2018-2019 School Year Review

THIS YEAR. 

This year has been the most challenging and the most rewarding year in my career as an educator. I began this year as a Math Instructional Coach/Interventionist with no classes and ended the year as a Math Instructional Coach/Interventionist/Algebra 1 teacher with 3 classes. My school district in Texas went through a RIF (Reduction in Force) and I had to take on several Algebra 1 classes the last week of October.  

I’m going to be honest and state that I was VERY nervous to take on classes after classroom routines and procedures were already set by another teacher. I only taught freshmen in my Geometry classes so I never had a true take on a true freshmen class. I’ve heard how terrifying some of these freshmen can be and that just added to my nervousness. However, I quickly learned that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE FRESHMEN!I also learned that my usual “classroom activities” don’t really work with this type of group so I had to quickly adapt my instruction. 

I had several take-aways this year:

1.    You cannot assume that students will learn the same way year after year.  

Obviously, I knew this. However, these group of students no longer liked my go-to classroom activities (Mad Libs, Mazes, Scavenger Hunts, etc.). They absolutely hated getting up out of their seats to work on any type of activity. I talked with my students to figure out what works best for them and learned that they are VERY competitive! From November until the last instructional day, I turned almost everything into a type of competition. I will blog more about this in a couple of days. 

2.     Students do not have to finish every problem on assignments.

This was the first year that I did not have students complete the whole assignment. Before I passed out assignments, I calculated how much time was left in class and how many problems I thought students could complete in that given time. Usually, I told students, pick anywhere from 4-8 problems that you want to complete and turn it in. I did not have one single student refuse to do just 4 problems. My thoughts were, “Why punish students who take a little bit longer to complete problems?” 

3.    School leadership is EVERYTHING. 

Schools need to invest in good leaders, or they will lose GREAT teachers. PERIOD. 

4.    Sing. Sing. Sing.

Come up with rhymes to help students remember important materials, I promise you IT WORKS! I had several students come up to me after the STAAR test and said, “I heard you singing in my head almost the whole STAAR test.” I’ll blog about some of my little Algebra 1 songs.

5.     I absolutely love working at a Title I school. 

The most rewarding part of my job this year was actually getting to know and getting to teach my students. I absolutely loved the group of kids that I had this year. I know this is said a lot, but if you show these kids that you truly care, then they WILL work for you. I had two kids who told me the day before their test that they don’t care about this “stupid test” but, they’re going to try to do their hardest on it just for me. I taught only on-level Algebra 1 classes and 58% of my students received Meets on their STAAR test and 24% of my students received Masters. 

From here on out, I will be writing at least twice every week. It’s just been hard this school year since there has been SO much going on!  

Thank you for taking the time to read this whole post :)

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Differentiation with Warm-Ups

I'm trying something new with several of my classes this unit and I'm really liking it so far! During the past 2 years, I don't really give my students "warm-up" questions when they walk in. Normally, students walk in, cut out their foldables, and set up their interactive notebook. 

This year, I have issues of several students not turning in assignments and I really need to receive feedback (other than quizzes and tests) to assess their understanding. However, student's level of understanding vary GREATLY in my classes this year. I have pre-AP drop outs or students who should be in pre-AP but do not want the extra work. I have regular on-level students who rarely need assistance. I have special education and ELL students who need A LOT of assistance. If I give all students the same worksheet, I would have students done with 10 minutes left and some that will need to bring it home for an extra 30 minutes. 

I created these differentiated warm-ups so all students will finish around the same time. The one with the most arrows are for my higher level students and the one with the least amount of arrows are for my special education/ELL students who are not really understanding the concept. I put the arrows so students couldn't really see that they were receiving A, B, and C forms. 

So far, I really like how the warm-ups are going since all students are taking the same amount of time.... but, it's taking A LOT of time for me to create them! How do you "differentiate" in your classroom? 

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Google Forms for Student Information

This will be my first year using Google Forms for obtaining student information. In previous years, I had parents return a paper-based form back to me. I only received half of them back so I am hoping that this Google Form will increase the amount I receive back. I will post a QR code that links to this form on my syllabus and email it to parents.

Another reason why I chose to use a Google Form is for the organization. Instead of sifting through all the forms to find a student, I can press "Command F" in the Responses Spreadsheet to find their information.

Are there any other questions that you add onto your student information form?

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How to Grade with Google Forms

This is a post on how to create a Google Form that will automatically grade your assignments. I am planning to use this tool with most of my formative assessments this upcoming school year.

Step 1: Create a blank Google Form. The first three questions in my Google Forms are always the class period (drop-down menu), last name (short answer), and first name (short answer). I also press "Required" on each question just so students can make sure that they answered every question.

Step 2: Click on the "Responses" tab and press the green button that says "Create Spreadsheet." It will ask you to either create a new spreadsheet or select an existing one. For new activities, I will always create a new spreadsheet.

Step 3: Go to the menu and press "Preview." This is where you will make your answer key so make sure that you type/select the correct answers. Press submit when you are finished. 

Step 4: Click "Add-Ons" on your spreadsheet menu and select "Get Add-Ons." Find the Flubaroo add-on and download.

Step 5: Once you have downloaded Flubaroo, go back to "add-ons" and press "Enable Flubaroo in this sheet."

Step 6: Go back to the same menu and press "Grade Assignment" under Flubaroo.

Step 7: Make sure that it says "identifies students" next to any student information. Click on your name for the answer key.

This is how it will look like when it grades. You can go back and forth between the sheets at the bottom. This is amazing and it will color code the answers for you. I can't wait to try this out with more assignments.

If you have any questions or if I missed anything, please leave a comment. :)

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