Transparent Algebra: In-Class Part 2 of TBD (When are we ever going to use this Wednesdays)

Does this sound familiar?

Student: Mr. Fisch?

Me: Yes?

Student: When are we ever going to have to use this?

Math teachers get this question a lot.

A.

Lot.

In the past my answer was typically one of the following:

You’ll need this in [fill in the name of the next math course they have to take].

If you go into a career in math, science or engineering, you’re really going to need this.

It teaches you reasoning and problem solving, and that will help you in whatever you do.

I really don’t know.

Yeah, I don’t like those answers much. The problem is, I often really don’t know, other than a vague sense of particular careers, careers that many of my students may not have an interest in. I’m hoping to do a better job of answering that question this time around, and I have a couple of tools at my disposal that I didn’t have last time.

First up, obviously, is the Internet itself, as well as various communication mediums like my blog and Twitter where I can reach out and ask those kinds of questions. While I certainly intend to do that (or, better yet, have the students do that), this post is more about my second option: Skype.

In my previous incarnation as a math teacher, it was certainly possible to try to find guest speakers that could come in and talk to my classes about how they use math. But it certainly wasn’t convenient (especially since my one class next year starts at 7:21 am), and the speaker had to be local, willing, and available. Often if you tried to bring a speaker in, you had to make it more of a big deal in order to justify the event, especially if it involved getting students out of class in order to have the speaker speak once to a large group.

This time I’d like to make it be not such a big deal, but more of a semi-regular occurrence in my class, just part of what we do. So my plan is to fairly regularly invite folks in via Skype to talk with my students (not saying I wouldn’t take a speaker in person, but remember the 7:21 am start time, as well as having to be local and available). Despite the title of this post, this may not always be on Wednesdays (although I like the alliteration of it), and I’m not sure how often to shoot for. My current thinking is that I want this to be often enough that it’s part of what we do, but not so often that it just becomes routine, so perhaps once every 4-5 weeks (still thinking about that).

I’m going to reach out to folks in a variety of places, including universities, companies and my PLN, and try to get folks from many different fields with multiple interests to Skype into my class for perhaps 20-25 minutes or so (depending on the speaker – if they want more time, then I’d provide that, but I don’t want it to be such a commitment that it discourages folks). I’d provide a little bit of background information ahead of time on the speaker and/or their field of work, and then the students will be responsible for researching a little bit more and generating questions they’d like to ask.

While I’m still thinking this part through, I’m considering having the students submit their questions via Google Moderator (part of our Google Apps installation) and then the class can vote up the questions they think are the best. Then when our guest Skypes in they can spend perhaps 8-10 minutes talking about what they do and their use of/thoughts on mathematics, and then the students would ask their questions.

What do you think? Give the voted-up questions to the speaker ahead of time and have them just address it after their intro? Or have the speaker just answer on the fly as the students ask the questions?

I’d also record the Skype call and post that to our class web page for further review by the students, or for their parents or other students who might be interested. I toyed with the idea of ustreaming it to try to allow parents to watch it live to get them more involved, but am worried that I’m taking on too much all at once (second computer, second webcam - adds complexity and stress).

What do you think? Is it worth the added time and hassle to ustream it out to parents?

So, I’d love feedback on this idea in the comments, but I’d also like your help generating a list of folks to contact. I’d appreciate that if you know someone that might be appropriate and willing to participate, or if you are someone who is appropriate and willing to participate, that you fill out this Google Form (also embedded below) and give me a brief description and some contact information. Please note that the results of this are public (and embedded below the form itself) so that others can use this information as well. If you’re interested, but don’t want the info you give to be public, please email me directly instead. I have no idea if this will generate much response here, but I figured it was worth a shot – thanks in advance if you’re willing to share.

The Form



The Results

Daniel Pink Ustream and CoverItLive Archive

We had a fantastic session with Daniel Pink today. He was even better than he was the first two years (and the first two years he was very good). He seemed more relaxed and really engaged the students in conversation more.

The ustream and CoverItLive archives are embedded below. Unfortunately, the sound on the ustream wasn't great. A lot of static at the beginning, although that gets a little better after about 5 minutes, but still isn't great. But if you're interested in A Whole New Mind, or in the process of skyping with an author, it's still worth your time.

Transparent Algebra: In-Class Part 1 of TBD (Openers)

Now that I’ve discussed my return to the classroom and talked a little bit about assessment, homework, and my fledgling concept list, I want to move on to what we’ll actually be doing in class. As you can tell from the title, this will be broken down into multiple posts, with the total number still to be determined. First up is openers.

(Note: I used to call these warm-ups, but - and this is probably just semantics – I don’t really like the connotation of that. That somehow we’re “warming up” for the real work that’s to come, and that this isn’t that important. I like “opener” better because it feels like it begins the learning for the day, not just prepares you to begin. I’m probably over-thinking that.)

I have a love/hate (well, okay, like/dislike) relationship with openers. I like them because they get kids thinking about mathematics as soon as they walk into the room (even before the bell rings), they provide a way for students to get more practice with Algebra and mathematical thinking, and because they are a nice companion piece to my (still evolving) assessment plan. I also like them because some students really like and respond to routine – they know when they walk into my class what to expect (at least in the beginning).

But that’s also part of what I dislike about them – the routine. Some students also really dislike the routine of a typical math classroom, where they know they’re going to start with the same ‘ole openers each day. And while I like getting them thinking about mathematics right away, I dislike the way it interferes with the more personal interaction/relationship building that I would like to take place as I greet and talk with students each day. While that can still happen with openers, I think there is at least an implied pressure to get started on them, and it makes it a little harder (at least for me) to be spontaneous.

Despite my misgivings, my current thinking is to go with openers because I feel they’ll help me maximize the learning time with my students. I don’t want to waste even a minute of the limited time I have with them, so this helps me approach that unattainable goal.

What’s on the Openers?

Glad you asked. Here’s a proof-of-concept (yes, saying proof-of-concept makes me feel important) PDF of a fictional opener that might theoretically occur the day after viewing the video in my homework post. Please note this opener has more questions on it than I would normally include, but I wanted to include one of each type of question I’m considering using for openers. So a typical opener might only have four of these types of questions, or might have two of one type and one of another, and often will combine several types in one problem, but this gives you an idea of the scope.

Here’s the key to those opener questions:

(R) = Review. This is just what it sounds like – review of a skill that they’ve theoretically already mastered. Designed to be short and quick.

(N) = New. This would be a concept that’s fairly new to them and that they probably have not mastered yet. In this example, it’s a problem of the type they saw in the video the night before.

(C) = CSAP. CSAP is our state-mandated testing that occurs in March each year. Since the 9th grade CSAP (most of my students will be 9th, a few might be 10th) covers some topics that are not in our Algebra curriculum, this is one way of addressing that.

(W) = Writing. Still thinking about how best to do writing (coming in a future post), but I’m thinking my openers will include some of these. This will often not be a separate category, but will be combined with others.

(V) = Vocabulary. I think vocabulary is important, but I’m not sure how to teach it well (especially with my limited class time with students). This is one attempt to address this.

(E ) = Estimating. I think this is a skill that we underestimate (pun intended) the importance of. I’m not sure how often I can fit this in, but I’m going to try.

(M) = Measurement. This is helpful not only in the obvious ways of actually being able to measure stuff, preparing them for Geometry in the following year, and preparing them for CSAP, but also because I think it’s critical in terms of their number sense and their ability to judge the reasonableness of real world answers.

(TFTD) = Thought for the Day. Just because I like it.

If you move past the first page of the PDF you’ll notice that each opener then gets its own page. My plan is that students will work the openers individually (in their notebooks), then will discuss them in their groups (modifying what they have in their notebooks if it needs revising after the discussion). Then I’ll ask a student to come up (representing their group) and work/explain the problem on the Smart Board (and students will modify their notebooks again if necessary). You’ll notice there’s a place on each opener for them to “sign” it – going for some ownership there (too hokey?). After different students have worked through all the openers for that day, I’ll PDF it and post it to our class website. (I thought about recording the students as well, but thought that was too much, too fast, and also added some technical complications that perhaps weren’t worth it.)

So, as with all of these posts, I’d love some feedback, ideas to make the openers better, or links to your already created openers that I can just “acquire.”

Transparent Algebra: My Concept List

Let's review:

• Back to the future (good luck, you'll do great)
  
  
• Assessment (good start, but you've got a ways to go)
  
  
• Homework (general approval, but do you really want to create all those videos?)

Now we'll take a short break from the long and meaty posts and take a look at my draft concept list for Algebra. The idea behind the concept list is to not only identify the core concepts that students need to master in my course (not the nice to have ones, but the must have ones), but to identify the ones I'm going to assess and shoot for mastery on.

Like most teachers, I struggle with this because I want to include too many things. I'm pretty sure I have too many concepts on this list, yet I'm not sure I want to pare it down any more because I want my assessments to be frequent and targeted. If I whittle my list down too much, then that stretches the interval between assessments and invites the possibility of assessing on too big a skill range. I'm still pondering, though, which is why I'm hoping you'll take a look and give me some feedback. (And, again, this is just the skill part of my class, more in future posts about what else we will be doing during class.)

Some caveats to keep in mind:

• I do have a curriculum I have to follow, and some students switch at semester, so the breakdown between the two semesters isn't negotiable.
  
  
• The Algebra team I'm joining gives common final exams each semester, which means my end-of-semester summative exam is pre-determined.
  
  
• We have our state-mandated testing (CSAP) in March, and the ninth grade CSAP includes some items that typically wouldn't be covered in Algebra (or at least not before March). So we teach Probability earlier in second semester than might be typical, and most teachers take at least a week or two to do some Geometry stuff before CSAPs.
  
  
• All education is global, but it's also local. My class will meet four days a week for 59 minutes each class. I'll see them about 60 times first semester (with 5 of those shortened periods due to our PLC's), and about 65 times second semester (again, with 5 of those shortened). Compare that with David, who sees his classes five days a week for 94 minutes at a time and has them all year. Or with Matt, who sees his classes five days a week for 84 minutes a day. So we all have to adapt based on our specific circumstances, and that not only impacts instruction and assessment strategies, but also concept lists (mine is likely to be a little shorter than some other people's - well, at least when I get it narrowed down it will be).

So, I'd appreciate any feedback you have on the list (which is a published Google Doc that does change as I make changes, so you may see differences as I react to comments/suggestions).

Transparent Algebra: Homework

So, I’ve previously talked about going back in the classroom and about my initial thoughts on assessment (thanks for all the very helpful feedback), so in this post I’m going to talk about my plans for homework.

Homework is one of those crazy things that I’m completely for and completely against. (While that may sound a little nuts (or a lot nuts), I cling to this quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald: The sign of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.) On the one hand, I believe that students practicing their skills is helpful to their learning of Algebra. And, given the limited time I meet with my students, there’s the practical matter of fitting it all in. (As I noted in a comment on the assessment post, I’m estimating I’ll see my students for only about sixty periods – five of them shortened – in the fall semester.)

But on the other hand, I think homework is very problematic. I think the research is very mixed in terms of its effectiveness, and in my own experience I saw similar results. For a traditional homework assignment like I gave in my previous incarnation as a math teacher (perhaps 1-31 odd, or even a more thoughtfully picked selection of problems), I would typically see the following results:

A certain proportion of my class would be able to do all the homework with little or no problem. These were students that probably didn’t need the practice.

A second segment of my students wouldn’t even attempt the homework, for reasons ranging from they just didn’t want to, to not enough time, to not enough understanding. Some of these students still did well, others did miserably.

And the final group of my students in the middle would attempt the homework, but become very frustrated either because they couldn’t do it, or because they did it but did it incorrectly, so they effectively reinforced doing it wrong.

So one of the basic problems with homework (at least how I implemented it), was that the students too often weren’t reinforcing skills they already had, they were struggling with skills they had yet to master (at least for those last two groups). What they needed was to be able to work on those problems when I was available to help, or when others were available to help, but not on their own where if they were confused they just ended up frustrated or, worse, cementing incorrect procedures in their brains. (Note: I do think it’s a good thing for students to wrestle with complex problems, but I don’t feel like that was what was happening in my homework assignments.)

So my current thinking is to approach homework differently. I’m going to borrow an idea from a science teacher in my building, Brian Hatak (who, in turn, borrowed it from Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams). My plan is to deliver the traditional lecture portion of an Algebra class as the homework, thus freeing up class time to explore the mathematics and pursue some interesting problems, as well as provide time for guided practice and collaborative work.

Since Algebra is very much skill based, my hope is to provide short (less than 10 minutes), targeted instructional videos that students can watch (and rewatch if necessary) that focus solely on the skills, one skill at a time. Now I want to be clear that these videos typically will come after inquiry and exploration in class. I want my students to, as much as possible, play with the mathematics and formulate their own approaches before seeing the formal procedure. (There will be times when I’m sure I won’t accomplish this inquiry first/video second plan, either due to time constraints or creativity constraints on my part, but I’m hopeful I’ll get better at this over time.) But if I’m going to provide the class time to do all that, then I still need them to have the opportunity to focus on the procedure and master the skill as well, which is where I’m hopeful the video will come in.

So, part of the feedback I’m asking for on this post is simply about that strategy. Is it a good one? Terribly flawed? Are there ways to improve it? But there’s a second reason for this post and it’s what I’m struggling the most with right now. Do I create these videos myself, or try to use resources that have already been created and are freely available online?

My initial thought (as you’ll see in a minute) was to create my own videos. That way I could make sure they were short - many of the resources online are much too long and teach more than one concept in a video, and part of my pitch to my students is going to be “give me 10 minutes.” My videos would also be targeted to the specific concepts that I want/need to convey at the time I want/need to convey them, and would fit in nicely with the rest of my course design. But as I discover more and more resources online, some of which have much higher production values than mine would, I wonder if it makes sense to make my own. (Especially when you figure in the considerable time investment necessary on my part – it takes much less time to build a set of links than to create my own videos, upload, and link.)

So, embedded below is a “proof of concept” video I created for solving two-step equations (view it full screen and HD, particularly if you’re close to my age or older). And here is a link to a video from the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education on essentially the same concept. (I haven’t looked carefully yet, but my guess is that they will have all or almost all of the concepts that I would create videos for as part of this series.) Should I create my own, or tap into theirs?

Before you watch my proof of concept video, let me briefly describe some of the thought process as I was creating it:

• A reminder that this comes after exploration/inquiry in class and is intended to solidify the Algebra procedure. Students will also have ample opportunity in class to practice, with help from me and other students (more on that in a future post). By shifting the "lecture" to outside of class, it allows me to maximize the effectiveness of the time I'm face-to-face with students.
  
  
• I was going for an “I do, we do, you do” approach in the video. That leaves off one step that I think is very important, “we do together,” but my hope is that is what will be happening in class.
  
  
• My goal was to make the video no longer than necessary, yet still have it be absolutely clear (which, of course, allows me to be my naturally overly wordy self). I wanted to keep it under 10 minutes, both because that’s the YouTube limit and because I think any longer and I’m likely to lose them (or the concept is too complex to convey in a video like this).
  
  
• I toyed with the idea of doing some post-recording enhancements in Camtasia (arrows, highlights, callouts, key words, etc.), but, at the moment, have decided against that both because it would add tremendously to my production time and because I’m not sure the enhancements wouldn’t end up being distracting instead of helpful. I also toyed with the idea of trying to make it more interactive, but eventually decided to keep it simple. It’s meant to be a resource, not the entire instructional plan.
  
  
• On average, students will have about two videos per week, although that will vary. On nights when they don't have a video they will likely have something else to do, but it will not be a big 'ole long problem set like I used to give. Perhaps some reflection or other writing assignment, or a few targeted problems or inquiry, or simply study/work time for retakes of the assessments.

So, here's the embed. (Again, full screen and HD will look better.) If you watch the video (and I hope you do), please watch the entire video (8:15, I'm hoping many end up shorter than this one) so that you can see all five parts (Learning Goal, Explanation/Examples, Guided Practice, Self-Check, and Closing) and see how they work together (or not).



Let me anticipate three tech-related questions before they arise.

• What if students don’t have net access at home? I’m in a school where almost all students do have access, and most of them broadband. I did a non-scientific, but presumably still reasonably valid survey of 332 students about a year ago, and 83% had broadband, 1% had dialup, 14% didn’t know the speed (so I’m thinking probably broadband or they would know), and 2% didn’t have Internet access at home. Even so, my plan is to call all of my students in June (once they’ve been scheduled into my class) and touch base with the parents to make sure they have access. If they do not, then we’ll change their schedule (plenty of other Algebra sections for them to be in without adversely affecting the rest of their schedule) and then move another student into my class (who I would then call and ask about access).
  
  
• Isn’t YouTube blocked at your school? While I anticipate most students accessing this from home, I do want them to be able to access it at school during their unscheduled hours or before or after school. I picked YouTube because students are familiar with it and there are no upload or bandwidth limits, but it is problematic because YouTube is blocked at my school (although staff can override that block). Thankfully, my crackerjack IT staff at the district found a way to whitelist a specific channel on YouTube. While there are still some kinks to work out, students will be able to view these videos as long as I link to them within the channel. If they try to go directly to the video URL outside of the channel, they would be blocked (although they could get a staff member to override that if necessary).
  
  
• What’s with the gold background? Our school colors are black and gold.

So, I’d love your thoughts on both the strategy and the implementation. Again, please keep in mind this is just one piece of the instructional puzzle, subsequent posts will focus more on what we do during class time.

AWNM: Year 3

Once again this year our students in Anne Smith and Maura Moritz's English 9 Honors classes will be reading Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind and discussing it with each other, with many of you, and with Daniel Pink himself (read about previous years' experiences). Students will be holding in-class fishbowl discussions and live blogging chapters four through nine (Design, Story, Sympathy, Empathy and Meaning).

We again have a bunch of folks from our PLN's that will be live blogging with them, and Daniel Pink will be Skyping with them to discuss Chapter 6: Symphony. (Unfortunately due to our schedules not synching very well this year, we'll only get Mr. Pink once this year instead of twice. The good news is that he'll be discussing Symphony this time which is a chapter that we haven't been able to discuss with him before.)

You're welcome to check out the wiki to see when we'll be live blogging, and then tune in to the ustream of the in-class discussion and/or the CoverItLive live blogging on Anne's class blog (periods 2 and 5 on that schedule) or Maura's class blog (periods 3 and 4 on that schedule). We're looking forward to another great learning experience for - and with - our students.

Transparent Algebra: Assessment

As I noted previously, I’m going to be doing a series of posts sharing my thinking about my Algebra class for next year and soliciting feedback and ideas from my network. First up: assessment. (Note: I’m not quite ready to reach Dan Meyer’s level of magnificence in terms of assessment – this and this are well worth your time – but his ideas very much influenced my current plan.)

I’m starting with assessment for several reasons. First, I’ve always liked the idea of “begin with the end in mind,” so focusing on what I’d like the outcomes to be and working backwards seems to make sense. Second, in this accountability-obsessed time, assessment is a pretty important topic that I not only need to get right for the accountability folks, but most importantly for my students. And finally, I think it makes sense to start with assessment because if you guys give me some ideas that make me radically rethink this, it would be better to do that up front instead of after working through all my other ideas.

So, what are my goals for this class? Well, there are a bunch, but let me try to narrow them down to the most essential ones.

Content Goal: Learn the Algebra skills.

Habits of Mind Goal: Become better problem solvers by getting better at asking good questions, thinking mathematically and reasoning mathematically.

Collaborative Goal: Become better at working together to achieve a common objective.

Metacognitive Goal: Learn more about themselves as a learner (via conversation and reflection) and use that to become better learners.

The first goal is obviously much easier to assess than the other three, so I’m mostly going to focus on that one in this post. But if you have ideas on some more formal ways to assess the Habits of Mind, Collaborative, and Metacognitive goals, I’d love to hear them. (I have some teaching techniques and activities in mind to try to foster those three goals, but am not real clear on a good way to assess how well we’ve done.)

From my previous incarnation as a math teacher I remember being frustrated with my assessments. (Actually, I think I probably didn’t think too deeply about my assessments, but I was frustrated with how well my students did - that’s obviously a critical distinction and I hope to be a better teacher this time.) Students in Algebra often struggle because they accumulate both an understanding and a skill deficit – they only partially understand concepts and they only become partially proficient at skills and, eventually, they sink.

My previous assessment strategy didn’t do much to alleviate that, as their deficits were often masked by “just good enough” performance (as reflected in their overall grade) that made it appear as though they didn’t really need much intervention. So I’m hoping to implement a better system of formative assessment this time that will allow me – and my students – to stay on top of things better. I’m currently planning on having three categories in my gradebook (I’m not a huge fan of grades, but that’s a topic for another post): Preparation (10%), Formative Assessment (70%) and Summative Assessment (20% plus - more on the “plus” in a moment).

Preparation (10%)
I’ve spent a lot of time struggling with this one. In general, I agree with the thinking that the practice and responsibility parts of being a good learner shouldn’t have much effect on their overall grade. “Being a good kid” is something I respect and want to promote, but it shouldn’t be reflected in their grade for Algebra. Since it says Algebra on the transcript, the grade should be a reflection of how well they know and can do Algebra.

On the other hand, I do want to encourage students to practice (because it will help them learn), and be responsible, and generally be a good kid. And I realize that their previous (and often their concurrent) experience often includes this piece as a big part of their grade. So my compromise is to include this as a small part of their grade. It will be comprised of a combination of homework, warm-ups, and other in-class activities. (Much more on homework in my next post but, for now, suffice it to say that it won’t be 1-31 odd.)

Formative Assessment (70%)
This is the heart and soul of my assessment strategy and the part that I’d really like some constructive feedback on. While previously I relied heavily on chapter tests, this time I want my formative assessment to be much more, well, formative. As such, I want it to be more frequent, more targeted, and have a built-in process to try to give students a better opportunity to master the skills in a timely manner so they don’t accumulate those deficits I mentioned before.

Algebra is very much skill-based (although there is certainly a bigger-picture mathematical thinking/pattern recognition piece as well). As I talked about in my previous post, my class will meet four days a week (MWRF) for 59 minutes at a time, so my plan is to give formative assessments roughly once a week (although that will vary a little bit with the calendar, the particular Algebra concepts, and other happenings at school). These will be short, targeted assessments of six questions, covering only three concepts, with each concept having one relatively easy and one relatively more difficult question. The assessment would then get entered into the gradebook by concept (so three grades for each assessment). This should help both me and my students identify what they understand and what they need to spend some additional time on.

After the students turn in their assessment, I’ll have students come up to the board and immediately work through the questions. This will then be captured (it looks like I’ll be in a room with a Smart Board) and posted to the class website (mostly likely run through a blog, but I’m still thinking about that). Students should therefore have a pretty good idea right away about how they did, but I’ll also grade these assessments and get them into our student information system no later than that afternoon. I’ll not only record their grade, but will also use the comment feature to indicate which problems they missed on each concept. When students login they’ll therefore be able to see which concepts they need to work on and they’ll be able to refer to the actual assessment – and worked out solutions – from the class website.

If a student doesn’t show proficiency on a concept by getting both questions right they will then have the opportunity to retry the assessment (a different version) once each day until the next assessment. They will only have to retake the portion of the assessment that they didn’t get correct the first time. In other words, if they get both problems on a particular concept correct the first time, they won’t have to retake that part.

They will have the opportunity to review on their own and/or get help from me, other math teachers, or peer tutors, and then typically have up to four retakes before the next assessment rolls around. The strategy is that this is providing students an incentive to become proficient on those skills in a very timely manner, before those deficits start impeding their learning on future skills. Their new score (assuming it’s higher) will go in the gradebook and the comments will then change to indicate any problems they missed on the concept on this assessment.

I’ve struggled with the idea of only allowing those retakes until the next assessment (about a week). Philosophically I would like to allow them to continue to try after that if they need to, but practically I don’t think I can make it work. First there’s the simple management aspect of it, but there’s also the concern that if I extend that indefinitely, that invites procrastination which defeats the purpose of eliminating the understanding and skill deficits in a timely manner.

Summative Assessment (20% plus)
We give final exams each semester at my school, with each final lasting for 85 minutes, and the final is typically about 20% of the overall grade. The Algebra team that I’m joining gives a common final assessment each semester, so I will be giving that as well. This is a summative assessment that gives students a chance to demonstrate what they know and are able to do, and hopefully gives them a chance to coalesce their knowledge and make it more permanent (that’s the theory, at least).

I will make my summative assessment worth 20% of their overall grade as well, unless their performance on the final exceeds their existing grade, in which case the final will be worth 100%. In other words, if they can demonstrate they know more Algebra on the final then what their previous grade indicated, then I’m going with what they can demonstrate. In the long run, I’m not that interested in how much Algebra they knew in October or March, I’m interested in how much Algebra they know when they (tearfully) leave my class.

So there you have it. I have made some compromises due to the fact that I’m teaching just one section of Algebra instead of being a full-time math teacher, but I think it’s a decent start on a good assessment strategy that is actually doable given my other job responsibilities. Keeping in mind that limitation (excuse?), I’d love some constructive feedback.

One Toe Back in the Classroom

My school district, like just about all school districts in Colorado (and many across the U.S.), is facing a severe budget crunch. I won’t really comment much on that other than to say that we are losing many good staff members and our students will be the worse because of it.

Due to the reduced staffing in my school, I will be teaching at least one section of Algebra I next year. This both excites me and makes me a little bit nervous. It’s exciting because I miss being in my own classroom with my own students. I’m in classrooms every day helping teachers and students, but it’s just not the same as having my own classroom and really getting to know kids.

But I’m also a little bit nervous, primarily for two reasons. First, it’s been over ten years since I’ve had my own classroom, and I’m worried about getting my teaching legs back under me. Second, and probably the more worrisome reason, is the fact that this is in addition to all my current duties. (In fact, I will have more to do next year because we’ll be adding netbooks for all of our 10th grade Language Arts classes as part of the next phase of my district’s Inspired Writing project. This is a really good thing, but it still adds up to more to do.)

I’m estimating that teaching one section of Algebra equates to at least two hours added to my day, figuring one hour of class itself plus at least another hour of prep and working with students outside of class each day. Given that I’m doing a fairly good job of keeping busy all day and late into the afternoon (and often more learning in the evening) as it is, I’m worried about what’s going to get missed. I’m worried about balancing the needs of my students in my Algebra class and the needs of my staff (and all of “my” students in the entire school). I’m worried that I’ll treat both parts of my job as “full-time,” which in a way they are, but the return-on-planning time ratio for teaching just one section is not in my favor. (This problem of time is nothing new for educators, of course, but since this is my blog I get to occasionally make it all about me.)

Okay, now that I’ve got those worries out of the way (thanks for indulging me), I’d like to look forward in a more positive fashion. Over the next few months I’m hoping to do a series of blog posts sharing my current thinking of what I’m going to try in my classroom next year. I’m going to put some ideas out there and then ask my network to provide me feedback and new ideas to consider. (Crowdsourcing Algebra – works for me.) My hope is that the result will be a better learning experience for my students next year.

So, in hopes that you will actually take me up on that, let me briefly describe some of the parameters of my Algebra class. (See how I worked the word “parameters” into that last sentence? I feel like a math teacher again already.) My high school operates on a variable schedule, which is similar to a college schedule with some classes meeting five days a week, others meeting MWF, others TR, and still others four days a week (see page 5 of our pathfinder (pdf) for more). My Algebra class will meet four days a week (MWRF) for 59 minutes each day.

To try to segment my day a little bit, I’ll be teaching first period, which is from 7:21 – 8:20 am. My students will be primarily freshmen (9th grade here in the U.S., generally fourteen years old at the start of the year), although I could have a couple of upperclassmen in my class, and I will most likely have between 30 and 35 students in class. We schedule for an entire year at one time, but because our classes are one semester and students often move things around in order to take the electives they want, I won’t necessarily have the same students all year (I’ll probably have more than half of my first semester students second semester, but will have a fair amount of turnover). We have a six period day, and freshmen typically have two to four unscheduled hours each week, where they can work in the library, visit teachers to get help, see their counselor, or choose to hang out with friends in the cafeteria. (We also have an open campus, so they can leave campus if they choose.)

Because of our semester-based courses, we have a fairly well-defined curriculum in terms of the standards that must be covered each semester (since many students will switch classes at semester). So while I have tremendous flexibility in terms of how I teach in my classroom, I’m somewhat restricted in terms of what must be taught each semester. And, of course, I have our state mandated testing (up through 10th grade, plus ACT mandated for 11th graders) in March (this testing will be changing soon, however, as Colorado is developing revised standards and assessments).

Students at my school are generally great. They mostly come from middle to upper middle class families who value education, and many of them open enroll in our school because they want to be there. Having said that, they are still fourteen years old and I’m tasked with sharing the joys of Algebra with them at 7:21 in the morning :-).

So, that gives you enough background to play along if you’d like in subsequent posts. I hope you do.

AHS Learning Ecology

So I stole built upon the idea of a "digital learning ecology" developed by Bud Hunt and team in St. Vrain Valley School District (and Bud and team built upon many others' ideas). While St. Vrain's learning ecology site was built as a resource for staff, I wanted to bring this down to the school level (particularly, my school) for use by both staff and students. So here's the first draft of the AHS Learning Ecology.

Basically I was trying to create a resource for students and staff that would help them think through the process for creating something digital. I wanted them to think about purpose and audience first, make a decision about whether this particular piece of work needs to be digital, and then give them some information about possible tools they might want to use.

One of my concerns with developing a site like this is that it might be too limiting. I don't want it to be restrictive ("for this type of purpose and audience you must use this tool"), and of course there are so many tools that it could also be overwhelming. So hopefully the site makes that clear and just gives them a few good tools to choose from. It's not meant to be the end all, be all of resources, just a place to help get them started.

So this is the first draft of the site, and I would really appreciate your feedback. It's definitely still a work in progress, and I hope to add a few more categories/tools (perhaps a Creative Commons/copyright free images and music search category, and maybe a miscellaneous category that would have things like Dropbox and Diigo that I couldn't figure out another category for). You can either leave a comment on this post, or email me with your thoughts.

My hope is to have an improved (because of your suggestions) site ready to go by the middle of May so that I can "officially" share it with my staff so that they can begin to incorporate it into their thinking for the fall. You'll also notice that most of the pages have a space for examples of good uses of the tool (currently blank). So I would also love it if you would give me links to what you think are good examples of uses of the various tools that I could populate those sections with. Thanks in advance for any feedback you're willing to share.