We played the board games the kids made about Life in the Sahara. It was so cute to see them trying to decipher each other's rules and understand exactly what they were supposed to do. They had to fill out evaluations of the games they played and they were very honest and helpful in their comments. I was impressed!

One partnership made a very cool Monopoly Sahara Edition but somehow forgot to make property cards! Otherwise, it was an amazing game.

Overall, most of the games were fun and educational, really turned out to be a worthwhile activity though it seemed like it took forever!

At school on Sunday, getting ready for the week is always a time of reflection and panic, especially as the end of the year nears. It always seems there is so much I want to do with these 7th graders, so many things to teach them, so many activities to share, but time, time, time is always pressing in on me.

We have 7 more weeks of school left, with one of those spent at camp. So I have 6 weeks left to cover everything the state says I must, and make sure I have covered it well enough they actually retain it until next fall on their MEAP test. I have so many concerns about that when they seem unable to retain info from day to day!

We've been working on balancing 2 step equations in math class this past week. They, for the most part, seem to understand the process but what bogs them down is the lack of knowledge of basic math facts and their inability to remember how to deal with negative integers. It seemed last fall when we covered that, they were doing well and we've used it on multiple occasions since then, but now, too many of them, when asked what -11 - 19 is, cannot come up with the correct answer. It is frustrating to be unable to move on because they have not made those skills their own yet.

It has been fun using the graphing calculators though. By forcing students, especially my pre-algebra kids, to think and work on their own, I have seen so much growth in them. They are always so reluctant to try for fear of being wrong, and these activities have tremendously pushed them outside their comfort zones. I love seeing them THINK!

Tomorrow, we finally get to play the board games they have been making in social studies on Life in the Sahara. It seemed like the day would never come with extension after extension of time to work because they were so engrossed and engaged in their creations. I can't wait for them to share with each other tomorrow.

I cancelled my math curriculum meeting tomorrow, as well as Michigan Mathematics Program Improvement Project meeting on Wednesday. I just do not feel like I can be gone anymore this year. I know all that work is important but my classroom and my kids are my #1 priority.

My social studies class is making games about Life in the Sahara as one of the project choices from the lesson plan I found at NewsHour Extra. (There were other project choices, but all but one student chose to make a game.) They are so amazingly creative in their game boards. I can't wait for them to get to play with each other's games.

My struggle with 2 of the boys though, seems to shadow everything else. They refuse to do anything productive. Both of them are the kind who are frequently suspended and failing all or most of their classes. I was excited to see them draw a game board and actually get started. But of course, they lost interest after that, and have nothing else to go along with the board. They cut up a few pieces of paper but didn't get questions written. I tried to offer help and suggestions and resources, but of course, it was all for naught. It doesn't seem to matter at all what we do in class, easy book worksheets, fun projects, games, computer activities, movies, nothing grabs their attention. I feel at a loss to help them....

If you have never checked out the lessons offered by this website, I suggest you look at them. Many great resources, as well as complete lesson plans with online articles and in some cases, newscasts to supplement the activities.

Wow.. it's nice to be back to school today after a snow day yesterday. Who wouldn't love the irony of April Fool's Day being a snow day!!

We started the school day with a staff meeting, scheduling concerns for next year. On the one hand, I appreciate being asked what our thoughts and concerns and wants are as far as next year goes. But on the other hand, do we really have ANY say? The budget constraints really decide what happens. The contract decides how many hours we will teach. Our certifications decide where/what we will be teaching. It seems almost as if asking makes it worse. So many staff members make requests from their own perspective, without regard or consideration for the school as a whole, what is reasonable, or what is even best for kids.

I know.. I sound down... maybe just a little. I long for the days when we had enough staff to creatively schedule, do things "outside the box" and experiment. Now, with decreasing enrollment and staff, we are so locked into the only possibilities that it seems overwhelming to even try and think about the what might work better ideas....

**sigh**

YEEEHHHHAAAWWW!!!! What a cool day it was in math! The kids loved the calculators and were so intrigued by the ease of making graphs on the calculators, they kind of got lost in the fact they were writing linear equations, looking at inversely proportional relationships, learning about y-intercepts, and thinking about math in a totally new way. I love my job, I love my job, I love my job :-) I can't wait until tomorrow to do MORE!! We have a few more activities to do together and then I have some copies of things they can try on their own. It will be interesting to see how many of them are willing to push to accomplish all the tasks offered!

I should title this post You Might be a Geek..... 6th hour yesterday, one of the secretaries from Central Office called to say I had a huge package, something like a suitcase, waiting for me, so I sent a couple of girls to fetch it.

I had totally forgotten requesting a set of calculators from Texas Instruments. When I opened the black crate and saw those shiny TI 84 Plus Silver Editions, I was soooo excited! I brought one home to play with and spent about a couple of hours last night familiarizing myself with the calculator and its functions. I simply cannot wait for Monday to share this with the kids!

In all actuality, I should wait a few days to use them, but I am so totally geeked up I know we are going to use them Monday in all 3 classes. My two math classes have some experience with slope, y-intercepts and linear equations, but not really enough to do much on the calculators but I think just using the graphing function to see how slope and y-intercepts change the graph, looking at non-linear equations, and playing with exponents will be enough to hook them.

My prealgebra kids however, don't have much experience even in slope so they really are not ready to do many of those things. But this is such a bright group of kids, I know they will pick up on the concepts quickly.

The coolest thing.. we just spent Thursday and Friday on Building a Garden Gate where they looked at how a fixed perimeter changes areas and side lengths. Students graphed all the possible side lenght combos for a 60 ft perimeter fence two ways, one comparing side lenght 1 to side length 2, which is actually a simple linear equation, as well as graphed length of side lenght one compared to the area. I am hoping to use this actitivty as a springboard for writing equations and using the graphing calculator. I think since they just made their own graphs, using the calculators will be more meaningful.

My husband is a math phobe as well as a technology phobe. When I was able to have him write the equations as well as use the calculator to make the graphs, seeing the excitement on his face, I KNEW my 7th graders were going to be totally geeked about this.

My biggest concern for Monday is those SLOW laggers who are always a couple of steps behind. This will be a whole class activity, with me walking them step by step through the process, but I can already predict which of my little lovelies will fall behind. I am not sure how to deal with them, other than type out step by step instructions, which most likely they wouldn't follow anyway... and that would give some others a license to forge forward without understanding what we are doing, so I refuse to do that, at least for this intial exposure to the calculators.

TI has so many cool activites posted on their website, I am sure I can find followup activities to use as well. I only have the calculators for a month so I want to make sure I use them as much as possible.

So yes, call me a geek... I love trying something new!!

This morning was another camp meeting for adults involved in camp. We took care of odds and ends, trying to finalize classes, etc. That is the easy part. The tough part is who do we take to camp and who do we leave behind.

Sometimes, it is obvious a student should not go. Fighting, swearing, insubordination, etc... when they happen persistently and consistently across the board, repeatedly, it makes our decision easy. However, it always seems there are those gray area kids we debate about. The one who stole the teacher's edition of the math book to copy answers, the one who misses at least a day a week, the girls who are so exclusionary with their behaviors it borders on bullying. These are the kids we struggle to make decisions about.

My problem is I want to take them all, each and every one of them... OK, maybe not EVERY one of them ;-) Guess that's why we get paid the BIG $$$, eh?

The house plan projects are done for another year. Unlike the best scenario, where we go outside to build full scale models, like described in this Education World article, this year we stayed in and out of the deep snow to make to scale drawings/blueprints or to scale models of our houses.

A drawing was required. A model was extra credit. About a third of students chose to make a model. Two of the better ones are shown here. I was amazed, as I always am, at the creativity and dedication to excellence some of my students showed in their projects. Wooden decks, staircases, furniture... wow... How cool these models are!

I wish there were more projects like this that address the Grade Level Content Expectations I am expected to meet, and are fun, engaging and meaningful for students.!

Just a quick Happy Spring post with a couple of pics out my classroom window. This is what spring looks like in Newberry!

Sorry they are a bit blurry - I did actually take them through the screen of the window :-)

I am part of the Red Cedar Writing Project from Michigan State University. Recently a controversial topic sparked my interest on the listserve. Here is my reply to one post:
Part of Marcus's list.....

"Short Term:

1) Teach all Black boys to read at grade level by the third grade and to embrace education

2) Provide positive role models for Black boys

3) Create a stable home environment for Black boys that includes contact with their fathers>>>

4) Ensure that Black boys have a strong spiritual base

5) Control the negative media influences on Black boys

6) Teach Black boys to respect all girls and women

Long Term

1) Invest as much money in educating Black boys as in locking up Black men

2) Help connect Black boys to a positive vision of themselves in the future

3) Create high expectations and help Black boys live into those high expectations

4) Build a positive peer culture for Black boys

5) Teach Black boys self-discipline, culture and history

6) Teach Black boys and the communities in which they live to embrace education and life-long learning"

Another perspective:My question is why do we need to set those goals ONLY for black boys? Whynot for Native American males? Why not for the girls in our schools? Whynot for white boys caught in a hopeless foster care system? Why not forHispanic children?

I am not denying the statistics for black males as being dire, however,society is also allowing all our children to fall through the cracks. Wespend more on prisons, war, unemployment and politics than we do oneducation and health care for EVERYONE in this country. Children are no longer taught to respect authority, appreciate education,or even a basic dedication to excellence and a work ethic. It seems everyone and every group is out for themselves, without regard for whatbenefits the larger picture.

The list in the begining of this post should be rewritten and become the MISSION STATEMENT of our country, and every school therein:
Short Term
1) Teach ALL CHILDREN to read at grade level by the third grade and to embrace education
2) Provide positive role models for ALL CHILDREN
3) Create a stable home environment for ALL CHILDREN that includes contactwith their fathers
4) Ensure that ALL CHILDREN have a strong spiritual base
5) Control the negative media influences on Black boys
6) Teach ALL CHILDREN to respect all girls and women
Long Term
1) Invest as much money in educating ALL CHILDREN as in locking up PEOPLE
2) Help connect ALL CHILDREN to a positive vision of themselves in thefuture
3) Create high expectations and help ALL CHILDREN live into those highexpectations
4) Build a positive peer culture for ALL CHILDREN
5) Teach ALL CHILDREN self-discipline, culture and history
6) Teach ALL CHILDREN and the communities in which they live to embrace education and life-long learning

I live in a small rural community with few blacks (This is my 13th year teaching here and I have my first 2 black students this year), a fair number of Native Americans, and an overwhelming sense of despair,unemployment and "there's no reason to get an education because it won't help me anyway" attitude. By refocusing our political and financial priorities in this country to promote the above ideals, wouldn't ALL CHILDREN benefit?

Meme:Passion Quilt

I was recently tagged by Nancy Flanagan to be a part of the ever growing Passion Quilt.

My image to the left shows what I am passionate about: kids DOING math. Not worksheets, not rote memorization, but actually making their own meaning of math.

I want students to leave my room with a feeling that math may be, no, make that math IS hard, but they CAN do it. I try to make math meaningful, fun and active.

I hereby tag the following and ask them to submit their posts to the Passion Quilt:

Erica Roberts

Rebecca Lawson

Sara Van Abel

Beverly Maddox

Tena Linsbeck-Perron

Here are the rules
Passion Quilt Meme Rules:

1. Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students.

2. Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.

3. Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.

4. Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.
And here's a link to the Original Rock-On Boy, The Tempered Radical, Bill Ferriter.

The flu, hacking coughs, cold, etc... have been rampant lately. For some reason, the powers that be at our school decided the way to slow the spread of germs was to not allow students access to the water fountains. In theory, students are to bring their own water bottle, but in reality, many forget, or it is warm, or they drink it all before day's end. It is so pointless to me. Most of these viruses are airborne, and unless we quarantine sick students and staff, we are unlikely to slow the spread until spring break.

In math and prealgebra, we are drawing to-scale models of student homes. Most are working, digging in, enjoying the challenge. However, 5th hour, the majority of students still have not brought in their measurements at all. It is frustrating and I am not sure what to do. Many students in the other 2 classes have chosen to build a model instead of simply drawing the floor plan. Many are using cardboard, but others are building with toothpicks and popsicles sticks. I can't wait to see their final products!

Two more days until break... thank goodness.. we are all sick, tired and in great need of a break.

Is there a full moon or a storm brewing? (OK, yes there is a snowstorm on the horizon!) Today was a tough day especially 5th hour. It started out with KB without book or pencil as usual. That I can handle. But then, he reached over and tore the page in A's book! Why in the world... she is one of those really nice, but terribly whiny girls anyway. Please do not give her reason to whine more! I sent him out... **sigh** Back to teaching math! Things are going well... until P writes a big red KKK on the back of her notebook and flashes it to MK, one of the only 2 black students on 7th grade. She ends up suspended for 3 days, and that is on the tails of being gone for 1 1/2 and just coming back today. Then TJ sprays cologne all over.

All in 20 minutes or so....... thank goodness the rest of the day went smoother!

Last hour prealgebra played a cool game out of the book called Juniper Green. It was a factor/multiple game and they had a BLAST, begging to play again!! Easy to do, easy to monitor and great practice on these concepts.

How could I forget MEAP scores??? I know they are not official, and I know they are not public yet.... so shhhhh...... but this year's 8th graders... when they came in 6th grade, 69% were proficent, then at begining of 7th grade, they fell to 61% proficient, but THEN.. drum roll please.... at the begining of 8th grade!! 73% proficient!! Validation comes at a sweet price. I hate high stakes tests.. I am not sure they measure anything accurately... but then again, I love when my scores validate my teaching!!

Slope Mania was FUN. The kids begged to play again. Today was a quick quiz on how to find slope 2 ways - sneaky writing in math class assignment as well. I was impressed! Almost all A's and B's on it!! How cool is that? The 3 that didn't get those scores - I could have predicted, unfortunately.

The one young man cannot read or write, but even when I had him orally answer me, he couldn't use the words RISE over RUN, nor could he explain the formula. The closest he got to anything was saying the numbers increased sort of alike in the table.

Young man #2 does not care - he misses soooo much school. If he isn't suspended, he is hunting or fishing or something. When he is in school, it seems life is just difficult. I have him in social studies as well as math and he tries my patience constantly. He comes late more days than he comes on time. He disrupts others, doesn't have a pencil, does very little work... I could go on and on.

Young man #3, I am not sure what happened. He is usually a good student, and I will touch base with him in seminar tomorrow to see if he can somehow get a more accurate description down on paper for me. He struggles with graphing for some reason but I think he CAN find slope. I am going to have to explore a bit more with him.

Today we did a couple of REALLY difficult slope activities - the hardest one gave the students the slope and Y-intercept and from that, they had to graph the line. It is kind of backwards logic and many of them struggled. However, just as many enjoyed the challenge and really worked at solving the logic of the activity. I was impressed!

My first 2 research papers were turned in today in social studies. WOW... I was impressed. Granted, I expected those 2 to do well, but they did extremely well... EXTREMELY well!! Even their bibiliographies shined.

I spent all afternoon baking heart shaped cookies for Valentine's Day. I feel like a cookie with frosting and sugar all over me. The kiddies will be thrilled though.

PreAlgebra took a mid-chapter test yesterday. Woohooo... They did awesome!! Today an 8th grader came and taught class. He asked to before but I told him he had to come get a book, and be prepared. He did a great job, but I don't think he will be back. He was a bit overwhelmed by the end of the hour with the questions and constant attention of all the girls.

I have to make a decision about our house project.... I don't know whether to have them do it at all, just draw plans, or do full-fledged models. I kind of want to do models with this small group and let them experience the process, but the thought of all that mess and confusion is a bit overwhelming as well. We start proportions tomorrow, with scale factor right on its heels so I must decide soon!!

Slope mania this afternoon. I hope it goes as well as I think it will? I have huge graphs laminated, baggies with dice with positive and negative numbers on them, data sheets, bingo chips, meter sticks, write on wipe off markers... all set to go.

The idea is to give them some slope practice in a fun way. They roll the 4 dice- the green are x values, the red are y's. One green and one red have negative signs on them. They then sort into 2 pairs, place a bingo chip at those points represented by the ordered pairs from dice. Use meter stick to connect points in line. They calculate slope as well as estimate y-intercept.

That sounds like fun, right???? maybe not if you are in 7th grade... **sigh**

Some days, you simply have to laugh. Yesterday was one of those days. First hour, my little Amy Sunshine didn't feel well. We called mom who is a teacher in high school and she said to give Amy an ibuprofen. I did, but Amy didn't feel well still so I let her sleep through first hour. After about 30 minutes of snoozing, she lifted her head and threw up all over, and threw up some more, and threw up some more. We evacuated into the hall while the custodian came and made our room smell better. Amy went home, but the memory lingered.

5th hour Melon Head Merissa didn't feel well. Hmmmm.. she sat at Amy's table first hour, had basketball practice with Amy before school, and was the one who walked Amy to Mom's classroom. When Merissa woke from her nap during math class, with that panicked look on her face, I was quicker! I grabbed the garbage and shoed her to restroom. She made it in time.

Today 3 more from my social studies class stayed home sick and 3 more went home sick... yikes.. when will it hit ME??? Hopefully, never!!

I am frustrated with kids who "don't get it" but don't want to accept responsibility for learning on their own at all. Kids who do their homework sometimes... who do not come before school or during seminar to get help... who won't participate in class...Kids who go home and tell parents we won't help them.. kids who lie.. kids who copy answers from math teacher text -- well, "see margin" does NOT make sense for an answer, DUH!! .... kids who think not doing work is an option....

I love the kids who come for extra help, who ask questions, who struggle and try and struggle and try and then finally the light bulb comes on and they are as excited as you that they've gotten it! I love kids who laugh at themselves and their mistakes and are willing to take a chance at being wrong. I love kids who are willing to make school a priority. I love kids who laugh and joke and ask to do more math problems because they think they might almost get it. I love kids who say do another example. I love kids who ask to redo their 85%. I love kids who dig through the bookshelves looking for another book by the same author. I love kids who come and get their work before they are gone for the rest of the day.

**sigh** thank goodness the I LOVE's outweigh the others by a ton...

:) We all need good days that follow bad ones... Today was a GOOD one. Yesterday, I did some butt chewing about the chapter test the day before, laying it on thick about how disappointed I was. I gave several examples of "bad answers", the ones that showed me the students did not even BOTHER to try to get the correct answer.

I spent about 20 minutes reviewing the highpoints of the chapter, gave back the tests with instructions to REDO. Amazingly enough, the scores soared. I felt a huge sigh of relief and a weight being lifted.

Today I brought in my cool new tech toy, a CPS Chalkboard, similar to a tablet computer but on a cheaper scale. All 3 of my math classes used it to sketch graphs. It was SOOOOOO much fun. We learned a lot about graphs, slopes, variables, independent and dependent variables, etc... but even more, we learned that we CAN laugh together and have fun learning.

The using the chalkboard is inherently laughter filled. It is tough to write with this stylus on a surface which does not show your marks. The projector image on the whiteboard seems to create itself as laughter from the drawer and the audience fills the classroom.

The highpoint of the day was when one of my better regular math kids decided to take the first try at the chalkboard. His line took on a mind of its own, right when I was taking a huge slug of my diet Mt. Dew. Frustrated, he yelled, "POOP!" which made everyone giggle including me with my mouthful of soda, which only spewed a little bit :-) It was just such a natural normal reaction and not a typical reaction for this usually quiet young man, it struck me off guard.

It was wonderful to end the week on a high note. I feel better.....

Sometimes, teaching seventh grade is like trying make a snowman in July or fish for ocean perch in your aquarium.

Such it seems is the case with my 2 math classes lately. We just finished the chapter on fractions. Now, please keep in mind that MOST of the chapter should have been review from about 4th grade on..... HOWEVER, MOST of my kids FAILED the test miserably.

I don't know what else to do. I really do not. They do not want to try, they do not want to practice, they do not want to do fractions. Repeatedly they tell me they have never done them before, they do not get them, they hate fractions, etc.....

It is a self-fullfilling prophecy with them, it really truly is. They cannot even take 3/4 and write it as a decimal! And, yes, I have shown them visuals, they have drawn them... we have talked about money... I have done everything I know to try to help them...

Do I force retakes like I usually do for less than 70%?? That would mean all but about 10 of the 40 would be retaking.

Do I let the train leave the station without them all onboard? Do I take more class time even when I think it will NOT make a difference at all???

Someone... please, tell me the answer!!

In the meantime, we are doing something else tomorrow.. totally unrelated..... please let them be more receptive and grant me patience..............

Back to school :-) Yesterday was our first day back and I will admit I was a bit reluctant to return after only a week and half off but now that I am here, wow, did I miss the kids!!

Social studies - we are starting research papers. I am quite sure I am in over my head with this project but I think my kids need to experience research from print sources. They will not be allowed to use the internet at all for this paper. They are so ingrained in the google, askjeeves, cut and paste world and I want them to really dig, learn, think, and reflect as they write. Our librarian will work with them Monday to teach them research skills. They each choose 3 countries in Europe they would like to research and gave reasons for their choices. From there, I assigned countries. Almost every student got his/her first choice.

I have tried to design the project with scaffolded parts to make it likely most will experience success. I do have some concerns with a couple of my students. I have 3 special ed kids and one major behavior problem in my class. I also have 3 who have chronic attendance problems. These will be the most challenging for me.

First -- notecards, then outline, then rough drafts... then, voila.. a final research paper!!

Part of me wanted to let them choose some topic, let this really be their own design, but I was worried with not being able to use the internet, sources might be difficult to find. Our small library is somewhat limited in its resources and I don't want that to be an issue.

Later in the year, we will do another paper, where they can choose their topic. Hopefully, this will set the stage for that experience.

My math class is finishing up the fractions chapter. YUCK!! I am as tired of it as the kids are. We are reviewing today and tomorrow with a short chapter test Monday. Their grades are overall low right now... partly due to the before break lazies, partly due to them hating fractions, and partly due to simple lack of effort on their part. They had one project before Christmas - to find a recipe, half it, and triple it.. half of my kids did not do it! they had 2 weeks to complete it but just did not bother! It is frustrating... it was a relatively easy assignment, fun... but so many of them just do not do something that must be done outside of class.

PreAlgebra is cruising right along. We are factoring monomials and they are doing GREAT. I love having a high group that just GETS IT!! I feel like we move at the speed of light in there compared to my other classes. I do feel badly sometimes that I don't take enough time to do "fun" things with them. That is my goal for this second semester. To find more activities to enrich their lessons which will be engaging and motivating.

Snow, snow, snow... we are in the mid winter gloomy days where I come to work in the dark, and often times, it is dark when I get home....