Math Tales from the Spring

My New Blog

2012-01-12T14:48:00.001-06:00

I'd like to invite all my readers to follow my new blog,

The Hungry Hugheys

Over Christmas vacation, my youngest son asked me if I would make a cookbook of all the recipes he grew up on so that he could begin cooking for himself. After thinking about how best to go about collecting and typing up all the recipes, I decided a blog format would be the best way to collect and share the recipes. This way, the entire family will be able to access the recipes anytime, anywhere, as long as they have their phone, computer, Ipad, Kindle, etc handy.

I have been having a great time archiving all of our favorite recipes and have been getting wonderful feedback from all my friends who are excited about trying the recipes. I'm not a great chef or anything. I am just a mom who had to feed three hungry teenagers. The food is simple, yet delcious. Stop by. If you decide to follow me, you will get one new recipe every day in your reader.

Linear Function Review Booklet

2011-12-19T11:54:00.000-06:00

My algebra I students have just finished the first semester and have completed their study of linear functions. I wanted to put together a review booklet for them to complete on the first day back in January which will summarize our study of linear functions.

This is what I've come up with and I thought I'd share it with all of you.

Slope Book Project

2011-10-21T21:48:00.000-05:00

I wanted to share this project with you all earlier, but I was waiting until they were all turned in to evaluate how the project went and if there was anything I would change.

In our scope and sequence, we solve all types of linear equations and inequalities in Unit 2 and then we begin our study of graphing linear equations and inequalities in unit 3. One of my colleagues and I got this idea to introduce a project on slope back in unit 2 before the students had ever heard of slope and make it due the week that we began our study of graphing.

Our hope was that the kids would do some research on their own and have some mental file folders all ready for the knowledge they would receive in class. The project was an overwhelming success. The students were required to make a book all about the four types of slope. They had to research what the four types of slope were, write an introduction in their own words and then find 10 real world pictures that represented the four types of slope. Each picture had to have a caption. They could capture these pictures on their own, search the web, or draw the pictures. We gave them the choice to present the project digitally or the old-fashioned way.

Some of the students made amazing Animoto presentations, some made power point, some just made a little book out of notebook paper or construction paper. I think we accomplished our goal of having the students learn a little on their own before the material was presented in class. This exercise seemed to make the learning more meaningful as we went through our lessons on slope this week.

Mission Accomplished: 100% Engagement!

2011-09-22T06:22:00.000-05:00

I'm not gonna lie. I'm a little overwhelmed this year. I have a total student load of 182 and it is starting to wear me down. I started the year with great enthusiasm and lots of creativity, but quickly found myself working 12-14 hours a day in order to prepare activities and keep up with the grading involved in such a high student load. I've got a very rambunctious group of ninth graders in algebra I which has led to lots of parent phone calls and some one-on-one counseling sessions in the hall trying to promote better behaviour. I'm slowing getting the classroom management situation under control and the students are starting to learn that as soon as they start talking, I STOP. They are realizing that the more they talk and act silly, the longer the lesson takes and the less time they have to start their homework in class.

For the last couple of weeks I have found myself in survival mode. Lots of direct instruction and guided practice. The kids are learning, but they are bored and so am I. Yesterday, I just had to do something different.

After a brief lesson on using the distibutive property to solve equations containing parentheses, I had the students scoot their desk next to their partners desk and then gave everyone some low odor dry erase markers (this is part of their school supply requirements). I then put up problems like this:

I gave them two minutes to work the problems out on their desks. I told them I wouldn't help anyone and that they would have to rely on their partner if they weren't sure what to do.

After about two minutes I began to uncover the steps using the "shade" feature of my smartboard. You could hear the moans and groans from the students as they realized their mistakes.

My day was made when one of my students in the last period of the day said "Can we do this more often? I really learn good like this." All the other kids chimed in, "yeah, let's do this again." I said we would definitely do it again sometime and I complimented them on everyone being on task and engaged.

In Case You Need Something To Be Thankful For

2011-09-09T06:36:00.000-05:00

Can you imagine how your school would be affected if 1/3 of your teachers had either completely lost their homes or been displaced from their home?

That is what Bastrop High School is facing this week. How do you resume the education of your community's young people in the face of such devastating losses? You can read a good article HERE about how the school there is beginning to pick up the pieces. Imagine trying to teach Algebra to students who have had their lives turned upside down by loss and grief. Imagine the trauma these students and teachers are facing.

Although Bastrop is about 90 minutes from Paradise, Texas, I smell the fire and see the smoke every morning as I get in my car to go to work. The sadness is overwhelming as I contemplate what the citizens of Bastrop will be going through in the coming days and weeks.

Second Time's the Charm!

2011-09-08T17:56:00.000-05:00

The first year I taught at Paradise High School (2009-2010), I taught an Algebra I class that drove me crazy. I posted about this story about a group of immature, love struck boys right here. Go back and read it to get a good picture of the class atmosphere.

When I got my rosters this year, I discovered that three of the boys in that class were in one of my Math Models classes this year. I was really torn. At our school we have the right to refuse to teach any student who has previously failed our class. I really wrestled with whether or not to leave the three boys on my roster or give them to someone else. In the end I kept them and I couldn't be happier.

I had the best experience today. My math models classes were doing an "Around the World" activity today to prepare for tomorrow's test and I was walking around helping and generally making sure everyone was staying on task. All three of these students were working and even being successful on "difficult" word problems. I couldn't help but comment on how much they had improved since their freshmen year and how they didn't even seem like the same students. I told them how helpless I had felt at not being able to help them succeed in Algebra I. I really struggled with that class and had great doubts in my teaching ability due to the 75% failure rate of the class.

One of the boys said to me, "Mrs. H, why would you blame yourself? It's never the teacher's fault! We were just lazy! You shouldn't beat yourself up. You are a good teacher or how else would we be able to do the math we are doing right now?"

Needless to say, I was shocked! They were doing the math! All this time I have believed that they didn't learn anything that year. And speaking of that, how did they learn anything? They didn't do any homework. Many of their tests were turned in blank or half-completed. It seemed as if I was teaching to a brick wall. But here they are as juniors, being successful in my class! Maybe their Geometry teacher finally knocked some sense into them or maybe they just grew up. I'm not sure what happened, but I think it is going to be a great year!

Check This Out

2011-09-01T06:26:00.003-05:00

Please stop by and see Jen @ lil Mop Top today for her Teaching Thursdays. She shares a great Pair Share acitivity for reviewing linear equations.

New Student Folders

2011-08-30T05:57:00.002-05:00

I want to share an idea that has made my life so much easier this school year. Every school year I get a little flustered when new students unexpectedly show up in my classroom (sometimes in the middle of a lesson.

I want to be able to get them all the information they will need about our class with as little disruption to the class as possible. This summer, I had the brilliant idea to make up New Student folders containing all the information I hand out on the first day, a little note explaining what to do, and a piece of candy.

My note says something like this:

"Welcome to our class. Whether you are new to Paradise High School or you are just had a schedule change, change can be stressful. This packet will explain everything you need to know about this class. Please complete the following steps:

1. Fill out the student information sheet (yellow)
2. Please take home the Parent information sheet and have your parent (or guardian) fill out and return tomorrow
And so on . . .

Before school started, I made up 20 of these and boy, have I been using them! Just yesterday, I had three new students and I expect more to trickle in all this week.

Classroom Arrangement

2011-08-26T17:00:00.000-05:00

This summer I was privileged to hear one of my readers, Jen from Lil Mop Top speak at CAMT (Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching). She had so many great ideas, but one of the things I learned from her was how to arrange your desks so that students are in rows and facing forward, but are able to pair up or get into groups of four very quickly and then back to rows just as easily

I arranged my desks like she said. Here is a pic of my classroom (before I'd done any decorating)with my desks arranged in what I call pods. The students sit close to a partner, but are able to turn their desks quickly to group up with the pair of students directly behind them to form a group of four. I call this group of four a pod. There is a good bit of space between the pods.

We have been doing activities this week that are designed to help them get to know their partners and their pod mates. I have been having them get together with their partner and with their pod at various times during the lessons. I have them go back to rows when I lecture so they can focus on me and the lesson.

I love this new seating arrangement. It is really the best of both worlds. Rows for direct instructions, partners and groups for activities.

Translating Verbal Phrases to Algebraic Expressions Activity

2011-08-25T17:40:00.003-05:00

Today in algebra I we are learning how to take a verbal phrase and translate it into algebraic expression. These are the topic notes for the lesson.

We worked through the entire first page and then I gave them baggie containing these cards.

The students sorted the cards (they were seated in pairs) with the verbal phrases on one desk and the algebraic expressions on the other. They then matched up the correct verbal phrase with the correct algebraic phrase. There are 6 extra algebraic phrase cards to try and throw them off.

We then debriefed and went over the answers and I let them restack them if they missed any. After going over the answers, we finished the topic notes and did a few guided practice problems.

Tomorrow, we will do this activity before our quiz.

You've Got To Get This!

2011-08-24T20:43:00.004-05:00

Have you guys seen these? I saw them at Target this weekend and had to have them. I cleaned out the shelf (6 packs) and I still want more! I already used them in Algebra I today for a warm-up activity.

What fun activities would you do if you had these???

2011-08-24T06:01:00.003-05:00

Our first unit in Algebra I this year is functions. The very first lesson deals with multiple representations of functions and determining whether a relation is a function. The lesson seemed so drab and boring so I used to activities to teach the concepts. I think they worked quite well.

In the first activity I gave the students this paper. The paper has four verbal phrases like the "y-values of the set are four times the corresponding x-value"

Then I gave them a baggie of cut up cards. Each card has a either a graph, a set of ordered pairs, a mapping and a table. Also each card has a random number in the top right corner.

I had the students match each verbal phrase with the corresponding representation. After they found the four cards that matched their verbal description, they wrote the number of the card in the answer boxes below each verbal description.

The only thing I will do different next year is add an equation card so they will have to match 5 cards to each verbal description.

Next, we talked about the definition of a function and I gave them a few examples then I gave them this baggie of cards and had the students (who were seated as partners) designate one desk for functions and one desk for non-functions. I then had them sort the cards into either function or not function. There was a lot of really good discussion that went one. At the end we debriefed and I went over the answers and let them redo their piles. Today, we will talk about the vertical line test, but it should be a breeze for them after yesterday's lesson.

First Day Reflections

2011-08-23T05:56:00.003-05:00

First day went well with one exception. One student tried to come in my room with a bandana hanging out of his pocket. I wouldn't let him enter and told him that he would have to give me the bandana (which is what we are required to do with bandanas). He said he wouldn't give me the bandana and I said "Well it's your choice to make, but I'm not letting you in my room with the bandana." He ultimately made the choice to leave. Ughh, I hate getting off on the wrong foot with kids like him. Hopefully, he will come back today without the bandana and we can work it out.

Interesting observations:

I took a survey and found that 96% of my students have some type of access to the internet.

In my first period class, I have 3 girls named Tristen and one named Tristessa.

In my third period class, I have a Devan, a Devon, and a Devin!

The students loved the music. I played "I Like to Move It" and "You're Unbelievable" between classes and it seemed to help loosen them up and not be afraid to participate in the group activities we did.

I didn't get to every single activity I had planned, but I'd rather overplan than underplan.

This is the first year that I did not go over my entire syllabus on the first day and I liked it. Usually, I don't have a voice on the 2nd day of school from all the talking I do, but this year, I made the students do most of the talking.

Downside: I can't remember what I've already said in each class concerning rules and procedures so I may have to start from scratch on day 2 so that I don't forget something.

First Day Plans

2011-08-20T17:00:00.003-05:00

I think I've got my first day figured out. I'm posting it here so I'll have it for next year. I've decided to mostly focus on get-to-know you activities and classroom procedures.

Here's my plan:

First Ten Minutes

Students fill in their information sheet and fill out a colored index card with their name and birthday. I'll then organize the cards in a file by month and have them ready to display on my Birthday bulletin board at the beginning of every month.

Songs that will be playing in the background: We're Going To Be Friends (The White Stripes), Every Morning (Sugar Ray)

M&M Activity (15 min)
Next we will practice working with a partner and forming groups by doing the M&M activity. I have a questionnaire for students to answer individually that correspond to an M&M color. After students answer their questionnaire, we will form groups of 4 and students will take turns drawing out an M&M and then share the answer that corresponds to the color of M&M they drew. Students eat the M&M's at the end!

Songs that will be playing in the background: Realness of Space (Bob Schnieder), I'm Yours (Jason Mraz)

Syllabus (10 min): I will discuss the rules and procedures portion of my syllabus

Notecard Activity (15 min)1. Each student will be given a blank index card. They will write down their favorite number smaller than 20 and then put a negative symbol in front of their number.

2. Students will circulate around the room with music playing in the background.
As they circulate they will try to shake hands and introduce themselves to as many people as possible. Every time they shake hands with someone, they trade index cards.

3. Every once in awhile I will stop the music and students should freeze and pair up with whoever they are standing next to. While they are standing there, I will give them some kind of directions. Like, "add your two numbers", or "subtract your two numbers", or "find the average of your two numbers."

Music Playing in the background: We are Family (Sister Sledge), What I Like About You (The Romantics), and I'll Be There For You (Theme song from Friends)

Thanks to Jenn from Lil Moptop and Amber Caldwell for the ideas!

Making Connections Through Music

2011-08-20T06:58:00.003-05:00

One of my goals this year is to use motivational music to connect with my students. My biggest problem in using music is knowing what is relevant to kids these days and what they would like. I found a great website that has given me all kinds of ideas and exposed me to artist that I would not normally be aware of.

I have been saving the songs I really like into my Edmodo Library for use throughout the year. I may have something like "Tuesday Tunes". I'm not really sure how I will use the music. The slower pace tempo songs, I am dowloading onto my Itunes for a playlist of music to listen to during group activities and classwork time.

But here is a question for you techies out there. I have found this very inspirational song by Eminem that I would like to play but it contains two MF's towards the end of the song. Is there anyway to play this You Tube Video and Bleep the MF's? If not, I guess I'm gonna have to scrap the song.

Ask Three Before Me

2011-08-18T06:01:00.003-05:00

Are you ever exhausted by the end of the day by the endless questions asked of you? I'm not talking about questions having to do with content. I'm talking about things like, "Do we have homework today?", "Do we have a quiz today?", "What's the date today (even though it is written on the board)?, "What's for lunch today?", "Why do we have to learn this today?" And on and on and on.

I was joking around with some of my colleagues about the exhaustion you feel at the end of the day and how you just don't even feel like talking for the first hour or so when you get home. For me, I usually just sink into a chair with a nice cold beverage and veg out by reading blogs and catching up on Facebook. Unfortunately, if you have children to take care of, this just isn't possible.

Anyway, one of my fellow teachers spoke up and said, "I don't have this problem." I said what do you mean? Your kids don't ask you millions of silly questions everyday? She said "No, I have a rule." She said her rule is "Ask 3 before me." She requires her students to ask three other students before asking her any question.

I'm going to try this rule this year. I plan on making a big poster to remind students to "Ask three before me." It will probably take me a while to break the habit of answering every single question that is asked of me, but I'm going to give it my best shot!

This Just Tops All

2011-08-17T18:00:00.003-05:00

I know my readers are going to think I am lying, but I just completed a 3rd day of successful and pleasant inservice. I know, I know, some of you did not know things like this could happen but I am here to say, it happened to me!

Morning time was work in our room time. At 11:30 we had a catered lunch provided by the district's school board. They served us steak, baked potatoes, Ceasar Salad, and homemade rolls. After lunch we got a huge surprise! Every single one of us was awarded a $750 retention bonus. I mean we got the checks right then and there and everything!!!! On top of that, all the employees (unfortunately not me) who are enrolled in the dirstrict's insurance plan received a $500-$1000 rebate check. You see, our district had such a low amount of claims this year that the insurance company gave us a huge rebate. Instead of pocketing the money, they just split it up among the employees. Many of my coworkers walked away with almost $2000 bucks today.

Wow is all I can say. Maybe you have wondered why I refer to my new school as "Paradise High School" when we all know that paradise doesn't really exist in the world of education. When I first came to this school I was amazed how teachers were valued and treated. The beginning of the year convocation was a true celebration with the board and superintendent making speeches about how important teachers were to this district. My jaw almost hit the floor in 2009 when the retention bonus checks and insurance rebate checks started flowing. I couldn't believe there was a place that rewarded loyal teachers so well. Since 2009, I continue to be amazed by the passion people have for teaching in this district. Hardly anyone ever leaves our school unless it is to retire. I know now why people in the community told me how lucky I was to get a job at "Paradise High School". No, everything is not perfect, no I don't agree with every decision made, but at the end of the day it feels good to be acknowledged for your hard work and the cash ain't so bad either!

Convocation Day!

2011-08-16T18:50:00.003-05:00

Oh how I love convocation day in Texas schools! If you don't know what convocation day is, you probably aren't from Texas. Most Texas school districts have a tradition of beginning the school year with a huge gathering where all the district's
teachers (k - 12) come together to celebrate the beginning of school. These convocations are kinda like a pep rally for teachers. There is usually a lot of feel good music, a welcome from the superintendent, introductions of new staff, a motivating speaker, and then a luncheon. You laugh, you cheer, and sometimes you even cry.

Over the years, I have heard some pretty good motivational speakers. A couple really stand out as having life changing messages. LIke the time I heard
Buck Brannaman whose life was the inspiration for the novel "The Horse Whisperer". His life story and the lessons he has learned working with horses have stayed with me for years.

And then there was Riney Jordan. He is a lifelong educator who told an inspirational tale of his son, a reluctant learner and classic underachiever. Riney had me laughing one minute and then crying the next. His story had a huge impact on how I saw not only my students, but my own children.

But the speaker we heard today tops them all. Wow, is all I can say. The speaker was so good my colleagues and I were still discussing his message this afternoon during our department meeting.

Aric Bostick is one of the nation's leading motivational speakers for students and teachers. The amazing thing about Aric is he is a graduate of the school I currently teach in. His life story was a tear jerker in places, but the fact that he owed his success to many of my colleagues was astounding to me.

Aric currently travels all across the nation speaking to students and teachers. He has even spoken at Harvard University. If your school ever needs a little booster, look him up!

And the Nightmares Begin

2011-08-16T05:49:00.002-05:00

Lately I have been obsessed about my activities for the first week of school. I want the first week of school to be a positive and productive experience for my students. I want them to learn my procedures AND some mathematics. I have been searching blogs and websites for interesting activities and my head is swimming with all the possibilities.

I guess when I went to sleep this was all still on my mind because I had two "school" nightmares. Both were essentially the same. In the first one, I did so many "fun" activities on the first day of school that I had no time to share my rules and procedures with the class. When I walked into my room on the second day, there were freshmen scattered all over the room like little ants. They were behind my desk, in my chair, sitting at my computer, standing behind my podium. AAAHHH! I started trying to get them all out of my "personal space", but they wouldn't budge. For me, a true control freak, this was quite a frightening nightmare.

The second dream was essentially the same. Again, I did not teach the rules and procedures and the second day of school, not a single person would listen to me. They were texting on their phone, talking to their neighbor, sharpening their pencil, and just basically ignoring me.

I think both of these dreams go back to the beginning of my career when I had so much trouble learning classroom management. I had little control over my classes and no clue on how to achieve any sense of order. I'm sure many people who came into my classroom those first couple of years thought I would never make it. Eventually, out of desparation, I began to search out resources and information to help me. I would say that now, classroom management is one of my biggeset strengths but the fear is always there that 30 teenagers could take over my class if they really wanted and there's nothing I could do about it!

I wish all inservice days were like today!

2011-08-15T20:15:00.003-05:00

Today was the first day back at school for teachers. Normally, I dread these days of boring, endless meetings, but today I actually enjoyed myself. The reason for my positive disposition towards the first day of inservice is simply because everything we did seemed to have a purpose and was presented in a meaningful way.

We started with a breakfast provided by the Student Council and a short welcome back from the principal. We then broke up to meet as departments. The math department chair had all of us come to the our math work room/lunch room and asked for our help in organizing it. This room was a former classroom that we confiscated to have a place to eat lunch as a group and a store room for supplies and resource materials. Over time, the room has become a dumping ground for anything anyone didn't want. There were boxes of workbooks, old projects, out of date textbooks, and even junk from other departments.

I was given the job of organizing the supply closet. Whoo Hoo! This was right up my alley. I think many teachers go into teaching simply because the have a school supply fetish that they never have to grow out of if they go into education. I went right to work on my task. Throwing out old stuff that didn't belong in the cabinet and then sorting and rearranging. Meanwhile all the guys were opening boxes and discarding much of the contents. We found materials that dated all the way back to the 80's. It felt so great to purge the room of all the decades of accumulation. It took 15 of us about three hours to finish the task and I have to say, we had a blast working and laughing together about the things we found. At the end of the three hours, we had an immaculate place to eat lunch and relax. Every supply is in its proper place, the resource materials are all organized by subject and we rearranged the tables that we eat at.

Our afternoon meeting was on safety and at first I was kinda bummed about the topic because I thought it would one of those boring presentations you sit through every year, but the AP in charge did a fantastic job developing a comprehensive safety plan for our school. For the first two years I worked at Paradise High School, it always bothered me that no one talked about what to do in case of different emergencies. We had no drills, no code words, no plan. My previous school had a very carefully thought out and detailed procedures for just about any disaster that you can imagine. It is reassuring to me that we know have a comprehensive plan of action and I feel confident in this AP's ability to oversee the implementation.

Tomorrow, we are going to be served breakfast by the PTO, work in our rooms, and then we will be meeting with all the math teachers in the district (3 high schools). I have been asked by the district's curriculum director to facilitate the algebra I meeting for all the district's algebra I teachers. I will be discussing scope and sequence, our pacing calendar, and presenting several activities. I will be presenting Kate Nowak's Add 'Em Up, Amber Caldwell's 52 Card Pick-up, and my very own, Ghosts in the Graveyard

First Week of School Part One

2011-08-03T08:08:00.003-05:00

Planning for a successful first week of school can be challenging even for experienced teachers. You can plan every last detail, activity, and lesson only to find your plan goes to hell in a handbag the minute it encounters 150 teenagers and a schizophrenic administration that decides to change bell schedules, call impromptu class meetings, or otherwise generally disrupt the learning process. The paperwork and record keeping that goes along with the first week can be overwhelming when you are busy trying to learn names, and organize your own classes. The best we can do is decide what our goals are for the first week of school, plan more activities than you'll really need, and then hope/pray for the best.

One of the most effective things that I did last year was send a document home on the first day called "Algebra I First Assignment". This document outlined my expectations for the class to parents and students. The front had a portion for the parents to fill out and the back has a portion for the students to fill out. The wording is rather strong as I lay out my expectations for the students, but at them same time I try to convey what I will do to help students to be successful in my class.

At the end of the year, many of my students come up to me and say that they were so scared of me the first day of school and thought I was going to be a really "mean" teacher (mean to them means strict). They said that they were surprised to find out how much they enjoyed my class and they wished they could have me again for Geometry.

I really think that setting up very high expectations for behaviour and work during the first week and then being consistent and brave enough to follow through with your policies, leads to an environment where learning can take place everyday. I am not saying my classes are perfect every single day, but they know I will deal with disruptions swiftly and fairly.

If your school allows it, having a policy for late work and sticking to it can really cut down on your stress levels at the end of the grading period. In the old days, I never accepted late work in math class. Nowadays, most schools would never allow this. Our district policy says we must take late work up to two days late, but most teachers will accept any work from that grading period up to the last day of the term. I strictly stand by the no more than two days late policy. It is hard for some students who are used to putting off all their work until the 11th hour, but after they fail that first term, they usually see that I mean business. While my colleagues are struggling under mountains of grading during the last week of the term, I am able to eat lunch, relax, and leave as soon as the school day ends without taking home extra work. I do not spend hours gathering up "missing" work for students who are failing. I simply tell them that it is too late for me to take their late work and the only thing they can do to bring up their grade is to retake any quiz or test they failed.

If you'd like a copy of the assignment I send home of the first day of school, I will upload it here. Please feel free to use it or change it to meet your needs.

Algebra I First Assignment

Edmodo anyone?

2011-07-21T06:29:00.003-05:00

One of the major changes I am thinking about implementing in my classroom this year is Edmodo. I am excited about the possibilities of Edmodo and what it can do for my classes. If you are not familiar with Edmodo, it is a secure social media platform that works like facebook. Only students in your class can join and the teacher has complete control. Many math teachers at CAMT said they were posting homework, review answers, students were collaborating with each other on homework problems or projects. If you'd like to see a video explaining Edmodo features click here.

I would love to hear feedback from any of you already using Edmodo in your classes. What do you like, what do you not like? Do you have any tips for me?

CAMT 2011

2011-07-20T20:42:00.004-05:00

Just got home from my math conference (CAMT). I am exhausted from a five hour drive, but my heading is swimming with all the great ideas that I got this year and that I hope to implement. I went to several great sessions and several so-so session, but none were downright terrible so I feel the trip was definitely worth the effort I put into getting there.

I had two sessions that I especially enjoyed. The first one was called Algebra I and Algebra II Hodgepodge and it was put on my one of my dear readers! You can see her non-math blog here. She had so many wonderful ideas that I don't even know where to start. I think I might save them and share them as I try them. That way I can get pictures, give detailed instructions, and then reflect on how the activity turned out.

I also enjoyed another session put on by a teacher who has been a faithful attendee of my CAMT sessions over the years. This teacher goes by the name of Gdawg and he has a talent to put math concepts to rap and song form. I was so impressed by Gdawgs passion for teaching low-income, high risk students. It was so evident in his session how much he truly cares for the kids. He took one of the ideas I shared a few years ago at CAMT and put it into video form.

He also has other math DVD's which you can check out at here

If you attended CAMT, would you consider leaving me a comment. You don't even have to give your name, but I'd love your feedback!

Going Public

2011-07-12T19:32:00.002-05:00

It has been a while since my last post but I'm still here. Since April, I have been massively busy working with another teacher to rewrite our entire Algebra I curriculum to align it with our state's new Algebra I EOC. This task has literally consumed me and I've been working pretty much non-stop on it since school got out.

The Algebra I EOC will be given on May 7, 2012 so we've been doing a lot of give and take with the scope and sequence so that we can be completely finished somewhere around the first week of April and then we will spend 3-4 weeks prepping the kids for the exam. We've been told to expect a test that is at least two level above the old one as far as difficulty goes. Now, if that doesn't just scare the bejeezus out of every algebra I teacher in the state of Texas, I don't know what will.

So far, every single day of the school year is mapped out and ready to go. We are going to begin giving weekly assessments every Friday that will cover 60% of the current week's material and 40% cumulative material. All our assessments are written and we are in the process of proofreading and getting them into a consistent format. We have tried our best to make the assessments much more rigorous and at the appropriate level for the new Algebra I EOC. Hopefully our efforts will pay off next May.

In other big news, I have decided to go public with my blog. That means I will no longer be hiding my real name or location. For some time, I have been moving away from posting personal rants and more towards collaboration with other teachers. I have an opportunity this summer to speak to over 500 Texas math teachers at our state math conference in Dallas (CAMT) and I am going to basically "out" myself at that time.

My reasons for doing this are many, but mainly, I believe in the power of blogging and collaboration and I believe many people who have never been exposed to education blogs will be surprised at the resources available to them in the blogging community.

The title of my workshop this year is "Ready, Set, Engage! and I will be sharing many of the activities I used with my students this year to promote active, engaged learning. I will also be sharing links to many of my fellow blogger's sites and giving you all credit where credit is due. It is quite possible that many of you will experience a jump in readership as a result of this conference, so keep those posts coming!

CAMT will be held next week in Dallas (Grapevine, actually) and I am really looking forward to seeing some dear friends from my old school in Middle of Nowhere Texas. They have graciously agreed to help me with my presentations and I'm sure we can find a little trouble to get into in the evenings in good old Big D!

So dear friends, never fear, those of you who wish to remain anonymous shall do so. I would never dream of giving out real names, but rest assured, I will be recommending all my favorite blogs to everyone who will listen! Farewell for now, and I hope all of you are enjoying your summer. Also, a special congratulations to my Blogger Hero, Pissed Off Teacher, for her retirement. She has been such an inspiration to so many of us and I want to wish her all the best!

Early Morning Blues

2011-04-07T21:26:00.003-05:00

I teach Math Models 1st period. I started out with 24 students. I am down to 19. Several have dropped out of school, a couple left to be "home schooled", one ran away from home and landed in Wisconsin with relatives, and one is now homebound because of severe anxiety issues.

Even though 19 are enrolled, on most days there are just 10-11 students present. Where are the other 8 or 9? Who knows. Most tell me, they just can't wake up that early so they show up for school during 2nd or 3rd period. Others don't bother with an excuse.

The state says these juniors, who can't be bothered to show up for their first period class must all take and pass algebra II next year. Yeah right. Make no mistake. Their lack of success in algebra II will have nothing to do with their mathematical ability and everything to do with their lack of perserverance.

On the bright side, I have about 5 shining stars in this class who are absolutely amazing math students and even better human beings. They are a joy to teach and the reason I look forward to this class every day.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

2011-03-26T20:19:00.004-05:00

Overheard in the hallway on Friday:

Girl #1: So you're half-and-half cuz your mom's white, right?

Girl #2: What? I'm not half and half cuz my mom's not white. . . she's FRENCH!

To Advise or to Not Advise, That is the Question

2011-03-26T09:04:00.003-05:00

Last year at this time, our math department spent hours working on a plan to make sure each and every student enrolled in the math class that was best for them. We decided to make up a form to send home with the student which indicated our recommendations. For some students, the choice was clear. For others, we would circle two choices and explain to parents that it was their choice. This plan allowed us to give individual attention to each of our students. It took a lot of time and effort, but it worked beautifully. In a student body of just under 2000 students, only five had to move to different classes this year!

But apparently, our department chair got into some hot water with the big shots at central office. It seems as if one teacher would not sign off on a particular student to take pre-ap algebra II. She said he was welcome to take it, but it would be against her recommendation. This child had maintained an average of 60-72 the entire year in "regular" geometry. He frequently ignored his homework assignments, failed tests, and was often a disruption in class.

Unfortunately, this child also had a mother who was a counselor at a middle school in our district. When she saw that the teacher would not recommend pre-AP, she was furious. She went to asst. superintendent and complained that our high school was deliberately trying to hold students back from reaching their true potential. So, because of one child, our entire police has been altered. We are no longer allowed to counsel individual students which class they should take next. We are only allowed to speak to our entire class with blanket instructions. So a geometry teacher might say, "class, next year you have two choices. If you struggled in algebra I and geometry, you might want to consider math models. If you maintained an A or B in algebra I and geometry, you should consider algebra II."

But do students really listen to our blanket speech? No, they sign up for what their friends sign up for. No one wants to be in the "dummy" class so of course they are all signing up for algebra II. So next year, what I predict will happen is we will have 50-100 kids that will fail algebra II and they will have to be removed. Two to three sections of algebra II will be closed and 2-3 sections of math models will be opened to accommodate these students who made the wrong choice on course selection.

When I was looking through the course lists, I noticed that one of my sweet algebra I students had signed up for pre-AP geometry next year. This girl is a hard-working conscientious student, but does not acquire math concepts quickly or easily. She will struggle greatly in a pre-ap situation. I broke the rules and gently counseled her to really think about her choice. I told her she could do it, but it was going to be a rocky road for her and she would have to work twice as hard as everyone else. In the end, I think she will stay with her decision. I just hope she doesn't get discouraged next year or compare herself to the other students who truly have a natural talent for math and make every thing seem easy.

Doom and Gloom

2011-02-21T20:03:00.003-06:00

Doom and gloom speeches have begun in our school district. It seems the people of Texas do not mind having their taxes raised to build a multi-billion dollar stadium for their Dallas Cowboys to play in but they stop short when it comes to educating their children.

I teach in a large affluent (for the most part) district. We serve 18,000 students and employ 1300 teachers. We have been told that our best case scenario for next year is a 17 million dollar budget shortfall, but it could go as high as 25 million. Because Texas law forbids its shools from lowering teacher salaries or decreasing benefits, it looks like layoffs may be our only choice.

Right now, it looks like 110 first year teachers will be losing their jobs. The other cuts outlined in last week's board meeting were as follows:

• Freeze all hiring of new staff
• Relocate/reduce Central Office personnel, totaling $1 million
• Reduction of administrator positions at the elementary level
• Class size increases at every level; reduction of athletic periods for
secondary coaches
• Reduction of department and campus operating budgets by 10 percent
• Zero technology budget for computer rotation
• Zero budget for deferred maintenance
• Elimination of all-day Pre-K (the Pre-K program would become halfday
at select campuses)
• Smaller elementary schools would share nurses, librarians and/or
counselors.
• Freeze all hiring of new staff
• Relocate/reduce Central Office personnel, totaling $1 million
• Reduction of administrator positions at the elementary level
• Class size increases at every level; reduction of athletic periods for
secondary coaches
• Reduction of department and campus operating budgets by 10 percent
• Zero technology budget for computer rotation
• Zero budget for deferred maintenance
• Elimination of all-day Pre-K (the Pre-K program would become halfday
at select campuses)
• Smaller elementary schools would share nurses, librarians and/or
counselors.

Don't Laugh!

2011-02-07T05:50:00.003-06:00

As most of my readers know, we enjoyed a rare snow day here in South Texas last Friday. As I read the Sunday paper, I was not surprised to learn that the local grocery and convenience stores ran short on many basic supplies.

But when they stated the one item that every single store ran out, I almost spit out my coffee with laughter! What was that one crucial item that apparently no South Texan can live without in the middle of a "blizzard?" Why it's a DISPOSABLE CAMERA!!!

According to the paper, this 1/2 inch of snow was the area's first measurable snowfall since 1985. Wouldn't you want to take a picture too?

This is the Snow That Shut Down San Antone

2011-02-05T07:30:00.008-06:00

What a treat! Friday morning I awakened to a 1/2 inch of snow and learned that school had been cancelled for the day. Before you begin to criticize us South Texans for being weenies in the face of a mere dusting of snow, I must tell you that there was a least another 1/2 inch of ice under that snow that made driving completely impossible.

Most of my students have never seen snow. This was a major event for them. I believe if you gave most of them the choice to go to Disneyland or spend the morning playing in snow, they would choose the snow every time.

Being from West Texas, I am used to a couple of good snows each winter. Not too much to hate it, but enough to experience the joy of waking up to find your world covered under 6 inches of white fluffiness. I've made sleds for my children out of just about everything you can think of. Laundry baskets, cookie sheets, and old tires. Snow days are some of my children's best childhood memories.

Mild winters is one of the many things that drew my husband and I to South Texas but I would be lying if I said I didn't miss waking up to a white wonderland ever now and then.

You Can't Keep A Good Calculator Down

2011-01-19T20:25:00.008-06:00

Folks, I have exciting news for you tonight. I have just resurrected 5 TI-83+ calculators from the dead on my kitchen island this evening. After a short surgical procedure, I am happy to report that all five calculators are alive and doing well.

You see, although my school can afford fancy new red turf for our football field, we don't seem to have the funds to replace any of our aging calculators. I've been nursing my classroom set of 30 ever since I inherited them shortly after being hired at "Paradise" high school.

In case you don't know how to restore dead calcualtors, here are three steps to try. Try the steps in order. Sometimes I get lucky and step one will work and I won't need to use the other steps.

1. Remove all four batteries. Press and Hold the [ON] key for 10 seconds. Then put the batteries back into the graphing calculator and turn on. May need to readjust screen’s contrast again.

2. Remove one of the AAA batteries. Press and hold the [CLEAR] key. While holding [CLEAR], reinsert the AAA battery and then turn the calculator on. The calculator should display the message "RAM Cleared". Release the [CLEAR] key and then press it one more time to remove the message.

3. Remove one of the AAA batteries. Press and hold the [DEL] key. While holding [DEL], reinsert the AAA battery and then turn the calculator on. The calculator should display "Waiting...Please install calculator software now". Follow the instructions for the TI-83 family or TI-84 Plus family to reinstall the calculator operating system.

If steps 1-3 don't work, it is time to resort to step #4 and that is what I did tonight.

4. Remove all of the batteries including the round lithium battery for 5 minutes. After the 5 minute period, reinsert all of the batteries and turn the calculator on. Adjust the contrast if necessary.

Now, drum roll please. . .. . Here are my calcualtors after surgery! Tonight I was successful in restoring 5 calculators that I thought I was going to have to scrap!!!

My New Blog Crush

2011-01-14T06:00:00.003-06:00

I have a new blog crush and his name is Mr. Teachbad. This guy takes all the things I think and writes them down in a way that not only makes sense but is hilarious at the same time. His latest post puts into words exactly how I used to feel at my old school when we tried some new magic bullet every other month.

I used to get so frustrated when I would jump into the latest fad because our principal asked us to and then two months later would be told we weren't using that particular intervention anymore, we were moving on to some new method. I became quite jaded by the end of my time at Middle of Nowhere High School towards any new initiative put forth. The last year I was there, they instituted a new curriculum called C-Scope which was completely scripted with questions we were supposed to ask and model lessons. I'd had enough and dug my heels into the sand. I wasn't going to go there and I admit I did incite a little rebellion over it. In the end, I knew it was time to go. I loved my school and was crazy about my principal, who btw was the best boss I've ever had in my entire life, but I could not go down this road. It was time for me to leave. I am in a new place. A place that as far as I can tell does not follow fads or chase new ideas. Teachers are given a list of learning objectives for each quarter and told to teach them however they feel best. It is a teacher's paradise as far as freedom goes.

Anyway, I just wanted to introduce you to Mr. Teachbad. Read some of his older posts. Some of them will make you laugh out loud.

Final Exam Time!

2011-01-13T19:07:00.002-06:00

As much as I hate giving semester exams after Christmas, I love the fact that Wed-Fri of this week consists of half-days. I've been cleaning my room, working on new posters for my word wall, printing out work for our systems unit coming up, and trying to get to the bottom of all my piles. I've also gone to lunch with my coworkers each day and did not have to gulp down my food!

In other good news, I am enjoying teaching in a school where I don't have to curve the hell out of my Algebra I final just to keep 60% of the class from failing the first semester. In fact, I didn't curve them at all. Our final exams are made at the district level, but overall I was happy with this one. The exam grades came out fairly close to their average in the class.

The only thing that frustrated me was the fact that there are some kids who can look at a multiple choice question like "write the equation of the line that passes through the points (0, 4) and (1, 2)" and get the wrong answer even after they plot the two points on a grid and notice that the line is "falling" and therefore must have a negative slope. Or they could notice that the y-intercept was 4 and mark out two of the bad answers. Two popular answers for this question: y = 2x + 4 and
y = -2x + 6. I guess I shouldn't be too upset, 80% of my students got that question correct, but it still bugs me that 20% still don't have enough reasoning skills to eliminate the bad answer choices!

Here is another one that really bothered me. Only 54% of my students got this one correct. John goes to the barbershop for a haircut. His haircut is $15 and he leaves a 15% tip. How much change should John get if he pays with a $20 bill? Oh and by the way, this question was not multiple choice. It was what we call a "griddable" item. I looked through their booklets and saw some pretty interesting methods being used to solve this problem, but not many were correct. I think in middle school, they get so hung up on formulas and the percent ratio that they just don't learn to think a problem through logically.

This Makes Me So Mad I Feel Like Spittin' Fire!

2011-01-05T20:28:00.003-06:00

Joanne Jacobs today posted about Detroit spending $49 million dollars for 35,000 laptops for all of their 6-12 grade students. Just typing these words makes my blood boil. WHAT A WASTE OF TAXPAYER MONEY! I have very strong feelings on this subject because I was subjected to two years of hell teaching in a school that jumped into a one-to-one laptop project where every single student was given a Macbook. Sounds like a great idea except that the teachers were given 6 hours of training on an operating system that most of us had never even touched before. We all left the training with our heads spinning. We were then expected to begin to utilize these laptops into our daily lessons. Most of us were still struggling with not having a backspace key, not knowing how to use the unique trackpad, not knowing how to save anything, create folders, or just basically get around on the machine.

Meanwhile, the administration decides to handout the laptops during the 3rd week of school even though the teachers begged them not to. We tried to explain that we needed time to adjust to the new operating system and to develop lessons. We wanted more training in developing lessons for our subject areas which would effectively use the laptops. But as things usually go, the teachers were not listened to and the laptops were distributed.

Within two weeks all hell broke loose. It became a constant battle with the students to have them close their laptops and pay attention to the lesson. The kids found a way around all our security systems and were downloading porn and music like crazy. Many irresponsible teachers were using the laptops as babysitters. They quickly found that the students would entertain themselves for an entire period playing games and finding ways to get onto Myspace or Facebook while they worked, graded papers, or mapped out football plays. I personally had large signs all over my room saying "Laptops must remain closed at all times unless you have specific permission from me to open them".

Laptops were pawned, laptops were broken, laptops were lost, and laptops were "stolen". Whenever we did try to use them for a lesson we were greeted with "I left mine at home, or my computer isn't charged." Even if all the students did have their laptops, the network often had trouble handling 30 students in a single room trying to go online.

Many students were given ISS or OSS for downloading porn or other inappropriate pictures. One girl was even suspended for using the webcam to film herself while masturbating and then showing the video to all her friends in history class.

After 6 months all the laptops were taken up and reimaged. The camera was disabled, Itunes was removed along with several other programs. The computers were now neutered and many of the programs that we had been trained to use for lessons were now unavailable to the students.

The following school year, the school gave up on the one-to-one project. What a WASTE of money.

Why can't we put money where it will actually do some good? Extra teachers, teacher's aides, after school programs, drop-out prevention programs, career and technology initivatives? Seems to me that $49 million dollars would go a long way to funding some of these options.

Christmas Tree Linear Art Project

2010-12-13T21:11:00.002-06:00

If you are looking for something to do with your algebra students this week, you might enjoy this little Christmas tree project I made up for my students to do on Friday. It involves writing the equations of the 19 line segments making up a Christmas tree. I am also going to have them write the domain values for each line segment. This assignment will lead into the linear art project I do each spring where the students will be required to come up with their own drawings and equations.

Christmas Tree Project

Speed Dating (I promise this is really about math)

2010-11-22T17:22:00.002-06:00

I got this idea from Kate Nowak over at f(t) and I had been wanting to use her idea for one of my test reviews this year. I did change it quite a bit but I am sure she will recognize it as her original idea. I have been trying to come up with a creative way to review for tests this year for each and every single test. It has been a chore, but with a little help from my friends in the edublogging community, I have managed to pull it off.

When students arrived in my class this morning, the desks were arranged in pairs so that the desks were facing each other. I had 6 pairs in each row for a total of 15 stations. I told them to sit wherever they wanted and they naturally sat with their best friend, but it was no big deal, because they would not be sitting there long.

I passed out the test review which I had prepared in advance. It had about 24 problems on it. As we began the review, I told the partners to work #21-24 and gave them 5 minutes. I started my timer and walked around the room giving assistance. After five minutes, I showed the correct solutions, let them fix anything they missed and then told them that one person from each group would now be rotating to the next set of desks.

For the first rotation, I said the person with the shortest hair should move to the next station. I then picked another 3-4 problems and gave them a time limit. My next rotation was the person with the longest first name had to move. This went on and on until we finished the review. The other ideas I had for rotating were student with most siblings, person with earliest birthday, person with shortest last name etc. The students quickly picked up on the fact that what we were doing was just like speed dating. I'm not sure how they know about speed dating, but I said I guess you could call it speed dating if you wanted to and they got a big kick about who all was "dating" who during the test review.

This activity ensured that they worked with many different partners. By keeping them guessing which problems we would do next, it kept them from rushing ahead and not being able to work as a team with their partners. The timer is also an important part of the review, because for some reason, it really helps keep them on task and get the problems finished when they see the time ticking down on the smartboard.

Not the Best Day

2010-10-26T20:45:00.002-05:00

Well, I knew it couldn't last forever. My year has been almost perfect until now. Other than a few chatty classes, I really can't complain. Most are quite cooperative, respectful, and willing to do the work I ask them to do. Oh, sure, I get frustrated by their lack of progress when I grade their unit tests, but then again, that happens every year. I guess I am never satisfied at this time of year. I always want them to be further along than they are. I have to keep telling myself that it takes time. Some kids need to let the math kinda simmer around in their brain and it finally makes sense some time in the 2nd semester. For others, it might not make sense until they take Algebra II and then there are those that I fear it will never make sense to.

But today, oh my goodness, today was not a good day. In my very first class of the day, I had a student taken away by ambulance. He apparently took 8 pills (don't know what kind) and washed them down with half a bottle of Jack Daniels.

The student was acting a little confused at the beginning of the class, but I was too busy to really think about it too much. Then during their quiz, I kept having to wake him up. Still not that unusual since it is early in the morning and many students come to school sleepy.

After the bell rang I noticed he didn't get up out of his seat. When I went over to wake him up, he looked dazed and confused. He tried to get up, stumbled, hit his head against the wall, knocked over a floor lamp and then passed out cold on my floor. I ran and pushed the panic button and a nurse and administrator came up and called EMS.

Still haven't heard how he is doing, but I never really recovered from the incident the rest of the day.

Ghosts in the Graveyard

2010-10-21T17:45:00.004-05:00

I'd like to share an activity with you that I will be doing this week called Ghosts in the Graveyard. I will use this activity in my math models classes to practice some of the things we've learned the first 9 weeks of school like solving linear equations, finding slopes, writing equations of lines etc.

The kids absolutely loved this activity last year, and I definitely plan on using it again this year!

I will share my documents here. I've even included a blank template if you don't like my problems, you can copy this template and make your own questions.
Ghosts in the Graveyard

Around The World Partner Activity

2010-10-19T20:07:00.007-05:00

One of my goals for this year is to find new ways to increase student engagement. I'm not a huge fan of homework. I'm never sure who is actually doing the homework. Is it the student, or a friend, or maybe even a parent? I like to actually witness them practicing the skills they have been learning but I get bored of book work or when I use them too frequently. I have been trying to do an activity every 5-7 days where the students have an opportunity to practice what they have learned over the previous week. I like self-checking activities and I like activities where everyone has to be engaged. I prefer partner activities, but will sometimes do activites that require groups of four.

Here is an activity I tried this week called "Around The World". I learned this activity from a co-worker who used it a lot when she taught middle school math.

I made 16 cards with one or two problems on each card like this.

I cut apart each card and glued the card to a piece of colored card stock. I put the question on one side and the answer and steps to solve on the back.

I then arranged my desks in pairs. I used 13 stations for this particular activity. I placed the problem cards in a sheet protector and placed one at each station. My coworker hangs her problems around the room. Doesn't matter how you do it. I wanted my kids seated while they worked, and she doesn't mind them standing up all over the room.

I then gave the students two minutes to line themselves up by birthday. They had no idea why they were doing this, but when they were done, I used the order to assign partners. Each partner had to go to a station with a blank piece of notebook paper, calculator, and formula chart. The instructions were to work the problem they found at each station. Compare answers with each other and then check their answers on the back of the problem card. They had two minutes at each station. Every two minutes I would give them the signal to rotate and they all moved to the next station. I made them go in numerical order through the stations.

Knowing they were on a time limit seemed to keep them on task. They students seemed to enjoy getting to get up every few minutes to move to the next station. There was a little silliness going on, but I didn't mind too much. Overall, I feel I got more work out of them than had I just slapped a worksheet on their desk and said "Due by the end of the period, get busy".

Appointment Test Review

2010-09-28T16:00:00.002-05:00

One of my good friends at school shared this test review activity with me. She says she always has great results and good student participation so I was eager to try it for myself.

It works like this. I had the kids draw a clock on their paper that looked like this.

I then had the entire class stand up and told them they would have 2 minutes to make 4 appointments. They needed to make a 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock appointment. They could not book the same person twice and they were to sit down as soon as they made all four appointments so I would know who was finished. In each class there were several who still needed appointments after everyone else was finished, so I just told them I'd place them with a group for the appointment that they were blank on.

After their appointments were made, their clock looked like this.

After everyone was seated, I instructed the students to go and meet their 3:00 appointment and work problems 1-8 on the test review. They could work anywhere inside the room. Most just pushed desks together and worked like this.

After about 10 minutes, I called time and told the students to meet their 9:00 appointment to do problems 9-18. We continued this process until the reivew was either finished or we ran out of time. The kids had a blast and asked if we could do it again sometime. I really enjoyed seeing the 100% engagement and most of the students were great about helping each other and not just giving answers.

A Warm-Up Solution That Works For Me

2010-09-27T19:08:00.004-05:00

This year I am doing something that is really working well for me. At our school we are required to give daily warm-ups. If you don't count them for a grade, most students will not do them. If you do count them for a grade, they are a pain in the rear to collect and grade and record. Last year, I took them up every Friday and gave a completion grade for them, but even then, the task of looking at over 150 papers every weekend in addition to other assignments that needed grading became too much for me.

This year, I have been working hard to encourage my students to keep neat and organized notebooks. They have a warm-up section, a note section etc. After each warm-up I will say, now, make sure this warm-up has the date on it and make sure you place it in your warm-up sections. During the notes, I constantly remind them about the importance of the date, title, etc.

So I came up with this idea, or I stole it from someone, I can't remember which, of giving Binder Quizzes.

The Binder Quiz serves two purposes. I am able to grade their warm-ups without ever taking them up, and two, I get to see who is keeping their notebook in good working order.

We take a binder quiz the day before every major exam. In the quiz, I ask them all sorts of questions like, "On Sept 17, what was the answer to warm-up #1, or on Sept 20, what was the title of your notes, or In topic 2-1, what was the answer to example 3.

They have 5 minutes to complete the quiz. If their binder is in order, they will finish in about three. If they have to dig through their back packs to find their papers, it is impossible to complete in 5 minutes.

Here are two examples from the same class. One person who keeps up with their stuff and one who has never brought his binder to my class one single time.

I can not begin to tell you how much this Binder Quiz has helped me this year. I am no longer stressed about grading warm-up and overall my kids are doing better than ever about keeping a neat and organized binder where they can quickly find their resources when they need them.

Sad But True

2010-09-25T21:53:00.000-05:00

This is sad but true

A Candidate I Can Support

2010-09-19T21:01:00.003-05:00

Dear Texas Educators,

I am not a very political person, but I feel I must speak out concerning the race for governor in the State of Texas. If you are unhappy about the way that Rick Perry has handled education in Texas, may I suggest an alternate candidate to you?

I am throwing my full support behind Bill White, the Democratic candidate for governor. Even though I am a Republican, I can no longer sit by and watch Rick Perry destroy Texas education.

If you have not yet decided who you will be voting for in the upcoming election, please take a minute to inform yourself here on Bill White's education policies and see if he is someone you can support.

Self-Checking Practice Activity

2010-09-16T19:22:00.006-05:00

Thought I'd share an activity with my readers that I have been using for the last couple of years. This activity is called a Star Chain. When you are tired of doing boring book work or worksheets, but your students still need a little extra practice, try a Star Chain!

Each student will get 12 problems of anything you'd like to practice. For me, it was solving linear equations.

Next, have students cut the problem cards apart.

After the cards are cut apart, students will pick any card they want to begin with. I usually tell them to pick the one that looks easiest to them. They work the problem and then find their answer at the top of another card. They tape the cards together. Continue the process until a chain is formed. If they do all the problems correctly, the last problem will match the answer at the beginning of the chain.

The next day, we connected all the chains and strung them up on the ceiling. I'll probably leave them there until the fire marshall gets me!

It's simple to make your own star chain on any topic! All you need is 12 problems with 12 UNIQUE answers. Just delete my problems and add your own!

Star Chain Solving Linear Equations

I Dog Whispered a Freshmen Today and I Got a New Hairdo!

2010-09-09T20:48:00.004-05:00

If you every watch the Dog Whisperer, you know good ole' Ceasar has a way of correcting dogs with a jerk of a leash and a unique noise like chhhh,chhhh. When I got my new Border Collie Puppy 3 years ago, I did my best to train him by Ceasar's methods. He doesn't get on the furniture, he doesnt' go through doors first, I make him lay down when the door bell rings and stay. As a puppy, it was a lot of work, but at three, he's becoming a great dog. If he's doing anything wrong, pretty much all I have to do is give hime the chhh, chhh, and he stops.

I've been doing this so long, that I tend to do it now with any annoying behavior. Today a freshmen was trying to talk while I was give directions for a quiz, and I snapped my fingers towards him and said chhh, chhh. Guess what??? He immediately stopped the annoying behaviour and I don't think anyone in the whole class realized I'd just corrected him with a dog obedience trick.

In other exciting news, I had a haircut scheduled for this afternoon and was very stressed about what to do with my hair. I hate to mess with my hair. I have not talent for it at all. Anyway, I had about 12 pictures and I showed some of my classes and this is the picture they overwhelmingly chose.

At lunch, I showed my coworkers the same group of pictures, this one was voted on by almost everyone.

And this was the final result!

Get To Know You Activity #3

2010-08-29T12:05:00.003-05:00

I got this idea from KFous over at My Web 2.0 journey

Tell the students you are going to give them a pop quiz. After the initial groans tell them that it is a multiple choice test about you!

Make up 5-10 questions about yourself with some multiple choice answers. Here are a few to give you some ideas.

1. Why is the number 3 important to Mrs. H

A It is the numbers of years she’s been teaching
B It is the number of children she has
C It is the number of times she’s been to Disneyland
D It is the number of piercings she has

2. Why is the number 25 important to Mrs. H

A It is how old she is
B It is the number of years she has lived in New Braunfels
C It is the number of her students who got commended on last year’s TAKS test
D It is the number of years she’s been married

3. Why is the number 13 important to Mrs. H

A. It is her lucky number
B. It is the number of years she’s been teaching
C. It is the number of times she floated the river this summer
D. It is the number of times she has been to Fiesta Texas

4. Why is the number 0 important to Mrs. H

A It is the number of sisters she has
B It is the number of times she has been to Schlitterbahn
C It is the number of dogs she has
D It is the number times she has flown on an airplane

5. Why is the number 1 important to Mrs. H

A It is the number of children she has
B It is the number of years she has taught at Canyon High School
C It is the number of times she has been to Schlitterbahn
D It is the number of tattoos she has

There will be lots of laughter during the quiz and you can use it as a chance to let your students know a little more about you.

At the end ask the students to choose five numbers and tell why they are important to them. They can either be funny or serious. I plan on filing their answers in their folder that we made the first day of school

I am doing this activity tomorrow and want to use the website Poll Everywhere to have the students text me their answers. I just need to go in and play around with the website and figure out how it works!

Get To Know You Activity #2

2010-08-29T11:38:00.006-05:00

This activity called Name Reflection. The materials you will need are markers, colored paper, and scissors. I allowed 15 minutes for this activity on the third day of school.

Step One: Have students fold a piece of colored paper hamburger style

Step Two: Have students write their name IN CURSIVE along the bottom folded edge.(Warning: many students today do not know how to write in cursive. You will either have to do it for them or get them to help each other with this step)

Step Three: Cut along the curves of the cursive writing. Be careful not to cut the bottom folded edge.

Step 4: Unfold and decorate!

Step 5: Be Prepared to be amazed at the creativity of your students!

Get To Know You Activity #1

2010-08-29T11:25:00.003-05:00

This first activity works great for the first couple of days of school when you have lots of administrative tasks to attend to. It will take the students approximately 10-15 minutes to complete the entire activity.

Give students a copy of the Bio Pyramid. and have them fill in the information. I then had them cut them out and glue stick them to a pre-prepared place on my wall.

Note: Do not copy the bio-pyramid instructions two sided. Just give them the bio-pyramid. I put the instructions up on my smartboard.

Materials I used were scissors, markers, and glue sticks.

Here are the finished products. Added Bonus: Your room is well on its way to being ready for Meet the Parent Night!

Meeting Your Blogger Friends in Person

2010-08-23T19:51:00.005-05:00

Jonathan at jd2718 was one of the first bloggers to welcome me into the edublogging community when I first began writing my blog. I believe he was the first blogger to link to my blog and even went so far as to recommend Math Tales From the Spring to others. It was very humbling because up to that point, I had no idea that anyone actually read my blog. I was using it as a journaling tool to help me work out things in my head both professionally and in my personal life.

This weekend, I got the privilege of meeting Jonathan while he was in this area doing some volunteer union work. I was so excited to get to meet my blogging friend and show him our neck of the woods. It was great to have him make the short drive over to Paradise, Texas from San Antonio. I tried my best to show Jonathan what life is like in a small Hill Country town. I enjoyed taking him to the places my friends and I like to hang out. I wish I could have shown him more but the heat was brutal and there is only so much you can do with a heat index of 107!

I had a blast and I hope he did too. Hopefully this is just the beginning of meeting my other blogger pals. If you are ever in the San Antonio area, let me know. I love to show people around, or at the very least give you a few pointers on things to do.

For Math Nerds Only

2010-08-18T06:04:00.004-05:00

Math Teacher Mambo ordered herself a new clock for her classroom that I am envious of.

I have a great clock in my classroom that I posted about when I first began blogging called the Nine's clock. It is soooo cute. Each hour contains only nines and if you work the problem, you will come up with the hour.

Since I love my 9's clock so much, I started thinking about buying a new clock for my classroom. Here is an entire selection of math nerd clocks. Enjoy!

1st Day Parent Homework

2010-08-15T11:51:00.002-05:00

A friend shared this idea with me a couple of years ago and I love it. She sends home a paper titled "1st Homework Assignment" and she asks parents to email her the answers to several questions about their child. This way, she already has their email in her address book and she doesn't have to enter it in manually.

I've been doing this for several years now and it works like a charm. One thing I have noticed is that parents don't really read the assignment and instead of emailing you the answers, they will send the completed form back with their child. I don't really mind, because at least they put their email address on the form and I have it for my records.

Anyway, I print all these emails out (or the completed form) and they go into my CYA folder that I talked about here.

Anyway, here is what my 1st HS assignment looks like.

First Homework Assignment
Algebra I

Parents and Guardians,
I am excited to have your child in my Algebra I class this year. Your child’s first assignment is really an assignment for you. Please send an email to me at *********** with the answers to the following questions. If you don’t have access to email, please just fill out this form and return it with your child.

1. My child’s name is ________________

2. My child is in _________ period.

3. My name is___________________________________

4. Relationship to student_____________________________________

5. Address________________________________________________

6. How would you like to be contacted between the hours of 7:30 and 5:00? ________________________________________________________

7. Email address_____________________________________________

8. Will you be using Parent Connect to check your child’s grades and attendance?

9. Does your student have any special needs in the classroom you would like me to be aware of? (seating preferences, health issues, difficulties in learning math, etc)

Effectively Managing Your CYA (Cover Your A**) Folder

2010-08-13T15:29:00.003-05:00

If my dear readers can handle one more post on classroom management and beginning of the year procedures, I have one more tip I'd like to offer.

I try to get my students to do as much of my administrative work as possible. One of the things I do on the first day of school is to have my students make their own hanging file folder.

On the first day, I pass out a student information sheet, class syllabus, calculator contract and a Parent Homework Assignment (I will explain the Parent Homework Assignment in a separate post.

I then give my students a hanging file folder and a post-it label for them to put their name on. I then have them attach the label to the folder, place the info sheet inside the folder and collect them. They are already in alpha-order because I seat my students alphabetically on the first day.

The next day, they bring back their Parent Homework and Calculator contract and those are placed into the file. Now my filing system is set up for the rest of the year. All major tests go into the file along with any other CYA items I might accumulate. Things like discipline referrals, special ed modifications, emails from parents. Anything at all that you feel might be helpful.

This system takes very little effort on your part. I stole this idea from a dear friend of mine a couple of years ago and I don't know how I made it before I started doing this!

Effectively Managing Seating Charts

2010-08-12T10:34:00.003-05:00

I'm still getting a lot of hits on my blog from people who are looking for classroom management ideas so I though I'd throw out another tip for managing your math classroom.

Here is the best method I have found for managing seating charts. Get a piece of card stock,some small sticky notes, and a plastic sheet protector like the ones shown above. Cut the little sticky notes in half and place them however your desks are arranged. I usually have 20-24 students per class, but I put 30 little stickers on the seating chart for the new students who will move into the class throughout the year.

Write your students names on the little sticky notes in the order you want them to sit. As you change your seating chart up throughout the year, you can move the sticky notes all over the place. I am able to use the same sticky notes for the entire year. If the student changes classes, no big deal, just move them to the appropriate sheet. As long as you keep your seating chart in a plastic sheet protector, it should last the entire school year.

When making your seating charts for the school year, consider numbering your desks instead of putting names on the desks. It is much less time consuming and easier for the students to find their seats especially when you have several students with the same name.

I number the students on my roster in alpha order. As they walk in, I give them their number and have them find their desk. This number also becomes their graphing calculator number. If I move them to a new seat later, they will also change calculator numbers to match their new seat.

I keep my students alpha order for about 3-6 weeks for three reasons. Number one, I pass out so many things that need to be signed and returned that my life is a whole lot easier if they are already in alpha order when I pick them up. Secondly, having the students in alpha order helps me learn their names faster. And lastly, returning graded work to students is so much easier when they are in alpha order.

Effectively Managing Make Up Tests or How Not To Lose Your Frickin' Mind

2010-08-11T13:06:00.007-05:00

I am in the zone! The list making, organizing, idea generating zone, get ready for school zone.

As I think about how I want to manage my math classes this year, I can't help but think of one problem I have every single year. See if this sounds familiar.

You give a test. On test day, say you have 10 people absent. Do they come in and make up the test right away? Uhhh, not in my classes! Some serious reminding, brow beating, and sometimes even phone calls to parents have to happen before I can get my darlings to come make up a test.

Here is how the conversation will go when they finally make it in to take their test.

Student: "Mrs. H, I'm here to take the test I owe you."

Mrs H: "Which test are you wanting to take?" (we've taken 3 tests since the one they missed)

Student: "I don't know what it's about. It's the one you gave me a zero for in the gradebook."

Mrs. H: After discerning which test it is that this student owes me, I begin to look everywhere for the test. It's here somewhere I know! Can it be under one of the piles on my desk? Did I file it? Oh Sweet Baby Jesus, where did I put that
&$%# test??????

After searching frantically for the test for a good 5 minutes or so, I give up and say, "Why don't I just print you out another one. Go sit down and I'll be right with you."

Student finally takes the test and then it is time to find the #&%$ answer key. Same frustrating scenario unfolds as Mrs. H scrambles to find the answer key.

Not this year my friends! I have an idea! Now, I'm sure all of you already have a great system for situations such as this and if you do, then why haven't you shared it with me yet?? I've been dealing with this issue every single year! So here's my idea.

I bought a 1.5" binder like this

Then I put all my answer keys to my quizzes and tests into sheet protectors like this.

Then I bought some dividers which have pockets like this. I put one after each test.

So now, when a student is absent on test day, I am going to put a blank copy of the test they missed with their name on it in the divider. It will be right there along with the answer key!!!! Brilliant!!!! I'm so excited about my idea. Now if I can just manage to not lose the %$#@ notebook!

Classroom Management for the Secondary Math Classroom

2010-08-09T19:53:00.002-05:00

Lately, I've been getting a lot of hits to my blog from people looking to google for help with classroom management. I would say Classroom Management is probably one of my strongest skills, but it has not always been so. Over the years I have made it a practice to observe and try to mimic what other successful teachers are doing in my building. I ask quessions, I read articles, I go to sessions on classroom management at CAMT. When I hear a great idea, I put it into practice as soon as I can . I am obsessed with classroom management and I am constantly desiring to learn and implement new ideas into my classroom.

Because of all the hits I've been getting, I thought I'd post part of my syllabus here. I hope some of the ideas contained here might be helpful to new teachers or beginning teachers who are wanting a little help getting the year started.

Class Procedures:

Before Entering the Classroom:•

Please take care of personal business during the passing period. You will only be allowed two passes per nine-weeks to leave class.

Make sure you have your notebook and sharpened pencil on your desk and ready to go at the beginning of class.

When You First Enter the Classroom:

• Be seated in your assigned seat. I take roll by my seating chart. If you are in the wrong seat, you run the risk of being counted absent!
• Clear your desk of all non-math related items. During class, the only things you may have on your desk are your math notebook, your calculator, pencil and pen. No backpacks, cell phones, ipods, jackets etc may be on your desk during class time.
• If your assigned calculator is missing or is damaged in any way, please notify me immediately so that you will not be held responsible for the damages. If your calculator is low on batteries, please wait until after the lesson is over to inform me. The calculators will run several days on a “low battery” message

During Class:•

During the lesson, please stay in your seat. If your pencil breaks, just use a pen for notes. During class-work time, you may get up to sharpen your pencil, turn in work, put away your calculator or throw away trash.

Please sit properly in your desk with your feet facing the front of the room. Sleeping is strictly prohibited. Please let me know if you feel ill or on some type of medication which may make you prone to sleepiness.

On most assignments, I will allow you to work cooperatively with the people around you as long as you are all seated and on task.

Please do not talk or shout out answers during the lesson unless you have permission to do so.

I offer bonus points on daily assignments to the entire class if someone catches me making a math mistake or if someone in your class finds an error in my answer key. The mistake must be math related for the class to get the x-tra credit!

Please refrain from eating, drinking, or applying cosmetics during class

Keep your cell phone where I can’t see or hear them. I will take them up!

Please do not line up at the door at the end of the period. No one will be allowed to leave the room unless all trash is picked up and all calculators can be accounted for.

Please feel free to contact me privately if you find yourself experiencing difficulty in my class. Whether the difficultly lies with another student, circumstances in your life that are preventing you from being successful, or you just need extra help, I won’t know unless you tell me! I can be reached confidentially through my school email address and all communication between us will be held in the strictest confidence.

No Arms, No Legs, No Worries

2010-06-09T21:15:00.003-05:00

I don't usually post stuff like this, but PLEASE watch this 4 minute video. It is amazing and something you might want to share with your students

IDK

2010-06-09T21:04:00.003-05:00

I was talking to a young teacher today at the training I was attending. He told me the funniest story about how he got tired of his students writing IDK all over their tests so on one of his unit tests he wrote IDK at the top of every single test in red and then circled it. The students were completely perplexed when they got their tests back. They all started asking, "Mr. V, what's my grade? Why did you just write IDK at the top and circle it?" His only response was "IDK, why don't you figure it out?"

Last Test

2010-05-19T21:26:00.002-05:00

We have 4 days of class left in algebra I. Teaching freshmen has become like trying to keep 25 corks under water all at the same time. To say they are a little hyper about school ending would be an understatement.

Out of desperation, I did something I haven't done all year long. I told them that I would let them use their test review on the test tomorrow. Anything they wrote down, they could use. I am used to freshmen pretty much ignoring any kind of test review I give them so I was shocked when all three classes stayed on task for pretty much the entire class period. I was racing all over the room answering questions while the students worked individually or in small groups.

It kinda goes against my grain to let them use notes on a test, but hey, what the heck. I actually got some work out of them today and the few who chose not to do the review are going to be sorry when they find out that about 1/2 the test comes straight off the review!

I figure at this point in the year, most of the grades are set. I don't think averages will change much if a kid who would have gotten a 70 without the review gets an 80 with the review. They now get to end the year thinking what a nice teacher I am.

Friday Night Lies

2010-05-14T20:51:00.003-05:00

A famous school from my old stompin' ground is making headlines right now because of a 22 year old man from Florida who posed as a high school student and led his team to the state basketball playoffs by posing as a 16 year old sophomore.

The school is none other the Permian High School made famous by the movie "Friday Night Lights." This young man apparently enrolled in an Odessa Texas junior high as an 8th grader and eventually worked his way up to high school where he played on the varsity basketball team this year as a "10th grader". Apparently, he was able to pull off this con job by posing as an immigrant from Haiti. He was even taken in by a Coach from Permian High School when his "guardian" moved away from Odessa.

His teachers were all shocked to learn that the "16" year old was actually a 22 year old man from Florida. They all said there was absolutely nothing, other than his size, that would have led anyone to believe he was anything other than what he said he was.

The first thing my husband said upon reading the article, was that the con man probably enrolled back in high school in order to pick up girls, and sure enough, it came out in the paper today that more charges have been filed against him that have to do with the sexual assault of a 15 year old female.

I can't wait to talk to my nephew who is also a 10th grader at Permian High School and see if he knew this kid. On a sad note, Permian will more than likely be stripped of all the titles they won this year, and the students who worked hard for their success will be the ones who suffer for this asshole's antics.

The Claw

2010-03-06T18:09:00.003-06:00

I don't teach the FOIL method of multiplying binomials to 9th graders. I firmly believe in the power of the distributive property. This year, I stole an idea from one of my new colleagues who calls the distributive property "THE CLAW."

You have to picture drawing the little arrows from the first term of the first binomial to the first term of the second binomial and then the first term to the last term of the binomial. That completes the overhand claw. Then we take the 2nd term of the binomial and repeat. All the while I am very dramatically walking around the room making "claw" movements with my arms. The kids were cracking up and repeating "The Claw, The Claw." There was absolutely no confusion whatsoever during the lesson. We went from problems of the form 3x(x^2 + 2x + 5) to problems of the form (3x + 5)(2x - 6) to (x + 2)(x^2 + 3x + 8).

There was lots of humour in the lesson and most the students were engaged, although quite loud with many of the kids shouting, "The Claw", "The Claw" as they worked the problems.

As each new class came in, they would say, "I heard we're learning something called "The Claw" today. That's right, students were apparently in the hall talking about algebra! Pretty cool!

Tardy Solution That Actually Works

2010-02-20T08:01:00.002-06:00

Does your school have a problem with tardies? My new school has stumbled onto something that has really helped our tardy problem. We have an automated phone system that calls parents giving them all kinds of messages. It calls home when students are absent or when we have early dismissal, it will call home the day before reminding parents to pick their kids up early.

Some teachers had an idea that maybe the phone system could be programmed to call home every single time their child was tardy to a class. The administration liked the idea and we started the experiment when the new semester began. I was really skeptical because I figured that most kids would get home first and erase the messages or parents wouldn't really do anything, but to my surprise, it has almost completely cured students from being tardy to my class.

The ladies in the front office were telling me that some student's parents were getting 7 calls a day and were very upset about it, but most were thankful because they never even knew their child was being tardy to class. The kids were furious. They were used to being tardy to class with little or no repurcussions and now they had nagging parents to contend with every evening when they got home.

I have a couple of students that were cronic tardy problems last semester who are now coming to class on time every single day. It has been an amazing turn-around. If your school has a way to do this, you might want to suggest it to your administration.

Similarities and Differences-A Smartboard Activity

2010-02-16T18:16:00.004-06:00

If you have a smart board in your classroom, here is an idea I used today which worked wonderful. I think you could adapt it to a wide variety of lessons. I was introducing polynomials and monomials today in Algebra I and since it is their first exposure to these topics, I wanted to give them a good background before I just rushed into teaching multiplication properties of exponents.

I put up a slide that said "Monomial" on the left side and "Polynomial" on the right side. In the middle, I put about eight or nine algebraic expressions that were either monomials or polynomials arranged in a column.

The directions at the top of the slide said to slide each expression to the appropriate side of the board. I had no shortage of volunteers who wanted to come to the board and "slide" an expression to the appropriate side of the board. The students absolutely love playing with the smartboard and got a big kick out of doing this. After we had finished sorting the expressions, I was able to ask some critcal thinking questions like "What would you say the difference between a polynomial and monomial is," or "How would you define a monomial and polynomial based on these examples." The kids seemed to enjoy the discussion and correcting each other on their ideas.

I think the idea of sorting things based on similarities and differences is an important concept and allows a mental folder to be placed into the brain so new concepts have a place to land. So many times we skip this introductory step in learning and our students suffer for it.

I think this smartboard activity would work great for so many things. I had a few ideas today like putting linear equations in standard form in the middle column and sort them based on positive slope/negative slope or maybe positive y-int/negative y-intercept.

How about sorting different functions to determine whether they are linear or quadratic?

Maybe use it for function transformations. Which functions will produce a stretch or a shrink. The possibilities are endless and it needn't be a time consuming activity. Ten minutes is plenty to sort and then have some type of discussion.

If anyone else has an inspiration, I'd be glad to hear it.

The 10-24-7 Rule

2010-02-14T19:35:00.003-06:00

One useful thing I learned in professional development this summer was the 10-24-7 rule. The rule says that in order to get information to go from short term memory to long term memory, a new concept must be practiced within 10 minutes of learning, again within 24 hours and then again within 7 days. I have tried my best to put this into practice this year. I made several posters for my room illustrating the 10-24-7 rule, not only to remind me, but when students start to complain about homework or warm-up problems, I point out the posters and tell them I'm just trying to help them process the information from their short term memory to the long term memory.

This is not a novel concept, but students must practice something on their own or summarize the concept in words or pictures within ten minutes of learning. There are so many strategies to accomplish this. It might be a homework assignment, it might be cooperative learning, it might be a quick write, or simply having a student summarize verbally what was learned. For the 24 hours, I try to do a warm-up (Do Now, Bell Ringer) every day to practice the concept learned the previous day. For the seven days, I try to include review problems on my assignments that cover material learned the previous week. For some reason, students don't take these problems seriously. I think in their brain, they say, oh this is just a review problem, I'm going to leave it blank, or just guess (since a lot of them are multiple choice TAKS type problems). The way I've solve this is I now include these review problems on unit tests. I keep telling the kids not to skip the review problems because they'll see them again on the unit test. Some take me seriously and some still haven't gotten the message.

With all the distractions a teenagers faces it is sometimes a miracle they learn anything, but for me, the 10-24-7 rule has been a very effective way to help my students retain information. Try it, you'll like it!

New Development

2010-02-14T16:04:00.003-06:00

I've been really debating about whether to share a new development in my life with my blogging family but I just can't keep quiet about something that transpired this weekend.

I am 45 years old and I just found out this weekend that I have an older sister who was born to my mother out-of-wedlock when she was 16 years old. Because the year was 1962, my mother was forced by her mother to give up this child and not a word was ever spoken of this event again.

I can't imagine the pain that my mother has been carrying around for 47 years. Even though my grandmother passed away several years ago, the shame of the whole situation caused my mom to be embarrased to tell me or my younger sister about our older sibling.

This week this women found my mom through an agency that helps people reunite with their birth families. My mom was so afraid to tell us, that she sent my dad down here (5 hour trip) so that he could tell us in person and get our blessing about whether or not to meet this lady.

Of course my entire family is 100% supportive of my mother and any kind of reunion between her and her daughter. I am just sorry that she had to live with this secret for so many years. I understand that she is from a different generation and these events caused great shame and embarrassment for her family, but I am glad that she is finally free of the past.

The sad part of this story is that this lady was adopted by a very dysfunctional family. The adoptive father desparately wanted children and the adoptive mother was so worried about losing her good figure, that she chose to adopt three children instead of bearing them herself.

The father died at some point in my half-sister's life and the mother became so abusive that the three children were removed from the home and placed into foster care. Her brother committed suicide as a teenager and her sister also has encountered emotional problems. I can't even imagine the horrible life my sister has lived it just breaks my heart to even think about it too hard.

On a lighter note, one of the first things that entered my brain when I found out I had an older sister is that I am no longer the oldest child in my family! All my life, I have been the responsible child who got straight A's in school and my sister was the free-spirited, outgoing, live life on the edge type of person.

I am now a middle child. I'm thinking about creating a whole new identity for myself based on the whole middle-child-syndrome. That's right, I am going to have to stop being so responsible and looking for ways to get attention like my middle child does. I've have always teased him about having the worst case of middle-child syndrome I have ever seen. I've got a long way to go if I am going to catch up with his antics.

I am sure there will be more on this new development in the coming months. My new sister lives in St. Louis and I think she and my mom are planning an initial meeting sometime this spring. I will keep you posted.

Gender Separation?

2010-02-13T22:59:00.002-06:00

By now, I am hoping many of you have read my post about my

love-struck freshmen boys

who are now working great and whose grades are improving now that a certain little 14 year old heart throb has withdrawn from my class. One thing my daughter and I were discussing tonight over several glasses of wine is whether or not this situation might make a good case for gender separation in core classes at certain age levels. I'm thinking maybe 7th, 8th, and 9th grade?

I've always noticed a huge difference between 9th and 10th grade boys and sometimes you start seeing more maturity during the second semester of the freshmen year for some boys. So I think the 10th grade year might be a good time to end the separation.

Might it be the case that both sexes could learn better if separated into gender groups? I don't know the answer, but we were enjoying kicking the idea around for awhile. What do you all think?

How Not to Improve a Child's Education

2010-02-10T06:08:00.002-06:00

"You can't fatten up a cow by continuing to weigh it all the time."
That pretty much sums up my feeling on the current testing frenzy we are experiencing in the education world. Let us teach and stop taking kids out of our classrooms to constantly "weigh them."

The Power of Love (or lust) is Now a Scientifically Proven Fact!

2010-02-06T07:15:00.003-06:00

If you read my post yesterday about the Power of Love, you will appreciate this article sent to me by my friend Riccochet! Because it was so short, I'm just going to cut and paste into this post. I'm sorry that I don't know the proper ettiquette for giving credit for the article so I'll just give you the link to the story HERE.

Men suffer from significantly reduced mental agility after a conversation with attractive women, a new study suggests.

Dutch psychologists had males and females talk to strangers of both sexes and tested them on word games before and after the interaction. When men spoke to men, or women conversed with either sex, their mental abilities remained unchanged. However, a man gets markedly dumber after he talks to a woman -- and the better looking the woman, the stupider he becomes.

The researchers posit men can't help but mentally exhaust themselves trying to pick up an attractive woman.

This is why, if you value your money, you should never even look in the eyes of the cocktail waitress at the casino, the bikini model at the boat show, etc.

Now I finally know why my 3rd period class has such a high failure rate! Their IQ's have been severely impacted by a 14 year old siren!

The Power of Love (or is it lust?)

2010-02-05T17:14:00.003-06:00

I teach one class of algebra I that drives me crazy. Nothing like what my good friend Pissed Off Teacher is going through, but it's enough to make me crave a strong margarita at 9:30 in the morning.

In this class of 9th graders there are 14 boys and 3 girls. That is there were 3 girls. One of the girls withdrew from school yesterday to enroll in a private school. That leaves 14 boys and 2 girls. For an entire year, I have dealt with all types of mischief in this class. One day during the passing period, I entered the room to find one of the boys had put hand sanitizer all over the door handle. I have lots of running, horseplay, getting out of their seats, loud talking, strange bodily noises, and on and on. A lesson that takes 15 minutes to teach in my other algebra I classes, takes 30 minutes to teach in this class because of all the interruptions. On top of that, only about 25% of the class passed for the semester. Isn't that terrible? A 75% failure rate! See, Pissed Off, there are worse things than being the 60% teacher!

I cannot get these lovely children to do a bit of homework. I call home, I send letters, I counsel. I do everything I can possibly think of but no matter what I do nothing changes. I've resigned myself to the fact that whatever we do as a class is all they are really going to do.

But today something strange happened. I was teaching the lesson and I looked out and every single person was writing down the examples on the hand out I had given them. I didn't believe it so I took a stroll around the room in between examples, and sure enough EVERY SINGLE student had written down the first three examples.

I stopped them all right there and declared that the entire class was going to get 5 bonus points on that days assignment because I was so excited that the entire class was on task.

Here is where it gets interesting. This one boy (who is quite outgoing) says to me, "Miss don't you get it?" I said, "No, get what?"

He said, "That girl, that cute one with the curly brown hair isn't in our class anymore. I just couldn't think straight when she was in here. She was so hot that it just took my breath away!"

Immediately all the boys began talking at once. They all chimed in agreeing with the first boy. I heard comments like "She made me dizzy every time I looked at her." And "I just couldn't stop staring at her." This went on and on for about 5 minutes with nearly every single boy making a comment on the mesmerizing powers of this young lady.

By this time I was cracking up. I said, "You mean to tell me that this is why you boys have been acting like idiots since August. Do you mean to tell me that all this foolishness was just to get this one girl's attention?"

The first boy piped up, "Yeah, pretty much."

Now, I don't know if anything will get better or not on a permanent basis, but I sure did enjoy the fact that for one day every single person was learning.

A Texas Sized Bottleneck

2010-02-04T17:55:00.003-06:00

This week brought a new experience to me in my teaching career. For the last three days, the teachers at my school have been meeting with our advisory classes (30 min each day) to help them create their schedule for next year. Day one was spent doing a transcript evaluation where they had to use a check-off sheet and their transcript to make sure they were on track with their credits. Day two was spent going through the course guides and selecting classes and today I collected their course selection sheets and looked over them for mistakes.

I also spent a little time in each of my math classses helping them decide what math class they would sign up for next year. OMG, the things I have learned the last few days.

Number One thing I have learned: Texas is about to experience a huge bottleneck of students trying to graduate under the new 4 x 4 plan. (4 yrs of all 4 core subjects. I forsee huge numbers of students requiring 5 years to graduate. I am not sure how in the world our schools will handle the swelling numbers.

Why the huge bottle neck? I am currently advising juniors and most of my students are juniors (except for my algebra I classes). Loking at their transcripts, I was horrified to find that many juniors still have no algebra I credit or geometry credit. Oh yes, they have taken the course, but they have also failed it multiple times. Some of my students gained their first math credit ever in my math models class. (Because I practically give them away to anyone who actually TRIES)

So how in the world do these juniors expect to graduate next year? My guess is that they won't. Now if this is happening in my school which only contains about 35% economic disadvantaged, how bad is it in schools like the one I came from which was about 70% economic disadvantaged?

I don't know the answer, but I predict this problem will come to light about this time next year. Right now, only of those on the inside can see they firestorm that is about to hit the state of Texas. I guess you can say you heard it here first.

Gettin' Lucky

2010-02-03T06:13:00.003-06:00

So yesterday we were learning to factor trinomials of the form ax^2 + bx + c in my math models class. I've taught this topic so many ways, but I have come to realize all of the little "tricks" to help them are useless, because the following year, they can't remember the "tricks". So in order to help them really understand the process, we are doing good old fashioned guess and check. This process was murder for my MMA kids because if they can't arrive at an answer within a few steps, they immediately proclaim "This is way too much work miss, " and you lose them for the rest of the lesson.

Anyway, on each problem, I would write out the possible factorizations and I was getting each row to check a different possibility. The first example went well and our second answer choice was the correct answer. On example two, the first answer choice ended up being the correct answer and I proclaimed, "wow, it's my lucky day!" "I can't believe I picked the right answer on my first try!" Then on example 3, I accidently did the same thing, I picked the correct factorization as my first guess (even though I really didn't want to). I then proclaimed in a very dramatic voice (because I was trying to keep their attention) "I can't believe I got lucky twice in one day!" A hush fell over the room and then laughter ensued. The whole class was beside themselves with laughing. It took me a few minutes to figure out what in the world was so funny. Then one brave student said, "Miss, think about what you just said."

I'm not sure how much they really learned yesterday about factoring. I can see that I will need to spend several more days on the topic. I'm going to try a little group activity today to avoid another "boring" lecture and hopefully more slips of the tongue.

Student Samples from Linear Art Project

2010-01-31T12:44:00.002-06:00

I'm sorry this post has been a long time coming. I've been sicker than a dog this week and barely had the energy to get through school each day and then come home to crawl into bed.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about how my algebra I students were working on a project where they had to draw a picture with at least 20 lines. They had to include positive and negative slope, vertical, and horizontal. After they drew their pictures, they were to number each segment and then write the equation for the segment along with the corresponding domain and range. It was a great way to finish off the semester and reinforce some of the topics we learned.

What I found funny was that there were so many students who could complete an entire homeowrk assingment containing problems like: If a line passes through the point
(2, 5) and has a slope of -3, write an equation of the line om slope intercept form. Or write an equation of the horizontal line that passes through the point
(4, 2). Easy, Greasy, nearly everyone would be successfull.

Now, put the same thing in an application problem like this art project and they fall apart. They'd come to tutorials with the saddest look on their face and say, "Miss, I just don't get any of this." I don't even know where to start. You never taught us how to write the equation for a picture, how do you expect us to do this??"

Statements like this would crack me up. They just don't see the connection between their homework problems and this assignment until I worded it like this: Me: "Ok, Johnny, here's a slanted line, what is it's slope? Johnny: well, it goes up 2 and over 1 so the slope is 2. Me: Ok, Johnny, can you name me just one of the points that this line passes through? Student begins to stutter and stammer. . . I don't know what you mean miss? Me: Johnny can you point to one point on the line for me? Johnny: Yes, it starts right here. Me: Ok, what is the name of that point? Johnny: Oh, you mean like (2, 3)? Me: Yes, that's what I'm talking about. Now, you have a slope of 2 and it goes through (2, 3), can you write an equation with that information? Johnny: You mean like use the y - y1 formula (he is referring to point-slope). Me: Yes, now you're cooking Johnny! Do you think you could do that for each one of these slanted lines on this paper? Johnny: Yeah, I guess. Me: Ok, well go do it!

In the end, the project was successfull. Several students passed the quarter because of it (and one failed because he didn't turn it in). The pictures you see above are my favorites that I chose to hang up on my back wall. The funny thing is now, my math models classes are jealous that they didn't get to do the project.

Mrs. H sets a Fishing Record!

2010-01-17T17:47:00.004-06:00

My husband is always surprising me with unique gifts. This year for Christmas he gave me a guided fishing trip. I guess you might think I'm kind of weird, but I was so excited about this trip. I've always loved being on the water and I've always loved to fish. Unfortunately, living in West Texas for 35 years, did not afford me the luxury to indulge either of these interests.

We are lucky to live on a small lake that is actually a portion of the Guadalupe River that has been dammed up to form a beautiful lake. My husband hired TopCat fishing to take us on an 8 hour fishing trip hunting for Blue Cat Catfish.

Our guide, Ray Austin had just caught a 35 lb Blue Cat on our lake earlier in the week and was certain we would land at least a 40 lb fish today. We fell short on that goal but managed to bring a nice edible Blue weighing close to 6 lobs and then later in the day my husband brought in a 5.5 lb channel cat to break the current lake record. Unfortunately for him, I smashed his record two hours later by bringing in a 9.8 lb channel cat. We had to have it verified and it will apparently be going up on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Website later this week.

This trip was so peaceful and relaxing. It really fit in with my New Years Resolution to relax and not work so hard. I didn't think about school one time while out on the water. It was a great day and I thank my husband for a great Christmas gift. While I know the record will not last forever, the memories will!

Linear Art Project for Algebra I

2010-01-11T18:50:00.003-06:00

For the last two days my algebra I students have been working on a Linear Art Project. Here is the basic idea. Construct a picture of at least 20 line segments that includes at least 5 vertical, 5 horizontal, 5 lines with postitive slope, and 5 lines with negative slope. Sketch the picture onto graph paper, number each line segment and then write the equation of each segment and give the appropriate domain and range for each segment. Some of the pictures have been quite amazing (with 50 or more segments)and most students have really put themselves into the whole process. Some had trouble getting started, but once they did, they were able to complete the project fairly independently. I probably should have made them complete it at home, but I wanted to supervise their work and I'm counting it as their last test grade of the grading period so I didn't want a bunch of kids taking zeros on it just because they didn't feel like doing it, and then having to explain why they are all the sudden failing my class to the parents. The way it is working out now, some who had 65-69 are now going to pass because they have done so well. I have been especially amazed to see how some of the boys have really gotten into this project.

How to Not Get Nervous For Your Evaluation

2009-12-06T11:46:00.002-06:00

I have stumbled on a cure to beat the case of nerves I get every year before my annual observation. Walk-throughs don't bother me in the least. I'm too busy to hardly even notice an administrator in my room. It is when I know they are coming for the entire period that I get flustered. Will I measure up, will I remember to use the right Bloom's Taxonomoy verbs that they are always telling us they are looking for? Will my classes be out of control or will they be sleepy and not participating?

Here is my solution. Make appt. for December observation in October. Write the date down on a sticky note and place on desk. Spend two months piling answer keys, papers to be graded, notes from the office, bell schedules, ISS papers, etc on top of sticky note so that it will never again see the light of day.

Show up on the day of your observation completely unaware that it will take place during your 6th period math models class. Spend conference period side-tracked on trying to download a new program onto your laptop. Spend your lunch visiting with the other math teachers on your hall. Show up to 6th period and begin class like always, get kids started on their warm-up, go to take roll and look up from computer after submitting attendance and find the principal sitting at a desk at the back of the room. That is when it hits you. OMG!! MY EVALUATION IS TODAY!

All went well thankfully. In fact it went really well. I was doing a little activity to introduce systems of equations. I showed to class how to construct guess-and-check tables to solve coin problems and ticket problems. I then showed them how to apply a guess-and-check table to a TAKS test problem. We talked about how even if they forget how to solve a system algebraically, they would still have this method to fall back on in a testing situation. I then gave them four problems to do in their groups. After the four problems they did in groups, they had to do 2 as individuals for a quiz grade.

The best thing about the evaluation, is I felt totally relaxed. When I know the administrator is coming, I say I'm going to do what I always do, that I won't put on a dog and pony show, but I find myself planning every little detail wondering what the principal will think about this or that. I tell the kids ahead of time we will have a visitor and to please be on their best behaviour.

This time, I felt natural, and the kids acted like themselves too. There was some chit chat just like always, I had to tell someone to take off their headphones, I had to ask someone to put a book away, but it was all done very calmly. Once they got into their groups, they all worked. I think they wanted to impress the principal.

I think from now on, I may just tell the principal to come anytime they want for my evaluation. I think I really do better that way. If I don't get nervous, then they will get a more realistic picture of what goes on in my classroom everyday. It ain't always pretty, but I feel confident that authentic learning is taking place every single day. If they want pretty, they'll have to go down the hall to the pre-ap and AP classes, if they want the real world, come on in to room 221 and pull up a chair!

Poker Chip Test Review

2009-11-30T18:53:00.003-06:00

I stole this idea from Kate over at f(t) and modified to make it mine. I thought it worked great and would like to share with you.

I don't know about you, but I dread test review days. How do you get the students to take the reviews seriously? You want for them to see the importance of doing the review for the sake of learning, but instead all you hear are comments like "Is this for a grade", or "Do we get extra credit for doing the review?"

I've been trying to collect interesting ways of reviewing for tests and I have shared a few like my Test Review Bingo game. Today we played something called Poker Chip Test Review. I'll admit, it involves a little bribery, but I'll do just about anything to get my math models kids to study for a test and actually do the review.

Here is what you need:
1. 5 poker chips for each group
2. A test review for each person in the class
3. One worked-out answer key for each group

Procedure:
1. Place students into groups of 3-4 and have them appoint a "Chip-Master" and a "Key-Master". I told them that the chip master should be the bossiest person in the group and the key master should be the most responsible person in the group.
2. Hand out 5 poker chips to each chip master, the reviews to each person in the group, and an answer key to each key master
3. The poker chips represent 1-2 bonus points on the test the following day. I made mine worth two since my math models kids usually have such low test grades.
4. The role of the chip master is to keep the group on task and to be in charge of the chips.
5. The role of the key master is to keep the answer key face down and to check the answers for the group after they finish each problem or section of problems. (Be sure the key master understands that they have to do the review also)
6. Teacher circulates around the room answering questions and confiscating chips as the need arises.

Here is what I confiscated chips for (decide what is important to you and make your own list):

1. Group is off task or not following classroom rules. (Today I took up chips for talking about non-math related subjects, cell phone texting, profanity, etc)
2. Copying answers directly off answer key
3. One or two members doing the work and the others copying that work
4. Asking me a question that they had not discussed with the entire group before asking me.

At the beginning of class, I was very strict and tried to confiscate several chips right away. This got the rest of the groups busy . I was amazed to see them actually discuss problems and help each other. With six groups, I was able to easily spend quality time with each group. I would stop by and discuss the set of problems they were working on and talk about what they needed to remember for the test tomorrow. I was also amazed at how seriously some of the chip masters and key masters took their jobs. It really kind of surprised me. They did not want those chips taken away. I only had one group in each class that had the full 10 points at the end, and one poor group only had one-token left at the end of the period.

Overall, it was a successful day and an idea I'll definitely use again.

Ghosts in the Graveyard

2009-10-31T08:57:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, I tried a new activity in my MMA class given to me by a colleague. This is by far one of the most successful group activities I have ever done with my at-risk kids. It is called Ghosts in the Graveyard for Halloween, but the activity could be adapted for any holiday. Here is how it works.

1. You will need 8 "Problem Cards" with 3 problems on each card. I made my cards in the shape of Ghosts.

2. You will need 5 black sheets of construction paper to symbolize the graveyard. I put tombstones on mine and hung them on my dry-erase board.

3. You will need about 50 "little ghosts" for each class period.

4. 2 glue sticks to attach the little ghosts to the graveyards.

Procedure:
1. Divide class into groups of 3-4 students
2. Give each group a problem card
3. Every member of the group works the problem and raises their hand when they are done. You go over and check their work and answers. If EVERYONE has done the problem correctly, they get a "little ghost" which they put their group number on and hang in any one of the graveyards.
4. As they finish a "Problem Card", they go get another one. The goal is get as many "little ghosts" as possible to hang in the graveyards.
5. About 10 minutes before the end of the period, I draw for how many points each graveyard will be worth. I use 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100. So if graveyard 2 is worth 50 points and a group had 2 ghosts in that graveyard, they will get 100 points.
6. Tally all the points for the groups and give prizes to 1st and 2nd.
(pencils, pts on a test, candy, etc)

The kids in my MMA class who hate to do work begged to play longer and asked if we could play again at Christmas so I said sure, I could come up with another one. I think it will be something like pin the ornament on a Christmas Tree. I'll make the big "Problem Cards" in the shape of presents.

If you'd like this entire game in word format, I will send it to you by email. It includes the ghost templates so you can use your own questions, and a complete game including the questions I used and answer key.

The game would be appropriate for any level that has covered graphing and writing equations of lines.

Email me at hughey5864@gmail.com and I'll get it right out to you.

Funny Answers from my Algebra I test

2009-10-18T19:59:00.002-05:00

Did you know . . . .

1. That when you take a stadium with a capacity of 60,000 and increase its size by 15% that sometimes the new capacacity will be 400,000 and sometimes the new capacity will be 9,000?

BTW, Math Teacher Mambo, this is one of those problems that I "made-up" for my test and guess what the answer came out to be when I made the key this weekend??? 69,000!!! This kind of stuff will always happen when you take the test to the printer before you make the key!

2. Did you also know that 65% of 92 is 0.007 or in some cases 65% of 92 is 598,000?

It never ceases to amaze me that 9th graders have so little reasoning ability on percent problems. It's like they don't even realize their answers are not logical. I can clearly remember not knowing whether or not to multiply or divide on percent problems when I was in algebra I, but I also remember always looking at my answer and if it was illogical, I would go back and try a different operation, which would usually give me the correct answer.

Most Missed

2009-10-18T16:47:00.002-05:00

Friday I gave a unit test in algebra I over solving linear equations. At the end of the test, I included 3 of the most missed problems from chapter 2 test.

1. Simplify: 2(x - 4) - 7(x - 4)

2. Evaluate: 24 divided by 1/2 (only written out in fraction form)

3. Evaluate x^2 - y^2 if x = -3 and y = -4

Huge improvement in #1. #2 and #3 were again among the most missed problems on this unit test. I guess, I will explain these concepts for the fiftieth time. Is anyone listening or is it really so hard for 9th graders to get it through their head that dividing by 1/2 is the same as multiplying by 2?

Weird Week

2009-10-14T19:46:00.002-05:00

Weird things that have happened to me this week:

1. A student comes to class Monday with a black and blue face. I gasped when I saw him and said, "S", are you OK? Whatever happened to your face? (I knew the minute I said it that I shouldn't have asked). The whole class busted out laughing.

It seems he had not been beaten up, but his girlfriend had covered his entire face in hickey's (sp???). I've never seen anything like it in my whole life. I could barely see his face because of all the black and blue.

2. Out of the blue, one of my 18 year old Math Models students tells me that he got one of my 9th grade algebra I students (15 yrs old) pregnant, but not too worry cuz she had a miscarriage. WTF!! Why is he telling me such disturbing information????

3. Someone put something in my iced tea on Monday. It was fine at the beginning of the period, but when I went to take a big swig towards the end of class, it had an unbelievable bitter chemical taste. I really think it was hand sanitizer. I can't prove who did it, but I have a very good idea. When I told the other math models teacher, he said that he never leaves an open cup on his desk. He always drinks from cups that have a lid out of fear of what some of the students might do. You've got to be kidding me! Has it really come to this? Is this the type of kid I am up against in my new school? Sometimes I miss my poverty stricken small town school at Middle of Nowhere High School. I had some pretty tough customers, but for the most part they gave me no trouble once we were in the classroom. Just the everyday sort of misbehaviour that all teenagers participate in. I never once feared for my life. But this. . . this incident really has me disturbed and kept me up late into the night last night.

4. The last incident is not strange, but I must brag. I had almost an entire day to work in my classroom while all the 10th graders took PSAT. The 9, 11, and 12 did not have to show up until 12:25 and I have first period off, so I didn't have to see a single student until 1:00! I cleaned my desk, I organized cabinets, I worked on lesson plans, I copied stuff for next week. WOW!!!

Words Are Powerful!

2009-10-12T20:17:00.002-05:00

Words are powerful. I have noticed how every time I get evaluated in my new school (several walk-throughs a week), that I eagerly await my evaluation report to see if it says anything encouraging. I find it odd, that that even though I am confident in my abilities, a kind word still means a lot to me and is extremely motivating. I really like the way my new school does walk-throughs. They are completely electronic. The evaluator walks in with a little PDA thingy and taps away while they are in the room and they leave after a couple of minutes. Within 30 minutes, I receive a link to my newest evaluation. Talk about instant feedback!

This year I am finding that placing stickers on the quizzes of students who score a 100 to be a huge motivating factor. I passed out quizzes today that I had graded over the weekend and heard the excited voices saying, "what sticker did you get"? I then noticed that some students were even taking the stickers off the quizzes and making a little collection out of them on the front of their notebooks. One students asked me where I get all my stickers. Truth is, I just love stickers. I use Halloween ones during October, Thanksgiving ones during November and so on.

I realized that the little quizzes I give 2 or 3 times a week (4 questions) are like the short walkthroughs that I am evaluated with. They are just small snapshots of their progress. The instant feedback I give them seems to mean a lot. I try to write little notes to them if they miss a problem and explain what they did wrong. If they completely screw it up and miss every single problem, I write them a little note and tell them to come by during tutorials and I will help them redo the quiz. If they master the quiz, then they get the ultimate motivator. . . THE STICKER!

I am going to make a concerted effort this week to give some positive feedback to as many students as possible. I have a little form letter that I send home to parents that is really cute. At the top in big letters it says Way to Go! In the right upper corner there is a picture of a cheerleader jumping in they air. In the letter, I basically praise the child to the parent and have a little check list of things that I can brag about. Some of the things I can check are, has great attitude, works hard, is helpful, has shown great improvement, doesn't give up when things get hard, is always prepared for class, etc. .

Anyway, I am going to try an mail out about 20 of those this week. I am especially going to look for kids that don't normally get any recognition in math because they struggle. I am going to praise them for their effort or their attitude. . . anything I can think of to let them know that I believe in them.

As educators, our words are POWERFUL! I would like to challenge all of you great teachers out there to look for ways to encourage as many students and other colleagues as you can this week. And I want to encourage you all by saying how much I appreciate each and every teaching blog I read. I don't always have time to comment, but I always read and you never cease to inspire!

Its a Wunderbar Life

2009-10-07T19:18:00.003-05:00

This post has nothing to do with education, but since this is my online journal, I just have to say it. . . .

I LOVE my new hometown. I can't begin to tell you how much I adore this place. Every day I drive home from work and think about how lucky I am to live in this beautiful little town. I truly have all the advantages of a small town yet I live 20 minutes from the 7th largest city in the United States.

The scenery is so beautiful and there is a thriving quaint downtown with lots of shops and restaurants. Tomorrow night we will be downtown for a "Wine Stroll". I have no idea what it is, but when I heard about it, I said count me in. This weekend we will be going to the Gruene (pronounced Green) Wine and Music Fest and 3 weeks from now is Wurstfest. Wurstfest generally draws in close to 150,000 people for a 10 day salute to the sausage. I can't wait.

There is so much to do here. The thing I probably like the best is the local live music scene. You cannot believe how popular Americana music is here and how seriously people take their music. We go out two or three times a week to drink a beer and listen to music. Many famous Texas musicians who are based out of Austin make my hometown their home and I have seen several of them at the local grocery store or out at one of the many live music venues.

Gruene Hall, the oldest dance hall in Texas is where we spend most of our time. I love it, because so many people our age and older go to visit, have a beer, and listen to a wide variety of music. The people here are so friendly. Unbelievably, in 5 months time, I have more friends to "hang out" with than I had before I moved here. I have a group of fun teacher friends who go to choir practice with me every Friday night. Amazingly, there is very little talk of school. We just laugh and talk and have a great time. My husband and I have also made friends with two other couples and we eat dinner together at least one time every weekend. We call ourselves the "Hard-Luck" club. One of the couples moved here from California the same weekend we moved here from West Texas. They just lost their home and job out there and are seeking refuge in a much friendlier and cheaper locale. The other couple is also going through job woes through downsizing and cutting back. My husband and I are also a little down on our luck as he has been out of work since January. (Although it looks like that's about to change in the next couple of weeks)

Yes, Mrs. H is happy and content even though many areas of my life and finances are not great right now. I am learning to be content with all the small things in life. Friends, family, a cold beer, and some live music. Life is truly "wunderbar" as my new German friends would say.

You gotta try this in your class!

2009-10-06T19:14:00.003-05:00

If you fellow math teachers out there do not read Kate Novak's blog at
f(t), you do not know what you are missing.

She comes up with the best ideas and freely shares them with all of us. I routinely "steal" her ideas and use them quite successfully in my classes. This is why I love blogging. All the benefits of professional development without all the boredom. We bloggers also share a unique support group where we encourage each other after hard days.

Any way, here is a link to her newest idea called Speed Dating or Math Train. I absolutely love this idea and I plan on using it soon and sharing it with others. I begin by sharing the link with you!

All in a Day's Work

2009-10-06T18:57:00.004-05:00

This was my day:

1. Went in early to get some work done because I had agreed to cover a fellow teacher's first period class (during my conference) while she had some blood work done. Got to school at 7:10 (school starts at 8:30) and was greeted at the door by a student and his mother. The student said, "Mrs. H, I have been telling my mom what a good teacher you were and she needs help on her college math so I invited her to come to your room for help with her assignment). I grudgingly agreed to help the poor woman, but told her I could only give her about 15 minutes of my time. I'm not even going to go into what she needed help on. Let's just say that it would have taken me 6 weeks to cover the material in a high school algebra II classroom.

2. After the mother and son leave, I opened up my email and find this message from the junior counselor: "I am placing a student in your 6th period math models class who really needs your help. He is dyslexic and has failed algebra I twice and failed geometry twice. He currently has no math credits and is on-track to take the exit-level TAKS exam in April. Because so many students, have complimented your teaching style down here in the counselor's office, we believe you might be able to help JM. You are truly JM's last hope and we hope you will be understanding of his difficulties with math and do everything in your power to help him succeed."

Um.. .. was that email a compliment or am I already being dumped on because I work hard and try to do my best for the kids I have been given?
I hate to break it to the poor counselors, but if this child truly has severe learning disabilities and has failed to learn after four different math teachers, I'm not really sure what I can do different.

3. Was cussed out by a student for asking her for her phone and scolded by another student for taking said phone up, because as the second student put it. . . "it's not like she was using it or anything"

4. Got 4 new students in Algebra I. All from different schools in the San Antonio area. None of them seem to know much.

5. After school two algebra I students stayed after class just shooting the bull with me and said out of the blue that I was the best math teacher they'd ever had. I almost broke down and cried. I really needed that after all the events of the day. Leave it to a 4'11' male freshmen and his friend to make me want to come back and do it all again tomorrow.

Miss,We already know all this stuff!

2009-10-05T21:58:00.003-05:00

I am continually amazed at the ability of the freshmen in my new school compared to the freshmen in my former school. Friday we were working on equations like 4x - 9(x - 8) = -22. Hard stuff for the kids at my old school. I mean literally, I would have one or 2 in a class of 20 who could work the problems without my assistance. Friday, I had kids saying, why do we have to practice these again? (I assumed they would need two days of practice) I was told by several indignant students that they had learned to solve equations like this last year and so why did we have to keep going over and over them?

At Middle of Nowhere High School, I was used to introducing new topics and being met with blank stares. I was told that they'd "Never seen this stuff before in their entire lives". I was frequently told that their teacher "Never taught them anything". I usually rolled my eyes when told things like that because I refused to believe that their teacher went an entire school year without teaching them a single thing. I think the case may have been that their behavior was so terrible that the teacher had a difficult time teaching them anything, or that they weren't listening when their teacher was trying to teach them something, or perhaps they were in ISS or OSS when their teacher presented the topic.

At this school, however, it is a different story. Not only do the students remember what they learned last year, but they will tell me how their teacher taught it. They will tell me the cutest little sayings or ways the teacher gave them to help them remember things. I'm sure, it is just because I am dealing with a different clientele in this school. The parents are extremely involved and active in their child's education. I don't see the extreme poverty that I was faced with at Middle of Nowhere. I also don't see the behaviour or gang problems I had at MONHS (in my algebra I classes that is)

I might need to rethink my game plan in algebra I and move through the curriculum a little faster. I don't want to leave anyone behind and I am sure there are many who are struggling, but won't speak up out of embarrassment. It is just that the bright ones are so vocal. It is the ones who struggle who try to blend into the background and not call attention to themselves. I want so bad to challenge my brighter students, but at the same time, I don't want to leave anyone behind. I know a strong algebra I foundation is key for later success in HS math so I want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to practice the more difficult concepts even if that means spending an extra days on the more difficult topics and risk some of the students being "bored."

Communicator Boards.

2009-09-30T18:27:00.003-05:00

Do you know what Communicator Boards are? Well, if you have never used them, you should talk your dept. chair into ordering you some. They are like Dry-Erase boards, but they are plastic and you can put different templates inside of them. They look like the plastic things that restaurants put their menus inside to keep them protected. They come in bright primary colors and are packaged in a big rubbermaid tub with cute little erasers and low-odor dry erase markers.

Anyway, I had a set at my old school and I would bring them out every so often. The kids loved them. I asked my new dept. chair if she had the money in her budget to buy me a set (about $100) and she said she did. They came in yesterday and we used them today in algebra I. Let me tell you, those kids were so excited. We are just beginning to solve linear equations and yesterday we did two-step equations so today, after our quiz, we spent the rest of the period doing problem after problem. Kids who haven't turned in a single homework paper this year were happily working the problems and showing their answers to me. It was loud, it was crazy, it was fun! Everyone was engaged and everyone was participating. Several students left saying that they hoped we could use the communicator boards again tomorrow.

We are also making progress on the distributive property. Last week I posted about the difficulties algebra I students have with problems like 4(x - 2) - 6(x - 4). I have decided to put one of these problems on every single warm-up we do until I am getting about 95% mastery. I am also going to put one on every single quiz they take even though it is a topic from Chapter 2. I guess you could call it drill and kill, but I am determined not to have these kids go on to algebra II without the ability to distribute a negative properly!

First Algebra I Exam

2009-09-10T19:52:00.002-05:00

Mrs. H sure ain't in Kansas (I mean West Texas) anymore!

I gave my first Algebra I exam today. I'm not sure what I expected, but I was surprised to only have 8 failures out of 90 students. I am used to a failure rate of about 60% on all of my algebra I tests at my old school. Man, the difference between teaching in a high income school and a low income school is like night and day.

Do I have things better here? In my algebra I classes, I would have to say yes. In my Math Models (where every single student is at risk) I'd have to say no. The reason I say things are not better in my math models is that this school is not as strict as my old one. Even though Middle of Nowhere High School was a high poverty area, our school was very strict and our administration was very supportive of the teachers. I rarely had discipline issues. I had kids with LOTS of problems, but once they were in my door, I could pretty much teach without a lot of problems other than the day-to-day issues of hyperactivity or on the other end of the spectrum, sleepiness.

At this school, my algebra I kids are great. Very respectful, very hard working, and very bright. With the exception of 2 or 3 in each class, all the students seem very capable. In my math models, there is a general lack of respect for authority. I am constantly having to be a bitch and I don't enjoy it. I am fighting a battle with cell phones and headphones in the ears right now. It is almost if they are testing me to see how far they can go. Oh well, isn't that what the 3rd week of school is all about. The new has worn off and the little darlings are now going to see how far they can get with me.

It is such a fine line with these at risk kids. If you push too hard, you risk losing them. If you go too easy, you find yourself in a situation where you are no longer in control of your classroom. I find myself being very strict at the beginning of the year and then backing off as we go along and I get to know them. Many kids say they thought I was going to be mean when they first met me and then I end up being one of their favorites.

First Observation

2009-09-09T05:36:00.002-05:00

I had my first informal observation today in my new district. The district's math curriculum director came in and stayed about 20 minutes. We weren't doing anything exciting. Kids were working on their warm-up problems and then I spent a few minutes discussing the warm-up problems. The students had taken a quiz on the Friday before the holiday so I put the 3 most missed problems from the quiz on the warm-up. This gave me a way to reteach, review and go over the quiz all at once.

I think I had everything done that they look for in this district. My objectives were clearly posted on the board at the front of the room, my tutorial times were posted on the front door, my Word Wall is made, my lesson plans are posted on the internet.

In my old district, I was rarely observed. I had been there so long, my principal would come by to ask me a question and on the way out the door, he'd say, "let's just count this as your walk-through for the month." Because we were such a small school, we didn't have a district curriculum director so there was no district oversight either. I'm not sure which I prefer. Everyone would like a little feedback now and then, but no one wants someone breathing down their neck either.

So far, this school seems to have a good balance. I like knowing exactly what is expected of me. If I know what they want, I can give it to them. In my classroom, I live by the mantra of "Inspect What You Expect." If I ask the students to do something, then I am closely monitoring them to make sure what I am asking them to do gets done. I don't sit down much. During the warm-up I am constantly walking to make sure the kids are doing the problems (even though they aren't for a grade), during independent practice, I roam around checking work, and answer questions. It helps keep the kids on task and they know I am monitoring their work.

The administration has been nothing but supportive of me and my efforts and hopefully that will continue. I really don't mind that I will be observed frequently in this district. I am sure they will see good days and bad days in my room because that's how teaching is. Hopefully though they will be able to see the big picture of what I am trying to accomplish.

An activity that actually worked!

2009-09-06T08:50:00.003-05:00

Happy Labor Day weekend to everyone! I hope all of you who have already been in the trenches for several weeks are enjoying your long weekend. To those of you starting school within the next couple of weeks, I hope your year gets off to a great start.

Friday, the day before the holiday, I didn't want to start anything new in my Math Models classes so I played a little game that worked really well. I thought I'd share it with you. I had each student draw a 4 x 4 grid on a piece of notebook paper and number each space randomly with the numbers 1-16. I had a jar on my desk with the numbers 1-16 on little scraps of paper. We have been reviewing solving linear equations of all kinds, so I prepared a list of about 50 random equations to solve. I put an equation on the board and everyone worked it while I watched. I then worked and gave the correct answer. After I gave the answer, I drew a number out of my jar. Everyone who had the correct answer, got to "X" out that number on the grid. We played until someone got 4 "X"'s in a row. Did some cheat, and mark out a number when they really got it wrong?, probably, but for this game it doesn't matter. I was just really trying to keep them on task and doing something productive the day before a holiday.

I thought it worked great because I didn't need any materials. You could do this little game with any topic. All you need are some questions prepared in advance and some cut up numbers. in a jar. Also, the smart kids don't really have an advantage over the ones who struggle because they placed the numbers randomly on the grid. Everyone had a chance to win. They were really into it and wanted to know if we could play the game again sometime. It really surprised me that these classes got into the game so much. Of course, there were a couple who never do anything anyway that weren't really all that enthused, but for the most part, I got excellent participation.

Grading Policies

2009-08-29T11:10:00.003-05:00

Math Teacher Mambo has a post today about grading policies and this was exactly the idea I had in my mind when I got up this morning about what to post on today.

At my old school, I had 3 grade categories: Daily-10%, Quiz-30%, and Tests 60%. I really liked this system. I only counted HW 10% of their average because to me it is just practice. I told them upfront that I could care less if they copied every single problem off their friend's homework because I still controlled 90% of their grade through quizzes and tests. It all boiled down to the fact that if they didn't know their stuff, it was going to become very apparent in the assessments I gave.

At my new school, we are only allowed to have two categories: Daily(which includes HW and quizzes) is 40% and Major(tests, projects, etc) which counts for 60%. So essentially there is no difference between a quiz and HW. I don't know if I'm going to like this new system or not. To get a true picture of their progress, I think I will need to give more frequent quizzes.

I think for right now, I will try to keep on open mind until the end of the first grading period (9 weeks) until I can see how their final grade comes and out and determine whether or not it is a fair assessment of their knowledge of the subject.

I don't know about you, but I have noticed a tendency in the last five years towards grade inflation. The pressure has increased on educators to "pass" indivduals who don't really know the subject matter so that the student will "stay in the game" and not give up on the educational process. When I was a kid, me and all my friends passed because there would be hell to pay from our parents if we didn't.

If you pass a child who puts in very little effort, it is like giving tylenol to someone who has cancer. You are only treating a sympton and not the real disease. We are graduating a population who thinks they can get by with very little effort and that it is really OK to just show up 80% of the time. Oh, what a cruel world awaits them. Especially in times of recession. They will be shocked to be on the street and someone else who is willing to give 100% every day will take their place.

Day 4 Week One

2009-08-28T06:20:00.002-05:00

I LOOOOVE my algebra I classes!. These kids are great. I come from a school where teaching algebra I is the probably the most difficult job on the campus. Usually about 60% of the class had failed their 8th grade TAKS test and many had failed every single math TAKS they'd ever taken. There was very little prior understanding so teaching them the abstract theories of algebra I was a frustrating job.

In this school, the 9th graders seem alert and happy to be in class. They are full of energy (I guess some would think of that as a negative) and motivation. In each of my 4 classes, I probably only have 2-3 students out of 30 who failed their 8th grade TAKS. During my lessons this week we have been rockin' and rollin'. I'm back to the beautiful chaos that is my teaching style.

Math Models is a different story. I had forgotten how long it takes to build a rapport with these kids. I forget that you must win their allegience and it doesn't come overnight. Right now, they are in the "I don't fully trust you" stage so they are just kind of watchin' me and not fully engaging. I have to remind kids to please pick their heads up off their desks, to take the headphones out of their ears, and to turn around and stop talking to their neighbor while I am talking. I'm trying to stay positive. I know this is how it is every year at the beginning of Math Models and I will eventually win them over (well most of them anyway). I'm trying to maintain a positive attitude and I will continue to vent in this forum because it makes me feel better!

Day 3 Week One

2009-08-26T21:14:00.002-05:00

Today things really smoothed out for me. I am starting to feel more comfortable in my surroundings and I wasn't quite as tired at the end of the day. BTW, I'm curious how long of school day do most of you have? Our first bell rings at 8:30 and we are dismissed at 4:00 pm. I teach 6 classes with one 50 minute conference period and one 30 minute lunch period. This first period conference thing is killing me. I am on my feet from 9:30 until 4:00 with one short break at lunch. During that time, I don't sit down at all. I scurry around after the lesson checking work and trying to give a little one-on-one help to those who need it. Before I know it the bell rings and the process starts all over again.

Today as an ice-breaker we played a little game called the M&M game. Don't tell anyone, but I violated federal law by bringing mini bags of M&M's for all my classes. Anyway, I put the kids into groups of 4 and gave them each a bag of candy and told them not to open it yet. I then gave each group a card with the following questions:

Blue: How much did you weigh when you were born
Red: What was your favorite movie of the summer
Yellow: What is your favorite fast food restaurant
Green: Which TV channel do you watch the most
Brown: Where do you fall in the birth order of your family?
Blue: Suppose you found a $100 lying on the ground after school, what would you go out and spend the money on?

I then had them choose someone to go first. The first person opened their bag, drew out an M&M and then answered the question that corresponded to the color of M&M they drew. They then went around the circle with each person drawing out an M&M and answering their question. I let them do this about 5 or 6 minutes and then we went began our lesson. I thought it was a quick and fun way for them to get to know the people around them. Also, a bag of candy will buy a lot of good will from your students at the beginning of the year. I try to get them on my side as quickly as possible. I want them to know that I am firm in my policies and procedures but warm and caring at the same time. I have found if kids like you and like being in your class, they will do just about whatever you ask when it comes to work. So for me, taking about 10 minutes each day of the first week to build a rapport with them pays off greatly in the end.

Day 2

2009-08-25T20:06:00.003-05:00

I hope I will not bore you dear friends with a synopsis of day two of my school year. I feel the need to blog about the day, so that I will remember for next year what worked and what didn't work.

Day Two in algebra I. Began the day with a Bio-Pyramid ice breaker activity. It was a quiet activity that students completed by themselves and took them about 10-15 minutes to make their pyramid and decorate it.

This activity worked out perfect because I needed to collect and sort all the forms I sent home yesterday (parent email and calculator use agreement). I was able to record who all brought back their forms in the time it took them to complete the activity. Tomorrow I will be hanging up all the pyramids on the wall. I think the freshmen will enjoy seeing their work.

Next I went over my main procedures again. I mainly stressed what to do when they came back from being absent, what to do if they forget their homework, when they may leave the class(one time only during the 9 week grading period), tardies, food and drink, being out of seat without permission, NO INK on graded assignments, and my policy on electronic devices.

My lesson was supposed to be on evaluating algebraic expressions today and I got a little creative. I took some construction paper and put a combination of numbers, variables, operation symbols, and parentheses. I then got about 10 volunteers to come to the front and gave them each a sign. I told them we were going to form some algebraic expressions. I then had the 2 step forward, then the x, then the plus sign and then the 3. I explained how this was an algebraic expression and we talked about the names of the parts of the expression. I then asked them if we could evaluate it. Of course each class said the answer was 5x because they tried to combine the 2x and the + 3. I then pushed the x (gently of course) out of the way, and I had the parentheses come in and then I had the 4 squeeze in between the parentheses. I had the class evaluate the expression, and I then I subbed in a few more numbers.

The kids had a lot of fun and I took some pictures, but we didn't take any notes nor did we have time for the assignment so I am already a day behind the other algebra I teachers!! I guess I'll catch up a some point.

In my math models classes, I did a calculator review lesson with them. We worked on putting fractions into the calcualtor, we ordered numbers from small to big, and I even showed them how to evaluate absolute value expressions on the calculator. It was just a real easy lesson to try and ease them in and help them not fear me or the math they will learn this year. Tomorrow we will get in to solving 2 step equations.

What didn't work for me was my Smartboard. I don't know what I am doing wrong. I have Smart View for my calculator and my smartboard, but I couldn't get it all going at the same time. I ended up teaching my lesson with the elmo which tied me behind my desk and I can't stand that. I like to teach a problem and then give them one to try while I walk the classroom checking on everyone's progress. I still did that but it seemed awkward having to come out from behind my desk every minute or so. They did get the idea that they better stay on task because I was coming to check their work every few minutes.

Well, that's about it for today. We shall see how tomorrow goes!

100th post, First Day of School

2009-08-24T21:39:00.002-05:00

This post marks my first major blogging milestone. This is post 100 for Mrs. H and how approporiate that it is also my first day at a new school working for a new district.

I have to say for the most part the day went great. Apart from having first period conference, I really can't complain about my schedule. I've never had first period conference so I don't know if I will like it or not. All I know is it was a long day from 9:30 until 4:00 with one short 30 minute lunch break thrown in at 1:00 pm. My calves are killing me and I feel I am losing my voice from talking so much today!

My day went something like this:

I left for school 1 hour and 15 minutes early. I was confronted with massive trafic (my first clue that I was no longer at Middle of Nowhere High School where you just drive, park, and walk right into the building.) I waited in line on the service road of Interstate 35 to pull into the parking lot for 20 minutes. Apparently many parents thought that was where they were supposed to drop of their children, but they were told one by one where to go so that process backed up the line and made it move incredibly slow.

When my classes began, I met each student at the door and told them their seat number. I had numbered all the desks on Friday so everyone was able to find their seats quite quickly. I had them fill out an info/get to know you sheet and then I gave a brief introduction of myself. I told them enough that they would know I was an experienced teacher who knew what she was doing, but not enough to bore them to tears (I hope).

We then played a little ice breaker called "Stand-Up Sit Down". I had a list of statements that I read and if I read something true for them they stood up and continued standing until I read something false at which point they would sit down. If they were sitting down, they could stand back up when I read another true statement. Some of the statements I used were:

1. I went on a trip this somewhere
2. I have travelled outside the US
3. I am an only child
4. I have a dog
5. I have read a Harry Potter book
6. I have read a Twilight book
7. I drove myself to school today
8. I have ridden in an airplan
9. I know the name of the band that sings Sweet Home Alabama
10. I can name at least one Johnny Cash song
11. I can name 5 rivers in Texas (this was a hard one for them even though they have two rivers right in their town)
12. I can name the 4 states that border Texas. (This one was really difficult for them. Only two classes had anyone that could do it)

Anyway, you get the idea. I tried to ask questions that were relevant to them and they seemed to have a good time. It got them up and moving and the blood flowing to the brain since most had listened to teachers give long boring speeches all day long.

After the game, I passed out my syllabus and we discussed the important parts and then
I discusssed my biggest pet peeves.
I took up an Ipod and a cell phone, but gave both back at the end of the period since both students gave them up to me with good attitudes. It also gave me a chance to discuss my electronic device policy.

I passed out their first HW assignment which is really an assignment for the parents. Anyway, I have a list of 9 questions that I ask the parents to email me the answers to. This serves two purposes: one, I get their address in my contact list, and 2, I get parent contact going the very first day of school. I have already received 15 emails this evening and I am hoping to find a bunch more when I get to school tomorrow.

And with that the bell rang and it was all over. Wow, the day went by sooo fast.

First impressions of new school:

1. Very big
2. Not near as strict as my old school
3. In general a higher socio-economic group than I am used to working with
4. My Math Models classes were pretty much like what I was used to in my old school. Same type of student. Many came in late (even though they are juniors). Many came without something to write with and many tried to lay their heads down to sleep.
5. The racial breakdown was almost opposite of my old school. There, it was about 65 percent Hispanic, 25% white, and 10% African American. In this school, it was about 65 percent white, and 30 percent Hispanic. I did not have a single African American student all day long (and that makes me sad because even though my African American students at my old school were loud and boisterous, they were also some of my biggest fans and were some of my most engaged students)
6. So far the math dept. has been great. They are very helpful and I have not heard them say one negative thing about a student, another teacher, or the administration in all the time I've spent with them at lunch or during inservice last week.
7. All-in-all, I am hopeful this is going to be a great place to work.

Meltdown

2009-08-19T06:25:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I found myself having a meltdown. It was not a proud moment because during inservice week I am usually this self-confident, expert teacher, running around helping all the new teachers type of person. As department chair, I always made sure that I came in the week before inservice and prepared my room and first week materials so that I could devote all my time helping other people in the department, especially new teachers, prepare for the year.

Well this year is different. Now I am the new kid on the block. I am overwhelmed by everything. The school I am in is so large that I keep getting lost. I mean really, it seems like a huge maze to me! To make things worse the school is under MAJOR reconsruction so I will go down one hall only to find it is blocked off and I have to turn around and find another way. Yesterday, it took me 20 minutes to get to my car because I couldn't remember which hall I was supp0sed to take to get to the parking lot.

Anyway, back to the meltdown. My two main goals yesterday were to get my first day stuff printed out and sent to the copy room and to get my smartboard working so I could practice with it. I try to do things on my own because I know how the tech-savvy people within a department get sucked in to helping all of us technogy idiots and then have no time to do their own work. So all morning I worked on getting my computer to send something to the network printer. I googled, and I researched all to no avail. Then I gave up and went to the smartboard. Same thing. This went on for hours. I got no planning done, no work on setting up my class. Just me, trying to figure things out.

After lunch someone asked me how everything was going and if I needed anything, I felt myself tearing up. I confessed that I had not accomplished a single thing and was going to need help with my printer and smartboard. Two young teachers immediately volunteered to come to my room and help me. They are both the cutest things. Little dynamos. One of them is a smartboard expert. She worked on my smartboard for two hours and finally got it going. We never did get the printer going. Apparantly, I need some kind of password and I had to contact the IT dept. I am sure I am low on their priority list so I don't expect to be printing anytime soon.

I don't like depending on other people for help. I don't enjoy being the new person who is clueless, but I am so thankful for kind people who give of their time so freely. My to-do list for today is enormous. It fill almost an entire page of a yellow legal pad. Since much of it does not involve technogy, I feel I will be having a much more productive day!

Calcaholics Part II

2009-08-16T20:31:00.006-05:00

Watching the Little League World Series reminded me of a funny thing that happened to me one time at a little league baseball game.

My husband and I were sitting in the stands watching our oldest son play ball when my husband decided to go for a snack. He returned after a few minutes and said "A couple of your students waited on me over at the concession stand". I replied, "How did you know they were my students?"

He non-chalantly replied, "Well I bought a coke and a bag of popcorn and they needed a graphing calculator to add up my total and give me my change."

I kind of fumed for a few minutes because, really I thought my students were ALL much brighter than that. Later in the evening when I went for my snack I learned that the two ladies were indeed juniors in my algebra II class. I really gave them a hard time about the graphing calculator. They then replied and said it was all the schools fault for getting them addicted to the calculator as freshmen and then keeping them addicted all through high school.

I think it is true in Texas that some teachers mis-use the graphing calculator. A couple of years ago, I decided to change the format of all my algebra II tests to a calculator portion and a non-calculator portion. You would not believe how terrified the students are when they first come into my class and learn that I will expect them to think without their calculator. Last year, one of the students in my pre-ap algebra II class even tried to drop the course right before the first test. Not only was she terrified to take a test without a calculator, but her mother was convinced that she couldn't do it either. I had to have an hour long conference with the both of them to defend my decision to test in this manner and to convince her that she could do more than she thought she could. In the end this young lady did fantastic in my class. She was at the top of the class all year even though she struggles with dyslexia and had to work harder than all the other students. In the end, she proved to herself and her mom, that with lots of hard work she could be successful under pressure.

I won't lie, I do not follow this testing approach in my algebra I classes. My classes are so varied. I have so many students who have accomadations, and students who struggle with math so greatly that the graphing calculator is a great equalizing tool for them. So yes, some do become "calcaholics", but if they have me again when they are juniors, I will do my best to break their addiction!

I Think I May Be Braindamaged!

2009-08-13T17:58:00.002-05:00

I swear, I think I am brain damaged. I attended more inservice today. The first two hour session was with the apple representative showing us some cool stuff we could have the kids do on the Mac Books. We used Numbers (like excel) and Grapher. I did just great on that part. I even helped my neighbor with her computer when she got stuck.

Then came the next session. It was on foldables. The first one we did was OK, but the next one I nearly had a melt down on. Why would a college educated person with a BS in Mathematics have a melt down making a foldable?? Well, you see, it seems as if the visual, spatial part of my brain just doesn't function at all. The lady was demonstrating all the folds and I was doing real well till she said now, "Make 8 more of these". I couldn't remember for the life of me how we started the first one. Everyone else in the room went to town making their shapes. I had to have help from the instructor and the facilitator. Talk about embarrassed!!

Then after I finally got my 8 shapes made, we were supposed to put them together to form this pinwheel looking thing. This is when the tears almost started to flow. I mean, really, every single person in the room was accomplishing the task with ease, and I had two people bending over me trying to help! I have always struggled with the spatial concepts in Geometry. My at-risk students think it is so funny sometimes when I just can't "see" something that is so plain to them. I'm not sure why this portion of my brain did not develop. Maybe there are some exercises I can do to improve. I don't know. All I know is I sure didn't impress my new colleagues with my knowledge and wisdom today.

Back To School

2009-08-12T20:14:00.003-05:00

Well kiddos, it has been back to school week for me. Because I am new to the district, I have 4 days of inservice to complete this week before the rest of the teachers return to work next Monday. So far, I have to say, I have enjoyed the inservice. Yesterday, we had a wonderful motivational speaker for our convocation. I had heard him about 6 years ago and was looking forward to hearing him again. He did not disappoint.

In the afternoon we had break-out sessions where we got to choose our sessions. The one I enjoyed the most was on power teaching. I had seen this on you tube and was interested in learning more. It fits my style of teaching really well and I am considering implementing some of the ideas into my classes this year.

Today we had a presentation on Quantum Learning and more break out sessions. Many of the things I learned at the Quantum Learning session really tied in with the Power Teaching I learned yesterday.

The size of this district amazes me. It encompasses almost 600 square miles. There are three high schools which all have around 2000 students each.
For someone like me who comes from a small town, the resources available to teachers here are unbelievable. Today I received my very own Mac Book and my classroom comes equipped with an Elmo, Smartboard, desktop, and a TV.

The only down side of this whole experience is how much I miss my friends and former colleagues. It was so lonely to sit by myself in a big auditorium not knowing a single soul. I know I will begin to make friends soon, but it is tough starting over.

Some pics from my new hometown

2009-07-30T13:19:00.003-05:00

I haven't posted since my big move. I thought I'd share a few pictures from our new hometown, New Braunfels, Texas. We moved to our new home on June 1st and have spent the last two months settling in and getting to know the area. We are daily finding new restaurants and things to do. I can't believe the options this town has for entertainment and food. Being a major vacation destination, we have many great restaurants and free live music every night of the week. I know when summer is over things will be a little different, but for right now, I am loving all the activity. For someone who has lived in the "middle of nowhere" all her life, I feel I have died and gone to heaven.

One thing we have been doing since we got here is taking all kinds of dance lessons. We have already taken swing dance lessons (still struggling with this but will continue to practice), polka lessons, country lessons, and next, I think we will try salsa. So far, the polka lessons have been the most fun. We are trying to prepare for the giant Wurstfest in October. I have heard that over 100,000 people will attend during the 10 day festival. Can't wait!!

School starts for me on August 10th since I am a new teacher to the district. Believe it or not, I can't wait to get started!! I am looking forward to meeting new people and getting involved.

Just when you think it is only math and science that American students struggle with

2009-07-30T12:52:00.003-05:00

I came across this post while surfing the internet the other day. It made me wonder why only math teachers get criticized for not preparing students to compete "globally".

I don't even want to know how you "rape your blanket around your face"

Enjoy!

twins one of witch is a nightmare to get to sleep 13/07/2009 01:05
i hav 10 month old twins and they wer grate at settaling to sleep intill my son raped his blanket round his face and panicked we made th mistake of bringing him down stares sine then he has bin a nightmare to settlle we hav tried letting him cry but he goes for so long we hav to giv in we hav tried storys etc nothing works help please

Final Goodbyes

2009-05-30T15:30:00.003-05:00

I said goodbye today to my school family. It's been a tough day with lots of tears. I'm not just leaving a job. I'm leaving a place that for me was a home a way from home. A place that I truly loved to go every morning (ok, most mornings!). I'm leaving fellow teachers that are closer to me than some family members. I'm leaving the school that educated me and my three children.

There are those that say my school is "unacceptable" (TEA and the Federal Gov't). I guess if you just go by statisics then you would be right. But numbers sometimes lie and you must look a little more closely to see the whole story.

In my mind, BSHS is exemplerary and deserves the highest accolades and ratings possible for the following reasons:

1. An administration that fully and completely supports the teachers
2. A staff that is 100% committed to doing the best job possible for every single child
3. A commitment to extracurricular academics which resulted in a 3rd place team finish out of all the 4A high schools in the state of Texas
4. An athletics program that encourages excellence on the field and in the classrroom. Almost every sport saw players competing past the district level.
5. An AP calculus program where 100% of the students received 5's on the AP exam last year.
6. A top notch band and choir program
7. Award winning Career and Vocational program
8. Counselors who actually work with the teachers to do what is right for the students not what is easiest for them.

Goodbye Big Spring High School. I will miss you with all my heart. I pray God's richest blessings on you and all who pass through your doors!