Math journal days are my favorite days in class!!!!

I am in my 14th year of teaching and the one thing I have realized is the more I talk the less they get.  Maybe this points out a weakness in my ability to teach, but I always thought there was a better way to teach math.  My class is project based and there are three major components: math journals, dailies, and group projects.  As the title states my favorite days are math journal days.  Now you are probably wondering.......what is a math journal?

I teach 7th grade math and our school is in its 2nd year of 1:1 with Macbooks.  I always wanted to do a better job of connecting math to the world around us and making math fun.  I wanted to build a bridge from math to kid's interests.  In my class there are no tests, worksheets, or busy work.  Two days a week my kids have the entire period to work on their math journals.

A math journal is where the kids learn a math lesson and create a presentation over a concept they learned.  The presentation covers the math (which they make up the problems and answer it) and a connection to a topic.  The kids can relate them to anything they want. The kids create their own due dates and get to pick any math journal they want in any order.  Sounds crazy and chaotic doesn't it?

The kids love it.  They get to create their own learning journey and get to make a connection to their lives.  The best part is as a teacher I get to have one on one time with each student and have a personal conversation with each student.   I let them listen to music under two conditions, they have headphones and they get their work done.  Teacher secret:  It keeps them in their own world and cuts down on the off task talking time. 

Here are links to my math journal pages. 
Math Journals A - D
Math Journals E - G
Math Journals H - Q
Math Journals R - Z

If you click on the title it teaches the lesson, if you click on the picture it gives the project for the kids to do.

When they are done they "grade out", which means I look through their presentation and they explain the concept without looking at their work and answer questions I have.  My favorite beginning of the year comment to the students is "You can't hide from a conversation."  They learn it quickly.

Creative vs. Mechanical Intelligence

Last week my students were learning how to read charts and graphs.  We were identifying the parts of a  graph and learning how to approach complicated charts before we created our own infographics next week.  I prepared a few graphs for the students.  I cropped the title and X and Y axis labels off of one line graph.  I asked the students to suggest what the title SHOULD be based on the available information on the graph.  Obviously, there wasn't a specifically right or wrong answer, and most students chose something related to the key words still on the graph.

To my surprise, there were a few students who struggled with this.  There were several more that left it blank because they couldn't "find" the answer.  One student in particular really blew my mind and opened my eyes to different types of intelligences.  This student was a straight "A" student last year.  The conversation went something like this:

student-"I don't get the question"
me-"Based on what you can see, what SHOULD the title be?"
student-"I don't know because you cut it off"
me-"I know, I want you to use what you do know and create a new title that is appropriate."
student-(frustrated)"How can I get the right title if I can't see it?"
me-"I don't want you to guess the original title, I want you to be creative and write a totally new title that explains what is going on in the graph"
student-(looking away from her computer, sitting in silence, visibly frustrated now)
me-"Don't worry, there are lots of right answers"
student-(no response, bell rings and she leaves)

The next day, I sat down with her to "grade out" as we call it.  She had left the question blank.  I told her that I expect every question to be answered.  I tried to explain that there won't always be a clear answer this year, that she will need to be creative.  She seemed to accept it, but I could tell it bothered her.  This is a fantastic student, clearly very smart, but befuddled when a clear answer is not presented in the text.  I think this situation is a symptom of traditional education.  For too long we have told students there is only 1 answer.  This has created students that are mechanically intelligent, but lack creativity when given more open ended questions.  The world demands creative thinkers, and this student is not being served by an education that tells her there in only 1 answer to every question.

Balancing Fun and Rigor in Education

I understand the argument that meaningful content and student choice can facilitate both rigor and engagement (fun), but lets be real, not theoretical.  I teach middle school and the main way I get students engaged is when activities are fun, but not everything can be fun.  Fun doesn't always work with some of the rigorous skills and difficult content of my curriculum.  However, too much rigor will burnout the kids and they won't buy-in to the class or the content.  On the other hand, too much fun won't accomplish enough and will set a bad precedent when I try to introduce rigorous material.

So, what is the right balance of fun and rigor?  10/90 (Fun/Rigor)?  40/60?  90/10?  To be honest, there probably isn't a magic number.  Besides, things are not necessarily fun OR rigorous.  I can attempt humor during a rigorous activity, and we can take a difficult topic and try to have fun with it.  There isn't a golden ratio of fun and rigor in learning--it has to be a careful blend at all times, and one of the most difficult jobs of a teacher is knowing how to read your students to see when they have had enough, especially in middle school.

Rigidity and rigor only go so far, especially with underprivileged students who have very little to lose.  If there is no one at home checking grades, fielding calls from the school, and enforcing punishment at home, stern efforts are only going to push these student farther from an education they already undervalue.  Besides, my students will forget 90% of the content they learn in my class--its much more important that they enjoy learning and coming to school.  Therefore, I think we need to error on the side of fun learning.

Writing in Google Doc's

This year I have really embraced the fact that literacy is the foundation of everything we do in school.  I  am trying to inject more non-fiction reading and formal writing into my social studies class.  As students write, they need formative feedback.  Assigning a paper and waiting a week before we cover it in red ink is assigning students to failure.  Ideally, I would like to sit down with every student, everyday while they write.  With classes as large as 28 this year, I would need to budget 1.7 minutes for each student as I guide them toward better grammar, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure, vocabulary, summarizing, etc. 

Luckily, our school has Google Apps for Education.  Every student has a Google account, so when they write, they do it in Google Docs.  They share their paper with me and I have 24 hour access to their work.  I sit down face-to-face with as many students as I can during class, but I look at every paper, everyday.  For the students I don't sit down with, I insert comments into their paper.  Comments are great ways to have a discussion without marking up their paper.  Students can respond and you can easily have a conversation about their work.  I keep track of who I talk to in person and who I comment on to keep balanced and keep track of formative progress.  By the time the paper is due, I rarely need to do any "grading" and there is no need to turn anything in.   Another major benefit is the "dog" can't eat it, they can't forget it at home, and since it's saved in the cloud any online device can access it.  Revision history is another tool that allows you or students to recover their work in case of a problem.  You can also do research without leaving your doc. 

Managing all of the paper is an issue for many teachers.  If you have several hundred students it can be difficult to manage that many docs.  Its important to use collections/folders and be proactive in managing your files.  I would also recommend teaching student about email notifications.  Every time someone shares a document with you, they can send an email to notify you.  If you are expecting their work, you don't want to clear several hundred email from you inbox. 

The way I manage my student work is by having 2 Google accounts.  I have my school account and my personal account.  When I'm online, I usually operate out of my personal account and forward all my school mail to my personal account.  I have students share their work to my school account, so 90% of the documents in my school's Google Docs account and my personal account isn't cluttered up by other people's work.  I really don't know why every school doesn't take advantage of Google Apps for Education.  Docs and formative assessment is just the tip of the iceberg.  

Friday Fun In Math.

www.getwebmedia.com

What did you do last Friday in class with your kids? We played darts!!!!

Some of my classes learned prime and composite and after hitting the dartboard each kid told the class whether his/her score was prime or composite. We also kept track of kids that hit the board and those who did not. We figured our class's percentages of hits and misses. With partners, the kids did calculations on the chalkboard and white marker boards in my room.

My other classes did the prime and composite when we threw the darts, but we cranked it up a notch after that. We kept track of four categories: (1) Was the hit prime? (2) Was the hit composite? (2) Did the throw hit the board but scored no points? (4) Did the throw miss the board altogether? Then we found the percentage of each category. Finally we learned percent increase and decrease and applied it to the score of each throw that hit the board. For example, what is the percent change in this set of scores; 7, 20, 9, 9, and 12?  Every kid was involved. . . up and writing the info on the boards. Every kid got 3-4 throws in class and worked on calculations in between. We even got on our digital portfolios and created the tabs for what we learned. Monday we are going edit our portfolios. We are collecting our info in a LiveBinder.

Even though we are in our second year of one to one, I still think it is important to stick to the basics of what works best for our kids. I teach 7th graders. They are social and like to be active. They are a different animal and sometimes we just have to do something fun. There is always a way to find some math in anything. Kids need to learn to think on their own and not rely totally on a computer!

1 to 1 Experiment: Year Two

On August 14, we began the second year of our 1 to 1 initiative at Wabash Middle School.  This year we expanded from grades 6-8 to grades 4-12!  Our K-3 rooms are nearly 1 to 1 with iPads.  As you may recall, I'm not one to rely on quantifiable data, however it's the most reliable evidence to some people, so let me throw some hard data at you.  Our enrollment is up over 2% for the 2nd straight year--in a town with a declining population.  Our middle school had the highest standardized test scores we've had in our history.  Our math scores alone went up over 3%.  Our middle school enrollment increased over 10%, and not from students moving in from far away areas.  Most of our new students came from neighboring districts--districts that are ALSO 1 to 1.  There is much more, but we know real learning can't be quantified.  However, these numbers have created quite a buzz in our community.

We held an open house for students and parents the night before school started.  We distributed computers, setup computers, signed papers, gave basic instructions, and communicated classroom information.  Over 90% of our parents and students came (for the second year in a row)--in a district with historically low turnout for open house and parent/teacher conferences. 

We are a fully integrated Google Apps for Education school now, so every student has a secure CIPA friendly email address and access to Google's amazing apps.  My 7th grade team began a digital portfolio this year we are calling a Museum of Learning.  I would like to see our museum extended in both directions, and eventually be K-12.  This type of authentic assessment could actually be useful to students in future endeavors, be it college or career.

We have discussed including students in our technology team.  What a great opportunity for a students to leave high school with 4-7 years of experience in Apple repair, support, and troubleshooting.  Our teachers are assembling authentic content and initiating exciting creative projects.  Of course, this is not true of every teacher or every building.  Each building is at their own phase of implementing a 21st Century class.  Hopefully, time and professional development will help foster a break from traditional education--creation rather than consumption, publishing rather than "turning in", presenting rather that submitting, conversation rather than quizzing, authentic rather than canned, and inspiration rather than obligation.  So, here's to a poverty stricken small midwestern town of 11,000+ breaking a 100 year old mold of public education with our feet dangling off the cutting edge of education and technology!

Failure and Success in Learning

Failure is bad.  Failure is rejection.  Failure is the end.  These are the messages we sometimes receive from society.  This is how we often feel when we "fail".  Carol Dweck recently wrote a book called Mindset.  In her book she explores two divergent mindsets that often define learners: fixed and growth mindsets.  Obviously, there is enough detailed theory and data behind this concept for an entire book, but one major theme she touches on is our response to failure.

A person with a fixed mindset sees failure as I describe it above--a final judgement of inadequacy.  A growth mindset takes failure in stride--a bump in the road on the way to their destination.  For a growth mindset, failure is not an end but a minor learning experience that guides them in a different direction. Edison is a perfect example of a growth mindset. 

I found this information to be so powerful that I wanted to share it with my kids.  I made a How We Learn activity to start our year off.  I want my kids to embrace "failure" as a guidepost to redirect their learning.  Today, I gained the final piece of the puzzle. 

About a month ago, I applied to the Google Teacher Academy.  I wanted in.  I really wanted in.  I love Google--their technology runs my classroom and they inspire me.  Me applying to Google is like Rudy applying to Notre Dame.  I really, really wanted to be a part of the team.  I filled out the lengthy application including a 1 minute video that I made about motivation.  I learned today that I failed.  I didn't get in. 

Initially, I was pretty disappointed--I really thought I would be chosen.  My family was quick to console me.  As I reflected on my feelings, I was reminded of my How We Learn activity.  I took a shot and failed, but this is not the end, and I certainly wouldn't want my students to be devastated and give up.  I'm going to share this experience with my students.  I'm going to tell them how I plan on learning more and applying the next time the Google Teacher Academy is geographically near where I live.  I will be a Google Certified Teacher.