Oh my glueness....

Today was day one of #CAMT14.  This is my third year attending the conference and it's so nice to be able to meet and collaborate with like-minded teachers who are looking for ways to improve their craft.

Rather than try to fit my whole day into one post, I've decided to share the one thing from today that I think will make the biggest impact on my classroom this year.  Glue!  Glue is essential for interactive notebooks, and you can't just use any glue.  All teachers know that glue sticks don't really stick (the "stick" in glue stick refers to the shape of the product, not what the product does!).  In order to ensure that items in your notebook stay adhered to your notebook, you need to use white school glue.

But, white school glue comes with its own issues.  The kids don't know the meaning of less is more and use enough to put Humpty Dumpty back together!  Today's tidbit, was to only use the small glue bottles in class.

The bottles we used today were 1.25 oz.  The rationale?  Your students will see the smaller bottle and think that they need to use it sparingly so as not to use all of the glue.  (What mind games we sometimes play!).  I've done some research, and since these bottles are less "standard", they are actually more expensive than the 4 oz. bottles (there's definitely a math problem in there!), but since the bottles can be refilled, stock up on the 4 oz. bottles during the back to school sales and use them to refill the smaller bottles.

What about clogged bottles you ask?  Did you know you can pull off the little orange "cap" (I know your students do!).  If you pull off the "cap", take some petroleum jelly and coat the inside.  It will prevent your glue from clogging.  Easy, right?!

One last idea.....you've seen all of the fun duct tape that the craft stores have these days, right?!  Find some colorful tape and wrap the bottle around the label.  It'll serve a couple of purposes, but first and foremost, it'll make the bottle really cute, and who doesn't love that!  (It'll also reinforce the bottle - the kids sometime squeeze hard!, and there will be no question about who the bottle belongs to!)

I seriously can't believe I just wrote an entire post on glue!

The Lost is Found!

I have a math smarts survey that I do with my kiddos at the beginning of the year and I put it in my bag to bring home and make "pretty" for this fall.  Somehow between the packing up of the classroom and the moving of things back home, I lost track of it...until today!

I love using this at the beginning of the school year because it helps me get to know my students and it helps the students get to know themselves as learners of math.  I think it also helps students understand that there are many, many different ways that we can be "smart" at math.  When students can see that they are good at some things their classmates aren't and vice versa, it aids in the establishment of a community in the classroom.

Students complete the survey and then chose one thing they think they're good at.  I give them an index card and they decorate it with their name and area of expertise.  When finished, I put them all on my "Mathemagicians" bulletin board.  The survey goes into student's interactive notebooks and serves as a reminder throughout the year of the things that they are good at and those things they wanted to get better at.

Can't wait to get back to school and get to know my new students!

#CAMT13 Day 1 & Day 2

#CAMT13 Day 1 -

Capturing, Sharing & Resolving Perplexity - Dan Meyer!  His stuff is so good and I loved the opportunity to hear him speak.  He's so inspiring... I want to be a student in his class.  We really loved the "What if Everybody in Canada Flushed at the Same Time" problem.

http://www.patspapers.com/blog/item/what_if_everybody_flushed_at_once_Edmonton_water_gold_medal_hockey_game/

Meyer took out the labels and had the students analyze and interpret the graph.  My hockey-player son would be so into this problem!  Meyer shared other perplexing problem examples after which Danielle (my aforementioned former teaching partner :( ) and I were noticing "perplexing" problems all day.

Fantasy Sports in the Math Classroom - This was a very intriguing session.  I believe it would be very engaging for the kiddos, and the presenter said that in all the years he's done this, he always has 4 out of the top 5 kids being girls.  I would love to do this with hockey because the NHL season almost spans the school year (if there's no lockout!)  I'm thinking, though, that since the Houston Rockets just signed Dwight Howard basketball could be interesting next year and something that all of the students will be talking about.  Can't wait to sink my teeth into this and see how I can make it work in my classroom.

Interact With Me and Engage Me (Jennifer Smith-Sloan @ 4mulafun) - Jennifer shared with us her interactive notebooks and how she uses them as a tool in her math classroom.  We used Mead 5-Star notebooks (Thanks, Mead!) and Jennifer provided us with lots of ideas for flippables and organization of the notebook.  I am intrigued by the idea of using spiral notebooks as opposed to composition books and am trying to decide if I want to make the switch.  My biggest concern is whether or not the students will be tempted to tear pages out of it and then they end up not having enough pages in their notebook.  What do you think?  If you've used interactive notebooks before, I'd love to hear your thoughts.  You can check out Jennifer's great products on her TeachersPayTeachers store.

Designing Cognitively Demanding Assessments - In this session we discussed the features of high cognitive demand assessments by looking at NAEP assessment items.  It was interesting to look at actual test items and discuss what about them made them high, moderate, and low on a cognitive demand scale.  If you're interested in looking at some of the questions and their cognitive demand, click here.

#CAMT13 Day 2

The 100s Chart - Last year we heard Brad Fulton speak and we used his homework management ideas to streamline some processes in our classes.  Our adaptations of his system worked brilliantly.   We were equally impressed with his use of the 100s chart to help build algebra skills using arithmetic.  We were introduced to "algebra man" (see below) and after working with him for a while, we learned how to extend "algebra man" into something that the kiddos create on their own. I know my kiddos are going to love this!

http://www.tttpress.com/webinars-and-seminars/download-conference-materials/

Achieving Numeracy Through Texas History - I think this session would have been really good for our 7th grade teachers, but it did give me some ideas that went along with Dan Meyer's perplexing problems.  I wonder what other ways we can incorporate what's going on in other classes into our math classroom?

Building Powerful Numeracy - This session took me back to my elementary roots!  There was so much in this lesson that reminded me of things we did in elementary school.  I still use many of these strategies in my 6th grade classroom, but it was nice to hear someone talk about how important they are (and know that you use them!).

In my elementary school, we called them cluster problems; Harris refers to them as problem strings.  Essentially they are related problems that build upon one another to make the work easier.  For example, if you know that 23 x 10 is 230, then it should be easy to find 23 x 5 because 5 is half of 10.  So...23 x 5 is half of 23 x 10.  I love helping students develop these skills because, as Harris points out, it takes the pressure off the student to "remember".

Algebra Readiness - I am excited to share a resource I found at CAMT.  We were unable to make the session about this resource, but stumbled upon it in the exhibit hall.

This book is an essential skill builder and I think it would be great to use as homework.  Each page has problems covering a variety of skills.  The great thing is that there's a little bit of everything on each page, including vocabulary.  

While we were looking at the books and debating about purchasing, several teachers came up and started talking about how they used this resource and what a difference it made in their classroom.  I can't wait to really take a look at it and decide how I want to use it in my classroom!

So, I'm off to see how I can roll all of this into the neat little package that I call my classroom!

Can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!