Day 146 & 147 - Scaling Candy Wrappers

7th Grade Core Math

For this 2-day mini-project students were given the option of working with a partner or working individually.  They also had the option of scaling their candy wrapper (their own or one provided by me) on paper or on the sidewalk using chalk.  For most groups, it took most of a full period to just draw the enlarged grid.  Those using chalk had a particularly hard time once they realized that the grid needed to be at least 5 ft x 5 ft to have adequate space inside each cell to draw.  Needless to say, there were some problems with students' ability to stay focused throughout the project.  I will do this project again, but with a slight modification.  

NOTE:  I have a deaf-ed para during second period and she LOVED scaling the Minion so much she enlarged it TWICE, both in color!  One of my students, who I have a hard time keeping engaged, took her paper home and made the beautiful Skittles drawing below.

Algebra

We spent the last two days exploring exponential functions using the Teacher Activities on Desmos.  I was happily surprised at how much fun they had with the Polygraph: Exponentials game.  I originally expected to only play for 25 minutes before moving to my Exponential Regression activity.  Instead I listened and enjoyed all of the terrific vocabulary being used throughout the room.  They have asked the last two days to play again!  These two days saw them make great strides in understanding how an exponential function behave on a coordinate grid, vocabulary, and even a bit of exponential regression (some struggled with this because it isn't as easy as linear regression).

Day 145 - SBA Practice Test

Day 145 - SBA Practice Test

We interrupt your learning in order to prepare you to take a test...

Day 144 - A New Beginning

I decided that after a long absence, I'd return to this blog, but with a new look and purpose.  I want to first dedicate time to blogging every day in the form of #Teach180/#Math180 posts.  I want to document what I am doing, save links, give credit to to teachers on Twitter (mostly members of the #MTBoS) whose blogs I read and ideas I use/steal!  Mostly these posts will be short with images from my day-to-day teaching (7th grade math & algebra).

7th Grade - Scale Drawings

I decided to turn today's lesson into a partner game of Pictionary (sort of).  I described for students how to draw my shapes by "moves" on grid paper.  Verbal directions only, no affirmations, just repeating directions.  Could my students draw my shapes?  After two tries, they paired up, drew their own image (with a minimum of 3 diagonal lines) and took turns describing their "moves."

Tomorrow they will take this image of a Minion and attempt to scale up the image onto 1 inch x 1 inch grid paper.  

Algebra - Graphing Exponential Functions
In algebra, our focus is split on preparing for the SBA exam next month and wrapping up our understanding of exponential functions.  For most of my algebra students, the content on the SBA was from last year and they really want to do well so nearly half of each period is dedicated to three SBA-like problems.

For exponential equations, I asked my students to graph a variety of equations in the form y = 10*1.5^x so they can observe things like how growth, decay, asymptote, & y-intercepts behave.

My School - Ten Picture Tour

I have several posts rolling around in my head that I've procratinated too long to get done, so if you see a flurry of activity on this blog, you'll know why.

A saw a cool idea in my twitter stream (started by Cale Birk) about taking ten pictures around your school campus so we can learn more about where we teach. I noticed it took on new life (via Pernille Ripp) with a similar home version. Please consider joining the movement, but be sure to tweet out the link with the hashtag #10PIXTR. I look forward to seeing other schools.

Without further delay, here is my Ten Picture Tour:

Our beautifully remodeled school's grand entrance.

The remodel included a "playshed"

We needed a playshed for days like this...we call this a "sun-break!"

Despite our official mascot being a "Warrior" we refer to our namesake, a chinook salmon.

Our library features flags from around the world, all painted by our librarian (in his spare time).

The beginnings of our school garden & staff lunch spot.

We celebrate our students...each salmon has a student's name on it (628 in all)!

Social House replaced our teaming model this year...all students belong to a "PRIDE"

We play hard too...once a month we hold "Pride Challenges" to blow off a little steam.

The staff mixes it up too!

I hope you enjoyed the tour, our school is a wonderful place for students & staff!

Toss One Back On Identity Day

Timing is everything. At my first staff meeting at my current school, I was given a starfish pin with the following story attached:

I was walking along an ocean beach one hot summer day. In the distance, I saw a man who was doing a strange dance, bending over again and again. As I got closer, I saw that he was picking up starfish that had washed up on the shore and was throwing them back. I asked him, "Why are you throwing those starfish into the sea?"

He replied, "The tide is going out, the sun is hot, and if I don't, they will die here."
I asked him why he was doing this since the beach was miles long and there were thousands of starfish and the few he threw back wouldn't make any difference.

The man paused with a starfish in his hand. He looked at it, then looked out at the ocean. Then, he tossed the starfish out and said, 'Made a difference to that one.'

The pin has hung above my desk ever since...it reminds me that every interaction I have with students is delicate...and has a lasting impact.

Last week the students and staff at my school held our first ever "Identity Day". It was a culmination of months of planning, organizing, and cajoling. At the end of the day a few staff members gathered at a favorite watering hole and reflected on the experience. Our discussion reminded me of the man and the starfish.

The day was filled with students connecting, making friends, and sharing their passions. Some of the highlights:

• "A" is a shy student with poor handwriting but impressed many with her knowledge of cake decorating. She brought in several samples of decorative flowers she made and answered questions to a captive audience.
• "R" is a shy student that wanted to stay home because of her anxiety about presenting. During her presentation (piano playing) she met a another student that shared her passion and they spent the rest of the day playing the piano together and getting to know each other.
• "R" is a student that tops our list of minor & major discipline referrals. Yet on this day, he talked endlessly about his knowledge of his family's business: cutting hair. He talked expertly about the different tools of the trade and impressed many.
• "A" is a student that likes to draw. She draws female models wearing fashions she images in her mind. She thought her drawings were just a hobby until she was told she could study fashion in high school...and learn how to make real versions of her fashions. For the rest of the day she was on cloud nine!

There were many such stories throughout the day...these are just a few I witnessed for myself. Unfortunately there were some not so flattering moments like the 150+ students that stayed home (four times the normal amount), students thinking that the "food room" was a place for free samples, or the large number of presentations that saw student after student walk past without acknowledging the presenter.

During the planning phase we talked about encouraging students to take a risk not knowing what the payoff would be. For some, the payoff never materialized. For others, the risk was met with negativity. But for hundreds of others, the payoff came in the form of positive feedback or the new friends they made. All-in-all it was a positive day in our school. That doesn't mean we can rest easy.

I am troubled knowing that students walked away from Identity Day with a negative experience. Was the risk worth it to them? How do we minimize the risk next time?

When I think about Identity Day, I think about our staff as the man on the beach throwing back starfish. They did a fantastic job of encouraging, modeling, and preparing our students for a successful day....but we didn't get to everyone.

What Color Is Your Tutu?

Last week during our Martin Luther King Jr. assembly, I wore a tutu. I talked about Identity Day.

While I prefer to let my students be the stars of our assemblies, I pushed to bring Identity Day to our school. I needed to share my vision with our students and staff. On the morning of the assembly, Sarah (not her real name) asked me to wear her tutu during the assembly. It wasn't exactly a dare...instead, she skillfully argued that I needed to connect with the audience and make my presentation personal (something I often tell them)...I agreed.

So there I stood, in the middle of the gym with 600+ students and staff, wearing Sarah's designer tutu while talking about my project (a trip to the Berlin Wall) along with five amazing students all dressed for their Identity Day presentation (ballet, soccer, golf, Irish dancing, and Call of Duty - Black Ops). Together we lit a fire in our audience. We gave them a glimpse into our lives and let them hear us talk about our passion. It was a big moment in our school.

A year ago I don't think I could have pulled it off. I wouldn't have believed that it was in anyone's best interest. Now, I don't take myself so serious. I work in a middle school where emotions run the gamut and body language speaks volumes. So if wearing a tutu somehow brings out a smile in a student, demonstrates my humility, or sparks humility in others* I say "bring it on." My only question is, what color is your tutu?

*a few days later another staff member, who students often say is "scary", wore the same tutu during class and posted a picture of himself wearing the tutu as his Facebook status.

Coming Up for Air

I've been busy lately. Oh, I've had time-consuming stretches like this before when I coached football & basketball. This is different. I team with a passionate group of colleagues (two math, a science, and a social studies colleague) and we are in the midst of a renaissance in our building. Sadly, we are far from done. The heavy lifting lies ahead as we prepare to challenge traditional thinking in our building. Before we do, I need some air. The countless hours spent debating our educational beliefs and developing core values has been challenging but has come at a price. I've neglected my PLN. I haven't blogged or enjoyed an #edchat or #mathchat in months. My Twitter time is minimal. That's why I'm here. I need to re-engage my PLN. One semester into the school year I've realized a renaissance of my own. Educationally, things are beginning to crystallize and I need to start making noise.

My plan is to blog more frequently as moments of inspiration move me to action or give me a reason to reflect. The reason is as simple as this...I used to work hard to inspire my students, instead the students and colleagues in my school inspire me to be a better educator, father, husband, and person. Stay tuned...

What Color is Your PRIDE?

You can feel it in the hallways at school. Pride in our school is back, literally and figuratively. After much planning we rolled out our new PRIDE system in September to students and staff to mixed reviews. For students, the PRIDE system is a colossal success!

The System
Our system consists of four PRIDES (North, South, East, & West) and every student and staff member belongs to one (and given a bracelet). It bonds students to their advisor and is the main cog in our PBIS & RTI work. We focus on positively reinforcing students via PRIDE Points. Unlike many other schools in our district that offer tangible rewards as the centerpiece of their PBIS system, PRIDE Points represent an abstract concept that is applied liberally throughout the building. Staff members positively reinforce behaviors in class (filling in planners, contributions to classroom discussions, etc.), in the hallway (staying to the right when walking the halls, polite behavior, etc.), or during PRIDE challenges by giving students points for their PRIDE. At the end of each month we tally the points and announce the PRIDE points winner during a PRIDE Challenge assembly. The winning PRIDE may get to leave for lunch 3 minutes early, get a PRIDE social during advisory (30 minutes), get a grand welcome during challenge assemblies, or some other small recognition. Is that a reward/punishment system? Perhaps. Has it had an affect on school-wide discipline? Absolutely. Major infractions have been reduced by a half. Minor infractions have been reduced by two-thirds. Pride in school is up exponentially!



Our Successes
Our first PRIDE Challenge assembly was like attending a pep rally...for the BCS championship of college football! The pagentry in walking to the assembly is a sight to behold. Students dressed in PRIDE colors, carrying banners, and chanting PRIDE slogans are just some of the highlights. Once the assembly starts, the volume is deafening. Students cheer their classmates and teachers. At one moment during out first assembly, our emcee announced a staff challenge (a four-way tug-of-war). Students came out of their seats pouring onto the gym floor to cheer for staff, yelling in our faces, encouraging us to work harder, and reveling in the moment. That's when the thought hit me. With thirty staff members tugging vigorously on the ropes, who was watching the students? It turned out, nobody had to. They were all anxiously watching the action and loving every moment! We've since had several smaller challenges and our second PRIDE Challenge assembly (yesterday) with similar results. Our second assembly was well attended...the district superintendent, the COO (assistant superintendent), several district department heads, our district public relations spokesperson, and several principals from around the district. They were there to help judge two events and learn more about our PRIDE system.


Our Challenges
Getting staff to step outside their comfort zone and embrace the changes has been frustrating. More are coming around because they have seen real results. The others, well, we are dragging them along. Encouraging them just as we do our students. I think the students are encouraging them as well and I love it! Another challenge is a recycled challenge...time. We need time to plan (PRIDE leaders meet every other Saturday over breakfast), we need time to meet with staff (we have 30 minutes before school every other week), and we need time to teach. We give up teaching time (46 minute classes) at least once a week.


Looking Forward
We are encouraged by the results so far, but I am exhilerated for two reasons. First, we make decisions based on the impact to students, but only after careful deliberation. Second, we have resisted, vehemently at times, the urge to go back to our old ways of excluding students via a tradition rewards & punishment system. I am proud of what is happening in our school and proud of our students!

Apex Karting - WCYDWT

There is this go-kart place a short drive down the road from where I live that is pure adrenaline. The karts can go upwards of 40 mph, but the twisting course keeps the average speed in the 20's. What I enjoy about each experience, besides the large scoreboard in pit row, is the sweet sheet of data given to each driver after each race. While the video doesn't provide much to see, it should be enough to stimulate some conversation. The race sheets, however, are pure mathematical gold.

You may need to know that the length of the track, depending on the line you drive (or walk), varies. Here is a measurement I took. According to the owners, the track is 1/4 mile long (give or take 5 feet).

The data for this WCYDWT activity comes from our fourth, and final, race. There were four racers: BooBoo22, Chud, Josh, and Juiced.

My plan is to use the information with my seventh grade pre-algebra classes as well as my eighth grade algebra classes. I'm thinking that my seventh graders will want to know who went the fastest and may want to determine who actually won the race, whereas I think I'll leave it wide-open for my algebra students. I'll post a follow-up later this week. In the meantime, what are questions did you come up with?

NOTE: Obviously the video is an unnecessary component to this activity, but I had planned to have a speed gun to catch max speeds on the main straight-away to validate student calculations (maybe next year). I also toyed with recording the actual race so you could see crashes, wipe-outs, and other factors that affect the overall lap times. Any other video suggestions?

Synergy in Action

We crossed a threshold this week and stepped into a new era at our school. After a summer of perpetual meetings it was time to roll out our school makeover plan to staff. On the agenda...the end of teaming, the reintroduction of student SEAL certificates, and a deliberate approach to positive reinforcement. Why? The official line went something like "We have to rethink teaming given our current staffing." Okay fine, but who will do the rethinking? In an odd twist...not the administrators at our school! It turns out that five teachers, who had to apply for the position, got the job....I happened to be one of them.

THE ROLLOUT

We introduced concepts of positive reinforcement from the book Don't Shoot the Dog and talked about the need to move away from the punitive measures that have been in place for years. The focus on positive reinforcement was created by a district initiative, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and the work of a group of teachers in the building. While PBIS is designed to be an information system that uses school data for decision making, it's main goal is to teach students positive behaviors rather than be a punitive response to poor decision making. For our purposes, we implemented a Pride Point system to be used throughout the school to reinforce positive behaviors, created four Prides (social houses - North, South, East, & West) that will handle non-academic decision making, revamped our major & minor infraction reporting system, and reintroduced SEAL certificates. Our hope is that students will identify with their Pride as they did with their academic teams.

In addition to this structure, we supported teachers with team-building and class-building activities they could take to their classes and use right away. Since Kagan Cooperative Learning is also an on-going district initiative, we used many of the structures and games provided in the materials available to us. As for the certificates, we brought back an unpopular (and expensive) system of reinforcing student achievement, only this time we created clear guidelines for how students earned the seals.

The final piece of our roll-out was an ambitious 30-hour series of professional development opportunities for staff members that would satisfy a clause in our teaching contract regarding PD time throughout the school year. The centerpiece of the PD was two 7-hour days (last week) where staff members would learn more about the system and provide valuable input as to the final details of the system.

Teacher-Led PD

There is something to be said for sitting in a staff meeting and listening to your admin tell you what you need to know and moving on. This was not one of those times. Over the course of the two days, with over 50% of staff in attendance, there was a noticeable lack of admin presence. This created some issues during discussions as the topic spiraled in all directions on occasion, but in the end, it was a good thing. We were talking about our beliefs, our passions, our hang-ups...and debating the merits of a broken system...one that many were trying desperately to hang on to. The conversation was intense. It started with Daniel Pink's TED Talk on motivation. With the absence of admin, I think it set the tone for autonomy, mastery, & purpose! We (the leaders) introduced topics and allowed a debate to ensue. The debate that yielded the most fruit centered around student activities and eligibility criteria.

A New Era

For years criteria centered on grades and honor level status. The only activity free of criteria were our observances of Veteran's Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. During an intense 3-hour debate, we were able to move our school off it's punitive foundation and agree to put students ahead of our egos. While we aren't criteria free, we did agree to make all assemblies and school-wide socials criteria-free! What I am most proud of, however, is a simple two-part agreement: (1) We would rethink our end of year "Moving Up" ceremony and (2) ALL students will be allowed to participate whether they "earned it" or not. We also are in agreement that it should not have the look or feel of a "graduation" ceremony. Our end-of-quarter reward activities are still tied to grades and honor level status, and as punitive as that can be, it is how we plan to stress the importance of academics. Does anyone accomplish this any other way? What does your end-of-year ceremony look like?

Showtime!

On Wednesday students will arrive to experience the changes for themselves. They've been informed about the changes to teaming, and given a brief description of the new system. How they react? I suspect they will embrace the changes as the staff did, but the long-term success will come from focusing on the positives, not looking back but continuing to point the way forward. As one of our passionate leaders said during our PD, "You cannot steal second based with one foot still on first. You have to be all-in." We're all in...we're passionate about what we've created!