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!

Embracing an I Can Attitude & It's Impact on Learning

Socratic Seminars in a Math Classroom

For the past 3 three years I have had the privilege of being a member of an AVID site team.  During this time, I truly embraced the AVID mindset and implemented the instructional strategies I learned during my weeklong AVID Summer Institute.  One of my favorite learning opportunities is Socratic seminars!

Throughout this school year, I have focused on helping our learners move away from having a fixed mindset towards embracing a growth mindset.  From various posters on our walls to our Mindset Mondays, our learners are beginning to see the impact of having a growth mindset in our classroom.

As we began 2017 together, as a staff, on Tuesday morning, a comment made by a coworker left me thinking of how we, as "math" learners, can defy the odds....the odds of "only reading word problems in math."

Articles were passed out in all classes on Wednesday and the annotating began!  I'm forever grateful for the help of our ELL support in 2nd period, who took the time to find articles in Spanish for our ELL students.

Articles were posted in Google Classroom for ALL learners to access

We spent our time together on Wednesday and Thursday reading our articles, writing 5 word summaries, discussing new vocabulary and most of all learning through text, other than a word problem!

Thursday evening, I spent the time setting up our room with an inner circle of 9 desks and then strategically placing the other desks.  Several ideas of how to group the kids were circling around in my head, when I thought of the learners of 2nd period.

Second period is a 29 member family that is made up of 9 girls and 20 boys; A 29 member family that consists of 18 students born in Texas, 2 born out of state and 9 born in another country; A 29 member family that embraces our diversity, respects each other and most of all encourages each other as we embrace 21st century skills, while learning our 8th grade math standards.  

These 29 learners were the inspiration for the way learners were grouped for this activity.  Because our focus for this seminar, as well as our classroom, I translated, "Yes, you can!" into the 10 languages that represent the families of Room 27.  The smiles on my learners faces beamed with pride when I shared my reasoning behind our name tents.  

Meet the stars of the show, the learners of 2nd period!  

(I apologize in advance for how loud I am, as I was coaching them through their first Socratic seminar)

As our day progressed and learners filtered in and out of our classroom, I found myself becoming more and more proud of our Falcons.  Learners were so excited about doing a Socratic seminar, as they had previous experience in other classes.  What I found was this was something completely new to them, to think in a "new" way in math.  Most groups were hesitant to begin the conversation, but with coaching and guided questions, they each began to share their thoughts, supported with their annotated text, as well as their interactive notebook!  

Learners brought their own questions and I brought mine!  Here are some of the questions, I asked:

• Why do you think we put a “wall” up in math?
• Why do we automatically think that mistakes are negative?
• Do you agree that math is too much answering and not enough learning?
• Which grading scale (see below) would you prefer to show you are learning?

As we moved throughout the seminar, learners moved between the inner and outer circle.  While a member of the inner circle, each learner represented their group and shared the information they discussed, as well as agreed or disagreed with the other members in the conversation.  Outer circle members used Today's Meet.  

Using Today's Meet, offered a way for the shy learner to still feel safe when sharing his/her ideas, as well as asking questions.  The other circle members typed on Today's Meet, rather than using sticky notes.  I kept hearing discussions on how cool it was that they were using this website!  In order for all participants to know what was being shared on Today's Meet, I had it reflected on our board.  

We used our CHAMPs to establish proper etiquette when participating in a discussion, both as a speaker and as a listener.  One thing I wish I would have made more of an effort to talk about was how to address others when you are responding to their comments.  As the day went on, I remembered to do this, as you can see on the Today's Meet channel!

Several teachers and administrators came to watch our Socratic seminars, which made the day even more meaningful.  Throughout the day, I too found areas I could improve on, which made each class period, that much more powerful!  We were all learning together, which is how every classroom should be.  

As each class period ended, learners were given a page to reflect on our learning experience.  I'm already looking forward to what they learned, as well as what they wish.  

Have you ever tried a Socratic seminar in your math classroom?  What impact do you see Socratic seminars having on your instruction, as well as the learning in your classroom?  Stayed tuned for learner and teacher reflections on our Socratic seminar!  

#observeme

Because of our goal-setting conferences and STEM certification modules, I began to feel a need for personal growth.  I found I was using the same instructional strategies day in and day out.  If I was becoming bored with the monotony, I know my learners were too!  

Coming back after Thanksgiving break, feeling rested and ready to conquer the next 15 days of learning opportunities, I now have the following sign hanging outside of Room 27.  

#observeme

I encourage all educators to either have a coworker come observe or set up an iPad to record a lesson.  It's amazing to have an "outsider" perspective into your learning environment.  During the 2015-2016 school year, I was on a campus that encouraged this process, 360 Reflection.  The 360 Reflection process included recording a lesson, setting goals based on the digital artifact, discussions with our learning liaison and coworkers, classroom observations and student voice.  All compiled to not only help me be a more focused, intentional teacher, but also made my students achieve a higher level of personal success!  

Here's are a few examples of surveys I have used in our classroom:

 A Student's Perspective: Your Voice Matters

A Parent's Perspective on Goal Setting

Typically, I will post this in Google classroom, send an email or remind message or post on Skyward.  One bit of advice I have is to keep it unanimous.  Students will be more willing to share their exact feelings and thoughts if they know there will be no negative consequences.

What will you do to  collect data to better improve your learning environment?