New Years Resolution for the Classroom

I am lucky that I have had the past two weeks off for winter vacation. However, like my most teachers I have spent the first few days relaxing (trying to recover from the school year) and spending time with family. As the second part rolls around, I find myself once again thinking about school, my students, and what the remainder of the school year will look like. The past 4 years have been a true learning experience. I have learned more about myself, my style of classroom management, and my teaching philosophy than any grad-program could teach me.
My first year teaching could be titled Staying Above Water.
I had no clue what the curriculum demanded (I didn't know until 4 months in, where to find the pacing guide). I knew that I wanted to be the kind of teacher that made students love learning, no matter what....so my discipline was lack luster. I only spent 2 days on classroom management, and spent the rest of the year making up for that mistake. I had looped up with these students (I was a student intern in their 5th grade class the year before) so they knew me as a subordinate teacher. They knew me as the fun teacher. I spent all year creating HUGE projects for them to do and trying to teach too much in 1 lesson. I overwhelmed the students, and I overwhelmed myself. However, I can say that I truly had some successes that year. I had a student come to me on a 2nd grade reading level and leave on a 5th grade reading level. It wasn't because he couldn't do it when he came to me, I just showed him a reason to care. All of my students passed the Social Studies Standardized Test. And the thing I am most proud of, I still talk to three of students via email. They are in high school now and thriving. I put so much energy into my students that year, I cried so much about my students that year, and I spent 2 months in summer school that year, that I was not prepared for the next year.
My second year of teaching could be titled That Class.
My first year students were angels.  That is not saying they were perfect. That is not saying they never misbehaved (see previous paragraph) but at the end of the day they were never mean-spirited toward each other. My 2nd year students were a group of students I will never forget because of the hell they put me through. I had 26 students, 10 were I.E.P. students. This was the year of the inclusion classroom. I loved my inclusion teacher, and without her I would have quit the second month of school. On the first day of school, I had a student flip me the bird and cuss me out over his lunch box. He would continue this behavior every day for most of the school year whenever I asked him to do something he did not like. On the second day of school, I had a desk thrown at me. I had a student that spent 1/4 of the year under his desk and every time I walked by the desk, he would bark at me. I had a student that bullied another kid so bad that she stole his glasses and broke them, constantly would yell horrible remarks across the class at him, and was just so mean I could not fathom how her parents could stand up for that behavior. The worst of it, was I had an administration that looked the other way. They did not acknowledge the bullying no matter how many times I referred the student. They did not support me and they made it clear to the students early on, that there would be no consequence for their behaviors.  Despite all this, my classroom behavior management did improve. I was able to anticipate potential issues while lesson planning. I learned to be flexible and change last minute if I saw a behavior coming on. And the best part, was that the some of the students saw success for the first time. They saw what hard work could do for them.
My third year of teaching could be titled Why I became a Teacher.
Because of the long commute and the lack of support from my administration I changed schools. I was hoping things would get better. And they did...sort of. This year we departmentalized. I wanted to be the social studies teacher. That was what I was promised...but in public education nothing is guaranteed. I became the math teacher because I was the only teacher comfortable with teaching 6th grade and 7th grade math. This turned out to be the best move ever. I learned I was good at teaching math. I was able to help students that claimed to have hated math their entire life, see the purpose behind math. I was able to convert haters to lovers...or at least bearables. My first year teaching was full of projects, my second year teaching was full of worksheets, my third year teaching had to be different. I started adapting my classroom and learning about the flipped classroom model. I learned that technology could be used to enhance a lesson and help differentiate to meet the child's needs. I started teaching like I wanted. I started becoming comfortable with lesson planning and knowing how long I should teach something, and when to go back and when to just move forward. I became a data queen. I was giving tests, quizzes and performance tasks so that I could better understand where I needed to meet my students. It worked. That was my best teaching year I have ever had. As for my professional life, it was the worst. I had a teammate that I was constantly arguing with. He was the type of person to show up 5 minutes before the students and throw something together. He never checked his email, so he never knew what was going on. He wanted to be a friend to the students instead of a teacher and so his class was constantly out of control. I heard a lot of , "Why can't you be more like..." from the students. Now you may be wondering why I even concern myself with him since he teaches a different subject, well the problem was that at my school my other two teachers had to spend 30 minutes at the end of the day teaching math to a remedial group of students. And of course I had to plan and prepare all of the materials for them. I was in charge of 6 groups of remedial students each taught by a different teacher (only 1 of which had ever taught 6th grade math before). This was painful. I had to teach the teachers so they could teach the students. There were many times I would walk in and the students weren't doing the prepared lesson, or they were learning it incorrectly. I will never forget the fateful day of multiplying fractions...I still shudder.
So far my 4th year of teaching could be titled Learning.
I wanted this year to be different. I wanted to have to teach like last year but I have a professional relationship that was better than last year. I have all new coworkers (my school has a big turnover every year) and of course, none of them have ever taught 6th grade before. It has been a rocky year both with my teaching (trying to find my groove with the inclusion teacher) and with administration (we have new coaches that want to change how we do things.) So with this in mind, I wanted to make a resolution. For the remainder of this year I want to:
1. Stay positive.
I need to remember that if I stay positive this will help my students stay positive. They pick up on my body language and my mood and I want them to be happy and not stressed at school.
2. Trust my teammates.
They have all taught before...in some way. I cannot micromanage them. It only causes me stress. I need to have faith and prepare myself in case they do need me.
3. Love the messy ones.
I have 3 students that are always out of their seats. They always have a trail mess around them. They shout out, ask a TON of questions, and they drive me nuts. I like them personally because they are sweet kids but because we have to coexist in this classroom that is already too small, I often nitpick and publicly criticize their messiness. I need to make sure that they know that I do in fact respect and care about them. I need to help them tame their messiness but I also need to realize it is a part of them. It is their classroom too.
4. Get into the groove.
I need to advocate for myself and for my students. In order to keep the peace I have sacrificed how I teach because it makes my inclusion teacher uncomfortable. This is not fair for the students. I know my way is not always the best way, but if I know it works and works well then I should speak up.

I want this year to be a success, but I know it is up to me to make it one.

Healthy or Not?

It is that time of year again in the elementary school where I teach. We are beginning a week long unit of sexual education. Every year we always have a handful of kids opt out and are required to complete an alternative health assignment. It is typically up to the teacher what to do, but it has to be along your health curriculum. Last year (see post titled: Integrating Technology Into the Health Curriculum) I had the student create PowerPoint presentations about different parts of the body and then create QR codes that linked to the presentations. This year, my challenge was creating a lesson that involved the math grant we received. How can I tie math into health and then display it on their math website?

I came up (with the help of my SPED IA) with a lesson that required the students to research the nutrition facts from their favorite foods. They would then take these nutrition facts and decide if they were healthy or not. They had to base their decision by calculating the percentage of total calories they were allowed in a day.  For instance if they were looking up Cheezits, 1/2 cup has 190 calories out of the average 2,000 a day. This is 9.5% of the allowed calories in a day. Not bad, but not the best.

With the activity, the students read about nutrition facts, evaluate their food choices, and calculate percentages. They can then take pictures of the nutrition facts and their percentages and post them on their math websites. :)

When planning this lesson, I expected the students to struggle with calculating the percentages the most, but in fact they struggled with copying and pasting the nutrition facts the most. They were trying to paste into Google Docs, which is not the easiest thing to do sometimes. I had to show them how to snagit the nutrition label, save it, and then upload into Google Docs. Luckily one student was really good at this skill and was able to help the other students whenever they needed a reminder of what to do.

Digital Portfolio

It has been a while since I last posted and I have been itching to do so. This year has been crazy with the inclusion classroom, new administration, and a brand new team (I am the only returning 6th grade teacher). We also applied and were given a grant for 32 new computers!!! YAY!!! Now the down side...we actually have to create what we said we would create. The 6th grade team proposed to the county that we would create a digital math portfolio via a blackboard website. Within the website the students have to find math videos and convince the reader why they should watch the video what they will learn, and why they choose it. Furthermore, they will find math games, create discussion posts, PowerPoint presentations, prezis, etc. All with the goal that they will synthesize this information while learning important technology skills. All of 6th grade is doing this, so we have a total of 70 students in 15 groups. The students are working in class and in a computer lab twice a week to accomplish this goal. They are creating an individual website within their group and will be graded as both a group (their homepage and tabs) and individually (math content). We believed it was important to put them into a group so they could share resources and help each other. The students in the group are heterogeneously arranged within homeroom groups. So far so good! More to come as they progress.

Graphite.org

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As most teachers, I have become addicted to Pinterest. I spend hours (without realizing it), looking through pictures of anchor charts and classroom activities. Most times I just repin the post, but sometimes I will click on the link to see what the story or explanation behind the picture is. This often causes frustration because I almost NEVER find what I am looking for. However, I have stumbled upon a new website that combines Pinterest type pinning and searching with Google and 21st century technology.  I urge you to go to www.graphite.org. This website is awesome. It allows you to search through apps, online games, websites, etc. to find items that are related to what you are teaching. While pinterest allows you to explore everything, graphite.org is specially geared toward educational material. They have articles and ways to connect with other teachers. I highly recommend it, if you are looking for an educational idea that involves 21st century learning. 

Inclusion classroom from a teacher's point of view

I am currently in the middle of my second year in an inclusion classroom. The first time was two years ago at my former school. I loved it. I was really close to my SPED teacher, that particular group of students were challenging academically and behaviorally, and I learned as a teacher. That year was my second year EVER teaching, and the first year for my inclusion teacher. We had a lot of the same ideas, but ultimately we were learning together. It helped that we were not required to do it, she had another room she could pull to. We choose to do it because we thought it would be best for the students...and for us. Times were not always easy, we got on each others nerves a lot! However, it felt  like our classroom.  This year feels and looks completely different. My inclusion teacher and I are being forced to do this and we do not get along. This is her first year teaching sixth grade, but she has been teaching other grades for longer than I have. She does not see the value in how I teach and will often criticize what and how I approach things. I feel like she doesn't understand the rigor that these students can do...and will do if you require it. I have been successful in my teaching. My students love to learn at the end of year, I have great relationships with most of them, and at least 90% of my students pass ALL of their standardized tests. In my short career I have taught title 1, low ESOL, SPED, quiet ones, loud ones, behavior issues, students that aren't identified but will be, etc.  so why is it that she can't see that whatever I am doing is working. I feel like this year is all about questioning my practices and wanting to do it a different way. What is wrong with the way that I have been teaching if it has worked on different populations for 4 years. 4 consistent years of success....why do we have to mess with success? I know I can learn things from her, but her attitude makes me not want to. Administration of course only compounds things and it makes me wonder is there any reason to stay in the classroom? It is almost like people don't want me to be successful....or want to push me so hard until I break.

Elementary vs. Secondary

When I was a little girl I had an "ah-ha" moment. I realized that math was easy if you understood basic concepts. Oh course when I had this "ah-ha" moment, it was from the perspective of a student and not very ground breaking. However, it was a determining factor in what I wanted to do when I grew up.  I had always loved math. I loved solving problems in my head, I loved to do puzzles, and challenging myself to complete a problem quicker and better than everybody else. I also had amazing teachers help me grasp the fundamentals of math and see the patterns that existed within every math problem.  I knew I wanted to do this for other people.  I had friends that HATED math...but when you investigated further it wasn't because it was boring or whatever it was because they couldn't see the patterns! They struggled with the basics which made the higher level mathematics almost impossible.  I knew when I became a teacher that I wanted to help students stop struggling with math.  However, I have been teaching 6th grade (long story how I got into that grade) for 4 years now....and I have to admit I am burning out. Being in an elementary setting is really difficult.  I am asked to teach all subjects, deal with homeroom stuff, monitor 24-30 students (depends on the year), deal with field trips, school fundraisers, sign agenda books, have parent teacher conferences, among many more things. I am not saying that teaching in a secondary position is ANY easier...but I know colleagues that have made that switch that say they are a lot less stressed out...so why is it? Did I make the wrong career choice?

Numberline

 This year, I am trying to stress Fractions, Decimals, and Percents on a number line as a math concept in my classroom.  It is not enough that the students can do the calculations to convert a fraction to a decimal and then a percent.  They need to visually understand that 2 3/4 is greater than 3.6 because it is closer to zero.  It is a hard concept for them. In our elementary schools we rarely go above 1 on a number line. Even then we rarely put all three different forms on the same number line except to show equivalency. My 21 students were put into 7 groups of 3.  Each group of students had a different denominator that they had to place. *In hindsight this probably wasn't the best plan. I then gave the students the task to place their fractions on the number line.  The conversation that came from this open ended task was AMAZING.  The students were able to compare the fractions using their previous knowledge of equivalent fractions and non-mixed fractions.  In the upcoming days we will continue putting decimals and percents on the number lines so that the students can see the whole correlation. 

Integer Guided Notes

So...apparently, I did not save ANYTHING that I did for the first quarter last year.  I don't know if it's because I was so overwhelmed by being at a new school or I just had lost my mind, but I am finding that I have to recreate all of my Quarter I materials.  That being said, I decided to revamp how I am teaching Integers this year.  My math class this year is made up of ALL special ed., ESOL, and generally "low" math students.  I am going to have to slow down and spell it out more for them then I have done in the past.  I am hypothesizing this is going to be a challenge for me.  I generally go fast in my teaching, and I know I can't do that this year.

I have provided a copy of the integers guided notes that I will begin with this year.  I try to always include test questions that they might see so that the students can get used to the way a question is asked.  The new big push for our county is Technology Enhanced Questions...so open ended, performance tasks, and multiple answer questions.  Our kids did HORRIBLE with this last year...SO as you see my future guided notes you will see a lot more of those types of questions.

A worksheet in a Flipped Classroom...is still a worksheet.

I am currently sitting in a two-day in-service that has been frustrating, painful, and tiring...as most are.  However, my last 1-hour session has been inspiring. I have been grappling with the idea of the flipped classroom.  If you have read any of my previous posts, you would have seen that I have started incorporating flipped assignments into my classroom.  This being said, they have been lecture assignments.  I would use a YouTube video that I created or borrowed that teach a specific skill set. While the students are watching the video, they must answer several questions that record the important information.  After the students are done they must take the new information and complete an assignment (create a poster, fill in the blank quiz, solve some problems, etc.) I tried to make the assignments as interactive as possible and allow students to creatively think about the new information...but the end I would always have a worksheet.

In my latest session I have learned about creating a YouTube video that is interactive..meaning the students can click on the video and based upon what they clicked can learn new information or relearn information.  Think about the possibilities! What if they create an entire story based upon an interactive video where they randomly select the next image...or if they monitor their own thinking while watching a video by commenting with their questions or clicking on questions that I write in that they can click to find the answer...I cannot wait to test this in my classroom.


This is the website that the instructor gave us that tells you how to make an interactive video: http://www.iteachithink.com/2013/08/beyond-flipping-interactive-flipped.html

Beginning of the Year

The beginning of the year is particularly painful for me.  It isn't because I am missing my short summer vacation or because I have to do the whole shebang all over again. Instead it is because I find it hard to remember that these students that sit before me, are not my students of last year.  They are untrained in my ways as a teacher.  I take for granted that my students last year knew that I would always follow up their response with a question asking them to justify or clarify. They are unsure when I am joking and when I am serious. They push the boundaries and question my decisions, they are the untrained sixth graders that I will take and shape until they are better versions of themselves.  By the time I do this, it is time for them to leave me and move on to another school and other teachers.  I sometimes get glimpses of my work when they come back and visit me or email me to say hi.  But until they are the trained versions that I love, I must remind myself to stay patient.

Mean as a Balance Point

So, if you teach in Virginia you would that the state (and subsequently my county) have once again changed our pacing guide! We have new standards and objectives that we have to teach...and most days it feels like less time...

BUT, one of the new concepts that we have to teach is "mean as a balance point".  This seems like a pretty simple concept...in fact I applaud you whoever came up with this because for once it is a developmentally appropriate concept for 6th graders...

BUT in 5th grade, students are supposed to learn mean/average as a fair share concept...let's face it most of us do not do this.  We just teach the students to do the algorithm by adding them all up and dividing.

BUT, what does this mean??? Why do we do it??  Why does adding them all up and dividing work? I want my students to be able to communicate what mean is. I want them to show me how they can prove it without using the formula, and let's face it I want them to pass the new standardized test that asks them to use the balance point method.

So, while they may understand that mean is another word for average, which can be found by using the "fair share" or "balance point" methods, it is difficult for students to UNLEARN an algorithm   You would think I asked them to solve a 10th grade math problem!  They freak out when I do not allow calculations of any kind.

What I did allow was manipulatives.

Using a word problem from "Navigating through Data Analysis and Probability in Grades 3-5" I asked the students to create a line plot that shows me seven possible scores from a soccer game.  The students have some discussion about what is probable and what they have background knowledge of.  I then ask the students to use the algorithm to find their mean.  The majority of students have different scores.  I then ask them, what if my mean is 2, what could my seven scores be then?  The students continue to use the algorithm to try and solve my problem.  Most of them can find these scores.  We then take a gallery walk to see all the other line plots.  The students start to notice that line plots differ, that the data can be different even if the mean is the same.  I think do my mini-lesson on balance.  I connect it to a balance beam and absolute value (the distance from 0).  From there I ask them to try to find two more line plots that have a balance point of 2.  This took the rest of my 1 hr. long class.  The next day, we used the same line plots and manipulatives to find a line plot that has a balance point of 2:
A. only 1 game had 2 goals
B. Exactly two games had 4 goals
C. One game had an amazing 7 goals!
D. The median of the data set is 3.

This 1 activity took two days, but I am confident and have two tests (1 multiple choice and 1 open ended) to prove their understanding of the topic.  They are able to communicate what "fair share" is, what a "balance point" is, and what does average mean.


I also tied this math concept into our social studies unit about the House of Representatives.  We took a census of how many people live in your household and created a bar graph, table, and line plot from this data. The students had to find the balance point from this data.

She is Why I Teach

The whisperings of burnout
                                            of failure
sulk through my brain
War of Words come out
of my friends.
     I don't think I can do it.
I'm not happy.
                                         I'm not happy.
                                                    failure.
hesitant to turn away

then reminded of why I began
She is why I teach
that quiet girl
        with no belief
in herself or her voice.
that shy girl that is afraid
to succeed
that put down girl
      the one told that she is
     not              smart          enough
not       good                       enough
not enough.
she is why I teach.
I teach to give her a voice.
If she never passes a test
    fine.
Does she believe?
That is my success.

Coordinate Plane Battleship with Flipped Classroom

I have seen this lesson all over the web the last couple of years, but this year I decided to try it out.  If you have ever read my other posts you would know that I am trying to integrate the flipped classroom approach into my math class this year.  Previous to this lesson, I gave the students 2 Google Docs homework assignments that they had a week to complete.  The first assignment asked the students to watch two videos and answer questions about the coordinate plane.  They then had to create a coordinate plane that labeled the x and y axis, the different quadrants, and plot two points.  After this, the second assignment gave them a word problem with a solution.  They had to determine whether to solution was wrong or correct and explain why.  If the students were unable to complete it in the week's time they were given the opportunity during class.  While those students were completing the assignment, my other students played the coordinate plane battleship game.  The weekend before I went to pizza hut, papa john's, and dominoes to gather pizza boxes. I was able to get them for free from all places, but I will say that I got the most (20 boxes) from papa johns.  I then bought a huge bag of skittles. These were the ships.  I explained to the students that whatever they sunk, they got to eat....so they were very motivated by this concept.

I was very happy with how this game turned out.  The students were engaged, excited, and were able to practice plotting points.

Seussland

Seussland

Teacher Directions: You will be creating a Game Board out of your classroom.  The game will have 13 centers that the students will visit in the 2-hour time slot. 

Students will collaborate in pairs to go around to the different centers with.  It isn’t about who wins first, it is about who created the best product at each center.

Each center will have an end product that will be judged.  Whoever wins at that center will get a prize (TBA). 

Each center will have a bag with the directions and the Dr. Seuss book that it is based upon (if applicable).  Multiple groups can be there at the same time, but there is a limit of 3 groups per center at 1 time.  The students will roll a dice to see which center they will visit next.  If they land on a center they have already been at, they roll again.

Student Directions: 

Center 1 (with computers)

Options:  You may gather information about his life from Wikipedia, read his books on MYON, or reanalyze the Dr. Seuss books that you have previously read.

Center 2:  Fox in Socks (computer)

Directions:  Create a video in Smart Notebook of you reading the book “Fox in Socks.”

Click the video camera button at the top

Once you click the red button, you must start recording.  It will record every movement you make on your computer screen and your voice.  When you are done, push stop.

*Make sure to save to the your drive.

Center 3: Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!

Directions:  Think about all of the teachers that you have had in your school career.  Write a rhyming Seuss-like poem to describe two of those teachers.  Make sure to draw a picture!  (Yes, it can be stick figures).  For extra credit, you can make up your own teacher to describe.

Center 4:  Oh! The Places You Will Go!

Directions:  I was given this book on my last day of High School.  My stepfather thought it was the perfect book to send me away in.  I love the message in this book.  It helps me remember that I can achieve things.  Write a letter to an upcoming 6^th grader that encourages them to achieve great things in 6^th grade.  (It does not have to rhyme).

Center 5:  Horton Hatches the Egg

Directions:  Take the story and turn it into a two-person play.  A two-person play is a play that only has two actors.  The actors can play more than 1 role. Be prepared to act it out!

Center 6: The Cat in the Hat Comes Back

Directions:  Create your own Cat in the Hat Comes Back comic strip with new events.  It must rhyme!

Center 7: Horton Hears a Who!

Directions:  Summarize this book into a short poem.  Make sure to include all of the important details, and it must rhyme!

Center 8:  Guest Reader

Center 9: Green Eggs and Ham

Directions:  Write a persuasive paper that convinces someone either to hate green eggs and ham or to love green eggs and ham.  It must have three reasons why you would love/hate green eggs and ham. 

Center 10:  Create a game that celebrates Dr. Seuss. Use these questions and answers as guiding information. 

Center 11: Seussteller

Directions:  Create the given Suessteller, then create your own based upon Dr. Seuss’s books you have read.

Center 12: Write your own Dr. Seuss book!

Directions:  With a partner, create your own Dr. Seuss book.  Think about every Dr. Seuss book you have read.  They all have certain things in common.  They all have some made up words to make it rhyme.  They all have pictures that show the story.  Plus, they all have an important message.  Create your own rhyming picture book that gives an important message.  BE CREATIVE!

Inspiration

I loved this video so much I am going to buy the book!

Making Measurement Meaningful

 I have recently begun the 4-week long measurement unit that is always painful and frustrating.  I find it this way, because students have been learning about measurement for years, and it should be a simple and quick topic, yet students often struggle with it.  I find they have no real concept of what a cup, a liter, a mile is.  They are able to quote facts about how many cups are in a gallon and how many inches are in a foot, but they struggle with answering questions like what would you use to measure how much water will fit into a pool or how many steps he took to walk to school that day.  Knowing this, and wishing to have a less frustrating unit, I decided to take my students down the path of experiments.  They are able to quote facts, but with these experiments, they must prove it to me.  The pictures you see here are three experiments that I did for our volume and capacity mini-unit.  

I began with having the students fill different amounts of water and pour them into both customary and metric containers.  This allowed the students to see which amount is bigger liters or gallons, cups or pints, milliliters or cups, liters or quarts.  The students were then asked to reflect and answer a couple standardized test questions to see if they could transfer their knowledge.  So far, they seem to have a better understanding but we will see if they retain it. My next lesson involved surface area and volume of rectangular prisms.  Using linker cubes, I wanted to show students that you have different shapes with the same amount of volume, but the surface area may not be the same.  This experiment also allowed them the chance to use the formula sheet that is provided on the standardized tests.  I have seen students never look at the formula sheet on the day of the test because they have no experience with it, and don't know what it means.  The last experiment was inspired by a pin I saw on pinterest. The students were given the task of making a box that would contain popcorn.  I gave them the challenge: The bigger the volume of your box the more amount of popcorn you will get.  In partners, they have to make a box out of 8 1/2 by 11 in. paper and calculate the volume and surface area of their container.  For my higher-level students, I then challenged them to create a container with a different shape.  They still had to find the volume and surface area using their formula sheet.  

If the students are able to retain this information, I will definitely do these experiments again.  In three 1-hour blocks, I have seen my students work collaboratively while using mathematical vocabulary, ask questions that furthered their understanding, and reflect on what their strengths and weaknesses are.  The students have been able to learn my objectives in a hands-on way that did not require me to lecture or create a PowerPoint presentation.  Instead, the only thing I had to do was get containers for the water, buy popcorn for the containers, and copy the handouts.  Not a bad deal, if it means my student is loving math, understanding the objectives, and retaining the information for longer than a week.  

Testing

It is the archaic question, are we testing our students too much? With the new push to have data to analyze, we find ourselves giving our students massive amounts of tests and quizzes.  I often struggle with whether to give my students multiple small tests or 1 big test.  The benefit of multiple small tests is their average won't be effected if they do poorly one day.  Moreover, I can pinpoint exactly what they are struggling with and not have to set up an entire day to analyze data. BUT that means I am giving my students a test every couple of days or weeks.  If I give the students 1 big test, then what if they are having a bad day or something happened at home before they came to school?  Moreover, the big tests are at the end of unit which is also when the district gives their tests.  I also worry about creating test anxiety with my students.  I don't want them to stress out over a test that isn't going to matter in a year.  SO what do I do?  Give them multiple small tests which takes up instruction, or give them 1 big test that creates anxiety?

Google Docs in the Classroom

I have started using Google Docs in the classroom.  Slowly, I am convincing my teammates to join me in this adventure.  The students are excited but when they go home they often encounter problems.  This combined with a lack of understanding from some parents causes a lot of emails after school hours.  So! I created a How To PDF that I am sending home with students that parents will have to sign.  Hopefully this will solve a lot of problems...It is translated into Spanish, but the I found the translations on Google Translate, so they may not be accurate...

The decision to stay in the classroom or to get out...

               This is my third year teaching in a 6th grade classroom.  This is also my third year of working on a team where I was the youngest and most inexperienced member.  I knew going in to this profession, that the burnout rate was/is high.  I knew that there was/is a lot of discontent in the educational profession.  As many non-educators say, teachers are under-paid and under-appreciated.  However, as most teachers say we are overworked and understaffed.  The reason why I make the distinct difference between the two supporters is that teachers knew going in that we weren't going to be paid a lot.  I don't know any teacher that got into the profession thinking they were going to make enough money to live comfortably.  The truth is we need to be married, live with a roommate, or work another job to make ends meet.  We also knew going in that we will rarely EVER meet a child or a parent that appreciates the amount of work we do.  Because frankly, NO ONE except a fellow teacher knows how much work WE ACTUALLY DO.  I don't know any good teacher that comes in 5 minutes before the students get there, looks at their pacing guide, goes ok...this is the lesson I will teach today, and then leaves 5 minutes after the students leave.  THERE IS NO POSSIBLE WAY.  What about the copies? What about the presentation (smart board, PowerPoint, Elmo, etc.)? What about the GRADING? What about the numerous phone calls to administrators, parents, colleagues, human resources, etc.? WHAT ABOUT THE MASSIVE AMOUNT OF EMAILS YOU GET IN ONE DAY? What about the fact that we are the only profession that cannot just call out sick? Even when we are sick we have to prepare for it.
            This amount of work makes me think about the discussion that I constantly hear from my colleagues:  Should I stay in the classroom?  What can I do to lessen my workload? It is depressing to hear my teammates talk about how if they were looking to get into education now they wouldn't do it. I even had a teammate tell her daughter to not pursue becoming a teacher because it is too much work and not worth it. This was a teacher that had taught for over 20 years! With these new forced collaborative meetings, data dialogues, data analysis, data walls, data discussions, and harder end of year assessments, teachers are left feeling ineffective.  Does all the work we do even matter?  This amount of extra work that is being added each month forces good teachers out of the classroom.  I have seen effective teachers that love being with students, thrive on planning innovative, hands-on lessons, just not be able to do it anymore.  Instead they go into being an instructional coach, administrator, school based technology teachers, etc. just so they can still be with students but not have to do all of the extra work that being a classroom teacher entails.  This leaves all of the teachers that are either trying to survive or fly under the radar.  So this leads me to my ultimate question:  IF all this extra work is supposed to help students succeed, why is it pushing effective teachers out of the door?

Talking: What Do I Do?

I have noticed that with my 6th graders if I say, "this assignment is individual, please do not talk." They will always end up talking and I will always end up shooshing them.  However, if I tell my students, "you may work together on this assignment, please share your ideas,"  they rarely, if ever talk.  So what do I do?  If  I say they cannot talk when I want them to talk they are going to think that I am not true to my word or that it is okay to talk at inappropriate times.  What should I do?

Pictures

When I travel, I often find myself thinking about ways that I can incorporate what I am seeing/doing into my lessons to make them more engaging.  This mindset further shows that teaching is not a 9-5 job. I recently traveled to Arizona and had the fortune to visit a cave dwelling (a topic that is covered in my 6th grade Social Studies curriculum.) Taking some real life pictures allowed me to use them in my morning message and discuss the Pueblo Indians in an authentic way. Having this rich discussion got me thinking, with a simple picture I was able to reinforce S.S. ideas that the students will be tested on, I shared a part of my travels, and I showed students that learning continues after you leave school.  Moreover, it added spice to my morning message.  Before we even discussed it, the students were standing around and discussing what the pictures were and what they could see in it.  It was one of those golden teachable moments that unintentionally happen that I will spend all year trying to recreate.