#alg1chat Master Topic List

I wanted to share tonight the Master Topic List we began creating for #alg1chat.  If there is something you are required to teach in your Algebra 1 class that you feel is not included on this document, please add it!  It's very disorganized right now, but we'll get it organized at some point :)

Master Topic List

-Kathryn

#MTBoS30
13/30

Reflections on RtI

We spent a major part of our year studying RtI at my school, and we were asked to do a reflection.  I am sharing part of my reflection for my post today.

Identify next steps needed in your district or school to prepare for use of this approach.

                There are two things I would like to see done to help facilitate effective RtI at the high school.  One of them is a real effort to identify root causes.  As was emphasized in the webinars, when students are not being successful it is important to identify the root causes so that we can try to address those rather than the side effects of the root causes.  This can be a very challenging task, and likely we will not succeed every time.

                Currently I feel as though we often address behavior issues with academic interventions.  These attempts to intervene do not get at the root cause and therefore do not actually help solve the problem.  So even though it will be challenging to identify the root causes, and even more challenging to provide interventions, it gives more hope of success than what we currently have in place.

                The other thing I would like to see happen in order to facilitate effective RtI at the high school is implementing an enrichment/intervention period during our day.  I can see many ways of making this work, but all of them would be a challenge to set up and implement.  All staff would need to be involved to make it successful and all would need to be committed to making it valuable for students.  The enrichment opportunities would have to be things that students would be interested and willing to dig in to that are more than and outside of what they get in the classroom.  The intervention classes would have to be additional instruction for the students, not study hall.

                I believe implementation of these two things could have a drastic effect on the success of many students at our school.  They would both take a lot of work, but they would show that our focus is on the students and creating a system that supports them as learners.

What changes would you make if you could to help implement appropriate response to intervention?

-Kathryn

#MTBoS30

12/30

Things that Annoyed Me Today

In brief:

A five minute meeting that started five minutes late. It was in another building, so overall not worth the time. Email would have been enough.

Assignments that are not specific. When people expect me to interpret non-specific instructions when I'm not the one in charge.

Students wanting me to do the work for them.

Finding out our dental insurance is changing the afternoon before the representative is in the buildings. I have negative free time tomorrow to meet with the rep.

When people assume they understand something they don't. When people assume I don't know something I do.

The stress if this time of year.

This list got longer than I anticipated. At first I only had two, but not sure I even included those two...

-Kathryn

#MTBoS30
11/30

Bulletin Board Calendar

I had seen many various of this on pinterest and blogs, and I finally figured out something that works well enough for me.  Well enough for a semester at least!  I wanted to make sure that handouts were easily accessible and that students could see what they might have missed other than a handout.

So here is my bulletin board about a week ago:

I have a folder for each day of the week and I taped a 1/2 page of transparency to the front.  This way I can write a brief description of what happened in class AND include any handouts all in one go.

Up close for a day with a handout:

Up close for a day without a handout (they can tell there is still something they need to make-up):

Students who are chronically absent like this because they know how to take care of their work.  Students who are rarely absent are just figuring the system out now.  But I don't mind because it is easy to manage.  On Friday when students who were absent Thursday didn't have the paper they needed for their notes I could easily say "It's in the Thursday folder." and they can figure the rest out themselves.  It doesn't take up my time for them to get what they need.

I plan to modify slightly for next year, but I haven't finalized what I want.  The transparency won't last all year and for small pieces of paper (as often happens with interactive notebooks) the folders are no good.  I was thinking about getting the folders laminated and seeing if that helped any.  I can use dry erase on laminated stuff just as well as a transparency.

How do you manage work for absent students?  What do you value about your system?

-Kathryn

#MTBoS30
10/30

A Perfect Afternoon

Outside.
The sun is shining.
The lawn has been mowed.
The trees are flowering and producing leaves.
There is a breeze that means I need long sleeves in the shade.
My boys play baseball in the backyard, announcing each play as though it is a top 10 for Sports Center.
These are the moments that I cherish.  The moments I think of when I'm feeling down.  The moments that remind me that what I'm doing is worthwhile.

-Kathryn

#MTBoS30
9/30

Foundational Standards

At our last Tiered Algebra day, we spent an entire morning choosing foundational standards for Algebra 1 (specifically looking through the Appendix A standards that were identified for Algebra 1).  We wanted to be make sure to state that we are not choosing Power Standards.  Common Core specifically clarifies that all standards are equally important.  In our core instruction, we need to be teaching all standards.  
However, we felt it might be helpful to identify some standards that were critical to the learning of other standards.  We wanted our foundational standards to be ones that:

• would help students learn other Algebra standards

• would be necessary for life

• might help bridge between 8th grade math and Algebra

An example is that if students have trouble solving linear equations, it is likely that they would have trouble solving systems of equations, quadratic equations, etc.  In that way, solving linear equations is a foundational standard.

After much discussion we came up with the following foundational standards/groups of standards:

EQUATIONS/INEQUALITIES
A.CED.1:  Create equations and inequalities in one variable and use them to solve problems.
A.REI.1:  Explain each step in solving a simple equation as following from the equality of numbers asserted at the previous step, starting from the assumption that the original equation has a solution.  Construct a viable argument to justify a solution method.
A.CED.4:  Rearrange formulas to highlight quantities of interest, using the same reasoning as in solving equations.

SLOPE
F.IF.6: Calculate and interpret the average rate of change of a function (presented symbolically or as a table) over a specified interval. Estimate the rate of change from a graph.
S.ID.7: Interpret the slope (rate of change) and the intercept (constant term) of a linear model in the context of the data.

POLYNOMIAL OPERATIONS
A.APR.1: Understand that polynomials for a system analogous to the integers, namely, they are closed under the operations of addition, subtraction, and multiplication; add, subtract, and multiply polynomials.

MEANING OF A GRAPH
F.IF.1: Understand that a function from one set (called the domain) to another set (called the range) assigns to each element of the domain exactly one element of the range. If f is a function and x is an element of its domain, then f(x) denotes the output of fcorresponding to the input x. The graph of f is the graph of the equation y = f(x).

A.REI.10:  Understand that the graph of an equation in two variables is the set of all its solutions plotted in the coordinate plane, often forming a curve (which could be a line).

INTERPRET PARTS OF AN EXPRESSION

A.SSE.1:  Interpret expressions that represent a quantity in terms of its context.  Interpret parts of an expression, such as terms, factors, and coefficients.  Interpret complicated expressions by viewing one or more of their parts as a single entity.

EXPONENTS AND RADICALS

N.RN.2:  Rewrite expressions involving radicals and rational exponents using the properties of exponents.

USE UNITS

N.Q.1:  Use units as a way to understand problems and to guide the solution of multi-step problems; choose and interpret units consistently in formulas; choose and interpret the scale and the origin in graphs and data displays.

It was a morning of long debates, so I would easily say that almost all of us would argue to change something about what we came up with...overall what to you think?  Is there something you would add or remove?

-Kathryn

#MTBoS30

8/30

Life Stages and Values

I've been feeling really isolated lately because of a conflict between my age, my values and beliefs, my job, my family structure, and my location compared to others that I would consider my friends.

I am young, only a few years out of college, and made some GREAT friends in college that really gave me a safe community to grow in. I married one of those people right out of college. We live in small town Iowa. Our closest college friends are 2 hours away, and that rarely happens because of ever-busy schedules and the lives we are all trying to create where we live. The isolation post-college hit us hard. 

We since moved and because of how much of a challenge we felt from the isolation, we specifically sought out a church in our new community that we felt could best provide fellowship for us.  I remember feeling isolated still at the beginning because all of the young couples had kids and we didn't. We were discussing expanding our family and did decide that the time was right, but our expanding is happening in a very non-traditional way. It often seems to isolate us even more.

The people who we might be friends with because of the look of our family do not have similar values and beliefs or are significantly older than my husband and I. And older people already have established friend groups that are not easily joined. (Another disadvantage with these couples is that often their children are my students...)

The people who we might be friends with because of our age and values and beliefs are not able to meet our family needs very well. I have seen evidence that some are trying to be supportive, but it's not the same as experiencing it and understanding for yourself. (That is something I might not have really understood until I crossed into this land myself.) I want them to be willing to try what we are doing. I want to be an example that demonstrates that they can do this too, but it is a difficult thing to do when we often feel so alone.

Now I don't want you to think I am friendless. I have plenty of friends, but what I lack is a cohesive group of friends that can relate to multiple aspects of each others' lives. And who have experienced enough of each others' lives to truly know how to be blessings to each other. I have been grieving for this lately.

-Kathryn

#MTBoS30

7/30