This post is not about technology, but it was a moving moment for my students and me.
The other day, one of my career-education students asked me about my history, specifically how I felt about teaching at a continuation school. I was very open about teaching at-risk students. This is the gist of the conversation: I love math, and I love to teach. I love seeing when a concept sinks in and students have that "AHA" moment. I love teaching kids to be responsible, and to help them see outside of their small sphere of influence. I love preparing them for their futures. I am grateful for the opportunity to teach. Most of all, I am thankful to my at-risk students, because they make me a better teacher. They have challenges that I didn't see at my other schools, and they need me to be creative, to be inventive, to make me want to work harder and longer hours, to be the best that I can be. I told them that their influence makes me a better person, and I thanked them for the opportunity to be their teacher. When I finished, half of them had tears in their eyes, they said that they felt very special... Days like that keep me going for a long, long time.
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I originally started this blog to document my journey with technology this year. In August, I was hyped up, ready to teach algebra and geometry to my at-risk high school students using 1-1 Chromebooks.
It has been a year of successes and failures, and it has been both difficult and time-consuming. Needless to say, I have not been updating my experiences as I anticipated. The time has come, so here we go.... I spent almost all of last summer creating Hyperdoc masterpieces for my algebra classes. Here are some of the outcomes: One class went crying to administration because they did not want me to change my teaching strategies. They were successful in algebra, and they feared that the changes would lead to failure. Thankfully admin backed me 100%, however I didn't feel this was a battle I wanted to take on right then. That class ended up not using very much technology for the rest of the quarter. I will return to this class later in the post. The other classes dutifully worked on the Chromebook activities. But it did not take me long to realize they were going through the motions, but they were NOT LEARNING ANYTHING! My first adjustment came in the third week of the school year. Instead of turning the students loose with a carefully crafted Hyperdoc, I ended up going through each slide with them, one by one, interjecting direct instruction and helpful hints as we went. This was more productive, but I still felt the kids weren't connecting what I was teaching them to the concepts they were exploring in the Hyperdocs. I still wasn't happy with the outcome - so I ditched almost all of my work from the summer (which totally sucked, but was necessary). I went back to direct instruction with tech projects for awhile. This allowed the students to learn the concepts and also to get more familiar with using the Chromebooks. This worked for another two quarters; the students felt confident, and I could tell they were learning. But I still was nowhere near satisfied. Ideas started forming in my head, and then during Spring Break I completely rewrote my algebra curriculum. I went to a quasi-PBL/portfolio system. I designed quarter-long real-world application projects that are a combination of technology and handwritten work. Students use a variety of software to graph and solve equations, they explain what they are doing and WHY they are doing it. They connect their work to specific components within the real-world problem, and then they explain the connection. One class is designing and 'building' a house to learn about graphing, writing and solving linear equations. Another class is doing landscape design, creating my dream backyard using quadratic functions. A third class is doing a modified version of the MVP Pet Sitters project, two siblings deciding how many cats and dogs to pet-sit, and what will make them the most profit, as a means to learn about systems of equations and inequalities. As each activity within the project is completed, I check their work. If it is acceptable, they get a stamp (the seal of approval) and it goes into their portfolio. Anything that needs correcting is noted on a Post-It and must be fixed before they get their stamp to add to the portfolio. Work that is incorrect or incomplete cannot be added to their portfolio, which I like because it makes the students completely accountable and increases their persistence. Back to my class that refused to use Chromebooks.... This class is doing the landscape design project, and so far, not one complaint. They have become masters with Desmos, and they understand how their graphs match the different components of the problem. Their work has become neater and more complete. They are discussing their designs within their groups. So far, they have not realized that since they have different designs, the work will all be different, so they cannot copy from each other. Another huge plus!! So far, the experience has been incredible. All the classes are engaged and learning. They are taking ownership in their designs, answering my questions (without prompting) and making those real-world connections. As with anything, there is more to do. Our district hosted a teacher development workshop last week (thank you SVUSD TOSAs!). One of the sessions I attended was about PBLs, which was so very helpful to me . I have more tools now to improve my projects, such as more/better driving questions, more flexibility, and a greater understanding of how PBLs should be structured and put into play. As with anything, I know I need to change, adapt and improve my projects, which I will be doing over the summer. But so far, this has been one of the greatest strategies I have implemented in a long time. Time will tell, but so far, so good! Ever have one of those days where you get so wrapped up in some project that time just flies by? You know what I mean, you start work at noon, and the next thing you know, it’s 7:00, you’ve missed the cat's feeding time, and you’ve worked through dinner. This has been happening to me a lot this summer. With 1:1 technology coming in August, I'm very nervous that I won't be prepared. So I have been busy creating. I have to say, it’s not easy! It can be very challenging to get that perfect balance between a scripted lesson and one that gives no instruction or direction at all. One that demonstrates and practices the math processes that students need, but without the drill and kill. I feel pretty good about my first project, so it will be interesting to see how successful the students are with it. I’m very prepared for reality, though; I know it will need to be tweaked a little (or maybe a lot) after I see how successful it was (or wasn't) with my first class. It's hard to tell how something with go over with at-risk students. My latest projects are various units on graphing and interpreting functions, rate of change and slope, and domain, range and constraints. Each unit contains 3-4 concepts. They include a wide variety of activities, with at least one student collaboration activity per lesson. Some of the class activities include Google Slides to create a collaborative scrapbook and Desmos Activity Builder to graph each other’s functions. At the end of each unit, students create a group or individual project to demonstrate their learning in all of the lessons in that unit. Hidden within each document are 2-3 treasure maps that link to extended activities for students who finish their work early. These documents are open to review, borrow or poach. And please feel free to leave comments on the Slides - I am very open to ideas and suggestions!! Last night’s #SVTChat was so thought-provoking – what a great group! The chat and the chapters in The Innovator’s Mindset really has me reflecting on some of the things I do now, and some I can do in the future. (I’m not quite ready to reflect on the things I have tried that did NOT work! I’ll save those for another day.)
Sharing A couple of months ago, I met with JC Baxter, our math TOSA, about some of the ways I can incorporated technology into my classes. He gave me several ideas and he helped me navigate Twitter. I had an account, but never used it. So after our meeting, I started browsing through posts, followed some of the math accounts and people I thought would be important to listen to. I came upon a post from Dan Meyer that truly changed my philosophy on the exchange of ideas. I have always pored through the internet, seeking ideas, hooks, lesson plans – heck, anything I could find that would be new, different and useful for my students. And I shamelessly begged, borrowed and downright stole them! But I never, ever considered that I had anything to offer back. Dan’s post reminded me to stop slacking in the collaboration department. It made me realize that I had an obligation to share ideas and lesson with other teachers, if nothing else, as a springboard for their own ideas. That’s basically what I was asking for myself! So why not reciprocate? Caring My school has always placed a high value on relationships first, then instruction. Working with at-risk students has different challenges than traditional schools; not necessarily more challenges, just different ones. Building relationships with the students goes a long way towards managing those challenges. Instead of rules and procedures on the first day, I always start off by trying to get to know my students. Relationships with these students don’t happen in a day or a week – sometimes not even in a month or two. But at some point, there is a connection with each student at their own comfort level. I find that the best instruction and learning takes place once these relationships have started forming. That is not to say that there is no learning for months, but the BEST learning occurs once they trust me and know I care about them and about their education. I have used either Socrative or Google Forms to find out personal information such as family, jobs, hobbies and interests, and anything else they want to tell me. Rarely do I get much in the last category, because they don’t yet know me enough to share. But it gets them thinking about what they might tell me later, after they trust me. Next year, I am going to try Padlets for this activity instead. This way the students can tell me what they want me to know, instead of answering the questions I want to know. It will be interesting to see how that goes; another topic for future reflections. Daring I think this year I will refer to my math classes as “Problem Solving 101”. We will be problem solvers first, using math as ONE of the tools in our toolbox (the others being reading, writing, technology, art, science, etc.). First of all, it shifts the focus for the math phobics – those students who walk in the door announcing how much they hate math. Secondly, it sets the tone for using project/problem-based learning and real-world applications. Lastly, it could reduce the number of times I hear, “When are we ever going to use this #%$&*?” (Research states that this question is really a symptom of lack of understanding the concepts rather than a serious question.) I am hoping that, based on the types of problems and projects I use, they can be successful and will see the future value of problem-solving without having to ask why math is important to them. Time will tell, yes? With this new “problem-solving” approach in mind, I am planning to focus more on starting with the real-world problems and put the math in as, and where, needed. Please wish me luck because I know this is much easier said than done. Well, this is my first post.
I honestly don't know if my musing will help anyone else, but I know it will help me to keep track of the things I am trying. If nothing else, it provides a forum that I can reflect on my experiences and find ways to improve them to increase student success. I have always included technology in my classes, starting with power points, internet sites, Word, grading programs, etc. Then I branched out to include Socrative, Notebook, SmartAmp, Prezi, Sway, Google, Classroom, Sites, and well, the list goes on and on. But there can often be disconnects between the actual tech tool and meaningful learning. This is where I plan to concentrate my energies - finding the appropriate tools and methods to stimulate student involvement, increase learning and foster critical thinking. It's a tall order when working with at-risk students, but it is my goal. I have spent time this summer getting my thoughts in order for the new school year - reading books, tweets, and websites, researching ideas for math topics and project-based lessons, taking my Google certification test, revising curriculum, and setting up new classes in Google Classroom. I also set up a class in Google Classroom for my math department, including documents for department protocol, a department-wide database, and announcements for workshops. I'm hoping this will improve communication for the department and will also cut down on emails and phone calls. It should also free up time in department meetings for more important issues. I am also working on the curriculum and lesson plans for a new ROP course in small business management to be offered this coming school year. I'm very excited about this class because so many of our students express the desire of becoming beauticians, tattoo artists, and small business owners. It is my hope that each one of them will be able to graduate with a business plan in hand and the skills required to start them on their way. Like I said, very exciting!! During my web browsing, I have come across so many ideas for lessons, many of them geared for different standards and age groups, but I have visions of how I can adapt the ideas to my own curriculum. I have also seen many ideas that I have tried before, but that extend far beyond what I have tried. One of the ideas I saw was a math guru who had his class recreate a smaller version of the Twin Towers in NYC. The standards were proportional reasoning, but how he incorporated the history to teach empathy - it was an amazing article! I could feel his passion as he spoke of the reactions of his students. I soooo want to try that activity! I am also excited about getting the new Chromebooks in August! The DEI workshop was AMAZING! Our TOSAs did a fabulous job getting us energized and educating us on Twitter, You Tube, hyperdocs and portfolios - thank you all !!! I find that since the workshop, I am more inclined to check in on my Twitter account and follow the posts. But, geez, it's like pulling a string on a sweater - one tweet leads to another to another to another, and pretty soon three or four hours have passed. All interesting stuff, though. I can see that it will take some time to teach students about the Chromebook - how to log on with their Google accounts, how to use all of the applications, proper safety and privacy issues. I have learned, though, that the students always, always teach me things I didn't know - a win, win! It will be interesting to watch over the next few years how much students will already know about technology after having so many Chromebooks throughout the district. Hopefully my next post will have some concrete ideas for technology in my lesson plans, any thoughts or ideas are graciously accepted! |
OBJECTIVESMy goals include tracking the most effective ways to integrate technology in my math lessons. Archives
April 2017
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