Last month I had the opportunity to visit the wonderful Ashli (@mythagon) in beautiful Maine. If you haven't heard, she's started a podcast, Infinite Tangents, for the online math teacher community which includes interviews and news updates. Ashli recorded some of our conversations and expertly edited them into this week's episode. Head over to iTunes to listen to all the episodes and subscribe so you don't miss any in the future!
In the podcast, I give you two assignments:
Go to the Productive Struggle blog and make at least 3 comments.
Go to the Infinite Tangents Blog and answer the question: What sort of online resources are you looking for and what would make the current online resources more widely accessible?
March 28, 2013
March 21, 2013
A Day in the Life: State Testing Edition
7:10 am Arrive at school, check in with the teacher across the hall because I forgot what room I'm supposed to report to, and she already has her email open. Unlock my classroom, double check everything is cleared away for the people who will be there and grab a pile of grading.
7:20 am Show up in my testing room, greet students. Happily, when I scanned the list I recognized most of the names (8 out of 10- I have a small group because they have learning disabilities and so get special accommodations). It's much easier to convince kids to be on your side if you know them! Testing for 3 hours (today! more tomorrow!) isn't fun for any of us so fights can turn into a huge headache. The only student I was worried about seems to be in a good mood.
7:30 am Start passing out papers while one of the other proctors begins reading the script. Realize while looking over IEP's that I'm "familiar test administrator" for most of them- no wonder I know so many kids! This is my favorite job, all I have to do is be present in the room. Other accommodations are difficult or annoying- proctoring kids who type their essays or being a scribe requires a lot of extra work on the teacher's part. Easing anxiety just by being me? Awesome. Also awesome: everyone gave me their cell phone without complaint!
8:00 am Everyone is settled in and I find a corner where I can see the whole room but also have a bit of desk space. I do a bit of light grading (reading journals) while frequently scanning the room. One accommodation most students in this room have is "track test items" which means I have to make sure they're bubbling in the right spot. I keep waiting for people to start bubbling, and waiting... the first article they have to read is long! Today is reading comprehension and it takes everyone quite a while to finish reading it through once, let alone start finding the answers to the questions. I'm impressed with their focus and so happy that I'm done taking standardized tests for the foreseeable future, maybe even forever!
9:00 am I'm bored and some students are done with session 1 so I walk them to the bathroom to give them some time to stretch between sessions. Only one kid is allowed in the bathroom at a time to prevent cheating, so I chat in a whisper with kids waiting in line. Mostly they want to know what time they get to leave and to tell me that they feel like they're in prison when they can't have phones or go to the bathroom together. I take a few more kids on walks, grade, stare at kids, stare into space, curse the heater for making weird noises and wish the clock would move faster.
10:00 am Principal makes an announcement that the testing period is over, but it's an un-timed test so this actually means it's time to shuffle students around the building. Students who have finished both sections may go, students who haven't get escorted to the library/auditorium. Everything has to be collected, alphabetized and recorded before they can go (of course). One co-proctor does the escorting so I'm free to go! Arrive back at my classroom intending to drop some things off and head to the tutoring center, but I'm intercepted by my department head. My freedom was short-lived: I have to go to the auditorium to help with all the students who need more time. Before I head back we admire the tin men my geometry students made earlier this week.
10:10 am In the auditorium students are sitting 2-3 per table with their backpacks all lined up in the front of the room. An administrator takes a group of them to their lockers to get lunches/ID's while I get to play messenger between the library leader and the auditorium leader. One student is getting dismissed for a doctor's appointment in an hour so that takes some debate but finally she's allowed to finish her test while everyone else has lunch. Lunch is a supervised affair and I get bathroom duty again- still only one kid allowed at a time. More comments on this being like prison. We are kind prison guards though and let the kids who need to go urgently use the faculty restrooms.
10:55 am Everyone is shuffled back to the testing location and in the meantime their materials have been organized. Testing resumes. I get to continue to stare at children... Even being on bathroom duty was more interesting than this.
11:09 am Bell rings, I race through the halls to beat my class to my classroom on the other side of the school. Today I have juniors so I thought class would go fine- they didn't have to take the test this morning. Turns out they either got extra sleep and so have extra energy, or came in to take a practice AP US History test and are drained. Either way they were not in school mode. We got a few things done but between the short class and lack of focus, not much. This is especially frustrating because the same thing will happen on Monday (the next time I see this class, we're on an alternating day schedule), Wednesday is an early release day (more short class) and next Friday there isn't school. Oh, and we missed Tuesday due to snow. The classes I see today are really short on time for two entire weeks.
11:55 am Bell rings, I throw up the homework assignment at the last minute but don't feel bad about making them stay late since they were so unfocused! The next class is the same as the first, except calmer. They tell me they're my favorite class and I don't disagree. One student points out it's because there are so many band kids and I tell them band kids are awesome. We still don't have time to get through much math, but at least I leave this class feeling happier.
12:42 pm Bell rings, this time the homework was already up so no scrambling. I put attendance in for both classes (there wasn't time before!) and chat with another teacher on the way up to lunch. We're starving since lunch is 45 minutes late due to the testing. I run into my co-teacher and she's had a crazier day than I have so we decide to skip meeting next block and get caught up on our own work. Lunch with mostly math teachers- we whine about testing and the weather (it starts snowing as we're sitting there) and have an interesting conversation about cheating.
1:12 pm Bell rings, lunch is over! I'm determined to get my online gradebook caught up. I spent the snow day grading but still haven't gotten things into the computer. As I start entering assignments I learn that I haven't input any grades in March! I was sick for a week and a half, today is the first day I'm not totally exhausted. It's amazing what a backlog I had after leaving as early as possible after school for a week.
2:02 pm Bell rings, school day is officially over. I accomplished my goal of getting all the grades updated, but I didn't get to look them over or decide how to share the information with my students. The teacher next door pokes her head in to say hi so I make her wait by the door so I can run out to my car (I forgot all the cylinders I collected for belated pi day tomorrow). Special ed teacher stops by to ask some questions about the math test she has to take to transfer her license from Maryland to Massachusetts- I have worked with another teacher on this same test and the questions are so strange! It's not that she doesn't understand the math, it's the awkward phrasing and unusual methods that are confusing. We figure them out and she understands now; yet again I'm thankful to be done with test taking.
2:35 pm A student shows up to retake a test. He wants an 80% without doing homework which is possible, but not with his other grades, so he concedes to doing the homework. The teacher next door stops in to say goodbye and I make her help me count out the 100 foot track in the hall (for rolling cylinders to calculate circumference). Have you noticed I make the teacher next door help me a lot? Thanks Kelly! I clean up my room and find the surface of my desk (mostly by piling textbooks higher and moving geometry tools to the floor- but I have the surface available now!). On the way out of the building my phone buzzes- I have cell service for the first time and a message from the grocery store- donation request approved! I stop by Target for tape and pencils, we've been going through both like crazy this week (I like the Target pencils that are white with colorful tips because no one else has them and I can ask for them back at the end of class). Then on to the grocery store- I chat with the manager about pi day, ask if he remembered to wear his pi(e) shirt this year and learn that Shaws was just bought out. It's nice to have built a relationship with him, he's come to expect my request since this is the third year and wishes he was allowed to give us more than 25 dollars. I buy 7 pies for my 60 geometry students (sweet potato, 2 pumpkin, apple, lemon, blueberry and strawberry rhubarb) which only costs me $12 of my own money, success! (In the past I've paid more but I have 3 classes this year instead of four and one only has 16 students.) Calculating pi will be a fun way to get students to do a bit of math after the test tomorrow, and eating pie is a nice way to celebrate their hard work on the exam.
4:30 pm Arrive home, collect forks and plates, and finally crash onto the couch. Begin catching up on everything I missed on the edutwitterblogosphere today.
7:20 am Show up in my testing room, greet students. Happily, when I scanned the list I recognized most of the names (8 out of 10- I have a small group because they have learning disabilities and so get special accommodations). It's much easier to convince kids to be on your side if you know them! Testing for 3 hours (today! more tomorrow!) isn't fun for any of us so fights can turn into a huge headache. The only student I was worried about seems to be in a good mood.
7:30 am Start passing out papers while one of the other proctors begins reading the script. Realize while looking over IEP's that I'm "familiar test administrator" for most of them- no wonder I know so many kids! This is my favorite job, all I have to do is be present in the room. Other accommodations are difficult or annoying- proctoring kids who type their essays or being a scribe requires a lot of extra work on the teacher's part. Easing anxiety just by being me? Awesome. Also awesome: everyone gave me their cell phone without complaint!
8:00 am Everyone is settled in and I find a corner where I can see the whole room but also have a bit of desk space. I do a bit of light grading (reading journals) while frequently scanning the room. One accommodation most students in this room have is "track test items" which means I have to make sure they're bubbling in the right spot. I keep waiting for people to start bubbling, and waiting... the first article they have to read is long! Today is reading comprehension and it takes everyone quite a while to finish reading it through once, let alone start finding the answers to the questions. I'm impressed with their focus and so happy that I'm done taking standardized tests for the foreseeable future, maybe even forever!
9:00 am I'm bored and some students are done with session 1 so I walk them to the bathroom to give them some time to stretch between sessions. Only one kid is allowed in the bathroom at a time to prevent cheating, so I chat in a whisper with kids waiting in line. Mostly they want to know what time they get to leave and to tell me that they feel like they're in prison when they can't have phones or go to the bathroom together. I take a few more kids on walks, grade, stare at kids, stare into space, curse the heater for making weird noises and wish the clock would move faster.
10:00 am Principal makes an announcement that the testing period is over, but it's an un-timed test so this actually means it's time to shuffle students around the building. Students who have finished both sections may go, students who haven't get escorted to the library/auditorium. Everything has to be collected, alphabetized and recorded before they can go (of course). One co-proctor does the escorting so I'm free to go! Arrive back at my classroom intending to drop some things off and head to the tutoring center, but I'm intercepted by my department head. My freedom was short-lived: I have to go to the auditorium to help with all the students who need more time. Before I head back we admire the tin men my geometry students made earlier this week.
10:10 am In the auditorium students are sitting 2-3 per table with their backpacks all lined up in the front of the room. An administrator takes a group of them to their lockers to get lunches/ID's while I get to play messenger between the library leader and the auditorium leader. One student is getting dismissed for a doctor's appointment in an hour so that takes some debate but finally she's allowed to finish her test while everyone else has lunch. Lunch is a supervised affair and I get bathroom duty again- still only one kid allowed at a time. More comments on this being like prison. We are kind prison guards though and let the kids who need to go urgently use the faculty restrooms.
10:55 am Everyone is shuffled back to the testing location and in the meantime their materials have been organized. Testing resumes. I get to continue to stare at children... Even being on bathroom duty was more interesting than this.
11:09 am Bell rings, I race through the halls to beat my class to my classroom on the other side of the school. Today I have juniors so I thought class would go fine- they didn't have to take the test this morning. Turns out they either got extra sleep and so have extra energy, or came in to take a practice AP US History test and are drained. Either way they were not in school mode. We got a few things done but between the short class and lack of focus, not much. This is especially frustrating because the same thing will happen on Monday (the next time I see this class, we're on an alternating day schedule), Wednesday is an early release day (more short class) and next Friday there isn't school. Oh, and we missed Tuesday due to snow. The classes I see today are really short on time for two entire weeks.
11:55 am Bell rings, I throw up the homework assignment at the last minute but don't feel bad about making them stay late since they were so unfocused! The next class is the same as the first, except calmer. They tell me they're my favorite class and I don't disagree. One student points out it's because there are so many band kids and I tell them band kids are awesome. We still don't have time to get through much math, but at least I leave this class feeling happier.
12:42 pm Bell rings, this time the homework was already up so no scrambling. I put attendance in for both classes (there wasn't time before!) and chat with another teacher on the way up to lunch. We're starving since lunch is 45 minutes late due to the testing. I run into my co-teacher and she's had a crazier day than I have so we decide to skip meeting next block and get caught up on our own work. Lunch with mostly math teachers- we whine about testing and the weather (it starts snowing as we're sitting there) and have an interesting conversation about cheating.
1:12 pm Bell rings, lunch is over! I'm determined to get my online gradebook caught up. I spent the snow day grading but still haven't gotten things into the computer. As I start entering assignments I learn that I haven't input any grades in March! I was sick for a week and a half, today is the first day I'm not totally exhausted. It's amazing what a backlog I had after leaving as early as possible after school for a week.
2:02 pm Bell rings, school day is officially over. I accomplished my goal of getting all the grades updated, but I didn't get to look them over or decide how to share the information with my students. The teacher next door pokes her head in to say hi so I make her wait by the door so I can run out to my car (I forgot all the cylinders I collected for belated pi day tomorrow). Special ed teacher stops by to ask some questions about the math test she has to take to transfer her license from Maryland to Massachusetts- I have worked with another teacher on this same test and the questions are so strange! It's not that she doesn't understand the math, it's the awkward phrasing and unusual methods that are confusing. We figure them out and she understands now; yet again I'm thankful to be done with test taking.
2:35 pm A student shows up to retake a test. He wants an 80% without doing homework which is possible, but not with his other grades, so he concedes to doing the homework. The teacher next door stops in to say goodbye and I make her help me count out the 100 foot track in the hall (for rolling cylinders to calculate circumference). Have you noticed I make the teacher next door help me a lot? Thanks Kelly! I clean up my room and find the surface of my desk (mostly by piling textbooks higher and moving geometry tools to the floor- but I have the surface available now!). On the way out of the building my phone buzzes- I have cell service for the first time and a message from the grocery store- donation request approved! I stop by Target for tape and pencils, we've been going through both like crazy this week (I like the Target pencils that are white with colorful tips because no one else has them and I can ask for them back at the end of class). Then on to the grocery store- I chat with the manager about pi day, ask if he remembered to wear his pi(e) shirt this year and learn that Shaws was just bought out. It's nice to have built a relationship with him, he's come to expect my request since this is the third year and wishes he was allowed to give us more than 25 dollars. I buy 7 pies for my 60 geometry students (sweet potato, 2 pumpkin, apple, lemon, blueberry and strawberry rhubarb) which only costs me $12 of my own money, success! (In the past I've paid more but I have 3 classes this year instead of four and one only has 16 students.) Calculating pi will be a fun way to get students to do a bit of math after the test tomorrow, and eating pie is a nice way to celebrate their hard work on the exam.
4:30 pm Arrive home, collect forks and plates, and finally crash onto the couch. Begin catching up on everything I missed on the edutwitterblogosphere today.
March 14, 2013
Instagram for Quadrilaterals
I knew my geometry classes needed to review properties of quadrilaterals and one of my coworkers had her students make posters. They looked good and filled all the requirements of the lesson (draw and describe a quadrilateral) so I decided to do the same. I had planned to give students a list of necessary elements and then charge them to be creative by making a Facebook profile, advertisement or whatever they came up with. The morning of I was worried they wouldn't be very creative. As I was getting dressed I finally figured it out: I wanted them to draw five examples, which is like five photos... they should make Instagram profiles, complete with captions, comments and hashtags! I raced to school to adjust the requirements to use the right lingo, and voila: engagement. In fact, one of my students told a student from the next class about the project and she responded "Why don't we get to do that?!" I was thrilled to be able to say "you will once we finish a few things" because once news spread about making instagrams, everyone wanted to hurry up and finish the first part of the lesson.
The posters looked great, but more importantly students spent time thinking about definitions and properties of quadrilaterals- the real goal of the lesson.
My Favorite Caption: Four sides #AllEqual!
I had hoped to let them gallery walk and leave more comments via post-it, but a blizzard foiled my plans. Maybe next year...
The posters looked great, but more importantly students spent time thinking about definitions and properties of quadrilaterals- the real goal of the lesson.
 |
| Not everyone added faces but it's such fun to see what the artistic students are capable of! |
My Favorite Caption: Four sides #AllEqual!
I had hoped to let them gallery walk and leave more comments via post-it, but a blizzard foiled my plans. Maybe next year...
March 13, 2013
Drafting an Exam
A couple days ago MathyMcMatherson asked how we write assessments. Today my department divided by subject and worked on third quarter exams, let me tell you about the process for the Geometry group.
The goal of these quarterly assessments is for students to practice taking a test like the state test they will take in May. They are also a place to look at data- the results from scantron get analyzed by administration all the way up to the superintendent. This process is new to us this year. It doesn't really fit with my Standards Based Grading approach, but high stakes tests are a reality that's front and center right now because one school didn't meet adequate yearly progress, which means the whole district is labeled as "at risk." Point being, we have to give exams that look like state exams.
We started at the last meeting by discussing what we have currently studied this quarter and what we will get to by the end of the quarter. There are three levels of geometry with different books and different teachers and we all have different approaches. It's interesting to see what our common ground is and how to negotiate being in approximately the same place at the end of each quarter. Once we had a list of topics, we headed to ProblemAttic. This site is a great resource because it has problems pulled from our state exam (MCAS in Mass.) as well as other states, organized by topic. Then it puts everything into a nice format for you at the end! (The formatting is the only thing missing from our state site.) We went through the relevant topics and added all of the problems that were acceptable. The last step at this meeting was to save the pdf of 82 problems to the shared folder we have on dropbox. (If you don't have dropbox ask someone for an invite- it gets both of you extra free space!)
When I arrived at today's meeting I found all 15 pages printed and taped to the dry erase board, labeled by topic. It was a beautiful sight, I wanted to photograph it but didn't want to be that nerdy (I know, if I can't be nerdy in the math department something's wrong, but I was feeling shy). The six of us then went through each section, identifying problems that were too easy, too hard or redundant. We debated the relative merits of problems and how they align with our courses.
By the time we finished this process we were down to 48 problems (from 82). I was worried this was still far too many problems because we have to give the same exam to everyone, including my kids on IEP's. Another teacher made a good point, saying that many of the questions only required use of definitions, no calculations required. To see how many questions fell in that category, we grabbed a marker and put an orange smiley face next to any problem that shouldn't require kids to put pencil to paper (sketching examples is always a good idea, but on a summative exam most of these problems would be quick). Then because we'd already started color coding we put pink neutral faces next to one step problems and blue sad faces next to multi step problems. By the time we had finished I was okay with the number of problems, but still a bit worried about the stamina of my low level kids. Another great idea: let's put them in order of difficulty like the SAT. This way students would feel confident at the beginning and anyone who tends to shut down once they see one problem they don't know how to do would have a greater probability of getting a good chunk of the test done. I'm almost happy except this one lingering question: we only sorted the multiple choice questions, and I want everyone to spend time on open response. I'm still deciding if I want them to start with the open response or give that section out after an hour or give them the choice but make sure to require that they write something for each problem before handing it in. Something to discuss at the next meeting.
This process took a lot of time and isn't feasible for every assessment we give, but it was a great way to spend our professional development time. We got to talk about our teaching, what concepts we want to emphasize, how to assess that and implicitly, what we value. Everyone got a chance to analyze the questions which will make the data we get back so much more meaningful. (That was the issue I had with the midterm data, there wasn't time to go through this process so I didn't have any investment in the questions.) I'm interested to see how it plays out, especially to see if the problems students find most difficult match the ones we expect to challenge them.
The goal of these quarterly assessments is for students to practice taking a test like the state test they will take in May. They are also a place to look at data- the results from scantron get analyzed by administration all the way up to the superintendent. This process is new to us this year. It doesn't really fit with my Standards Based Grading approach, but high stakes tests are a reality that's front and center right now because one school didn't meet adequate yearly progress, which means the whole district is labeled as "at risk." Point being, we have to give exams that look like state exams.
We started at the last meeting by discussing what we have currently studied this quarter and what we will get to by the end of the quarter. There are three levels of geometry with different books and different teachers and we all have different approaches. It's interesting to see what our common ground is and how to negotiate being in approximately the same place at the end of each quarter. Once we had a list of topics, we headed to ProblemAttic. This site is a great resource because it has problems pulled from our state exam (MCAS in Mass.) as well as other states, organized by topic. Then it puts everything into a nice format for you at the end! (The formatting is the only thing missing from our state site.) We went through the relevant topics and added all of the problems that were acceptable. The last step at this meeting was to save the pdf of 82 problems to the shared folder we have on dropbox. (If you don't have dropbox ask someone for an invite- it gets both of you extra free space!)
When I arrived at today's meeting I found all 15 pages printed and taped to the dry erase board, labeled by topic. It was a beautiful sight, I wanted to photograph it but didn't want to be that nerdy (I know, if I can't be nerdy in the math department something's wrong, but I was feeling shy). The six of us then went through each section, identifying problems that were too easy, too hard or redundant. We debated the relative merits of problems and how they align with our courses.
"This one has students determine that a rectangle is a parallelogram, while this one gives them diagrams of the same shapes and asks them what they have in common"
"I spent a lot of time on always, sometimes, never problems so I'd rather the first one"
"Done!"
By the time we finished this process we were down to 48 problems (from 82). I was worried this was still far too many problems because we have to give the same exam to everyone, including my kids on IEP's. Another teacher made a good point, saying that many of the questions only required use of definitions, no calculations required. To see how many questions fell in that category, we grabbed a marker and put an orange smiley face next to any problem that shouldn't require kids to put pencil to paper (sketching examples is always a good idea, but on a summative exam most of these problems would be quick). Then because we'd already started color coding we put pink neutral faces next to one step problems and blue sad faces next to multi step problems. By the time we had finished I was okay with the number of problems, but still a bit worried about the stamina of my low level kids. Another great idea: let's put them in order of difficulty like the SAT. This way students would feel confident at the beginning and anyone who tends to shut down once they see one problem they don't know how to do would have a greater probability of getting a good chunk of the test done. I'm almost happy except this one lingering question: we only sorted the multiple choice questions, and I want everyone to spend time on open response. I'm still deciding if I want them to start with the open response or give that section out after an hour or give them the choice but make sure to require that they write something for each problem before handing it in. Something to discuss at the next meeting.
This process took a lot of time and isn't feasible for every assessment we give, but it was a great way to spend our professional development time. We got to talk about our teaching, what concepts we want to emphasize, how to assess that and implicitly, what we value. Everyone got a chance to analyze the questions which will make the data we get back so much more meaningful. (That was the issue I had with the midterm data, there wasn't time to go through this process so I didn't have any investment in the questions.) I'm interested to see how it plays out, especially to see if the problems students find most difficult match the ones we expect to challenge them.
March 4, 2013
The Future of Textbooks
My department has 30 iPads that we're supposed to use. I'm looking forward to doing some work on geogebra and with active prompt but I haven't found any apps that are really useful for high school math. Today I spent some time considering books rather than apps. A representative from Glencoe spoke with the department head recently and gave us trial log-ins for the online systems they have. I played with it and finally found an "interactive" portion of the ebook (so far everything else, including all the examples, are exactly like the paper textbook we already have). This problem, however, had a green circle around the number, which I correctly interpreted as "click me!"; I was rewarded with a video. This was exciting because I've done this problem with my students and some have trouble deciding how the pieces will move- a video would let them watch the escalator in motion and they could follow a single step as it traveled. My excitement was short lived. Here's what I got:
 |
| 10 seconds of the context and a static image. |
 |
| By the time 40 seconds pass the answers are already appearing! |
Seriously? This is a video? Words and an image... More words appear... More words appear... More words appear... Then the solutions start appearing before I even have a chance to realize I'm supposed to do something. If you can't make the escalator move then what's the point? I'd much rather they let the kids control words appearing, especially the answers! I don't understand how anyone thinks this is progress.
I did find an iBook series that is heading in the direction of what I'm imagining for textbooks on tablets. iShortcut has embedded geogebra applets throughout, quizzes that students can take mid-unit (with an answer checker) and an overall clean design. It lacks pedagogy, but for a mathematician/chess player it's impressive. Maybe someone wants to work with him to get the questions and applets to appear before the definitions and theorems? And feedback rather than just "incorrect" on the quizzes would be nice too.
There's potential for ebooks, but we're so not there yet.
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