Professional Development Day- DL, SBG, & Active Learning

Monday was a full day of PD for me.  I have to say it was a nice way to ease back into school after a four-day weekend due to Thanksgiving Break.  The main focus of the day was Disciplinary Literacy and Standards Based Grading Work with a bit of PD on Active Learning Strategies courtesy of our 5-12 Math Coach.  I'm always curious about how other schools handle PD so this will give you a glimpse of how I spent the day.

The planned schedule for the day was:
7:30-8:30   PD on active learning strategies to increase student engagement

8:30-10:00    DL PD and grade level work.

10:00-11:30    Grade level SBG work

11:30-12:45   Lunch

12:45-2:00   7/8 Math Dept. Meeting

2:00-3:30    Math 7 Work on DL/SBG

We started out the day by having a discussion about Questioning/Discussion Techniques using an Active Learning Strategy called “Paired Verbal Fluency”.  Another strategy we used was called “Commit and Toss” which I’ve previously heard of as “Snowball Fight”.  We also were introduced to Kahoot which is a free game based classroom response system. I will definitely try this out.  I think it will be very engaging for students and give me great feedback on their understanding of concepts.

We then had a presentation on Disciplinary Literacy.  We have already implemented the following strategies:

• Marking the Text
•  Critical Concept
• Do/WhatJustification

Today we were introduced to four different Graphic Organizer Templates for students to use when taking notes:

• Boxes and Bullets
• Four Square
• Visual Summary
• Step Notes  

I will have some upcoming blog posts explaining these strategies and sharing some examples of how I’ve used them with students.  Our 7^th grade math team is lucky to have Charla coaching us on our DL strategies.  She has done a great job of keeping us focused and making sure we are implementing strategies in every chapter we teach.

One of the best parts of PD days is getting to go out to lunch and today was no exception.  Charla and I ended up picking up soup from Panera and dropping off lunch at home for my boys and then took our lunches back to school and ate them in my classroom.  I was also able to pick up a Soy Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks for after lunch.  Starbucks is something I always treat myself to on PD days.  We were at the high school all morning and it was FREEZING, I don't think I finally warmed up until I sat next to the fire this evening.

After lunch we met as a 7/8 math department to discuss how our Standards Based Grading Implementation is going.  We had a long discussion about reassessments, rubrics, and other SBG topics.  I don't know that we resolved anything, but we are finding that flexibility and patience is necessary as we work through this first year of SBG.  I'm very glad to have my 7th grade math team to go through this process with. We keep each other sane.

We ended the day with an hour and a half to focus on creating/modifying some SBG formatives and summatives, as well as finishing up DL strategy plans for upcoming units.  It was a busy and extremely productive day with some good laughs (that always happens when we write our own real world assessment questions).

Currently December

I'm linking up with Farley for her December currently.

Listening:  I love listening to Christmas Music. I simply cannot get enough of it.  I have the radio in my minivan tuned to the two local Christmas stations that play only Christmas music and XM Channel 17 (Holly).  I have several Christmas CDs.  I should do a separate post on my favorites.  There are many!

Loving:  I had the most wonderful Thanksgiving with my family.  We had an early afternoon dinner and then chilled out watching TV.  I started watching Christmas movies.  Another thing I cannot get enough of this time of year.  I did not go out shopping at all on Thanksgiving nor Black Friday.  I may partake in some shopping for today, Cyber Monday.

Thinking:  Our tree is up in the living room and it smells so good.  I need to decorate the tree and house, bake cookies, shop for and wrap presents and many other things to get ready for Christmas.

Wanting:  There's so much Christmas prep that needs to be done, but I want to enjoy it rather than stress about it.  We have lots of family traditions that make December such a fun and special month.

Needing:  To decorate the tree and house so I can enjoy it for the whole month.

Giving:  I plan on doing a RACK every day this month.

Sunday 3-2-1 Summary Week 16 #mtboschallenge

Welcome to the #mtboschallenge!  Each week there are two options: 

           On Saturdays, you can choose to blog on a weekly prompt.  This week's prompt is about sharing your December Goals.  No worries if you didn't blog yesterday, you can still submit your post on your December goals using the linky at the bottom of that post.

           On Sundays, you can choose to blog a Sunday Summary of your week.  The idea for the Summary is to provide you a way to reflect on the past week or share what you are looking forward to this coming week.  You can link up your Sunday Summary here.

     Feel free to choose either option (or BOTH!) and don't forget to tweet it with the hashtag #mtboschallenge as well!

3 Things I am thankful for this week:

1)  My family:  My husband and oldest two sons were hunting last weekend and got home late Tuesday night.  As much as my youngest and I enjoyed our one on one bonding time we did miss the chaos that is our life as a family of five.  I'm thankful for my parents who have always been my greatest supporters in life and now they are my sons' biggest fans at all their sporting events.

2)  My teaching career:  This is year 25 and I love it as much as the first day I started.  Teaching has changed in so many ways I could have never imagined, but the kids today are just as smart, sweet, and funny as they were 25 years ago.  They are just way more tech savvy, but so am I!  I've taught in the same school district my entire teaching career and although it was not my plan as a 22 year old starting out to spend my whole life here, there's no place I'd rather be.  I started out as a 6th grade teacher, teaching all subjects (but always trying to trade off my science class) and after a 2 yr stint teaching 7th grade math, I returned from my first maternity leave as a 7th grade math teacher.  He's going to be 16 this year.  Yikes!  Teaching middle school math was never my plan, but again, there's no other subject or grade level I would rather teach at this point in my career.

3)  The holiday season:  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with my mom and oldest brother.  I did not go shopping Thanksgiving night nor Black Friday.  Today my husband and I went to Target to stock up on some goodies.  I've done a bit of my shopping here and there, but I'm lucky because my husband loves to shop so he helps quite a bit.  I am the official wrapper, however.  I love beautifully wrapped gifts so taking the time to do that is fun (as long as I don't wait too long and then become overwhelmed).  I really want to enjoy this holiday season and let go off anything that takes away my joy by stressing me out.

2 Things I am determined to follow through on this week:

1) Blogging:  I think these few days off have given me time to focus a bit on things I want to do more of.  I do a good job of blogging in the summer when I'm off work and then school starts and my boys all play football and life gets crazy so blogging takes a backseat.  Football season is over, only my littlest is playing basketball, and I had my formal observation a couple weeks ago, so things are calming down a bit in my life.

2) Healthy Living:  This is something I must get myself on track with.  Halloween-Christmas is always a time of lots of indulgence for us with the holidays, cookie baking, and parties.  I need to make sure I am eating well during the week and working out, so I am able to enjoy myself on the weekends without feeling guilty and without gaining 10 lbs I will need to take of once Jan 1st rolls around.

1 Thing I am letting go of:

1) Wanting everything to be perfect:  The older I get the more I'm trying to let go of wanting things to be perfect and just trying to enjoy each day as it comes.  I really try not to sweat the small stuff and not let the crazy demands of teaching overwhelm me (and believe me that is difficult some days).  My oldest is a sophomore and I keep thinking we only have 2.5 more years until he is off to college.  I want to enjoy this holiday season and try not to let my boys drive me too crazy.  LOL

#mtboschallenge Week 16: December Goals

This is Week 16 of the #mtboschallenge on twitter.  The challenge is to blog once a week for the remainder of 2014.  Each Saturday there will be a different prompt shared to blog about.  The prompt will be shared prior to Saturday on twitter using #mtboschallenge  You can link up on my blog (or any other blog that shares the link up). Also share your blog post on twitter with #mtboschallenge .  You can copy the following graphic into your blog post.  Each Sunday @druinok from Teaching Statistics will host a 3-2-1 Summary prompt where you can blog about anything you choose.   Feel free to join the blogging challenge on either Saturday, Sunday, or both days.  Today's Sat prompt is to share your December goals.  Thanks for joining the Challenge!

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An InLinkz Link-up

Anchors Away Monday (11-24-14) Absolute Value

This is my first time linking up with Deb at Crafting Connections for her Anchors Away Monday.

Last week I started a new chapter on Addition and Subtraction with Rational Numbers.  The first lesson we did was using a number line to model addition of integers.  My students did not remember absolute value from 6th grade at all so I ended up making this anchor chart for students to refer to.  They need to understand absolute value as they create a rule for addition of integers.  Not too shabby for my first anchor chart.  Hopefully I will have many more to share with you this year.

Absolute Value Anchor Chart

Sunday 3-2-1 Summary Week 14 #mtboschallenge

It has been quite some time since I blogged.  I know I've fallen off the blogosphere because I didn't even do a November Currently post.  Who knows maybe I'll link up before the end of the month.  If you are interested in me bringing back the Saturday challenge prompt let me know in the comments and I may be inspired to start it back up this weekend.  It just seemed that not many people were linking up so if you have a prompt ideas share it with me and maybe I'll get it going again.  

School is going really well this year, but between that and three boys that all played football, fall was gone in the blink of an eye.  Lots of great things have been happening in my classroom and school and hopefully I will get the motivation to start doing some blog posts about them.  We are in our first year of SBG and I cannot even tell you how swamped I am constantly with everything assessment related.  I feel I'm in a constant loop of creating assessments, giving assessment, grading assessments, small group reteaching, reassessing, lather, rinse repeat.  If you are a teacher you know exactly what I'm talking about.  

I have not been as much time on twitter lately, but I do post on Instagram sometimes because it's so easy to upload a quick picture, you can follow me here if you want to keep track of what I'm up to.  I've been much more intentional this school year about making sure I'm putting my own family first and that has left little time for blogging and social media.  Hopefully I will find the ever elusive balance I am always seeking.


3-2-1 Sunday Summary:

Three things I'm excited about this week:
1)  I have my formal observation this Thursday.  I'm not excited about being observed, but I'm excited that as of Thursday afternoon it will be off my plate.  Amen!
2)  I am a board member for our education foundation and we have a meeting this Wednesday morning.  I'm excited because we are getting a tour of our High School renovation that is nearly complete.  I have seen little bits and piece of the renovations from meetings I have had there, but there is a lot I have not seen.  Looking forward to the tour.
3)  I'm excited 

Two things on my to-do list:
1)  Plan all the extras that go along with the two chapters I'm teaching this week: addition and subtraction of rational numbers for my Math 7 classes and multiplication and division of rational numbers for my Honors Math 7 class.  All the extras include everything beyond lesson planning and assessments: anchor charts, stations, small group lessons, math wall, and foldables.  So much more goes into planning that just prepping the lessons!
2)  Start planning for the holidays.  We are hosting Thanksgiving and I need to get everything organized and planned out for that.  My mom starts asking for our Christmas lists at the end of October and I need to get the boys and myself to get that done.  She likes to shop early.

One thing I'm thankful for:
I am thankful for the snow we got this weekend.  We just got a couple inches, but it was so nice to wake up Sat morning and see the gorgeous snow.  It snowed throughout the day and I was just snugged up in my warm cozy house watching TV Sat night.  There is something so magical to me about the first measurable snowfall of the year and I years we get to  have a white Thanksgiving.  Snow definitely gets me in the Thanksgiving/Christmas spirit.

#mtboschallenge Week 12: November Goals

This is Week 12 of the #mtboschallenge on twitter.  The challenge is to blog once a week for the remainder of 2014.  Each Saturday there will be a different prompt shared to blog about.  The prompt will be shared prior to Saturday on twitter using #mtboschallenge  You can link up on my blog (or any other blog that shares the link up). Also share your blog post on twitter with #mtboschallenge .  You can copy the following graphic into your blog post.  Each Sunday @druinok from  Teaching Statistics will host a 3-2-1 Summary prompt where you can blog about anything you choose.   Feel free to join the blogging challenge on either Saturday, Sunday, or both days.  We really hope you join the challenge!

The prompt for this week is to blog about your November goals.  Please click on the blogs that link up and leave comments on each blog post.  

get the InLinkz code

An InLinkz Link-up