Alternate Assessment

We had four days before Spring Break. I was looking for something different to do with my 8th graders to have them show me their understanding of percents. We had spent the previous week going over the basics: how to find discounts, how to apply sales tax, how to calculate tip, and how to use the simple interest formula. We had talked about so many real world scenarios while going through these concepts, that the last thing I wanted to do was have them complete the test from the book.

So, what to do? I quickly did a Google search to find an activity they could complete to show their understanding. I quickly found an activity on Application of Percents called Shopping Spree. In it, the students were asked to spend $2,500 to redecorate a room in their house. They were given a list of things they needed to purchase for each room. In addition, I also gave them a list of stores they could shop: Lowes, Home Depot, Bed Bath and Beyond were a few. They were also given percents off all items purchased from each of these stores. These discounts were in addition to any they found the stores were currently giving. Here are some observations from the week:

1. I heard three kids mention they found some items at home. I never mentioned it was homework, but they chose to do some of the work at home. I was shocked because two of them do not typically do anything outside of class.

2. There was no "getting class started". I had 15 8th graders entering the room, going right to their chromebooks, and getting started on the activity.

3. Discussion between students was mostly on topic. I had only a few times over four days that a couple students needed redirection.

4. The students knew who to go to for help. I saw several of them go to a couple of kids who they knew could help them set up Blogger. Others went to different kids who they knew understood how to calculate discounts well.

5. I could meet with the students for a few minutes while the rest of the class was working.

6. The students had a reason to learn the material and that was to apply it to the project.

7. I was surprised how many of them did not know how to do some basic things in Google Drive. We were able to work through things like setting up Blogger, linking Google Sheets to a Document, and sharing a Power Point. I tried to get them away from creating these, but was not successful with all of them.

8. I will need to see how they fared once we return from break. I was able to get most of the "grading" done while informally walking around. I already know they all have their math correct, so I just need to look at their reflections.

I am happy at how the week wound down with this class. I would like to think the activity was relevant and helped keep them focus before break. I will not know if this worked until I look at the products they produced. I had 15 8th graders working past the bell the day before Spring Break started. That is a win in my book.

Bumpy Road

We are starting the process of creating a home grown curriculum at my school. For years, we had a curriculum, but it was just a document that was mostly borrowed from another district. The fact that we did this is material for a separate post, I suspect, but I would like to focus on the steps we are working through as a staff to begin to create a document that is home grown.

Luckily, our principal signed us up for a new program in New Jersey called the CAR (Connected Action Roadmap) Pilot. This program, created by the department of education, is program that gets schools to maximize the work of their PLCs. After attending a workshop held by the department, the group of us went back to our school to begin to explain how the staff is going to begin our journey down the path of creating our home grown curriculum.

As we presented to the group, we explained the road map we were going to follow. As usually happens, we immediately began to face: "Why do we have to do this? How can I do this? I am not a curriculum person. Can't we just pay someone to do this?"

It became quickly apparent to the presenting group, we had our work cut out for us. See, the principal was using the feedback from a survey sent to the staff. The leading response was work on our curriculum, so we had feedback to help guide us toward the most urgent problem of the curriculum. Regardless of the feedback, we are still facing an uphill battle. There appears to be three groups:

The first group is the group that feels this is a waste of time. They do not see the need for doing this work. They are very happy with the way things are. How are we handling this group? By providing them with the big picture overview of our journey. We are giving them "pictures" of what the final product will look like. We are hoping this will help fill in the gaps they might have and get them motivated to work.

The second group is the indifferent group. This group is doing the work, but they are not really enthused about getting their hands dirty because they do not think they are qualified to do curriculum work. They would be okay if this initiative just died like so many others in education. How are we working with this group? First, by showing them they know more than they realize. We are taking small steps through each standard to guide them through the curriculum work.

The third group is the one that gets it. They have the big picture view and are comfortable with the standards and how important our curriculum is. How are we helping this group? Honestly, just by making sure they have the proper resources and staying out of their way. We are hoping this group will continue the dialogue with some of their colleagues from the other groups.

Honestly, we face these same situations working with our students. We have groups at different levels, and they need to be challenged at that appropriate level. The same steps need to be followed when we are implementing a new way of doing things with our staff. These adult learners are going to need the same patience, time and resources as the students in our classrooms. I think many times people assume that adults learn things a lot quicker than kids, but my experience tells me that assumption is incorrect.

Needless to say, we are moving along this journey as an entire staff. We will continue to provide the differentiated approaches to guiding the groups through this journey. We will have a lot of bumps along the way, but it is a journey we will face together.

Why Do You Do It?

My head was spinning with all the new information. I was having a hard time remembering the different programs and/or applications that were just shown to me. To be honest, I could not have remembered half of it if you offered me a million dollars to try and list them. I do remember saying to myself, as our tech guy was quickly leaving my class before we both had to head out to lunch duty, "This could change the way I do things."

The last few years, I have found myself uttering this same phrase repeatedly. Saying it to myself as I attend an EdCamp, participate in a Twitter chat, share information with my colleagues, and participate professional development sessions. To be honest, I am constantly searching for new ways to do things in my classroom: new projects, apps, getting the kids to blog, and implementing essential questions more consistently are just a few things over the years.

I had a friend of mine, who is not a teacher, ask me the other day: "Why do you do it? You have 20 years in, you know your material, the kids generally like you, so why keep pushing yourself?" I honestly did not have a very lengthly response. It was not full of a lot of teacher jargon using the latest catch phrases to make me sound effective as a teacher. I had a great interview response I was prepared to give, but found myself saying this simple sentence: "Because it is what I ask my students to do."

I work hard to walk the talk in my classroom. I want my students to see me making mistakes, challenging myself to learn more, asking questions of myself and others. I want them to see that learning stuff is fun. That figuring out a problem that we did not previously know can make us smile from ear to ear. That hard work can lead us to where we want to go. Things may not be handed to us, but that does not mean we can not have it. We just need to work harder for it.

How does this all relate to me being part of the Compelled Tribe Blogging challenge? I guess I was looking for another way to challenge myself. I know the importance of blogging regularly, but unlike exercise, it is not something I have implemented regularly. I am hoping my participation in this monthly activity will encourage me to be consistent in my reflection. If you are looking for a great post on constantly looking to get better, see this post by Rich Czyz (@RACzyz on Twitter) Titled Plussing. I think his post does a better job explaining why I am joining this project better than I could.

Oh, and what were the things our school's tech guy was showing me? How about Symbaloo, Desmos, and the latest search/citing choices through Google. If you have not taken a look at these, you really should. But be forewarned, you will have a headache from all of the new information. But, if we are doing it push ourselves and our students, then it is a pain worth getting.

My "Glass" Classroom

I love being inspired by other people. I love learning about the latest pedagogy, website or app to use in my classroom. Being a connected educator allows me to learn anytime anywhere.

The latest chance for me to implement the above mentioned scenario was this week when I noticed the topic on the weekly Twitter chat #Hacklearning. The topic was about creating a Glass Classroom. I was immediately interested in this topic. I have been implementing a few new ideas to try and increase the transparency in my classroom.

The first way is by increasing my use of Google Classroom. I am fortunate that all of the students have accounts for Google Drive. This allows us to utilize Google Classroom daily. I was able to find a way, with a lot of help from our tech guy, to link the assignments I put on Google Classroom to a google calendar that parents can access. My ultimate hope is that they sync this calendar with their own. Ideally, this would be great to have on their smartphones so they are updated instantly. I know I have some students that have done this to help with their organization. Sure beats the small spiral notebook I carried around with me in school!

Secondly, I have started diving into essential questions more in my classroom. My students were asked to spend a few weeks thinking about an essential question centered around the topic we are working on. For example, my Algebra students were working on factoring polynomials. As a result, I was asking them to consider a time in life when breaking something down, or simplifying it, can help us better solve a problem. I was thrilled with the responses I received. They ranged from a discussion of breaking down major league baseball to how a doctor breaks down symptoms to attempt to cure a patient. I am hoping to share these responses with you next week after I check with the authors.

I am also in the process of having the Blogger option made available for our 7th and 8th grade students. I am hoping this platform will give the students a platform to share their thinking and learning with a wider audience. This venture has taken a little longer than I would have liked because of administrative rights within the server. I am hopeful in the near future to be able share my students' thinking with you.

So, with all of these additions, do I have everyone on board? Absolutely not. I just had two students last week as me, rather disbelievingly, "You put our assignments on Google Classroom?" In addition, with my linking the assignments daily to a calendar, I still have a parent that will claim they were not made aware of a project due date. I am always looking to improve communication with everyone and feel the above additions are going to help me achieve that.

How do you share what goes on in your Glass Classroom? I would love to hear from you...

The Elephant in the Room

During our last PLC (Professional Learning Committee) meeting a couple of Tuesday's ago, I started a discussion with our math members about creating our own math curriculum. See, our district does not have one. Well, that is only partly true. We do have one, but it is basically copied from other districts, or just photocopied from the book company that we purchased our last book series from. I would really like to begin creating our own math curriculum. One that deals with the students we teach in our community. One that is put together by the experts in our school.

So, I started the discussion about creating a curriculum. Silence. I mean, utter silence. The kind of silence you "hear" when something really appalling just got spoken. I was momentarily taken aback. Individually when I spoke to several people, they agreed that we do need a curriculum. One that is homegrown by the teachers in the school would be idea. Now, however, that we are all together, there was silence. Do I just move onto the next thing on my agenda, or face the elephant in the room?

Well, I quickly decided that I should address the elephant in the room. I began asking questions: What are our concerns? Why the hesitation? Was I wrong with my assumption that a homegrown curriculum was important to the group? More importantly, I spent a lot of time listening. I addressed concerns when they came up. I tried to smooth things over when appropriate as well. I just wanted to keep the conversation going, hoping that if everyone's concerns were aired, we could then move closer to start work my curriculum idea...

As the meeting was winding down, I asked if at our next meeting we could meet with our grade partners to begin listing the skills that we feel our students should master by the end of each grade. This was met with quick agreement, so I could not wait for the next PLC meeting...

That meeting quickly arrived, and it was time to get to work on our "instructional map". I learned during the first meeting that many did not think they were qualified to do curriculum work, so I decided to omit that word from the meeting. The grade partners moved desks and began discussing what topics they felt should be mastered. It was great hearing the discussions that were going on. I think this was the first time, for some, that they actually shared with someone what they felt were important skills.

The Special Ed teachers enjoyed the process as well because they could join the group(s) where they taught. They also mentioned that this process is going to be very helpful for them so they can zero in on skills of their students in a more individualized way.

This meeting quickly ended before we could finish. We will, however, look to continue the next time we meet. I am seeing us taking the skills that we consider should be mastered in one grade, would be considered developing in the prior grade, and then considered introductory in the grade before that. For example: if we decide students should be able to multiply and divide fractions by the end of sixth grade, then we would expect that to be a developing skill in fifth grade, and introduced late in fourth grade.

I am seeing us then moving into creating different ways we will ask the students to demonstrate their understanding of each of these mastered topics. This should force us to discuss what we want our students to learn and how we want them to demonstrate that understanding. I think this "instructional map" work is going to be really important to our school and our students.

I am ultimately glad that I decided to address the "elephant in the room" a couple of meeting ago. I want to create a professional environment during our PLC meetings, but that can only happen if the people who attend feel they are being treated like professionals. I will keep you updated on our "instructional map" journey.

Am I Selling Out?

Well, it is official, I guess. My daughter signed the paper and put it in the mail. Weeks of asking her what she was going to do are finally over. Apparently she has known for weeks what she was going to do (we know that by what she was telling all of our friends), but not telling us "officially" until this weekend. If you have teenagers, you know exactly the game they like to play.

What was "the decision?" Yes, it does warrant lower case letters here. We are not talking LeBron James decision level, just an 8th grader deciding where she would like to go to high school...and it is not the local public high school...

This decision leaves me, in my opinion, stuck between a rock and a hard place. Yes, I am fully aware that this decision was not mine, but I am responsible for paying for it (along with my wife!) See, I have always been a proud card carrying member of my state's teachers' union. I will "discuss" with anyone how important a public education is. That teachers everywhere work very hard to give the best classroom experiences to every child. And my daughter would like to go to a catholic school?....

Her reasons are legit: the local high school is three times the size as the school she signed the letter for. For those of you familiar with New Jersey sports, our local high school is a Group 4. This is reserved for the largest schools in the state. Also, she really likes the religious classes they have to take (I guess the years of dragging her and her brother to church had an impact). And, I would agree, they do a great job of creating a real family atmosphere. All of these are definite positives....

But, the local high school is a quality school. I am all for school choice for students that are opting out of dangerous schools or even low-achieving schools. I have a problem with students that opt out of going to a school that there is nothing wrong with. I know choice is choice, but....

I know this is not about me, but why can't I shake this "selling out" feeling that I have? Am I now a hypocrite for all of those "discussions" I had with people about the importance of quality public education? How do I handle myself in future discussions if my own daughter does not "practice what I preach"?

Again, I know this is not about me. But, these are legitimate feelings/concerns that I have. I know my daughter will do a great job wherever she goes. I am very happy for her. I know, I understand the irony in that statement.

I guess I am using this space to try and work through my concerns. I have not changed my feelings about public school or public school teachers. I guess that commercial was right: "Having a baby changes everything." I just did not know the change would require eating a huge piece of humble pie.

Are there things you have eaten humble pie over since having children? Please share!

I am creating my own problems

Seems odd, right? How can a veteran teacher (20 years in puts me in that category) constantly create situations where he shoots himself in the foot? I do not mean once a day, but at least once a class period. You can see it starting. The frustration. The confusion. I guide them. I answer their questions (most, not all) and walk away. I leave some of their questions unanswered and defer to the group to help. Again, I walk away. The frustration increases....

Could I stop this? Could I sit down with the group and walk through step by step how to solve the problem? Could I keep them happy and quiet? Wouldn't that make class run smoother?

Yes, but I do not take the bait. I ask more questions. Harder questions. Questions that make them think. Questions that challenge the way they are use to looking at problems.

Some students do not like this scenario. They prefer I give them the answer. "Just tell me the answer! Why won't you help me?" I guide them to look at an area I notice is moving in the wrong direction and walk away. Again.

The bottom line is, I will not give in and simply provide them answers. They need to be able to work through scenarios and get it on their own. Often times, this leads to a rather chaotic classroom. I know things would be smoother if I kept peppering them with answers. The order would be kept. The room would be quiet. The students would be momentarily happy.

But again, I am choosing not to do that. I want the struggle. I want the frustration. Therefore, I need to handle the outbursts that accompany that from middle schoolers use to being given the answers. I want them thinking...

So, I will constantly be looking at ways to appropriately challenge the students in my room. ALL of them. Even the "low group". I will continue to push and prod and irritate and question. And walk away.

Because answers are great, but the journey is so much more rewarding. In time, I hope my students see that.