Musings on the First Week

Favorite quote:  "Will you please just tell me the answer and not ask me another question when I ask you one?"
Reason:  That's my focus this year - to be less helpful and ask questions

Best first day activity ever:  A Bingo/Jeopardy board that the students worked on to earn up to five free homework or grade booster passes.
Reason:  It was awesome to hear mathematical conversations and problem solving on the first day.

Best new idea:  Taking the time to make a Notebook file for every hour for every course.
Reason:  Even though I teach six different courses and this takes a lot of time, this has helped the lessons to be focused and engaging and has significantly reduced the down time.

Engage Immediately

I remember sitting through many first days of school, moving from one class to the next, bored to tears as the teacher went over the syllabus.  These un-engaging hours quickly zapped my excitement for learning.  As a teacher I have learned that it is important to clearly explain my expectations, but I have struggled with how to do this in an engaging manner - especially when I have the same students year after year and they basically know my expectations and just have to adjust to the two or three bright improvements I come up with over the summer.

One of my expectations is that class time will be used for learning thus this year I have created a Jeopardy/Bingo/Find a Person Who...conglomeration of a game board to give to the students on the first day.  They are typically given one free homework pass per quarter, but this year they will earn their free homework passes based on their completion of the game board.  The questions are based on the previous year's standards and my expectations so this task will help me assess retention over the summer and help the students refresh their skills.

An Attempt at RtI

Our school has decided to implement a Response to Intervention (RtI) program this year.  We are targeting math and reading...the challenge is that our school is tiny and we only have one teacher per subject for grades 7-12.  So, most of the 7-12 teachers have gathered this summer and we have split into two teams - math and reading.  I will have 4-5 teachers working on the math team with me and below is our plan:


Math will focus on the following standards
First Quarter – Numbers and Operations and Measurement
Second Quarter – Algebra and Patterns and Measurement
Third Quarter – Geometry and Measurement
Fourth Quarter – Data, Statistics, and Probability and Measurement

*We have a partial block schedule so grades 7-9 will have Math RtI on Purple Days and grades 10-11 will have Math RtI on White Days.  I have identified essential standards within each major standard and each teacher will focus on one of the essential standards each quarter.  Students will rotate from one teacher to the next after 4-5 days of instruction on a particular essential standard.  Since we all prep 6 different core classes every day, this keeps our prep time for RtI manageable and allows us to do one concept really well.

Student Placement for Math

Students will initially be identified as in need of intervention based on the most current MAP score (Spring 2011).  Students who score below the 66^th percentile on a particular standard will take a pre-test on the standard to confirm their need of an intervention.  If a student scores above an 80% on the pre-test that student will be exempt from the intervention on that standard.  Teachers will also make decisions to include or exempt a student based on observations, classroom performance, and state standardized test scores.

Leaving RtI

Students will be given a post-test at the end of each quarter.  Teachers will discuss individual students who are not demonstrating progress and modify the intervention as appropriate.  Students who demonstrate proficiency based on formative assessments and an 80% or higher on the post-test may no longer qualify for the intervention.  Students will have the opportunity to move from the intervention to service learning at midterm if they score an 87% or higher on the midterm assessment and have earned at least 90% of the engagements points.

2012 Seniors      

This years seniors will not be part of the RtI program. They will have the opportunity to earn a senior privilege based on class work completion and attendance. Power school will be checked every Monday morning. If a senior does not have any missing assignments and was not tardy or absent for any reason the previous week then that senior may leave the school building after 7^th hour. If the student does not meet the criteria then he or she will report to the library for 8^th hour. Failure to comply will result in the loss of senior privileges for the remainder of the semester and the student will be referred to the discipline matrix.

Students Exempt from RtI

Students that are exempt from intervention will participate in service learning projects (SALT). 

Teacher collaboration

All High School teachers will collaborate every other Wednesday.  On those days students will participate in service learning projects, career presentations or other speakers/presentations.

Our plan seems to be working on paper and all of us on the math team are working on our essential standard for the first quarter.  I am hopeful that this intervention will have a positive impact on our students and I'll keep you posted on modifications and lessons that we develop.

Confessions of a Scavenger

The past three years I have jumped at any and every opportunity to gather and consume ideas and resources, but I have done little in terms of sharing what I have collected and created.  I have found and used some amazing ideas and resources and I've decided it is time to share.  I intend to use this blog to highlight websites, articles, books, blogs, and anything else that I find useful and interesting.

I just returned from the NCTM's Reasoning and Sense Making Institute in Orlando.  The past week was invaluable for a number of reasons with one of them being the explicit focus on reasoning in the classroom.  As teachers we often get caught up in the task that teaches the concept and neglect to focus on the process of obtaining a solution.  A focus on reasoning will help my students make connections and be able to translate what they learn inside the classroom to problems outside of the classroom.

Tip #1:  Join NCTM and attend their conferences and institutes.