I'm thankful for my collegiate education. I'm thankful for the scholarships I earned that made six years of college possible (and already paid off). I'm thankful I was able to balance academics with fun because life shouldn't be all work.
I'm thankful for the four years I spent at Arizona State, which allowed me to cultivate such an intense dislike for the University of Arizona, in Tuscon. Perhaps I'm just still sad we lost the duel in the desert today and the territorial cup will go down to Tuscon.
I'm thankful my family is easily accessible by car. I could have flown (I think it's an hour flight) but I have some stuff to bring back, so driving was easier. I'm thankful my car has *amazing* gas mileage and that it's a fairly easy drive.
I'm thankful I have such a solid relationship with B that we could spend a few days apart without issues. He really likes his mom's cooking and I really like Black Friday shopping with my mom, so we did Thanksgiving separate this year. No biggie!
I'm thankful I was able to find some good deals for gifts for others...but didn't have to deal with the crazy lines. I refused to go out on Thanksgiving and do not want this "gray Thursday" thing to become a trend. We slept in and ventured out around 9 am. Most of the things we wanted were still there, but I got a good night's sleep. Win win!
I'm thankful I'm mostly prepared for Monday, so I can relax Sunday night. By relax, I mean decorate our tree and get out all my holiday things, making a huge mess in the process!
I'm thankful I got a few days to escape responsibilities and just be a couch potato with family.
What are you thankful for?
Friday, November 28, 2014
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Black Friday!
It's that time of year again!
From Black Friday to Cyber Monday, all of my products on Teachers pay Teachers will be 20% off! It's a great time to stock up and you don't have to leave your house :) Shop here!
If you're interested in treating yourself as well, head on over to my Jamberry shop. There are 12 returning nail wraps that are only available from Black Friday 'til Cyber Monday.
Plus if you spend more than $50 on Friday, you get a free Black Friday exclusive wrap! The buy 3, get 1 free offer includes all their wraps and a portion of the sales goes to charity. Shop here.
I'm all for online shopping and not fighting the crazy crowds!
From Black Friday to Cyber Monday, all of my products on Teachers pay Teachers will be 20% off! It's a great time to stock up and you don't have to leave your house :) Shop here!
If you're interested in treating yourself as well, head on over to my Jamberry shop. There are 12 returning nail wraps that are only available from Black Friday 'til Cyber Monday.
Plus if you spend more than $50 on Friday, you get a free Black Friday exclusive wrap! The buy 3, get 1 free offer includes all their wraps and a portion of the sales goes to charity. Shop here.
I'm all for online shopping and not fighting the crazy crowds!
Monday, November 24, 2014
Division Day 1
As I previously blogged about, we've had some disagreements about math.
Today was day 1 of division in my classroom and it went really well. They really liked using manipulatives and working together. We went over the vocabulary for the unit (dividend, divisor, quotient, remainder). They worked on problems and generated their own strategies.
It was nice to see them struggle and problem solve. I did have to talk to a few students who immediately saw the connection between multiples and division. I pulled them into the hallway and shared that they need to observe, letting others make their own discoveries to take ownership.
I was pleased to hear how well the lesson went in other classrooms as well!
I think my students' favorite part was when I told them they could write on their desks with the expo marker.
Today was day 1 of division in my classroom and it went really well. They really liked using manipulatives and working together. We went over the vocabulary for the unit (dividend, divisor, quotient, remainder). They worked on problems and generated their own strategies.
It was nice to see them struggle and problem solve. I did have to talk to a few students who immediately saw the connection between multiples and division. I pulled them into the hallway and shared that they need to observe, letting others make their own discoveries to take ownership.
I was pleased to hear how well the lesson went in other classrooms as well!
I think my students' favorite part was when I told them they could write on their desks with the expo marker.
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Detour
Sometimes the best teaching moments detour from the lesson plan.
We had this Engage NY activity sheet to give:
3 problems. The time slated for this independent practice was ten minutes, then they were to go work independently in a textbook that's older than them.
That's not what we did.
I had them work collaboratively at their table teams. I had them include written explanations of their thinking and justify their answers. I had them show their work multiple ways. It got a tad noisy, but they were all engaged. It's amazing how the simple act of giving them markers and butcher paper turns an otherwise mundane activity into a lively discussion and collaborative activity.
When they were done, I had them do a gallery walk and critique the other groups' presentations, thus highlighting math practice #3.
Did this activity take way longer than it was slated to? Yes (but it still fit within our math block). Did they gain so much more from one another than they would have by silently working then going over the answers? Yes.
Was it worth detouring from my lesson plan? Absolutely.
We had this Engage NY activity sheet to give:
3 problems. The time slated for this independent practice was ten minutes, then they were to go work independently in a textbook that's older than them.
That's not what we did.
I had them work collaboratively at their table teams. I had them include written explanations of their thinking and justify their answers. I had them show their work multiple ways. It got a tad noisy, but they were all engaged. It's amazing how the simple act of giving them markers and butcher paper turns an otherwise mundane activity into a lively discussion and collaborative activity.
When they were done, I had them do a gallery walk and critique the other groups' presentations, thus highlighting math practice #3.
Did this activity take way longer than it was slated to? Yes (but it still fit within our math block). Did they gain so much more from one another than they would have by silently working then going over the answers? Yes.
Was it worth detouring from my lesson plan? Absolutely.
Saturday, November 22, 2014
Said is Dead
Upon flipping through old posts, I found that almost exactly a year ago, I blogged about a "said is dead" lesson in my classroom. I just delivered the lesson again in my classroom this year. However, revising for better words for "said" is a lesson nearly 100% of the fifth graders need.
This year, I made some tweaks. I paired this mini-lesson with another mini-lesson on dialogue and quotation marks. This was a logical pairing that just took me a few years to figure out.
While I suggested this lesson idea at grade level planning, another teacher actually made the plans for it. I was a little bummed when the plans turned out to be a piece of paper for them to glue into their notebooks.
So I made my own plan and my kids did really well with it!
We glued the resource into our notebooks, but after we'd make lists together. I gave each team a different emotion or tone (happy, sad, angry, loud) to have them generate lists. I then showed a few different images, like this one:
to have them create a dialogue between the characters (thus using the dialogue mini-lessons and quotation marks) and to replace said with more descriptive language.
They did a free write for few minutes, then shared the words they used instead of said, which I recorded on the board. They then shared their writing with a neighbor.
I like when they get so excited about what we're learning! Although due to their excitement and chatter, we were a minute or so late getting out the door...oops!
This year, I made some tweaks. I paired this mini-lesson with another mini-lesson on dialogue and quotation marks. This was a logical pairing that just took me a few years to figure out.
While I suggested this lesson idea at grade level planning, another teacher actually made the plans for it. I was a little bummed when the plans turned out to be a piece of paper for them to glue into their notebooks.
So I made my own plan and my kids did really well with it!
We glued the resource into our notebooks, but after we'd make lists together. I gave each team a different emotion or tone (happy, sad, angry, loud) to have them generate lists. I then showed a few different images, like this one:
to have them create a dialogue between the characters (thus using the dialogue mini-lessons and quotation marks) and to replace said with more descriptive language.
They did a free write for few minutes, then shared the words they used instead of said, which I recorded on the board. They then shared their writing with a neighbor.
I like when they get so excited about what we're learning! Although due to their excitement and chatter, we were a minute or so late getting out the door...oops!
Friday, November 21, 2014
But...that was intentional...
It's okay to disagree with a fellow teacher. It's okay to not want to deliver a lesson the same way as another teacher. It's okay to put your own spin on things. Some things should be the same (the assessments, the vocabulary, the definitions), but we aren't going to teach the same way. That's okay. I have a difficult time following instructions or lesson plans verbatim, even when I'm the one who wrote them. Don't get me wrong, I am always meticulously prepared for my day. I just also take advantage of teachable moments.
However, I do get a little frustrated when it seems almost every instructional decision I make is questioned. I've got a lot of background working with special ed kiddos and with the pacing of units. Things are sequenced intentionally to help students make connections between background knowledge and new content. The use of manipulatives (hands-on materials) during the first few days of a unit is quite necessary. Students, even my fifth graders, need the concrete examples to investigate a concept. They need experience in the concrete before moving to representational and abstract understandings of content.
We are starting division on Monday. The standards quite explicitly state do not teach the standard long division algorithm. This is not to be introduced until sixth grade because students don't have the number sense nor mathematical understanding to reason through what is occurring.
Here it is, straight from our professional development department:
I'm not really sure how much more clear this could be, but there were still debates about what it means.
The first few days in our math unit has a lot of investigation by the students. I'm giving them a bunch of paper clips to sort into smaller groups. Some problems will divide evenly, some won't.
I want them to tackle it. I want them to struggle. Some kids will count those 48 paper clips into the groups one at a time, driving their partners bonkers in the process. Some will make the connection to multiples and give away larger groups. Some will use their multiplication facts to estimate the quotient. Some will see division as repeated subtraction while others will see it as repeated addition up to the dividend.
That's okay.
I want my students to understand what they're doing. I want them to make connections. I want them to discover how division is related to the other operations and take ownership over their strategies.
My math unit is scaffolded intentionally. The first day is exploration. The next introduces vocabulary terms, goes over making sense of the problems (hello math practices), and has student generated strategies. Direct instruction doesn't begin until day 3 after students have had ample time to investigate sorting and making groups with paper clips and cubes. From there, we'll move to hundreds grids and talk about regrouping. We'll make the connection from the physical orange flats, rods, and cubes to the paper versions and drawings, thus moving from concrete to representational. From there, we'll move into number based strategies that build upon other operations, powers of ten, place value, and multiples. Again, scaffolded from representational drawings and grids to strictly numbers (abstract). There's a plan. It took hours to design, but I'm really excited about it. The plan, which spans thirteen instructional days, scaffolds so students will feel successful and anticipates common misconceptions.
However, another teacher entirely disregarded the plan...and told me about it, gleefully. She had them try one problem with manipulatives and then gave them the algorithm. I'm so disappointed and feel sad for her students. I'm sad they lost the opportunity to make their own discoveries. I'm sad they lost the chance to feel ownership over the concept. I'm sad they lost the opportunity to have a meaningful struggle with the tasks.
Her justification? They'll learn it next year and she's doing the sixth grade teachers a favor. Besides, the standard algorithm is just faster.
I'm aware it's faster. Faster yet? Whipping out my phone and using its calculator function. But what's the point in that? What do they learn when they're just handed the short cut?
I'm standing my ground on this one. My goal is not to teach math. Yes, you read that correctly. My goal is not to teach math.
My goal is to have my students understand math. I want them to know what they're doing, why they're doing it, what happens to their numbers, and why their problem works out mathematically.
I'm making critical thinkers and problem solvers, not robots. I'm aware it takes more time, but this mindset also encourages stronger students and that's my ultimate end goal.
However, I do get a little frustrated when it seems almost every instructional decision I make is questioned. I've got a lot of background working with special ed kiddos and with the pacing of units. Things are sequenced intentionally to help students make connections between background knowledge and new content. The use of manipulatives (hands-on materials) during the first few days of a unit is quite necessary. Students, even my fifth graders, need the concrete examples to investigate a concept. They need experience in the concrete before moving to representational and abstract understandings of content.
We are starting division on Monday. The standards quite explicitly state do not teach the standard long division algorithm. This is not to be introduced until sixth grade because students don't have the number sense nor mathematical understanding to reason through what is occurring.
Here it is, straight from our professional development department:
I'm not really sure how much more clear this could be, but there were still debates about what it means.
The first few days in our math unit has a lot of investigation by the students. I'm giving them a bunch of paper clips to sort into smaller groups. Some problems will divide evenly, some won't.
I want them to tackle it. I want them to struggle. Some kids will count those 48 paper clips into the groups one at a time, driving their partners bonkers in the process. Some will make the connection to multiples and give away larger groups. Some will use their multiplication facts to estimate the quotient. Some will see division as repeated subtraction while others will see it as repeated addition up to the dividend.
That's okay.
I want my students to understand what they're doing. I want them to make connections. I want them to discover how division is related to the other operations and take ownership over their strategies.
My math unit is scaffolded intentionally. The first day is exploration. The next introduces vocabulary terms, goes over making sense of the problems (hello math practices), and has student generated strategies. Direct instruction doesn't begin until day 3 after students have had ample time to investigate sorting and making groups with paper clips and cubes. From there, we'll move to hundreds grids and talk about regrouping. We'll make the connection from the physical orange flats, rods, and cubes to the paper versions and drawings, thus moving from concrete to representational. From there, we'll move into number based strategies that build upon other operations, powers of ten, place value, and multiples. Again, scaffolded from representational drawings and grids to strictly numbers (abstract). There's a plan. It took hours to design, but I'm really excited about it. The plan, which spans thirteen instructional days, scaffolds so students will feel successful and anticipates common misconceptions.
However, another teacher entirely disregarded the plan...and told me about it, gleefully. She had them try one problem with manipulatives and then gave them the algorithm. I'm so disappointed and feel sad for her students. I'm sad they lost the opportunity to make their own discoveries. I'm sad they lost the chance to feel ownership over the concept. I'm sad they lost the opportunity to have a meaningful struggle with the tasks.
Her justification? They'll learn it next year and she's doing the sixth grade teachers a favor. Besides, the standard algorithm is just faster.
I'm aware it's faster. Faster yet? Whipping out my phone and using its calculator function. But what's the point in that? What do they learn when they're just handed the short cut?
I'm standing my ground on this one. My goal is not to teach math. Yes, you read that correctly. My goal is not to teach math.
My goal is to have my students understand math. I want them to know what they're doing, why they're doing it, what happens to their numbers, and why their problem works out mathematically.
I'm making critical thinkers and problem solvers, not robots. I'm aware it takes more time, but this mindset also encourages stronger students and that's my ultimate end goal.
Thankful?
I'm having a bit of a rough time finding positive things. We are under a lot of pressure at work from a lot of different angles. Granted, it's no where near the tear-inducing chaos of last year, but still.
We are under pressure to perform well on Reading Rangers. My students are reading independently and quiz frequently. However, there's a few boys that aren't following my expectations and do poorly. They are lower readers and need to read books several times. They need to conference with a peer about the book. However, they'll sneak out to the pod or sneak an iPad to quiz and often score 60% or 80%, which brings down our class average. I am then talked to about why I'm doing so poorly and it's really not fair. I've had a few times I've been called out for the lowest scores and while some find it motivating, I'm mortified.
I don't like coming in last and I certainly don't like that publicly announced.
My students have between 45 and 60 minutes a day of silent independent reading time with our Reading Rangers program. During that time I'm pulling small groups or individual conferences, they are writing about what they're reading, conferencing with a peer, taking an AR test, or silently reading.
Other teachers will sometimes skip other subject areas to allow for extra reading time to inflate their scores. I'm not sorry that I refuse to skip math, writing, or whole group reading to give them silent reading time. They need instruction in all subjects.
We've started some new positive reinforcements and it's helped. We are in a race to 100 100%s with another class and it's quite motivating for them. I also started using classroom dojo to reward them whenever they score 90%, 100%, or complete a badge. They are quite excited about that.
We're all overwhelmed at work and it's showing. The amount of effort and care I put into my portion of planning is not necessarily being matched by others and that's difficult. Things aren't getting done in a timely manner. There's been some miscommunication and that's difficult.
I think we're all just ready for a break and luckily, Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I am thankful for that!
We are under pressure to perform well on Reading Rangers. My students are reading independently and quiz frequently. However, there's a few boys that aren't following my expectations and do poorly. They are lower readers and need to read books several times. They need to conference with a peer about the book. However, they'll sneak out to the pod or sneak an iPad to quiz and often score 60% or 80%, which brings down our class average. I am then talked to about why I'm doing so poorly and it's really not fair. I've had a few times I've been called out for the lowest scores and while some find it motivating, I'm mortified.
I don't like coming in last and I certainly don't like that publicly announced.
My students have between 45 and 60 minutes a day of silent independent reading time with our Reading Rangers program. During that time I'm pulling small groups or individual conferences, they are writing about what they're reading, conferencing with a peer, taking an AR test, or silently reading.
Other teachers will sometimes skip other subject areas to allow for extra reading time to inflate their scores. I'm not sorry that I refuse to skip math, writing, or whole group reading to give them silent reading time. They need instruction in all subjects.
We've started some new positive reinforcements and it's helped. We are in a race to 100 100%s with another class and it's quite motivating for them. I also started using classroom dojo to reward them whenever they score 90%, 100%, or complete a badge. They are quite excited about that.
We're all overwhelmed at work and it's showing. The amount of effort and care I put into my portion of planning is not necessarily being matched by others and that's difficult. Things aren't getting done in a timely manner. There's been some miscommunication and that's difficult.
I think we're all just ready for a break and luckily, Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I am thankful for that!
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