Welcome Year Three~

Welcome back! My third year of teaching started on September 9th 2015. I'm certainly not a complete beginner anymore but I feel like I still have plenty of work to do. I have awesome students this year that are excited about being 6th graders, excited to be in a new school with new friends and new teachers. To start the year off I decided to lightly introduce scavenger hunts in my class where students get a chance to work together, move around and solve math problems. Take a look below!

Parent Teacher Conference 3-12-15

Next week Thursday is the next Parent-Teacher conference. I'm excited! It's been a long time since I've seen parents and we have covered so many different topics since then. The entire unit on negative and positive integers has flew by, as well as half of expressions and equations I.

I need to speak to many parents about the progress of their students, so I'm hoping that the turnout is high. Unfortunately as a teacher, everything that goes wrong is your fault. It feels like no one else is held responsible or accountable for anything but you. This leaves you very mentally and physically drained with the support of no one but perhaps your colleagues (whom are likely overwhelmed with their own struggles).

Considering that before no time, we'll be at the final stretch of the school year, it's crucial now to talk with parents and have everyone try their best before the end of the year. Hoping I get to see more parents than last time! I'm prepared.

VSC Math Rewards - New Title!

Every few months or so it appears that the students who earn gold tokens get focused on one particular game. Super Mario 3D world in the beginning of the year, Mario Kart 8 a bit later on, and Smash has been going strong for a while now.

Introducing, Mario Party 10. I think the kids will love this game. Finally a multiplayer game that everyone can have fun with and play. Not everyone is into Smash and some students have missed playing Mario Kart. Speaking of that, I am having another tournament for Spring Break for Mario Kart 8. I need to make a new Powerpoint this weekend along with qualifying criteria..

You've Got Mail!

I've planned this idea since the summer but have finally decided to use it to boost my class as things have been a bit more hectic since the new year (2015). Each student has their own "mailbox". I purchased them here and here. Whenever students do something remarkable like, participate, help another student, be attentive, follow directions, try their best, etc. I make sure to write a note on the colored cards. The size fits perfectly into the mailbox (whoever did the measurements is a good mathematician)! I sign these notes and date them. I call them by groups to "check their mail."

They are very happy to receive one and take them home to their parents! It has been helpful in getting students motivated to stay on task and make their parents happy. I want to have something at the end of the year for students who've accumulated a certain amount. I've been advising them to keep a stash of these notes somewhere safe. It can't be a pizza party... Help!

Welcome to 2015! Happy New Year!

I am wishing all of my students, parents, staff, co workers, family and friends a wonderful and blessed new year! I have learned so much in 2014. I grew a lot personally towards the end of the year, I became a far better teacher, and I accomplished one of the biggest goals of my life.

I sincerely hope that 2015 will make us even more refined, give us more than what we started with, and help us grow in all areas of our lives!

I have plenty of things that I want to finish and start this year, but the ones related to teaching are:

A) Starting up my lunch program to help/offer students become more proficient
B) More signs around the room for students to refer to
C) Continue to be consistent
D) More opportunities for students to practice practice practice


1st post of 2015!

The New Wheel of Improvement

Here is a picture of the old Wheel of Improvement:

I tried my best to make the boxes and image a lot more even but ultimately I wasn't able to get it.

After a lesson in using shift to straighten out lines (and being told that I could bring this to life via staples or kinkos) I chose to make a new wheel:

 I can't wait to introduce this to the students to see who is interested and wants to participate. I'll make a post later on what I've been thinking.  

The Hour of Code!

Today my students completed the hour of code! More information can be found if you click that link, but the gist is that students learn a little bit about javascript and the codes that program a computer and tell it what to do to bring some of their favorite games to life.

This is done in an entertaining fashion so students are also having fun. They progress through a series of levels in different games that teach the students different commands (move, turn, walk, run, repeat, etc). As they continue to progress through the games, eventually they are allowed to use many of the different coding blocks they've encountered throughout the levels to create their own game.

As someone who has logged in tens of thousands of hours on video games, I was very happy to see students and especially adults that shun games, realize that there is a lot of problem solving and critical thinking that takes place behind what they see on the screen. In other words, games are more than just "games". The students were VERY eager to try out the hour of code when they saw the "code stars" video:

After watching this video, the students were very excited to dive in. Unfortunately, the site was down all morning, and even throughout some of the afternoon because there were so many students doing the hour of code as per code.org's tweet:

 

This was unfortunately extremely frustrating as many of the better games (or at least the ones students were interested in) are found on their site. We used scratch.mit.edu and tynker.com as a backup, which turned out working very well because scratch allowed the students to play with all of the coding blocks at once. I really prompted the students to play around with the blocks on their own. Many of them were diving in and messing around with the coding blocks to alter the game. 

 

I will now be doing coding afterschool with the students starting today. I only have two signups, but that's fine as it's not everyone's thing. More people will come next week. It was only day one, and here two clips of what the students made:

 

 

Afterward we all were frustrated about the code.org site not working and the games loading at a turtle's pace, I decided to download the "Lightbot One Hour Coding" app, which works just like the games on code.org's site but has more challenging puzzles (they needed to work together to clear one of the more challenging ones). I can't wait to see what lies ahead!

 

The Mathematician's Wheel of Improvement

Going back to what I said in an earlier post I have finally finished creating a model of what I want in the classroom for students to be able to see where they are in terms of their improvement.

Something like this isn't bad so long as it's nice and colorful. Students can move their wooden pegs or something stick with their name on it attached to the edges of the board. What I may do is cut each section in half so there are more sections for students to move along. Prizes for each one. This can also be used for different topics, and the further you go along the board, the more difficult the problems of that topic become. I may not use it like that though. Hopefully I can create something in real life that looks like this with the help of the art teacher, as I want to start this program not too long after the beginning of next year.

Why Is Math Important? Part III

Coming soon with the help of 7th grade science, 7th grade social studies, and ART teachers!

The VSC Math Peer Tutoring Program

I have failed to finalize what I want to with the idea I've come up with for a lunchtime peer-tutoring program. I did enjoy my break though. I needed it. Teaching is literally a never-ending job. My loose ideas were:

A) A classroom that mimics a library. A "mathematician's luncheon". The purpose is for students to come away with work completed of 90% accuracy or higher.

B) Zero tolerance for disruptions. A place where the idea/theme of being there to improve is explicit and taken very seriously.

C) A very visible chart/graph/system of improvement where students can immediately see where they are and their level of progression

D) Higher level students peer-tutor struggling students

E) My role - to help everyone, tutors and peers alike, and make sure that everyone walks away with a stronger foundation and greater conceptual knowledge

F) An incentive. The kids are already familiar with tokens, so something along those lines. An "improvement token" was the first thought. As for what they'd do with them, not sure.

(Current) Kinks

A) What exactly do I want it to look like? What kind of work will students have? I want it to be separate from class. How will it be managed?

B) What sort of time-efficient system will be used to determine how students are improving? Furthermore, the improvement of students MUST be visible. This is undoubtedly the most vital piece. This is the big idea I had in mind and I won't start this until this piece is figured out. Making the assignments worth points, and/or having tokens align to points along with a chart (i.e. a chart listing points and their respective levels - 500 points  = Math Apprentice, 1000 points = Math Guru) have all come to mind in the past.

This could be done a different way without points, where the chart just lists the number of tokens along with its respective level (i.e. 3+ tokens = Math Novice, 10+ tokens = Math Apprentice, 15+ tokens = Math Admirer, etc), and these amount of tokens can serve as "checkpoints", where students earn different prizes once they reach these checkpoints. 7th grade math teacher has a "device" (it's wooden..) where she uses these wooden pegs to move names. Perhaps I could use something similar.

C) What incentive do the stronger students have to tutor/help out? What incentive do the weaker students have to stay (we know the answer, but this has to be sold to kids...)?

D) If I use improvement tokens, what will the students do with them/use them for? How will they use them?

E) How often will this be each week with the other recognition pieces that normally take place on Thursday and Friday (and have been creeping into Monday thanks to holidays..). I can't give up my lunch period everyday. Perhaps 1 day out of the week to start?

The VSC Math Christmas Tournaments!

I've been spending some time thinking about some additional things that I would like to add to my class (like some signs around the room), but I have mentioned to the kids that I would create a tournament for their favorite games.

I've spent some time planning it and checking for feedback on gamefaqs to see what others think. I have finally come up with a tournament format and style for the students. Introducing VSC math's very first Christmas tournament!

VSC Math Wii U Christmas Tournament by MR.E

I know that the students will really appreciate this and I'd like to see the level of motivation they have upon hearing this. The only downside is that they must have all gold tokens from now until the beginning of the tournament in order to enter, and I am gunning for 16 players.

The fewer the number of players, the easier it is to run. The more players there are, the better the class is going. I still have to come up with a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prize for both tournaments though. Maybe I should get the students their own Amiibos?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to anyone that reads the blog. I have been thinking about starting a peer tutoring program during lunch in my classroom. I also want to start running a tournament for Sm4sh and MK8. That is AFTER I get other priorities straightened out. I will update the blog as soon as I hash out all of the details. So, what am I thankful for?

- I'm still alive
- My mother, brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces are still alive
- Finishing up school (only 1 semester remaining)
- Everything that I have

I hope all of my students are having a wonderful Thanksgiving with their families and if you're reading, happy Thanksgiving to you!

Parent Teacher Night 11-20

The first parent-teacher conference of the school year went (unsurprisingly) well!! I have been collecting a decent amount of test scores, important homeworks and classwork to show parents. This has been very helpful in addition to having Skedula handy. My biggest takeaways:

A) A decent (50%?) of parents showed up. This says a lot about their support and that they care for their children. I was happy to be able to see so many parents and discuss student progress and next steps.

B) Many of the students talk positively about me outside of school and a decent amount have commented that this is their favorite class. Great! This was a delight to hear, especially for the students who have had a difficult time with math in elementary school. Some of them have commented that now, they get it. I think this is a big thanks to visual models and trying my best to get students to feel safe enough to ask questions when they don't understand a concept.

C) Tokens are a big motivator and plenty of students talk about them outside of school or have shared how it works with their parents.

D) There is such a difference between Common Core and how parents (and even me) were taught math, so sometimes, there is little support at home for homework if a student is struggling. Parents are trying their best. I am not quite sure about what to do here.

MY next steps:

A) Find a way to balance homework. While I think it's okay to not give homework if students haven't fully understood the lesson (or we didn't get to complete the lesson for that day), that doesn't mean that they can't practice what they DO know. There should be some kind of backup homework or practice in case we don't finish the lesson for that day.

B) There should be some more signs around the room. Perhaps this can be done Wednesday?

Overall, it was a great experience. The next few units are not difficult compared to proportions and number sense. We will be done with number sense by the end of next week (or in two weeks depending on progress). We will finally move on to integers and we'll get to use our real-life coordinate plane!

Visual Models vs Algorithms

There has been a substantial increase in the use of visual models in my class compared to last year. As a beginner teacher with no experience, I taught like how I was taught. This year however, I understand how important conceptual knowledge can be, and what a better way than to visualize it. It's the reason why some of the weaker classes can keep up. Visual models are good for everyone. Just because a student is in the algorithmic stage (as in, they can solve a problem algorithmically), doesn't mean that they have the conceptual knowledge.

I have been wondering lately though, when should I take students off of visual models and move them onto the division w/ fraction algorithm? Some higher level students are annoyed with drawing models, but I want them to understand that this is a tool they have in their disposal at any point in time, not something that's disposable just because there is a faster way.

We have been doing a lot of division with fractions lately, and we've gone as far as division with fractions with uncommon denominators. And I must say, it did occur to me that the model for division with fractions is a piece of extra work when the algorithm is so easy to follow.

VS.

 

The downside to the algorithm is that it literally conveys no conceptual knowledge at all. I want to make sure students have a solid foundation of what division is before moving onto the next topics (long division/GCF/LCM). In the long run, I'd rather be safe than sorry. I think when students have shown that they can compute or solve word problems fluently with the visual model, then I can teach the algorithm and we can move on.

Congratulations to Class 604!

I wanted to give a special shot-out to class 604 on the blog! Their math skills have been on such a SHARP increase lately! They are experts at Mathematical Practice #1:

Because this class NEVER gives up when given a problem, we have been able to struggle for some time, and learn new math. I am very impressed by their ability to try their hardest and to ask questions. They will become expert mathematicians in no time!!! In addition to coming so far with math, they are also now an ALL gold token class! Congratulations 604, I am proud of you all.

Signed,

Mr. E

Being a Leader

As someone who genuinely wants to be the best (or at least one of the best) math teachers, but at the same time is quite shy, being a leader can be a troublesome thing. I have always ran away from these types of things in the past. "Why don't you lead the ________ team?" "You can be a leader on this whole campus!" "When you talk, everyone turns around and listens to you". I have always turned these types of things down for:

A) Fear of failure
B) High level of responsibility

With teaching, it does not seem like I can escape this anymore. It's like the adage "you can't run from who you are". My classmates have taken somewhat of a liking to my blog, and even some co workers read it. We also have new staff now, and I am starting to think that they are genuinely looking towards me for suggestions, advice, and to watch what I do. In fact, one is coming to observe me for the next few weeks and two have already done so last month. I think I've made it clear that I don't like being the center of attention. But if you are always doing great things, or thinking outside of the box, you are always going to draw attention.

 Classmates and staff expectations of me are now very high and I'm quite nervous about it. As it's only my 2nd year, I am still learning as well. I prefer to just be a valuable resource for them.

One Year Wiser!

I haven't posted in a few days due to being so busy and sick. The end of the first marking period was yesterday, Friday November 7, 2014. My birthday was November 2nd. Due to some of my students snooping around the blog from time to time, I'll keep my age hidden although it's obvious that I'm still not that quite old!

My mother called and began to weep for how much the both of us have had to go through, with me not growing up in the best of environments nor a two-parent home, like much of my students. I knew that her tears were those of joy, tears that I haven't gotten a chance to quite experience yet.

It reminded me of how hard I've had to work to get where I am, and it let me know how much of an example I may be for some of my students. I share my life with them all of the time, and they probe and ask more questions when they realize that I am not much different. I became a teacher because I wanted to be a role model for students that I never had growing up. It has been an extremely difficult road.

Teaching is one of the hardest jobs in the world if you actually care about the children. And I do, deeply. At the very least, I want to finish this master's program (I graduate in June) and close out the year to see how far I can take them this year, and leave them with a positive example of math, and a human being.

On the bright side, I went shopping galore for myself, and my co workers have been treating me to meals and drinks!

My birthday resolution: Continue to stay focused on my current goals
                                       Create new goals

Tokens Update!

I haven't spoken about these in a while. I wanted to share that this system is still running strong about 2 months into the school year. That's awesome! One thing that I have noticed....It seems as though if the entire class manages to get gold (i.e. 603).................................(for the most part) it stays that way. They have been like this for the past month and a half. It's like if an entire class is able to get 4 gold tokens weeks in a row, every group will repeat the same level of effort and collaboration for this to happen again.

I mention this because a student in 604 made an interesting observation, and mentioned today "Mr. E, everyone is starting to get gold now!" And he's right, as this is the 2nd week in a row in which that entire class has earned 4 golds. This class has seriously upped their game as of late. What I love about this class the most is their effort. While they are certainly not mathematically as strong as 603, their level of effort and participation with each lesson is certainly #1. They are so strong in MP #1, work together, and are focused on learning. That makes 2 out of 4 of my classes "all gold". There others are still a mix.

Note: I have changed the VSC Math Gold pencil prize to anime. I bring my laptop to the classroom and hook it up to the smartboard and have students watch Naruto and/or other cartoons. Seems to be a much more wanted prize so far!

Visual Models!

The students and I have been getting tons of mileage out of the visual models lately. We've started Unit 2 this past Monday and we've been doing a great job so far. We have been doing division with fractions. In this unit, I really want to go over any sort of topic or lesson that deals with division. It's imperative, as some of the division with fraction questions (word problems) are known to be extremely troublesome for students without strong conceptual knowledge. However, these visual models can help dig up this conceptual knowledge and help students understand what's going on in the question.

I have been staying far away from algorithms (aside from having them rewrite these division w/ fraction problems as multiplication, as making that relationship explicit is equally important). I think if we can make sense of plenty of many different types of these questions via visual models, we'll do a pretty decent job with this unit. 604 has seriously been stepping up their game, and the models have been a  great tool for them to use when tackling division w/ fraction questions. So far, what a great start to Unit #2!

Percents

For the past week and a half we have been learning about percents in VSC Math. It's been quite challenging passing on the conceptual knowledge. I've given students some of the following questions:

We've used some tape diagram models to solve some of the questions. For some of my students, prior experience with simplifying/reducing is an issue. Some haven't mastered this concept so solving these by making proportions can be troublesome. Also, some of them still struggle with the idea of a proportion or why we would use it. Cross multiplication can be used and some have preferred that (cross multiplying and dividing by the number without a "partner"), along with turning the percent into a decimal and multiplying (if we're looking for the discount). 

We have completed unit 1 and we will start unit 2 next week. It's an ongoing struggle when students are missing foundational skills from prior grades that prevents them from making extreme progress in 6th grade. The next unit encompasses 6.NS standards. I hope that all if not most of the students can really grasp the concept of division before we begin to tackle dividing fractions by fractions, and doing so with word problems.