One Car Family

A question I get asked by my students weekly: “Miss Freed, do you even own A car?"

Now I realize many of you live in a big city where the idea of owning even one car seems outrageous. However for now I'm a small-town girl and most families around here have AT LEAST one car for everyone who is within a year of getting their license.

So my husband and I seem odd for having chosen to own only one car. We rock at owning only one car. For a while it was even only getting driven once a week (did I mention our car is a hybrid?).  Lately our schedule has become much more extensive, so we take it out nearly daily. However, we still walk to school almost every day. 

It makes the most sense to walk as we live about 4 blocks from school and can get there almost faster than we can drive.

What "strange" habit do you have to justify often to your students?

-Kathryn

#MTBoS30
1/6

Mindset

I am currently reading Mindset by Carol Dweck. It is very interesting to me as I personally feel I have not done a good job of promoting appropriate student attitudes where they feel they are in control of their learning. This is also difficult for me as when I feel as though I give them opportunities to be in control many (like more than 50%) choose to do nothing. And I cannot figure out how to motivate them beyond that, but thatis a complaint for another post.

So I have been working on giving growth mindset feedback and redirection to students.  I have one student who has demonstrated to be particularly receptive to it.  When he came in for help the other day he was saying and acting in a helpless manner. His statements were along the lines of “I can't do this" and “I don't know how".  I gave him my less-than-great growth mindset feedback. It went something like this  “You may feel that way right now, but I know you are capable of this. You just need to put the effort into it and it will come. You can do this."

Not the best wording or smoothest delivery, but it worked! I walked away and when I came back he was making significant progress. I gave him some growth mindset encouragement, “Look at how much you can do when you work hard."  He did get stumped a little bit, but he persevered, asked for help, and used what he knew to overcome. I was amazed by how immediate the results were 

(No, it doesn't work this way for all kids, but what amazing immediate results). 

I even saw effects of the mindset change it the following day in class as we were discussing a differing topic.

That is a little victory.

Happy Tuesday!

-Kathryn

#MTBoS30

4/30

Random Depressing Thoughts

I'm only on day 3 and I already feel like I'm out if inspiration...I have a post I want to work on, but I keep forgetting to take a necessary picture while at school. Oops.

Prom was this past weekend.  I hate prom.  I hate that public schools feel it is necessary to put on recreational activities such as prom for students.  I hate that students spend hundreds of dollars on one night of their lives.  This only sets them up to expect a more extravagant wedding...don't get me started on the thousands and thousands of dollars Americans spend on weddings--focus on the marriage people!

Several situations lately have given me a very bleak outlook for some of my students.  I am having trouble pushing through to the end of this year because of things like this that continue to happen.  In addition, finding balance and being a good teacher are seemingly incompatible for me at this time.

Depressing post, but I guess those are my thoughts right now.

-Kathryn

#MTBoS30
3/30

More Money is NOT the Answer, Well Sort-Of

Yes, I believe teachers are underpaid.  No, I don't want more money.  I make enough that my husband and I can pay off our loans and support a family.  It is easy, no.  Is it possible, yes.

What I think would make my job better is less expectations.  No, I don't want teachers to be able to get away with things they shouldn't do.  I want us (culturally) to understand what it really takes to plan a valuable lesson.  Then I want enough time in my day to reflect on what I've taught, assess my students and give them feedback, and then plan new lessons.  I also want time to collaborate with my peers; both those in my building and/or district and those who are a part of the math twitter blogosphere.  Then I need time to communicate with parents and the community about the things going on in my classroom.  Sometimes this is email or a phone call, but this also might involve updating my website.  The fifty minutes of prep time I get in no way allows for those things.

I want to be clear:  I am not upset with my school.  The amount of prep time I get is standard across the US.  We have unions across the nation that advocate for higher teacher pay, but do they advocate for more planning and prep time?

That is is what I think we should push for, so that we can lead balanced lives and find passion outside of the classroom.  Yes, I realize that overall this would cost more money, but this is how I would invest the money if it were up to me.

-Kathryn

#MTBoS30
2/30

30 Day Blogging Challenge

Over at A Brand New Line, Anne Schwartz, has chosen to complete a 30 Day Blogging Challenge.  Having been in a rut lately with my blogging, I felt this may just be the encouragement I need to get back in it.  Especially since I will be unable to pressure myself into posting something fabulous each day.  I also felt it would be fitting because 30 days from now I will be done with the school year.  It will be nice to have some of this time documented.

My recent lack of blogging and (at least from my perspective) lack of presence on twitter is due to a recent change in my life.  It is a personal life change that I am unable to share much about, but it is a good change.  Just like all changes in life, this one simultaneously causes pain and joy.  But mostly joy.  Joy like I have never known before.

-Kathryn

#MTBoS30
1/30

Class-to-Class Adjustments

The other day I was working on substitution with my students and I wanted them to try three problems that were similar to what we had been working on, but one had no solution, one had infinite solutions, and one had one solution.  They had seen these ideas when solving graphically and numerically, but this was the first time with substitution.

Thinking back at the end of the day, I realized that although I had taught the same lesson three times, I had made slight adjustments each period.  I thought it was interesting, so I wanted to summarize it here.

In my 4th period, my first Algebra 1 class of the day, I only have 14 students and generally 2-3 of them are absent.  So I split the students into 3 groups and had each group focus on one question.  Then after 5 minutes, I had each group share out with the class.  I think it might have been a little better if I had made the groups jigsaw to share at the end, but I guess I'll save that idea for next time.

In 5th period there are 22 students.  Some of the students are very quick learners, others are slow learners, and others are "I don't want to learn" learners.  So I gave them some time to work independently or in partners on the three problems, then I went over each one with the class.

In 6th period there are 18 students who are generally slow learners and easily distracted.  They are all capable, but not very many of them are used to seeing success in the classroom.  I decided for some reason (this was not pre-planned) to get three students to each be a "professional" on one of the problems.  I focused my attention getting them on the right track, and then encouraged the other students to ask them for help.  After 10 minutes or so, the three students presented their solutions to the class.

I can't say that I preferred one method over the other, but I'm going to side note on one of my classes now...

I have struggled a lot to keep the students focused on learning this semester, but this past week was the best yet.  The day about included.

I had begun to realize these students are all very dependent on me as the source of information, processes, and answers.  A few of them like to work together, but they tend to get off task and lead each other astray when problem solving.  I need to get them to think, problem solve, discuss, justify, share, and ask questions.

I think in order for them to do this they need more of an opportunity to be in charge, so I am going to continue to try to provide that for them little bits at a time.  Including by having students present the solutions to bellwork...why did I never think of this before?  That was a student-suggested thing we tried this week that worked really well.  I think we will continue with it this week...

-Kathryn

Setting up Systems of Equations

As I was desperately searching (for a while) for something to boost my systems of equations unit with, I came across this post by Mimi at I Hope This Old Train Breaks Down.  It proved to be a great resource.  Please check it out!

Things I liked about it:

• There was more than one way to "solve" each puzzle
• The scaffolding was wonderful! Puzzle 1 and 2 were similar, puzzle 3 and 4 were similar, and puzzle 5 and 6 were similar
• The questioning at the end of puzzle 1 would help students more easily solve puzzle 2 (etc.)
• Shapes are much more friendly than x, y, and z.  Students were solving systems without knowing it

Because of all that I didn't want to just give my students the giant (8 page?) packet and have them work alone, so I made some formatting changes before using with my students:

• I put each puzzle 4/page
• I typed the questions up on powerpoint
• I printed each puzzle on a different color of paper

So in class it looked a little like this:

• We set up a bit of speed-dating scenario so they could rotate partners
• I passed out Puzzle 1 to all students
• If they completed it they were asked to answer the projected question on the back
• After 5-10 minutes I asked students to share out how they found the solution (I made sure to call on many students each time for various perspectives.)
• We rotated partners
• I passed out Puzzle 2 
• Etc.

Here is what it looked like as a quarter piece of paper.  After we were all finished I did have students staple all six together and keep them in their pocket for this section.  As we got into solving systems using substitution and elimination we kept coming back to this idea of the shape puzzle.

Some things I ran into as we worked:

• Students were using guess-and-check to find their solution.  Some kids have super-awesome number sense and could do this easily, but were then not being stretched to think about substitution or elimination.
• Students really struggled to explain clearly their solution method
• In Puzzle 3, some really struggled with that conceptual elimination that needed to happen.  I drew it out to help, but that wasn't enough for everyone.  Here is something similar to what I had on the board

My files:

• Puzzles 1-6 (4/page)
• Puzzle Questions

Note:  The link will open in drive.  You will want to download to see the full version in word.

Overall, I LOVED this as an introduction to systems of equations.  I'm not sure that I will change much about it when I do it next year.  And I have seen it benefiting students as we continue to work on solving systems of equations.

-Kathryn