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.

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.

Week 3 at Willink

A little more on what was a very educational first full week of teaching. It's a very odd feeling teaching the same material multiple times, and on different days due to the block schedule. Andy has been very helpful as far as pushing me to immediately reflect on what went well and also not so well immediately after each class. I've been able to make adjustments and improvements after each block, and his experience is extremely valuable.

There are four regular Math 7 blocks, and we are moving through a unit focused on the Pythagorean theorem. All of the classes have their own personality and student culture. It's great that they are all less than 20 students - it really helps me in trying to make individual connections with each student. That isn't yet the case in the BIG Math 7 accelerated class, with 36 students. For whatever reason, the jump from 20 to 36 feels larger than 80% (i.e. (36-20)/20 x 100) - however, they are all very bright, focused and easy to work with.

So bright, in fact, that my first accelerated block on Tuesday had only enough material for about 50 minutes. Andy helped me out with some additional material focused on slopes, and it worked out OK. The following day, he really pushed me to do more planning during our planning time, and I'm so glad he did. We had a short but extremely valuable and focused conversation on the accelerated unit, which is about linear systems. I was floundering a little, and that conversation and 2 hours of work really helped it all to make sense and allow me to see the big picture.

The end result was that I over-corrected a bit, and had TOO MUCH stuff for the next accelerated lesson on Thursday. I then tried to go with the planned worksheet which I hadn't quite prepared them for yet. My key learning from those two lessons? - be very cognizant of sequencing, and making sure each detail is taught before you ask the students for performance. It's very easy to leave out a detail here and there that seems obvious to us, but can create a gap in a student's understanding.

What a Week!

More about this later, but I had a really great week! Due to the review for the NYS Math 7 test, and the test itself, and the requisite partays, I wasn't able to take over full time teaching until this past Monday. I think it went fairly well, and 13 86-minute blocks later, I'm still in one piece.

Week 2 at Willink

The real work has finally started! Last week I continued to get to know all 111 7th graders. Monday was a final day of review for the even blocks, followed by the 2 test days. What really made it a fun week was the post test party Andy planned for the students. Money was collected during the week before the test (limit of $2 per student), and was used to buy all sorts of sugar filled products. I stopped at the party store on Wednesday and picked up some decorations including hanging palm trees and a lei for each student. We had video games, a movie (Cars), and lots of fun.

All the students know I will be taking over tomorrow, and the party was a good way to transition, and a good way to get to know the students on a more personal level.

I've got detailed plans together for the first 2 blocks - tomorrow is the first full teaching day and I didn't want to go too far until I have a sense of the pacing. The first unit for the Math 7 class is the Pythagorean theorem, with algebra patterns and linear relationships for the accelerated class.

I can't believe 2 out of the 7 weeks have already passed, and I'm sure will go even more quickly now that I'll be teaching full time.

This is Different

This IS different! Different town, different school, different grade, different age, different school culture.

I have met a total of 111 new students this past week, spread across 4 blocks of Math 7 and 1 block of accelerated Math 7. The entire week was spent on review for the upcoming state test on Tuesday and Wednesday. I did have a chance to teach 2 mini-lessons to the accelerated class on Tuesday and Thursday. They were very short, about 10 mintutes each, but allowed me to get my feet wet. Most of the remaining time was helping out as much as possible in the classroom while Andy reviewed material for the test.

I was able to get a firm understanding of Andy's system for standards based assessments, grading, homework assignments, and so forth. In addition, a big part of the culture at WMS is the concept of a team of teachers spending time together to plan and discuss students. WMS is divided into 3 "houses" of about 330 students each, with about 110 in each grade 6,7, and 8. The math, science, english, and social studies teachers, plus a consulting teacher, constitute the Red 7 team. We meet every day for at least 30 minutes, and also eat lunch together. It's a very collegial atmosphere.

The students are very respectful and well behaved. I don't believe there will be any issues of classroom management when I take over teaching on March 19. I'm already planning and I hope to have the complete plan reviewed by Andy and ready to go for the five full weeks I'll teach.

One key observation about 7th graders - keep the energy level up, and they will respond. However, even during extended periods of somewhat tedious review, Andy acknowledged that fact and thanked the students for sticking with it.

Finally, this past week has me questioning where I would really like to teach. I left SWW thinking "I could teach here", feeling that having my own class right from the beginning of the year would result in less classroom management issues, less personal conversations during class (which was the biggest issue), and more motivation. It was frustrating at SWW in that many of the students didn't seem to care much about the content, and they let you know it, but I think with more time I could get increased student engagement and achievement.

I'm sure the younger age at WMS is a factor, but nearly all the students seem to be very motivated and want to succeed - they are an eager and less skeptical audience than at SWW, and it seems like a more pleasant atmosphere. I'm sure the contrast is so stark since I went from one world to another from a Friday to a Monday, but if I had to choose now, I don't know what I would prefer.

More to come on the differences in school and personal culture as the weeks pass.

Block 2, Day 1

I had a great day today, my first day at Willink Middle School in Webster. I met my SBE Andy Mitchell, who is a really great person, and I can tell already has an excellent relationship with the kids. Willink is on a block schedule, so I met 2 sections of Math 7 today, with 2 more tomorrow, plus a section of Math 7 accelerated.

It's a beautiful, new school that opened in 2001. There are about 1000 students in grades 6,7, and 8, but they are divided into a house system of about 330 each, and about 110 in each grade. I'll get to teach every one of those 110!

The students and culture are much different than School Without Walls. Not only are the kids much younger, they all seem to be age/grade matched more than the population at SWW, so they seemed REALLY young. The culture is also very rigid - 4 minutes between classes, agendas required for all students, and so on.

Another key difference is the focus on the preparation for the NYS Math 7 test that is coming next week. This is a really big deal - a lot of review is going into it, and Andy structures the lessons and assessments just like the test. Since the test is standards based, he has every question linked to a particular standard, and graded similarly. It seems to be a very rigorous and focused curriculum.

1st Placement - In the Books!

The final week was actually the only full, 5 day week of my placement at School Without Walls. It was a little bumpy on Monday, which was the first day after the winter break. Several students had missed the previous Friday, and with snow days I hadn't seen them in 14 days.

I focused on permutations and combinations on Monday and Wednesday, and things went pretty well. On Friday, I briefly touched on the multiplication counting principle as a lead in to a blackjack probability experiment. I had hoped to go more deeply into the probabilities of the game, but the two lost snow days made a difference. We computed the theoretical probability of getting a blackjack with a shuffled deck and a 2 card deal, which turns out to be 4.8%. Then in pairs, students shuffled and dealt 50 times and recorded whether or not they got a blackjack. Theoretically, you should expect about 2.5 blackjacks per 50 deals, and the numbers ranged from 1 to 6 in both classes. But when combining the data, the morning class ended up with 4.7% (wow!), with about 6% in the afternoon class. Overall, it was a really good example of the numbers working out pretty well!

I had the opportunity to remove my first student from class on Friday. A young lady was reading the newspaper (!), and after a minute or two I asked her to please put it away. A minute or two later I asked again, she made no attempt to do anything, and I was committed. I asked her again, and reached for the paper, at which point she slapped her hands down on it to prevent me from taking it. Then I calmly directed her to leave the room, go to the principals office and explain to him what happened. She packed up and left. My SBE didn't get involved, but did offer to see her advisor and asked him to speak with her. The advisor did and in consultation with my SBE, her punishment is to attend a TI calculator event on Saturday, March 24. Apparently they also had a conversation to the effect of "you can decide for yourself whether you want to apologize". I saw her a number of times in the hall and she apparently decided not.

This particular girl has numerous home and personal issues, and was only in about 50% of the classes. While in class she often displayed indifference, poor attitude, anger, and so forth. My take on the whole situation is that she is not atypical of urban students, with little social or family support, and they feel they are always being attacked. As teachers we just have to keep trying with students like this. If it wasn't my last day, I would have tried to find out a little more detail about what makes her tick, and try to make some sort of connection. But reading a newspaper in class is clearly off the table!

One Week Left

OK, now I feel like I'm not getting my money's worth. Two more snow days brings the total to four, and with the earlier days off - six exam days plus a holiday, I've missed over two full weeks of experience.

The unit I had planned on probability is well behind where I wanted to be at this point - we've only had 6 classes and I had hoped to be well into permutations and combinations.

I've done a few things as preparation for the permutation and combination material, and relating it to playing blackjack. I assigned a short reading describing the rules of blackjack, and a reflection that asks for the rules was also a part of the assignment. Also, last week we used about 45 total minutes of class time to watch an episode of the CBS show "NUMB3RS", in this case an episode based on a blackjack card counting ring. In the final week of class I hope to leverage that background and use a simple strategy and support it by calculating the probability of winning with it.

The grades on the first quiz were not encouraging, especially since most of this basic material is common sense. A total of 16 out of 34 students managed a 6 out of 9 or greater. On Friday, they corrected their quizzes, and a retest is required for those with less than 6. This provides an additional opportunity to demonstrate their learning. I've also set up 3 lunch hours that will act as problem solving sessions and the students must attend 2 out of 3 to be eligible for credit in this unit.

The resistance to doing anything over the winter break was fierce. Two short readings, and an associated written assignment for each, both intended to fill in some of the gaps regarding probabilities. One reading was about the chances of winning the lottery, and how those odds are calculated. The other reading was a good explanation of permutations and combinations. I hope they will take a shot at some slef-directed learning for these topics - there are only 3 classes left, and I'll have to use at least part of one for another quiz.

There were quite a few students out on Friday - not surprising, after two more snow days and a vacation coming up. Three students also skipped the afternoon class, and Larry notified their advisors.

66%

This was a tough week, even with 2 snow days. I had two observations from my supervising teacher from SJFC, Wednesday and Friday. Things went reasonably well, but the classroom management side of things went to heck in a handbasket. Or at least partway to heck.

Last week I had desks in rows, and the students were quiet as mice. My thinking was putting the desks back in groups wouldn't be a major problem. In retrospect, I should have gone more than one class with desks in rows to establish more of a pattern of good behavior. Friday was the worst, and I must have said "please no talking", "please no personal conservations", or variations thereof 100 times. For now, the desks go back in rows. They would be that way for Monday's quiz anyway, but I'll keep them that way at least through Wednesday. From Wong's First Days of School:

"Students must sit in such a way as to accomplish what you want them to accomplish"

The observation comments by my SJFC supervisor and by my SBE were honest and constructive, and include a number of tips to reduce the chance of similar management issues in future classes. I'll admit that Friday was probably the first class where I felt some level of frustration with the kids. One in particular was frustrated with the basic level of the material, even though she had missed 2 out of the 4 classes so far. I haven't received any homework or other submissions from this student, so tomorrow's quiz will be an indication whether she gets it like she thinks.

The last class of the week had a few highlights, in that a student who on Wednesday was almost asking for 1:1 tutoring during class time made a leap of understanding. This particular student made a point of saying "I'm getting this". I won't go into a sappy "this makes it all worthwhile", but it did help cap off the week on a better note.

Losing the 2 snow days have forced me to change the plan for the literacy strategy review targeting the probability reading. I've decided I am going to put together a packet illustrating a thinkaloud, with bubbles embedded on the page as examples of "what good readers do". Also, some additional material about this particular strategy, and a reflection assignment.

An Interesting Week 3

I'll add more later about the actual teaching experiences from this past week, but first I need to vent about something else that is more important . There was a theft from a teacher's purse on Wednesday - someone went into an unlocked auxiliary classroom and took $75 intended for child care. The amount and the intended use for the money is inconsequential, the violation was in the act itself.

The theft was announced in Thursday's staff meeting, and the reaction of Dan and the staff was interesting. It was clear that things like this are a rare event at SWW, and there was universal disappointment that a SWW student would commit such an act. Dan suggested that all of the extended class teachers bring this incident up on Friday and get student reaction. And that is where the real story begins.

This incident was brought up in Friday's class, and my personal reaction to the students' response was nothing short of shock. Here's why:

• Let's call the victim Mrs. N. Some of the initial comments were "since it was Mrs. N, she didn't deserve it, but if it was Mrs. C, well then that would be different, I wouldn't care at all." The difference here is that an unpopular teacher deserved it.
• What if it was a larger amount of money, say $750 instead of $75? Students indicated then it would have been a bigger deal, and they would have considered it more of a crime.
• When polled about whether they would report any information about this crime if they had it, the nearly unanimous (maybe unanimous, hard to tell) was that they WOULD NOT! Let me repeat - ALL or almost all students stated they would NOT REPORT ANY INFORMATION ABOUT A THEFT IN THEIR SCHOOL!

A short discussion followed, centered around "snitching", the famously urban characterization of providing information about a crime or criminal behavior. Most students apparently truly believe that being a snitch is a bad thing, and whatever moral code they are following or have been taught apparently ignores any moral absolutes in their behavior for this case.

Factors like peer pressure were not accounted for in this fully open poll, as students were asked to raise their hand if they would provide information about this incident if they had any. Perhaps a private, anonymous vote would have different results - I hope so. I briefly mentioned to the class that what we just saw was a perfect example fo moral relativism - changing your morals based on the particular circumstances. We then went on to other class business for the day. I have been thinking abaout this since that class, and it needs to be revisited.

Week 2 Reflection

The second week was an exam week. As an alternative school, SWW has a limited number of students who take regents exams - the only test required is the ELA, but others are given, including the Math A and Math B. However, in lieu of the state testing, SWW has implemented a portfilio process as part of its graduation requirements. This week was used to bring in outside community members to act as portfolio reviewers.

The outside reviewers were recruited through the SWW website and other means, and I also signed up to help on this even though I am currently student teaching. The process was especially instructive since I am able to participate from all points of view.

I particpated in a student's review on Tuesday, both in the preliminary discussions with my SBE and in the post review debriefing with the reviewer, in this case a gentleman who was a CPA, former engineer, and former teacher. The idea of the process is that the same reviewer will meet with the student again in June and comments and assess growth in their protfilio products (and personal growth also). Having an additional adult mentor, especially for students who may not have that advantage at home, is expected to provide significant motivation and committment.

On Friday, I met with two students for portfolio reviews, both 10th graders, a male and a female. There was a wide disparity between the committment, quality, and maturity of the two of them, and illustrates just one of the challenges of urban education. I am anxious for the next meeting to assess the level of growth and committment for both - will the idea of having an additional adult with expectations lead to growth in this student's achievement?

I also had a lot of time to read student submitted research papers, botyh for the TechKnow class and for a SWW requirement - the "Humanities Demonstration" paper. Both of these papers had clear guidelines for the paper's format, and it is amazing to see how difficult it is for some student's to follow it. We had time for several revisions throughout the week, and it is gratifying to see improvement with each cycle. The downside is that this was a special week with time for personal tutoring, and the one on one attention would not always be possible during a regular school schedule.

One of the other reviewers that particpated in the portfolio process is a professor in the UR English Education program, and suggested a writing workshop would be valuable. I plan to follow up on this idea and speak with her about her proposal.

On the planning side, I'm pulling together a unit plan on probability, and also planning for TechKnow. In that class, the students had an assignment for the break to create an accurate, engaging poster advertising a renewable fuel. We will wrap up the energy discussions on Tuesday with a lesson including the viewing of portions of "An Inconvenient Truth".

Ideas for Rules and Procedures

As the first week closed, I recorded a number of ideas for classroom rules and procedures. As we all know from our methods classes, classroom management is totally dependent on all students understanding and following them. Currently, there are school rules publiushed in a student handbook, but none posted in the classroom for me to point to when needed.

I've decided to create a lesson, or series of short lessons, perhaps with one rule per day that we can discuss and modify, about classroom behavior and procedure. The ideas listed below are based on "actual events":

• Don't leave personal garbage behind
• Bring a pen, pencil, paper to class
• Bring your notebook/journal to class
• Respect others, don't distract, it's everyone's class
• One person leave the class at a time, and ask for permission
• No cell phones visible
• No headphones visible
• Be on time, in seat, ready to work at class starting time
• No use of class PC's during class time unless directed

More on Week 1

My first post really only covered the first day of the first week of student teaching. Here's a little more about the rest of that week.

My participation primarily was assisting students with in class problems, in this case related to isosceles triangles. Again, this was very similar to the work I did during last semester's observations. On Thursday, I did teach a 20 minute question review session (with no prep or warning) on triangle midpoints for Vicki (another math teacher who was flu-stricken), with questionable success. A good lesson that no preparation is NOT a good thing.

On Wednesday, I had my first FIRST visit with the robotics team at B&L. My role is as a mentor to Bernard on the electrical team. We spent a few hours discussing options for the layout of the robot's electrical components. The team is very enthusiastic, and it's a great program and model for "real life". Teamwork, deadlines, requirements, committment - all required for success.

Other highlights of the week were the use of class time in TechKnow for the "Bonus" energy assignment, which required creating a ppt show describing at least 12 of the 22 chapters from "The Energy Story", a California state sponsored website.

First Week

Is the first week over already?

I felt like I stepped right back where I left off at the end of last semester’s observation at School Without Walls. The whole experience has been and hopefully will continue to be much less stressful than dropping into a brand new school. I have a reasonable knowledge of the students and my SBE Larry Federman, and this will be a great way to build on the observation experience.

The schedule is the same as during the observation – 1 hour geometry classes at 9:15am and 1::00pm on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; the TechKnow extended class 4 days a week totaling 6.5 hours; the robotics class meeting from 2-2:30 in school, followed by a trip to Bausch & Lomb for a 3 hour session beginning at 3pm on Mondays and Wednesdays. The full SWW staff meets on Thursdays from 10:30am – 12:30pm. I plan to observe in the classrooms of the 2 other math teachers as time allows during the next 6 weeks.

My first day was a Tuesday, and the only class is a two hour session of the TechKnow class. The students are running a “class snack shop” to raise money for class activities, and today’s lesson was an interdisciplinary exercise in determining pricing for the newly acquired inventory. The class includes students from freshman through seniors, and there is a wide range of mathematical ability present.

As part of this class, I assigned a “bonus” assignment related to forms and sources of energy. This requires a little review. Last semester I taught a short unit based on material from New York State Energy Smart Students. I attended a seminar in February 2006 sponsored by this organization, which is part of the national organization NEED.ORG – National Energy Education Development, and received a bunch of free curriculum materials and educational kits.

The reason I had the opportunity to teach this unit was that Larry was called to jury duty, and asked if I would like to teach for that week. I pulled some additional material together, but primarily leaned on the pre-made curriculum, which included a significant amount of group and individual work. This would have been more effective if I had had a rubric of expectations ready to go at the beginning of the class. I think many students were taking it as a week off with Larry out. The bottom line is that the level of response for the required materials, as defined by a portfolio list, was quite low. Larry asked me to put together an additional assignment for the class to cover the material from last semester. As I no longer had the borrowed NEED.ORG materials, I created a Webquest type assignment, with parts 1 and 2 due at the end of the week, and parts 3 and 4 due later.

Larry and I then spent some time discussing where I could best fit into the geometry curriculum, and since there are no classes next week for all the students, that eliminates an additional week from my options. Larry suggested that I prepare for and teach a full unit on probability, which will really be fun since it allows the opportunity for many types of lessons, including manipulatives, games, and so on.

More on the rest of the first week soon.....

Finally We Begin

I've been meaning to start this blog for the last few weeks. Tomorrow begins my student teaching experience, wrapping up a 5 semester journey toward adolescent teacher certification. My initial certification will be in Math, but my goal is to immediately apply for additional certifications in Physics and Chemistry. By my count, I have sufficient content credits to meet the NYSED requirements, and I've already passed the Physics CST, and I'll find out tomorrow if I passed the Chemistry CST.


My initial placement is with the same teacher whose classroom I observed during the past Fall semester, Mr. Larry Federman, at the School Without Walls. It should allow for a much richer experience, given that I know Larry and I should know most of the students.


The only class Larry actually has scheduled on Tuesdays is a 120 minute block of "TechKnow", his extended class. At SWW, extended classes meet for a total of 6.5 hours per week, and form one of the key differences at this alternative school.


I've put together a "bonus" assignment related to energy sources and alternative energy. It's a bonus in the sense that while I observed in the Fall, a taught several classes while Larry was on jury duty, and the level of effort and quality in the returned student work was not the greatest. Larry suggested I create some additional tasks for those who want to bump up their grade for the end of the quarter on 1/19.


I also hope to implement class blogs, modeled on a teacher from Winnipeg, Manitoba - Darren Kuropatwa. His class blogs have been underway for several years, and are especially useful as a tool to allow students to reframe and paraphrase the daily lesson. The goal is to provide enough clear information and content to allow a student who may have been absent to understand the material. Students are also expected to review and comment on the daily "scribe" post, reinforcing everyone's understanding.


My effort at student blogging is centered around a "Home Base". Much more on this later.