Scenes From My Classroom

Here are a few this and thats from around my room. I have a lot more to write about, but for now this is all I can muster. I am full-on beginning-of-school exhausted.

Inspired by Glenn Waddell at TMC14, I thought I would use this progression of (h, k) forms. That might be changing (more on that later), but I still love my yellow brick road with ruby slippers to show where we are. I still want an emerald city, but at some point I needed to stop decorating and plan lessons. So that didn't happen.

(I printed a brick pattern on yellow scrapbook paper, then printed the equations on top of that).

My weekly schedule board. I felt really clever when I used a 2 for "two's day".

I downsized my supply baskets this year. Then I noticed that the red/green/yellow cups fit right on the handle. That's handy.

Red/green/yellow posters.

Pretty syllabus inspired by Sarah's post.

On the first day of school, I combined "telling them how awesome I am" with a plicker quiz. I asked the students "Which pet does Mrs. Gruen own?" and such. It turned out to be a yawner. There is nothing worse than boring the children to tears on the first day of school. I managed to make it fun by following up my quiz questions with little stories, but next time I will put the questions in a slide show and follow them up with a picture answer. When it comes to perfectly executing the first day of school, I am not there. YET.

I use an apple TV to project iPad and/or laptop in my classroom. As a security feature, I have to enter a 4-digit code each time I connect wirelessly. A different code is randomly generated by the apple TV every time, and last year I had a few students start to try and guess the code before it popped up. I thought I would start the year by having every student guess a 4-digit number for a fun on-going game. There could be a prize when someone's number comes up. I just set up a google form to collect guesses and students immediately started talking about probability! How many prizes will I need?

Finally, my buddies and I rocking our TMC shirts. Bring on the school year!

TMC14 Take-Aways

Just a few ways TMC14 will influence my classroom in 2014-2015.

1. Re-thinking Algebra 2. I spend most of my day teaching Algebra 2. I really enjoyed our Algebra 2 morning sessions led by Glenn Waddell and Jonathan Claydon. I left with so very much to think about. There will be strong evidence of these sessions in my classes this year. So much that it will need its own post. Or ten.

2. Alex and Mary's session was a game-changer. Inspiring, I'd say. These two teachers pitched everything and teach grade 10 applied math using ONLY activities. Such bravery! Mary blogs about all 85 days of the semester course, starting here. I am not sure what I will do with this information. At the very least, I'll read through Mary's blog and steal some great activities. At the most, I could jump off that proverbial cliff that Alex talked about.

3. Routines. Though not an actual session, I am pondering what routines should take up daily or weekly space in my classroom. There was talk of so many amazing resources and how people were using them. I am thinking of daily warm-ups, estimation 180, visual patterns, talking points, fostering collaboration and growth mindset, giving students time and space to share about their personal lives, and more. There is value in every one of these things. I really want to be purposeful in how I use my class time. I have a few days to figure that out.

4. Oh, the beautiful beautiful notebooks. There were tabs, foldables, colored paper, and highlighters. Did I say tabs? TABS!! I don't know if I can attain this and I am not entirely sure that I want to try, as I am conflicted by the time spent cutting and gluing and such. Oh, but it was nice being in the same room with all of them. They were so pretty, so organized . . . so full of reference materials. The comment that lures me the most? Kids love their notebooks. They OWN them. They protect them and save them for years after your class.

That TMC Post

If you are reading this little ole blog, then chances are you've already read multiple recaps of Twitter Math Camp 2014. I don't have anything to add in the way of expressing how amazing it was, but I'll jump in anyway and share my experience.

First of all, I traveled with my three colleagues. Yep, the entire math department from my little school was in attendance. I didn't think it was a big deal until person after person commented along the lines of "You brought people with you?! How did you do that? I mention twitter math camp and I just get an eye roll." I don't have a good answer. Full disclosure, it was only a four hour drive and our school covered expenses . . . but still. My co-workers gave up five days of summer to go to this "crazy nerd camp", and they all left saying it was the best conference ever. I am excited for all the in-house conversations that will result from this shared experience.

See what a good little MTBoS evangelist I am?

Presenting! This being my second year to attend TMC, I felt like I wanted to contribute by helping with/leading a session. TMC can't exist without people chipping in, right? Problem: I didn't feel like I had anything to share that I haven't learned from others in attendance. I ended up teaming with Jasmine Walker to share about coding projects we'd done in our classrooms, inspired by a "my favorite" she'd shared at TMC13. We spent a lot of time prepping for that session and it felt good to contribute, even in a small way. 

Another advantage to this (again, my second) TMC is that there were more familiar faces. The feeling was  family-reunion-y, in the best way possible. There were also people I knew but I'd never met. We were oddly half-friends and half-strangers. Now full-friends.

I met a few people who recognized me and thanked me for something I'd shared on my blog. (WHAT?!) They might as well have handed me a million bucks. Appreciation is currency around here. I want to remember to be more generous in saying my thank yous to the many who share so freely.

All this and I haven't even talked about the sessions and how they will affect my teaching this year. There are so many things to write about! And here I just talked about the experience, because that's what first came to mind.

What we have here is unique, for sure.