Questioning My Questions...

So, apparently, I am incapable of just following a prompt - I guess I just like to do things my own way! :)

I was supposed to talk about good questions, which made me think about what questions I have used that have the biggest impact on student learning, as well as where I see the most issues with misconceptions. I think the idea is meant to be more like those "HOT" (higher-order thinking) questions that have been buzzing lately, but I am going to swerve and head a TOTALLY different direction...

Here's what I've noticed in my time as a math teacher - the issue for most kids when they "don't get it" in math isn't really centered on all those things that most of us complain about (imprecision, lack prerequisite skills, etc.). The issue I see the most is that kids literally do not comprehend what the problem means - they don't know how to relate what they are presented in math class to any kind of recognizable context. 

For example, if a student is doing the following problem: 2.80 + 7, and they do the following:

   2.80

 +     7

   2.87

Does that student really understand what 2.80 means? What 7 means? So if we extend this line of questioning, does this student understand place value? 

It seems to me that this student is just performing a memorized procedure for addition, without thinking about context or meaning. If we asked this same student the same question, but put dollar signs in front of the numbers ($2.80 + $7) would he/she make the same mistake? This could tell us a lot in terms of where to go to help fill in the gaps here.

It seems crazy to me that there is SUCH a huge focus on reading comprehension with students, especially early in elementary school, but there isn't that same idea being carried over to create "math comprehension." I have so many kids that are bright and capable but just don't know what certain numbers or symbols really mean. They get so caught up in jumping into a procedure that they often don't even use the correct values (see above example), or maybe they just write down all the numbers in a word problem and add them up because they see the words "all together" somewhere near the end.

So... Here's the point. The number one question that seems to help kids when they are struggling? I simply point to something and say, "So, what does this mean?" (or if they are looking especially unsure, perhaps, "What do you think this means?")

Then follow up with things like: 

"How do you know that/Why do you think that?"

"Could you write it out/show me/draw it/make a model?"

"What do you notice?"

.... Etc...

Now... I don't start with "What does this mean?" if I am teaching something brand new. Usually I do noticing and questioning first (my kids are too "cool" to call it wondering - so lame... LOL!), and "What do you notice?" is like my go to question when we are exploring, so I think it is probably a tie in terms of both usage and impact on student learning with "What does this mean?" but, seriously, everyone is already on the boat with noticing and wondering. I feel like math comprehension needs some love now! :)  Who's with me?

My Favorite Things

So... Technically this post is late, so in order to make it up to you, I decided to do a sort of combo of last week's and this week's assignment, but seriously people, my life is crazy! First of all, I am a teacher, I play in two symphony orchestras, I have ridiculous food allergies so I have to cook most of what I eat from scratch, and I attempt to exercise when possible. Let me just show you what my week has been like (kinda like "a day in the life" from last week)... BUT, I will highlight my favorites (from this week) along the way :)

Monday: Day off - Woo! I can "catch up," right? Wake up, exercise, shower, shove food in my face while I grade, cook, do a TON of laundry, and try to clean up the kitchen after my cooking escapades. At 5:30 I head out so I can drive an hour to my symphony rehearsal which gets out early (yay!) at 9:30pm, drive an hour home, see hubby for like 5 minutes, get all my crap materials for the week gathered at the door, go to bed around 11:30pm

Favorite Thing: Car audio jack for my phone so I can listen to podcasts (some teacher-y stuff, radio lab, cooking shows...). Keeps me alert when I put hours in on the road. And I learn cool stuff :)

Tuesday: Teach all day (duh), help kids at lunch and after school, shoo said kids out around 4:30 so I can drive to the gym, exercise for an hour, go home, cook dinner (I made pressure cooker braised pork short ribs, cut up a pineapple to throw on at the end, and roasted some broccoli), go to target with my hubby since he is leaving tomorrow for a big conference and this might be the only time I see him this week, prep my lunch, clothes, trombone, etc. and get ready for bed (I think I made it in bed before midnight, but I'm not really sure...)

Favorite Thing: Instant Pot! I am not kidding you - this thing is AMAZING. My hubby got it for me for my birthday and I use it probably twice a week. If you are busy and trying to still eat at home, this is a life saver. If you have food issues like me and can't eat out, well... just go get one. Like now. My page will still be here for you to read once you do ;)

Wednesday:  Head to school for a minimum day (we have staff meetings on Wednesdays). This sounds like it should be easier since classes are shorter, but we have ALL our classes (8 periods) in a row (until 12:50) then go to lunch at the end of all that, so I am always exhausted. Then after lunch (1:45) we went to a staff meeting that didn't get out until 5 or 10 minutes to 4pm, so I rushed back to my room to grab my stuff and had to jump in my car to drive to symphony rehearsal again. This time, we didn't get out early, so I didn't make it home until 11pm. I then had to make my lunch for the next day (Greek salad with marinated roast beef), get ready for bed, etc... Didn't see my bed until after midnight this time :-/

Favorite Thing: iPads in the classroom. When I found out my new school site was going 1-to-1 iPads this year, I was actually pretty nervous. I've heard plenty of stories about the challenges that arise in these situations, so I wasn't sure how I felt about it. Now, I am so grateful. After having to jump in my car and leave school after that meeting, there was no way I would have copies for the following day, and the copy machine is ALWAYS busy in the morning. Now I can send and track assignments digitally, so no copies means a little more sleep. By the way, if you haven't checked out Desmos yet and you are teaching math, go now. The classroom activities are especially cool, and you can edit or create your own. SO COOL! Again... I'll wait :)

Thursday: By now, I am feeling fatigued. I love my sleep and I have had a LOT of days in a row where I'm running on a deficit. I didn't think I was in a bad mood or anything, but a number of my students asked me if I was okay/upset/having a bad day - I must've looked like hell. LOL! We had an all 8th-grade meeting in the morning to discuss rolling out iPads, then went back to have class during the rest of the day. I had kids working in my room during lunch, and a number asked to stay after school again, so I said that was fine. A couple of the girls who asked to work with me came in after school and I helped them with classwork and homework, but lost track of time and had to shoo them out at 4pm so I could race back to town to teach trombone lessons (4:15 - 6:30 pm). Then, I had a moment where I considered going to the gym, but decided that sounded too exhausting and went home to cook dinner and get things ready for tomorrow. I actually made it into bed just a little after 10pm. SUCCESS!!!

Favorite Thing: Working with students 1-on-1 or in small groups. I have tutored people in various subjects since I was in 4th grade, which is probably why I fell into teaching, but there is just something special about the interactions you have and connections you make with students when there isn't a whole room full off them. One of the reasons I lost track of time and had to scramble out was because, even though we were working on past-due work (a frustration for me) and a subject that wasn't the students' favorite (a frustration to them), we were actually having fun. We wound up having a semi-deep life lesson conversation at one point, and one of the girls came back and told me how she went home all excited and talked to her mom about it. Pretty sure that's never happened with ANYthing I have ever said during class!

Friday: Finally! Teach teach teach, help kids, pack up all my stuff to grade, try to clean off at least a corner of my desk so it isn't a total disaster, and head off to symphony rehearsal again. Back home by 11, cart in all my stuff from the car (it took me two trips), get ready for bed, and crash.

Favorite Thing: Objectives/Standards Based Grading. I FINALLY could switch my grading system this year (at a new site and after pitching my principal, he said go for it!). While I have had a few newbie-type issues (educating kids and parents about it in a way that makes sense to them, progress reports always look way worse than they would if I were grading assignments, the fact that I can't easily change grades from past grading periods when kids do learn the skills that were a part of that grading period, etc), overall this has made a huge impact on my ability to provide feedback to students. Since I don't grade every paper, I can spend that time on giving feedback instead. Of course there are some kids who don't like the fact that their grade is entirely dependent on their ability to perform or produce with quality, but I feel like I am able to track students' knowledge and needs much more easily :)

Saturday: Get up, go to the gym, head to Costco, back home, eat leftovers because Costco took longer than planned, jump in the shower, try to make myself look at least passably nice, drive back to symphony rehearsal, eat dinner, then back to play the concert. The piano soloist was amazing, by the way. There was a reception afterwards at the ONE place where I can actually eat the food for the reception, but I was so tired that I decided to just hit the road. Home around 11. I tried to just crash but I could NOT sleep. I hate when my husband is gone, especially this long. For some reason, even though I have the WHOLE bed to myself and I can be in whatever position I want and hog all the blankets, I have a really hard time sleeping. I'm pretty sure the last time I frustratedly tossed and turned and looked at what time it was, it was around 1:45am. Ugh...

Favorite Thing: MTBoS. I KNOW that, with the fact that I now have ONE day (tomorrow) to grade, plan, cook a ton of food, do laundry, blog, and FINALLY see my hubby, there is no way that I could actually make awesome engaging lessons for the whole week. I have an outlined idea of what I'm doing for the week as well as an activity for Monday, but the rest of the details will be filled in based on ideas that I shamelessly steal from the army of fantastic and generous teachers who digitally enrich my life. Thank you for sharing ideas, uploading resources, and making me think about, question, and improve what I do every day. :)

On that note... if YOU have any favorites that have to do with radical expressions, rational/irrational numbers, etc. please let me know in the comments so I can go steal those too since that is where we are heading next :)

One Good Thing

Okay, so I think I might be stretching the assignment a little here since the "one good thing" I am going to write about actually happened before break, but I think it's worth bringing up!

Anyhow, my mom had to have a somewhat sudden surgery and I am the only family member who's even in the state, so when they said she needed a solid week of round the clock care it was obvious that I would be jumping in to take care of that. They wound up scheduling the surgery on the last day of school before winter break, which meant I had to miss that day.

I like to prepare my kids for sub days so I can put more responsibility on THEM, so of course I told them what was going on. There are always about a million questions ("Who's the sub? What are we doing? Will your mom be ok? Do I have to do the work? What if a chicken ate a taco? etc...), but as those questions died down, I figured that would be the end of it. Then one of my students (who tends to be easily distracted and goofy) stands up and says, rather passionately, "We have to do something." The rest of the class was already moving on to the next thing, so I went over to talk to her. She was determined that they (the students) do something for my mom. She was also gathering a steadily increasing crowd of kids who were in agreement. 

I didn't want to spend my precious instructional minutes on an art project for my mom, so I grabbed some butcher paper, put it on my back table, and told the class what assignments they had to complete in order to have time to sign during class. 

I did offer the opportunity to my other classes as well, but essentially, they had to really want to sign it because they had to be on top of it with their work. 

I was amazed at how many of my tougher kids, as well as those who tend to have a harder time in math wanted so badly to write messages to my mom - who they've never met. 

By the end of Thursday, when I gathered the poster up to take home, I read through everything to make sure no one "tagged" anything or wrote inappropriate messages (I do teach 8th graders). It was seriously one of the sweetest things I've ever seen from kids this age. There were lots of positive encouragements, a surprising number of "I love you's", awesome artwork, and a fair share of funny yet sweet, honest, and heartfelt messages (these last came mainly from my boys, who totally surprised me by wanting to participate in the project so much). 

I'm so glad I caved and begrudgingly allowed my students to make this happen - I have a feeling it's a memory that will stick with me :)

MTBoS Blogging Initiative

Ok - I've had this blog for over two years and I've posted a whopping 4 times (5 if you let me count this one). I realized that if I want to actually be a contributing of the MTBoS community I needed some help getting going here. So... I joined the January Blogging Initiation hosted by Explore MTBoS!

This means that I actually have to post stuff - and I have a mentor who will force help me to stay accountable :) 

You, too, could join in on this exciting adventure. All you have to do is dust off your blog and get ready for the first prompt to arrive January 10th!