Post MathCon Musings

Coming back from CMC always makes me have long, hard conversations with myself.  It makes me question my practices and routines, what I value and what I'm looking for from my students, which in turn leads me to question what my students need out of me.

What do I value?  How do I measure that?  That question still haunts me.

How are we going to change the data if we don't change the way we teach?

You can only really expect someone to change 10% at a time.  That's 1 day every 2 weeks.

Visual patterns

Which one doesn't belong

Would you rather

Estimation 180

There's so much good stuff out there.  Not trying one of them would just be wrong.

cut or fold

I've been arguing back and forth with my work-wife (my mathematical better half).  Do you fold or cut on dotted lines?  I'm on the fold on dotted, cut on solid camp.  She's on the other, and I think that's crazypants.

New means new...

The anxiety is starting to sink in.  I'm not looking forward to coming back to work.  I've been enjoying my time off way too much.  But a purposeless life is...well...purposeless.

I'm toying with the ideas of interactive notebooks again.  I'm also contemplating seventh graders--they're a giant ball of hormone-fueled crazypants and I'm not sure if I want to be on this ship.  Too bad I love my teaching partners.  Can't have it all, amirite?

I used the personality inventories from Sarah Rubin at Everybody is a Genius with success in the past,  but last time, it didn't quite work out for me.  I'm blaming hormone-fueled crazypants.  I've been borrowing heavily from pinterest and other math bloggers out there, and I'm incredibly thankful to them, hence the need to post what I've been doing.

I'm going to start with these introductory pages from Karrie at Mrs. E Teaches Math, but I modified the first page a bit to suit my needs.  I've decided that I'll be grading their notebooks this year (marginally, it's just to increase buy-in), so I included a preview of what they'll be graded on and a signature line.  The facing page will be a table of contents for their units.  

The next pages will be my syllabus, whose formatting I took from Everybody is a Genius.  Then the math biography, that I borrowed from Math Equals Love, and an exercise in goal setting.  I'm hoping to focus a lot on the power of positive mindsets (yes, I'm on the Carol Dweck/Jo Boaler train). I'm finishing off the introductory pages with Mrs. E's Tips for Studying Math.

Each unit will have it's own table of contents and list of objectives.  I'm not quite sure how I feel about such a large tab sticking out of the notebook, but I think I'll live.

The seventh grade standards start off with a unit on Ratios and Proportions, including percents, but I think that's sillypants.  I'm going start the year off with Number Systems so integers will be first on deck, followed by fractions.  After I've figured out what I'm doing, there will be a post with foldables and stuff.








This is my notebook...
Smart Goals
Integer unit page
SaveSave

More extra credit thoughts...

So, if I grade by standard, what is the standard of the extra credit?  What is it that I value and what am I trying to promote. Essentially, if this is the carrot, what's the horse?

I've been thinking of what it is I value.  Team work, persistence, being complete, thoughtful and thorough.  Not just showing work, but showing reasoning and justification.  So in terms of extra credit, I believe that it can only be achieved in certain weighted grading categories.

I'm pretty sure that next year's grading weights will be:
•  5%  Participation
•  15%  Homework
•  30% Quizzes, exit tickets, and learning logs
•  50%  Tests and projects

Extra credit will only be available in the participation category, and only through team points.  I'm estimating that a team will generate about 15-20 points per week.  I think the lowest a team can score will be 15 points, and the highest will be 20 points, with a potential for up to 3 extra credit points per week.  Participation points will be awarded when a team is randomly asked to share their responses, on a 3-point rubric.

1.  Bravery.  Thanks for trying

2.  Correct answer.

3.  Correct answer with justification and academic language.

One team would probably get called on no more than once a day, and they can earn a bonus point if the entire team did their homework, so 4x5 = 20.  If I make a lower-bound at 15, it shouldn't hurt their grade too much if they with a subpar team, and they can have extra credit with a better team to make up for it.  If I give them up to 3 extra points as a team, I think I won't get push back from parents who are only interested in independent work.

Thinking this through makes me feel a lot better.  I think I'm content.

I've been thinking about extra credit. Again.

The last time I contemplated extra credit, it was because I wanted stuff.  I still can't do it.  I can't shake the feeling of grades for sale.  But now, now I'm doing it as a carrot for increased team work.  Getting my kids to talk to each other in meaningful ways have aways been a challenge, and giving out team points always struck me as a little unfair because I want my students to be in control of their now destiny (and I don't want to hear any guff from my students' parents about that either).  This year, I've ameliorated that by including the team tests with all other quick assessments.  But that isn't increasing the level of team work.  My current idea:  allow extra credit, but only in the group/team work/participation category.

Stuff to ponder.

Highlights from last night's #connectedTL slow chat

Q1:  What's an example of a useless math question?

• Lame question: "Any questions?" Better: "What questions do you still have?" Best: "What question might someone ask?"
• Unproductive Struggle: T says you can only do it 1 way--my way, even if another path works better for Ss

Q2:  How can Ts transform classrooms into "empowerment centers"

• We can turn Ss into content creators! Empower them to value the journey, not just the destination! 
• Provide time and space to explore, create and discover on their own & with one another with opportunities to share
• cultivate growth mindset culture, embracing struggle, PRAISING perseverance, & giving opportunities for Ss to teach Ss & T

Q3:  How can teachers make the mistake/learning process real for their students?

• Model, model, model. they can see right through an imposter, so just fess up and admit you don't know everything
• Perfection isn't the goal. /Growth/ is the goal. /Risk-taking/ is the goal.
• Ts need to model recovering from mistakes so Ss can see that.
• Ss need to have opps to fail, opps to struggle, opps to be successful, over time, not a prescription, sequenced
• Must create a culture where a wrong answer isn't the end of the process - Failure as First Attempt, but certainly not last
• Process over product. Say out loud, "I don't care if it's right. How did you get there?"
• make them aware of this productive struggle process & praise the hell out of it when they bust through.

Q4:  How can math teaches make students' voice more prominent?

• when my Ss were reluctant to contribute I loved asking for "wrong" answers/approaches/ methods Always jumpstarted the convo
• Don't repeat them when they're quiet.
• "Maria, louder and slower. We can't hear you up front."
• Provide open ended prompts where Ss explain thinking, Ts provide opps for Ss to share out in multiple ways

Q5:  How are @timsmccaffrey's "Tail-les problems" a shift in math curriculum?

• @ddmeyer
• In a word, ambiguity.  Students aren't sure what the problem will ask, so they're letting their own curiosity go wild.

Q6:  How do we build confidence in math (especially with low-performers)?

• embrace mistakes. “Ooh that’s a good mistake..we can learn from that!” 
• Celebrate every wrong answer.
• Give props for "wrongest" answer (risk-taker). Let groups revise and present together.

Reference Pages

In my quest for the interactive notebook that works for me, I've got myself cutting and pasting like a mad woman.  And I love it.  I previously posted a working series of introductory pages and reference pages. But now that I've covered up the reference pages that comes built into the book, I'm in search of actual geometry reference pages. I know it sounds crazy. I swear I saw one on math=love or everybody's a genius, the Sarahs had to have something, they have everything. But alas, I either can't find it or I made it up, so I'm off to actually make one now...