Co-Teaching Part 2

This post is really a quick shout-out and thanks to some of the people that have helped and are helping me along the way.

I've always believed in the power of co-teaching from day 1. In my student teaching experience, I was fortunate to work with my mentor teacher Mark Kreie ( @kreiem ) and Jarrod Huntimer. The three of use were able to work with an amazing group of students at Brookings High School in Brookings, SD. I owe quite a bit to the two gentlemen above.

Right now I am fortunate enough to have co-teachers in three classes and my advisory intervention. Kaeli Jantz ( @JantzKaeli ) is an amazing special education math teacher I work with in the morning.

 Mrs. Fields also joined us about a month ago to help with morning math classes. It is fantastic to be able to have three teacher in the room to help with questions, break into small groups, or deliver differentiated instruction.

In my final hour of the day Sue Scott ( @suescottinok ), our speech/drama/PE now 7th hour math teacher is helping me work with a very engaging group. With her help I am able to go on major relationship repair with most of the students in 7th hour and many of the kids are now excited for math!

Thank you to everyone who has or is currently co-teaching with me. The real winners are the students!

Why am I Here?

More of a ramble here...


Why am I here? Why do I continue to show up to school every day stressed and exhausted? The year has been a little more rough than I initially imagined...

I've fallen to the stresses that most young teachers have fallen prey to

1. Pressure from standardized testing
2. Lesson flops
3. Struggling classroom management
4. Large class sizes
5. Teaching in a low SES area

It's been a shock . There was so many awesome ideas I had picked up this summer. I was so excited to put them in use. I was going to teach these awesome lessons, have complete control of my room, earn the respect of my building teachers and administrators, climb to the top as a leader in my building and district, I would earn recognition as one of the best and youngest in my district etc.

Pronouns in the previous paragraph: I, I, I, my, my, my, I, and my. 

I think I might be forgetting 150 people in that paragraph

I had lost sight of the original goal. It's not about me, and it never has been. There's never going to be the fame or the fortune. That's not why I started but that's how it will end if it doesn't change.

So why am I here?

Definitely not for me.

Dr. Feedback: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Grades and Love the Learning

I've graded the following paper. Do you see the grade?

That is because there is no grade on the paper! I'm taking a new approach to my daily work this year. In the past I've found that once a student sees a grade on a piece of practice work the paper goes into the backpack (or worse yet the trash!) and is never seen again!

I read about a "no penalties for practice" approach when I was student teaching. In this method, detailed feedback is given, but no grade. This would, in theory, allow students to focus more on the learning, correcting mistakes, identifying strengths, etc. rather than a percent or letter.

This is what an "incomplete" paper would look like

I am still required to put in grades in my district, so if I can tell a student has put forth an honest effort in their work they will receive the points for the assignment. They will be able to see this on their student grade portal

There's no -1's, no 75%'s, no B+'s; only feedback.

I'll let everyone know how it goes throughout the school year! Let me know if you have tried a similar approach, or what you think of only including feedback on student work!

Summer PD and New Year

Hello World!

I'm back in the blog-o-sphere for the new school year!

I had an incredibly busy summer with a nice PD schedule:

Title I Summer School
EdCamp Kansas
EdCamp OKSDE
Engage OK
Advanced Placement Summer Institute OU
EPS IT 2015

@CathyBenge1 Leading a session on Curriculet at EPS IT 2015

Students work on completing a roller coaster during Title I Summer School

Manipulatives created during the Advanced Placement Summer Institue

Finished three books:

The First Days of School, Harry Wong
How the Brain Learns Math, David Sousa
The Power of a Teacher, Adam Lou Saenz

And participated in a book study!

Two weeks were spent in my classroom just starting to prep!

Can you tell whose door this is?

#notready classroom prep video

I've already survived day 1 of the new year, hope the next 179 are great!

See what else I'm up to on Twitter @iteach_kidsmath