NO PTC = HAPPY DANCE!

(Warning: This is a very rambling post)

When I first got to school two weeks ago I found that I hadn't given my correct new address to the school, and so a bunch of summer mail was waiting for me - including a "Change in your schedule" notice. Seeing this I started to panic as I opened it.

Last summer I got a notice that said that my all-Algebra-1 schedule was changed to include one section of Topics (a.k.a. math for seniors that got passed on but still

don't know any math at all so let's do it all again). I had had a NIGHTMARE experience with similar seniors during student teaching and now thinking of doing this again in my second year of teaching freaked me out. I called my department head on her personal phone almost in tears, and she told me I could switch if another teacher was willing. One was, and I had one section of Algebra Lab (a second algebra support class for low-functioning students). I didn't plan for it all summer, the first nine weeks were pulled out of nowhere as I focused on getting my other four Alg 1 classes under control, and it was my most difficult class.

Fast forward to this year and I'm almost hyperventilating at the thought of juggling multiple preps again. I pulled it out...and it was all Algebra Lab classes.
I felt a mixture of excitement (I can concentrate on basics! Yes!) and fear (math-phobic students usually resent having TWO math classes). At the very least, I had one prep I could focus on so I was happy However, later on I realized the benefit to this plan: NO PTC!

PTC is my personal acronym for what our school calls a PLC. However, though with the best intentions by our PLC leaders, it is NOT a Professional Learning Community.

One of the VERY few things I dislike about my department is that we NEVER talk about teaching in our formal meetings. Ever. Twice I suggested we discuss teaching ideas, and both times someone said "Yes! Its better for the kids when we all do the same thing! Let's share what we do, and then pick one way and we ALL have to explain it that way! That is what is in the best interests of the CHILD." Um, really? That's the only reason to discuss teaching - to enforce more uniformity? Not to discuss pros and cons, to let teachers learn and experiment with different ways and then report back? Really? Hell, I shut up. I don't want someone deciding my way of explaining integers is forbidden after a ten-second explanation of why I do what I do. The one question I had for the school when interviewing was "Do you script lessons?" I want to learn from others, but the teachers in my blog reader share without demanding uniformity.

Okay, so in our "PLC" metings, once a month, we discuss tests. 1) Is everyone ready to test on the 15, give or take a day? Good! 2) Who is going to write the second quiz? This is a long chapter, we should make another quiz. You'll make it? Good! Okay, we're done. As you can see, we have a Professional Testmaking Community. For someone who's been quietly implementing some form of SBG with Dan Meyer-liconceptill checklists, these meetings are quite painful.

Here's a taste of what I mean. Last year, our department head and our district math head promoted the latest acronym AFL: Assessment for Learning. Sounded good, and was a pretty good idea, though not paradigm shattering enough to warrant a new acronym or the answer-to-our-prayers attitude some had (are they ever?). I attended the class, and learned about how we should build tests that allow us to target certain learning targets (SBG-like), and give students ability to track what they do and don't know (SBG-like again), incorporate alternative assessments (more good ideas) and give students a format in which to correct their tests and learn from their mistakes (scaffolding, good!). The smallest, most insignificant, piddly surface detail of all of this was that assessment questions should always have the learning target typed next to it. At our school, this took the form of a three-column table where the first column had the learning target typed in like "I can multiply matrices by a constant.", the second column had the problem, and the third column was a blank space to show work.


This is great, I thought! A lot of what attracted me to Dan Meyer's Concept Checklists was here as well. I attended most of the classes, and made plans to join another teacher for our final "project" at the best restaurant in the world, a.k.a. Wildflower Bread Company (where I am currently typing this post). We took a Saturday morning to identify key procedures the test should cover, pick through old tests to find questions that isolated these skills, make new questions when needed, add a few longer combine-skills questions, and type it all into the required format. It was harder than the old tests, partly because we only had two multiple choice questions instead of many.

(Sample conversation from the AFL class: District Math Head says "NEVER have more than 2-3 multiple choice or matching, they aren't good at identifying what students know." Teacher says "But the district final is multiple choice." DMH says "That's just so we can grade in 12 hours and send out grades, the sole purpose of a math class isn't to learn how to take the final." Surani thinks "I love you DMH!")

Okay, so back to the assessment my friend and I worked so hard on. The students failed it. They did badly. But there was ALSO lots of diagnostic information since we tried to isolate skills. The main reason to put a question on WASN'T just that it was on last year's tests.

So we rallied together! Realized that teaching for content and not for a test was going to take some real work! Analyzed the results of the tests so we could learn what we needed to go over again! Collected data, learned from it, and grew as a department!

Actually no. My department head took one look at the failing grades, and said "As long as DMH gives us a multiple choice final, we're making all OUR tests multiple choice."

Our test was thrown out. Old test came back. No one mentions the life-changing AFL acronym anymore, except to remind people "Don't forget! Write the test in the AFL format!" which means "Make a three-column table and copy-paste a long, obscure performance target from the state standards into each cell in the first column."

Meanwhile, my head exploded and I went home to vent on my long-suffering fiance.

AAaaaaaaanyway. See why I call it a PTC instead of a PLC? They're good teachers, good people, and many of them are good friends. Its NOT the teachers, its the structure we've grown to get used to.

So this year, in our school, instead of giving everyone an Algebra Lab that no one could really focus on, they are now given to two people. I teach 5, and another teacher has 3. He's an easygoing guy who never shows up to meetings, so I have appointed myself the unofficial Algebra Lab PLC Leader. I make sure to meet with myself AT LEAST twice a week to talk about teaching and learning. And I'm easy on myself too - I never start the meeting until I've shown up!

I still attend the Algebra PTC, and I rewrite quizzes and assignment sheets when asked to, but I no longer have to give their quizzes and tests in my classes. I can use my own assessments that I've thought about obsessively, rewritten as needed, focused to my personal list of standards/skills, and incorporate as much conceptual understanding as I dare.

Goodby PTC, and good luck!

~ Surani

The “I hate you!” phase

I don’t know if this is true for all teachers, but as I start my third year now I notice some basic phases of the school year:

Week One: Okay, we’ll play nice. Maybe talk a little too much, but that’s all.

Week Two-Week ___: I hate you! Slow down! Stop asking me to work! This is too much! Why won’t you repeat everything you said in the last 15 minutes? Why can’t I walk in 3 minutes late – I was looking for my lost purple bunny so I had a good excuse! Why can’t you give me a pencil? Why can’t I have a “female emergency” three times a month and go to the bathroom for half an hour? I hate you!

Problem is, I can’t remember around when the “I hate you!” phase ends.

But its really getting me down right now.

It is SO tempting to stop class and go into a lecture. You know “I’m trying to teach you for your own good, blah blah blah, don’t you want to be successful in life, blah blah blah, why don’t you appreciate me *sob* blah blah blah…”

I don’t though. I just calmly repeat the classroom procedure and either give a detention or a warning, then walk away.

But its so haaaard! Especiallly when they whiiiiine! Because I ask them to actually doooooo woooooork! Instead of sitting and watching the teeeacher do all the woooork! Oh my gooooosh! Whine whine whiiiine! Moan moan mooooan! Foul words muttered under breeeeath! Respond to redirect by distracting oooooothers!

Okay, that feels better.

I know that 95% of them get over it and start working and thinking and becoming a producing student, instead of an observer in my classroom. I know it, but I don’t FEEL it right now.

Right now I just feel like telling them what brats they’re being.

And the thing is, its STILL less than 50% of them. More than half are working hard and doing well. They’re great kids!

So why, why, why, why, why do I focus on the brats, instead of the superstars?

My prep period is ending in 15 minutes, and I still have 3 classes left today.

Goal for today: Redirect brats, but focus on superstars.

Standards-Based Grading: Year 2

NOTICE: For those coming from the SBG Gala, this post turned into a brain-dump about my entire experience with SBG. For a shorter read, please jump to my explanation of why everyone should try SBG.

Well, another seven months have gone by without a single post here...but when I saw an upcoming blog carnival on SBG it finally spurred me to start working on a new post. [Update: AUGH! Misread deadline as July 16 not July 15! Oh well, maybe this will still be a part of it…if not, finally wrote another post]


WHO, WHEN, & WHERE: I just finished my second year teaching, and my first full year attempting to use standards-based grading in my classroom. I wanted to work with disadvantaged kids, so I looked for work in the inner city – and found it. My school is 91% Hispanic, in an old barrio area of Phoenix. Overwhelmingly poor, illegally in the US, extremely high turnover, and non-English-speaking. On the other hand, I have an administration I LOVE (with few exceptions), a great math department, and I really do love our kids. They’re often brats, but they’re teenagers – they’re just doing their jobs! :-) And so many are hardworking, respectful, and sweet – enough to make it worthwhile.

I can sum up my students’ math abilities easily because I’ve used the same sentence when talking to friends and family: “I can assume that all my freshman students can add, and subtract when the answer is positive.” ( 5-3 is 2, but unfortunately, 3-5 becomes 2 as well) Sometimes I blame their earlier teachers, sometimes I sympathize with them. But for better or worse, my PLC doesn’t start Algebra 1 on the first day. Our district has budgeted 4 weeks for review; our school ends up spending NINE. That means that the true Algebra 1 curriculum is squeezed into the remaining nine weeks. Surprised that 40% fail and retake it? I didn’t think so.

WHAT: I tried a version in the fourth quarter of my first year, at the end of Algebra 1, but last year I started from the beginning. You can see a copy of the concept checklist (I’ve borrowed heavily from Dan Meyers) in a mandated (sorry Shawn, keeping that!) student notebook here:

From Classroom Activities

I worked hard over my first summer vacation to develop my concept checklist, and its continued to grow.). Here’s the Fall 2010 version:

ALGEBRA_1_CHECKLIST_SJOSHUA_FALL10.doc

Several changes are:

1)I used dy/dan’s latest suggestion to change the format. Now instead of writing in their scores, like in the student example above, they’re going to color in a new box every time their score goes up (but not erase if scores go down. I don’t agree with Dan’s assumption that if they learn it once they can relearn quickly, because I still don’t think two quizzes show understanding in long-term memory. On the other hand, I believe Shawn Cornelly’s idea of dynamic quiz grades will keep my kids from trying to raise their grade. So many times I told a kid “Just try! I won’t lower your score, so no harm in trying.” and this amazing look of PEACE came over their faces as they bent over the paper and started. I’ll be using in-class review, tests, and finals to work on long-term memory. And yes, this IS a long parenthetical comment.)

2)My PLC teaches about like terms and variables, then dumps them for integer operations and the kids forget. I feel like we’re pretending to ourselves. We aren’t doing Algebra 1 at the beginning, let’s be honest about that. I’m moving any mention of variables to the beginning of equations.

3)The thick bars across the page divide them into sections that I see as benchmarks. This list does cover everything in our district standards and final exam, and almost in the same order (see above). But I reorganized to cover “big ideas” as I see them: arithmetic, integers, one-variable equations, and two-variable equations. Last year my goal was to keep track of every student’s goals and reward them with a pizza party when the whole class mastered one set of standards. With four sets, I felt sure each class could get one party. But it never happened. This year I’m posting them on the board to get my students to hold ME accountable. Nothing makes my student happier than telling me I owe them something and I better hand it over now!

HOW: Last year I started with the most fresh, wonderful hopes of concept checklists beautifully filled out. It certainly made a difference, but I didn’t implement it well enough. Our school is a test site for a new plan to teach one semester of algebra and one semester of geometry each year. I was sure I could use my concept checklist through the first semester, but it petered out after 3 months. I already had a list of specific learning targets, vocabulary words, and “big ideas” (mostly involving different ways of modeling mathematical ideas) for each concept, and I built quizzes using that.

Downfalls:
1) Like the rest of the math ed blog community, counting on kids coming in after school didn’t work. They would only flow in at the end of each grading period, when my tutoring hours suddenly become filled with students demanding – not asking – to know their grade NOW (they threw away the report I handed out three hours ago) and expecting to fix it in the next five minutes. Faced with a written record of their lack of work, many usually friendly kids can become almost verbally abusive. I’ve come to dread the end of each term. This year I’ll determined to implement that I only thought about last semester: mandatory tutoring for anyone two concepts or more behind. Even if it lasts one month, it’ll make a huge difference.

2) I have discovered what all parents and bosses know: there is a disconnect in many human brains that does not let them easily understand that “not understanding -> need to practice -> then will understand.” Since I don’t believe in extra credit and only rarely give it to get extra cooperation when my mental health is strained, I would require students to do extra practice to learn for no points, so they could take the quiz. This resulted in whining and/or anger for 90% of students who are trained to be rewarded by points like trained seals (and I confess, I use this to help me manage 34 teenagers at once. I’m required by my school to give points for HW and classwork, and anyway I’m just not ready yet to give that up. Maybe someday.) I’m still working on how to fix this. I know I’m a softie and let whining start and continue too much

3) Once a week in class is not enough. I’m going to try twice a week this year. Also, one HUGE difference: returning quizzes the next day isn’t enough. I sometimes fell behind and did even worse, but even one day is too long. I plan to give quizzes at the beginning of the class, give them a short review assignment, and grade and return them NOW. They’ll color in their checklist before they leave class that day.

WHY: It works.

I can see the potential in it.

I can see how it helped the kids at the beginning when I kept up and redid quizzes frequently.

I can see how easy it was to tutor someone in “multiplying and dividing integers” instead of tutoring them on “Test 1” or even “Quiz 1”.

I can see how they cheer when they hit a 4 on their quizzes – kids who NEVER get more than a 70 (or 60… or 50…) on a test because they can’t read word problems or directions, they get overwhelmed by the length of a test, they have test anxiety, etc. etc. etc.

I can see how much it helped me keep track of the true level of mastery and understanding in each class.

I can see how it changed the way I view grading! An unexpected bonus is that I LOVE grading concept quizzes. I am mandated to use PLC-made tests and quizzes, and grading them is the most boring, painful thing I can think of. But my extra concept quizzes are FUN! I cheer every time a kid gets a four or a three, and I know who I’m grading, unlike when I’m scanning along page four of a PLC test. Since I can grade a whole class in ten minutes, I have a gut feeling by the end as to what my next step should be.

I can see the potention for self-evaluation in our kids. It didn’t work well last year, but I’m just beginning.

SBG GOAL FOR NEXT YEAR: Use it all year. Follow all ideas about implementation.

REASONABLE SBG GOAL FOR NEXT YEAR: Follow my intentions of biweekly quizzes, returning quizzes in the same class period, and mandatory tutoring for the first nine weeks. If my gut is right, I’ll see enough success to give me an energy boost for the rest of the semester. If not, if stress and lack of energy take over, I’ll lick my wounds and assess as usual until December, spending that time in revamping my system to start again in January.

I’ll let you know how it goes!

A Life...What's That?

Something weird happened the week before Thanksgiving...I stopped caring.

Not in a bad way - in a good way.

I got a terrible cold, and did less work the previous week, and then took off Monday so that I only had a two-day workweek before Thanksgiving.

And I think I'm starting my sixth or seventh "re-discovery" of the fact that school =/ life.

Except this time it feels a little different. I recently bought my first house (yay!) and I spent Thanksgiving weekend cleaning and planning and talking to my fiance, and school didn't really ever intrude.

And now that I'm back, I feel good about it. Not good in a "Yay! Time to implement all the things that have been churning in my mind over the weekend!" way. But a "Good. I can have more time to practice teaching calmly."

Part of it, I think, is just considering going back to school for a Masters or Ph.D in math education - it makes me feel like there's an "out." But also, talking to a director at the local university about bringing in the innovative things I've been doing made me realize how much I AM doing.

~ I'm keeping MUCH better track of attendance and tardies. As an example, I had only two absences in first period today (okay, many tardies, but still...) Last year by December I had .... as many as 15 absences in first hour. EVERY DAY.

~ My kids are keeping interactive notebooks.

~ I'm using Visual Instruction Plans.

~ I got another longed-after custom manipulative made. Didn't have much chance to use it, but its ready and was used a little.

~ I made one "Conceptual Minute" video (I'll post it soon) using a new drag-and-drop programming language I taught myself.

~ My grades are current.

~ Most of my students, when asked to list what they wanted changed about class on the back of last week's test, could only come up with my tardy policy.

Okay, enough patting on the back. I've got 2 more classes of tests to grade.

~ Ms. J

Forgive me, blog, it has been 3 months since my last confession

I'm shamelessly stealing my theme from Teaching Statistics's post, where MizT references another blog I read - f(t) by Kate Nowak.

Just like MizT, I too tried to keep a journal many times as a kid - and failed. I couldn't even keep a journal for two weeks this summer when I went to Cuernavaca for an intensive Spanish program! I did write a couple of days...

But I'm not giving up this time. I already learn so much from reading other people's educational blogs, and I want to contribute to this community - and get help from it.

I certainly spend a lot of time reflecting on my teaching, but going over my mistakes on the drive home... and at night... and the next morning... isn't exactly the same thing!

I'm in my second year now, and just finished my first week of school. Its already a lot better than last year, and I'm ready to start refining things and concentrating on the details, instead of worrying about all the first-year issues I struggled with last year.

So while this will continue to be a struggle, I'm going to keep trying. There are too many things I do that I can't wait to tell people about - and my fiance can only take listening to me for so long ;-)

Solving Equations Brainstorm

Note to self:

When I move from one-step equations to two-step equations, I've tried talking about "backwards Order of Operations" and I've tried talking about three steps forward, two steps back, etc. but they don't really listen.

For the coming year:

HAVE COURAGE AND TAKE A DAY TO DO THIS! (just a note to myself)
Make a scavenger hunt outside. for pts. PLUS extra credit points.

Then write their "clue" in the following way.

1) I hid the treasure & then faced the flagpole.
2) I took 5 steps forward.
3) I turned to the left.
4) I went down 3 steps.

TO GET TO THE....

Trashcan (or whatever).

Day before: explain the rules, go over examples, tell the kids each group of 4 will be working together. Make sure at least one kid in each group is listening (pick a team role to be leader on this).

Day of hunt: Kids get paper with "clue" and map of area of scavenger hunt. Tell them attendance is being taken before AND after. They have 20 minutes to find the treasure - go.

When they come back, discuss the two elements needed for success:

1) Undo each step in REVERSE order (4, then 3, then 2, then 1)

2) Do the OPPOSITE of each step.

**When making clues, make sure that they won't work unless done backwards & opposite (for instance, take 3 steps left and 2 steps forward; they can be undone in the wrong order and still work)

(treasure should be 4 pieces of candy? or ticket for candy)

Come back to room.

Have them fill out handout on what they did to find treasure. Maybe have paper divided in two with clue on one side, then students turn paper upside down to write backwards opposite operations, and bottom has space for reflection on what they learned.

Now to forget about this post until RIGHT after I teach two-step equations in the fall.

~ Ms. Libb!

Edit: Add "X MARKS THE SPOT" to emphasize that they are going backward to find....x!

QN: Yet More Procedures

books during tests/quizzes = extra credit
what are "even" and "odd"
how to round numbers
make parent DVD at beginning of year
KKIS (tutoring) visit in Week 3
explain why you shouldn't call people "retarded" or "gay" to insult them
why teachers cannot help you during a test
procedures multiple choice questions = extra credit on each test?
how to ignore if someone talks to you