Middle School, day by day from a teacher's point of view

2008-07-21T18:12:00.002-05:00

When I recently commented on another blog(TJ on a Journey), someone commented back accusing my classroom, at least the curriculum, of being coercive. This first riled me a bit. But after thinking about what it means to be coercive, I was intrigued by the thought.

Googling coercive, I found this definition:Coercion is the practice of compelling a person to behave in an involuntary way (whether through action or inaction) by use of threats, intimidation or some other form of pressure or force.

Given that definition, my classroom IS indeed coercive. I compell, or attempt to compell, my students to act in certain ways by forms of pressure. I do not use threats, (OK, maybe on occasion I threaten to call home, or to keep a student after class, or make them wash desks if they write on them.... ) and I never use force, but there is a certain degree of intimidation involved in a classroom setting.

Is that necessarily a bad thing?

When we become adults, life itself is coercive by nature. Everything we do, we do as a result of coersion in one form or another. I obey the speed limit because I am coerced with the threat of a speeding ticket and my car insurance going up. I go to work each day and do what my boss coerces me to do because if I don't, I won't keep my job, I will lose my paycheck and therefore lose all the things that paycheck buys, like food, shelter, clothing and entertainment. I eat healthier choices and exercise more because my doctor's stern lecture coerces me to think carefully about the alternatives.

The role of school is inherently to prepare students for adulthood by giving them the skills they need to be successful in life. Some of those skills are academic, such as math, science, and written language. Others are more ambiguous, like learning to get along with others by follow societal rules like being on time, prepared and cooperative.

My curriculum is also coercive. While I often complain about the guidelines set forth by the State of Michigan as limiting what I can and must teach students, I also know that without those grade level content expectations, students would be left to the whims of individual teachers as to what they were taught in classrooms. Even now, it is apparent which elementary class students were in based on their math skills. If there were no guidelines to follow, I can only imagine the discrepancy among skill sets of my students.

I understand the school of thought that thinks students should be free to explore and learn what they are interested in. However, I think that is unreasonable given our current education system. Employers, as well as institutes of higher learning, has expectations that a student who graduates from high school will have certain base of common knowlege, regardless of where that student attended school. Some may argue this is out of date with today's easy constant access to information, and the rapid change of technology and its impact on society in general. I say let's simply change that common base of knowledge to incorporate these new skill sets, but keep a general assumption that all students at certain points in their education will be comparable in what they have in their repertoire.

It seems only fair to me to keep my classroom coercive. I want my students to leave my classroom with the most possible gained from our time together. I want them to learn, to grow, and to leave wanting to learn and grow even more. If that takes a little arm twisting on my part on occasion, then so be it!

2008-07-17T16:00:00.002-05:00

Summers are always busy it seems, but this summer I took on the additional task of tutoring a young lady who will be going into 7th grade next fall. I do not usually tutor for a lot of reasons: I don't have time, I feel uncomfortable charging parents for my time, and I always feel like the time is not worthwhile. However, since this young lady will be coming into my grade, and needs help in math, I thought maybe it would be different.

M. works hard, very hard, every single time we are together - twice a week for 45 minutes each. I see her trying. I know she wants to do the work. I know she wants to please me. But for some reason, M. has a true learning disability in math.

With a background in math as well as learning disabilities, I am more than qualified to help her overcome this struggle, on paper, but in reality, I am struggling alongside her. To be sure, we are making strides in the right direction. However, it is a 3 step forward, 2 step back process.

The thing I would like most to help M. gain this summer is number sense. Even at 12 years old, she doesn't intuitively know that given 7, you need 3 more to make 10. She must count on her fingers to add up from 8 to 12. She can count by 2's, but not by 3's or even 4's. We have drilled and worked and played games and tried various strategies to help, but some days, the numbers are there, and others, they are not.

Today, we stopped trying to work on fractions because the finding a common denominator was just too tedious. I had her write columns of mulitples of numbers on the board. 2's were great. Then on to 4's. M. could not grasp that she could simply count 2 more, and 2 more, to get the next in the sequence. Often, her next choice to write was an odd number. We tried 9's, which we have worked on since Day 1. She knows the finger trick, and she knows that the first number, the digit in the 10's place, must be 1 less than whatever we are multipying 9 by. She knows that the digits in the answer must add to 9. She knows those tricks. She can tell them to me, faithfully. But when asked to write: 9, 18, 27, 36, ..... she is lost. There is no connection there.

I feel like a fraud, a total incompetent. I can't help her the way she needs to be helped. I can keep coaching her, giving her some self confidence. I can teach her more tricks. Help her draw pictures to attack word problems. Encourage her to use the calculator to solve problems. Help her strategize as to how to eliminate choices in multiple choice questions. But, I can't FIX her.

2008-07-14T13:08:00.003-05:00

A recent conversation on Twitter with Robert Talbot about technology and what it means to be a truly competent user of technology, sparked my thinking about this topic. It all goes back to Marc Prensky's Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants article from 2001. According to Prensky, today's students are born into a digitally rich world and therefore will always be ahead of those born prior to the explosion of information and availability of tech toys and tools.

Is this truly the case though? Is simply using technology for socialization online making today's youth tech competent? Or instead, does this perpetuate the myth of the disconnect between digital natives and immigrants? Is it possible to be of the OLDER generation and be technologically competent? Is it possible to be a young person today and be technologically incompetent?

Part of the problem with this discussion is the definition of technology. Does being able to text to one's friends, acquire new ring tones, play Wii, seamlessly find wireless signals, and play online games make a 13 year technologically competent?

Does some of the problem stem from the want of using technology? If a student in class needs to practice integer operations at a online review site, many of them balk - "I don't get it!" "How do I make it work?" " It says my popup blocker is on." They are unable to figure out this simple process assigned to them. However, give them time to play online games of their choice, and suddenly, not only can they play them, they can get around the filter installed at school to the games that are blocked, they can message friends using IM programs that are blocked, all while they are listening to YouTube videos, that are also blocked. So then, why can't they "play" a review quiz such as the ones at math.com which are a million times simpler than the other things they are able to achieve.

Prensky says, "Today's students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors."

He goes on to quote Dr. Bruce D. Perry, "thinking patterns have changed. "

Interesting to think about. Do students truly think differently today? I remember sitting reading and studying with The Eagles blaring from my 45's on my record player, with my mother complaining I couldn't possibly be learning anything with all that noise going. But, I was.

So back to the intial question: What does it mean to be technologically competent in today's world? To me, a simple answer would be: able to manipulate technology to meet your needs, in any situation. It means figuring out how to use that new iPhone, hooking up your new Wii, and chatting with friends on MSN or Facebook, sure.

Beyond that, it means using technology to find answers, manipulate data, and find creative ways to share with others.

Technology is the way to work with people far from your own geographic location, whether to learn in your own career, or about things which interest you outside the world of work.

Technology is the answer to all the questions you have, whether it is where is the best place to go to college if I want a degree in chemical engineering or how do I decide what is the best treatment for my latest diagnosis.

Technology expands your horizons beyond what previous generations were able to even imagine. However, technology also limits our ability to communicate face to face when we become so locked into a virtual world we do not talk to those in the same room. It also opens up dangers and possibilities for exploitation beyond the confines we once felt the safety net of.

Only by teaching students to use technology competently on all these arenas are we preparing them for the real world.

2008-07-04T06:21:00.002-05:00

Our high school MME scores came out recently. 27% of the students were proficient in math. If that number alone is not enough to make a person cringe, I looked back at their 8th grade scores. Since the 8th grade test is given in the fall, it reflects their learning in 7th grade, and is the late test score until MME in the spring of their 11th grade year. When this group was in 8th grade, 60% were proficient in math. Not a great percentage, but over twice as much as when they reached 11th grade. Given the fact that some of your lower students have dropped out of school, gone to the alternative school, or simply moved by their 11th grade year, coupled with the fact this test is more important to students than when they are in middle school, logic would say if anything, the proficiency level should rise, not fall.

What is happening? Why are we doing so poorly in the high school math area? And, even more importantly, what do we do about it?

2008-06-26T15:09:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I attended the first Michigan Joint Education Conference. The conference itself was good. The presenters had useful, interesting, relevant information to share and I brought back much I can take to my classroom and implement this fall. The exhibitors were all there, with tons of freebies and information. The box lunch was pretty typical.

What struck me most about the experience though was the location. Holt High School opened its doors to the groups sponsoring the event. Never before has the divide between the have's and have not's in education been so apparent to me. A map of the facility (complex seems a more appropriate word!) gives little evidence of the lush atmosphere of this building. From the widescreen TV's mounted on the wall along the cafeteria/commons area, to the SmartBoards in each classroom, no detail was ignored when this building was built. It is simply amazing. Wide halls with beautiful lockers siding the carpeted floors, which are set up in small nook-like areas, surround courtyards full of perennials lining stone paths winding by picnic tables. Bathrooms are small, but spaced frequently. Everything is new and clean and shiny though the building has been there for several years.

Sitting in the classrooms for sessions, I was first struck by how much storage space was there for supplies. The window wall had counter height cupboards, with others above beside the huge windows, most of which looked over the courtyards areas. Another closet area was in front, with some other area in the corner. Each room's SmartBoard was projected onto by the ceiling projector. On the teacher desk's were document readers and a desktop computer and a phone that looked more complex than my laptop.

My own classroom is tiny in comparison to these rooms, and since I teach in the middle school, my room is nearly twice the size of most of our high school classrooms, which were built a century ago. Instead of listening to the presenters, I find myself configuring my classes in here, moving desks around into communities of learners, instead of locked into the one possible configuration that supports the needs in my own room. I fantasize about the huge whiteboards, the birds at the feeder I would hang outside those windows, the hummingbirds darting to sip nectar from their feeders.

This building is set in what no doubt was a farm field, now devastated by urban sprawl, evident by the beautiful subdivisions of homes surrounding the old one room brick schoolhouse on the corner, a reminder of days forgotten.

On the way out of the building, I noticed a room marked "Staff Lounge" and could not resist popping my head in. TWO new refrigerators, TWO new microwaves, TWO complete ranges, an entire wall of cupboards with counter space for many to work, lots of tables beckoned me in. Three custodial staff sat there on break, eager to talk and brag about their building. They told me another lounge was upstairs, and that this building houses 1700 students grades 10-12, with the 9th graders (900 of them) housed across the road in their own building.

My own school seems dingy and dirty and just simply poor in comparison, like we are the wicked step-children banished to the old, leftover, used up education.

I know that education is more than a building. I know that kids learn from teachers who care, not because a room is shiny and new. But how would my students feel if they can see this building and compare it to our small, crowded, old digs?

Why is it acceptable for some districts to have it all while others are struggling to keep their doors open? Why is it acceptable for my students to learn while a bucket collects the water dripping from the leak in the roof while Holt students watch big screens as they eat lunch? Does it bother anyone besides ME?

2008-06-05T16:10:00.003-05:00

The last day, the last day, the last day.. how many ways can that echo in my head?

One young lady gave me the sweetest card with a heartfelt note written inside. The one line that will echo always in my head: "You blow me away with how much you care, and respect the students." You always wonder, as a teacher, how you come across to your students. Do they KNOW you care? Do they KNOW you only demand the best because you see the potential in them? Do they KNOW you love them even when they are acting like hooligans and you want to throttle them? Her words make me think that maybe, just maybe, yes, they do KNOW.

Also echoing in my head are the words from my own mouth at one of the terrors I had this year. Pat was always into something he ought not have been, never quite on task, a dirty, unkept boy, that I just never really liked, though I tried hard to mask those feelings. As we left the auditorium walking through the high school halls, I had warned them to be quiet, walk softly, make not even a whisper so we did not disturb any of the high school classes taking exams. They were doing so well, or so I thought, until Pat reached over and nipple pinched another boy. I was furious, furious beyond what the situation and action dictated so I marched him into the cafeteria, our destination, and pointed him to the wall in a chair where I told him he would remain the next 2 and half hours left in our half day schedule. No hint of kindness or compassion in my voice. Just anger, disgust and intolerance. Pat sat. Not a word. He watched the activity the others were doing with silent resignation. The hour passed. My conscience tugged at my mind. Finally, I walked over and started to speak. Pat immediately perked up, before I could speak, apologizing for his actions, telling me he was sorry and he understood why I was angry. He took the wind out of my righteous sails as I told him what I had come to say, he could participate in the next activity after all. He actually acted as if he didnt think he deserved that honor, so I tried to explain how I was simply out of patience and had overreacted. He was wonderful in the gym the rest of the day, shooting baskets, smiling, laughing... as my angry words echoed in my head.

"He called my mom a slut," echoes in my head also. Poor Bry. Dustin throwing those hateful words at her must have been like a slap in the face. No consequences to pass out at school, I still made a phone call to his mother to tell her of his words. She promised to ground him indefinitely. I hope she follows through. The hatefulness of intentionally trying to hurt another is beyond me. The cruelness echoes in my head.

The sharp resounding bark of my dog at near midnight last night echoes in my head as well. I had stayed up to nearly 11, way past my usual bedtime on a school night to see the Wings win the Stanley Cup and was not really quite asleep. Scout burst out of her bed cursing dog barks at the window, piercing the night, making my heart leap into my throat wondering was it just a racoon that had startled her or was it something more serious.

I flicked on the outside light to see toilet paper streaming from everything in my front yard. I bit shaken, I grabbed my robe and slippers and led Scout, still growling, to the front door. We went out onto the step and surveyed the scene. Toilet paper on everything from the mailbox by the road, to the split rail fence, the pear trees, the shrubs, the bird feeder, and everything in between. My car was painted with white letters: HAHA & Happy Last Day of School & We luv u & U R a awesome teacher.

And suddenly, echoing in my head were Ian's words of several days this week: "Have you ever pranked anyone?" "what's the best prank anyone's done to you?" "do you get mad when people do pranks?" and the last odd question from him, just this morning, "what kind of car do you drive to school every day?" Then I started laughing, realizing this kid has NO future as a criminal. Scout and I went back to bed, she still shaken, sleeping on top of me the rest of the night.

When I saw Ian in the hal this morning, I laughed and pointed my finger at him, saying "you got me!"

Ian, being not the career criminal type, answers, "What? I didnt do anything? I didn't even have a ride to your house!"

His buddy gave him away with the laughter to THAT response!

More echoes are there as well, but for now.... those are keeping the tears and laughter flowing.

2008-06-03T20:13:00.002-05:00

Wow.. it really is almost over. Two more half days with the kids and the 07/08 year is gone. It feels like it is ending too soon, like I am not quite ready to let them go. I know I feel this way every year, but as much as I have been gone lately with my husband's surgeries, it is like a disconnect. There is much I wanted to enjoy and share with these kids that just never happened.

Class evals were yesterday and I am always so humbled by the responses, the positive thoughts and comments they have to say. The best one this year was "Mrs. George is a joy to have in class". That is my favorite report card comment about my great students, and one of my young characters wrote that on his paper. How cool... I had more kids than ever write their names on them too. In some ways, I prefer anonymity, I encourage them NOT to write names, but I love it that they are comfortable enough to say whatever to me and sign their name to their thoughts.

Planning for algebra continues to stress me out. I already have a dad wanting his daughter put in there who is not ready. I talked to her at great lengths about why algebra is not the best placement for her, but she is convinced she can do it. I truly hope I am wrong and she zooms through with flying colors next year. I love her to death and she is one of my "favorites" but i have watched her work her butt off this year trying to maintain an A in my class because that is the home expectation. I just don't see that happening next year. She is not ready for the major abstract shift of algebra. But dad and she are determined.... I have no choice.

fun stuff the next 2 half days with awards, watching NUMB3RS, kickball, Survivor challenge, etc... and then, it will be over and I will cry, again....

2008-05-19T18:01:00.002-05:00

I've been thinking a lot about the arbitrary-ness of education lately. It seems so many of the "professional educational" decisions we as teachers make about our students are more based on gut instinct and personal preferences than anything else.

In these days of increased accountability, the call for standards-based grading/assessment, the constant pressure of high-stakes testing and the ever-present urging of teachers to solve the problems of today's youths, logic would say we are far from arbitrary in our decisions, basing them on data, results, and solid evidence of our original intent and the end result.

Unfortunately, I see the polar opposite in daily practice, my own included.

Grading is volatile topic. Too often, teachers grade students on participation, attendance, cooperation, or simply whether or not the student is "liked". Standards-based grading can eliminate the bias of grades, but the move to these can be complex and confusing for students and parents, as well as teachers. It can also be a time-consuming task for teachers already overloaded.

Other pushes in grades lean towards forgiving missing or extremely low grades and not assigning any grade below a preset cutoff, such as 50%. From this article in the Las Vegas Sun, "Advocates of the more generous policy that makes 50 the minimum F say it is intended to give weaker students a better chance of passing. It is aimed at keeping them from being prematurely doomed by the numbers that are behind report card letter grades," it can be gleaned that even this policy is not hard and fast accurate, at least mathematically speaking. While I agree with the policy in theory, I find it even more difficult to explain to other educators and parents than standards-based grades.

Lucy scores a 52% on her test. Lucy obviously is struggling with the material. In theory, she has mastered 52% of what she should have learned. Pretty straight forward, right? Then comes along Robbie who was less than concerned about his test, knowing the lower grade to be recorded would be a 50% anyway, so Robbie doodles around the edges, attempts a few answers, scores a legitimate 28%, but in the grade program, a 50% shows up. Do we know anymore about what Robbie really can do, what Robbie actually learned than we did before when had he known the true score would be recorded, he might have put forth more effort?

Granted these are extreme cases, but most teachers in today's public schools would shake their heads in agreement of the likelihood of such a scenario.

Past the arbitrary-ness of grades, we can move into the discipline arena. We are planning for our annual 7th grade camp, a 3 day outdoor education experience. Who goes and who gets left behind is always another arbitrary event in education. Most students are going, pure and simple. Camp is intended to be all-inclusive and an honest attempt to allow all to attend is truly made. However, each year there is at least one hard-core, frequent flyer to the office, who simply cannot go along, for his/her own safety or that of others. No one seems to doubt the legitimacy of this decision, not even the student.

But then.... the arbitrary fairies start circling the toadstools. Billy and Joey got in a food fight in the cafeteria. Billy is a model student. Joey, well, not so model, but the decision made must apply to both, so.. OK, let them go. Then Maya and Lacey get into a pushing match in the hall, resulting in Megan getting knocked to the ground and her glasses getting broken. Megan's parents are irate, and Maya and Lacey get suspended. They are both semi-frequent fliers anyway, and the teachers think camp would most likely be more pleasant without them along anyway. And on the story goes, as student by student, decisions are made, without a clean cut plan.

While camp decisions are being made, schedules for next year are being put together also. As the 7th grade math teacher in our district, I am caught up in the drama of which incoming 7th graders should be placed in pre-algebra and which should take simple 7th grade general math. Then I am to also sort and sift my own 7th graders into their 8th grade class, either pre-algebra or algebra.

Too many things way on my mind as I write names in columns. Susie was in pre-algebra this year, and did OK, but is she really ready for algebra in the fall? Mom is a high school math teacher and really expects Susie to be in the highest group, but Susie doesn't like math and would be quite content to coast along in the lower group. Her scores on the placement test are borderline. Knowing Mom's expectations, I feel pressured to recommend her into algebra. But then there is Mickey, who was in regular math this year, not terribly motivated, but extremely gifted in math. His score on the placement test tops Susie by a good 10%, even though he was in a less-accelerated program this year. I know in my heart that Mickey could manage algebra in the fall, but I also know he won't complete his homework regularly, will be disruptive in class, and won't fit into the mold of the 8th grade teacher's idea of an algebra student. I also know there are only so many spots available in algebra. How do I decide Susie or Mickey for that chair?

I don't have a solution; I wish I did. I just feel pulled in all directions by the ever-constant decisions pressed upon me daily. How do I justify my choices to students and parents, and to myself at 2 a.m. while I lay awake contemplating my dilemma? Is it OK that education is not always black and white straight line, but more a gray wavering snail trail through muck?

2008-05-13T17:13:00.002-05:00

As the school year winds down and the kids get more and more antsy, and I feel the pressures to FINISH everything, the challenge is ever-more present to find ways to engage and motivate students to meet objectives. One of the grade level content expectations I have always struggled with getting across to students is inverse relationships. While I will acknowledge we do not have a firm understanding of the ins and outs of what these are, my kids really "GET" the idea at a basic level.

First we looked at side lengths of a rectangle with a fixed area. This was interesting since we had already looked at fixed perimeters and considering the difference in how fixed area and perimeter affect side lengths forced them to think in ways they usually don't. Our first task was a 48 square foot garden which I had purchased mulch for. We generated a table of possible whole number side lengths and graphed them. Very cool! Students then did the same exercise with a 60 square foot area. That laid the ground work.

Then today, I gave each partner group a card with a service on it and a total amount of money to be earned. (ex. Earn $250 mowing lawns) They then generated a table of possible combinations. (ex. Mow 250 lawns @ $1 a piece, or mow 1 lawn @ $250, or 10 @ $25, etc..) They graphed their combinations on a HUGE piece of graph paper, and then added an arrow at what they thought was their best, most reasonable choice. These were then hung on the board and each partnership explained their graph and choice to class. We finished up by talking about how an inverse relationship would look if negative numbers were included.

I am impressed they were able to write their equations, complete their tables and graph their points. It was overall, a cool activity!

Tomorrow, is GLAD(grade level assessement device) day. YUCK! This is only a 30 question online assessment from our ISD but it really seems like a waste of a day of class. I am curious to compare their pre and post test scores though.

The days are winding down and I am going to be sad to see most of them move on to 8th grade!

2008-05-02T21:54:00.002-05:00

We never did make it outside for Shadow Rendering. Sometimes Mother Nature has other plans. First day I attempted it, the sun was darting back and forth from cloud to cloud, with no predictability at all. Then the weather turned nasty, rain, snow, cold and icky even on the sunny days.

Now I have been gone for 3 days with my husband's surgery and I know I will be out at least one more day. I hate being gone for so long but unforeseen circumstances out of my control. I just hope the kids did what I left, which was easy, very easy, math worksheets on similar triangles, looking at corresponding sides, proving similarity with ASA, SSS, and SAS principles. Had I been in school, we would have done this in a much more fun, hands on approach, but the worksheets will "work" and are "sub proof" which was what I needed. Next week, they will start an end of year project/webquest. Our textbook series(Glencoe) actually has a great set of these I have never used. I decided to not assign a particular one but allow students to choose which of them they thought looked most appealing. I am also allowing them to work with a partner. I am curious to see how things go.

In the meantime, I am sitting in motel room, tired from 3 long days at the hospital, too pooped to even worry about whether kids really worked in my absence, what kind of behavior report to expect, or even what a mess I will have to take care of when I return. It just doesn't matter.....

2008-04-24T06:57:00.002-05:00

Is it just me, or do each group of students who come through seem less willing to think on their own? We've been working on slope, y-intercepts, linear equations, for forever now it seems. Yesterday, I gave them a problem comparing 2 yearbook companies, one which charged $10 per book, the other, a $50 setup fee plus $8 a book. Pretty basic problem - needed to create table for given amounts of books, graph the 2 lines, and make some conclusions such as which place is better deal, explain what the slope and y-intercepts mean in context of problem, etc. I thought it would be super easy.

No way... most of them couldn't even make the table for the values!! come on... give me a break already. So after getting them started on that, then, they can't graph the lines. Then they couldn't write equations.

grrr.....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....................... they DO know how to do all that. Why won't they? Why is it sooooo much easier to feign inability, soooo much more appealing to be helpless, than the actually do it on your own and take a risk at being wrong??

Outside today for shadow rendering? think they can do that... please.... let them be able to do that!!

2008-04-15T17:30:00.002-05:00

Is there such a thing as a typical day in 7th grade? If so, I guess that is how today could be described. We started with a 6-12 math department meeting which was simply frustrating. I do NOT understand why high school staff are so reluctant to simply use the State of Michigan's version of an exit exam for Algebra 1, Geometry, etc... When I look at the state's curriculum assessment expectations, I can understand how overwhelming it must be to try to cover all those. But truly, is it any different for them than it is for me? It may actually be somewhat easier at that level because inevitably some students drop out or go to alternative school. It was validating to hear that middle school scores are up and the ensuing recognition of our efforts at that level.

Then off to social studies. We watched a couple of newscasts from Jim Lehr NewsHour about the Sudan. I want students to really understand how deplorable conditions in the refugee camps are. They then started their research on diseases that are prevalent in the camps. They were all working quietly, engrossed (or grossed out... ) in their individual pursuits online so I ran to the 8th grade math teacher's classroom to ask about our earlier department meeting. She was just as frustrated as I so we talked longer than I should have been gone. On the way back to my room, I bumped into the principal and he and I chatted a minute or so. All together, I might have been gone 5 minutes. However, on returning to my room, they were off-task, jabbering away and goofing off. I gave my little "you don't need me here to know what you should be doing" speech to deaf ears.

The rest of the morning was quiet, relatively. Math and pre-algebra classes, I quickly reviewed one last time on slope, y-intercepts and linear equations. Then I passed out the quiz. WOW.. some of them ROCKED, some that I never thought would "get it"! and then, some of my normal 'A' kids, bombed it. **sigh** One young man stayed after to see what he missed - why he had gotten a 10%. Without fail, he could answer each question. When I asked him what happened, he said he was just confused earlier. I don't understand at all.... I just do not!!

But we are moving on, writing and solving 2 step equations in math and working on percents/fractions/proportions in pre-algebra.

another day in 7th grade....

2008-04-14T08:41:00.003-05:00

We played the board games the kids made about Life in the Sahara. It was so cute to see them trying to decipher each other's rules and understand exactly what they were supposed to do. They had to fill out evaluations of the games they played and they were very honest and helpful in their comments. I was impressed!

One partnership made a very cool Monopoly Sahara Edition but somehow forgot to make property cards! Otherwise, it was an amazing game.

Overall, most of the games were fun and educational, really turned out to be a worthwhile activity though it seemed like it took forever!

2008-04-13T12:03:00.003-05:00

At school on Sunday, getting ready for the week is always a time of reflection and panic, especially as the end of the year nears. It always seems there is so much I want to do with these 7th graders, so many things to teach them, so many activities to share, but time, time, time is always pressing in on me.

We have 7 more weeks of school left, with one of those spent at camp. So I have 6 weeks left to cover everything the state says I must, and make sure I have covered it well enough they actually retain it until next fall on their MEAP test. I have so many concerns about that when they seem unable to retain info from day to day!

We've been working on balancing 2 step equations in math class this past week. They, for the most part, seem to understand the process but what bogs them down is the lack of knowledge of basic math facts and their inability to remember how to deal with negative integers. It seemed last fall when we covered that, they were doing well and we've used it on multiple occasions since then, but now, too many of them, when asked what -11 - 19 is, cannot come up with the correct answer. It is frustrating to be unable to move on because they have not made those skills their own yet.

It has been fun using the graphing calculators though. By forcing students, especially my pre-algebra kids, to think and work on their own, I have seen so much growth in them. They are always so reluctant to try for fear of being wrong, and these activities have tremendously pushed them outside their comfort zones. I love seeing them THINK!

Tomorrow, we finally get to play the board games they have been making in social studies on Life in the Sahara. It seemed like the day would never come with extension after extension of time to work because they were so engrossed and engaged in their creations. I can't wait for them to share with each other tomorrow.

I cancelled my math curriculum meeting tomorrow, as well as Michigan Mathematics Program Improvement Project meeting on Wednesday. I just do not feel like I can be gone anymore this year. I know all that work is important but my classroom and my kids are my #1 priority.

2008-04-09T08:08:00.003-05:00

My social studies class is making games about Life in the Sahara as one of the project choices from the lesson plan I found at NewsHour Extra. (There were other project choices, but all but one student chose to make a game.) They are so amazingly creative in their game boards. I can't wait for them to get to play with each other's games.

My struggle with 2 of the boys though, seems to shadow everything else. They refuse to do anything productive. Both of them are the kind who are frequently suspended and failing all or most of their classes. I was excited to see them draw a game board and actually get started. But of course, they lost interest after that, and have nothing else to go along with the board. They cut up a few pieces of paper but didn't get questions written. I tried to offer help and suggestions and resources, but of course, it was all for naught. It doesn't seem to matter at all what we do in class, easy book worksheets, fun projects, games, computer activities, movies, nothing grabs their attention. I feel at a loss to help them....

If you have never checked out the lessons offered by this website, I suggest you look at them. Many great resources, as well as complete lesson plans with online articles and in some cases, newscasts to supplement the activities.

2008-04-02T09:51:00.002-05:00

Wow.. it's nice to be back to school today after a snow day yesterday. Who wouldn't love the irony of April Fool's Day being a snow day!!

We started the school day with a staff meeting, scheduling concerns for next year. On the one hand, I appreciate being asked what our thoughts and concerns and wants are as far as next year goes. But on the other hand, do we really have ANY say? The budget constraints really decide what happens. The contract decides how many hours we will teach. Our certifications decide where/what we will be teaching. It seems almost as if asking makes it worse. So many staff members make requests from their own perspective, without regard or consideration for the school as a whole, what is reasonable, or what is even best for kids.

I know.. I sound down... maybe just a little. I long for the days when we had enough staff to creatively schedule, do things "outside the box" and experiment. Now, with decreasing enrollment and staff, we are so locked into the only possibilities that it seems overwhelming to even try and think about the what might work better ideas....

**sigh**

2008-03-31T17:32:00.002-05:00

YEEEHHHHAAAWWW!!!! What a cool day it was in math! The kids loved the calculators and were so intrigued by the ease of making graphs on the calculators, they kind of got lost in the fact they were writing linear equations, looking at inversely proportional relationships, learning about y-intercepts, and thinking about math in a totally new way. I love my job, I love my job, I love my job :-) I can't wait until tomorrow to do MORE!! We have a few more activities to do together and then I have some copies of things they can try on their own. It will be interesting to see how many of them are willing to push to accomplish all the tasks offered!

2008-03-29T12:11:00.002-05:00

I should title this post You Might be a Geek..... 6th hour yesterday, one of the secretaries from Central Office called to say I had a huge package, something like a suitcase, waiting for me, so I sent a couple of girls to fetch it.

I had totally forgotten requesting a set of calculators from Texas Instruments. When I opened the black crate and saw those shiny TI 84 Plus Silver Editions, I was soooo excited! I brought one home to play with and spent about a couple of hours last night familiarizing myself with the calculator and its functions. I simply cannot wait for Monday to share this with the kids!

In all actuality, I should wait a few days to use them, but I am so totally geeked up I know we are going to use them Monday in all 3 classes. My two math classes have some experience with slope, y-intercepts and linear equations, but not really enough to do much on the calculators but I think just using the graphing function to see how slope and y-intercepts change the graph, looking at non-linear equations, and playing with exponents will be enough to hook them.

My prealgebra kids however, don't have much experience even in slope so they really are not ready to do many of those things. But this is such a bright group of kids, I know they will pick up on the concepts quickly.

The coolest thing.. we just spent Thursday and Friday on Building a Garden Gate where they looked at how a fixed perimeter changes areas and side lengths. Students graphed all the possible side lenght combos for a 60 ft perimeter fence two ways, one comparing side lenght 1 to side length 2, which is actually a simple linear equation, as well as graphed length of side lenght one compared to the area. I am hoping to use this actitivty as a springboard for writing equations and using the graphing calculator. I think since they just made their own graphs, using the calculators will be more meaningful.

My husband is a math phobe as well as a technology phobe. When I was able to have him write the equations as well as use the calculator to make the graphs, seeing the excitement on his face, I KNEW my 7th graders were going to be totally geeked about this.

My biggest concern for Monday is those SLOW laggers who are always a couple of steps behind. This will be a whole class activity, with me walking them step by step through the process, but I can already predict which of my little lovelies will fall behind. I am not sure how to deal with them, other than type out step by step instructions, which most likely they wouldn't follow anyway... and that would give some others a license to forge forward without understanding what we are doing, so I refuse to do that, at least for this intial exposure to the calculators.

TI has so many cool activites posted on their website, I am sure I can find followup activities to use as well. I only have the calculators for a month so I want to make sure I use them as much as possible.

So yes, call me a geek... I love trying something new!!

2008-03-28T09:52:00.002-05:00

This morning was another camp meeting for adults involved in camp. We took care of odds and ends, trying to finalize classes, etc. That is the easy part. The tough part is who do we take to camp and who do we leave behind.

Sometimes, it is obvious a student should not go. Fighting, swearing, insubordination, etc... when they happen persistently and consistently across the board, repeatedly, it makes our decision easy. However, it always seems there are those gray area kids we debate about. The one who stole the teacher's edition of the math book to copy answers, the one who misses at least a day a week, the girls who are so exclusionary with their behaviors it borders on bullying. These are the kids we struggle to make decisions about.

My problem is I want to take them all, each and every one of them... OK, maybe not EVERY one of them ;-) Guess that's why we get paid the BIG $$$, eh?

2008-03-27T10:06:00.002-05:00

The house plan projects are done for another year. Unlike the best scenario, where we go outside to build full scale models, like described in this Education World article, this year we stayed in and out of the deep snow to make to scale drawings/blueprints or to scale models of our houses.

A drawing was required. A model was extra credit. About a third of students chose to make a model. Two of the better ones are shown here. I was amazed, as I always am, at the creativity and dedication to excellence some of my students showed in their projects. Wooden decks, staircases, furniture... wow... How cool these models are!

I wish there were more projects like this that address the Grade Level Content Expectations I am expected to meet, and are fun, engaging and meaningful for students.!

2008-03-21T07:51:00.005-05:00

Just a quick Happy Spring post with a couple of pics out my classroom window. This is what spring looks like in Newberry!

Sorry they are a bit blurry - I did actually take them through the screen of the window :-)

2008-03-20T18:07:00.004-05:00

I am part of the Red Cedar Writing Project from Michigan State University. Recently a controversial topic sparked my interest on the listserve. Here is my reply to one post:
Part of Marcus's list.....

"Short Term:

1) Teach all Black boys to read at grade level by the third grade and to embrace education

2) Provide positive role models for Black boys

3) Create a stable home environment for Black boys that includes contact with their fathers>>>

4) Ensure that Black boys have a strong spiritual base

5) Control the negative media influences on Black boys

6) Teach Black boys to respect all girls and women

Long Term

1) Invest as much money in educating Black boys as in locking up Black men

2) Help connect Black boys to a positive vision of themselves in the future

3) Create high expectations and help Black boys live into those high expectations

4) Build a positive peer culture for Black boys

5) Teach Black boys self-discipline, culture and history

6) Teach Black boys and the communities in which they live to embrace education and life-long learning"

Another perspective:My question is why do we need to set those goals ONLY for black boys? Whynot for Native American males? Why not for the girls in our schools? Whynot for white boys caught in a hopeless foster care system? Why not forHispanic children?

I am not denying the statistics for black males as being dire, however,society is also allowing all our children to fall through the cracks. Wespend more on prisons, war, unemployment and politics than we do oneducation and health care for EVERYONE in this country. Children are no longer taught to respect authority, appreciate education,or even a basic dedication to excellence and a work ethic. It seems everyone and every group is out for themselves, without regard for whatbenefits the larger picture.

The list in the begining of this post should be rewritten and become the MISSION STATEMENT of our country, and every school therein:
Short Term
1) Teach ALL CHILDREN to read at grade level by the third grade and to embrace education
2) Provide positive role models for ALL CHILDREN
3) Create a stable home environment for ALL CHILDREN that includes contactwith their fathers
4) Ensure that ALL CHILDREN have a strong spiritual base
5) Control the negative media influences on Black boys
6) Teach ALL CHILDREN to respect all girls and women
Long Term
1) Invest as much money in educating ALL CHILDREN as in locking up PEOPLE
2) Help connect ALL CHILDREN to a positive vision of themselves in thefuture
3) Create high expectations and help ALL CHILDREN live into those highexpectations
4) Build a positive peer culture for ALL CHILDREN
5) Teach ALL CHILDREN self-discipline, culture and history
6) Teach ALL CHILDREN and the communities in which they live to embrace education and life-long learning

I live in a small rural community with few blacks (This is my 13th year teaching here and I have my first 2 black students this year), a fair number of Native Americans, and an overwhelming sense of despair,unemployment and "there's no reason to get an education because it won't help me anyway" attitude. By refocusing our political and financial priorities in this country to promote the above ideals, wouldn't ALL CHILDREN benefit?

2008-03-19T06:51:00.003-05:00

Meme:Passion Quilt

I was recently tagged by Nancy Flanagan to be a part of the ever growing Passion Quilt.

My image to the left shows what I am passionate about: kids DOING math. Not worksheets, not rote memorization, but actually making their own meaning of math.

I want students to leave my room with a feeling that math may be, no, make that math IS hard, but they CAN do it. I try to make math meaningful, fun and active.

I hereby tag the following and ask them to submit their posts to the Passion Quilt:

Here are the rules
Passion Quilt Meme Rules:

1. Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students.

2. Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.

3. Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.

4. Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.
And here's a link to the Original Rock-On Boy, The Tempered Radical, Bill Ferriter.

2008-03-12T15:41:00.002-05:00

The flu, hacking coughs, cold, etc... have been rampant lately. For some reason, the powers that be at our school decided the way to slow the spread of germs was to not allow students access to the water fountains. In theory, students are to bring their own water bottle, but in reality, many forget, or it is warm, or they drink it all before day's end. It is so pointless to me. Most of these viruses are airborne, and unless we quarantine sick students and staff, we are unlikely to slow the spread until spring break.

In math and prealgebra, we are drawing to-scale models of student homes. Most are working, digging in, enjoying the challenge. However, 5th hour, the majority of students still have not brought in their measurements at all. It is frustrating and I am not sure what to do. Many students in the other 2 classes have chosen to build a model instead of simply drawing the floor plan. Many are using cardboard, but others are building with toothpicks and popsicles sticks. I can't wait to see their final products!

Two more days until break... thank goodness.. we are all sick, tired and in great need of a break.

2008-02-13T18:51:00.002-05:00

Is there a full moon or a storm brewing? (OK, yes there is a snowstorm on the horizon!) Today was a tough day especially 5th hour. It started out with KB without book or pencil as usual. That I can handle. But then, he reached over and tore the page in A's book! Why in the world... she is one of those really nice, but terribly whiny girls anyway. Please do not give her reason to whine more! I sent him out... **sigh** Back to teaching math! Things are going well... until P writes a big red KKK on the back of her notebook and flashes it to MK, one of the only 2 black students on 7th grade. She ends up suspended for 3 days, and that is on the tails of being gone for 1 1/2 and just coming back today. Then TJ sprays cologne all over.

All in 20 minutes or so....... thank goodness the rest of the day went smoother!

Last hour prealgebra played a cool game out of the book called Juniper Green. It was a factor/multiple game and they had a BLAST, begging to play again!! Easy to do, easy to monitor and great practice on these concepts.