Day 101: Progress Monitoring

We had a 2-hour delay, so all of the classes were shortened to about 30 minutes.  The sense of urgency, interestingly, made everyone more relaxed and productive.

I had a prolonged conversation with the parent of a student about how their child is struggling greatly with completing assignments, being productive in class and is frequently distracting to other students.  The parent was just as much at a loss as I was, so I made a suggestion.  I was concerned that the pressure coming from the parent was WAY too long term for the child to truly understand.

"I keep telling (child) that (he/she) isn't going to get into college with (her/his) grades as they are."

This kid is in 7th grade.  I suggested that we focus on something a little more immediate.

In my previous district, there were several students who used daily progress monitoring sheets.  These sheets were quick checklists that needed to be filled out in each period and turned in to the parent at the end of the day.

The parent in this case seemed to think that this was a good thing for us to try.

I quickly composed a sheet and spoke with the other teachers about what they felt should be included.  I printed it out and handed copies to the student's homeroom teacher to hand out each morning.  I contacted the rest of the teachers on this students roster and told them to keep an eye out for the paper until the student gets used to using it.


Rather than punishing a student, rather than yelling, screaming or humiliating them, if I can find a way to help them succeed, I have to try it.

Day 100: Like Sounds Through The Hourglass

I don't think I'm cut out for teaching afternoon classes.  By the time my 7th period comes in, I'm ready to go home.  I hate what a disservice this does to those kids, many of whom have special needs and would greatly benefit from extra attention.

Their need, my exhaustion all grouped together with the fact that I still am not sure how to deal with the maturity level of 7th graders means that I'm not the teacher that I should be.  I find myself getting annoyed VERY easily by things at which I would laugh earlier in the day.

I need to have some conversations with my colleagues about how to combat this.  Perhaps we need to devise different activities for the afternoon group.


Maybe I should just ask them to come in earlier...

"Yes, Trevor, but if you could answer a little more quietly, that would be sublime."

Day 99: Graph Theory

Yesterday, the Pre-Algebra students did some practice problems dealing with the graphing of linear equations.  We went over how to pick values, plug them in, find coordinates and graph the line.  I tossed the equations into Desmos for them to check.

Today, I put up two equations at a time and asked them to make observations.

All 3 sections pretty quickly noticed that the equations all ended in numbers and the lines intersected the y-axis at that number.

"Do you think this is a coincidence, or do you think it will work for all of them?  According to your theory, where will this one hit?"

Through the power of Desmos, I was able to hide and show various equations to test their theory.

"What else do you notice? How could we describe how these lines look?"

We had a lengthy discussion about positive and negative slope and what that means.  We talked about the implications of the number in front of the x in the equation and what happens to the line as that number changes.

There were some EXCELLENT questions that I wasn't quite ready to answer that involved the nature of vertical and horizontal lines.

"If the slope gets higher as the number gets bigger, would a vertical line be one where that number is infinity?"

Heck yes, kid!


I didn't ask them to produce anything but their thoughts and they came through amazingly well.

Day 97: A Passing

At the end of the day yesterday, the music teacher in our district collapsed.  By dinner, we had been notified that he had passed away.

The mood at school today was somber.  Personally, I didn't know the man.  I knew who he was to say hi, but we had never had a conversation.

I did what I could to make a space for my students to experience and express their emotions as they saw fit.

"You are allowed to be sad.  You are allowed to be angry.  You are allowed to not be either of those.  He was a member of this community and a part of your lives to varying degrees for many years.  I'm going to have some assignments available today not because I'm glossing over this tragedy, but because some people will require normalcy.  If you don't feel up to doing it, I completely understand."

A student came in this morning to express guilt that she felt because she hadn't wished him a good morning in the hall and now she never could.

Another was going to stay home, but wanted to come in because she knew I would worry about her.  She was right.

Another was in the room when he collapsed and stayed with him while other students went to get help.  Her guilt is about not having been able to do more.

"I thought I had saved him."

For many of these students, this was the first person who died that they knew personally.  It was real to them in ways that movies and the news can be.

I tried to make today as easy for them as possible, while still remembering that we must always be moving forward.

Day 96: Talking

One pre-algebra student did their homework.

In three sections of pre-algebra, a single student did their homework.

One.

Uno.

Ninety-nine fewer than one hundred.

One.

I didn't yell and I didn't scream.

I expressed disappointment at the lack of effort.  I received several "I wasn't here" and "I didn't know what to do."

I did the homework.  I did all of it.  I did all five problems that were on the homework.

I did them in painstaking detail, verbally explaining my thinking and reasoning for every step that I took.  I went through the process of what I do when I don't know how to solve a problem.  I flipped back through my book to the previous exercise where we had gone over just this material.  I drew diagrams for the fractions and used the scale balance to solve equations.  I skipped no steps and even explored some methods that didn't work.

I modeled the behavior that I wanted to see from them.  I modeled the tactics and strategies that I wanted to see.

Most of them watched and wrote down what I was doing.  A few asked clarifying questions, which I happily answered, but I made it clear that I wasn't looking for input from them on process or procedure.  This is what working out a problem looks like.

Their process may be different, but it must exist.

At the end of class, they gathered their things, said goodbye and left.

Perhaps we will have to have a few days of "just watch."


Doing work shouldn't be a punishment, but maybe having to watch me do work should be.

Day 95: Non-Post

I've skipped writing twice in the past week and almost skipped today.  I'm not feeling very motivated to write and not feeling as though there is much to say.

I'm finding myself more and more accepted by the students and faculty in the small community that has become my professional home.  I truly enjoy the company of my coworkers and find that several idea that I have are taking hold.

I expect that Standards Based Grading will be much more common in the next year or so and the growing pains of my teaching style and questioning tactics will wear off.

I have a post brewing in me dealing with organization and another about politics and "alternative facts", but they haven't formed yet.

More later.

Day 93: The Boardroom

Every once in a while, everything falls into place.  I've been struggling lately with getting kids to work together in a productive way.  I have tried groups, pairs and individual work.  I have given them seat work, board work, handouts and manipulatives.

Some of these work some of the time.  Sometimes, the method that worked yesterday won't work tomorrow.

Sometimes the method that worked in 2nd period won't work in 5th.

It's part of the nature of education.  It's not good enough to have a good lesson.  It's not enough to have a GREAT lesson.  Great lessons can flop if the sky is slightly cloudy or the new Jay-Z album dropped the night before.

At the same time, a crap lesson that's been thrown together at the last second can go amazingly well for no reason at all.

Today, I thought I had possibly a crap lesson.  My plan was to have today be a practice day as transition from one section to another.

"I'd like you to work on page 51 in your workbook.  I'll be walking around if you have any questions!"


I told them they could use the whiteboards around the room or write on the desks if they wanted.

And a miracle happened!

They worked.

Not just some of them.

Every.
Single.
Kid.
In.
Every.
Single.
Class!

It's true, award winning actor Tommy Lee Jones!

Well, 95%, but I'm not splitting hairs!

I'm going to try this more often.  The next time that it fails, someone remind me of today.