Process notebooks really aren’t all that exciting, and actually, its a very simple idea. I first started using this last summer for myself when I first decided to pursue my graduate degree in mathematics. I was taking a prerequisite course I needed to complete and realized I had not been on this side of the classroom learning setting in a few years.

When I tried studying off of my sloppy notes, I had a difficult time because I tend to go review my notes too quickly, and found myself reading, and re-reading things over and over again. Then I remembered what I always tell my students. Studying for math is different than studying for other subjects like history, English, or even science. You can’t just review and scan your notes to learn and understand. You need to actually write and DO the mathematics in order to REALLY learn. So, I took out another notebook and started writing.

I started off just copying my notes word-for-word. Already, I found this helpful because it slowed me down enough to actually pay attention to the oh-so-important details in each line of my notes. However, where I really started seeing myself understanding the material better was when I stopped copying my notes exactly. Instead, I would only copy the initial part of each proof or problem, and try to remember and reason through the rest of the problem. Then as I went along, I would constantly compare what I did to my notes, or look at the next step when I was stuck. Basically, I was rewriting my notes, but in my own words (or symbols), and making sure I understand every step before I moved on.

That’s really the concept behind my process notebooks. The name “process notebook” didn’t come up until a month or so into using it in my own classroom, because I would ask students to “process” their notes, or rather, think about the notes they had just written, and output it in a neat, organized matter (Cornell Note format is required at our school, so this is the method we use).

Questions…

1. Do you do this with Freshman?
I don’t teach Freshmen this year, but if I did, I would use it for them. I do this with both my Algebra 1 and 2 classes.

2. Do you always give time in class to do this?
The notebooks are actually kept in class because the students can’t seem to bring their materials to school every day, I also like to make sure I check that they completed it, then give feedback on their notes, before they put it back into the cabinets. Our school is on block scheduling so we have PLENTY of time to fit this into the 100-minute class period. I usually give between 20-30 minutes, then hand out their homework afterward. I also usually have them process notes at least once per unit, but other times, I sometimes break it into smaller sections too, depending on other activities I have planned for the day. I will be sure to include more time for processing their notes next semester, though.

3. Does it produce better quality notes?
Yes! There is such a huge difference when I open my Algebra 1 notebooks this year, compared to the completely useless (or non-existent) Algebra I notebooks last year. Of course, there are still a fewstudents that I am still working with on neatness of work.

Other Ideas.
Many of them need more direction when doing this, so I usually provide them with a list of topics and key words that I will be checking for, and I give them a minimum number of examples and types of examples I expect to see. We also use the Cornell Note format, so I make sure they add questions, or good topic side headings, as well. I often use this as a “ticket out the door” assignment, where they can’t leave until its done properly.

I’ve considered doing this for homework, and perhaps I will for my Algebra 2, but my Algebra 1 students again have trouble with holding onto their notebooks. When students ask if they can bring it home to study, I just remind them that if they don’t have it the next time, they will have to process their notes into a piece of paper, then again into their notes, doing double the work.

I also like having students work in class because when they get to a point in their notes that they don’t understand, I have the ability to work with them one-on-one, or I can clarify the points where they are confused. I also feel like it’s a good–what’s the edu-speak word?–scaffolded activity. You will see the students transition from copying their lecture notes word-for-word, to truly processing their notes in their own words. And some students will continue to copy it word-for-word, which is still a step better than what they would have done before. When they get their assignment after completing it, when students ask a question, I can just point out the answer to them in their notebooks, or answer it, and have them add it to their notes.

As I said in my last post, most of the students were VERY resistant to this at first, and they felt like they were wasting their time re-writing their notes, but by the end of the semester, there were MANY students who found it worthwhile. Again, everyone’s learning styles are different, but this strategy happened to help me in my own classes, so I hoped and took the chance that it will be useful to many of my students, as well. I hope to also have given some of my students real note-taking strategies for when they head to college and have to make it through their first math course alone.

The use of it is constantly evolving, but again, the main concept is very simple. Take sloppy notes during lectures, then “process” them into a separate notebook some time in the near future.

I hope this helps some.

Emotional Reflections

I feel more physically and emotionally tired this year than all my previous years teaching. Why? Perhaps it’s because I’m also a part-time student, or maybe because I put in a lot more hours after school tutoring students. Actually, implementing my SBG quizzes into my grading can also be quite tiresome at times (primarily since it seems that students want to reassess in waves). Overall, though, I feel accomplished. My test scores have gone up, and my D/F ratios have gone down. Are my scores at the top of the school or district? No, but I’m very pleased with my improvement.

The Progress

This leads me to my next area of thought. Student achievement. My Algebra 1 classes (of all repeating students) have improved dramatically. Although it is definitely a challenge for me to both manage and teach these classes, this is where I’ve seen the most improvement. My D/F ratios have dropped significantly from over 60% (yes, I’m admitting that I failed or nearly failed two-thirds of my class last year) down to about 40% this year. Still not great, but again, I’m happy with the improvement.

My Algebra 2 classes have also shown significant improvement on all the common assessments (with the exception of the last test, but I’ll get more into that later). They seem more confident and SOME show a better understanding of the underlying mathematics, and are not just memorizing a series of steps. I wish I could convert more students to think this way.

The Process

What are two major changes this year that made a difference in my teaching and student performance?

1) All homework grades replaced by SBG quizzes. You don’t get points for practicing!!
2) Implementation of a “Process” notebook, where students neatly “process” and re-copy their notes into a SECOND notebook that stays in class.

How do I know these made a difference?

1) Test scores. They went up this year.
The last test, in the rush of the ending semester, I told students I would not add more quizzes to the long list of standards already being assessed. I wanted them to focus on reassessing the older quizzes (which was partially true, but I was also burnt out and didn’t want to grade a slew of new quizzes, and rush them into reassessing). Instead, I just provided them with a lot more practice practice problems, but no accountability until the test. BIG mistake #1. The test average dropped nearly 15% on that last common assessment.

As for the process notebooks, here is a story that may help the argument toward its use. I was sick one day and had a sub for my 5th period Algebra 2 class. I included in my sub lessons plans to have my 5th period process their notebooks on logarithms, and have them include ALL of the examples from the notes, and they did it. It was the only Algebra 2 class that did. My other two classes, I spent so much time reviewing problems and answering questions for the test, that I ran through the time I had alloted for them to process their notes. BIG Mistake #2. My Periods 2 and 4, did not have much time to process their notes, and as a result, they were only able to re-copy the first lesson on logarithms.

So what happened? Yes, all my Algebra 2 scores dropped, but my 5th period did not see as dramatic of a decrease in scores. In fact, they scored the highest out of my three periods, whereas my 2nd period is usually the highest scorers by far. I would like to hope that the time used to process notebooks helped them.

2) Student surveys. Mostly positive!
Of course reading student surveys is always tough. This year, the same survey was given department-wide as a “writing assignment.” There was only one student who attacked my teaching methods, which was much less than what I had anticipated. So what did I find?

Question 1-How do you feel about your grade in this class?

Many students were proud of themselves. I had several students claim that this was the best they had ever performed in a math class. On the other hand, many of my ‘B’ students were disappointed with themselves. Many students said that they knew they should have continued to reassess early on and that they could have earned a better grade.

Question 2-Describe something that has helped you be successful in this class.

This was the most important and useful feedback out of all the questions. When I first explained the idea of the process notebooks, students were very resistant and confused.

“Why do I need TWO notebooks? That’s dumb!”, they said.

It took some convincing, and I even showed them that I use it myself in my own graduate-level math courses. However, I was surprised by the large number of responses on these surveys that said that rewriting their notes surprisingly HELPED them greatly in understanding and remembering the material. It was also great for reviewing for tests, since it was nice, organized, and never forgotten at home since it was kept in class. Only one student stated that it did not help her.

Second, many of the students felt that the quizzes were also very effective. It forced them to understand and think about the problems on their own, since I did not review warm up problems prior to the quiz.

Other things students mentioned that was useful to them was homework (Who knew?) and practice tests.

Question 3-Do you think you have worked as hard as you can this semester, or do you think you could have done better?

Most of the students feel that they could have tried harder. That’s disappointing for me to hear, but I feel it’s the norm in a high school setting. I know I could have tried harder as a high school student.

Question 4-What are your goals in this class for next semester?

I REALLY liked the some responses on this one. Many students were actually specific in their goals on how to improve their grades, even though the question was not specific. Some of the responses were to not wait until the end of the term to reassess quizzes, to ask more questions, to complete all homework.

Question 5-Additional Comments.

Of course, this is the fun one. Some student comments were just funny (because I forced them to write three COMPLETE sentences for each response), but some were also very nice to read. The best one that comes to mind was a student that said that for the first time in a math class, they were not afraid to ask questions or seek help. This was also coming from a student who can sometimes come off as having a bit of an attitude.

I also appreciated many of the other positive comments left by students on the way I present my lessons, and checked for their understanding during class. Of course, not everyone’s learning style is the same, but I’m glad I was able to find ways to teach the concepts for many of them.

Overall, I definitely see much room for improvement for the future, and also read a few minor suggestions to consider implementing in the classroom, but the improvements I have made over my previous year are also evident. These positive surveys also came at a good time when I was feeling down on myself as a teacher, and the surveys I have given in the past usually did not make things much better.

Now, however, I feel much more prepared and motivated to tackle next semester. And one thing I know for certain–I will NOT slack on quizzes, and I will NOT let students slack on their process notebooks again!

Homework

I finally did it. I stopped giving points for homework. I give homework daily, but I don’t grade them. I do record whether or not it was completed, but it does not go into my grade book, but rather it is documented on a seating chart so I can see their current record of completion for the week.

How I check homework. I really don’t remember who I stole this idea from, but it’s working great for my Algebra 2, (not so much my Algebra 1, just yet).

Students write at the top of their assignment “#:__ Easy:__ Hard:__”. “#” tells me how many of the problems they completed. If they did all of them, they just write “all”. They write the problem number of the one they found the easiest, and then they list all of the problem numbers difficulties solving, or did not complete.

I walk around with a seating chart checking students who completed the assignment. If they had issues that I can address quickly, I do so right then and there at their desks. If multiple students had the same difficult problems listed, I do those on the board after the quiz. I often spot check one main problem that I wanted to make sure the students mastered on this assignment, too.

The process takes around 10-15 minutes, but to me the feedback I get from seeing student issues, and the quick immediate feedback students get for minor issues are worth the time. Also, during the check, they are discussing and working out warm up questions that I still do not go over, but which gets them mentally prepared for their upcoming SBG quiz.

So why is this working? First of all, by not offering points for homework, I feel students are much more HONEST about their work and showing me what they don’t understand. I see a lot less copied assignments from students just trying to get those homework points. It did take some work to get there though. For the past three weeks, I’ve been hammering into their heads that they are responsible for their own learning!! I remind them that if they choose to copy homework, they don’t get free points toward their grade. They still have to demonstrate their knowledge of the material on their SBG quizzes, and copying homework will not let them practice the skills necessary to be able to do this; copying homework will not allow me to identify their errors and help them be successful.

Wait, no points are given for homework, and the students still complete it? I do have the advantage of being on our unique block schedule with embedded support, and thus I can still hold students accountable for their assignments without making it worth any points. And this leads into my re-teaching methods, as well. Any student who did not complete their homework is given an ALTERNATE assignment that must be completed before they leave. They are different problems from the original assignment, so they cannot just copy what another student has, and they cannot work on it until I give it to them near the end of the class period (or during our embedded support time built into our schedule).

Sometimes, if it’s just one section of the homework the students had difficulty with, I’ll just make them do just on that one section in the alternate assignment.

On the alternate assignment, I am much more careful in checking for accuracy and identifying errors, because most likely the students who did not complete their homework are the students who need more help. When I first started this process a few weeks ago, I made sure they understood the reason for the alternate assignment was to ensure that they are successful in my class. I do this by checking in on them constantly and reviewing their progress as they work, and then asking if they had any questions on any of the problems. I want them to feel that they have support they need to complete the assignment, and I am not just giving them the assignment merely as a punishment. If they are still working when the embedded support period ends, then they do stay in after class until they complete the assignment, and I approve of it.

Doing this has allowed me to give much more individualized attention to the students who really need it. This has also allowed students to really start taking responsibility for their learning. I’m seeing that students who I know would have normally just given up and walked out the door at the end of the period without worrying about their current SBG grades, but are instead forced to complete their assignments are staying in after class EVEN LATER to retake some of the SBG quizzes. Many have brought up their grades and shown great strides in learning, and the ones that don’t, I’m able to give them even more individual attention, give them practice problems, then encourage them to come back next time to show me they still understand it.

It’s great to see a student smile after failing a quiz, not because they are happy to leave my room, but because they felt they have learned something and are more prepared to show me they understand it the next time they come in.

But what does this mean for me as a teacher? The three R’s. Yeah, those, but the new ones. Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships. Relationships. This is a big idea where I teach. And I agree it’s an important one. Now, if only I was better at it.

A few months ago, I attended a workshop called Capturing Kid’s Hearts. Awesome ideas on how to connect, but sometimes the presenter was so quick. She had a response for anything that a student might say, it seemed. I’m not that quick.

But today, I actually saw an improvement in myself. You know those little side-talks you have with students when they want to cause trouble? Four years of teaching and I’ve never really felt I’ve had any real success with those. But I guess I finally said or did something different that worked today, because I didn’t just achieve compliance (as most little talks do), but the student took the role of an active learner. I must be a slow learner, because I’m already in my 5th year of teaching, and I’m still figuring stuff like this out. And I’m not even sure what I did differently.

Greeting students at the door. I’ve done this before, but something about this year seems different. Students actually talk back to me as they walk in, and they smile, rather than just shake my hand because they feel obligated to…well most of them at least.

Is it safe to say I’m getting better at this? Who knows. It’s still only the second week of school.

Next week. Let me see if I can get this “social contract” to work now.

It’s awesome.

Perhaps it’s just the fact that its the start of the year, but I felt that getting students out of their seats and working on white boards around the room had much higher participation rate than having students work in groups at their desks.

Further, I can monitor student progress much better from anywhere in the room, and when I join a group, I’m standing WITH them, rather than over them, and it seems less threatening when I start asking questions to individuals.

I’m liking this.

Oh, and if you want to know where I bought my whiteboards:

Check out Lowe’s Thrifty White Hardboard Walls
$10.98 for an 8 ft x 4 ft board.
I cut them half to make TWO 4×4 boards, which is plenty big for group work.
I have enough board space now for 9 groups to work around the room.

Oh, and for more something more beautiful at home (yes, I’m a nerd who wants to mount a whiteboard at my home), I bought a glass table top from Ikea. But watch out for this. It’s heavy and the mounting hardware will cost more than the table top itself!

Sometimes I like to pretend that I really remember what it’s like to be a high school student. I mean, come on. It hasn’t been that long ago, has it? Oh wait. Is that MY ten-year reunion that’s coming up so soon? My boyfriend just made me watch Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion, so I’m definitely looking forward to it.

I’m going off track.

Anyway, I’m back in the classroom. No, not my own class where I’m the teacher. I still have another week before that happens. I’m back in school — as a student. I finally feel [somewhat] mature enough to pursue my Masters in Applied Mathematics. I’m choosing to go to school because I want to learn, and not because I feel it is what is expected of me.

I did complete one prerequisite course this summer, and I worked my butt off to earn my A+. [Yes, yes, I do feel the need to brag, because I've never studied so hard for a class in my life.] But taking this class made me realize a couple things:

1) Being a teacher made me a much better student.
2) Being a student can teach me how to become a better teacher. (I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise.)

So here are things that I learned that I’m actually going to try this year.

Two Notebooks

My Problems: Students lose their notebooks. Students write crap from other classes in their notebooks. Notebooks are sloppy and disorganized. Notebooks are falling apart from use. Students don’t reference their notebooks. Students don’t process the information in their notebooks at home because they don’t want to read through it. The list goes on.

My Proposed Solution: Have students maintain two notebooks, one for processing information and future reference, one for all the “dirty work.”

After my first day of class, I realized that my notes were ugly, and not the easiest thing to look back at, so I decided to clean things up. I got a whole new notebook, and started rewriting my notes. (I knew of a couple people who did this before, and I thought they were crazy.) Yeah, yeah, a waste of time, right? Actually, because copying something word for word is annoying and tedious, I instead would try to rewrite my notes from memory (or follow the logical steps), using my scribble-notes as a guide. Examples, proofs, definitions. Then I still left room on the sides (that’s the requirement of Cornell notes at my high school inside of me) to write questions or make notes of things that did not make sense or that I wanted to emphasize.

I did this daily, and it was so much more help than just looking over my notes (which I constantly tell my students is NOT considered studying when it comes to math).

Further, with clearer labels, and definitions, it was much easier to use as a reference when I needed to look back at it. Just a side note — in just five weeks, I went through four entire notebooks for my notes and homework, yet I only used up three-quarters of my “process and reference” notebook, and for my students, I plan to have them keep this special notebook IN CLASS, so it won’t get lost or messed up, and process their notes in class (thanks to block scheduling).

Notecards and Definitions

My Problems: This is more my problem as a teacher. After taking this class, I realize that I often think geometrically and like to think of definitions in terms of pictures. For example, I’ve always favored the definition of absolute value as the distance from 0, when introducing it to my class. However, I often overlook the difficulty students have with taking these more concrete and visual definitions and turning them into the abstract symbols that they are required to work with in Algebra. That, and in the past, I feel I’ve been too light on the rigor of the definitions presented in class. I’m going to change that.

My Proposed Solutions: This is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Create notecards. And I’ve had students make them before, but I think I’m going to make this more integrated throughout the year, rather than just reviewing near the end of the terms. My trick to using notecards is to NOT use them. I hold them in my hands, but never look at the answer unless I really need to.

Pictures and ways to remember them are great, but I also want my students to have them memorized, and have actual vocabulary quizzes. I have failed my students in this area for far too long. I have always wanted my students to see a term or symbol, and have an understanding of what it means, but I feel I may have gone about it wrong by not holding them accountable to having something EXACT memorized first.

Group Work

Story time:I always felt group work was necessary in the classroom, so I would always have activities and opportunities for students to work together. However, when it came to myself, I almost always chose to work alone (I can be very shy at times), and I found that I was successful. 90% of my summer class, I spent studying alone, and I did very well on my tests. Then two days before my final exam, a classmate asked me to study with her since she didn’t do well on her previous test. I was hesitant in my mind, but I agreed.

I met with her and one other student in an empty classroom, and progress was pretty slow. At first we still pretty much did our own thing, sort of comparing solutions and proofs, and providing each other with different resources, like notes and homework examples. But then, she took out here whiteboard markers, and that’s where the real fun began. That’s when we actually started to really discuss the mathematics, critique each other’s writing and logic (and revised proofs together on the board to make clearer or more concise), and just having a blast talking about the math.

At the end of the day, I covered less material than I normally would have alone, BUT there were concepts that I understood at a level that I would not have otherwise reached had I just stuck to the methods and reasoning shown in the text… and I definitely would not have had as much fun! I have that small group to thank for the perfect score on my final test.

With that said, I noted that I felt it was necessary to have group work in the classroom. Now I KNOW it is necessary.

Textbook Pre-Reading

This is a tough one. I’ve never been a fan of textbooks before, and even now, I find them very, very difficult to use, but as a student very, very necessary. By keeping up on the readings prior to lecture, it made things much easier to follow. Even in the areas that I did not understand on my own, being exposed to the vocabulary, and trying some of the simple homework problems prior was one of the biggest reasons for my success. My goal to want to stay AHEAD of the class.

I would love to have students have that kind of discipline. I have no idea how to make it happen, and it probably won’t. But I just wanted to throw it out there.

One Last Story…

I have much more that I want to share, but this is getting long-winded already. But I have one last story for you.

I had a great professor. He had very high standards. He was a nice guy, approachable and always held a pre-class class during his office hours since his office couldn’t handle the number of students that would show up. He also was very open to questions and always provided that little bit of direction you needed when you were stuck on a problem, without giving away the fun part of solving it. He was also very good at providing constructive criticism, as well as praise.

However, like all professors, he was human, and there were a couple times where he would get stuck on a problem as well. One day, he was stuck on something. He asked for input and I raised my hand, and said something stupid. (Well, the picture in my head was correct, but I didn’t say it correctly.) But he quickly gave a short and terse response as to why what I said was wrong; and he had this look in his eye.

Now I bring this up, because he did absolutely nothing wrong. He corrected my error, and he didn’t make any big deal over it, or call me stupid, or put me down, or anything of the sort.

HOWEVER, being a student, I felt humiliated for saying something so stupid, and I took things to heart to the point that I may have allowed myself to believe that he viewed me as some smart-aleck trying to correct the teacher, and that the look in his eye was a little demeaning (although in retrospect, I think he was just thinking really hard still.) This caused me to lose concentration for a good portion of the class, and even worry that he would be extra nit-picky on my test.

The next day, though, I realized that these may be the same thoughts that may flow through the minds of my students. All the praise, feedback, getting to know students, and relationships you think you’ve built with a student could be taken back by just one unintentional “look” in your eyes. And this misinterpretation could hurt the performance of even some of your best students.

It’s not perfect, and I’m not even sure if the way I’ve implemented it is the most effective/efficient. It’s tough to start something in Quarter 4. But having students identifying their errors and misconceptions, then in later on in order to retake an assessment is pretty awesome. And it’s definitely better than giving students credit for copying one another.

Also great — being able to look into my grade book and knowing SPECIFICALLY what the students are having difficulty with, and I can more quickly give students direction as to what to work on during tutorial periods.

Stop Going Over Warm-Up Problems

Points for a simple warm-up assignment? Eh, I’d rather not. It would definitely turn into a copyFest … just like homework. On the other hand, students have no motivation or reason to actually start working at the beginning of class. And I’m sorry to say, but review problems are B-O-R-I-N-G. That’s “boring”, for those who can’t spell.

Then what? If I hand students markers, they either (1) get the solutions from someone else without thinking, or (2) they do the work, and no one else cares. If I go over the warm-up problems on the board, myself, then absolutely no one cares. And the ones that do pay attention? They forget what we discussed 10 minutes into class. What’s the point of going over warm-up problems?

INSTEAD, I now have warm-ups are linked to the SBG assessments that the students will be taking that day.

For example, today’s Algebra II review assessment was on Solving Systems of Linear Equations. Sure, I gave them an example system, just so they have some sort of math to focus on. But I also gave them the solution.

y = -2x – 2
3x + 3y = 9

How would you find the solution using the substitution method?
How is this different than the elimination method?
What do you need in order to solve this using the elimination method?
How would you find the solution by graphing?

Wordier than a normal math problem or quiz, yes. Students will ask me, “What do you mean by this?” and I just stare at them with a smile .

In the directions, I also welcome anyone to go to the board to help others out. Today, there were three students working on the board and leading student discussions, and students correcting each other. The ones who weren’t participating directly — well, they were at LEAST looking at the board. And there were others paired or grouped up with their surrounding peers.

All directions are written, and I DO NOT answer any questions. Nor do I explain anything afterward. As soon as I hear all conversations have died down (or have gone off topic), I have everyone clear their desks, and I hand out the quizzes.

It’s not 100% participation, but 75-80% is much better than before. Even then, it took a the classes a couple days before they started realizing that I wasn’t going to help them in any way, whatsoever, and so it seems each day more students are grasping the importance of participating in this quick student review.

Engaging Students to Think About THEIR OWN Motivation

Okay, notice the title does include the phrase “for now …”.

Day 2 on keeping my Period 3 focused and motivated to try their best. A weekend is enough time for students to forget their commitment from Friday before. To remind them, I planned an opening activity where I talked about motivation.

I admitted that no matter how dedicated you are to achieving something, it’s easy to lose motivation. And that it happens to me all the time. Then I talked about how we need to think of things that will keep us focused, both internally and externally. Then I mentioned a couple of my own motivations.

Internally, my competitive nature. I have this urge to be better than other people. Sounds cocky, I know, but I wanted to be honest with the students. And MANY of them agreed with me.

Extrinsic motivation? Food. Not surprisingly, many agreed with that, too. I then gave students the opportunity to write their own motivations on the board, or to grab a marker to put stars next to the ones they agreed with.

The students gave another focused day. They still struggled with some of the simple concepts, like taking ordered pairs (x,y), and putting them into a t-table, but at least they didn’t give up. They don’t know this, but I’m bringing them Rice Krispy Treats tomorrow. I want to somehow recognize their efforts.

Last week I was not motivated. I already felt like a failure.

Wow.

“I already felt like a failure.” As soon as I typed that sentence, it just hit me that my students probably felt the same way.

…

People are too quick to praise and assume I’m doing well with my classes. And of course if they do (administrators and mentors and all), I’m not about to say, “Oh, no! The students aren’t learning anything!” But I guess no one can give constructive criticism when they only see/hear the good things in my classroom, so here we go.

I have way too many D’s and F’s. In fact, after entering my last test scores on Chapter 10, Quadratics, my Period 3 was ALL D’s and F’s. Talk about OUCH.

This is what happened today.

I erased all the Chapter 10 test scores from my grade book (Well, I kept their score on the comment section). Everyone is going to retake it. Then I typed out the warm up for today.

Warm Up — Two simple questions. They were yes/no questions.
Be VERY honest.
1. Do you want to pass this class?
2. If no, thank you for being honest. If yes, are you willing to WORK to pass this class?

I gave them a few minutes to think about it. They were short questions, but I wanted them to make a decision, and not just write what they thought I wanted to hear.

“If you wrote YES to both questions, please write your name on the paper, and hand it to me.”

All but two students handed me their paper. I was thinking there was going to be less and was surprised at the level of commitment many of them just showed. Furthermore, half of them wrote out their reasons for wanting to do well, despite the questions only requiring them to answer yes or no.

After receiving their papers. I explained that I was committed to helping them pass, to do everything I could to make sure they learned what they didn’t understand, but I could not do it if they weren’t doing their part. I told them they needed to make exceptional effort, and with only a month left, I could only help those that do.

Then the first thing I asked them to do was to choose a new seat, as close to the front and center as possible. And if they did not sign the paper, to give up their seat to someone who would better utilize it. One student did give his seat up and moved farther back, but not all the way to the back since all the others were sitting near the front.

I used to hold students in for the 20 min tutorials for missing assignments after class, because at least there was something for them to do during that period that would improve their grade. I realize now that it was a waste of time.

[I used to keep all D's and F's, but when D-students with all assignments turned in would ask me what they could do during the 20 minutes to bring up their grade, I wouldn't have anything to give them except for practice tests. I could not afford the time to sit down with one student and tutor them one-on-one during that entire period, so I gave up on that.]

Then I said that things will be different, and they may hate me for what I’m about to say. I will be expecting EVERYONE who turned in a paper to stay for every tutorial until the end of the year. (With my semi-implementation of the whole Standards-Based Grading system, the students will now have direction and purpose of what to work on during this time, and not just copy assignments to get them done.)

With that, I asked, “Does anyone want their paper back?” And no one did. In fact, no one even seemed upset about having to stay for tutorials.

Lastly, I clipped all of the papers turned into me up onto the whiteboard and told them, “I’m leaving these up here for us to see, like a contract to each other that we will work our hardest throughout the next month.”

Then I went on with the lesson, and it was the most focused, students-engaged class period I’ve had with them in a long time.

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I realize that this would probably only work during crunch time, the final stretch of the year — especially for my seniors taking Algebra I, asking me what needs to be done to pass the class in order to graduate.

My questions now…
1. Where do I go from here? I need to keep this level of focus for the rest of the month, but this commitment to a contract will last a few days at best. How do I keep reminding them of their goal, and keep them on track?

I was thinking of each week, having some sort of activity focused on their goals and reasons for passing, but I can’t really think of anything that wouldn’t seem too contrived, and like those “feel-good” lessons that I hated while in high school.

2. I wasn’t planning on doing this with my 5th period since I have a few A/B students in there, and I didn’t want to tell them they were required to stay for tutorial. But when no one would focus at the start of the class, I threw it up there. It worked, though not to the same degree. I told them that A/B students would not have to stay, but C’s were not acceptable. I had one student take his paper back, but he was still very engaged in the lesson. I suspect that two or three students turned in the paper because of peer pressure, but if they fail to show the same level of commitment as other students, do I just give it back to them?

3. It recently came to my attention that I’m focusing on the wrong students. One of the students in my 3rd period that chose not to commit to passing the class is one of the students that I have been hounding the most, standing next to him to make sure he works, keeping in contact with his mother who wants him to do well, parents signing previous contracts, keeping him in after class to force help on him, etc., etc. But what teacher wants to say that they “gave up” on a student? Is it wrong of me to give up on a student…or students?

Everyone of these students are in need of special attention, and I don’t have the energy/ability to give that to everyone single one of them. In fact, I think I maybe a little in over my head trying to get all those committed to passing to really pass, but if they indeed try, then I best be trying too, and not spare any effort either. But even then, the question did come up from one of my 5th period students.

“Mr. T, are you giving up on us?”
“No, but you have your work cut out for you, and I have my work cut out for me, and with one month left, I can’t afford to spend my time with people who aren’t going to do their part.”

Is that wrong of me to say that?

4. How do you motivate students right from the get-go?

5. Let me rephrase #4. How do you activate a students’ intrinsic motivations to do well at the start of the school-year, when the end (in their eyes) is so far away?

1. Our Values

I mean, why am I here? I want to learn from the best. But every teacher seems to have his or her own set of values when discussing how and why we are teaching mathematics. Now I’ve realized, I don’t know where my own values lie anymore on this spectrum of math ed philosophies.

2. Credibility

When I walked into my first session yesterday, I walked in (falsely?) assuming that these speakers were carefully chosen because of their expertise. Now maybe it’s because I’ve been much more pessimistic this year compared to all the years in the past, but as soon as the speaker started talking, the thought popped into my head, Why am I listening to you?

Really, what have you done that makes you credible? I could care less how many years you’ve been teaching, or what crazy title you hold at your school, district, or what have you. I want to know, numerically, what have you done?

Because that’s what it’s about, right? Data? Numbers?

That’s what our school is graded on. Data from tests. To me, if you start your presentation saying, “My students were at [low level scoring student jargon], and I brought them up to [anywhere higher than what was stated before] in one year, that is enough to get and keep my attention, and actually want to put your ideas to the test in the classroom.

There are some awesome stuff I’ve seen, and I think, Oh! I would’ve loved to do this in high school. Then I think back, Is this really feasible in my classroom?

Oh! You know what would be even more awesome? Speakers video their classroom lessons. Just have those lessons running in the sessions (or outside?). That way I can throw out all assumptions and exaggerations, and really see how they have applied their strategies to their classrooms. I could see, what their student population is like, how the lowest of the low handle it, and what the highest students do when they’ve finished things faster than others.

Anyway, again, just stupid thoughts that run through my mind. Now for the actual workshops.

Activities to Promote Achievement for All Students

Neat strategies. It seems like there’s so many ways to get students to gather data to use for linear equations or arithmetic sequences. Knots on a rope could be a fun one. One question that did come up was Why do we use y=mx+b rather than y=b+mx? It just seems to make more sense.

Anyway, neat stuff, concept sorts, problems… but a couple things that worried me.

First the presenter said, “Oh the worksheets should be self-explanatory”… uh oh. I’ve learned that I can’t just give something with words, and expect the students to figure it out. Everything needs to me modeled, or given multiple modes of explanation. That was already a hint that the students they teach are already a different population compared to my students. Second, their worksheets have too many words on them. Yeah.

A New Teacher Session: Strategies to Challenge Challenging Students

Well, it was a session for new teachers, but even though I’m in my 4th year, I definitely feel like a new teacher this year with my Algebra 1-10th-12th graders. I’m sorry, though, but everything that was talked about were things I remember hearing in my classes in the credential program. I did get a cool “Smart Pal” packet thing though!

The First Ten Minutes of Class

Hm, it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, and it wasn’t necessarily the most organized presentation. But I do like their idea of using the “opener” to assess students’ readiness for the lesson, then call for a flexible lesson plan that is basically executed based on student needs. Would that lesson necessarily be more effective in helping students learn? I can see positives and negatives. What’s more important, a lesson that TRIES [I would need to see this done really with a class of 35+ for me to fully see how it would play out] to address the needs of every student, or a lesson that is well-planned and that have some other forms of differentiation built in? Maybe a mixture of both?

I can see it useful for cutting through material that everyone supposedly already knows, but I think it may be a bit much if you’re choosing how you want to form groups (if at all) on the fly unless you really have the tools to be able to aggregate the data quickly and efficiently.

My biggest issue is remediation. If they didn’t get it the first time, then how do I expect them to get it the next time around, with less time, and less structure? The most I could say is, come in for tutorial so we can work on this together. And then they’ll be lost for the lesson for the day.

“I don’t know how to teach” _______

How are the activities any different than if you were teaching the students that DO get it? I can get a student to say, I get it! I can even get them to explain things back to me in their own words. But then two days later, it’s like they’ve never seen it. Then I mention a certain activity, and it’s like a light bulb goes off… Oh yeah! But I don’t remember how to do it.

And then there are the students who I’m holding their hand and pencil (literally) and lifting it so that we could count together. Where’s the solution to how to teach these students ALGEBRA? Then other people have told me, where there’s not much you can do with them. Ouch.

Anyway… still a useful and motivating day. It makes me want to try new things, test out new ideas. And it also comforts me knowing that there isn’t anyone out there that has ALL the answers.

These are just a log of my reflections from the workshops I am attending each day. They may make sense, they may not. But that’s all right, because it’s for me to make sense of what I’ve learned today.

Building MY Algebra Tool-Kit

This presenter had it down — organized and adaptable, even when her room filled up half an hour before the actual start time. Luckily, I was there early to grab a seat!

Discover! Be Creative! Get Moving! Math is All WRITE! Have FUN!

Those were the titles for each of the five stations we went through, each filled with usable activities to do in the classroom. Now, most of these I have seen before, and even done before, but not all! And she had a few minor twists that made something old, and made it new again.

This workshop was nothing amazingly new, but it did get my creative-thinking juices flowing, on how else I can apply some of these strategies. Isn’t this what this conference is all about?

Why Do We Assign Homework In Math?

As it turns out, I’m not the only one who has put deep thought into the homework dilemma. What are the best practices? When is it useful? And so on…

Thanks to this California teacher, none of my questions were answered. I still don’t exactly know what to do. But it was still a great presentation! No, not because I’m still confused, but because he referred me to more resources/research to look up. He has shown what he does. Most importantly, he asked MORE questions.

I had never thought about more ideas to want to try for homework than I did in that 1 hour period during his workshop. I just wish I could have classes just to test things out. On the other hand, is it okay to test things out for a year, and throw it away, because I didn’t like it? Is it okay for me to lose the game each year because I want to learn what works and doesn’t rather than help my students learn? Shouldn’t I just know these things?

5 Minutes Games

Eh, nothing terribly interesting. I suppose I could use some of these. I’ve seen them before, but I’m back to my question of, will these activities increase my student’s test scores? Ugh, I hate that after everything I want my students to be able to do and learn, that seems to be the only relevant question in this game called education.

And with all these “researched-based” strategies, none of them really answer that question, do they?

Concrete Learning –> Abstract Homework

I’m sorry, but I don’t need to learn how to use Algebra Tiles. And I don’t need to learn how they represent the Algebra. As bad as I felt about it, I had to walk out. At least it was a big room.

Exhibit Hall

I’m intimidated. I just spent my time in there roaming around, glancing at things here or there. Maybe I’ll actually touch some things in there tomorrow.

… And I did walk by a teacher who I idolize online, haha. And I did get nervous like he was a huge celebrity or something. It’s like he represents everything I wanted to be as a teacher when I first started teaching 4 years ago. And whereas I have fallen into the trap of test scores, test scores, test scores, he has taken things to that level and beyond.

I want to get there. How do I get there? Even if I don’t learn everything I want at this conference, just being here has sparked that drive to make me become that teacher I’ve always wanted to be again.