Splashing into Our New Curriculum

Despite the numerous days of torrential downpours, power outages and puddles everywhere,  the learners of Room 103 have been busy soaking up new knowledge as we embark on our new curriculum.  Our first three weeks together have created opportunities where learners are in charge of their learning, engaging with their peers as they experience rich learning opportunities, enhanced with technology....To say we've been busy thinking and learning is an understatement! 

Majority of our sixth grade lessons have utilized Desmos, which has sparked numerous discussions as we decompose and rearrange areas.  Learners loved having anonymous names of famous mathematicians!  Add in my excitement of how, from the teacher view, I can see how each mathematician answered the question.

One of the features of Desmos that I love is being able to see how learners are thinking and justifying their solutions.  Both of these are examples of how learners were decomposing and rearranging areas into familiar polygons in order to find the total area in a figure.

 

As a checkpoint, learners were given an exit ticket where they were asked to determine the area of a given figure.  To make it more interactive, we used Flipgrid!  If you've never used Flipgrid, I definitely recommend it.  Being able to verbally justify their solution allowed our learners to approach the given problem in a different manner, while being creative!

Learners created their own Flipgrid and then watched 3 other videos, leaving meaningful feedback.  What I loved seeing, as I watched each child's Flipgrid reflection, was how some used tangrams, like we had in class, some made references to Desmos and even showed it in their video, while others acted as the teacher and shared their thinking with the audience members of Room 103!  I can say by the profiles created that everyone enjoyed themselves as they used Flipgrid for the first time.  

In 7th grade, we have been focusing on scaled copies (similar figures).  From using patty paper to trace figures and using protractors to measure angles, learners proved that corresponding angles in scaled copies are congruent!

  

Google Forms were a lifesaver this week with an unexpected absence!  If I could give advice to a new teacher, it would be to not leave new material for a substitute teacher to teach.  Rather leave a review of some sort.  Because we are a 1:1 campus, I immediately thought of creating a couple of digital resources to review similar figures.  Below is a sample of the Google Form where I embedded a video from Youtube and then asked 10 follow up questions.  Upon my arrival back to campus, my learners were having meaningful discussions over the definitions of similar and congruent.

Another small detail that makes these Google Forms so helpful is the Flubaroo Google extension.  I simply create a key and then the extension grades the assignment!  I love the reports that our created after running Flubaroo, so I know immediately which questions need reteaching, as well as which kids need small group reteaching.  Flubaroo has truly helped not having piles of papers to grade and allows for immediate feedback!  

Our week ended with looking at a basketball court and determining the actual measurements.  Sure it's the beginning of college football season, but when you share your classroom with the basketball coach, you embrace the love of the game!  Our learners were introduced to the WON *Words Original New)method.  Of course there was some grumbling and resistance as we began, yet learners quickly jumped on board when they began to see the success that comes with having a method that helps organize our thinking.  

Our First Week of Learning Together!

It's hard to believe I experienced my 35th First Day of School.  This picture makes me laugh because I still carry my lunch box the same as I did when I started kindergarten!  Our first day of the 2018-2019 school year, brought so much joy and happiness to my heart.  Getting to know a new group of learners, as well as their families began at our Meet the Teacher night, the Wednesday before school started! I loved hearing how excited families are about being in our class this year. I truly believe it takes all of us working together to achieve growth and success! 

We  spent our first week building our classroom learning environment, where all learners can be successful!  Throughout the week, the noise level increased, as did the smiles and laughter, which spoke volumes to my teacher heart.  Our kids are feeling safe and will be more willing to embrace the struggle and learn the why behind our math.  

This week's learning including creating our class treatment agreement, building a collaborative learning environment, embracing a  growth mindset and diving into our digital resources!  It was definitely a packed week of learning and excitement. 

As part of our first week together, we spent time creating our class treatment agreement.  It was eye opening and honestly, heart breaking to hear what some learners have experienced in their years of being at school.  Above is a copy of the template each learner received, along with our steps to creating our class treatment agreements.  

             

   

Adding his table groups ideas for how
students should treat Ms. Pauley 

Sharing their ideas and summarizing their table groups
treatment agreements

Because our district is 1:1, and chromebook rollout occured during our first week together, I thought it would be fun to take our class treatment agreement digital!  Using Mentimeter, I created polls for each of our guiding questions and guess what....The learners of room 103 loved it!  As they each voted, or put money/points into each category they thought was important the screen changed.  They loved watching the "real" time voting.  Hearing, "Can we do this again?" once again reminded me of why they are "my kids" for the 2018-2019 school year!  

Building a Collaborative Learning Environment

I strongly believe in the power of working together and building each other up!  Our Huskies truly encouraged each other when it came to problem solving, as well as sharing during our warm-ups and class activities .  

 

If you are wanting to build this type of learning environment, I'd strongly suggest implementing WODB warm ups...they are amazing!  There are no wrong answers, since each learner gets to justify why they chose the answer.  Learners were amazed by the different ideas and reasons to why their classmates chose various patterns.  

Embracing a Growth Mindset

Here is a link to the activities we used:  Week of Inspirational Math by Jo Boahler

In 7th grade math, we spent our week learning about growth mindset and the impact it has on our learning, especially as we implement a new curriculum this year. 

I loved hearing our learners share their thinking and be accepting of others' different views on the same problems.  It was eye opening from the teacher's perspective to see how learners' visualized various problems. 

I can already tell, I have a group of innovative thinkers, who are going to thrive this year, as we embark on our journey together!

Diving into Our Digital Resources

This year we are implementing Illustrative Math.  This is a huge learning curve for both our learners, as well as us teachers!  I'm grateful to have such a wonderful department who collaborates and encourages each other as we begin this journey.  Our sixth graders were the first group of learners to embark on their digital learning journey.  We introduced them to Desmos and Geogebra, which they loved!  As I explained during our class, we all learn differently and this year we're adding another tool to our tool belt.  Because of the excitement and enthusiasm on Day 1, I can only think our learners will grow not only in their digital skills but also their problem solving skills.  It's going to be an exciting year!  

Along with learning came abit of fun as well...photo booth props make everything better :) 

Photo Booth Fun in Math 

I'd say this was definitely one of the best first weeks of learning....Here's to a year of many learning opportunities and success for the learners of Room 103!