Place Value City Envelope Foldable

A few weeks ago I attended an amazing workshop held at our regional educational service center. The topic of the workshop was Envelope Graphic Organizers by Dinah Zike. For those of you who do not know about Dinah Zike, let me give you a quick run down. Dinah has been educator for many, many years. She started to implement the idea of using foldables to provide a kinesthetic approach to learning. This idea makes total sense, and I wish that my teachers would have incorporated this while I was in school. Dinah has a new book out covering the idea of re-using envelopes of all sizes to make foldables and graphic organizers. Since I am a huge Dinah fan, I just had to take the workshop held out the ESC.

Many of you know that I have attended several workshops and conferences during this past summer. My goal was to become more familiar and confident in the use of foldables to incorporate them into my teaching. Well...I don't know what I was so worried about! I love foldables, and my kids seem to enjoy them. After attending this conference, I immediately went to Staples and purchased several boxes of envelopes of all different sizes. I knew that it would take a while to get supplies in if I ordered them, and I wanted to show the kids what I learned!

My first objective was to help one particular student. This student is an amazing individual, who has absolutely taken to the idea of using foldables as a learning tool. Knowing that she loves arts and crafts, I was able to create an envelope foldable specific to her learning needs. One of the main topics that we are working on for this year was understanding place values, and being able to add and subtract up to six or seven places. The first thing that I needed to address was understanding the different place values. This is where the workshop that I attended and Pinterest came in handy.

While looking up ideas to help learn place values, I came across this image on Pinterest. It is a foldable  that stands alone, which makes it perfect to sit on a desk or table. Each house has three place values. The green house has a place for the ones, tens, and hundreds. The yellow has a place for thousands, ten-thousands, hundred-thousands. This continues up through the millions and billions. The orange fence holds the decimal place values: tenths, hundredths, and thousandths. It was a perfect starting point for my idea.

https://episd.org/_departments/Ed_media-prt-prod/docs/math_elem/house%20place%20value.jpg

Now, I didn't need to have the billions house or the thousandths place in the fenced area. I modified this "city" to be exactly what I needed. Our city had three houses and two fenced in areas. It was perfect for what we were going to work on, plus it allowed some growth for that student.

Dinah Zike created an envelope foldable that created a workstation that stood up, and had a pocket to hold things. I was thinking that I could create the city to sit on the part of the envelope that stood up. The envelope could hold another smaller envelope that had a bunch of numbers 0-9 inside. There would be enough numbers to create any number that she could think of. We could lay the city down, place the numbers inside of the columns, and the student would be able to identify the place values for each of the numbers. There would also be room to keep any worksheets or other notes that we take in the future to keep everything together. It was portable, colorful, and useful.

Place Value City standing up. This would be the image from the student's viewpoint.

This is the back side or cover of the Place Value City. I even included an
establishment date and a founder just like a regular city would have.

This showcases the use of the numbers inside of the
columns for each place value.
I think this is best part of the city!

The envelope holding the numbers goes inside of the bottom
part of the brown envelope.

 This is one of my favorite projects so far this year. I have reached out to a few of my elementary teaching friends, and they are interested in having their students construct place value cities to help with their understandings of place values. I look forward to seeing how younger students make and use this idea as a learning tool! I hope you enjoyed this idea, and please use in your own classrooms!

My Class Webpage Really Works!!

Wow! Just had a great experience with a couple of my students. Yes, it is after 9:00pm, so it was quite surprising that they were utilizing our class webpage and contact information to reach out to me in order to get the problems for their homework assignment. I have created a class webpage under Google Sites for all of my classes, and I have not been too great about keeping it as updated as I should be. In fact, I wasn't even sure if my students were even looking at it as a resource. It was a nice surprise that they are ACTUALLY taking it into their own hands to figure things out BEFORE class starts tomorrow morning! I am definitely impressed with them. It's going to be a great year with this group of kids!

Chromebook Update

Wow, this year has definitely gone by fast. I just finished putting in my 3 week grades for progress reports, and it only feels like I have been back at school for a week. Even the kids thought math class has gone by quickly! I guess that is a positive response that I am doing something right! :-) Anyway, I thought I would share an update regarding the Samsung Chromebook that I am trying out for the school. The experience has been up and down, to say the least.

Positives

I LOVE THE CHROMEBOOK! It is small, lightweight, and user friendly. I can have it sitting out on my lecture podium so that I can complete our attendance, without having to turn off my Promethean Board. I can have students completing their daily warm-up, using the Promethean Board, while I am taking attendance on the Chromebook.

The Chromebook uses the Google applications, and they have an amazing feature where it AUTOMATICALLY saves periodically. Instead of having to ensure that I am pushing the save button when I am working on something, the program will automatically do this for me.

The variety of Google applications is very extensive. Our school district is looking to implement Google products throughout our classrooms, and I have found a couple of them that work great for myself.

• Google Voice: I set up a different phone number that links directly to my cellphone that I can give out to students for them to contact me in case of emergencies. They don't receive my actual cellphone number, but they can still contact me like it was a cellphone. Plus, when voicemails are left through this phone number, Google Voice will create an email with a transcript of that voicemail and send it to my email. This will be great if I have parent's contacting me, and I look forward to seeing how this feature works out.

• Google Translate: I don't use this feature myself, but I have a teacher that I mentor that has a large number of Spanish Speaking students in her classroom. She is teaching in Pre-K, and these students are unable to read. She does not speak spanish, so I found this application from Google helpful. I recommended that she take a look at it. How it works: The user has the ability to select what languages to translate between. So, as a teacher, we can type in a direction to give a student in English. Select Spanish as the language to translate into, and hit enter. The phrase will be translated to Spanish, and will appear in a separate window. But, since these small kids don't read, there is a great feature to this program. Not only will it convert the phrase into written word, but it can also speak the phrase for you! There is a small speaker looking button that can be pressed, and the computer will say that phrase in Spanish for the teacher! I haven't heard how it has been working for her yet, but she was extremely excited to have another resource to help her students.

Negatives

While I love this little computer, I have had some issues. Well, I might as well get this out, I no longer have the Chromebook. :-( We have sent them back, and I am hoping to receive a replacement soon.

• Power Problems: Three teachers at our school have been demoing the computers, and we have all had a problem with the Chromebook turning on. We don't really know what happened, but there was a few days where the computers would not turn on for us. We would plug them in, and the computer would not take a charge. For myself, the computer would work when it was plugged in, but it wouldn't accept a charge and would turn off once unplugged. For another teacher, her computer wouldn't even turn on when it was plugged in. The battery life of the Chromebook is around 8 hours, which is more than enough to last an entire school day. Remember, we are looking at these for our students. Also, these computers would be plugged in for extended periods of time, so we would need them to work regardless on how long they were plugged in. Not exactly sure if we will receive another Chromebook back. The vendor that we purchased these through said to send everything back, and I am hoping to receive a replacement soon.

• Working Offline: Since we are demoing the Chromebooks for use by a student, I have been attempting to take it everywhere that a student would take. I even took it to a professional development training and a UIL meeting hoping that I could take notes. However, you cannot pull up a Google Doc form to take notes UNLESS you are connected to the internet. The training was not at our school, and they did not have internet available at the location, so I was unable to take notes on the Chromebook. Also, we were having some internet set-up glitches during the time we met for the UIL meeting, and I was unable to take notes then either. I have been researching how to use it offline, but the computers were sent back before I could look into trying some of the things that were mentioned. 

Overall, the Chromebook is a great addition for a teacher. I am still looking on how to implement it into my math classroom for student use, so I'm not totally convinced that it is a great option for the math classroom. However, I love it for teacher use! Hopefully I get a replacement soon!

Setting Up My Interactive Notebooks

Only a few more days until teacher inservice begins, followed by the start of the school year! Boy, where has the summer gone? As I start preparing for the new year, I began to think about how I wanted to introduce the Interactive Notebooks into my classes. Fortunately, my students have dabbled with them a little in previous years, so the concept should not be brand new. I am just concerned that their experience with them in the past was not positive, so I'm preparing for some negativity towards them.

So, here is my game plan to turn those frowns upside down! Start the school year, and their notebooks, off with some fun foldables. I have only completed the first few pages of the INBs, but I am falling in love with them. Here is a quick rundown on what I have so far:

First Page: Title Page, (backside left blank)
Page i: Syllabus & Class Information, (backside, page ii, left blank)
Page iii - Page v: Table of Contents, (backside of page v, left blank)
Page 1: Unit #1 Introduction Page

I hope those aren't to difficult to understand, but I am referring to the actual physical pages in order. I will be using the right and left side of the notebook sheets, so they will be numbered in sequential order.

The best part of this so far is the Syllabus and Class Information section. I have created a small, three page, flip book to house information related to the class.

First: The Syllabus. The syllabus is an interactive syllabus graphic organizer. I have seen a few examples of this from Dan Meyer, and a teacher mentor from my educational service center. The students will be completing their own syllabus as we cover it in class. Gives them ownership of their understanding of the syllabus, plus the student will have a parent or guardian sign the document after we have completed it. I plan to have the students highlight two main ideas from the syllabus so that they have some big ideas to talk about with their parents. Of course there is no right or wrong answer here, they pick the top two that are most relevant or appealing to them and highlight them.

Second: Interactive Notebooks and FAQs. I wanted to include some information about the Interactive Notebooks (INBs), what the left side and the right side are used for, and put in writing that the students will be receiving a test grade each 9-week grading period for their INBs. The rubric is on the third page. Following the INB information is a section with three frequently asked questions. This portion provides information related to absences, bathroom/hall passes, and what to do if the student needs help.

Third: Interactive Notebook Rubric. I only slightly modified a INB grading rubric that I received here. I added a section that will allow me to use the same rubric through out the year (just print out new ones), and I can circle which grading period it is for. There are four different sections: Neatness & Organization, Content Accuracy, Required Elements, and Illustrations & Diagrams. The maximum point value for each category is 4 points, which leads to a total possible points of 16. The number will be converted into a percentage, and that will be the test grade they receive for their INBs.

Since this is a flip book, I left the area below the third page open. In the event that I need to add some additional information, I can add them in here. Otherwise, I may use that section to add a small folder to  hold the grading rubrics once I complete them. I like to keep everything in one place!

So far I feel that I have a great start to this INB idea, and I am looking forward to getting my students through setting them up and taking them home to show their parents!

Google Sites for Classroom Website

As I dive into the adventure of learning more about the Samsung Chromebook, I must look into the features and capabilities of Google. Wow...what a list of things I can do. This morning I created my own website, in which I can keep track of all of our schools important announcements, my Algebra I course information, and my Geometry course information. I feel that this will be a great place for students and parents to look for updated information throughout the year.

YouTube has some amazing videos on setting up your first Google Site for your classroom. Google Sites for Educators Webinar was easy to follow. I was able to follow everything step by step, and by the time the webinar was over I had completed my class website. One thing that Google Sites has implemented into its programming is the WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get). This is completely different than using HTML coding, in the fact that you don't have to know any special computer language. Google Sites is very user friendly, and easy to use in setting up a classroom website.

While I was setting up my classroom website, I came across another Google feature - Google Voice. This is a great feature that masks my personal phone number behind another phone number that I can give to students and parents. Google Voice lets you choose a phone number, and any calls to that number are forwarded to your personal phone number. I set them to come to my cell phone. This allows me to keep my personal cell phone number private, but I can still have open communication with my students and their parents. Another great feature of Google Voice is the voicemail. The program creates a transcript of any messages that are recorded on my voicemail. I can keep them and file them as record of communication. So, I created a Google Voice number and included that on my webpage along with my school email address for my contact information.

All of these features are completely free, and I always say: "If it is free, then it is for me!" I recommend taking the time to look into the different features and capabilities of the Google applications. You may be surprised at how easy and user friendly they are, and what opportunities it presents to integrate technology into your classrooms.

Samsung Chromebook Test Drive (Day 0): In a High School Math Classroom

This past week I went to San Antonio, Texas to a professional development conference put on by CSCOPE. CSCOPE is tied directly to the development of Texas education and consistent curriculum. It was a great trip, and I continued to learn new tips and strategies to use inside my classroom this coming up year. My summer of professional development and training has come to an end, and I am looking forward to preparing for the upcoming school year!

When I came home, I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me. A Samsung Chromebook! What was even better about it was that the school provided it to me. I had talked to my school administrator on the way San Antonio about using technology in the classrooms. Several of my state standards are changing in the near future to require me to incorporate more technology into the classroom, and I wanted a head start. He mentioned the school district is working on equipping every teacher with a classroom set of Chromebook computers! I was excited by that news, in itself. Honestly, no more having to reserve a computer lab? Who wouldn't love being able to use portable computers inside their classroom?

The one thing that he mentioned is that some of the teachers would be "test driving" these Chromebook computers in their classroom. I didn't think that I would be considered since I was new to the campus, and am only in my second year of teaching. I was pleasantly surprised to come home to this gem sitting in my closet. I will be starting out with just one teacher computer for this first semester. I will need to learn how I can incorporate it into the classroom, and then I will be able to share my experiences with other teachers in the Spring. I have started to look online at all of the capabilities of this computer, and I am excited to start my test drive. I am waiting on my login information from my technology department, but I have a game plan as to what I need to use to prepare myself for this coming up semester. Stay tuned as I share my comments on using this new technology in a high school math classroom.

Back To School Goals: 2013-2014

August 1st is the beginning of the new school year for many teachers. I have been finding myself scouring countless hours on the web trying to prepare myself for this new school year. One thing that I found over the past couple of days was many teachers were documenting their goals for the school year. Covering different categories, these goals range from personal, organization, planning, professional, and even goals related to how you want your students to behave. The last thing was a yearly motto.

 The picture above are the goals that I have set for myself during this 2013-2014 school year.

• Personal Goals: I want to be able to leave by 4:30 four out of five days each week (and not take work home). This is a big goal for me, especially the last part. Last year I spent loads of time at school before and after my classes to just prepare myself. I do not like clutter, which leads me to the next goal.

• Organization Goals: My room will be organized. It's a New Year, a new classroom, and a new building. Our high school is currently being renovated, and I plan to take advantage of the opportunity to begin the school year with a clean slate.

• Planning Goals: I want to minimize my time at home to plan for the upcoming week. I have two planning periods, and I need to use them wisely. Last year was difficult to do any planning at school, mostly because I did not have any planning periods. All of our free time was spent running tutorials before school and during lunch. Now that I will have two planning periods, and time in the mornings before my first planning period, there should be no reason that I am not able to do most of my planning at school!

• Professional Goals: I will be teaching Algebra I and Geometry, and I also teach in Texas. With that being said, my Algebra I students will be taking an End of Course state assessment in the spring. My goal is to have 100% passing rate on that test. Even though the Geometry students will not be taking a state assessment, my goal for them (and all my students) is to have a zero failing. 

• Students Goals: I want every student to have fun and to enjoy math. If they are engaged, then I can teach them. I am planning some fun activities for the school year, so I hope that I can reach every student that walks into my classroom.

Those are my five goals. Definitely think they are all achievable, and I feel good putting my goals down on paper. I will be referring back to this throughout the school year. I printed it out to include in my teacher binder so I can see it on a daily basis. The last thing that I added to my back to school goals is a motto. "Believe in Yourself." Many students, and myself, need to be reminded that we can accomplish anything we put our minds to it. Believing in yourself is an important key that will help make us all successful throughout the school year.

Teachers, Remember this: "You're Not Alone!"

This school year I will be starting at a new high school. While I am remaining with the same school district, the two schools operate very differently. This semester, I will have clearly defined courses that I am teaching: Algebra I and Geometry. This is quite a difference from my previous school, which was essentially a quasi-military private high school. Very different set of rules and expectations for each day. Without going into much detail about the old school, I can say that I am very excited about this coming up year.

In just a couple of weeks, I will be starting my second full year of teaching! Yikes! I can't believe that it has already been one full year since I made the decision to change careers. What a great adventure this has been for myself, and my family. Reading through the numerous blogs that I follow, I have realized that August is not just about getting back into the groove of school. It is really about reaching out to our friends and supporting one another as the school year begins. 

One specific blog that I follow is Teaching High School Math by Jennifer Lamb. Her post Ten Pieces of Advice for New {Math} Teachers has received a lot of hype from other {math} teachers. Every single post has wonderful information that I completely agree with. Everything from befriending the secretary and the janitor, to dressing appropriately, and even taking time for yourself. Wether you are a new teacher, or a tenured teacher, this advice is always great to remember before the school year begins. 

With that being said, I want to include my reply to Jennifer's post here. This would be my advice to any teacher, new or tenure. 

The one thing that helped me my first year was knowing "YOU'RE NOT ALONE!" Every single teacher had a first year. I found some wonderful mentors and friends through the regional service center in my area (Texas), and they sort of became my support group. When I was frustrated, confused, or overwhelmed, I would just send them a quick email or give them a call. They helped alleviate the stress that I was feeling, and I could go back the next day with a refreshed state of mind. When I had a win at school, I could reach out to them and share the good news. Developing a professional learning community was essential for me, and I would recommend it to any new teacher.

I wish all of you teachers a wonderful back to school pre-season! We are definitely not alone in this career, and I look forward in continuing to develop my professional learning community over this next school year.

The End of Summer: Now What?

As the end of summer is quickly approaching, I find myself starting to move towards panic mode. I don't really understand this shift, but perhaps it is because August 1st somehow marks the end of summer for teachers. Even though I won't be reporting back to my school until the 19th of August, there seems to be SO MUCH planning left to do.

I have spent countless hours and attended several trainings throughout the summer in order to become a better teacher to my students. I have learned many valuable lessons, and gained some good knowledge along the way. I am definitely looking forward to put those plans into action this coming up year. Despite all of these great things that I have learned, the most valuable pieces of knowledge came from some tenured teachers that I met in San Antonio at the 2013 CAMT conference (Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching).

"You can't plan EVERYTHING."

At first, I just want to my hands to my head and scream WHY NOT? But then the more reasonable and understanding Nikki comes out, and I start to understand. We cannot plan for everything. We cannot anticipate every single moment of every single day for an entire year. There is just no possible way this can be achieved. If I could, I should be playing the lottery! 

So, I am changing my game plan. I can plan the basics and skeleton of my lesson plans, but the bulk of the matter will be filled in on game day. My students will direct me on where and when I need to go. If we are moving quickly through a unit, great! If we need to move a little slower, then okay. I will make adjustments to what I need to do in order to make my students successful. So, instead of spending my last couple of weeks planning and perfecting every little detail, I am going to sit back and anticipate what my students are going to need along the way. Fellow teachers, enjoy these last few weeks of summer!

Interactive Notebooks: Composition Notebooks or Spiral Notebooks?

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been delving into my professional development courses and making a mental plan of action for the upcoming school year. The first BIG thing that I will be implementing in class is the use of an interactive notebook. Perhaps you have seen this concept on Pinterest, other blogs, or previous professional development classes. The idea is to have everything necessary for learning in one area, and it allows students to interact with the materials inside. My interactive notebooks will also include foldables, similar to those of Dinah Zike. (She is AMAZING!!) Students will be able to take ownership of their learning, and be able to have everything they need to be successful in class at their fingertips.

And so the debate has begun! Do I use composition notebooks or spiral notebooks? I am torn between the two different options. Technically there are three options, but I don't want to use binders. I don't have the space to store student binders in my classroom, and they are not as portable as a single notebook for my students. I found a blog by Mendy Gannon who discusses the pros and cons for each of these three options.

Composition notebooks offer more positive attributes than the other options.

• They can easily be customized for classroom purposes. I am thinking of putting colored duct tape around the bindings to differentiate between the classes. I may create some colored covers to put on the face of each notebook to also match the bindings. The students can then customize their cover with the name and class period. These are for them, so this step is important to me. 
• They are all the same! Composition notebooks are very standard, and the only thing that really differs between them is the cover. I am planning on customizing the cover anyway, so size is really the only thing that I am looking for.
• While the number of pages in the composition notebook is limited (about 70 pages a notebook), I can do one for the first semester and one for the second semester. No big deal in that department.
• The actual size of the composition book allows for easy storage in the classroom. I can stand them up on their end on a book shelf or place them in a file crate (easily portable in their home!). I don't know for sure what type of storage options I will have at this point, but I think composition notebooks are the best option for me.

This year I will be trying out the composition notebook and seeing how it works in my classroom. I will keep you updated as the year progresses to see how both the students and myself like the use of the composition notebook. You only know if you try it! Let me know your thoughts about composition notebooks versus spiral notebooks. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Music and Math: Increasing Student Engagement

Incorporating music and math is fun way to engage students, as well as make the class periods exciting. Music Notes is a company that has produced many math videos and songs dedicated to teaching students math concepts through the genre of rap music. What students these days will not be interested in a fun song with a great beat? Music Notes has created a wide range of math ability songs matching the concepts learned by elementary school level children all the way through high school level Geometry students.

This past week, I attended a conference in San Antonio. While at CAMT (Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teachers), I purchased a DVD showing music videos focusing on Geometry concepts at the high school level. The album/video is actually named "Deometry," which I found to be fun and catchy! The artist in the videos is a gentleman named Mr. D, s

o it makes sense that it is not just geometry by Deometry! I am excited to incorporate these songs into my classroom as I introduce these specific new concepts. With titles like: Pythag's Formula, Talkin' Triangles, Holla SAS or SSS, and On My Plane, who couldn't resist listening to and enjoying these songs!

I have incorporated music and math into my previous classrooms, and they were a great way to engage the students. However, I always thought there was a little something missing. Something that can go along with the video to help solidify the ideas that were presented strictly in the video. Music Notes has filled that void for me. Not only have the created these awesome songs and videos, but they have developed a workbook that accompanies each album/DVD! The workbook has several 1-3 question activities that can be used in conjunction with the videos. Not only are the students able to hear the information in a fun format, but they are able to immediately practice the material that is tied directly to what they just listened to!

Now, there is one more piece of fun information that I have not shared with you. When I listen to rap music, I have a hard time learning the words to the song because...well...they are just too fast for me. Maybe that is showing my age, but Music Notes has a way to help me learn the lyrics, as well as the students. Online at their website: www.musicnotesonline.com they have actually included all of the lyrics to their songs for you to print out. This can be done for the students, and any struggling teachers, to learn the words of the song. I don't know how many times I am caught singing a song with the wrong lyrics! So, I'm thinking classroom karaoke is in store for my class next year!