Twitter Fun with MTBoS and MSMathChat

Hello all!!  Mission Numero Dos for Math Twitter Blogosphere.  P.S. That's my little knowledge of Spanish.

I logged onto my twitter to complete the challenge.  Or at least part of it.  I talked with others about MTBoS.  It was pretty fun.  But then....

I was introduced to #MsMathChat!!!!  It's the best thing ever!!  I saw it last week, but had no idea what it was.  Initially, I thought it meant Mississippi Math Chat.  I was WRONG!  It's Middle School Math Chat.  Just to talk to others about midddle school math is AHHH-MAZING.  The woes and the triumphs.  The hurdles and the joys.  The bathroom passes and the top-heavy fractions.  Heeehee..

I love getting new ideas.  Mary Moore tells her classes that "point" is a swear word.  Therefore, during discussions, students can't say "The answer is six point 92."  Y'all, this is amazing.  Matt Coaty has Math R.I.P words.  Y'all.  I'm exited just typing it!  My fingers can't move fast enough.  I'm thinking about doing a word wall; I almost want to change it to a R.I.P word wall.  Ehhh, that may not be a good idea.  I don't know.  I'm thinking as I type.  Waahhhh!!!  I'm bubbling over with excitement!  This reminds me, though, when my students call out answers.  When a student says the answer is "seven nine two one four," I'll quickly say "I don't want a whole bunch of random numbers, I need an answer."  Then, they'll say "Gaaahhhh, seventy nine thousand, two hundred fourteen."  I chuckle everytime this happens. 

To draw this to a close, during #msmathchat...

One minute, I tweeted this:

                       "We're talking about fractions. I mean mixed numbers. I mean improper fractions. No, 
                        top-heavy fractions. I mean, idk. #MSMathChat"

The next I tweeted this....

                      "Pizza topping: Ranch. Yum!!! #MSMathChat"

Just to give you some perspective.

Until next time,
Ms. C. Watson

Fall Break! and the Start of Good Things and INBs

Hello all,

It's Fall Break!!  I'm off!  No kids!  Woohoo!!  Today, I'm spending my day apartment hunting, but lets talk about school.

Last week was hard.

End of story.

End of blog post.

Talk to you later.

Ok, not really.

Aside from last week being difficult, we start using interactive notebooks on Wednesday (after Fall Break).  I'm super excited.  I didn't require it simply because I didn't start implementing it at the beginning of the school year.  I did say, however, that I believed it would help a lot of students and they're fun!  They only really cared about the "fun" aspect of it.

I opened the topic of INB's by talking about "Good Things."  I can't remember who I got this from.  Maybe one of MathEqualsLove posts.  Or maybe Mrs. Reilly.  Or Planting Ideas.  I have no clue.  I've read so many blogs, I can't differentiate their content.  Anywho, I absolutely loved the conversations that stemmed from "Good Things."  Students were surprised that I wanted to know about some of the good things that happened to them during the past week.

Back to INBs.

Our first topic in INBs for 8th grade math will be slope, y-intercept, x-intercept, and graphing functions.  All that good stuff.  I guess I'll soon post a picture of our INBs.  I think I may be more excited than the students.

For Algebra 1, we'll be starting with inequalities.

I got a lot of ideas about IBNs (or ISNs) from Megan Hayes-Golding and Jonathan Claydon.

Until next time,
Ms. C. Watson

MathTwitterBlogosphere (MTBoS)

Hello all,

Yesterday, I signed up for an online 8 week series of challenges/missions hosted by MathTwitterBlogosphere.  Try to say that ten times fast.

You didn't even try.  Shame on you.

Oh, you did?  Sorry.  Back to the topic.

MTBoS is completely new to me, but  it is a group of math teachers who come together and talk about great teaching ideas.  I mean, that's exactly what I need.  Woohoo!  This week's mission is to answer the following question:

"What is one thing that happens in your classroom that makes it distinctly yours?  It can be something you do that is unique in your school... It can be something more amorphous... However you want to interpret the question!  Whatever!"

Well, being that I'm a first year teacher, I don't have much that is distinctly unique to my classroom.  I have, however, found some fun activities for students.  During approximately the 2nd full week of school (after I'd gotten brand new desks), I realized that they worked just like dry erase boards.  I mean, how cool would it be for students to be able write on the desks with dry erase markers?!  They love it!  We mainly write on the desks so that I may see which students fully understand the topic.  It works great.  At first, we were using Kleenex's to clean the desks, but obviously 8th graders don't know what a trash can is.  While at Target, I found these cute, little, magnetic dry erasers.  Of course I had to get them; they were perfect!  They're not the final solution, but they definitely work for now.

In addition to writing on our desks, we do sidewalk chalk.  The first instance was an epic failure.  I tried it with my 8th grade Algebra 1 class while we were reviewing order of operations and exponents.  The instructions were to create an expression whose answer was the number of days until ___________ football game.  It was a disaster!  Yea, it was cool to see the sidewalk chalk, but it could have been soooo much better!  When others walked by the sidewalk chalk, I wanted them to know exactly what the equations were constructed to represent.  Also, I have One Direction fans in my class.  This was evidenced by the sidewalk chalk.  (I'm not a Directioner.  At all.  By any means.)  Now, since we've done it a few times, I (along with the class) have gotten the hang of it.  We prep for it a day in advance so that everyone (including me) knows exactly what to do.  

That's all for this week.  This is an 8 week process.  I'll try to keep up.  But I get busy.  You know.  With naps and stuff.

Until next time,

Ms. C. Watson

It's a Learning Process

Hello all!  Let's cut the small talk.  Here were go.

On Friday, September 27, I had my first formal evaluation from my assistant principal.  Surprisingly, I wasn't the least bit nervous.  I prepared my lesson and the activity, but I knew I would have a lot of feedback.  I wanted the feedback.  I'm a first year teacher for goodness sake!  I know I'm not perfect.  I wasn't expecting super high scores in every area - that's unrealistic.  Any who, while he was in my room, students were VERY well-behaved.  I mean EXTREMELY well-behaved.  Now wait.  I'm a first year teacher, but I don't have a crazy classroom.  Praise God!  Now, back to the story.  Everything went smoothly.  I knew there would be a lot of feedback.  I just knew it.  Monday morning, he talked to me about the observation (probably because I hound him about feedback from observations).  I LOVED what he had to tell me.  He gave me such great advice, and he saw things that I hadn't noticed in my classroom.  When he began talking, I started crying!  I began to think about why I started teaching and the many things a teacher is capable of pulling out of students - the higher and lower performing students.  He didn't notice when I first started crying, but when he did, it was so funny!  I couldn't help but start laughing.  He didn't know what to say, and I couldn't explain why I was crying.  We laughed about it and kept the observation reflection going.

One thing I have really been struggling with is students' and our clashing personalities.  There are particularly 3 students I have to pray for each day.  Recently, the church I've been visiting has been talking about forgiveness and having a forgiving heart.  We've also been talking about having bitterness in our heart towards someone.  Y'all, I have needed every bit of that.  It's amazing how God will send the exact message you need to help you with your test so that you will have an amazing testimony.

Another struggle of this 1st 9 weeks is presenting information so that students fully understand the concept.  I can't tell you how many parents I've talked to who have said their child hasn't struggled in math before, but now they can only keep a "C" average.  I know that it is not all my fault that students aren't doing as well.  I like to blame it on the full implementation of Common Core; it's a beast!  Along with Common Core, however, I struggle with engaging students everyday.  Some days, we have tons of fun in class.  Other days, it's like I'm pulling teeth to engage students.  So far we've written on our desks, done sidewalk chalk, played competitive games, watched math videos, and taken pictures in class of activities.  I'm ALWAYS up for new ideas.  Again, I'm a first year teacher - I'll try anything!  Why not?  If it doesn't work, I'll just say "This is my first time doing this whole teaching thing, and I didn't know it'd turn out so horribly."  So, next 9 weeks, I'm trying to engage students on a much higher level and cause them to really think about what they're doing and why it's important.  That's my goal.  I'm actually really excited about how it goes.

I'll keep you posted.  Or not.  I may get busy.  And forget.  But if I don't forget.  I'll let you know.  Maybe.

Have a great weekend!