Well, I have put together my first document for the new school year. Here is my explanation to students and parents as to how grading will go in my classroom. Please, please, please comment - I want to make sure I have this as clear as possible before I print it.
Background on my district - mostly blue collar, not a heavy emphasis on education. Parents are somewhat involved - the parents of the "better" kids tend to be the most involved, otherwise they don't tend to get involved unless their child is failing (and even then, they don't always get involved). I thought about including information from books/prominent educators but I chose not to because I didn't want to be perceived as trying to go over the parents heads and/or too much "edu-speak." I wanted it to be in as plain English as possible.
So - here it is. Comment away! Thanks in advance for your help!
***I have revised this slightly based on the comments and changing my 0 and 1 values. (8/3)
Grading Info 2010-2011
or try here if you can't read it.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
The State of Affairs in My Head
This blog post is mostly for me to get out of my head where I'm at with things. As always, please feel free to comment or catch me on Twitter (@Mrs_LHenry) to discuss. In fact, it's really helpful for me if you do leave comments.
First up - Grading
I am committed to doing SBG this year. At the moment, I am leaning towards doing a system very similar to Kate Nowak's where you teach 3 concepts, then assess. I want to assess twice because I feel that it would give me a clearer picture of whether or not the student understands the concept (it would give me two snapshots rather than just one). I am most comfortable with a scale out of 5 and I think I would do similar to what she does, adding the 2 together for ultimately a score out of 10 to put in the school's gradebook.
I would need to put the following limits on reassessing for my own sanity:
Homework and Other Classroom Issues
Because I am going to do SBG, I am not going to grade homework. I think I will put together a sheet per unit that has listed the concepts for the student that they will be working on (this will be their tracking sheet also) and the suggested practice problems for the unit. I think I would like to keep them to 10-15 problems and I will make use of the odds since all of the texts that I use have the answers to the odds in the back of the book. If I choose to use the evens, there are graphs involved and they aren't given, and/or I have worksheets, I will provide answers to my students before they practice the problems so they can check to see how they are doing. I don't think I am going to title it homework, I think I may just title it practice - because that is truly what it should be. Not sure what I am going to do about keeping track of if students really did the practice problems - suggestions?
As I get better with this SBG, I may also put together additional practice problems sets by concepts that include the answerss so that as students remediate, they have that information readily available to them. (I just had that thought - will have to think about that a little more.)
Since I will be using a SMARTBoard this year, I will post class notes on my website daily. I am also conemplating having a daily warm up problem. I really liked what another teacher did with the OGT problems (check here - third paragraph) and I want to keep track in a spreadsheet so I have an idea of how they are doing (and be able to compare it to how they end up doing on the test), but I'm not sure what to do to make sure they are motivated to do it daily. My lower level stduents in particular seem to not want to do any additional work they don't have to. Maybe make it some sort of a competition for who has the msot points at the end of a set period? Maybe put my two lower level classes together in competition with each other - whoever has the best average at the end of 3 weeks gets candy or donuts or something? I could do the same with my Algebra 2 classes. Any other thoughts? I could use some help here...
Note Writing
The last thing I think want to take on this year is the note writing that Grace Chen talked about in her recent blog post. I think this could be very helpful and motivating to my freshmen. The freshmen I will have in my lower level math class this year I had as seventh graders. Let's just say that I didn't have the greatest experience with them and there were a lot of discipline isuues with them. Some of that may be due to being seventh graders (and my inexperience with dealing with them), some of that may be due to who they are. Regardless, I don't want a repeat of that year. Historically for me, the class they're in has been the toughest for me discipline wise and I almost always end up dreading those classes. I want to change that. So I think I will try the notes with them first. I may also try the notes in my Algebra 2 classes (the non-advanced classes) but maybe not on as full of a scale as the freshmen Math 1 classes. We'll see. I'm still thinking through this one.
Wrapping Up...
I hope I am not biting off too much with all this. As I have said before, I am not happy with how things have gone in my classroom the last several years. It is time to make changes. I think these changes are do-able for me and I am hopeful that this will be a much better school year for me than the last several. I know it will be a lot of work, but I think it will be worth it all in the end.
Please, please, please leave comments or catch me in twitter. I am sure that it is not perfect, but at this moment in time, I think it's workable for me.
First up - Grading
I am committed to doing SBG this year. At the moment, I am leaning towards doing a system very similar to Kate Nowak's where you teach 3 concepts, then assess. I want to assess twice because I feel that it would give me a clearer picture of whether or not the student understands the concept (it would give me two snapshots rather than just one). I am most comfortable with a scale out of 5 and I think I would do similar to what she does, adding the 2 together for ultimately a score out of 10 to put in the school's gradebook.
I would need to put the following limits on reassessing for my own sanity:
- The student would need to demonstrate some sort of remediaation/practice before reassessing. Either the student would need to get additional help from me or an outside tutor or successfully practice additional problems on his or her own. I saw somewhere (not that I can remember where at the moment), that someone who was getting outside help had to have the tutor sign off and state what was done to help that student AND that person had to be at least one class ahead of the student being tutored. I thought that made great sense.
- No tutoring and reassessing in the same session. This is partly due to time consstraints for me (something about having 2 kids) and partly because I want students to have time to reflect and internalize the new information they have learned.
- I am considering setting up a Google form for scheduling reassessments and/or an appointment book. This is also for my sanity to have time to make up the reassessment question(s). With having two kids, I think I will also have to set aside specific days after school if a student wishes to come in then.
- I think I will also put together index cards with reassessment questions (another idea I read here) and label them so that they can be reused for other students. I would have to keep track of which questions a student attempted, but I think that would be worth it in the end.
- Due to the constraints in my gradebook at school, I would have to set a deadline for reassessments during the last week of the grading period. Any concepts that I started during the last week or so of the grading period would also carry over to the new grading period. Strictly a logistical issue here.
Homework and Other Classroom Issues
Because I am going to do SBG, I am not going to grade homework. I think I will put together a sheet per unit that has listed the concepts for the student that they will be working on (this will be their tracking sheet also) and the suggested practice problems for the unit. I think I would like to keep them to 10-15 problems and I will make use of the odds since all of the texts that I use have the answers to the odds in the back of the book. If I choose to use the evens, there are graphs involved and they aren't given, and/or I have worksheets, I will provide answers to my students before they practice the problems so they can check to see how they are doing. I don't think I am going to title it homework, I think I may just title it practice - because that is truly what it should be. Not sure what I am going to do about keeping track of if students really did the practice problems - suggestions?
As I get better with this SBG, I may also put together additional practice problems sets by concepts that include the answerss so that as students remediate, they have that information readily available to them. (I just had that thought - will have to think about that a little more.)
Since I will be using a SMARTBoard this year, I will post class notes on my website daily. I am also conemplating having a daily warm up problem. I really liked what another teacher did with the OGT problems (check here - third paragraph) and I want to keep track in a spreadsheet so I have an idea of how they are doing (and be able to compare it to how they end up doing on the test), but I'm not sure what to do to make sure they are motivated to do it daily. My lower level stduents in particular seem to not want to do any additional work they don't have to. Maybe make it some sort of a competition for who has the msot points at the end of a set period? Maybe put my two lower level classes together in competition with each other - whoever has the best average at the end of 3 weeks gets candy or donuts or something? I could do the same with my Algebra 2 classes. Any other thoughts? I could use some help here...
Note Writing
The last thing I think want to take on this year is the note writing that Grace Chen talked about in her recent blog post. I think this could be very helpful and motivating to my freshmen. The freshmen I will have in my lower level math class this year I had as seventh graders. Let's just say that I didn't have the greatest experience with them and there were a lot of discipline isuues with them. Some of that may be due to being seventh graders (and my inexperience with dealing with them), some of that may be due to who they are. Regardless, I don't want a repeat of that year. Historically for me, the class they're in has been the toughest for me discipline wise and I almost always end up dreading those classes. I want to change that. So I think I will try the notes with them first. I may also try the notes in my Algebra 2 classes (the non-advanced classes) but maybe not on as full of a scale as the freshmen Math 1 classes. We'll see. I'm still thinking through this one.
Wrapping Up...
I hope I am not biting off too much with all this. As I have said before, I am not happy with how things have gone in my classroom the last several years. It is time to make changes. I think these changes are do-able for me and I am hopeful that this will be a much better school year for me than the last several. I know it will be a lot of work, but I think it will be worth it all in the end.
Please, please, please leave comments or catch me in twitter. I am sure that it is not perfect, but at this moment in time, I think it's workable for me.
I must be warped...
I am on vacation with my family (my parents, brother, husband and kids). My parents rent a house each year on the water - this year we are staying on Sandusky Bay. Like every other house we've stayed at, it has its good points and not so good points. We have a nice entry onto the bay,the kids can go out in the water quite a bit, there's a nice yard here, there's a caboose on the property and the kitchen is about as well equipped as we've had. But, the kitchen is small (only about 2 can work in it at a time), the bottom of the bay is a bit rocky (had to go find lake shoes for the kids) and the only place there's a table big enough for all 7 of us is in the garage (where there's no air conditioning - which is really mainly an issue for my asthmatic mother). I love the location and generally the property - it's probably about the best place we've stayed in the 5 years or so we've been doing this.
And yet...
I am sitting here outside on the swing enjoying the view and thinking about how I'm going to do things this school year. I'm on vacation thinking about school, willingly (hence the title). I'm reading Marzano's Classroom Assessment and Grading That Works and participating in a Twitter discussion each evening after having read the chapter of the day. (We're setting up the hashtag #sbarbook for those of you who want to follow our discussion. We're going to do Formattive Assessment and Standards-Based Grading next.) And as I started formulating this post in my head, I can't help but think that coming up with what I am going to do in the classroom this year is like our vacation home search. There are always good things and bad things about it. Maybe it will never be absolutely perfect.
So where does that leave me?
Isn't that a great question? I have blogged over the last month what I thought I was going to do in my classroom. My last post was full of questions which I didn't get a whole lot of response to (which is a little frustrating). I've been actively tweeting and lurking, trying to figure this out. I get that things aren't going to be perfect. This is not a panacea for my unhappiness in the classroom. But, I do believe it is the best answer for me. I am committed to doing SBG in my classroom this year. I am hopeful that it will foster changes in my students and my classroom. I want students to be focused on learning, not on the "almighty grade." I want them to understand better what they have learned. I want them to take ownership of their learning. I understand that this shift will take time. I know I am going this alone, but I believe my principal and superintendant will be supportive. (I briefly shared with my superintendant that I was looking at SBG and he appeared supportive.) The bottom line is that I feel this is best for my students and I believe it more closely aligns with what I think education should be. And isn't that what really matters?
And yet...
I am sitting here outside on the swing enjoying the view and thinking about how I'm going to do things this school year. I'm on vacation thinking about school, willingly (hence the title). I'm reading Marzano's Classroom Assessment and Grading That Works and participating in a Twitter discussion each evening after having read the chapter of the day. (We're setting up the hashtag #sbarbook for those of you who want to follow our discussion. We're going to do Formattive Assessment and Standards-Based Grading next.) And as I started formulating this post in my head, I can't help but think that coming up with what I am going to do in the classroom this year is like our vacation home search. There are always good things and bad things about it. Maybe it will never be absolutely perfect.
So where does that leave me?
Isn't that a great question? I have blogged over the last month what I thought I was going to do in my classroom. My last post was full of questions which I didn't get a whole lot of response to (which is a little frustrating). I've been actively tweeting and lurking, trying to figure this out. I get that things aren't going to be perfect. This is not a panacea for my unhappiness in the classroom. But, I do believe it is the best answer for me. I am committed to doing SBG in my classroom this year. I am hopeful that it will foster changes in my students and my classroom. I want students to be focused on learning, not on the "almighty grade." I want them to understand better what they have learned. I want them to take ownership of their learning. I understand that this shift will take time. I know I am going this alone, but I believe my principal and superintendant will be supportive. (I briefly shared with my superintendant that I was looking at SBG and he appeared supportive.) The bottom line is that I feel this is best for my students and I believe it more closely aligns with what I think education should be. And isn't that what really matters?
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
SBG Questions
As I am working through this whole SBG thing - trying to understand it, trying to figure out how to make it work in my classroom/building/district, etc. - I'm reading as much as I can. I have spent time reading dy/dan and started through MeTA Musings but not gotten through as much as I would like. Part of it is it's summer and my brain can only take so much before it cries "uncle!" I'm also reading How to Grade for Learning - Linking Grades to Standards by Ken O'Connor and I've purchased Classroom Assessment and Grading That Works by Robert Marzano as the next read. Plus, I've been trying to ask questions on Twitter when I'm reading tweets that bring them up. I'm learning, which is a good thing.
So, here's where I'm at today: I buy into why SBG makes sense. I get that including homework and other practice (i.e. Formative Assessments) shouldn't be included in a student's grade. I get it. I understand that I need to start by coming up with my concept list. I'm working on that. First draft of Algebra 2 is here and is very much a work in progress. I started with Algebra 2 because it is the class I am the most familar with. I came up with an inital list of 102 concepts - WOW. After chatting with @erictownsley and seeing his Algebra 2 concept list (which had about 60), I am questioning how I've broken down my concept list. Did I break it down too far? Did I include too many items students should already know from Algebra 1? Am I spending too much time going back over Algebra 1 material?
Here's some background on my Algebra 2 kids: I have 2 different courses for Algebra 2 - Advanced Algebra 2 and Algebra 2. We moved our Algebra 2 course to after Algebra 1 (and before Geometry) because the State of Ohio Legislature decided that not only should all students beginning with the incoming freshmen should have 4 credits of math to graduate, one of those credits should be Algebra 2 or an Algebra 2 equivalent. Advanced Algebra 2 is our freshmen (primarily) - these students are supposed to be the best (a few students who are not freshman are in the class by Algebra 1 teacher recommendation) and generally headed towards Calculus. This course will be taught with TI Graphing Calculator (83 Plus/84/84 Plus). Algebra 2 is the freshmen who started with Algebra 1 in 8th grade and just aren't cutting it and everyone else. It is meant to fulfill the Algebra 2/Algebra 2 equivalent. Last school year (2009-2010) was the first year we did it this way. We are using a VERY simplified book - which somewhat works - but I still did quite a bit of supplementing.
One of the things I have decided that I will need to do is administer a pre-test to my Algebra 2 and Advanced Algebra 2 students. Last year I just decided to teach based on what I knew from the Algebra 1 teacher that they did previously. I assumed they knew little (which they did to some extent). I am not going to make assumptions this year. So - I need to figure out what to use as a pre-test. I know I will not be in school one day during the first week, so I am planning on having students do the pre-test that day. Anyone have any suggestions on where to look for a pre-test? Should I be looking for something along the lines of an end-of-the-year Algebra 1 test or something with Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 concepts? Suggestions?
As I am working through this, it seems like most people who have done SBG have started small and worked their way into it. I have 4 preps next year - the aforementioned Advanced Algebra 2 and Algebra 2, Calculus (not AP), and Math 1 (freshman course - students not ready to go into Algebra 1 but we are going to cover Algebra 1 concepts this year because that's the 9th grade State Standards). Do I try to do SBG in all 4 preps? Do I just start with Alg 2/Adv Alg 2 because I know that subject matter the best? I should add that both Calculus and Math 1 will have new textbooks next year - does that make a difference in your suggestions?
Other questions that have come up in the last few days that I am looking for input:
So, here's where I'm at today: I buy into why SBG makes sense. I get that including homework and other practice (i.e. Formative Assessments) shouldn't be included in a student's grade. I get it. I understand that I need to start by coming up with my concept list. I'm working on that. First draft of Algebra 2 is here and is very much a work in progress. I started with Algebra 2 because it is the class I am the most familar with. I came up with an inital list of 102 concepts - WOW. After chatting with @erictownsley and seeing his Algebra 2 concept list (which had about 60), I am questioning how I've broken down my concept list. Did I break it down too far? Did I include too many items students should already know from Algebra 1? Am I spending too much time going back over Algebra 1 material?
Here's some background on my Algebra 2 kids: I have 2 different courses for Algebra 2 - Advanced Algebra 2 and Algebra 2. We moved our Algebra 2 course to after Algebra 1 (and before Geometry) because the State of Ohio Legislature decided that not only should all students beginning with the incoming freshmen should have 4 credits of math to graduate, one of those credits should be Algebra 2 or an Algebra 2 equivalent. Advanced Algebra 2 is our freshmen (primarily) - these students are supposed to be the best (a few students who are not freshman are in the class by Algebra 1 teacher recommendation) and generally headed towards Calculus. This course will be taught with TI Graphing Calculator (83 Plus/84/84 Plus). Algebra 2 is the freshmen who started with Algebra 1 in 8th grade and just aren't cutting it and everyone else. It is meant to fulfill the Algebra 2/Algebra 2 equivalent. Last school year (2009-2010) was the first year we did it this way. We are using a VERY simplified book - which somewhat works - but I still did quite a bit of supplementing.
One of the things I have decided that I will need to do is administer a pre-test to my Algebra 2 and Advanced Algebra 2 students. Last year I just decided to teach based on what I knew from the Algebra 1 teacher that they did previously. I assumed they knew little (which they did to some extent). I am not going to make assumptions this year. So - I need to figure out what to use as a pre-test. I know I will not be in school one day during the first week, so I am planning on having students do the pre-test that day. Anyone have any suggestions on where to look for a pre-test? Should I be looking for something along the lines of an end-of-the-year Algebra 1 test or something with Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 concepts? Suggestions?
As I am working through this, it seems like most people who have done SBG have started small and worked their way into it. I have 4 preps next year - the aforementioned Advanced Algebra 2 and Algebra 2, Calculus (not AP), and Math 1 (freshman course - students not ready to go into Algebra 1 but we are going to cover Algebra 1 concepts this year because that's the 9th grade State Standards). Do I try to do SBG in all 4 preps? Do I just start with Alg 2/Adv Alg 2 because I know that subject matter the best? I should add that both Calculus and Math 1 will have new textbooks next year - does that make a difference in your suggestions?
Other questions that have come up in the last few days that I am looking for input:
- Which system to go with? I know this is a personal decision - I am waffling. Originally, this is the plan I came up with. I am not sure how many evaluations to go with - 1 or 2. I like Dan Meyer's system although I'm still working through the 4+4 = 5 bit (but I am getting closer to thinking about doing it that way). If I do the Dan Meyer system - how long is assessment going to take? Am I giving up a class day each week? What about review? Do I also review the day before each assessment?
- How do I determine what scale to use? 4 somehow doesn't sit with me well (not sure why, but it doesn't). I like the idea of it being out of 5 points. How do I adjust the scale accordingly? Do I use something like Kate Nowak?
- How is this going to change how I teach? The way I have done it - I teach, somettimes we work on problems in class, sometimes not. I have always given at least one day review and usually two before a "unit test." If I do something similar to what Dan Meyer, et al do and it doesn't take up the 50 minute class period, then what?
- Homework/Classwork or whatever you want to call it (i.e. practice). Do I now plan for practice time for each concept in class? What kind of "homework" do I plan on giving? I had already begun thinking about changing this before SBG and this will change because I don't like how I have been doing it. I get that I shouldn't assign points to it - how do I ensure students will practice? Here I am not as worried about my normal/advanced students but my lower level Math 1 students. I am planning on making homework changes across the board here. Do I still keep track of what homework was done? What classwork was done? Record keeping and time is the issue here.
- I think I follow how to deal with grade issue (this post by Matt Townsley was very helpful in clarifying it for me as far as the computer grading program at school). How do I deal with midterms and finals? I don't have any control over how those factor into my students' grades. I can choose to not give them - although in my district that is pretty much unheard of for math and other core subject areas. For our sophomores who have to take the Ohio Graduation Test - if have met certain proficiency criteria, they do not have to take their final exams in some/all classes. Do I do something similar, i.e. if you have all 3s and 4s then you don't have to take the midterm and/or final? In those cases, we average the 2 9 weeks grades for the semester grade. (We give percent grades on report cards, not letter grades).
- This is brand new in my district (as far as I know). We are to have handouts for parents on open house night - which is the night before school starts where students and parents pick up class schedules as well as these handouts. Do I put together a parent handout for open house on this? What should go into it?
- How do I deal with my principal on this? I am pretty sure he'll be fine with it - especially if it will benefit the students. He pretty much lets us do whatever we want to in the classroom with little interference. Suggestions on what to say/how to approach it with him? We are a smaller district (our HS has about 450 9-12) - do I also talk to the superintendent? Our superintendent is new to us - he's only been here a year - and seems to be "up" on things. Would it be beneficial to talk to him anyway to see what he knows about SBG from his other district or am I opening a can of worms?
- The last question at the moment is about discipline. Again, school policy (right or wrong here) is to deduct 1 percent point for each suspended day (don't start on the policy - I didn't make it, it was there before I came and I am stuck following it). How to deal with this?
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Algebra 2 Concept List
This is very much a work in progress. I took the list of the objectives from my Adv. Alg 2 book and listed them based on what I have covered in the past. I still have to find corresponding sections in my Alg 2 book, as well as the Ohio Standards. I also decided that since we will be heading to the Core Standards in 2011-2012, I would also match them. Haven't gotten that far yet. Also, I haven't put them in any order yet. There are a couple I am thinking of taking out - haven't gotten there yet.
Background info:
Adv Alg 2 is our students on a track for Calculus if they stick it out. Alg 2 is our college prep/"regular" students. In Ohio, all students will have to take Alg 2 or an Alg 2 equivalent to graduate, starting with our upcoming freshmen (class of 2014). They also have to have 4 credits of math. Our current sequence is Alg 1, Alg 2, Geom, Pre-Calc, Calc. We may have some other options (Sr. Applied Math, Stats) as a 4th credit.
Please offer comments here and feel free to check back to see how my shaping is going.
Thanks!
My Alg 2 Concept List - work in progress **Revised July 16th. Mainly ordereing of topics and matching to Ohio Standards changes.
Background info:
Adv Alg 2 is our students on a track for Calculus if they stick it out. Alg 2 is our college prep/"regular" students. In Ohio, all students will have to take Alg 2 or an Alg 2 equivalent to graduate, starting with our upcoming freshmen (class of 2014). They also have to have 4 credits of math. Our current sequence is Alg 1, Alg 2, Geom, Pre-Calc, Calc. We may have some other options (Sr. Applied Math, Stats) as a 4th credit.
Please offer comments here and feel free to check back to see how my shaping is going.
Thanks!
My Alg 2 Concept List - work in progress **Revised July 16th. Mainly ordereing of topics and matching to Ohio Standards changes.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
21st Century Math Day Two
Well, I did get a few things out of today. It was not a complete loss. I will highlight what I think was worthwhile to pass along.
The morning started out rather promising. We began by talking about clickers. :-) In Youngstown, we have Turning Technologies who is one of the first companies to do this sort of thing. Since they are local, most districts (including mine) have at least one set somewhere. I should add that I have used our set in our building a couple of times about 5 years ago or so and I know where they are and you can bet your bottom dollar that as soon as I get back in the building I will hunt them down and hide them in my room since no one is using them. What did we learn about it - well, we learned briefly what they were and that you can use them for multiple choice assessment and they get instant feedback. We learned a little about the software for the Turning Point ones and that's about it. I think many are using them as an assessment tool, or for review before tests. Wish I had more to offer but I don't. I think I'll have to research more on this one - but if anyone out there knows of more uses, please comment!
Then 2nd year teacher was back with his OGT prep tips. He does a Question of the Day for the first five minutes of class. He goes over the answer from the previous day, passes out little slips with a place for Student Name, Date, a place to circle the multiple choice answer, and a place for the work for a short answer/extended response question, and the kids answer the question on the paper while it is projected on the SMART Board. The questions he uses are from the released items from previous years. He makes a new file each week. He changes the order of the questions for each period. For example. let's say 1st period does Question 1 Monday, Question 2 Tuesday, Question 3 Wednesday, Question 4 Thursday, and Question 5 Friday. 2nd period then may do 2 on Monday, 3 Tuesday, 4 Wednesday, 5 Friday, and 1 Monday. 3rd period might start on 3 Monday, etc. You get the idea. That way it's harder to cheat from period to period. His 9-12 classes all work on the same bank of questions.
He does this for about 12 weeks beginning in mid-late November until the week before the test in early March. Each week he posts a tally sheet with how many points each student has (so it's a competitive thing). What I thought was awesome about how he does it is he uses an excel spreadsheet to grade them (except for the short answer/extended response) and keep track of student points. What he did was set it up to put in the answer to the question at the top of the sheet. Then he has a student aide enter in the multiple choice answers into the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet grades it. If a student is absent, a - is entered and he/she gets no points. Then, the spreadsheet calculates how many points the student has earned so far and he has it rate where the student falls on our rating scale (accelerated/advanced/proficient/limited/basic) based on the percentage of points he/she has earned (following the percentages from the state). For the short answer/extended response (which he gives one about once a week), he grades them using the rubric provided by the state in the answer key and enters the points in the spreadsheet. So at the end, he has a projection of how his students will do. And he's been pretty accurate in his estimates - in fact, in the two years he's done this, his students have done better than the projection (passing percent wise) on the OGT.
As far as credit - he uses the points to add on to their lowest quiz grade of the 9 weeks as bonus. So, if the student earned 26 points during the 9 weeks and their lowest quiz score was a 70/100, it would become a 96/100 (he actually said 70% and 96% - he does his grades kind of different. Most of the people in my school, myself included, do points earned/total points = grade.). It's the only extra credit he gives. I could see modifying that by saying that 0-5 points is ___ extra credit, 6-10 ___ extra credit, etc. I don't want it to be a huge sway in their grade. I'd have to play with it first once I see how grades work with the new homework plan some of us are working on .
Anyway - I thought it was a great idea and I am going to use it. It takes care of OGT practice, you don't do those dumb workbooks all the time, it gives extra credit which kids are always wanting, and it's not a ton of work. He's supposed to post the excel worksheet and if you're interested in it, let me know. I'll get you the info on it.
Then we had the local rep for SmartEd Services in to show us the new SMART Notebook tools. They were cool and I really hope we're getting them and sent an email to the tech coordinator about them. Most of the rest of the day was in the computer lab. We did go through videos (oh joy) and worked with some Google drawing program (I forget the name - I pretty much ignored it and read dy/dan instead since that seems to be where my Math Teacher Tweeps seem to think is the best place to statrt). Then we did some other stuff in the Moodle which I pretty much ignored and continued perusing dy/dan among other things. She gave us time at the end to look at what we wanted to, which I continued to do. :-)
I did express a little on the feedback form my disappointment. She did ask for suggestions of topics to improve it for next time. But I really ended up doing most of that in my reflection paper. I had to write it today when I got home because (a) we only have a week and we leave for the weekend Thursday and (b) I wanted to go through things while it was fresh on my mind. I hope I wasn't too mean but I hope I got my point across. You can see it below.
Reflection Henry
Well, that's pretty much it. Please comment and/or catch me on Twitter (@Mrs_LHenry). Thanks!
The morning started out rather promising. We began by talking about clickers. :-) In Youngstown, we have Turning Technologies who is one of the first companies to do this sort of thing. Since they are local, most districts (including mine) have at least one set somewhere. I should add that I have used our set in our building a couple of times about 5 years ago or so and I know where they are and you can bet your bottom dollar that as soon as I get back in the building I will hunt them down and hide them in my room since no one is using them. What did we learn about it - well, we learned briefly what they were and that you can use them for multiple choice assessment and they get instant feedback. We learned a little about the software for the Turning Point ones and that's about it. I think many are using them as an assessment tool, or for review before tests. Wish I had more to offer but I don't. I think I'll have to research more on this one - but if anyone out there knows of more uses, please comment!
Then 2nd year teacher was back with his OGT prep tips. He does a Question of the Day for the first five minutes of class. He goes over the answer from the previous day, passes out little slips with a place for Student Name, Date, a place to circle the multiple choice answer, and a place for the work for a short answer/extended response question, and the kids answer the question on the paper while it is projected on the SMART Board. The questions he uses are from the released items from previous years. He makes a new file each week. He changes the order of the questions for each period. For example. let's say 1st period does Question 1 Monday, Question 2 Tuesday, Question 3 Wednesday, Question 4 Thursday, and Question 5 Friday. 2nd period then may do 2 on Monday, 3 Tuesday, 4 Wednesday, 5 Friday, and 1 Monday. 3rd period might start on 3 Monday, etc. You get the idea. That way it's harder to cheat from period to period. His 9-12 classes all work on the same bank of questions.
He does this for about 12 weeks beginning in mid-late November until the week before the test in early March. Each week he posts a tally sheet with how many points each student has (so it's a competitive thing). What I thought was awesome about how he does it is he uses an excel spreadsheet to grade them (except for the short answer/extended response) and keep track of student points. What he did was set it up to put in the answer to the question at the top of the sheet. Then he has a student aide enter in the multiple choice answers into the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet grades it. If a student is absent, a - is entered and he/she gets no points. Then, the spreadsheet calculates how many points the student has earned so far and he has it rate where the student falls on our rating scale (accelerated/advanced/proficient/limited/basic) based on the percentage of points he/she has earned (following the percentages from the state). For the short answer/extended response (which he gives one about once a week), he grades them using the rubric provided by the state in the answer key and enters the points in the spreadsheet. So at the end, he has a projection of how his students will do. And he's been pretty accurate in his estimates - in fact, in the two years he's done this, his students have done better than the projection (passing percent wise) on the OGT.
As far as credit - he uses the points to add on to their lowest quiz grade of the 9 weeks as bonus. So, if the student earned 26 points during the 9 weeks and their lowest quiz score was a 70/100, it would become a 96/100 (he actually said 70% and 96% - he does his grades kind of different. Most of the people in my school, myself included, do points earned/total points = grade.). It's the only extra credit he gives. I could see modifying that by saying that 0-5 points is ___ extra credit, 6-10 ___ extra credit, etc. I don't want it to be a huge sway in their grade. I'd have to play with it first once I see how grades work with the new homework plan some of us are working on .
Anyway - I thought it was a great idea and I am going to use it. It takes care of OGT practice, you don't do those dumb workbooks all the time, it gives extra credit which kids are always wanting, and it's not a ton of work. He's supposed to post the excel worksheet and if you're interested in it, let me know. I'll get you the info on it.
Then we had the local rep for SmartEd Services in to show us the new SMART Notebook tools. They were cool and I really hope we're getting them and sent an email to the tech coordinator about them. Most of the rest of the day was in the computer lab. We did go through videos (oh joy) and worked with some Google drawing program (I forget the name - I pretty much ignored it and read dy/dan instead since that seems to be where my Math Teacher Tweeps seem to think is the best place to statrt). Then we did some other stuff in the Moodle which I pretty much ignored and continued perusing dy/dan among other things. She gave us time at the end to look at what we wanted to, which I continued to do. :-)
I did express a little on the feedback form my disappointment. She did ask for suggestions of topics to improve it for next time. But I really ended up doing most of that in my reflection paper. I had to write it today when I got home because (a) we only have a week and we leave for the weekend Thursday and (b) I wanted to go through things while it was fresh on my mind. I hope I wasn't too mean but I hope I got my point across. You can see it below.
Reflection Henry
Well, that's pretty much it. Please comment and/or catch me on Twitter (@Mrs_LHenry). Thanks!
Monday, June 21, 2010
21st Century Math? Day One
Well, y'all wanted to hear about my class. I had thought about tweeting about it later, but there are so many questions that ir raised with me that I figured I was better off blogging. Please feel free to either comment and/or tweet me (@Mrs_LHenry). I would really like to have discussion on some of these points.
I am not totally sure what I was expecting to get out of this class. I guess I expected to learn some new software/websites/programs to help teach math better. Here's how my day went:
The first two hours were spent between the housekeeping stuff, all of introducing ourselves, an update on the Core Curriculum, and being told that we should have a web presence and having PowPak and Moodle introduced to us. We had also spent time with Pow Pak and Moodle in my 21st Century Tools class last week. Then a second year teacher presented for about an hour and a half about how he uses the SMARTBoard - really the SMART Notebook software - in his instruction. This was one of the two worthwhile things to me from today since I will have one in the fall and it was the first time I had seen anyone really using the software. More about his presentation in a moment.
After lunch, we went to the computer lab. I had high hopes after being lectured to all morning. We registered for the Moodle for this class and the instructor proceeded to lead us through the websites on the Moodle page. We spent about 45 minutes on virtual manipulative websites. I was thoroughly bored. Most of the manipulative stuff was geared towards middle school and although there was stuff marked for high school, I guess I really didn't see the value of that. Then we worked through a tutorial of GeoGebra that the instructor had printed out for us. I had worked briefly with GeoGebra in another class about 2 years ago, so I was glad to have something to work through. There was a cool activity on showing the slope of a tangent line to a function and calculating the derivative that I will use with my Calculus class this year. (Second worthwhile thing today) Then the instructor proceeded to lead us through the OGT Success website and somewhere in there she also took us to the ORC website - which have been at just about every county training I have attended for the last 4 or 5 years. Another waste of time.
Tomorrow we are supposed to hear from 2 year teacher and how he does OGT (Ohio Graduation Test - our 10th grade test students have to pass to graduate) practice in his classroom, a representative from the company that makes the SMARTBoard is supposed to talk to us, and we're in the computer lab in the afternoon again and we're supposed to talk about using videos (You Tube, Teacher Tube, etc.) and who knows what else.
I am sorely disappointed with the course so far. Again, I am not totally sure what I was expected from "Teaching Math in the 21st Century," but I can say that I expected to learn about things that I have not really done before. I guess in my mind, "21st Century" means that we are using technology to help enhance our instruction and I expected to be doing more with the 4 C's (critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation) they keep referring to. I am having a hard time finding "virtual manipulatives" to be something new. We've all used manipulatives in the past and although it's cool to be able to see them on the Internet and use them on the SMART Board, I just can't get excited about it.
Even as I reflected on 2nd year teacher's presentation about how he uses the SMARTBoard in his class, I am really struggling. Pretty much everything he showed us was basically putting up the same old notes that many math teachers do, but it's on the SMARTBoard and sounds or videos or different effects were added to make the presentation different. That's 21st Century? It seems like to me you're taking 20th Century Math and putting it on the computer. How is that different than what I do now? How is that going to better engage my students and get them to take more ownership in their learning? How is that going to make be a better teacher? I just don't get it. I'm not seeing anything radically different. Am I missing something? Please enlighten me if I am. What is Teaching Mathematics in the 21st Century to you?
Please comment or start a discussion on Twitter. I really am struggling with this today. Thanks in advance.
I am not totally sure what I was expecting to get out of this class. I guess I expected to learn some new software/websites/programs to help teach math better. Here's how my day went:
The first two hours were spent between the housekeeping stuff, all of introducing ourselves, an update on the Core Curriculum, and being told that we should have a web presence and having PowPak and Moodle introduced to us. We had also spent time with Pow Pak and Moodle in my 21st Century Tools class last week. Then a second year teacher presented for about an hour and a half about how he uses the SMARTBoard - really the SMART Notebook software - in his instruction. This was one of the two worthwhile things to me from today since I will have one in the fall and it was the first time I had seen anyone really using the software. More about his presentation in a moment.
After lunch, we went to the computer lab. I had high hopes after being lectured to all morning. We registered for the Moodle for this class and the instructor proceeded to lead us through the websites on the Moodle page. We spent about 45 minutes on virtual manipulative websites. I was thoroughly bored. Most of the manipulative stuff was geared towards middle school and although there was stuff marked for high school, I guess I really didn't see the value of that. Then we worked through a tutorial of GeoGebra that the instructor had printed out for us. I had worked briefly with GeoGebra in another class about 2 years ago, so I was glad to have something to work through. There was a cool activity on showing the slope of a tangent line to a function and calculating the derivative that I will use with my Calculus class this year. (Second worthwhile thing today) Then the instructor proceeded to lead us through the OGT Success website and somewhere in there she also took us to the ORC website - which have been at just about every county training I have attended for the last 4 or 5 years. Another waste of time.
Tomorrow we are supposed to hear from 2 year teacher and how he does OGT (Ohio Graduation Test - our 10th grade test students have to pass to graduate) practice in his classroom, a representative from the company that makes the SMARTBoard is supposed to talk to us, and we're in the computer lab in the afternoon again and we're supposed to talk about using videos (You Tube, Teacher Tube, etc.) and who knows what else.
I am sorely disappointed with the course so far. Again, I am not totally sure what I was expected from "Teaching Math in the 21st Century," but I can say that I expected to learn about things that I have not really done before. I guess in my mind, "21st Century" means that we are using technology to help enhance our instruction and I expected to be doing more with the 4 C's (critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation) they keep referring to. I am having a hard time finding "virtual manipulatives" to be something new. We've all used manipulatives in the past and although it's cool to be able to see them on the Internet and use them on the SMART Board, I just can't get excited about it.
Even as I reflected on 2nd year teacher's presentation about how he uses the SMARTBoard in his class, I am really struggling. Pretty much everything he showed us was basically putting up the same old notes that many math teachers do, but it's on the SMARTBoard and sounds or videos or different effects were added to make the presentation different. That's 21st Century? It seems like to me you're taking 20th Century Math and putting it on the computer. How is that different than what I do now? How is that going to better engage my students and get them to take more ownership in their learning? How is that going to make be a better teacher? I just don't get it. I'm not seeing anything radically different. Am I missing something? Please enlighten me if I am. What is Teaching Mathematics in the 21st Century to you?
Please comment or start a discussion on Twitter. I really am struggling with this today. Thanks in advance.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Mid-Career Crisis
Well, I have finally up and done it. I have started blogging. I suppose this was bound to happen. I suppose I ought to give a bit of an introduction and why I'm here, but it will take some time. So, I'll start with the homework issue that we started with last night.
I have taught for 18 years - all but one at the high school level. I spent last year (08-09) teaching 7th and 8th grade math and I had also taught 8th grade math earlier in my career at a 7-12 high school. I have never been really happy with how I've done homework. In reality, there are a lot of things I'm not happy with at the moment (hence the title), but I'll get into those over the next few weeks.
I had started on Twitter in the fall and winter, but got away from it in the spring - things had gotten too busy and I just hadn't really "figured it out." Couldn't see what the point was. Boy do I see it now - crystal clear! I tried to jump into conversations and I guess I never figured out how to make it work right for me. Looking back, I now see that I wasn't looking at the right time or at it in the right way. But I digress.
My tech coordinator was impressed with my reaching out to him in the spring in terms of being willing to guinea pig stuff, so much so that he ordered me a SMART Board (which I now know is on its way and will be in my classroom for fall). We will have a new school in the fall of 2011 and all the classrooms will have SMART Boards. I want time to figure it all out. So, once he told me that I was getting one, I started to look for any PD I could find. The county offers several 2 days courses and I signed up for 2 - "21st Century Tools" and "Teaching Mathematics in the 21st Century" (or something like that). The week I started 21st Century Tools, I started playing around with Twitter again. Little did I know that we'd be talking about it in class the next day.
So, we went over Twitter and blogs and a few other things day one and I was trying to find everyone's blogs and get them loaded into my Google Reader (something else we learned a little about). Plus, I started followng stuff on Twitter. I jumped into a conversation about homework. Like many others, this has been a big struggle for me. I have always done homework by grading based on completion - usually 5 points, but I've done 3 before. All points mean you completed pretty much all of it. I have done partial credit based on how much was done but in recent years, I've pretty much given half credit for partially done and no credit for not really doing it or just giving answers. I hate when students just give answers. Doesn't help them or me.
This has been the system I've used most of my teaching career. Lower level classes (like my Math 1) I grade HW daily. College prep classes I tend to grade "randomly" - which usually means 1-2 times a week and many times on the 2nd day of a topic. It kind of works for me but I've never been totally happy with it. It places too much emphasis on doing homework for their grade and there's just too much copying. I don't really feel like they are getting it. Like many things I am finding that I do, I am just not happy about it. It's time to make a change.
So after our hour and a half long conversation on Twitter last night, I was just so thrilled with all of the discourse. I'm not going to get into it all - others have summarized it much better. Check out the post at I Speak Math or My Web 2.0 Journey to get a summary of it. All I know is that I walked away with so many ideas floating through my head and an email from my Twitter friend with her policy that I am seriously thinking about trying, not to mention this wonderful feeling that something great had just taken place. In my 18 years of teaching, I have never had this kind of discourse before. I still was on such a high this morning - a morning after euphoria, if you will. The conversation was so intellectually satisifying and I felt that there were others out there struggling with some of the same issues that I am. And I just want to learn from these great people.
I know I could be doing much better in the classroom. I can explain math well. There are better ways of going about the business of learning. Someone said in my class today that we tend to teach the way we were taught. I was taught like many were - go over the homework problems, learn a new lesson, do new homework problems. And I had great teachers who could explain things well. But is this the best way anymore? I'm getting a SMART Board in the fall and I need to figure out how to use it. There are so many things I could be doing in class to be a better math teacher. I want to be a better math teacher. I just don't know how to get there. But - Twitter is going to help me get there in some way, because it has connected me with some pretty neat math teachers. And I need to learn from them. I'm just past halfway (potentially, depending on what STRS does about when you can retire and at what percentage) in my teaching career. I'm at a crossroads. I want the fast car/gorgeous man/fill in the blank of your favorite mid-life crisis object here. But it's a lot harder to make that happen. Can an old dog learn new tricks? Stay tuned...
I have taught for 18 years - all but one at the high school level. I spent last year (08-09) teaching 7th and 8th grade math and I had also taught 8th grade math earlier in my career at a 7-12 high school. I have never been really happy with how I've done homework. In reality, there are a lot of things I'm not happy with at the moment (hence the title), but I'll get into those over the next few weeks.
I had started on Twitter in the fall and winter, but got away from it in the spring - things had gotten too busy and I just hadn't really "figured it out." Couldn't see what the point was. Boy do I see it now - crystal clear! I tried to jump into conversations and I guess I never figured out how to make it work right for me. Looking back, I now see that I wasn't looking at the right time or at it in the right way. But I digress.
My tech coordinator was impressed with my reaching out to him in the spring in terms of being willing to guinea pig stuff, so much so that he ordered me a SMART Board (which I now know is on its way and will be in my classroom for fall). We will have a new school in the fall of 2011 and all the classrooms will have SMART Boards. I want time to figure it all out. So, once he told me that I was getting one, I started to look for any PD I could find. The county offers several 2 days courses and I signed up for 2 - "21st Century Tools" and "Teaching Mathematics in the 21st Century" (or something like that). The week I started 21st Century Tools, I started playing around with Twitter again. Little did I know that we'd be talking about it in class the next day.
So, we went over Twitter and blogs and a few other things day one and I was trying to find everyone's blogs and get them loaded into my Google Reader (something else we learned a little about). Plus, I started followng stuff on Twitter. I jumped into a conversation about homework. Like many others, this has been a big struggle for me. I have always done homework by grading based on completion - usually 5 points, but I've done 3 before. All points mean you completed pretty much all of it. I have done partial credit based on how much was done but in recent years, I've pretty much given half credit for partially done and no credit for not really doing it or just giving answers. I hate when students just give answers. Doesn't help them or me.
This has been the system I've used most of my teaching career. Lower level classes (like my Math 1) I grade HW daily. College prep classes I tend to grade "randomly" - which usually means 1-2 times a week and many times on the 2nd day of a topic. It kind of works for me but I've never been totally happy with it. It places too much emphasis on doing homework for their grade and there's just too much copying. I don't really feel like they are getting it. Like many things I am finding that I do, I am just not happy about it. It's time to make a change.
So after our hour and a half long conversation on Twitter last night, I was just so thrilled with all of the discourse. I'm not going to get into it all - others have summarized it much better. Check out the post at I Speak Math or My Web 2.0 Journey to get a summary of it. All I know is that I walked away with so many ideas floating through my head and an email from my Twitter friend with her policy that I am seriously thinking about trying, not to mention this wonderful feeling that something great had just taken place. In my 18 years of teaching, I have never had this kind of discourse before. I still was on such a high this morning - a morning after euphoria, if you will. The conversation was so intellectually satisifying and I felt that there were others out there struggling with some of the same issues that I am. And I just want to learn from these great people.
I know I could be doing much better in the classroom. I can explain math well. There are better ways of going about the business of learning. Someone said in my class today that we tend to teach the way we were taught. I was taught like many were - go over the homework problems, learn a new lesson, do new homework problems. And I had great teachers who could explain things well. But is this the best way anymore? I'm getting a SMART Board in the fall and I need to figure out how to use it. There are so many things I could be doing in class to be a better math teacher. I want to be a better math teacher. I just don't know how to get there. But - Twitter is going to help me get there in some way, because it has connected me with some pretty neat math teachers. And I need to learn from them. I'm just past halfway (potentially, depending on what STRS does about when you can retire and at what percentage) in my teaching career. I'm at a crossroads. I want the fast car/gorgeous man/fill in the blank of your favorite mid-life crisis object here. But it's a lot harder to make that happen. Can an old dog learn new tricks? Stay tuned...
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