Chromebook Pilot, Week 2, Thursday

2nd Period:
Another assessment today: vertex form
Graded yesterday's assessment on solving by factoring.

I'm hopeful about these grades, but not counting my chickens. This is a skill they had seen before, but it was also the first skill they'd done online. 13/17 had A's or B's. Hoping I can grade today's assessments this afternoon.

Class itself was uneventful. As they finished their assessments, they finished anything unfinished and began on this cool assignment on transformations with complex numbers from . It's due for homework. It was a shortened period.

3rd Period:
I stayed fairly busy and had 17 kids working on 5 different assignments. That is a definite pro about having my website ready to go and access to the Chromebooks.

• A student who had zoned out the last 2 days went back to trying and asked for lots of help. He's a smart kid, but chooses when he wants to try to understand. He started over on Monday's lesson and seemed to have it by the end. I need to call home and see if we can get him to be more consistent.
• A student who had been "out" the last 10 days returned today. He's also a smart kid, but he makes poor decisions. He took this class last year, passed it and the EOC exam, but failed because of absences. Two days before his vacation, I had let him begin working ahead in the text. The idea was that he would let me know when he was ready to assess, and we'd go from there. When he finished our curriculum before everyone else, I was going to begin going over Math II with him.
• Another student had been missing the last 3 days returned. She was working on all sorts of skills that she is behind on. She somehow took Math II as a Freshman and is now taking Math I. So, sometimes she picks things up real quick, but her foundation is really weak. She also has issues with attendance. She has some reassessments to take, which I mentioned to her. She said she took one last week and tried to turn it in to me, but that I said I didn't need it. That's entirely possible. It's hard for me to remember this morning.
• The rest of the class were working on various things from the 3 main skills we'd done this week (including the one we started today--Addition and Subtraction of Polynomials).

4th Period:

Short and uneventful. They finished up Systems of Inequalities and began Addition and Subtraction of Polynomials. I had another student tell me that she understands the format and understands the material from the videos. Yay! Grading their assessments from yesterday now, but I don't expect the success that 2nd block had because we were so jumbled up and they had so much drama with the crying and all. I'll post it anyway.

3rd and 4th grades on Solving Systems of Equations:

	A's	B's	C's	D's	F's	Average:	Median:
3rd Block - Math I	1	5	2	3	2	66.2	70
4th Block - Honors Math I	6	5	0	0	2	78	89

SBG and Power of Words

I should be going to bed, but I was thinking about how I present standards-based grading. One thing has been gnawing on me since one of my admins asked me something. She was asking where I considered proficiency to be within my SBG. She and another science teacher started it last year and she's giving a PD to volunteers next week. I have a 4-point scale. We have a 10-point grading scale. I used a book by Marzano to come up with this scale 2 years ago and I'm happy with it. Do I consider proficient to be level 2? Level 3? Level 4? Does it change per student? Is it universal? I go with level 3. That's mid-B level work. Level 4 is 100%. Level three and a little understanding of application gets them to an A. I'm totally cool with that (though alternate viewpoints are welcome).

But. BUT. BUT!

I don't think I've expressed to my students how much this 4-point scale means to me and how much thought I put into it. Additionally, I use the carrot of "reassessment" waaaay too much (to ease the pressure). My link for them to request even says "Reassess". I think I need to make a major point of expressing how I came up with the 4-point scale and why the scale is important (and not necessarily the grade). I need to have them define what proficient and mastery means to them. I also need to make a change in vocabulary from "reassessment opportunities" to "opportunities to further knowledge" or some such. (It does need to be short enough to make a good bitly.) The reassessment will come as a natural progression. I'm really hoping that these rubric for each skill will eliminate a good portion of reassessments (or at least the mandatory ones for D's and F's) and that it will create a natural path for "opportunities to further knowledge" (or some such).

"Learning Ops"?
"Re-learning Ops"?
"Extra man"?
"Continuing Learning Ops?"
"Do Over"

I need help here. I'm certainly open to suggestions below.

Chromebook Pilot, Week 2, Wednesday

Phew! Today was pretty quiet. I gave each class an assessment at the beginning of class. These are the first assessments since we got the Chromebooks, but they didn't have the rubrics for skills last week. Not really sure what to expect. The assessments follow the note packets, so I expect the go-getters to do great and the middle kids to do middling, and, well, you know. I am more excited to assess on the things we did this week with the Chromebooks AND rubrics (and a few more days doing it under our belts). I will try to grade and post the results broken down so that I can track them.

2nd Period - Honors Math III
We had an assessment. I had a typo on the Level 4 problem. I stopped the test, wrote the correction on the board and told everyone to correct it right then. Of course, I noticed at least two kids who didn't change it. It was factoring, so they were fighting an unwinnable battle.

After the assessment, they worked on Arithmetic with Complex Numbers. When all tests were in, I called over 4 students who have struggled here and there so we could do the video together. I also called over the girl who felt like she wasn't getting enough support. She remained silent the whole class and she left the chocolate I gave the five of them on her desk when she left. Hey, I'm not above bribes...

I liked having the direct instruction with these students. They need it. But, because of time restrictions, I wasn't able to have group discussions about today's lesson. We are continuing it tomorrow, so I'll give a bell ringer to assess where they are, but we also have an assessment and class is cut 15 minutes short for the Powderpuff game. I guess I'm going to keep doing this with them for a week or two until they get comfortable with watching the videos and knowing when and how to ask questions.

I've told two students that I will make a mini-project for them to assess Arc Length and Sector Area. They get it in class and one-on-one, but space out when they assess. Part of my two-year plan is to have one hands-on application per week and one alternative assessment per week. I'm also going to phase in blogging and/or YouTube videos. I might wait till the Spring for that. I have all Math I's and all of this foundation work will be (mostly) complete.

3rd Period - Math I

They had an assessment. It was really brief. I'll be honest. I delayed assessments last week because I didn't want to stress them (and myself) out any more than adding the Chromebooks. Also, my dad is coming in this weekend, so I won't be able to spend the 10-20 hours that I have been on my laptop. I didn't want to give two classes 3 assessments on Graphing, Substitution, and Elimination and another assessment on Friday, so I gave them this. When they were done, they continued Systems of Linear Inequalities from yesterday. We began Ohio Jones (which they usually love). I was able to get with three students for remediation on graphing lines in slope-intercept form.

4th Period - Honors Math I

They had the same assessment as 3rd. Also continued Systems of Linear Inequalities. We jumped into Ohio Jones about 10 minutes after everyone was finished with their tests. I corrected a few misconceptions (have to remember to get pictures!). Towards the end of class, a few began to grumble about homework and it taking too long and Church and Soccer and going to the Movies. I shut them down quick! The bellyaching from that class is really starting to wear on my nerves. I told them I didn't want to spend another day on this skill. I didn't really want to spend two. I asked who needed to practice again tomorrow and they all said they know it. I agreed and gave them the option of finishing their practice problems or finishing Ohio Jones. They also have to complete their Application problems and finish their rubric for Friday's test on Linear Inequalities. At least they ask about homework. I neglected to tell 3rd Period the same...

Chromebook Pilot, Week 2, Tuesday

2nd Period - Honors Math III

Half the class was gone to an assembly.
I let those who remained catch up on anything they had to catch up on for the first 45 minutes. They asked some good Q's about the Application problems from last night.

I took the questions from the rubric and cut/paste them into Socrative. I wanted to experiment and see if they liked it, etc. I did the teacher-driven option. I didn't like that very much (as opposed to student-driven). Kids didn't keep themselves busy when they were done with the question. But I found out that I could close my tab and keep the quiz open! This would be even awesomer if I could have more than one "quiz" at a time...

3rd Period - Math I
I decided to use Socrative as they went through the video. I made a quick quiz with generic questions relating to Examples 1-4 in their packet. "How do you know an ordered pair is a solution to a system of inequalities, given the inequalities?", etc. They were supposed to type in their summaries after each example and before moving on the the next example. When (most) everyone was done, they discussed their responses for 90 seconds and we came together as a group to talked about it. This went alright. Some people moved a lot faster (which is the point) but I hated waiting soooo long to do the first question because everyone is SOOOO quiet and I have nothing to do but walk around and snoop their work (bug them).

4th Period - Honors Math I
Most of the class wasn't finished with their homework from the night before and some complained when I told them we were moving on. I told them to finish practice, review, and application. I was very disappointed. On the flip side, I spoke to the ones who were complaining and personally invited them to watch the video with me. They said that now that we've had class a few times, they are understanding it. Go figure. I'll take it, though.

Problems:
Still working out the kinks with getting them to engage in math talks.

Solutions
Have the class vote on the best summary/summaries or have them get back in groups once we've read through them to make the best one they can. Write them down. I think that there will be more discussion once they get used to the routine and when we hit more difficult material. For now, I'm going to focus on writing high-quality summaries together.

Back to 2nd...
So, I don't like drama. I run away from it. I avoid confrontation. My friends are laughing if they are reading this, but in social settings, I ALWAYS avoid confrontation. Anyway, the parent who scheduled the meeting I was supposed to have on Wednesday cancelled via email. Highlights below.

We feel like it would be wasting your time as well as ours...She has always done well in Math and likes to learn from her teachers. It's difficult to learn Math on your own and feel like you have no support....We feel like it doesn't matter what we say, things will not change...I really hope you will think about all the concerns that your students are having and will do your best to make them all feel successful.

I was blown away! Should I send a link to my blog? Just kidding. But, seriously. I've never met them. They didn't come to open house. And I was really looking forward to discussing the situation with them and their daughter. I wanted to explain that she has more support in a classroom than she has ever had. That by doing what we are doing, I have much MORE time for one-on-one help. That she has peers she can ask and the WORLD at her fingertips. I wanted to explain standards-based grading and our remediation/enrichment time. I wanted to explain my skill rubrics and our guided notes. And that these are things I had done AS a response to student concerns THIS semester. But, instead, I get this.

After class, I asked the daughter why she felt she wasn't being supported and what else I could do. I pointed out that she hadn't scheduled a reassessment for the one she did poorly on (she currently is two points from an A) and that, the past two classes, when I invited people to come over for direct instruction, she didn't come. Her response: "I don't want to be taught by you." My ears are still burning 5.5 hours later.

I lose sleep at night. I take things very personally. It doesn't get any more personal than this. I guess the good thing is that I have 12 weeks to change her mind...

Chromebook Pilot, Observations from Week 2 - Monday

Monday

2nd Period, Honors Math III
I did have a student ask me a question and I replied by asking him how he was hearing the video without the volume up or wearing earplugs. I realized that I needed to specify that everyone needed to "listen to" as well as "watch" the videos. It also made me realize that I needed to specify that you can't listen to music and the video at the same time. Krystal Kirch mentioned similar problems when she started several years ago. I shoulda learned... I offered to walk through the video at the front of the room with anyone who was interested. No one took me up on it, so I roamed around the room, answering questions.

After everyone had finished watching the video, I had them discuss for two minutes straight in their groups. We came together as a class and summarized each part. It went okay, but I want more talking throughout!

I should mention that, on Friday morning, one parent in this class requested a meeting with me (and an admin!) for Wednesday. This was after only two days of doing math with the Chromebooks and new setup. Don't know what it's about other than she wants to make sure her daughter's needs are met.

3rd Period, Math I
My regular Math I class is jumping on it with no complaints. My only complaint is that they are too quiet, so, I interrupted twice during the video (after they had finished each example) and let them discuss, followed by whole-class discussion. The two minutes they are talking is great, but they are all so quiet when watching the videos. I tell them not to continue while confused and to ask for clarification, but they don't, yet.

4th Period, Honors Math I
I didn't mention the questionnaire. I'm not ready to discuss it, yet. They did well today, but some are complaining about "too much work". I promise I haven't given them too much work. Not even close. I hope some of them aren't becoming students who complain just to complain.

To Do:
Several assessments and rubrics
Set up the website for the rest of the week

Problems

• Too quiet!!!

Solutions:

• ??? Time? Something more complicated than graphing linear inequalities?

I was going to post a week's at a time, but Tuesday was eventful, so I'm going to go ahead and get Monday out of the way.

Chromebook Pilot, Observations from Week 1

Observations from Week 1 of the Chromebook Pilot

So... I made two girls cry on Thursday. I mean, I didn't make them, but they did. Two freshmen in Honors Math I. They, and several others in the class, are overwhelmed with the new technology and the weight being placed upon them to be responsible for their own education (my vision), while others in the class are getting bored from going too slow. (A parent of a student has also requested a meeting this week.)

Let me set the scene:

Background
I had been telling all of my classes about the Chromebooks since the beginning of the year. Once we learned we were going to get them, the Honors Math I class was the most excited. I spent 15-25 hours last weekend watching videos, reading, and researching how I wanted to implement these things, and then making websites, organizing Google Classroom, making documents, etc. I am actually saving myself a lot of work by using the materials that the Algebros have already set up. I saw them at the NCMT annual meeting in New Orleans two years ago when I was thinking about flipping. They are awesome. Part of my two-year plan is to replace all of their materials with my own, but, for now, I am borrowing. I don't have time to recreate all of these things. :/

I have been doing SBG for 2 years, so my frame work is pretty good. But I want to create rubrics for each skill (and each class). Something like this. By using the Algebros materials, I hope to have enough time to create the skill rubrics. We have been making skill lists (I can...) per unit ahead of time, but the rubrics would be a lot more effective. As a part of using SBG, I make students reassess if they produce a D or lower and I let them reassess for anything higher if they request it. It's a little more work, but not too bad because most assessments only have 4 questions (ish), so it's not too tough to make a new one. Also, because I've been doing this for two years, my bank of assessments is up to 5 for some skills--I just need to come up with a way to remember who took what so that I don't give the students the same test as a reassessment. My strategy right now is to always make a new one...

I want to be able to do Genius Hour. I told them this. I shouldn't have. At least, not until we found our groove. There are some students who are very excited about this, but I shouldn't have mentioned it until I was sure what my framework for each week was going to be.

Monday
On Monday, we did zero math. I guided them through their Chromebooks, setting up bookmarks and realizing we didn't have the rights to download extensions and apps. I guided them through Classroom and where to find assignments, etc. I showed them my website and introduced the Algebros. I shared with them My Vision and the tech 10 Commandments that the district made and I really like.

Tuesday
I walked them through their first lesson. We got to different points for each of the classes. The Honors Math I class made the least progress because I kept blathering on about how awesome I thought this was going to be and what all of the benefits were. We watched the video together. I paused it and told them what I thought they should write down in their matching packets. I didn't have printed packets for the Honors Math I class. Dropped the ball.

Wednesday
Lilly woke up and said she was going to spew. Lilly is rarely sick and is a much better sickie than me. I had to make a quick decision to make and decided to stay home. She was fine by lunch. I told her that from here on out I was doing what my mom did. "I'm going to drop you off at school, but if you still feel bad at lunch, call me and I'll come get you."

As far as my classes went, I made new assignments and announcements on Google Classroom and was insistent that they email if they had questions. I received a few, received one an hour late, and never received some that were sent. On top of that, either Google screwed up or I did, but the Classroom links were mixed up for the Honors I class. At this point, were I in that class, I'd be a little freaked out. But I didn't think about it. This is one of my favorite groups in years...

Thursday
I don't know what happened. I showed up. Several in Honors Math I complained about things while the other two classes were fairly submissive/responsive. It bothered me because this class didn't offer solutions and really weren't specific about what they didn't like. It was more of "I'm not good with technology." I lost my patience and asked why they didn't ask questions on Tuesday or why I wasn't emailed on Wednesday. I asked, impatiently, what exactly the problem was and received nothing more than "it just sucks".

I moved on, going over the next video with them and noticed two girls in the back crying. :( I continued on until I could get to a point where the video could continue without me and went to the back to ask what was wrong. They were worried about their grades. I asked if they meant that they feared they wouldn't get to learn it to the depth they wanted. They couldn't really answer. I assured them that I wasn't going to abandon them or let them fail their goals. We then moved over to our new whiteboard table (!!!) and worked through the examples together. They still sniffled for 15 minutes. A couple other students joined us. Class ended and I asked that they not hate me. They said they didn't. I was shaken. I had things planned for the upcoming Monday that would have relieved their worries had we made it that long, but we didn't. In my excitement, I rushed things.

Friday
I rearranged the room. I left 6 seats in front of the projector and whiteboard for those who wanted direct instruction (me guiding them through the video so that they will eventually get there on their own). I arranged the rest of the desks in pods of 4 and moved the whiteboard table to the middle of the room. The other two classes took to it. I had some who wanted direct instruction. Others grouped up. Some worked alone. Honors I all grouped up. No one working alone. I announced I'd be at the white board table hoping for visitors. Some came, some raised their hand and I went to them. Others worked together.

At the end of two classes, I posted a 2-question Google Form about the setup. The regular Math I class averaged 3.85 out of 5 and didn't have any suggestions or complaints. All reported a happiness of 3 or higher. The Honor Math I averaged less than 3. They had six 1's or 2's, two 3's, and four 4's or 5's. And they left comments. Not surprisingly, there were a couple about me being short with them. Anyway, with the inspiration that Crystal Kirch and her comprehensive introspection, I decided to address each (negative) point. I'm still not sure how I will use this Monday. In one aspect, I want to continue without pause, in another, I want to regain the trust they had in me before last week. We have had so much fun and they keep adding names to my title (and I've added a few). We are up to Mr. Professor Executive Boss Man Master Buzzkill Morris. Anyway, here are my responses. Again, not sure what I will do with these. I think I'll read through them Monday and reword some in a positive light without reducing my sense of indignation at the one...

I was going to type up the bullet points below, but I need to do actual work and not just talk about it.

What to do next semester
Introduce each part slowly.
Be more prepared.
Comfort and reassure along the way.

Comments, questions, constructive criticisms? Please comment below.

To do this weekend:

• Weekly calendar and checklist
• Assessments

Problems

• pacing
• pre-assessing
• working together

Solutions:

• Introduce it more slowly-Kirch
• Emphasize even more that I won't abandon them and I'm not not going to teach them.
• Organize more-I rushed it.
• Re-emphasize the times I'm available outside of class time.
• Teamwork-
• no music?
• WSQ time - (Again, Kirch)
• reorganized my room, teaching area, whiteboard table, groups

To do in the near future:

• One mini-project assessment per week
• video a lesson
• hands on
• create a desmos lesson
• create application problems
• apply skill to real world
• Create google forms/socrative etc. pre-assessments

To do in the far future:

• Make my own videos and packets
• Make my own preassessments
• Google script and random variables

Strings attached--Meetings and what the district wants/expects

Chromebook Pilot, Intro

Chromebook Pilot - An Introduction

I've abandoned some of the many things I've had on my ginormous to-do list. I've decided to focus strictly on SBG and creating self-contained lessons that students can complete at their own pace and I'm going to take my time. I envision doing these two things exclusively through the end of the year and, depending on how much work I get done this summer, possibly next year, too.

Why?

Two reasons.

First, I moved to a new state and am now teaching in beautiful western North Carolina! My new school began implementing the DeFour's PLC ideas last year. And what they are doing, producing "I Can" statements and looking to create common, formative assessments, meshes perfectly with SBG. In fact, I have come in with a lot of what they are trying to do already done, which allows us to get even more done!

Second, our district is thinking about going 1-to-1 next year and decided to have two teachers at each of the four high schools pilot classroom sets of Chromebooks. It was an application-based decision and I was lucky enough to be one of the two chosen for my school. We are a Google Apps for Education district and each student has their own account. This means that I can implement all of my ideas for flipping, but within the confines of the classroom. I should mention that the set stays in the classroom--every student didn't get one.

I am going to try to blog my experience going through the pilot as well as any ideas I have concerning SBG, though, at this point, I have been doing SBG for almost 3 years and have a good framework for what I'm doing.

Anyway, wish me luck.  I know this will be awesome down the road, I'm just hoping it's awesome for these kids. I saw something on FB or Twitter the other day that said something like, "I wish I could go back and apologize to all of the kids I taught earlier because I'm a much better teacher now.".  I echo that sentiment. In fact, on my cover letters, the last sentence is:

The day I stop trying to innovate in my classroom is the day I need to leave it.

Now, if I could just stop redoing everything every year...