Project Idea

I've been trying to complete my second unit so I could share my interactive notebook progress.  Unfortunately, there have been some hiccups the past few weeks.  Next week I'll post the updates.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a project I've completed with my Geometry classes.  Last week we had a dessert reception for the parents of our freshman students.  I received some great positive feedback from them.  The most interesting was in reference to this project.  A parent thanked me for assigning it.  See the project here.  The parent said that she felt it was a worthwhile project, and that it sparked discussion at their family dinner.  It made her daughter really think about her future and the role school plays.

One parent's gratitude is enough for me to declare this project a success. 

Grading INBs

For my first year of Interactive Notebooks, I decided to not use an elaborate rubric.  The difficult part is when and how to grade the notebooks.  It doesn't make sense to have the students leave their notebooks with me to grade overnight.  I give homework every night, and encourage them to use their notebooks to help complete their homework.  I've also heard many teachers say that they collect the notebooks during tests and grade them then.  This is not a viable option for me.  Last year, I had to circulate throughout the entire test because so many of my students would shamelessly cheat.  I don't know if my students this year are the same way, but from talking to my students and other teachers last year, it seems to be a pervasive school issue.

With these things in mind, the only other alternative I (and my Geometry chat tweeps) could find was to spot check the notebooks.  I decided to complete checks once a week while checking homework.  If students meet the standard, they will get a check.  I will assign a grade based on how many checks they earn throughout the marking period.  In order to do a quick check, I decided that it would be best to give students a checklist of everything they need to earn full credit on their notebooks.  I'm grading my students on the following criteria:  complete table of contents, all pages numbered, entries are dated, work is legible, all inserts are neatly glued down, all vocabulary flaps are complete, all pages are complete and accurate, and all math work is accurate and mistakes have been corrected.

I haven't graded the notebooks yet.  Since I'm still learning and my students are still learning, I've noticed that there were many mistakes made in the first unit section of their notebooks.  I decided that I am not going to grade the first unit.  I'll start grading the notebooks this week and have a follow-up post in a few weeks.

Geometry Interactive Notebok - The First Unit

I have been working hard on my interactive notebook for my Geometry classes.  I wanted to share what I have so far.

On the inside cover, I used the idea from Everybody is a Genius to have learner profiles.  (I made my own and adapted it to get rid of the personality color.  I might give it a try next year, but this year I don't have the time.)  I gave my students these learning style and multiple intelligences surveys the first few days of school.  I taught my students how to glue the learner profile as a pocket.  I passed back the surveys, and had students fold them and put them in the pocket.

I had students number pages 1 and 2.  Right now we are skipping page 1 because I plan on using page 1 as an index for Geometry symbols.  I'm going to use page 2 for my important information - my extra help periods, my email address, how to access our online textbook, and how to enroll in remind101.  I'm going to have students keep the rubric in the back cover.  For this year, I am simply using a checklist. 

I had students glue two pages together to make a pocket on page 3.  I plan on making a pocket page for every new unit.  Page 4 is the unit table of contents.  I got the idea from Math = Love.  (I made my own so that I could also include the date.)  I like this SO much better than a huge table of contents at the beginning of the notebook.

Page 5 and 6 are vocabulary Frayer model foldables.  I am using the template from Math = Love.  I wanted to keep all vocabulary for the entire unit with the unit pages.  Mainly because I didn't want to have a huge glossary at the end of the notebook.  It just seems like a huge hassle for so many different reasons.

Pages 3 through 6 are going to be repeated for every unit we cover.   

Page 7 is dedicated to Inductive and Deductive reasoning.  On this page, I have their journal entry from our day on Inductive reasoning and a foldable comparing Inductive and Deductive reasoning - our formative assessment from our day on Deductive reasoning.  (I made my foldable too wide, and now I have to fold it in half to fit it inside the notebook.)  They will also do a do now identifying the hypothesis and conclusion of a conditional statement.

Page 8 is for our day on rewriting conditional statements.  I found and loved the table used by Journal Wizard.  (Side note:  I saw that she did the same thing with Inductive and Deductive reasoning.  It made me so happy to see that someone else did the same thing.  It makes me feel like I'm doing this right.)  I'm giving my students a sheet with three of these tables, and three conditional statements to rewrite.  If the conditional statement is false, then they have to give a counter-example.  Students will cut the tables out and paste them into their notebook so that they fit on one page.  I ask questions to help students discover that the conditional statement and contrapositive are logically equivalent.  I will also make sure to tell them about tautologies.

I'm so excited and proud about what I have for this unit that I'm kind of sad this is being cut from the curriculum next year.  I really don't understand why this isn't part of common core, unless it's covered prior to high school Geometry.  (I need to do more research about what is and isn't covered in the primary grades.)

So here is what I've learned this week about teaching interactive notebooks:

• Kids will find any reason to complain.
• High school kids are not above cutting and pasting.  In fact, they enjoy it.
• Directions must be precise.
• I have to remind them to update their table of contents.
• Not all words will fit the Frayer model perfectly, and when they don't, students will think they are doing something wrong.
• Definitions and facts/characteristics should be done in class.  Many times examples and nonexamples can be done for homework.  (I'm starting this approach this week.  We'll see how it goes.)
• I must stop class a few minutes before the bell rings whether we're done or not to avoid having to clean up the mess by myself.  (It doesn't help that my clock is suddenly, and inexplicably off by a few minutes.)

Overall the first week was great.  I hope to have an even better second week.  

Parent Survey Success

I just wanted to compose a short post as an update to my parent survey post.  I finally sat down to read the responses I received.  I cannot help but to compare them to last year.  Last year I had a few parents share their concern that their child had been the victim of bullying and the fear that it would continue.  I had one parent that used the survey as an opportunity to belittle their child.

This year was different in a few ways.  Firstly, there were no reports of bullying, and the responses were positive.  Overall, parents were receptive to the opportunity to share their thoughts with me.  I even had one parent thank me for taking the time to get to know their child.  I was very pleased with all of the responses I received, but this one was my favorite:  "...if you have any trouble with him give me a call. I don't think you teachers get enough parent support. Thank you for teaching my child."

So far, I feel like this school year is off to a fantastic start.  

The Second First Day

Our school had an odd start to the new school year.  We started the Wednesday after Labor Day as always, but then we had a four day weekend for Rosh Hashanah.  So today was like the first day all over again.  It was odd, but good in many ways.  Last Wednesday I went over the rules and expectations, supplies that they needed to purchase, and then we did some group tasks.  Today we went over the rules again, procedures, and took pretests.  I'm about to grade them now.

This morning, I wrote out the date like this:

The kids were intrigued.  One asked if I was always going to write the date like that.  I couldn't help but respond, "Well, no.  Every day is different."  I definitely need to get some fractions and order of operations in there.  From the looks of these pretests, they are rusty.

My Classroom August 2012 - September 2013

August 2012

When I was first assigned my classroom, I had so much clean up to do!  I've heard stories about new teachers coming in and not having anything to work with.  I had the exact opposite problem.  I had too much to work with.  I've had to do so much purging.  And honestly, I could easily still do a lot more.  (I have a ton of books that weren't even written this century.  I'm debating if I should donate them elsewhere or just toss them.) 

What I love about my classroom is that it is huge, there are several cabinets, tons of counter space, and built-in book shelves.

 September 2012

I just wanted to include this photo of triumph.  Notice something different from the photos above?  My projector broke right before the first day of school.  I had to turn all of the desks to the left and teach on the marker board.  This lasted a few days.  Even though they had a new projector ready for me, we had to wait for the guy to come in and install it.  I was so excited when I finally got my projector up and running!

June 2013 

This is what my classroom looked like when I left it for the summer.  I wish I had started taking pictures before I took down all of the posters.   I leave no available space on the walls.  I was very excited about this one little change.  I had two filing cabinets behind the door.  One three drawer and one five drawer.  The five drawer was filled with union stuff (from the 70s and 80s) because the previous classroom teacher is a past president.  Another teacher needed a five drawer filing cabinet, and since I wasn't using it or planning to use it, I let her take it.  After we emptied it out, I told her that I was thinking of moving the large cabinet to the corner behind the door.  She helped me and we moved it right then and there.  Now I have this beautiful space to hang even more posters.  (It also freed up space to huddle for all of our upcoming emergency drills.)

September 2013

Here is my classroom set up for this school year.
View from the door:

 My wall of windows with cabinets and book shelves underneath:

I'm going to start referring to this corner as my student resource center.  It has a calendar of homework assignments, absent work, test corrections forms, loose-leaf paper, scrap paper, extra hand outs, my after school schedule, and of course, a bunch of inspirational quotes.

My wall with whiteboards- one for homework assignments, one for class objectives, and one blank one (My students like to fill that one in with a quote of the day or SAT problem of the day.):

View from my desk (I have my desk set up in rows right now.  I did finally find a way to group the desks into tables, and I'm going to experiment with that this year.):

The front of my room - SMART Board, student recognition board, chalk board, etc.:

My bulletin board wall with the beginning of my vocabulary wall for Geometry, and four brand new student computers:

That is how my classroom looks right now.  I will post about updates as I make them. 

10 Reasons I am Thrilled to be a Second Year Teacher

#1:  Now that I have one full year of regular teaching under my belt, I no longer feel the need to go into a long explanation of my years of subbing and leave replacements, and that this isn't actually my first year (but it kind of is).

#2:  I know where things are in my school building.

#3:  My classroom is set up.  Last year was painful as I tried to organize and declutter the classroom I inherited.  This summer's goals were to refine the systems I had in place last year, and the overall layout of my room.

#4:  I know what I'm teaching, and I have scope and sequences that I created for the courses that I teach.  They need to be tweaked, but I have an overall plan for the entire school year.   A huge difference from last year when I had no idea what I was teaching for one of my courses.

#5:  I know the people that I'm working with.

#6:  I know the school climate, I know some of the students that I will have this year, and I know to expect some of the things that surprised me last year.

#7:  I have an idea of the upcoming work load, and I have a plan for a routine for this school year.

#8:  I get to try using Interactive Notebooks this year.  Now that I'm in the process of integrating Interactive Notebooks, I know that I was right in suspecting that it would have been too much work for me last year.  In fact, it would have been impossible and an utter failure. 

#9:  I'm not the only one anymore.  This summer I've found fellowship in following other blogs, joining Twitter and participating in chats, and joining the Global Math Department.  In my school I am the only math teacher teaching my courses.  Being a part of these online communities make me feel less alone.

#10:  I'm ready.  While some of my fellow teachers were writing syllabi and fixing their websites, I was copying materials and planning for the second week of instruction.  I spent most of my summer getting ready for this school year, and I definitely feel that it has paid off.  I feel so much more comfortable with where I am in my planning, and I don't have the same overall panicked feeling I had last year because I am prepared.

DIY Whiteboards

I have so many ideas going through my mind right now that I have three different posts that I'm working on.  Today, I wanted to share the project I just finished.  This summer I bought my own personal laminator.  (Yes, a laminator.  As in, you know you're a teacher when your favorite appliance is your laminator.)

I've wanted to have whiteboards for every student in my room for a long time, and in laminating all kinds of posters and classroom decor I realized that this was the solution.  So I simply laminated plain sheets of paper and cut them in half.  (Full sheets were just too big, and not as cost effective.)

For the erasers, I saw that many teachers recommend cutting up and using old socks.  (Ewww.)  Since it is imperative that boards are erased (to keep the marker from staining them), I knew that good erasers were necessary.  I bought 5-9x12"sheets of felt from Michael's for $0.33 each.  (I only needed two, but now I have plenty extra erasers.)  I cut the felt sheets into 3x3" squares (each sheet makes 12 squares), and now I have a class set of erasers.

For the markers, I am using fine dry erase markers.  I bought them on sale at Staples over the summer.  (Not pictured, they are currently housed in my classroom.)  To store them, I decided to keep whiteboards in the basket under each desk in a ziploc bag, complete with eraser and dry erase marker.

Now that I have this already set up, I'm considering putting all of the supplies my students will need in each bag under each desk.  I'm just worried about my supplies disappearing.  I'll wait on this idea for now and see if it's absolutely necessary.  (As it is, I'm worried about losing the markers.  Especially since I have exactly enough.)