Willink Week 6 plus 1 day

Amazingly enough only 4 days to go. My three supervisor observations finished up today and I now have 4 days to go.

The highlight of the week was a decision to reteach a lesson on proportions. After the first 2 block cycles, I sensed some confusion on the concept of solving a proportion using cross multiplication. The review lesson focused on a step by step breakdown of the algebraic solution to an unknown in a proportion, followed by proactice, practice, practice. Through the 4 Math 7 blocks, there were a number of "aha" moments where the students got it. Each of those ahas meant they didn't have it before, so it was nice to get them into the plus column.

These final weeks seem to be coming faster than the first few of the semester, and I still hope to have the accelerated students prepared for a unit test, which I have planeed for Friday. Some of the topics I have been teaching have stretched well beyond the standards, and I may have created some frustration. I have now dialed back to just the standards, including homework and review focused only on the requirements.

A little disappointment - I had an interview at School Without Walls last Thursday, and it went really well. However, a position at a small, alternative school like SWW, and I'm sure they had many qualified candidates. So today I got the rejection notice, I'm sure the first of many!

Willink Week 5

There were some great highlights this week, and one minor lowlight.

First the highlights. I put together a group activity for the accelerated class, which was a minor risk since there are 36 students in the class. We are deep into the unit on linear relationships, and a number of the standards are different variations of converting a data table to a graph, an equation to a graph, a slope and an intercept to an equation, and so forth. Andy has a tool he calls a "function frame" - I haven't heard the terminology before but it incorporates all the elements on one page.

I modified the function frame slightly, created 40 different linear equations, printed them as blanks on colored cardstock, filled out one of the 5 representations, cut them up, and turned it into a project! Each of 8 groups of 4-5 students had 5 different equations, each with one of the 5 types of representations. They had to fill out the other 4 representations, for a total of 25 cards (5 equations x 5 representations). They were really into this, and especially when they got to the next step of trading their shuffled decks with another group, and competing to see who could sort them out into the correct 5 equations.

The two images attached to this post are the original function frame and then an example of a completed set of 5 representations. The sheet was cut on the dark lines, and of course was blank in 4 of the 5 areas. The image here is the answer key for one of the equations - before trading I had them compare their answers to the key for quality control (thanks to Andy for suggesting this important step that I would have missed).

OK, now the bad news - things went so well on Tuesday with the group work I gave it another shot on Thursday with the same accelerated class. I had assigned some homework from the Connected Math book "Moving Straight Ahead" that included an experiment to collect data, graph it, and answer some questions. I should have been a little more alert when a number of students were confused and didn't attempt the experiment part. I should have reviewed it in detail before assigning it, and Andy suggested that doing a demo and collecting the data as a class would have been much better.

The group work involved creating group answers to the questions and then sharing from mini whiteboards with the class. I wasn't on top of the fact that significant portions of the class were not paying much attention to the presentations, and I didn't kick in firmer management when it was required during those presentations. Lesson learned (by me) and not enough learned by the students.

Tangerine - Part 3

I’ve left Paul Fisher hanging since March 11 – let’s see what he’s been up to.

What we last checked in, Paul had become a War Eagle at Tangerine High. He certified his membership when, after getting mud smeared in his eyes, he jumped on the back of the perpetrator and commenced punching him in the head. This event served as Paul’s unplanned, but not unwanted, full initiation into the team.

Part 2 ended with Lake Windsor High and Tangerine High battling to a season-ending tie, giving the league championship to the War Eagles. Paul ended the season in goal, right where he always wanted to be. Part 3 is all about Paul’s transformation, growth and what could even be termed a re-birth. His feeling of community with the War Eagles extends to helping during a hard freeze that threatens the Cruz family citrus groves. Paul works all night to keep the smudge fires burning and the trees coated with protective ice, and becomes more and more a part of the Cruz – War Eagles clan.

The incident that triggers the final step in Paul’s transformation is when he secretly witnesses Luis Cruz being assaulted by Arthur Bauer. When Luis dies as a result six days later, events accelerate as the story comes full circle. As a fitting punishment for their abuse of Mike Costello’s brother and Luis’ assault, Erik Fisher and Arthur Bauer are attacked and beaten by Victor and Tino at a ceremony in honor of Mike. Wow – I think I need a scorecard. Paul helps Tino escape when he jumps on Coach Warner’s back. This particular action did however have a downside. While Paul earned the further respect of the Cruz family and the students of Tangerine High, it also led to his expulsion from the school.

After Paul explains the truth about Erik and Arthur, his transformation continues when he stands up to them outside the walls of Lake Windsor Downs, and the memories come back about his eye injury. It wasn’t a #@%& solar eclipse! It was Erik and another one of his goons who sprayed paint in Paul’s eyes. He wasn’t a dumb kid who stared at the sun – he was the victim of his parents protecting their older child. Finally he knew.

Paul’s final step to believing in himself comes on his last visit to Tangerine High. The other students knew he stood up for what was right, he stood up for Luis, and he stood up for telling the truth. Even though he would be heading to his third school this year, Paul Fisher grew into himself. He did more than come out from his brother’s shadow – Paul learned that Erik wasn’t enough of a person to even cast a shadow.

Willink Week 4

I felt like I hit a little more of a groove this week. I've now finished 4 full block cycles, and due to the short week again this week, I'll complete the unit on the Pythagorean Theorem in the next block. Bottom line is that the content will be finished in block number 5, with the unit assessment during block 6. The unpalatable alternative is to give the unit test AFTER the spring break - not a good idea.

Since the students had a day off this past Friday due to grading of the math tests, Thursday was an "extra" odd block. My direction was to provide an enrichment day for the 2 classes I had that day. I signed out the smart board and we did a few interactive demos of the Pythagorean Theorem, played a game of math Jeopardy, and played some 3-d tic tac toe. Everyone had a chance to use the smartboard and get a feel for it, and most of the block had a math focus, so I felt it went well.

The challenge for this week is to complete the final standard in the current Math 7 unit - the converse of the Pythagorean Theorem. The students seem to be really with it as far as calculating the lengths of sides, so I'm expecting the converse will click right away.

In the accelerated class we've really pulled things together as far as the key algebraic idea of the unit - which concerns linear relationships, slope-intercept, graphing, patterns, and translating between all of the forms. This week we'll begin to look at the other aspects of the unit standards - the part about "telling a story", and what do particular relationships mean in words.