No Naked Numbers

As a math teacher, I’m always harping about labeling numbers with their correct units of measure. Some years I emphasize it more than others, depending on my stamina to stay on top of it, and how well prepared the students come to me. Sometimes completing assignments in of itself is a huge accomplishment; you have to pick your battles.

This past summer I was rejuvenated when I heard Sandy use the phrase “no naked numbers allowed”. What a unique way of approaching units of measure!

As we tackled word problems in my Pre-Algebra classes yesterday, I took the opportunity to discuss how to properly clothe naked numbers. As soon as the young teenagers heard the word naked, I immediately had their attention. I realized I was treading on thin ice. Luckily my students kept our lesson rated G. There were some snickers and a comment about “how gorgeous the numbers look,” but that was the extent of the students’ remarks. What they were privately thinking in their minds, I can only guess. Let’s not go there. The important thing is that students were engaged and attentive. What more could I ask?

Timing is everything

As I mentioned before one of the things I want to work on this year is pacing my day to day lessons. On my lesson plans I always plan 5 - 10 minutes for the warm up problem or activity for the day. However, by the time students get into class, get settled and actually start working I usually end up giving them more like 10 - 15 minutes. The only person I have to blame is myself. I'm guilty of not holding them to the standard that I set. Five minutes a day might not sound like a lot, but that adds up to 25 minutes a week of loss instructional time that could have been used for presentations, discussions, exit slips or any other activity.

This problem does not stop with the warm up. I usually chunk my activities/lessons so that students have to be finished with a certain portion within a given time limit. But I get so wrapped up in working with students that I lose track of time.... resulting in (you guessed it) more lost instructional time.

So what is a teacher to do about this problem?

The solution I'm going to try is to use a timer. It's so simple I don't know why I never thought of it before. There are many different (and free) online timers that can be used such as www.online-stopwatch.com (the one that is used in initial implementation training and inspired me at the Carnegie NMI conference to try this) that are great for displaying if you have a projector and a computer for day to day classroom use. Unfortunately I do not have a way to easily (due to the room configuration) hook my computer to the projector and document camera that I have. So I decided that I could buy a small kitchen timer and put it under the document camera to project it to students. I had looked all over at various stores but could not find one that was inexpensive (the really hard part) and simple enough for what I needed. I finally found one while I was shopping yesterday (I've been looking since the end of July) at ... where else...the dollar store. You cannot imagine how elated I was. It was the perfect size and exactly what I was looking for.

Being that school does not start until September 7, all I need now are some students so I can try it out. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

I'm in LOVE

…with FOLDABLES! Or at least infatuated. Maybe obsessed. I’m not sure if the origami-like aspect of them first caught my attention. Or if it was the visual nature of organizing information. Adding in a splash of bright colors makes them even more appealing. Needless to say, I am addicted to foldables. If foldables ever broke up with me, I’m afraid I would unfortunately become its stalker.

Calvin introduced me to my first foldable two summers ago during CAMT. Remember weaving placemats out of construction paper in Kindergarten? This particular foldable is a close cousin to it. The intriguing part is the “magic” of the other hidden book. I use this foldable to help my students learn their squares and square roots.

During that same conference, Melissa and I stood in line for nearly two hours to be able to get in Dinah Zikes’ presentation. I think we barely made it in when the doors were slammed shut because the maximum occupancy had reached its limit. We were in heaven! The hour zoomed by like a flash of lightning. We left thirsting for more.

As a teacher, have you ever spent endless hours trying to create thoughtful, fill-in-the-blank notes for your students? Then to be heart-broken to find them abandoned on the cold, linoleum floor, or worse, wadded up and pushed to the back of an A-B-C gum infested desk. I have.

[Side note: A-B-C translates to “already been chewed.”]

Those precious notes were your babies. They weren’t to your students. The students had not invested any time in crafting those notes.

When opportunity presents itself, I would introduce a foldable for my students to take notes on. I don’t know why but I was genuinely surprised to discover that many of my students last year kept up with their foldables and referred to them when they got stuck on a math problem and needed a quick refresher. Then it dawned on me. Foldables allow students to take ownership of their learning. Retention increases. Grades improve. Student is happy. Mom is happy. Teacher is elated.

Today in my pre-algebra classes, I took Carnegie's Bridge to Algebra's first lesson on Picture Algebra and divided their problem-solving sequence into four parts.


Then for the algebra classes, the students made a foldable of Algebra Properties. Instead of me defining the properties and going over examples, the students worked out a group of problems for each property and had to generate their own definition. A "discovery" lesson does take longer to implement but is well worth the time.

I dare you to try one with your students. You’ll all be hooked before the hour is over. I was.

Ready or Not

Ready or not, the students are here! Yesterday was the first day of school in Texas, and all things considering, it went extremely well. I have no complaints. For the first time ever, every one of my students on my roster showed up. I am enjoying getting to know each and every one of them. It’s been a very good start.

What a teacher does during the first three days of school sets the classroom atmosphere for the whole year. With high-stakes testing a main focus in education, I feel pressure to start math lessons on the second day of school in addition to assigning a full load of homework problems. Not this year.

A typical first day would consist of introducing myself and giving them a brief history of my teaching career, then going over my syllabus, procedures, and routines. BORING!! Plus at the end of the day my voice would be horse from talking so much. This year I gave a quick welcome and allowed the students to ask questions that they were dying to know about me. Can you believe the only question I received was from one student who wanted to know how old I am? I asked him how old I looked. He got that frightened look on his face, worried that he might give a wrong answer. I saved him and told him that I was plenty old enough to be his mother.

Instead of overloading the students with the same kind of information they were receiving in all their other classes, I wanted the students to participate in a group activity, thus allowing us to discuss group norms and expectations. The pre-algebra classes were given the task to build a one-inch platform made entirely of a letter-sized copier paper and absolutely nothing else. Did I mention that this platform must also support at least one 3-lb textbook? My algebra classes were given Sami’s straw tower activity. Although both courses had many creative structures, I was more impressed with how well the students interacted with one another.

Today’s class time was devoted to group presentations on group norms, using yesterday’s activities as a background for discussion.

I posed the question, “Why would we, in a math class, take the time to highlight group norms and point out qualities of a good presentation?”

A girl in all seriousness asked, “We’re in a math class?”

I am going to take that as a compliment, an indication that my classroom doesn’t feel like a typical math class. Some students wanted reassurance from me that group work was a norm that they can expect on a regular basis. I am more than happy to oblige!

Time off ????

Teachers get the summer off to relax and sit by the pool, right? Anyone who actually believes that must not know any teachers personally! This summer has flown by for me. It started with a week long professional development at the County Regional Center. This was followed by the Carnegie Leaning National Math Institute (where I met Thuc-Khanh!!!), another conference in Seattle, and a 3 day workshop specifically designed for Algebra 1 teachers. Needless to say I've been professionally developed this summer!

The most important thing to do after any PD is to reflect on how you can use what you learned in your own classroom. Reflecting on this summer I know I learned a lot! The most powerful PD I had was the Carnegie Learning National Math Institute. Talk about addressing my needs. I was able to attend sessions that specifically met my needs because they have experience with the same things I struggle with in my own classroom. I was able to attend sessions on pacing, using data, and learned about program updates. Even more fun was meeting people from around the country and sharing ideas about works and what we've tried that didn't work in our classrooms.

There's no possible way I could implement everything I've learned this summer (after all, I'm not super woman!) So following all of that PD I've decided to set a few goals for myself for this school year. The first is to find new ways to group my students and to keep the groups on task. I'm also going to work on pacing... more specifically timing my lessons (more on that to come). Those two things should keep me busy, but I'm also going to try out some new questioning techniques along with way.

What are your goals for this school year?

Expect the Unexpected

On any given campus, in any given year, there is usually some kind of turnover in faculty and staff. This year is no exception for AMCMS except this year has been particular hard on me on a personal level. I will miss the camaraderie of LuAnn and Belinda. We finally got Janet back to the 100 hallway after being deserted in the 600 hallway out in Nowhere Land. I found out a couple of days ago that Janet has accepted the position of Coordinator of Distance Education at a nearby university. To top it all off, Sherry, the English teacher on my team, was informed last week that her husband's company is transferring him to another town, effective immediately. Yikes! By a divine intervention, Sherry yesterday was offered a teaching position in Bandera, and therefore, can move with her husband. As much as I hate to Sherry go, her heart would not have been here if she had to stay.

Yes, students arrive on Monday, in three short days. I spent all afternoon yesterday interviewing potential candidates to fill Sherry's shoes, no small feat in itself. Her unique mixture of quirkiness and eccentricities was the right combination that appealed to middle school kids. I am going to miss Sherry.

There are no guarantees in life. When stuff like this happens to you and catches you off guard, you must be flexible and go with the flow. Math teachers with Type A personality like myself can spend more time upset about how a lesson isn't or didn't go as planned instead of using that energy to adjust and move forward with an alternative plan. Luckily I am slowly evolving and am not as uptight as I was 10 to 15 years ago. I've come to realize that I shouldn't let learning come to a complete halt when life throws me a curve ball. Roger during Carnegie's Math Institute reminded us that you should always have a Plan B, a Plan C, . . . , a Plan X, a Plan, Y and a Plan Z!

I am not going to give you false hopes and try to convince you that your year is going to go 100% smoothly without any bumps or bruises, but I am confident that the journey is definitely worth taking for both you and your students. Bon voyage!

You CAN Teach an Old Dog New Tricks

This past summer I have had many professional development opportunities. All I can say is WOW!! I have learned so much that I'm still trying process all the wonderful information.

The biggest AH-HA moment for me was learning a new way to divide fractions. How many of you out there learned the method Invert and Multiply? I did. It's the only algorithm for dividing fractions. Right? Wrong!

Ever heard of dividing with a common denominator? I was first exposed to this "revolutionary" algorithm at CAMT in San Antonio. As soon as I could get to a computer, I excitedly googled it. Much to my surprise, there were dozens and dozens of websites on this specific topic. My first thoughts were "Am I the last math teacher on earth to hear about this method? Makes me wonder what other fantastic math practices that I don't know about."

Of course, I immediately had to call, email, and text all my teacher friends and tell them about my great discovery. The range of reactions was "Oh...nice. Did you hear about so and so?" to "Cool. I can't wait to show this to my students!"

Dividing fractions using a common denominator makes so much more sense. You actually get to divide. The best part is that the transition from pictorial to abstract is a smooth one.

Here are the steps:
1. Convert all numbers to fractions, if not already.
2. Find a common denominator.
3. Divide the numerators.
4. Divide the denominators, which always should be "1" if you did step #2.
5. Simplify the answer.

I was like a kid in a candy store, giddy with delight! I know. It takes so little to make my day. Bye!