Liebster Nomination Anyone?

A bit ago, my good friend Danielle from Live.Love.Math sent me an email about a Leibster nomination.  So here goes!

What a great way to meet new people and find new blogs!

So here is how it works:

To accept the nomination I must:

1. Link back to the blog that nominated me
2. Nominated 5-11 blogs with fewer than 200 followers
3. Answer the question posted by you or by your nominator
4. Share 11 random facts about yourself
5. Create 11 questions for your nominees
6. Contact your nominees and let them know you nominated them

My Nominees:

Katie from Tales of a Middle Grades Math Teacher

Christine from Math-Central

Ellie from Middle School Math Moments

Questions from Danielle:

If you could live anywhere, where would it be?  That's easy...Traverse City, Michigan!  It is so gorgeous there.  The town is big enough to have everything you need, yet still has a small town feel.

What is your favorite grade/subject to teach?  I love what I currently do (6th grade math), but my background is elementary and there are days I think about going back.  

What types of books do you like to read in your spare (ha!) time?  The key here is "spare" time.  With two kids there's little of that!  I guess I'd have to say that I don't really have a favorite.  It really depends on what I'm in the mood for at the time.

What is your favorite thing to shop for?  Shoes!

What is your favorite type of shoe to teach in?  Sandals (if it's been a long day...no shoes!)

What was your most memorable teaching moment?  I once had a student whose mom was dying of cancer.  The family went on a Disney Cruise in February.  When he came back we had a long discussion about the trip because my family was planning a Disney Cruise in July.  I asked him if there was anything about the cruise he would do differently.  His response was that he wished he could have taken me with him.  It was then that I realized that teaching is about so much more than our subject matter and the state test!

What was your best vacation you ever went on?  My family went on a Disney Cruise in 2008 (and we're doing it again this Christmas!).  It was an amazing experience and we are looking forward to going back.

What is your favorite meal?  Anything that ends with chocolate!

If you won a million dollars to spend on anything, what would you buy?  I would pay off all bills first, then buy a new house (on land), and maybe a new car, too!  Oh, and a vacation of course!

What was the last movie you saw?  Did you like it?  I don't go to the movies much so I honestly don't remember the last movie I saw.  

What is your favorite thing about the school at which you currently teach?  The kids.  I grew up in a very small town with little or no diversity.  I work at a very diverse school and I love to see all of the kids welcoming one another and working together to make the school a great place to be!

11 Random Facts

1. I have two different colored eyes.
2. I once had a flag flown in my honor at the US Capitol.
3. I grew up on a farm.
4. Diet Coke is my coffee.
5. When I completed my masters degree, my husband bought me a miniature schnauzer!
6. I am a Michigan State Spartan - Go Green!
7. I got married right after I turned 21.
8. My high school class had 78 students.
9. I am a hoarder of school and crafting supplies.
10. I have more shoes than my husband realizes.
11. My (former, ugh!) teaching partner and I were so alike the kids thought we were sisters

Questions for my nominees to answer

1. What is your favorite way to spend a rainy day?
2. What was your first car?
3. If you could have lunch with anyone, alive or dead, who would it be?  What would you want to ask them?
4. What is your favorite vacation spot?
5. If you could be an Olympic athlete, which sport would you want to participate in?
6. Which Hollywood actor/actress would you most like to meet?
7. What was your favorite past-time when you were the age of the students you teach?
8. How many students were in your graduating class?
9. If you could time travel, what time period would you like to visit?
10. What is your favorite fast food restaurant?
11. If you weren't a teacher, what would your super power be?

Can't wait to see your answers!

Minds on Math Chapter 3 - Tasks

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Finding worthy tasks...

In this chapter of Minds on Math we focus on finding tasks requiring a high cognitive demand.  Ward Hoffer offers suggestions on where to find high-cognitive demand tasks and suggestions for modifying existing tasks to increase the level of cognitive demand.

Ward Hoffer opens the chapter with a vignette about two seventh grade girls each rolling a dice, and determining whether the sum of the numbers was odd or even.  At the outset I wondered why a seventh grader would be concerned about odds and evens.  Even given the fact that they were looking for the odd/even pattern of sums, I thought that was an elementary task.  At one point during the class period, a student asked the teacher what even meant.  The teacher responded to check the list on the board (which said ends in zero, two, four...)  Ward Hoffer's point, I think, is not whether or not this task was appropriate for a seventh grade classroom, rather, she was pointing out that the task did not have a high level of cognitive demand.  The task did not require students to understand what odd and even meant, they just had to memorize or remember that even numbers ended in zero, two, four, six, or eight.

As I read this chapter, I thought about some of the times I've been guilty of this.  Namely, working with formulas.  Our state (Texas) gives students a mathematics chart to use on the STAAR test.  All formulas are shown there.  Wanting the students to be familiar with the tools available to them, too often I tell the students to refer to their mathematics chart and follow the formula.  While I think there are valid reasons for students to be able to use formulas, I think there's also work that needs to be done to help student understand the formulas.

One of the areas that is very procedural (and is a good argument for students learning to follow rules) is order of operations.  We can work with students to see that performing the operations in different orders results in different answers, but at the end of the day, students need to know that there is a specific order we need to follow so that we all arrive at the same conclusion.

So, those high cognitive demand tasks...what are they and how do we get them?  Ward Hoffer says that tasks should have multiple entry points, various approaches, higher-order thinking required, opportunities to synthesize, and justification and explanation (p. 40).  These are certainly important to keep in mind because our current textbook offers very few of these types of problems.

One of Ward Hoffer's suggestions for finding tasks was to modify existing tasks.  She offered an example problem and then modified it six different ways!

• increase complexity
• introduce ambiguity
• synthesize strands of mathematics
• invite conceptual connections
• require explanation and justification
• propose solutions

I loved that she was able to take one problem and change it in so many ways.  My favorite was introducing ambiguity.  Students hate ambiguity and I think this is the one that could be the most fun to work with because it really gets students thinking about all of the possibilities.

I'm off to find some high cognitive demand tasks for my first unit!

Until next time...

Math Visits the ELA Class: Using Graphs to Analyze Characters

I have followed Ian Byrd's blog, "Byrdseed", and gotten his newsletter for a while now.  He's very creative and has a ton of great ideas.  He recently came to Texas and presented at a GT update (sadly, I had a family emergency and had to cancel my reservation...).

In his latest newsletter, he shared ways to use graphs in character analysis.  Now, I don't teach ELA (although I have before), but as a math teacher I loved this idea.  We spend a good deal of time in math working with graphs and the important part of graphs is being able to analyze and interpret them.  I love the way Byrd is using graphs to help student analyze characters.  This graphic shows characters graphed based on the traits of morality and physical strength.  Imagine the discussions that could occur on where to place characters on a graph like this!

From Byrdseed.com

Byrd also shows how to use line graphs.  In one example, he shows how Katniss's (for those not familiar with Katniss, she's the main character in "The Hunger Games") confidence changes through the story.

I've always believed that the more we can use cross-curricular skills, the deeper our students' knowledge and understanding will be.  Check out Ian's blog by clicking on the link above.  You can read the "graphing" article here.

Minds on Math Chapter 2

Wow!  That's what I thought over and over as I read through chapter 2.  There were so many things in chapter 2 that left me feeling as if I had been overlooking the obvious for years.  The chapter was about tools, not the kind in the garage, the kind we use (or should be using) in the classroom.

As a former ELA teacher (and self-proclaimed lover of books), Hoffer's suggestion of using ELA strategies in the mathematics classroom was my biggest take-away from this chapter.   Ward Hoffer refers to the strategies as "Thinking Strategies", but the strategies are the same as what ELA teachers are teaching our students to use when they read.  Can you say genius?

All great teachers know the benefits that cross-curricular lessons have for students and teachers.  So why hasn't it clicked until now that we could use the same strategies?  Imagine the time saved when we can refer to what students already know and do and how students can use that to dive into rich mathematical content! Ward Hoffer writes, "These strategies are far more than sentence stems and conversation starters, but rather learned approaches that can scaffold students' independence as problem solvers" (p. 29).  

I am a Texas teacher, and as everyone knows, Texas did not adopt the Common Core Standards.  In Texas we have content standards and process standards.  The process standards include application, using a problem-solving model, using appropriate tools, communicating, creating and using representations, analyzing relationships, and displaying, explaining, and justifying mathematical ideas.  Our task, and a focus in our district this year, is to purposefully incorporate the process standards into our lessons.  In some ways the Thinking Strategies overlap our process standards (i.e.create representations & mental models) and in others, they work hand in hand.

I have started looking at some of the topics that come up early in the school year.  I want to take a look at what specific strategies and process standards I can use with those topics and how to reformat the class so that it fits the workshop model.  So much to do and so little time!  So much for summers off :)

Thoughts on Chapter 1

My biggest ah-has!

To be clear, some of these weren't necessarily "ah-has" as much of a reminder of things we tend to forget as we battle all of the forces pulling at us as we do our jobs.

• The importance of sharing and reflection - I've talked about this with co-workers, and I know in my own practice that when I take the time to do this, I benefit both myself and my students.  Yet, despite "knowing", and even "believing" this, I find it easy to skip due to lack of time.  I am one of those guilty of allowing "learners to work right up to the bell"!  This was a good reminder that this is an important part of the learning process.
• Work time - "The bulk of a minds-on math workshop is devoted to work time."  Even though I know that this is the way it should be, I often find it easier to "manage" my class if I have "control" over it and am the one doing the work and the students are "captivated" by watching me.  Yes, I'm hanging my head in shame right now, but I think we probably all have those classes that just have a difficult time staying on task when left to their own devices.  

What I'm already doing...

• Community - I think my teaching partner and I do a really good job of building community in our classrooms.    One thing I hear frequently from parents is that their child (who may or may not have struggled in math) now finds math interesting and fun.  (Always a good thing to hear!)  For the most part, our grade-level as a whole does a good job with this and I think it really helps the students understand the benefits of belonging to a community of learners.

Next steps...

• Creating more purposeful openings - Obviously these need to be planned....which is something easy for me to overlook, and why they aren't always as useful as they could be.  I find them difficult to plan because there are times during a class period when I think "I want to review this in tomorrow's opening".  Or, where I do want to spiral a skill previously taught and incorporate a more current topic.  Other times, the dynamics of classes vary and what works with one class doesn't work with another, or what one class needs isn't what another class needs.  (It's all so much more complicated than those outside education realize!)
• Work time - I'm so guilty of "rescuing" students who I feel are struggling.  Instead of letting them struggle with the math, I'm too quick to jump in and help (or even worse, lead them to an answer).  I need to work on questions that will help without giving answers.  Once last year, I asked a question that I knew would be a little difficult but at the same time was not out of reach.  My students just wanted an answer.  They left class without one and were not happy when they left the room.  For my part, I felt a little guilty that we ended on that note, but I secretly smiled inside when one of those students came to me before class the next day with the answer!

Can't wait to see what goodies the rest of the book contains!

For the love of good teaching,

Melanie

Exciting new book study

A fellow math teacher posted in her blog that she wanted to do a book study of Minds on Mathematics Using Math Workshop to Develop Deep Understanding in Grades 4-8. by Wendy Ward Hoffer.  Excited about the title, I quickly went to Amazon and, after reading the description, I couldn't wait to get started.  The premise of the book is that the reader's workshop model that is used in so many ELA classrooms, can also be used in the mathematics classroom.  Furthermore, many of the reading strategies that are taught in reader's workshop can be used in by students in math to take students beyond correct answers and to deepen their understanding of math concepts.

I am truly looking forward to getting started with this book study and can't wait to see how I can incorporate this into my classroom in the fall.  I know this is really going to have a profound impact on how I approach my class next year.

If you're interested, join us by clicking the link to the right.  We'd love to have you join us!

For the love of good teaching,

Melanie

Here we go...

This will be our last week of school.  My last week with some of the most precious kids I've had.  Our last week is filled with semester exams, so our week will be rather subdued.  On the one hand, I wish there was something fun I could do with them, on the other, I know how easily they can get "wild" and difficult to control so the exams keep the kids somewhat focused.

My son is in the 6th grade this year, I get to see him frequently throughout the day.  Next year he'll be in a different part of the building so I won't see him as much.  He's the baby, so his growing up and moving on is a sad reality :(

I'm looking forward to summer.  I have a huge to-do list; one that's probably more than I can reasonably do, but I'm going to try.  Here's to time spent with the kiddos and getting ready for next year!