Group Work Role Cards

Happy Monday!  This might be one of my favorite #Made4Math Monday posts (of mine).  I've very excited to share it with you :)

I've been reading Strength in Numbers by Ilana Horn and it talks about complex instruction throughout the book.  I think these roles are based off of a complex instruction structure.  However, I've modified them some on my own and a lot in regards to Elizabeth's post here.  For the most part I stole Elizabeth's changes and them made a few small changes for myself.

Here are my cards:

I laminated them and put them as a set on a ring so that I can store them in the group storage totes.  That way they are accessible to students whenever they need them.

I really like that they will be able to keep instructions for their role in front of them as the work in their groups.  This will help remind them of their duties as well as encourage them to speak out to fulfill their obligations in whatever role they are in.

This is the first time I'm going to try group roles, and I'm pretty nervous!  But these pretty things make me a little less nervous and a little more excited :)  Let me know if you have any tips!

Here is a link to the file I used.  It has one role description per page, 6 times.  Then the last two pages are the role titles written larger, as you see on the "front" of the cards.  (Note:  the file will open in google drive, but you can download it to word if you would like.)

Thanks for reading and thanks for all the encouragement from those of you who saw the picture on twitter!
-Kathryn

Lesson Plan Book 2014-2015

I know it's not Monday, but Tuesday is only a day late (or 6 days early), so I'm going to call this a #Made4Math Monday post anyway :)

Today I present my Lesson Plan Book.  I have four sections in my book this year:

Note:  Throughout the book I used the font Pea Ashley Grace by Kevin and Amanda.  You can get it for free here.

1.  Behind cover/Info Stuff:

It holds my schedule, school bell schedules, district calendar, phone extensions for the district, a page protector, and the Algebra 1 standards.  (This is mostly district specific documents, so I have not shared them here.)  However, I use these documents daily.  I did it similarly last year and I love having it on hand so quickly.  

I use the bell schedules to write up the early out/late start schedules.  Since I have my book wherever I go during the school year, I can use the district calendar when I need to schedule appointments.  I use the phone extension list anytime a student wants to leave to go to another classroom.  (I call first.)  I love being able to put in rosters because I need those handy when we have fire/tornado/lock down drills, and they are always changing.  And then I use my standards as I'm working on curriculum and lesson planning.

2.  Lesson Plans w/Calendar:

I have a two-page calendar for each moth and also a two-page spread for each week.  This is definitely the largest section of my book.  Here is a picture of August:

And here is an example of a week's planning pages:

For keeping track of what we do each day.  Also I write in the date below where it says the day.

This is a big change from what I had last year.  I specifically designated this space better because I thought it would be nice to remind myself of meetings or duties in addition to having a space to jot down students who worked with me before or after school.

3.  Attendance:

Last year I did not have this section, but I tried to merge it with my lesson plans and calendar.  I wanted a better space for it.  I'm not sure if this will be better or not, but I'm going to give it a try.

On the back of the cover page for the section I gave myself a spot to note the codes that I will be using.  I want to be able to be flexible with this, so I put it here where it got laminated.  That way I can use dry erase to write on it and changes will be easy to make.

I also have a page protector here for rosters as well.  I might even makes lists like Fawn does here (bottom of post).

Then I just have a basic sheet printed a bunch of times.  We'll see how it works.

4.  Meeting Notes:

I had a section for meeting notes last year and I loved it!  I have made some changes.  For example I added a page protector because we always get handouts at PD and I needed a place to keep them.  I also felt that the set spacing that I had given myself last year didn't really work.  Some meetings required more notes than others.  So I kind of revamped that.

Here is an example of what the pages look like now.  I have several for each type of meeting that I know I'll be going to.  Then I make some extras for meetings that might come up during the year.

So that's my binder!  I'm really excited to use it this year :)  Here is a link.  You will need to download the file to view it in powerpoint.  Also remember that if you don't download the font from Kevin and Amanda it won't be as pretty when you open it.

-Kathryn

Checklists: Why I'm Excited to Try Them!

This morning I saw Steph Reilly's post about Checklists and Error Analysis.  Both are genius ideas (please, go read and I'm grateful to her for posting them.  I think checklists are going to be a life-saver for me...and here's why.

I don't grade homework or notebooks.  I don't have time and I don't want to put so much emphasis on homework that students want to copy.  (I wrote a lot more about homework here.)  However, I had a lot of trouble getting students to do the work required to get the learning.

Because of that I chose a unit and planned to have students do an Agenda assignment in preparation for the test.  I gave them an "agenda" with lots of options for tasks to complete.  (By the way, creating the agenda was a LOT of work for me.) They got to choose which ones to do in order to earn x points.  They had class time to work, but were expected to complete some if it out of class.  They had to have it completed BEFORE they could take the test.  This was pretty unsuccessful.  Students hated the agenda, to put it nicely.

I've been debating all summer how to hold students accountable for doing the work, but I knew that agendas probably weren't going to work.  There is something similar I'd heard of called "menus", but I'm not really sure they would be any better.  So I had a problem with no solution, and that is one of the reasons I was so excited to read Steph's post.

Here are the things I like about the checklist:

• Can be built as we go, so I don't have to plan everything out ahead of time
• Can include whatever I want, even notebook pages
• It won't overwhelm students at the beginning because it will be empty
• It will give students things to work on if they finish something else early
• It will remind students of things that we have done that they have forgotten about

Anyway, I liked the idea so much that I am fairly certain it is the solution to many of my problems.  I wanted to link the assignments to specific learning targets, so I added a column that Steph didn't have in hers.  I also typed up some instructions, but didn't want to have to include them on the actual checklist, so I think I will make them notebook friendly and tape them in the front of our notebooks with our syllabus, bellwork schedule, and classroom expectations.

Since I made the documents, I'm going to go ahead and call them my #Made4Math Monday, but I totally stole it from Steph as stated above, so please read her post!

My instructions document

My Unit 0A Checklist as shown above

Note:  These files will open in google drive and you will have to download them to edit them in Microsoft word.

-Kathryn

Vocabulary Quiz Rubric

I was working on my units this week and started thinking about how I wanted to focus on vocabulary.  I began to think about how I could score vocabulary, and my thoughts needed to be recorded.  Before I knew it, I had something to share for #Made4Math Monday!

Here is an image of the rubric I created.  I think it shows that I want to balance use and understanding of the words as well as knowing the definitions.  I usually provide the definitions and ask students to give the word and an example.  This gives me a better understanding of what they know.  It's not perfect, but it's the best I Have found.

Since I don't allow scores below a 2 to be final (students will have to reassess), I figured I didn't need to define what those lower scores might be.  That made my job a little easier.

I also was thinking of usually having 10 words for a vocab quiz.  If I have fewer new words than that I will add old words.  That will show that I value retention of the words not just memorization.

Do you quiz your students on vocabulary?  How do you score it?

Here is my file.  (It is set to print two per page for student notebooks.)  It will open in google drive, but you can download the Word file from that.

-Kathryn

Paper Organizer

This is my first #Made4Math of the summer!

I always try to keep my desk clean, but I can never seem to manage it no matter how hard I try.  It seems like everyday after school my desk is a giant pile of papers...

So I decided to reorganize a desk drawer that I never knew what to do with before because it was so deep.  I bought one of these...

...and put it in my drawer.  (I think that is what it is for...it just took me a few years to figure it out.)  I labeled folders for each class that say "Algebra Today."  That is where I put copies for the day so that they don't pile up on my desk.  I also keep a folder for the unit next to the today folder.  Then after school I can empty the today folder into my bulletin board for absent students and into the unit folder.

It wasn't a perfect system, but it did help keep my desk cleared off.  It even helped me to use the drawer to store my papers to grade folder and my teacher binder.  This is what it looks like right now...kind of a mess since I haven't sorted anything since school got out!

I turned a wasted drawer into something useful that helps keep my desk cleared off! It felt like a very productive change :)

-Kathryn

#MTBoS30

29/30

Proficiency Certificates

Because it is the end of the quarter, we had PD on Friday, part of which was some worktime to update grades.  All of the HS teachers at my school are supposed to have an updated "standards" document, that shows the level of proficiency each student has met for all standards or learning targets.  Mine is by learning targets (which are aligned to standards).  I had updated everything in PowerSchool, but needed to update my Google spreadsheet.  As I was doing this I noticed that there are several students who have achieved proficient (or above) on all learning targets this quarter.  I was really excited, so I decided to make little certificates and share it as a #Made4Math Monday :)

made4math.blogspot.com

I made it up quickly on PowerPoint (it really isn't anything spectacular).  I printed 2 slides per page because I thought little ones were cuter :) Also I printed on green paper because kids love colored paper.  Here is a picture:

Download File Here

What I'm most excited about though is to give them to students.  I have never done anything like this before, but I think this is something worth rewarding.  I didn't consider whether or not they reassessed, just where they were at when the quarter ended.  I really think this is a good way of encouraging students to do better.  I haven't done much all year to encourage grades, and I don't want to start doing that.  Some of my students who have an A or A- will not be receiving one of these certificates because they scored a 2.5 on one of the learning targets.  I'm excited that I feel as though this is encouraging them to learn more rather than encouraging them to get a good grade.  And I truly believe that this is an award all my students are capable of earning.  That is why I am most excited to present the certificates, because I want to tell that to my students:  YOU CAN DO THIS NEXT QUARTER!

- Kathryn

Warm-up Calendar

After much inspiration from our #efamath accountability group meeting this week.  I was feeling very down about not having implemented any sort of warm-up for my Algebra students yet this year.  Then came Heather Kohn's Calendar Project post, and I knew I had a solution.  My solution is this week's Made4Math!

Going off of Heather's calendar, I saw a way to easily provide all students with a warm-up problem for each day of class for an entire month!  With our ISNs, I would be able to guarantee that all students would have it everyday, too :)

Since I will be using it for warm-ups, I only included Monday through Fridays.  I also wanted to focus on the difference between solving, simplifying, and evaluating, since I have noticed my students struggled with that in the past.  And since we have also just worked on unit conversions, I figure it would be good to throw some of those in too.  Here is my calendar:

Click image to view the document in Google drive.  Formatting will be funny in drive, but you are able to download original from drive, which should restore formatting.

I did take some questions from Heather's calendar, since we have similar goals, but I changed many of them too.  I also really like her idea of having students create questions.  I might do that toward the end of the month and create my October calendar from those questions.  We'll see how it goes!

-Kathryn

#Made4Math - Teacher Lesson Plan Book

Here is my best #Made4Math post ever! (I spent many hours on this.)

Just this summer I have become a teacher who can create the things she needs.  And I am finally here to share about my lesson plan book that I created!  Following the advice of master creators @druinok and @algebrainiac1, I started in powerpoint.

Here is the cover:

Isn't it SOOO beautiful?!?!  Then I put in some important docs behind the cover:  my schedule, the school's schedules, district calendar, a sheet protector for me to put class rosters into, and the phone extension list.

My font is Socially Awkward from kevinandamanda.com
My background is from ColourLovers, following the directions from @mathtastrophe posted here.

I have three sections, the first is a calendar and lesson plans.  I actually pretty much copied the calendar from what @druinok shared here, but wanted a different set up for lesson plans, so made my own.

Following each month are weekly lesson plans.  One 2-page spread for each Monday of the month.

The "other" is where I will likely put in attendance.  I had a place I did that last year, and I didn't want to lose it, and I think it will work well there.

I also used white and purple paper, switching every other by month.  I thought it would be easier to identify where I was that way.  And it makes it beautiful.  (I have a ton of purple paper anyway...)
So here's September in purple :)

Next I have my curriculum... I have had many posts about that, so I think I'll skip ahead to Meeting Notes!

I modified my meeting notes pages depending on the meeting type.  Here are a couple examples:  we have faculty meetings once a week, and they are usually about a 1/2 hour.  I thought 4/page was okay and allowed me one page/month.  Easy to know all weeks are accounted for (ignoring the fact that some months might have 5 Tuesdays).  

Our Tiered Algebra Meetings are once/month for the entire day, so I knew I needed more space.  But we also meet as a school once/month, so I made it two/page, with the back blank for a workspace if needed. Still easy to make sure the whole year was covered.

I have more meetings, so there are more pages, but I didn't want to bore you with them all, so check the links at the bottom if you want.

When I had all my beauties printed off, I headed to Office Max.  I had my cover and the section covers laminated, then they added the back and bound it with a spiral.  I am thrilled with the outcome.  (It cost about $1 for each lamination and $5 for the binding.) And the Office Max worker was wonderful.  It was fast and he knew what I wanted and didn't make me feel crazy!  Then when I went to pay, the girl at the till was asking me about it because she's a pre-service teacher.  It was awesome to be able to share it with her!

And now that school is here, I have been using it and I love it.  I'm so proud taking it to meetings :)

Here are the files if you are interested.  It is at least a starting place if you want your own!  You should be able to download the originals documents from these links.
Calendar/Lesson Plans
Meeting Notes

-Kathryn

#Made4Math - Labeled Binder Clips

Here we go! Another #Made4Math Monday post :)

My project this week is very simple, but also very helpful.  I'm sure some of you could take this and do way more, but I wasn't up for that this time.

My inspiration came from these beautiful binder clips I have had since I student taught.  I believe I got them at Office Depot.  

They are amazing because they have the days of the week printed on them!  They are really good for using when I make copies ahead of time.  But most of my daily paper managing is class to class.  So I wanted ones that had different period numbers on them.  Specifically 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th.  So I got together some supplies:

Binder clips, stickers I got at Dollar Tree, a box cutter (scissors might work if they are really sharp), and a sharpie.  From here, you can probably figure out what to do.  I put the sticker on the binder clips:

Folded it down each side:

Cut along the edge as straight as I could (repeat):

And labeled them:

Then do it for however many you want.  Here's my finished product.

I'm not exactly sure how useful they will be, but it took all of 15 minutes to make, so if I want them I have them.  I use my day ones all the time, and I think I still have them all, so that's a good sign!