Draft Day

Last year our 7th grade team created a PBL project for two schools that involved a murder mystery they had to solve, you can read more about it here.  We decided to do this again this year with just our 7th grade kids.  We went through and tweaked it to fit just our school since the first time we included two schools together.

The next part is one our favorite days in team.    It is called draft day.  We have a common team time where we get to create projects and collaborate. One thing we do in our grade is when we do a big project we do not include all the students.  We first go through and eliminate any one with F's, we let them use this time to get caught up on their work.  The other group of kids we eliminate are students that have proven to us they can not handle open ended projects and group collaboration.  This is the only time we do this. Since we do projects all the time, they do get plenty of time to have that experience.  Once those kids are picked out, this year we had 9 out of 127 kids, the draft officially begins

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 We put every kids name on the board and we then "draft" them and put them in groups of three.  We have found that is the perfect number for group work.  Each teacher gets a turn in picking a group and we just go around and draft all the kids until they have all been selected.  We group them by ability level and we try to put combinations of kids together that we know don't usually work together or would be a good combination to work together.

In our grade we give very few tests, because we want to "know" the kids so we have conversations where the kids explain what they have learned.  One of our favorite things to say is "you can't hide from a conversation."  We know the kids so much better than 4 years ago before we made the switch to 1:1 and project based learning. 

Since we mix up the kids throughout the year they are used to it.  It is definitely a culture that takes time to build, but it is without a doubt worth the fight in the beginning.  The kids are doing a great job with this project.  There is quite a bit of higher level math and the kids have tore into this project and they are really good. 

Since it is Istep week it is so interesting to see the kids in the morning taking multiple choice tests that have exactly one right answer working in silence compared to our afternoons where they are collaborating, sharing ideas, and solving a problem that has no one correct answer.  Our project has 9 suspects and we have created it so that 3 of them could be the killer.  How do we judge that?  It is based on their justification of their work, the way they connect the evidence to their suspect,  and how they present their information.

Today is our final day and I can't wait to see their final presentations.  I had one girl come up to me today and say " I am so excited today to present.  Normally I am so scared to present in front of people but not today.  Our presentation is awesome."  Wow, excitement about learning, can't argue with those results.

Candy Corn Contest

Have you ever competed in the "Guess How Much Candy Is In The Jar"?  We do it every year at one of the Xmas parties I attend.  I have wanted to do this activity with my kids for the past couple of years and I have just put it off.  So I was looking for something fun the kids could do after our long winter break and thought, why not, let's go for it.

My wife has many different sized canning jars at our house.  So I went and got some candy corn.  I filled up three different sizes of jars and my first project of the new year had begun.  I didn't make it a full blown project.  The kids did not create a presentation and present their findings.  This was more of a quick hitter.

I started by showing them a picture of candy corn in a jar and asked them how many pieces of candy are in the jar.  They were already in.  Then I showed them all three jars and told them whatever group in the 7th grade got the closest by mathematically solving it would get all the candy.  Smiles all around.  I posed the question, "Do you think you can guess closer or mathematically calculate and get closer?"  To my surprise most kids said mathematically.

So we dug in.  I love starting new projects and not knowing where they will end up.  We have learned volume and are pretty good at formulas so that was somewhat review.  Since we haven't had school for nearly a month it was good review.

We brainstormed what information we needed (essential questions), then we created a plan on the steps we would go about to solve this problem.  This part was just ok.  We definitely need some work on this part but it got us started.  Next was the fun part.  I passed out candy, rulers, and jars and the measuring began.  Two of the jars had changes in the sizes so there were two different size cylinders and one was just a straight cylinder.  Some groups saw it and some didn't.  They measured away.

The challenging part is that the candy corn isn't quite a cone and it is not quite a pyramid.  The kids had to analyze and decide which path to take (cone or pyramid) and how to measure it.  Then once they divided the jar volume by the candy volume they got the number of pieces in the jar, kinda.

Since the candy corn is filled up the jar with gaps their answers were the first time to big.  The kids had to guesstimate the percentage of air vs the percentage of candy.  Then as a class we learned how to take a percentage of a number.  Finally for the first part the kids wrote a paragraph on why we had to adjust their original answer and their logic on why they chose the percentage they picked.

After all was said and done we calculated that the candy corn took up about 40% of the jar.  I melted down a jar full of candy corn and it was very close visually to 40%.  The winners enjoyed eating the fruits of their labor, they even shared their winnings with the other kids in class.

15th Century Teaching Model Still Highly Relevant

Recently I visited a school to learn about their BYOD program.  I came away with lots of great insights and ideas.  One of them was a teaching method I had never heard of.  The Ignatian Pedagogical Model is based on the Jesuit St. Ignatius Loyola's Spiritual Exercises.  There are 5 basic components: Context, Experience, Reflection, Action, and Evaluation.  Though interpretations seem to vary on how it should properly be implemented, I think the validity of the basic components speak for themselves.

Context
Students must be provided with a reason for learning beyond traditional reasons of, 'state standards require this', 'because it will be on the test', or 'because I said'.  Those might be "context" to a teacher, but they are not context to a student of the 21st Century.  If you don't know or can't explain to your class why they are learning a particular topic, maybe you should look for some real world application or possibly rethink whether this particular topic should be a priority.  Like Daniel Pink says in his most recent book To Sell is Human.  Teachers have to "sell" their curriculum.  If the kids aren't buying what you're offering, you really have no one to blame but yourself.  You can sit back and blame parents or the culture, but that won't change anything and it certainly won't be a valid excuse as to why your students aren't doing well in your class.

Experience
After students have real meaning as to why they are learning something, they need to experience it.  Spoiler Alert: worksheets, web quests, and the like are not a way to experience curriculum.  Students have to be immersed into the field of knowledge with real world activities that produce an authentic product.  The construction of the product they produce should take them through an inquiry-based learning path.  Students should then present their product to an authentic audience.

Reflection
Context and experience should be done sequentially, but reflection should be done throughout the process.  Reflection is such a powerful tool.  Students greatly benefit from metacognition; evaluating their thinking process, finding ways to improve, and just being mindful of their learning habits.  A learning journal shared to the teacher and student would work well. A student blog would be a public platform for students to demonstrate their thinking and learning.  Regardless, a single reflection platform is not enough.  The teacher should have conversations throughout that force students to stretch their thinking and expand their sphere of learning.

Action
The goal of Jesuit education is to move the student into action, not simply the personal satisfaction of learning (source).  To me, in a school setting, this is a flexible component that can be worked into the "Experience" portion.  Once the student has the knowledge, what will they do with it?  Is the product they are making the final use for this knowledge?  Can it be incorporated into future learning? Can students take political action such as writing to their congressman or writing a letter to a newspaper or company? The "Action" component is a great way to exercise the new learning that has taken place and justify the context you provided initially.

Evaluation
As with all things education, assessment is important to get right.  While I don't think there is a "right" way to do this component, there certainly are some wrong ways, such as ending this teaching model with a multiple choice test.  We usually advocate for students to present everything they learn to an authentic audience, a group of students, or one-on-one to the teacher.  Our motto is: you can't hide from a conversation.  The ultimate summative grade should be discussed between you and your student.  No time for that?  An alternative would be to build a rubric as a class before you start your project in the experience phase.  In addition, you can put formative evaluation benchmarks along the way to see how students are doing.  It may be a completion grade for a journal entry or a qualitative grade on the weekly set of journals.  Either way, its nice to work in a few smaller grades into a larger project.

The Ignatian Pedagogical Model doesn't need to be a large project.  You could probably create a one-day lesson using this model.  Its simply a structure.  An apparatus that supports curricular content and instruction.  I like it because it is so simple; the five parts are very easy to understand.   The five parts address educational best practice and allow for great depth, yet they can be flexible and easily addressed.  In addition, I think students would learn to adapt to this method.  They might be critical about the context or curious about the action that follows.  These are both good signs that they are buying what you're selling.  At that point you got 'em, everything else is easy.

Egg Droppin' PBL

This week our 7th grade team did a two day PBL with our students.   Our team consists of Ryan Evans (Science), Jill Beals (English), Adam Hall (Social Studies), Marcia Kaufman (Special Ed), and myself (Math).   The project was something Ryan and I have done before in our classes.  It was a simple egg drop.  Fun and easy for us to connect to our standards.

Materials
1 paper plate, 3 straws, plastic bag, 3 coffee filters, 1 meter of tape, 2 feet of string, one plastic cup, 1 balloon

Grouping
We as a team ranked the kids from 1 - 3 based on how well they work in a group.  As a team we do a lot of group work so we know the kids really well.  Then we had a draft and combined a student from each grouping so a 1, 2, and 3 were together.  We had a lot of fun and the groups really worked well together.  We will definitely do this again.

Standards
Measuring, Converting, Speed Formula, Expository Paper, (next year we might add Newtons first law of motion)

21st Century Skills
Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, Research, Application, Presentation Skills, Creativity

We took the kids out of their regular schedule for two days.  The kids that were selected by each teacher worked in that room for the entire two days.  Here is what each 1/2 day portion looked like.


Tuesday Morning
The kids came into class and got into their groups.  They were really excited to start building.  It was fun to watch them debate on different ideas and then try them out.  Our driving question was, "Which factor is more important: to save your egg, speed or cushion?"  They spent quite a bit of time planning, building, practicing with a golf ball, and redesigning.  After their group was done, they wrote their own individual expository paper on the steps they went through from start to finish.

Tuesday Afternoon
After lunch we headed outside.  We had four classes of egg builders.  Each teacher dropped their class' contraptions from 10 ft.  Each student had to keep the stats of every group in their class.  They recorded time, distance, and whether the egg broke or not.  If they made the first drop, they got to go through the "Evans Gauntlet".   Our science teacher took them up 4 more heights using our football stands.  The final height was on top of our press box.  At one point the entire class was chanting "break" all at once.  It was fun to watch.  Once that ended, the kids went back to the rooms and started putting their presentation together.  Five of the thirty-two groups completed the "Evans Gauntlet".

Wednesday Morning
This day was planned for the kids to research the speed formula and figure out how to apply it to help answer the driving question.  They then took their data and put it into graphs so they could figure out their answer to the speed or cushion question.  They did this by looking at the data from the drops.  We were a little ahead on time, so the day before we added some interesting egg questions. That way if they got done early, they still would have something to work on.  They enjoyed trying to search and answer questions like which came first the chicken or the egg.  Our kids really worked hard and did a nice job in groups.

Wednesday Afternoon
The afternoon was set up for presentations.  Our kids are really learning how to create and give a good presentation.  In fact, most of our kids' presentations were better than some of the presentations from the last education conference I attended.  They are learning to use as little words as possible, if any, and tell a story through their pictures on a Google shared presentation.  Every group presented to their class.  The kids in their groups used a rubric and evaluated each group in their class.  The four winning groups then got to present in front of the entire 7th grade in our auditorium.

We had a great day.  It was fun to see them grow, learn how to solve a problem, and work together.  We are planning on doing one of these at the end of each nine weeks.  The next three are a murder mystery, catapult, and a rocket build and blast off.

MTV Cribs Math and Art Lesson.

This week in class we are learning scale.  We connect it to MTV Cribs since they love celebrities and all their rich stuff.  The kids really enjoy it and it is a fun way to learn and apply scale.  The links for each day show the Google presentation I used in class.

Monday = Intro to scale and practice, teased we would be designing our own "Crib".

Monday we learned scale, watched some interesting videos, and I created scale problems that fit what we were learning.  They love watching videos.  We did this in partners so the kids could talk out their thoughts.

Wednesday = Design and review.

I let them know that on Wednesday we would be designing our "Crib".  Their faces lit up.  We watched an MTV Cribs episode to give them some ideas. We used the website called Floorplanner.  I don't even mess with teaching them how to use these websites.  I just let them discover and ask questions.  Some kids come in with amazing houses already built.  I let them work for 4 - 5 minutes designing then they did a review problem.  As soon as the problem is correct, they get to go back to designing.  This really motivates them to be quick and efficient, something we focus on a lot in my class.

Friday = Scaled down our rooms.

How this works is for math they design their house and we scale down the measurements for our art teacher.  She then takes those measurements and has the kids build their bedrooms and connects it to her standards.  We have done this now for three years and the kids are really excited because as 6th graders they remembered seeing them sitting around the art room.  I honestly never thought when I started teaching that I would be showing MTV Cribs in my math class.  It's not my thing, but it's not about me.  It's about them and what they like.  Our job as teachers is to find a way to connect our subject to their lives, even if it means watching MTV.

Internet not working at school.........Go for a math walk.

As school started today, our plan was to work on the internet.  After 10 minutes of problems we bailed on the plans for the day.  I had the kids get out their phones.  We partnered up and went for a walk.

We are learning some geometry definitions.  I learned years ago that the students couldn't use the formulas if they didn't know which was which.  The words we are learning are perimeter, area, volume, surface area, and lateral surface area.  We walked around our school block taking pictures of items that fit into each category.

We had a blast.  The kids were walking, talking, and taking pictures of math.  They found some really good ones.  It was good because the kids get all the different kinds of areas confused.  Here were some of their ideas:

Perimeter = edges of signs, fences, length around tires......

Area = shadows, sidewalks, roofs, our football field.......

Volume = pool, houses, garbage cans, cushion inside our football slides....

Surface Area = colored globes in yards, painted field goal posts, garbage bag around trash......

Lateral Surface Area = plastic around phone lines, a cone in our parking lot, pads around goal posts.....
            
I didn't know what to expect from the kids but they really found good ideas.  We got back to class and they shared their ideas and we talked about good ones and ones they had in the wrong category.  My favorite part of the day was when one kid saw a possum dead on the road and yelled out "AREA". This is something I will regularly start doing, math walks for our vocab words.  So if you are 1:1 and the internet is down or really slow, don't fret, let your tech people do that.  Just have the kids get out their phones and go for a math walk.

Picture = Totallycoolpics.com

Priority # 1.......Fun

As the school year begins I am always looking for good ways to get the kids "into" my class.  I came home the other day and my 3rd grade daughter was ecstatic about the first day of school.  She was so excited about her class and all the things they were going to learn.  Also that day I talked to one of her friends and I asked how was her first day, she paused and said "amazing".  After thinking for a minute I had to ask what they were so excited about in school.  They both answered with smiles "cursive".   I started laughing because I was expecting just a fun activity that they did on the first day and maybe I could steal a good idea.  I can't compete with cursive.


That got me thinking, young kids really do love school.

It really made me think about how excited kids are in the elementary school to go and learn at school. How come as kids get older, school gets boring and they lose that excitement to learn?  I guess it is because elementary teachers are magic.  They play games, do activities, and keep the kids interested as they learn. How come the older kids get, the more we just give them information and they have to give it back?  Is it just the structure or the ease of creating lessons in that fashion?

Do your kids have fun in your class?  Some teachers might say that their job is not to have fun, it is to teach the kids.  I argue they are one in the same.  The more the students enjoy what they are doing the more they will learn.  School can and should be fun, if it isn't you are doing something wrong.  So whether you teach kindergarteners or seniors, make it your top priority to have fun with your students and everything else will fall into place.

Kids Can't Learn From Teachers They Don't Like

Rita Pierson grabbed the spotlight and spurred a great conversation with her recent TED Talk titled Every Kid Needs a Champion (below).  In her talk she asserts the title of this blog--'kids can't learn from teachers they don't like'.  A statement like this would likely sound like heresy to rigid traditionalists.

'I'm not here to be their friend'.

'I don't care if they don't like me'.

I remember teachers in my youth that made statements like this.  I even remember having instructors in college who reminded us that 'we are not there to be their friends'.

While all of this is true to some degree, being 'liked' by your students opens opportunities that wouldn't exist without the foundation of a strong relationship.  Your students need to know that you care about them and feel the passion you have for  your class.  If you don't show that you care and have passion, why should they?  And you have to be authentic.  Students can sniff out someone being 'fake' like a shark smelling blood in the water.  They have to truly believe that you care about them and the stories they tell, and wow, do they have some stories to tell! Listening to your students and asking them questions about their lives is an investment that will pay dividends throughout the year.  Building meaningful relationships with your students is the cornerstone of effective classroom management.  Here are some ideas:

• Ask questions--Show a genuine interest in students' lives by asking questions and then checking in throughout the year.  
• Be funny--I know its 'not your job to entertain them', but humor goes a long way and makes a good first impression.
• Individualize your relationships--I used to be able to describe the character of a class period, but not necessarily the individual students before I moved to conversations as my main assessment method.
• Let them teach you--Students love it when you are open enough to allow them to teach you something.  Its an act of sincerely listening and students eat it up because they love to be heard.
• Talk to them after/out of school--While I'm sure its been a long day, going to watch their game or chatting with them after school will earn you  a great deal of credibility. 
• Let them be heard--Most students love to be heard.  Their families, dislikes, funny stories, pets, etc. all provide good material for conversations and the beginning of a productive relationship.  
• Be playful--Once you have established the foundation for a relationship and that your class is a place of learning, its OK to lighten things up a little with some playful behavior and non-offensive sarcasm. There is a fine line here, but a little play will go a long way to show students you care about them as a person, not just as a student.
• Be the captain--Being open and playful requires the need to drop the hammer too.  Students need boundaries, and they actually like it when you fairly keep them within class expectations.  I alway error on the side of fairness when I have to discipline students.  

Many students come to school without the first levels of Maslow's Hierarchy satisfied   How can we expect a student to learn if they feel hungry, unsafe, or unloved?  As effective teachers, it has become an unspoken part of our jobs to find a way to bridge these gaps left by a bad home life.  Many of us would probably agree we are part teacher, part counselor.

Building an organic, individual relationship with our students will have a greater impact on learning than any piece of technology or model of pedagogy.  If we scoff at the idea that 'kids can't learn from teachers they don't like', we are undermining any other measure that we believe is effective and spinning our educational wheels.  

What????? The year is almost over?

Since we have been 1:1 for two years now, one major difference I have noticed is time.  Instead of counting down the days before breaks or vacations I am trying to squeeze in a couple more things before we reach the break. Before, I remember times just trying to fill a couple days to get to the end.

I teach 7th grade math and I can remember the year before we got computers I would complain because in May after Istep what were we suppose to do.  I had crammed in everything so the kids would be ready for the test, so what do you do after.

Now I have more projects that I can possibly cover in a year with the kids.  So now instead of trying to just fill time to get us to the end, we are doing projects up til the last day.  This is a rough time of year since we all know how close it is to the end and we are done with our standardized tests.

Normally in May I felt like I was in survival mode, not this year.  We are using the nice weather to get outside and do some fun things.  Two weeks ago we had our 1st Annual Charley Creek Race where the kids designed boats and we raced them down the river.  The next day the kids connected multiple shape perimeter and area, percentages, and speed to the boats they designed.  The final week of school we are designing our own squirt gun competitions and in between days of competitions we are collecting data on the guns so we can compare and contrast the guns by using central tendencies.

I can't quite put my finger on why my attitude has changed.  Is it that I really have a good group of kids,  the fact we are 1:1, is it that we do projects not worksheets, is it the really good relationship I have with the kids since we do project based learning, or is it a combination of all of the above.  Only time will tell, but my guess is our 1:1 initiative and using pbl is the main factor.

Super Duper Math Challenge: Dorky Name.....Amazing Results

In my 7th grade math class last week we learned order of operations.  I introduced it with a funny story about my neighbor and the order he has to eat his breakfast.  Then we played a couple of interactive games where you click on the steps and don't have to do the math.  These are great for kids who don't have strong calculation skills, this way they can have success while they learn the steps.

I needed a follow up activity to actually get them solving problems.  As much as I love doing projects and connecting math to the real world, I feel there are a few topics that just don't fit into those areas.  I haven't figured out a better way to practice other than just to do boring practice problems.

One problem I hear from math teachers, in trying to get away from the book, is how and where do you get your resources?  In this case instead of me making up problems and us just practicing them, I used the kids as my resource.

What did we do to make it fun?  The Super Duper Math Challenge was to create an order of operation problem and make it hard so that the other groups couldn't solve it.  I let the kids pick their own groups.  I like 3 in a group and I had them make one order of operation problem.  Each group made their own problem and had to solve it.  Then the kids rotated around the room and had to solve each others problem.

I had no idea what to expect.  I couldn't believe
the difficulty level of problems they made.  They were so hard, as the day went on I had to put some restrictions on the problems so they weren't too hard.  The kids had a blast.  They loved trying to "stump" the other groups.  After each round they wanted to know if the group that was working on their problem got it right or not.  They really enjoyed the competition.

It got to the point where at the end of class I was getting some real complaints.  They were complaining about not getting to every problem.  I also heard a few complaints about the time going too fast.  I guess maybe our clocks were off that day.  They couldn't get enough and all I did was get them riled up and got out of the way.

Unpredictable Environments

One of my favorite times of the year is just around the corner.  Morel mushroom season.  For those who don't know, morel mushrooms are an elusive wild mushroom that can't be domesticated and are therefore a seasonal delicacy for those who are lucky enough to find them during their 3-4 week growth period.  The defining quirk of morels is their random growth patterns.  They tend to grow well near elm, ash, and poplar trees, but sometimes they pop up in the middle of a tree-less patch of grass or even a gravel driveway (I've seen it).  The unpredictability can make morel hunting frustrating, but it is also what makes it rewarding.  As I reflected on the nature of morels, I couldn't help but compare it to learning.

Morel growth is random, surprising, and inconsistant, and so is authentic learning.  I don't mean memorizing facts.  I mean that moment when a student makes a real, lasting connection to what he or she is learning, it clicks... an 'ah-ha' moment.  These moments are the cherished treasures of educators.  This is why we teach.  Unfortunately, these moments randomly occur in the same inconsistent fashion that morels grow.  So how do we create learning environment that increase the likelihood of these types of authentic learning moments?

While there is no good answer to making the inconsistant consistant--you have to play the odds, like hunting morels.  Since morels can grow anywhere, hunting them down can be maddening, so I play the odds by stopping at every elm, ash, and poplar tree I see as I walk through the woods.  Similarly, I try to play the odds by creating a culture of learning in my classroom with some of the following measures:

• Reward good questions, not just good answers
• Make creative, critical thinkers (students) famous by sharing their thinking with the class
• Provide multiple opportunities to show understanding--digital, physical, verbal, written, etc.  
• Be supportive, but encourage independence
• Award an informal "Genius of the Day" for good thinking
• Provide many opportunities for authentic creation rather than inauthentic regurgitation 
• Model and emphasize real learning as part of your daily language
• Develop sincere, individual relationships with students
• Get feedback from your students about your room, lessons, and class overall--let them be heard
• Have high, yet reachable expectations
• Have passion for EVERYTHING you do--if you don't have it find a new job
• Cover everything you do in a thick layer of enthusiasm--its infectious and makes everything better

I am continually surprised at the odd times that students have a moment of authentic learning, as I am surprised when I found a dozen morels growing in an empty grassy lot last year.  Both unpredictable environments can be frustrating, but also highly rewarding when you play the odds.  

Building Better Homework

Homework is one of the pillars of traditional education.  It's a nearly universal concept in K-12.  However, stress fractures have started to form recently due to the tide of support for homework reform voiced by students, parents, and education reformers.  I've never felt good about the concept of homework, especially as a student who worked and played sports through most of high school.  Now as the parent of a 1st grader who regularly gets math and reading homework I can see how much "extra practice" cuts into the valuable daylight hours kids have after they get home from school.   I've written before about my abolitionist spirt in regard to homework.  I feel home practice can have value, but I really think a guiding principle comes from Joe Bower, "homework should be inspired, not assigned".

Recently one of my colleagues, Amy Degitz, at Wabash Middle School came up with an ingenious idea for homework.  She was studying Ancient Rome and designed a project-based learning lesson where students were required to build a model of something from Ancient Rome, but they had to build it at home.  Their homework assignment was to build.  They had to apply what they were learning in school to a home build project that most of them were very exciting to do (see trebuchet on the right).  I plan on having Amy write a guest blog to give more details, but Amy had another stroke of brilliance.  She made all the students write a proposal for their build and sign a contract that their parents had to sign, agreeing to the final product, work time, and due date for their project.  Students made everything from an aqueduct to Roman armor.

Everyone was on the same page with the project due to the contract.  The students were excited and motivated and they REALLY knew their stuff!  Talk about a win-win.  I was lucky enough to be a judge and grill several of the kids with questions.  I was shocked at how much they knew about their particular build topic and its connection to Rome.  Like any good teacher, I stole this idea immediately.  In fact, I called an audible right in the middle of my current world religions project and inserted a home build component with a contract for students and parents.  They were very excited!  We started three days ago and I've already received about a dozen emails over the weekend about advice on their projects.  Students will have about 2 weeks to finish their home build and I will make this a regular part of my class.  To me, this is what homework should be--not worksheets or other mindless memorization exercises.  Homework should be an engaging, authentic, creative application of what students are learning in school.  A home build is a great concept to build better homework.

Mallows + Spaghetti = Fun Lesson

Let them build!!!!  Kids love to build things.  It completely engages them and they have fun.

It was time to cover volume and surface of a triangular prism.  I gave the kids 6 pieces of spaghetti and 6 marshmallows and they had to build triangular prisms.  It was a lot of fun.  It was interesting to see the kids talk out how to build the different kinds of triangular prisms.  After they built them they had to measure them and calculate. One day we did volume of a triangular prism (there is a review problem and then their choices for the day).  The next day we did surface area of a triangular prism (two review problems and their choices for the day).  For good work and correct answers they got marshmallows.

We could pick up the items and really get a good look.  This helped the kids who were struggling to understand.  The second days shapes were made with much more precision and lined up much better than the day before.  We went through 6 bags of mallows and a big box of spaghetti, it was worth every cent.

Oh, and apparently I say spaghetti funny.  They never miss a beat.

Yummy Math has Yummy Ideas.

 Looking for new ideas for your math class?  Are you tired of the same old routine and not ready to jump off the PBL bridge just yet?  Here is one of my favorite resources.  
Yummy Math is a mathematical wonderland.  It is an incredible resource that connects current events, sports, food, and interesting topics to math lessons.  I love how it follows the calendar year and the posts are always insightful and engaging for the kids.  There is a worksheet that goes with each creative lesson idea.  This involves a lot of reading (great for math) and critical thinking.  I teach 7th grade math and I could use this resource by itself and it would cover all my standards.

Our students can-struction.

I am in my 2nd year of 1:1 computing and we are leaning towards more PBL activities and away from worksheets, but I love this as a resource for ideas.  I take the Yummy Math blog post and tweak it into a project-based lesson.  I have done can-struction, powerball, Super Bowl ads, costumes for Halloween, and many others.  I just found this resource this summer as I joined the Twitter world.  The Yummy Math twitter feed is like an idea machine for new project ideas. I can’t wait to go through their website this summer and plan my math lessons around holidays, sporting events, and the general flow of engaging ideas. 


Instead of kids walking in my room with a slight groan and saying, “What are we doing today?”  They walk in with a smile on their face and say with a little curiosity, “What are we doing today?!!!”  They are engaged, interested, and that has translated to improved student
learning.  We have very few days where we are just covering material and trying to get through the day.  Yummy Math has helped me see math in a different way and make my class a place of fun and learning.  The name really does say it all, they make math Yummy!

What is 1:1?

Simple question, right?  Basically it just means 1 computer (technology device) for every student.  Well I guess, but I see it as much more than that.  It is a complete change of thought.  It should be about opening the world up to our kids and letting them enjoy learning.  I was reminded of this last night as my 2 year old, Daisy, was playing a game on my wife's Kindle.  It was a game where she had to put the pieces of a puzzle onto a picture to form the picture.  She was in heaven.  Every time she got a puzzle right she clapped and cheered, pure joy.  The game covered not just simple shapes, but multiple shaped pieces, colors, hand eye coordination, letter recognition, and words.  There is no way any worksheet could have exposed her to all those things and motivated her in such a way.

One of the things I have learned in our year and a half of 1:1 with our kids is that kids learn better when they are interested and they can see their successes.  I know that is kind of a no brainer, but it is amazing when you actually see it in action.  I have two girls in my class that, let's say, are not the greatest mathematicians and their confidence was bottom of the barrel.  This year I have seen an amazing transition.  Their confidence is growing at an amazing rate.  We just did a round of group projects and their projects were amazing, especially compared to where they started on the first day when they walked into my class.  They were so excited when they graded out with me that they jokingly said, "Maybe we should teach the class?"  I smiled and said, "Maybe you should."  So we decided in a couple of weeks that they could create an activity where they lead the class.  They were ecstatic.   They both told me the next day they went home and told their parents.


Those two girls are just two stories of many that now happen in my class.  Things like that didn't happen when I did worksheets and gave tests every two weeks.  It is the growing experience that changes in your kids when they are 1:1.  We don't all have to be in lock step with each other like a chain gang.

I love teaching in a 1:1 school.  Could I go back to not every kid having a computer?  Yeah, I could still make it work, but there is no way it could be as effective.  When kids get computers, too many teachers find a digital way to use their textbooks.  Sorry, to me that is not truly  a 1:1 environment.  Maybe technically it is, but the essence of the concept is missing.  The learning, laughing, and smiling on Daisy's face reminded me of that.

Student Engagement and the School Cliff

Recently Gallup released some polling data concerning student engagement.  They also offered some commentary to help explain what they call, "The School Cliff".  I think anyone who has worked in education has observed this sad phenomenon.  What is mainstream education willing to do about it?

Gallop suggests more project-based learning, alternate paths for student who are not college bound, and making high school more like elementary.  I think thats pretty good advice.

One of the major obstacles to making those changes is the antiquated assessment methods that measure "student learning" and often affect teacher pay.  Teachers receive mixed messages of changing teaching methods and raising test scores.

If we would seriously address the issue of student engagement many of the other factors such as socioeconomic status would be mitigated.  Many of us throw caution to the wind and take the plunge into authentic learning and assessment and let the test scores fall where they may.  However, we will never see widespread changes until we free teachers from the shackles of standardized test pressure.

A One Day, 250 Student Project-Based Learning

Our school went 1 to1 last year.  We embraced project-based learning about the same time.  Since then, several schools have visited our school to see it all in action.  We aren't experts, but we are in motion and functional.  After a neighboring school came to visit, my principal approached me with a unique idea.  What if we took our entire 7th grade student body to the visiting school and did a one day technology-rich project to really show them what we do.  He charged the 7th grade team with designing a project to be completed in one day that would demonstrate how our classes operate.  Whoa.  With schoolboards, newspapers, and a school of teachers observing, participating, and evaluating our work, the pressure was on.

We decided to design a complex murder mystery project that would incorporate Common Core standards in mathematics and English language arts, as well as content from our state science standards.    For nearly a month we toiled away on a shared Google document designing learning activities, writing testimonies and biographies of the suspects, and finding a way to connect everything. We created a fictional narrative and 8 learning activities that involved an initial murder followed by a second murder that occurs mid-day.   The initial evidence pointed to the victim of the second murder, so students were going to be forced to reevaluate and revise the evidence.

Students were asked to create a short presentation of who they thought the killer was considering the evidence and motive in a clear, logical summation.  We created two rubrics--one to use while students worked and a second for their final presentation.  When the work time was over, students shared their presentation with multiple teachers to provide opportunities for revision.  Teachers discussed the results and chose 5 groups to showcase at the end of the day who then presented to the entire group of 250+ students, 20+ teachers, schoolboard members, and local media.

I built a website to host and organize the activities and provide information that students would need throughout the day.  The students were not given any direct instruction and only minimal guidance during our entry event.  We invited a local police officer to interrupt the opening statement on a fake project about topsoil to trick the kids and grab their attention.  The police officer came in yelling, "stop, stop, stop, I have to stop this project!".  We divided 250+ students into four main areas with at least 2 teachers per area.  The schedule for the day was completely loose and students worked through their lunchtime.

The nature of the project was unique.  Its was meant to be instructional to students and teachers.  We wanted to create an engaging, independent learning activity for students, but also a sound demonstration of a free-range, student centered approach to teaching learning in a 1 to 1 environment for the teachers to observe.  Our activities and overall concept was designed for two simultaneous audiences.  The school we visited plans on moving into a 1 to 1 environment next year, so they had an interest in seeing our simulated environment in action.

I think it was a fantastic success, and I think everyone learned something.  We had some major technology issues right at the beginning, which hurt our momentum.  We tested all of the material on our students computers at our school, but for some reason almost everything was blocked at the school we were visiting.  This was a great lesson to learn about technology--you must remain flexible and be able to improvise   Create paper-backups for critical parts of the project in case technology fails.  We also learned that if you are planning on having 250 students move around an area, there needs to be some traffic control to prevent groups of students from turning into herds.  For this project, 4 students was probably too many in a group--as it usually is.

I felt like there was a stark difference between the kids who were accustomed to an independent/project-based environment and those who were not.  Their use of technology also demonstrated this difference.  Some of the students at the school who didn't have experience learning with computers used their array of borrowed laptops, personal tablets, and cell phones for games and other time-wasters.  I only had to talk to 4 or 5 students all day about staying on task, but it shows that there is a learning curve to this style of learning and schools need to slowly foster a change in their overall culture.

Our 7th grade team took this opportunity to experiment with an open schedule.  Students didn't go to "classes".   We focussed on one project all day that was heavy in English and math.  We would like to do this more often in 7th grade and focus on other subjects. We are working on other projects similar to this and discussing new daily schedule options.  I will be sure to blog about it!

We Need a Serious Math Revolution Part III

First things first.  Before we start talking about different ways to teach math with the kids, the teacher has to look at math in a different way.  Math is everywhere.  The hard part is opening your mind, once you do that it is easy.  Don't worry about the kids, it comes much easier for them. There are 3 main parts to my class.  Stump the class (vocabulary), Group Projects, and Math Journals.



Group Projects
In my class we don't use the textbook and worksheets and I don't lecture.  We do projects and I love them.  The kids are much more motivated and really have fun doing them.  The main math connection is they have to justify their answer mathematically.  Sometimes I tell them what math we are going to cover.   We also have had a lot of success when I show them a video or infographic and we as a class ask curiosity questions.  Then the kids pick a question or two to solve and I pick a question for them to solve.  They create a presentation justifying their answer by showing the math to us.  They present their findings and the rest of the kids ask questions and try to find errors.  Some really good conversations have come from these presentation days.

Here is a list of projects we have done this year and the math connected to them:

Egg drop - the kids built contraptions to protect their egg.  We calculated the speed and had to convert it to mph.  Then they had to explain why their idea worked or not.  We analyzed the speeds of breaks to not breaks.  They love building things.

Business Logo -  The kids designed a business logo and a business.  Then I showed them this infographic on business colors.  Then they had to decide whether or not to change their logo and explain why by reading and analyzing the info from the infographic.  They worked in partners and they each had to take a topic they have learned in a math journal (will cover that below) and write a story problem that connects to their business.  They had to solve it and teach it to the class as part of their presentation.  Since kids all learn our math standards in different orders there was a lot of kids teaching kids.

Halloween costumes - The kids dressed up for Halloween and picked a category to compete against the other kids.  We used perimeter, area, volume, surface area, and lateral surface area.  They could choose biggest of each category or smallest.  Then that day we calculated each kids costume.  Here are the winners.  We had a blast!

Canstruction - Our student council had a food drive for Thanksgiving.  We took the cans and created sculptures or designs.  Then the groups created story problems in two of these categories: perimeter, area, volume, surface area, and lateral surface area with answers.  Then the kids rotated around the room and solved each others problems.  Here is a castle and a mushroom.

Minecraft -  I gave the kids a week to build things in minecraft (not class time).  They had to build everything on their own.  Then they found lines and learned slope and y-intercept and had to apply y=mx + b to the pictures.  They also had to find right triangles and learn the pythagorean theorem, legs, and hypotenuse.

Xmas shopping - The kids learned markup, discount, sales tax, and tip.  They went xmas shopping for people in their families.  They choose presents or took their family out to dinner and applied the math concepts to the prices.

Candy Infographic -  We used an infographic about candy consumption to learn ratios and proportions.  The kids brought in candy and pop and we used those stats also to help us learn the concepts.

Their Choice -  The kids were given 9 project choices.  They picked the one they were the most interested in and answered questions that came from a class brainstorming session.  They also had to create a proportion story problem and solve it.  I had two honor students try and find the speed of the basketball coming through the net to the floor.  Why?  They were curious and motivated.  I think that is physics, high school physics.


Math Journals
Math journals are how we learn our standards.  The kids pick a lesson, read it, connect it to something they like, create the problems, solve the problems, write a summary of the math steps, and explain it to me with out looking at their work.  I give them two days a week in class to work on these.  I love these.  The kids really enjoy them and learn the concepts really well.
Here are links to my math journal pages. 
Math Journals A - D
Math Journals E - G
Math Journals H - Q
Math Journals R - Z


Stump the Class
I play a game with the kids called stump the class.  It is very simple.  The kids present a picture or a video with a list of 5 - 7 of our math vocabulary.  The other kids in class try to guess how the math word fits into the picture.  As they explain the connection they also have to explain the definition or the math steps.  If no one guesses correctly after 10 - 15 guesses that student is the Stump the Class Champ until they are dethroned.  The kids really have fun with this and you can't believe how creative they get.  Below is an example.  

Prime
Composite
Percent
Surface Area
Multiplying Integers
Slope
Two Step Equations

Here are the connections that the kids would say out loud in class.
Prime = Bears player 31
Composite = Lions player 21
Percent = Percent of bears fans to lions fans.  Numerator divided by denominator, move decimal two places.
Surface Area = Leather covering football.  Covering a 3D shape.  Multiplying Integers = Both players numbers are odd.  Even # of negatives = positive answer.  Odd # of negatives = negative answer.  Slope = The trajectory of the ball or the players arms.  Rise over run and positive and negative slope.  Two step equations = Quarterback hikes it then throws it.  Do the opposite of adding and subtracting then opposite of multiplying and dividing.

Yeah, but where is the proof?  How do you know this is better?

I taught for 11 years of worksheet homework (15 problems a night, two nights a week), tests one every other friday, and I was the deliverer of new concepts.

I quit all that a year and a half ago. The environment in my room has completely changed.  I use to feel that some days we were just trying to make it through a day.  Sometimes just going through the motions. Those days are few and far between.  I have more project ideas than I can even do in a year.  Kids are way more engaged.  They have wonder, fun, ask questions (good thinking questions),  and learn on their own.  I have had more aha or ohh moments (where you can see in their faces they got it) in this year and a half than in all other years combined.  I love it, I just smile, turn around, and walk away.

Picture Source.  http://www.realizedworth.com/2012/11/is-your-corporate-volunteering-giving-program-a-perk-or-a-revolution.html/revolution
Picture Source. EA Sports

We Need a Serious Math Revolution Part II

There has been an article titled "Should we Teach Algebra" recently floating around on Twitter.  My question is what is the purpose of our current math class progression?  Why in high school do we progress from algebra to geometry to algebra II to pre calculus?  The answer is simple.  That is the way we have done it for decades. What job requires you to do 30 two step equations with the distributive property? Absolutely none.  There is no purpose for the way we cover math with tests and meaningless problems. IT IS 2012. The kids don't see any reason to learn it because we don't teach the application.  The reason we have math is to solve problems and get answers, not math questions but real problems.  I often hear high school teachers say that they can't apply their subject to the real world.  Why?  Is it their lack of willingness to really try or is the math we teach irrelevant in its current form?  

Every kid has to know how to use fractions, decimals, discount, formulas, Pythagorean theorem....blah, blah, blah.  I think schools should have ....... well I guess problem solving classes that have elements of math within every problem.  So that way there is a purpose to learn, shall we say, number language.  Going through the process and figuring out the reason we do math is way more important then if you can randomly on a Tuesday get 16/20 right on a multiplying integer quiz.  It is a waste of time to make kids memorize and remember every piece to every part of math.  Need to solve a problem, look up the steps, learn it, and then apply it.  Doing problems out of a book is a complete waste of time.  Hmmm... I wonder why kids hate math so much.  They can't see the purpose, there is no connection to any relevance in life.
                                                                
No, better yet, why do kids have to calculate?  It's 2012.  We are not going back to pre-Internet, or for that matter even pre-technology.  If we loose it, everything else will go too.  Ever watch the show Revolution?  At that point it is basic survival........thinking.  Face it, that is why we are where we are in society.....thinking.  Let's teach our kids to think.  Not "how to think", but "to think".  Solve interesting questions.  They should be able to learn and understand concepts and be able to apply them.  Should kids ever have to solve a problem without a calculator?  Why, how do adults do it?  Maybe I'm lazy but I know I would spend more time looking for a calculator than actually doing long division.

Finally let's take a look at music.  I read this somewhere and can't remember but this is a great point from someone else.  If we taught music like we do math the kids would never play a song in their entire K - 12 career.  Why?  Because they would have to learn scales, chords, arpeggios, modes and every other little piece of music.  Then we would throw them out to the real world and say make the connection.  That is how we teach math.  We need to have the kids to not just learn the pieces but see how and why they apply to our world.  Let them play a song before they graduate for heavens sake.

Now I know saying this is all fine and dandy, but how do you do this?

That is on the way in the next blog.

Picture Source.  http://www.realizedworth.com/2012/11/is-your-corporate-volunteering-giving-program-a-perk-or-a-revolution.html/revolution

We Need a Serious Math Revolution Part I

All textbook, worksheet, lecturers, and test teachers wake up, this is for you.  Why?????????  Why are you still teaching this way?

Seriously, you can not possibly make a good case for learning using these items.  IT IS 2012.  There is Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, and a million other social media outlets where teachers are sharing ideas, better ways to allow the kids to learn.  Our kids are way too intelligent to be spoon fed information.  Let them go explore and learn it (with a little help here and there).  When we teach things to students that they could figure out on their own, we are stealing that      learning from them.  They would retain something they learned themselves better and longer than if we just tell them.  So you say they won't want to learn it, you're right, so make it a part of something fun.  Yes I said fun.  If your kids aren't having fun while they learn then you are missing a huge motivational factor.

I love being a teacher and working with the kids everyday but I hate the old school definition of teacher/teaching.  The word teacher or teaching means the person that delivers or the delivery of information to a group of students.  Either we need to completely get rid of those words in our educational system or we need to change peoples perceptions.  The kids have brains, make the students use those things.  Being told how to do something then repeating it is not learning. It is insulting our kids.

Math is a beautiful thing that anyone on this planet could find and connect to any topic they like.  When you spoon feed and lecture about math processes you are killing their passion to learn.  You are also not showing them or helping their capabilities of learning.

Shelve those stupid archaic artifacts and let the kids explore, struggle, and finally really learn and apply what they have learned. 

Coming.......
Part 2  Let's change the whole structure of math classes.

Part 3  How to teach math involving applications and processes.

Picture Source.  http://www.realizedworth.com/2012/11/is-your-corporate-volunteering-giving-program-a-perk-or-a-revolution.html/revolution