And finally... Flipgrid!

For those that follow me on #Twitter, you know I have been spending my summer learning about Flipgrid.  For those that don't know, Flipgrid is a platform that allows educators to post questions to students and allows those students to respond via video to both the teacher and each other.

Or at least on the most basic level, that is what it is. Truthfully there is far more power in this platform.  And that is what I have been learning over the summer - how to begin to incorporate Flipgrid into my classroom routines.  What has been wonderful is anytime I had a question, I could post it to #twitter and either someone in my #PLN or someone from Flipgrid itself would reply. In fact last night I wrote a direct message to Flipgrid about some settings and there was a reply to me within two hours!

I decided to start to incorporate this into my remediation class. This year I am teaching a class that focuses on Executive Function Skills and then applies those skills to writing. The students in this class have difficulties with organization, planning, prioritizing, noticing details... the very skills you need for both writing and to be a successful student.

On the first academic day of class, I gave the students a writing prompt: "You win $1 million. How do you spend the money?"  I told them I'd give them ten minutes and at the end of ten minutes they had to submit their response. They could not press 'post' until all 10 minutes were up and they weren't allowed to do anything else for those ten minutes.

After 10 minutes, they posted their writings. I gathered them into one document and as a class we analyzed them - not for anything more than word count. I gave the class the data and after some math, students calculated that the average length of a response was about 20 words, so as a class they wrote just about 2 words per minute.

We discussed the expected length of a 10 minute writing prompt as well as the outline.  At Marburn we use Keys to Literacy and talk about pre-writing as a major component of the writing process.  You can imagine the reactions: "Pre-writing doesn't work for me." "I just write my ideas and that's my sentences." "Why pre-write when I can just start writing!"  After some lessons about what pre-writing looks like, I introduced them to Flipgrid and told them we would be making a video to record their pre-writing. The prompt that day was, "What I did over the weekend."

Students took to the video format pretty well. I explained they would have up to one minute of time to introduce themselves and talk about their weekend in as much detail as they could. Later that day I was able to watch each video and comment back to each of them a summary of their video, with notes organized by day.  The next class period, I explained they would have three to five minutes to turn my notes into organized thoughts. Students took these teacher-generated comments and turned them into a top-down web. From there they did a two-minute written response to the original question.

What did they discover?  In those two minutes of writing, the average response was 32 words long meaning a student wrote an average of 16 words per minute.  One student was particularly stunned by the result: "So we wrote eight times more?" Yes - you wrote more words per minute AND more words overall even though you had 8 fewer minutes of 'writing' time. We talked about the amount of 'time on task' was exactly the same: 10 minutes. This broke down into 1 minute of a video, 3 minutes of summary (done by a teacher this time, with the knowledge that they would slowly add this skill in themselves), 4 minutes of building a top down web, and 2 minutes of writing.

It was a powerful lesson and one that I was so glad to present. Many of these students have not had an opportunity to see the 'why' behind the pre-writing. This process, with Flipgrid adding some technological support, gave them the justification.  I'm so excited to continue to explore Flipgrid and the educational applications it could provide!

Support Systems

This meme came across my feed recently. It's message has been rattling around my head the past week and I've really been reflecting on the meaning as it applies to my life. I am so blessed to have such a supportive system around me.

This to me boiled down to these questions:  Who takes care of you?  Who do you allow into your life? How do you let them help you?

For me the answer fell into many buckets:

My family: I am blessed with an amazing family. My wife and I just celebrated the 24th anniversary of our first date. We just watched our older child start college and our younger one start 8th grade. We all have different goals and dreams, and we all support each other. I have some crazy ones: between my ultra running, my teaching schedule, and my American Sign Language class, so many hours of my week are consumed by non-family events.

My wife and kids have similar craziness: work schedules, orchestra, college, my kid's home baking business... the list is exhaustive. It would be easy for everyone to say "sorry too busy" when one of us had a special event.

But we don't. We make sure to sit down and have dinner most nights and family game nights a few times a month. We get to school events. We attend all of the children's concerts. There is never a question of "are we going" but more of a "what time do we have to be home to get there on time?"

My school: I work at a school that encourages me to develop myself professionally. I really want to present more, and so the leaders of my school encouraged me to apply to present at AMLE 2019 for a third time. When we found out that my proposal was accepted, they celebrated as much as I did. When we discovered that the conference would happen the same week as our trip to Washington D.C, they looked for any way possible for me to attend. When that didn't work out, they said they expected me to present in 2020.

The administration challenges me to improve my craft and lets me develop the leadership skills I want to evolve and expand. When I have an idea or observation, I'm comfortable bringing it to my team leaders.

see you in Baltimore!

My friends: There are so many people in this category. I have friends that can join me on a long run and process my school day or some activities I have in mind. I have friends that I can go out to dinner with to vent or chat. I have friends that enjoy game nights and friends that I can just talk to over instant messenger since they are no longer local. Some of them I've only known a year or so, and others I have known since I was in high school. I value all of them and hope I bring as much value to their lives as they do to mine.

My #PLN: I can't count the number of times I have logged onto twitter with a question or idea and had replies within the hour. I don't understand why more teachers (or other professionals) do not take advantage of this resource. We build ideas on ideas, develop thoughts, and help share what worked for us. I'm launching my FlipGrid lessons this week SPECIFICALLY with feedback from people in my PLN. When I have a bad day, lesson, or idea, these people help me get back on track.

As we are getting into the opening stretch of the school year, I'd encourage you to think about your support group and how they will make your year amazing.

Checking In: One week of relationship building.

How is everyone doing with building those relationships?  We are one week into school now, so here are some of the activities we have done to start the year.

At lunch today I went table by table.  I  said each student's name and if I didn't know it or remember it, I asked their name. It became a game with them, with many  of them hoping I'd get it wrong (some of them  got their wish...)  I'll head  to lunch again Thursday and quiz myself on the students that I missed.

This is a great way to show them application of study skills: practice, get some wrong, focus on the ones you got wrong, practice again, repeat as necessary... keep practicing.

In science  we practiced the art of "observation" vs. "inferences."  My co-teacher developed this idea for Social Studies and adapted it to Science.  It is pretty brilliant...

Students were given envelopes filled with personal effects from my past. These included a train schedule, a class photo of me with my first students (dated sometime last century,)  some hockey cards, and a number of other items. These items were broken into four envelopes.

What the heck is this thing?

On top of these four envelopes, students also got to investigate two personal spaces: My desk and my car. Now, let me ask you. When was the last time you let students go through your desk? Would you let them?

Here is what my students discovered: I like snacks. and tea. a lot. In fact one drawer was FULL of these things. They saw lots of Rubik's cubes and NASA items. They saw a $1 bill in my top drawer. There were pens, pencils, former students' work, and lots of chocolate. And yes, that $1 bill was still in my desk at the end of the activity.

My car was less exciting, but they were all curious about my 'mascots.'  On my dashboard I have Pain & Panic (from Disney's Hercules), White Rabbit (from Alice in Wonderland), a small rubber duck, and a children's block.

Ideally in the following days the students will have to build as much of my life story as they can: Where have I lived? Who is in my family? What are my hobbies? How far back in my life  can you go? Why can't you go back further? Can you finally figure out how old I am? Why did I chose to keep those things in the car?

As the year progresses, we will connect this activity to many of the scientific concepts we will be studying: geological time scales, Earth's changing features, fault lines, and more.

I hope everyone's first few days have been wonderful.  I'd love to hear how things are going!

Getting Started On The Right Foot

As I get ready to start my school year, I found myself reflecting on some of the skills and strategies that lead to a strong start.  Now, as you read them I know you'll think that since I'm writing it, I must be great at these skills. Hardly. These are the ones that I know are important for both short and long term success in a year, but many of them are ones I struggle with enacting.

Now this list is in no way fully comprehensive. There are many thoughts I had that would be important, but for me these are the ones I need to remember to put into practice.  These are presented in no particular order.... except this one:

LEARN YOUR STUDENT'S NAMES. 

Nothing on this list can help you have a more successful start and finish to a year than this.  You will be asking your students to get out of their comfort zone on a very regular basis. They need to trust they will be safe. Nothing breaks that trust more than saying "hey... um... you." There are many layers to emotional safety, but none are higher than you knowing that child's name. "Hey you, the volleyball player that likes MCR" is really not as effective as "Hey, Sasha! What was the name of the band you were talking about last week?"

Practice their names. Say them correctly; ask if you are unsure. Don't give them a nickname because "the name is too hard to say" or "too tricky to remember."  Challenge them to quiz you in the halls and at lunch. Give them a high five when you get it right. Give them a high five when they have to correct you.

Learn. Their. Names.

Establish procedures and protocols in your classroom.

If you have particular ways to hand in work, check in assignments, enter the room, or ask to use the restroom, make sure they know them. Practice these in detail the first few days. Explain them as expectations, not as discussion points.  If the procedure is important to you, stop class when it isn't followed.

Contact your families

As early as you can in the year, contact the families of all of your students. Call, e-mail, send a letter home. Whatever works best for your situation. Let them know how happy you are that their child is in your room. Let them know how well they are adjusting to their new grade/classroom/school. Invite them to contact you should they have questions or concerns. That one call or e-mail makes trickier conversations later in the year go much easier.

Schedule you time

The school year is a marathon, not a sprint. You need aid stations to get through it. Whether time is spent reading (for pleasure, not professional development), hanging out with friends (and not talking about lessons or students), blogging (about things other than work), Netflix... whatever. Find time for non-work-anything activities. No e-mail, updating grade books, looking at student work, or focusing on lessons. Schedule 'you time' on your google calendar. Make it sacrosanct.

Be kind to yourself 

Give yourself some grace. We preach to students that mistakes are expected. We tell them it's ok to misunderstand directions. We encourage them to push their limit knowing they'll fall along the way. We tell them "you're just doing this for the first time, of course you'll make a mistake!" Well, this is the first time you're teaching this curriculum to these specific students. If it is ok for them to make mistakes, it's ok for you to make mistakes as well.

Reflect

But focus on the positives. Ask yourself, "What went well about my day?" before you get into, "what would I have changed?" SO often as educators we focus on the one group that didn't get the concept, the one student that caused a disruption, or the one part of the lesson that bombed. Start with positives. Then, anytime you reflect on a negative say, "yup, but (this) and (this) went well."


There are many many more thoughts on my mind that could be on this list.  I'm curious what would you add? Leave a comment below about something that I missed that is on your essentials list!

The Most Important Classroom Supply

A very good friend of mine is going to be returning to the classroom after a number of years away. She was amazed at all the changes within the classroom and posted a question for her friends on Facebook:

Teacher friends I need to know must haves for the classroom. All of my supplies are in transit and I will be setting up my 4th grade classroom in a week!

She received the expected responses: whiteboards and markers, paper, pencils... Some responses got a little deeper and realistic: lunch money for kids that don't have it, some breakfast snacks, playground balls.

Where do all of these supplies come from?  According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 94% of teachers purchase supplies for their own classroom. The age of the students, the average student's family income, location in the country, rural, urban - none of those impact that statistic. The average amount spent? Between $450 and $550 per teacher.  Multiply that by 3.7 million teachers in America and you get $1.85 billion spent by teachers out of their own pockets for the 2019-2020 school year,

Many teachers have resorted to doing crowdfunding, such as gofundme.org or #ClearTheList, to help defray some of these costs.  But now, districts are starting to restrict these options.  A few teachers that I know locally have been told they may not do any sort of crowdfunding for their classroom and more globally through Ohio districts are wary about the risks of this income, specifically the concern of how it might be spent and who owns the supplies should the teacher leave the classroom.

This leads to my thought on classroom supplies...  My response to my friend's post was somewhat different than the others:

"For me it isn't the 'stuff' - it is the presentation and passion - integrate the math with the writing. show how social studies is impacted by science. Show them how they are important to the community. Show them that they are loved. You have so much empathy and compassion. Bring that and everything else will fall into place."

I am not saying that a classroom can survive on passion alone. A classroom needs supplies - notebooks, pencils, paper, and novels (yes novels, even in math class) are just the basics. However, even the best supplied classroom - one with a full stock of interactive notebooks, properly labeled binders, post-its, standing desks, and a 1:1 iPad program - will not succeed unless the teacher is trained and passionate.  How I interact with my students is far more important than any type of physical supply you can put in my room.

To all of the teachers that are starting up in the next few weeks - good luck, enjoy building those relationships with the students, and remember the kids that need you the most are the ones that may show it the least.

The teacher is the most important resource in any learning environment.  

Year Twenty-Two... AND GO!

Twenty-plus years ago I was finishing my first month of my first year of teaching.  I was working in an elementary classroom in Cathedral City, California (in the Palm Springs area.) This school ran a year-round schedule with four tracks of classrooms.  Each track followed a 3-month-on 1-month-off rotation, so at any given time 75% of the school was in session while 25% of the school was on break. 

I can remember so much of those first couple of years. I remember my very first day with my very first class. Well. I remember going over the roster, introducing myself and glancing at the door, waiting for a supervising teacher or administrator to come through it. 

I realized that nobody was coming. This was my first class. These students were mine. Their education was literally in my control. I remember the long silence that followed as the class stared at me for direction. 

The emotions I felt at that moment were strong, the memory of them etched deeply.  I was so thankful for two veteran teachers that reached out and helped me through that first year: Mrs. Rouse and Mrs. McClintock. Two decades later I remember their names, their faces, and their kind acts.  I remember all the time they gave to me asking them what felt like the most basic of questions. They answered my questions, gave me sage advice, and let me cry in their room during prep time. 

I have lost touch with them over the years, but the two of them are forever etched in that same first-year memory.

Here I am over two decades later and now working with amazing teachers that weren’t even born when I started my teaching path.  I’ve become the veteran, getting asked questions and pretending I know the answers.  I’ve been asked to help design programs and schedules, representing our math division as the math chair, and still I am actively seeking more leadership and presenter opportunities. 

Dave Burgess of Teach Like A Pirate and Dave Burgess Consulting asked an amazing question to the twitterverse this week: What are you most excited about for the upcoming school year?

My answer is simple: I'm excited to continue to find that first-year-teacher-fear. I'm excited to continue to do things both in and out of the classroom that scare me.  I'm excited to stay outside of my comfort zone and provide support for others so they have the confidence to do the same. 

After all, as educators we are CONSTANTLY asking our students to challenge themselves. We owe it to them to show that we live that same path. 

The Fun of March Mathness!

This is, arguably, the most wonderful math-time of the year. I just happen to be teaching probability during the NCAA tourney. It is the perfect one-two punch - math with a high level of engagement!


This all starts with a game of coin flipping. Who can be the best of the best at flipping coins? We discuss probability, make connections to powers of two, create tree diagrams... then March Mathness begins.


"Did you know that Warren Buffett has offered $1 billion to anyone that picks a perfect bracket?"


"Wow, that's crazy!"


"How can he afford that?"


"Can you do more than one bracket? That improves your chances!"

We go back to the probability of picking 4 flips correctly (1 in 16) and make some predictions. I have each student complete a region of the bracket, which is 15 games. They predict what the theoretical probability will be for getting all 15 games correct. Guesses range from 1 in 100 to 1 in 20000.


I let them on the calculator and they discover the answer: 1 in 32,768.


Ok that's a big number. so then we talked about the entire tournament: all 63 games. What is the theoretical probability of picking all 63 correct?


Students used some logic to say about 1 in 128,000 since 32*4 (regions) is 128. others went slightly higher: 1 in 1 million, 50 million. One student said 1 in 37 trillion. Students laughed and he did too, figuring he was way over the mark.


We then head over to Wolfram Alpha where we investigate large numbers.


Eyes go wide as jaws drop. Students try to decode how to say the number in front of them: 9,223,372,036,854,775,808


I line it up with the 37 trillion value to show the magnitude of a quintillion.

How do we quantify such a number? Well let's start with space. The distance from the sun to Neptune is about 2.8 billion miles. So how many inches is that? wow. that's a HUGE number. Why don't we write those as a ratio. What is the unit rate? 59,000?


Oh, so that means you are 59,000 times more likely to guess which inch I am thinking of than making a perfect bracket.


Well let's get crazier. The universe is 13.7 billion years old. Let's calculate how many seconds the universe been around? (mathy mathy converting process). Oh wow, that is about 432,043,200,000,000,000 seconds... That still isn't bigger than 2^63. But what does it mean?


TO RATIOS!


So if we compare the amount of seconds to the amount of brackets we get 4.68%.


WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?


That means... if... you started completing this 64-team tournament the moment the universe came into existence... and you kept filling them out, finishing one every second since the universe began. You'd be less than 5% of the way done.


They ponder, they think. They can't comprehend. How could they?


Eventually we'll get to compound probability where we multiply probability values to get the probability of two independent events. Then we'll take the probability of winning the Powerball and MegaMillion Lotteries on two consecutive days... and realize you are 100 times more likely to have that happen than pick a perfect bracket.


So. Why can Warren Buffett afford to give away $1 billion to a perfect bracket creator? Because so can you.