress!

Step 1: Alternative Seating.  So far we have purchased exercise balls and core seats.  The kids absolutely LOVE it!  It makes a world of difference for our students who are now more attentive and focused on their learning.  Other teachers on our campus have followed suit and have also seen a decrease in behaviors and an increase student learning.  Who knew something so small could make such a big change in the classroom environment?  At open house, parents were so excited to try our new seating options!  Their one complaint: "Why can't we have alternative seating for ALL of the kids?"  

Step 2: Flexible Grouping.  Each week teachers on our 4th and 1st grade teams are regrouping their students based on student needs.  The goal is to meet each student at their level and provide focused instruction.  Stay tuned for our results!

Step 3: It's Learning.  I am currently working with a few teachers, including my collaborating teacher, to get everything set up for student use.  Hopefully we will be rolling this out with the kids soon!

Now that my mindset has changed, I can see one of the best parts of my new position: I have the opportunity to see a lot of classrooms, obtain new ideas, collaborate with a lot of people, and share my knowledge with everyone on our campus!  We are off to a great start & I can't wait to see where we go from here!

Give Me a Vanbreak!

Well it is week 6. I have been in school with my kiddos for 6 weeks! I have been running on all cylinders for 6 weeks and I need a Vanbreakthrough! In my classroom this year I have been challenged to be innovative and I have taken that to heart. I have googled, pinterested, twittered, and read, all to find the magic pill for innovation. Guess What...There isn't one! It's all up to me to figure it out... what my kids and I need to be successful. So I have narrowed my focus to creating self directed learners, teaching in small groups based on data collected, and students having some personalized time and collaborative time (PBL) in the classroom. (Yes those are some big ticket items, but that's how I roll.)  My saving grace is my class! I love my little learners. They are loud and love trying new stuff. They are willing to jump in and try. We spent a couple of weeks at the beginning really focusing on relationships and building character. It is great to hear them using words like "you need to show self control" or "you have to show gratitude to others". I also felt it was important to put a system in place for helping each other. It really is starting to pay off. Instead of coming to me for everything, they are slowly beginning to check with each other or offer help if they see someone struggling.
My biggest reflection is that I need to go slow to go fast! I don't and can't do everything right now (although that is my make-up!) I had some great things in place before, and I have to remember that. I need to get more input from the kids as to how they want their experience to be, and I would like to go to bed before 3am. So as I said before...I am ready for my VanBreakthrough!!

From the mouths of babes!

Fourth week into the school year and that little voice in my head has kicked into overdrive.  The newness of the year has worn off, students’ true colors are quickly coming into focus, and that voice is chanting, “are you sure about this?  They aren’t learning?  What were you thinking? Abort before it is too late?  In the midst of internal panic and frantic searching for a smidge of affirmative feedback in a sea of student faces… out of nowhere, BAM!,  that little voice got a slugged in the chords by a student's courage to self advocate.  As soon as the student started talking...I knew!  I grabbed a pencil…sat down in the middle of the room with the student and wrote what he said. (After asking him if it was okay to quote him.)

 

As I am walking around collecting the self-assessment rubrics this student looked at me with dread and serious concern.  He locked eyes with me, but would not hand over the self-assessment.  Then he says, “Is this all this class is going to be?”

I replied, “what do you mean?”  

He says, “Well, I like history.  It’s like my favorite, but this is different.”  

So I said “what do you think you should be doing?”  

He say, “writing on paper.  I am used to that.  I mean I was in Pre AP in middle school and elementary.  You know, we didn’t do this {and that was more advanced}.  We did normal stuff like take notes from the Activboard, watch movies, handouts, and, you know regular work, textbook stuff ya.  I am not used to this.”  

So I said, “so you are feeling like you don’t have control?” He replied, “yes, and I feel frustrated and rushed”. I mean, I am failing this class, ya.

A bit of context, before I share what happened next.  These first 4 weeks of school I have thrown them in in the pool without a physical life preserver, and only rescue (on the DL) those who are actually drowning academically; which has only been some with identified learning disabilities and beginner level ESL students.  I have not provided any verbal content instruction, i.e. no lecture or presentations.  The decision to do this was fueled by a lot of formative assessment and data review.  Will spare you all the specifics, but day 1 every student took the released STAAR for the class and every student got at least 3/17 correct.  2 students scored within passing range….passing range...day 1.  I’ll just leave that last statement right there.

So back to the self-advocating student. I inquired about his previous experience in history classes and suggested that his previous experiences entailed the teacher doing a lot of the doing and him doing a lot of receiving.  To which, he nodded (with a sheepish smile).  To which I replied, “well what is happening here is we are flipping that situation and balancing the doing a bit so that in every situation in your life moving forward this self doubt and panic that is happening to you in this moment will not happen without you being equipped to handle it powerfully and positively .”  I reassured him that what he was feeling was part of the plan, and that I appreciated him self-advocating and gave him extra points for his impromptu self-reflection and expression of self-awareness.  I also reassured him that I would not let him fail the class as long as he does not quit.  

This work we do is like no other…so little authentic feedback.  Hope this gives you a bit of encouragement to stay the course!

"This is the most magnificent life has ever been. Here is heaven and earth and the brilliant sky in between"

The school year has been off to a great start with regards to my classroom.  I'm doing flexible seating this year, and I have gone completely desk-less. My parents came to meet the teacher and walked into the room speechless.  The looks on their faces and the questions in their eyes said it all, "Have you lost your flipping mind? You must be bananas, and I can't believe administration actually put my child in your class." They questioned my sanity, and I admit, I questioned it too at first, but they realized that I had approached this new idea with gusto and armed with research.  It has been completely amazing and full of failures.

Nerd House Coffee is Born!
During the Age of Enlightenment, coffeehouses became the hub of innovation.  In the spirit of enlightenment and district of innovation, my classroom has become a coffeehouse; 21st century as opposed to 18th.  My amazing students have even named it; Nerd House Coffee.  We are a place where ideas are freely shared with respect to our differences.  Voices are heard in an environment free of ridicule but packed with constructive criticism.  Questions are asked and the "what if" spirit is celebrated.  It is amazing to think that these kids are only nine and ten.  Very wise beyond their years, but kind as only kids with free spirits can be.  It is the most magnificent my school life has ever been.

In Between Heaven and Earth
I know I make it sound like everything was perfect, and most of it has been, but we have had our stumbling blocks.  Bean Bags deflating, back rest pillows popping and oozing their stuffing around the room, and not-so-innovative friends trying to crush my Vanguard dreams.  It is interesting to me that people in education have such a fixed mindset on what should happen in a classroom and what a classroom should look like.  How are we supposed to set our students up for the future if we can't have a growth mindset that allows us to dream of what the future may hold.  How do we keep ourselves in line with district expectations of #limitlesscuriosity #collaborativespirit if we can't even act on our curiosities without fear of ridicule?  I have made the executive decision, as CEO of NerdHouseCoffee, that our classroom will be a place full of limitless curiosity regardless of how the haters react.  We are only limited by our imaginations, right?

All Subjects 
I have given Math tests in Butterfly chairs, yoga balls, and on the classroom floor.  I've seen the anxieties of my GT kids drift away as they cover with blankets and settle in to just another day in the coffee house.  I've watched their active discussions grow like those of our "Friends" at Central Perk, and I know I've made the right decision for my kids and those that will come after them.  My only regret....I didn't do it sooner.

May we all embrace this most magnificent educational life...and in the daily grind of the in between.

Pinkies Up,
Anne

Moving Ahead....

....so what week is this already???  The year is flying by and it's been a whirlwind of new implementations, new directions, new ideas added to the challenge of what "old" ideas to maintain.  

Here's our year so far:

• Students have been actively involved in sharing and collaborating online with classmates and teachers.  For many of my students, this experience is new to them which has made the journey very enjoyable for me.  Seeing their excitement and their desire to complete what really is a hidden "assignment" has been the most fun.  I am looking forward to watching their academic growth along with their personal growth within this new arena.
• We have created students accounts within a variety of applications where students access work, complete research, share ideas.....again, just another way of doing the same old thing but in a new way, while allowing them to see what their peers think and to self-monitor what they are learning along the way. This has created some feelings of competition between a few students while providing an outlet for some of those more reserved students to share what they really know.  
• On the planning side, our campus planning initiatives have created some restraints, but nothing we can't work around.  The planning time within our team is very directed and the curriculum dashboard is very traditional.  In our "mingle,mingle,mingle" game today I came to realize this year's biggest challenge for me may be time. . . time to plan for a more blended classroom, additional time to revamp an activity that does not meet the goals I have set for myself and my students.

Five week Celebration checkpoint.....NO classroom discipline issues, many days of students asking to stay (for no reason that is academically necessary other than wanting to be there and wanting to keep working), frequently adding new applications & having students keep up with the challenge, LEARNING about new applications all the time and not reaching the point of "it's too much", and learning that if I set the alarm for 4:00 I can build in an extra hour each day ;o)

Three Things

Some thoughts on the nascent 2016-17 school year. Cross posted: Infinite Sums

Biggest Success

I entered the year with some plans for Pre-Cal. Initially I had some grand ideas, but the result on paper was a little reordering and some and a more intensive Algebra unit. In practice, the move has been to focus on explanations with a mix of mechanics. The first round has proven to be very fruitful. Recently we had a fantastic moment where students were given a triangle like this:

In my approach to trig I'm trying not to explicitly teach methods as much as possible, instead seeing if students can piece together ideas from what we have talked about and what they've seen before. In this case, we never explicitly discussed finding two missing sides. Two students cracked the puzzle (that sin 42 is a known quantity that can be exploited), but the methods were very different. One determined it through algebra (setting sin 42 = y/37 and solving). Another went through elaborate guessing using his trig table, using the approximate value of sin 42 and then fiddling with numerators until that numerator divided by 37 came close to the same decimal value.

This "figure it out" method is slowly creeping into Calculus, but it's harder.

Biggest Challenge

Time. I mentioned it a while ago. I'm at school like 65 hours a week, plus however many to play catch up and do minor things like, you know, plan.

Summer Learning

Let's do a break down of #1TMCThings, shall we? That's where all the summer learning comes from.

TMC13 - Wide-eyed, the community is every bit as energetic and passionate as I had hoped

TMC14 - Presenting, having people confirm curriculum ideas I had and provide feedback

TMC15 - Collaborating with Michael Fenton, sharing the Varsity Math love, getting input from Lisa and Dan on how to improve my Calculus teaching

TMC16 - Bruce Cohen's great Calculus problems, helping Lisa rebuild Algebra II, remembering Julie Reulbach should be pronounced JULIE REULBACH!!!!

I never walk away from conferences with a mountain of ideas, it's more about being around energetic people who will spitball about math notebooks with you at 11pm on the floor of a dorm.