I'm Going to Have to MTBoS the Sh*t Out of This

This year I got the opportunity to start a Computer Science program at my school, which ended up meaning I got to teach two semester-long sections of Intro to Computer Science in both the fall and spring semesters (and teaching myself Python last summer). The plan was that we were going to try to hire a real computer science teacher for 2016-17 but, since that didn't happen, I'll be teaching the Intro class again next year, along with an Advanced Python class and a Javascript class (and a colleague will thankfully be teaching a Java class) as we try to grow the program.

None of that preceding paragraph is really relevant to this post, other than to give some context as to why I'm asking for your help. Not that it needs context, because asking for your help is a good thing in and of itself, but I'm hoping to make you feel a little bit sorry for me and guilt you into helping. (Hey, it's worth a shot.) Because in addition to learning some more Python, and teaching myself Javascript, I'll also get the opportunity to teach a section of Algebra 1 again next year.

Now, the good news is, I don't have to teach myself Algebra 1, I sorta, kinda already know Algebra 1. Long-time readers of this blog may remember about 6 years ago when I got the opportunity to teach Algebra 1 after many years of being completely out of the classroom in my role as technology coordinator for my building. At that time I tried to blog my planning and did great for a couple of weeks and then petered out. This time I hope to do better, and to hopefully do a better job of tapping into the online community of teachers to get your help.

Six years ago I experimented with what's now almost universally called the "flipped classroom" (at the time there was still some debate about what to call it). While there are strong opinions on both sides of the flipped debate, I still feel like it was a worthwhile approach for me at the time because it allowed me to free up class time to do better things than I would be able to do otherwise if I had to "cover" the material in class. I was trying to bridge the gap between the expectations of my school and the rest of the math department and where I was hoping to take my Algebra class, and flipping allowed me to do that to some extent.

Well, now it's six years later, and I haven't taught Algebra the last two, and some things have changed. My district has transitioned completely to a common-core based Algebra course, using Agile Mind as the "textbook." But, more importantly, I'm more willing to go even further away from the mainstream (at least what the mainstream is in my building), and the resources available to me are even better, including even more teachers blogging about math, Desmos has gotten even better, and technology in general has gotten easier for students to use in the classroom. I think I can do better than flipping and, while at least some of the lessons/activities I used in class before are still great, I think they can be improved on.

So I'm sitting here planning my summer (last official day of work is this Tuesday) and trying to figure out how best to structure learning a bit more about Python (I have a rough outline for my new advanced course, just need to make sure I know it well enough to teach it), teaching myself Javascript and planning that course, and planning my new-and-improved Algebra class. I'm worried because the easiest thing for me to do is to focus on the computer science stuff that is new to me, and to slack off on the Algebra planning, because I know I can just rely on what I've done before and do an okay job.

But I don't want to do an "okay" job, I want to do a really good job, and take advantage of all these great resources (and my additional willingness to diverge from the traditional in my building). As I was thinking about how to do this, a line from the movie The Martian kept going through my head:

I'm going to have to science the sh*t out of this.

So the way I'm framing planning for Algebra is,

I'm going to have to MTBoS the sh*t out of this.

For the uninitiated, MTBoS stands for the MathTwitterBlogosphere, which is the self-given name of all the math folks who are sharing their thinking, asking questions, challenging each other, and generally discussing ways to improve their math teaching. My hope is twofold: first, I'm going to tap into (borrow/steal) all the wonderful resources the MTBoS has collectively created and, second, that by publicly blogging my planning I will not only encourage feedback from the MTBoS, but guilt myself into not slacking off on the Algebra planning part of my summer.

We'll see how that goes. If you're interested in helping, I would appreciate it if you would follow along with the blog I set up for this (right now the only post is a cross-posting of this one, but beginning on Wednesday I will start in earnest - RSS, Email). Fair warning that there is at least a 50% chance that this will flame out but, if everything goes swimmingly, perhaps this will not only help me tremendously, but serve as a resource for other Algebra 1 teachers.

Help Me Make This #howtolearnmath Poster Better

I'm still enjoying my How To Learn Math class. In a recent session, Professor Boaler talks about her own "Mathematical Thinking Process" and how we often don't make that very transparent to our students. (She describes her process in the first few minutes of this video.)



As a result I got to thinking that perhaps I should create a poster for my classroom that illustrates some of these ideas, both for students to refer to and to remind me to make my own thinking transparent when I glance at it.

My design ability is, ahem, less than awesome. So I thought I'd ask for your help. Here's my first attempt. It's just text right now, but I think it could be improved in a lot of ways. Perhaps change the wording, or the font, or the colors, or the layout, or add pictures or illustrations. I'd like to have it on one page so that I can create a large poster of it and perhaps print it out for students to put in their notebooks.

It's in Google Docs, so go ahead and make a copy, improve it, and then post a link in the comments. Or, if you'd prefer to use a more robust piece of design software, go ahead and do that and then leave a link in the comments. I'd really appreciate your time and talent if you'd like to spend a few minutes making this better. As with everything on this blog, it will be freely available to everyone, so please don't include any copyrighted images.

Pick My NCTM Sessions For Me. Please.

I'm pretty sure if there was an award (or perhaps a badge?) for "Worst picker of sessions at any educational conference", I would be in contention. So, on the off-chance that anyone still reads this thing, I'd like to enlist your help. I'll be attending most of Thursday and Friday of the 2013 NCTM National Conference in Denver this week. (Arriving late on Friday as I have to teach my first period Algebra class first, leaving relatively early each day as I need to pick up my daughter at 4:30 after track practice. Not going Saturday because same child is doing Science Olympiad that day.)

I've done a quick run-through of the available sessions on Thursday and Friday and tagged some that looked interesting using the leaves-much-to-be-desired-online-conference-planner thingy. "Interesting" for me right now involves any of the following: Relates to Algebra I, relates to technology use in Mathematics, relates to early elementary mathematics (my wife teaches 1st grade and doesn't get to go), or is presented by someone that I'd like to see present. (And, occasionally, one just seems interesting.)

What I'd like from you is advice, and perhaps your vote. I've created this quick Google Form to ask for your "votes" for each time slot, as well as any comments you'd like to leave about the choices (or something that I didn't pick that you'd highly recommend). I'm particularly interested if you can recommend a speaker based on your experience attending one of their sessions. I've listed all of the sessions I could possibly attend, including ones that I can only attend if my daughter's track practice is cancelled or I can get over my guilt at being gone and also talk someone into covering my Algebra class on Friday morning.

So, here's the form - I would appreciate your input (and passing it along to others for input). All submitted results (if there are any) will be available for everyone to see online.

For additional reference, here are Dan's, Christopher's, and Raymond's session plans, as well as this post on tech-related sessions and the Math Recap site.

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.