A Happy Beginning

Sorry, but I'm not excited.

As I enter back into the classroom after two years as a TOSA one question keeps popping up from all those around me, "Are you excited?" (I sure wish I had kept count of the number of times I've been asked that question in the last week.  There have been other questions that have perpetuated my return, but those aren't worth mentioning here.)  I have had a tough time answering that.  I would say around a month ago, or maybe a couple months ago, I was excited. But lately I'm just happy.  Happy that I'm going back to the classroom. When I hear the word excited, I feel a bit overwhelmed because of what I think excited means. (I'm so excited and I just can't hide it.  I'm about to lose control and I think I like it....) For that reason, I can't say the word excited when it comes to describing how I am feeling. Should I be more excited at this point in the year, a day away from students arriving?

But, I am Happy.  

After a particularly tough year professionally and personally, I am happy to get back to the root.  To the why.  Why do I do this work?  I look forward to the day I can look around the classroom and see so many students doing math, talking about math.   I get to orchestrate that in my classroom and that makes me happy.  I am grateful for the autonomy, purpose and mastery that being a teacher entails. (Thank you for your research, Daniel Pink!)  I've learned this past year that these traits in a job are key to my happiness and ability to thrive in a job.   I have the autonomy to create Vertical Non-Permanent Surfaces (insert: whiteboards) in my classroom to get kids standing, talking and working together each and every day.

I can transform how I do homework to make it meaningful to students. (Anyone have a strategy here?  Still unsure on what that looks like, but I refuse to give up searching for a better way.)  Purpose: there is an obvious purpose in being an educator.  Mastery is a trickier one because, as most veteran teachers know, there isn't an obvious level a teacher reaches where she can say "I've mastered teaching".  I'm sorry, but that just doesn't exist.  Teachers live for the little opportunities to show mastery.  I mastered this lesson today.  I mastered getting student X to ask a question before giving up.  I mastered keeping all the kids alive today. (See, it's the simple things.) These mastery points are readily present and keep us going, not to mention keep us coming back year after year.

So here's to another year filled with opportunities to learn and be happy.

What do you do all summer?

Often times, when I meet new people in the summer, and they find out I am a teacher, they ask "What do you do all summer?"  I find that question hard to answer with a quick sentence or two.  How do you sum up all the experiences that one has in a couple months of "free" time?  That's like asking people who work 9-5 (and leave work at work) what they do every evening and weekend.  "What do you do with all that time?"   From now on I will direct them to this post because it is pretty telling of how I spend many of my summers as a teacher.

Summer 2015 by the Numbers, of course!

0 times mowing my yard. Yes, that's right, doctor's orders!  Much gratitude to my sister and neighbor! 1 tumble off a cliff. 2 trips to California for conferences (and family time).

San Diego--you are magnificent!

The Kennedy High School AVID Conference team.

Lake Arrowhead is looking a little dry!

Anyone need a roommate in CA?

My aunt and I visiting the old family cabin in Lake Arrowhead

3 weekends sleeping in my own bed.  4 knitting projects completed.  5 days in Kansas City for the Fourth of July with family.  6 books read.  7 hours spent prepping and painting my kitchen.   
8 four hour class sessions of "Strategic Financial Planning for School Leaders" at the University of Minnesota. 9 Minnesota lakes visited. 10 doctor appointments for torn ligaments in my knee after a bike accident.  
11 skeins of yarn transformed through knitting. 12 hours spent preparing my classroom before workshop week started. 18 hours spent with colleagues collaborating on curriculum for the upcoming school year. 20 hours spent traveling to conferences. 30 days of preparing and eating real, delicious food re: Whole 30. 

 40 internship hours at an Elementary Summer School. I have a new love for 1st graders and a ton of respect for their teachers!   
42 sunfish caught while fishing on a beautiful July morning.   
55  hours spent learning at

professional conferences.   81 days spent away from routine.  100+ math problems solved in preparation of new classes ahead. 

#TMC15

What I learned at Twitter Math Camp 2015

I’ve got to keep this short and sweet because I just have way too much to do before teacher workshop week is upon me! EEK! Because of that, I am going to fall back on an oldie, but a goodie, the Triangle-Square-Circle reflection thing-a-majig that I’ve had my students use in the past to reflect on their learning.

1. Triangle After a lesson, have students draw a triangle and next to it write down three important points from the presentation or reading they just saw or completed.
2. Square Then, have students draw a square and next to it write down anything that “squares” with their thinking or anything they agree with.
3. Circle Finally, have the students draw a circle and next to it write down anything that is still “circling” in their head or questions that they have.

1.  Make a safe space in my classroom using Social Circles. This represents a TOP priority for me this year and is my #1TMCthing
2.  Fawn Nguyen’s keynote represented one of the most important parts of this community--the love for the work and the quest to never stop learning.
3.  TMC and MTBoS is where I want to be for professional learning. I am going to strive to be less of a lurker and more of a contributor in the coming year.

To Learn is to DO!!!!

I know I just said this when talking about past conferences.  But it is necessary to say again, and again.  Just like when I teach my mom how to use her smartphone, if I'm the one doing it, she won't learn a thing.  We have to get the learners doing in order for any learning to happen. Some of my favorite takeaways from #TMC15 all involve student's doing:

Vertical Non-Permanent Surfaces and Visibly Random Groups

I didn't even go to this session, but the twitter talk got me latched on to this idea.  Funny enough, I had made a note to myself 7 months prior to make this happen after seeing it on twitter back then.  I can't wait to share classroom pictures of students working and talking this year, while I bask in the glory of so many diverse kiddos doing math!  My skin tingles just thinking about it.  (I even got a colleague to join me in the adventure of decking our classrooms in homemade whiteboards. Score!)

From my Google Keep records

Math Talks

It's official, this is going to perpetuate my Senior Math classroom this year.  This elective class that I am teaching could be taught as a classic test prep course since it was designed as such.

4195 Senior Math

Course Description: The student will review math topics such as fractions, percents, ratio and proportion, integers, and basic algebra. This course will review math skills needed for post high school jobs and education options. The student will be able to problem solve using basic math computations and basic algebra solving techniques. Evaluation: Grades will be determined by tests, quizzes, class assignments, projects, and the final exam.

I cannot wait to create better math thinkers through Math Talks.  I've added a new book to my bookshelf and I look forward to diving in head first in trimester 2.

Still circling around in my head: How can I incorporate Socrative Seminars?  I know this could be a great learning structure, but I am still trying to think about how it would look in my classes.  Bottom line is, however, that I have to create a classroom environment where students are talking and doing before I can ever think about Socrative Seminars.  So, for now, I hope to accomplish that while I mull over Socrative Seminars a little more.

BONUS:

Whoa--twice I incorporated the Mullet lesson prior to leaving classroom for two years and low an behold it was @MrVaudrey whom I had the pleasure of learning from again with the Barbie Bungee and Music Cues (a my favorite presentation).  It made me realize that I have been lurking in this MTBoS for three full years.   Enough is enough, I am going to engage in the MTBoS instead of just lurking.  At the very least, I want to reflect back all the great stuff I have the pleasure of stealing and using in my classroom!

And, yes, that was a short post. There is soooooo much more I could say about the inspiration and momentum created after attending Twitter Math Camp ‘15. But, by golly, I’ve got too much darn work to do now to make it all happen before the kiddos arrive on September 1st.

Our ultimate task as educators: Continuous Learning

Recently I've been reading a lot. Reading academic books. Reading books for fun. And it has reminded me that reading is one of the most powerful ways to learn.  But, reading alone is never enough.  How will I apply what I learned? How can I connect it to what I already know and have already experienced?  Combine the books I have read with the conferences I have attended recently and my mind is exploding with ideas, thoughts, concerns, excitement and horror! How the heck am I going to do justice to all these opportunities to learn when I reenter the classroom this coming school year?

While I am excited for this upcoming year to apply what I have learned the last two years, I'm also planning (hoping) to remain realistic that I won’t be able to accomplish all that I hope to in terms of improving my teaching practice. There just isn’t enough time in the school year (or my life for that matter) to make that happen. In that way, knowledge can be so very disappointing!  I may know what best practice looks like, but that doesn't mean I have the capacity to make that happen in a single year, teaching three preps that I've never prepped for before.  It takes years to get to that point and I will need to learn to be ok with that.

Regardless, here are my key takeaways from these learning opportunities that I hope will manifest themselves in my classroom this year...eventually.

MCTM Spring Conference, May 2015

Minnesota Council for Teachers of Mathematics (MCTM) Spring Conference is an annual tradition for Kennedy High School Math teachers.  Being in the spring, it serves as an outstanding opportunity to gather new ideas to catapult us into the next school year.  I love this conference because of the quality of sessions and the opportunity to network with local Minnesota math educators that I might only see once a year.  I've also been blessed to present three years in a row.  This year's presentation served as an outstanding opportunity to learn about not only presenting amidst technology snafus but also how patient and kind math educators are.  I could not have felt more supported during such a nutty loss of internet while presenting on the power of digital tools to improve our students' math experience.  Talk about productive struggle. 

When we rush to help we send the messages that the S can't do this. Promote productive struggle in math-Matt Larson #MCTM #TRUTH

— Jessica Rice (@JesRice) May 1, 2015

Minnesota Summit: Google Apps for Education, May 2015

Needless to say, the Keynote, James Sanders, provided plenty of entertainment and food for thought at this annual Saturday GAFE conference. His success, he’ll claim, has occurred through opportunities to “Fail Forward” and embrace those “undo-say” moments that are bound to occur. At the end of the Summit, Sanders won the Demo Slam with a demonstration of Timesify (for transforming any old article to look like a NYT article) and the Panic Button (to magically clear all your tabs in a tizzy but then reopen them when the threat of someone seeing has passed). I’m sure he won not only for the magic of the tools, but also for his showmanship.

The Bloomington Team at the Minnesota Summit (and this wasn't all of us!)

While Sanders seemed to steal the show, the best learning opportunity came when collaborating with a colleague, a special education teacher named Kelly. I am guilty of not regularly seeking out the expertise of our special education and EL teachers, but I was reminded at this conference how invaluable their perspective really is. During a session that provided adequate time to digest and move all the new ideas forward into action (my favorite time during any session), Kelly and I talked about math homework (insert dramatic music here).  Math homework, to most math teachers, is a non-negotiable that must be assigned nightly. I continue to be baffled by our students’ lack of interest in the monotonous homework we assign. I suppose I shouldn’t say that I am baffled at that. Of course they are uninterested! I am baffled by why we, as teachers, continue to assign something we know students aren’t doing. Zeros in the gradebook do not magically inspire students to do their homework. I’ve known this for years. Yes, practice outside of the classroom is important, but what will be the motivator for students to do this homework? The opportunity to discuss ideas with Kelly on how to motivate students to practice outside the classroom was extremely timely as I have been wondering how to do homework this coming school year. I will teach four core classes, which means more than 100 students who I could, potentially, assign homework to every night. I cannot imagine the headache of assigning, grading, and returning, so many assignments simply to put zeros in the gradebook for a vast majority of them. That might be the definition of insanity.  After this conversation with Kelly, I think I have an idea to make homework a true formative assessment for students as well as myself. More on that in a later post since the idea is still brewing.

AVID Summer Institute, June 2015

Kennedy High School has had an AVID cohort since 2012.  Since then I have learned a bit of this and that about AVID, it's mission, it's strategies and it's successes.  The Summer Institute provided a great opportunity to get grounded in AVID before reentering the classroom this fall.  A strong parallel to MCTM was the focus on getting students DOING!  Seems like a DUH! realization, but too often we, as teachers/givers/caretakers, do too much of the work for our students.  AVID reminded me (while providing me with strategies) to get students doing the thinking necessary to be successful.

I will admit, I had trouble engaging during this conference.  A bike accident a few weeks prior caused me to navigate charter buses, stairs and lots of sitting with a immobilization brace on my left leg and crutches.  I've never been so out of my element, asking for help, an extra chair, special assistance at the airport, but similar to the MCTM conference I found that educators are truly the best.  I learned that my colleagues at Kennedy are truly a great bunch of people who were so accommodating and kind not to mention engaged in doing great work for our Kennedy students.  I should also send gratitude out to the strangers from all over the country who helped me navigate the conference.  I am blessed to be an educator, surrounded by the best of the best!

Conferences yet to come!

Twitter Math Camp, July 2015

Words cannot describe how stoked I am to be surrounded by math educators that I have secretly been cyberstalking for two years!  Careful--the cyberstalking I am referring to is pouring over the blogs and tweets in the amazing MathTwitterBlogosphere that exists purely to be cyberstalked!  I am excited (and a bit apprehensive) to dive head first into this network and absorb as much as I can while attending camp at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California starting on Thursday!

Moodle Moot, August 2015

As a professed lover of the power of technology to transform and improve how we teach, this local conference seemed like a must do this summer.  Our Learning Management System at Bloomington Public Schools is Moodle and it appears here to stay!  I never dug very deep into Moodle during my years teaching, but I have watched many educators around me do so and speak highly of the tool to support their work.  Moodle, here I come!

BOOKS!

I'm presently enjoying: 

Since 2014, the books I've read: