Resource of the Day: Bubble Test Form Generator

I took a mental health day today, so here's a helpful Resource of the Day:

Bubble Test Form Generator - This free site allows you to create a custom bubble sheet you can use for any multiple choice test or assignment you're using. There's plenty of options and styles available so you can make it look exactly the way you want. Despite the wide range of options, it's still ridiculously quick and easy to use.

This should come in especially handy as we head into testing season. I've used them for practice TAKS tests and other take home standardized test prep. It's often easier to grade than having students list their answers themselves, since it eliminates the problem of not being able to read the answer or students accidentally skipping problems.

Do you know about any hidden gems other teachers would find useful? Leave a comment or email me at teachforeverATgmailDOTcom.

Take Back Advisory: DEAR Time for All

At first, I hated advisory. I have no problem with DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) time, but at my school, it is largely a joke. Many teachers let their students roam the halls, use their cellphones, put on make up, or otherwise do nothing related to reading for our 30 minute period. Worse yet, our students were not at all encouraged or motivated to read independently, and so they didn't. I struggled all last year to get my kids reading, and in the end wasn't at all successful.

When the new year's advisory period started to go the same way, I decided to take back advisory.

If they didn't want to read independently, we would read together. I would extend the principles I used to build my classroom library to pick out engaging books for my students, and then we would take Accelerated Reader tests on each book together. Ideally, our program would help improve reading comprehension, increase student interest in reading, and provide a structure that students would easily adapt to.

Here are five tips to get you started:

1. Provide extra credit or other small incentives to encourage students to keep reading. For example, after we read Gary Soto's Pacific Crossing, about a Mexican-American teenager who travels to Japan as part of an exchange program, I brought in some Japanese snacks to eat while we read. I brought ramune, a Japanese soda mentioned often in the book as well as some rice crackers purchased from a local market. The students enjoyed drinking it and it helped make the book (and our advisory) more memorable. Alternatively, you could organize a trip to a local bookstore or large public/college library to check out or buy books for your top readers.
2. Pick engaging books. If you have reluctant readers like I do, a good place to start is the ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers. Read online reviews of popular teen titles, ask your English Language Arts teachers, and most importantly, watch for trends and interests among your students. You will always have a handful of enthusiast readers in your classes--keep an eye out for what they're reading and ask them what they think of particular titles and authors.
3. Don't start with anything difficult. If you're trying to save your advisory period from the abyss, you can't start with Finnegans Wake. That doesn't mean you can't challenge your students--it just means you have to build up to it. You are trying to show your students that reading is something they might actually like to do.
4. Take them to get their own books from the library... especially if they don't read novels in English class!
5. As another incentive (and as a jumping off point for discussion and reflection), you can perhaps watch the movie version of whatever you're reading.

If you read your students well enough, you should start to see the students get into reading every day, and any discipline problems you have will be quelled by the majority. I actually enjoy advisory each day, which is far cry from where it once was.

25 Tips for Stress Relief (from So You Want to Teach?)

I guess I wasn't the only person inspired by Tim Ferriss' The 4-Hour Workweek to reduce my stress, simplify my life, and focus on doing what I really want to be doing. Joel at So You Want to Teach? posted 25 Tips for Less Stress last fall, and he also referred to many of the book's ideas in his posts. Great minds think alike!

Alternately, he compiled all the of articles into a free e-book called The Instant De-Stress Handbook (just subscribe to his RSS feed for the link).

I've added So You Want To Teach's RSS feed on the right hand side of the page, because it's always an interesting and informative read. Joel is a fifth year teacher in Texas like myself, and reading his accounts of his challenge such as his recent post Why I Hated Teaching During My First Two Years, it brings me back to my own experience.

More about teacher stress relief

Lesson Idea: Probability using Deal or No Deal

No matter what I'm doing or where I am, I'm constantly making literal and mental notes of ideas I can use to improve my teaching. Sometime last year, while wandering around an educational toy store in the mall for just this reason, I mentioned to my friend Dave (a fellow teacher) how I thought the game show Deal or No Deal would be a great way to teach probability. At its heart, the show is about figuring out your chances of getting a better deal by playing on or taking the bank's offer--in other words, your probability of getting the better deal. Dave thought this was a great idea, and we returned to our perusing.

Several weeks later, Dave told me he had shared the idea with math teachers at his school, who used it in class to great success. It was apparently a huge hit. While I'm all about sharing my ideas and helping students beyond my classroom, I was a little miffed, because I hadn't actually used the idea with my students! I had forgotten all about it until Dave's reminder, and so I made a resolution to reap the benefits of my own idea this year.

Building Background

The first thing I did was introduce probability the day before the game. I started with a question: "Every time I flip a coin, I have a 50/50 chance of landing on heads or tails. So if I flip it 50 times, I should get 25 heads and 25 tails, right?" This kicks off a discussion about theoretical probability, which we then tested. Small groups flipped a coin 50 times and tallied heads and tails. Then we came back together and compared their data (experimental probability) to our theoretical probability. I also used a deck of cards to show several examples of probability (especially the idea of replacement) as well as compound probability. This would provide a foundation for our game the next day.

Adapting the Game

I already had an idea of how to adapt the game for my purposes, but I thought I would buy the Deal or No Deal card game that I had seen severely discounted at local Target stores (about $7). I thought it would give me some ideas and at the very least neat prop (the briefcase) to use, but basically everything I needed was there in the game. The only thing I needed to add was a graphic organizer where we would calculate the probability of getting a better deal by saying "no deal" after each bank offer.

The card game has a 4 decks:

1. Briefcase cards are numbered 1-26
   
2. Round cards show how many briefcases to open each round (why they couldn't just write it down as a list is a mystery)
3. Bank offer cards to provide a random offer each round
   
4. Cash cards to hide under the Briefcase cards

The game play is simple:

1. Take one briefcase to hold onto which could be yours at the end of the game.
   
2. Each round, players open a diminishing number of briefcases, starting with six in Round One and ending with one in Round Nine.
3. After the briefcases are opened, the bank makes an offer, and the player can accept it (deal) and the game is over, or reject it (no deal) and keep playing.
4. If the player rejects all bank offers, they will be left with their briefcase and one other, and choose which they will open. Whatever they choose is the amount they win.

As I said, I only needed to add students finding the probability of getting a better deal if they rejected the bank offer. So I created a simple graphic organizer combining the enclosed game sheets and a table that looked like this:

Students would write in the results of each round, like so:

Round	Bank Offer	# of briefcases left with more money than Bank Offer	Probability of winning more than Bank Offer	Deal or No Deal?
1	$100,000	5	5/20 = .25 = 25%	No Deal

I used magnets to hold the briefcase cards and cash cards underneath on the board (you could also use a hanging pocket display with clear pockets, the kind you often see in elementary classrooms). I would play Howie (I considered, but did not purchase, a bald cap), there wouldn't be any models to open the cases, and the class would play as a whole group.

Playing the Game

After picking a student to start us off by claiming "our" case, I had students pick each other "popcorn style" to choose the briefcases to open each round. When it came time for the bank offer, I pretended to get calls and text messages from the bank on my cell phone. We would figure out the probability, fill in the graphic organizer like the example above, and decide whether to take the deal. Most classes wanted to play at least a few rounds no matter what before they started to argue over taking the deal or not (especially once the million dollars came off the board). In those cases, we voted.

The game took about 40 minutes to play through, and in a couple of classes we had enough time for an extremely rushed second game. Students only needed their graphic organizers and a calculator to help convert fractions to decimals and percents (since probability is shown in all three ways).

It was exciting to see the kids really get into it--the roars of disappointment when the big money came off the board, or the huge cheers when $0.01 or $25 came off. They laughed at my phony conversation with the bankers, and nearly everyone was engaged all day. It was a rousing success.

Thinking Ahead

I would have liked to give them maybe five probability word problems for homework as an informal assessment. We are working on the measurement project I posted earlier this week, and their focus should be on that. Instead, we will have an alternative assessment on Monday. In keeping with my no-multiple-choice-test policy, I am thinking we will create mini-posters (Idea #1 in my book Ten Cheap Lessons) for this and the rest of this unit.

If we had more time, I would like have students create their own probability game, or adapt an existing game to include probability calculations. This would encourage higher order thinking and make it more memorable for the long term, as well as provide a game they could later play for review.

As I look to next year, I'm also looking for ways to incorporate compound probability into our game or post-game follow up, since those questions often pop up on standardized tests.

If you like this idea and the others posted here on I Want to Teach Forever, please check out my new book, Ten Cheap Lessons: Easy, Engaging Ideas for Every Secondary Classroom. It's available now at Lulu.com and coming soon to bookstores everywhere. As always, please contact me with your feedback and questions. Thank you!

Project Idea: Measurement, Volume & Surface Area

We recently lost four days of instruction to benchmark testing before we were able to finish our unit on measurement. The benchmark did show that we needed more work on this objective, which I could have told you myself. Luckily though, it means I can justify continuing work on this same topic to my department (since we hadn't scheduled enough time for it in the first place).

I was planning on review and assessment of the more difficult parts of the objective, but I've adopted a no multiple choice test policy for the rest of the month at least. The students have had enough pencil and paper testing for a while, so I created a comprehensive project that will address everything they need to know.

As I discussed two weeks ago in Lesson Idea: Hands-On Surface Area and Volume, we had previously measured real objects, drawn nets, and calculated surface area and volume in class. Unfortunately many students didn't fully complete those assignments or did them incorrectly. Before we even started this unit, I had already decided to do a large scale, hands-on project at the end of the unit, but it wasn't until I had time to daydream during the benchmarks that all the pieces came together.

In short, students will find two real objects: a prism or cylinder (easy to find) and a pyramid, cone or cube (more difficult to find and work with). Then, they'll measure the dimensions, draw a net, find formulas for and calculate total surface area (TSA), lateral surface area (LSA), and volume for each object. Finally, they'll dilate the dimensions by 3 and by 1/2 and recalculate TSA, LSA and volume and review how to do simple problems of filling or emptying objects and a given rate.

All of this information will go on a half-size science project board that will later be displayed in the main lobby of our school for everyone to see. They'll attach their objects (if possible), create a title, and include a few sentences about "What We Learned" in addition to including all of the information calculated.

The enclosed project outline is designed to be easy to follow and mainly self-directed. I divided the work into Week 1: Collect Your Data and Week 2: Create Your Poster Board. I plan on giving them at least one day in class next week to work, so I can answer questions, reteach, and motivate them to stay on track.

I included these sample layouts for their project boards. On the enclosed outline, these spaces are left intentionally blank so you can fill in your own, but my hand-drawn samples are included below.

I designed this as a group project due to the amount of work and consideration of the heavy workload of their other classes, as well as a motivational tool. I also included "Completed by" underneath each section to remind students to split up the work and keep track of who's doing what.

We'll see how this project works out, as this is the first time I am trying this, but I am confident it will yield better results than the poor job I did last year on this topic. As always, please send your feedback and comments here or at teachforever AT gmail DOT com.

Measurement Project Outline

UPDATE: See the results of this project here!

For more project ideas and inspiration, check out my book, available now at lulu.com.

A Descent into Madness: Teaching Only to the Test

I never thought it would happen here, but testing madness has taken over my school.

In December, we had an English Language Arts benchmark, preparing for the real test in February. We were told initially we would be testing all four core subjects, only to learn at the last minute that we would test only ELA. Since we already had the days set aside in our lesson plans, the math department decided to use that time, albeit in regular classes, to complete a benchmark (the 2004 release test).

Despite the less-than-ideal conditions, our students did a good job. Their scores were more than twice that of my students at the same point last year, which I thought was a huge improvement. I took it to mean my students were better prepared coming in, and that I did a better job this fall semester than I had the previous year. I also took it to mean my students would do better when the real test came around in April than they had the previous year. I was glad the testing was over, and that we could move forward when we started the spring semester in January.

Thus my surprise when I was told that we would be taking four days in January for more benchmark testing. I argued in the department chair meeting that we didn't need another test because we just took one, and that our scores had improved from the previous year. What else did we need to prove? Unfortunately not only did anyone speak up to support me, but my co-chair actually spoke out against me!

She argued that the students and new, inexperienced teachers needed practice being in the testing environment. Both of those arguments are completely ludicrous. Our students have been taking these tests every year they've been in school! As for the teachers, their role is limited to reading from a script and then watching the kids take the test to make sure they don't cheat--that's it. We're not exactly asking them to read Gravity's Rainbow, okay?

Then I had to endure a department meeting where almost everyone declared how the December benchmark wasn't accurate at all. Really? Then why did we plan our entire spring semester based on the results from that benchmark? Why were we taking all of our planning periods to calculate results and write reports on students' performance by objective and overall if the test was so meaningless? Even worse, some of them declared that scores would go up. Who cares? If you are in this business for test scores, it's time to find another profession. If you're obsessed to the point that you feel all this benchmark testing is necessary, you've lost sight of our purpose as teachers.

I was concerned that the students were stressed and starting to get burnt out on testing, and that we lost four complete days of instructional time. I wondered why we would once again spend an entire day sitting in the same classroom when most students were done with their test before lunch. My worst fear, of course, is that someone will want to do this again before the real test--and I will absolutely raise hell to prevent that from happening.

I haven't yet seen the results, but I would venture to guess they've increased just enough for everybody to give themselves a pat on the back. Maybe that will give me the opportunity to, you know, teach something.

Of course, benchmark testing alone does not constitute madness. Additional symptoms include:

• Students being pulled from electives 2-3 times a week at minimum
• Constant TAKS-style multiple choice testing in the classroom, meaning less open-ended, problem solving, or higher order thinking questions
• Teachers giving up their conference period to "tutor" a subject they're not certified to teach
• More tests to come (presumably)
  

It reminds me of the craziness of a former school, where as the test approached, the madness was palpable:

• My department wanted me to give my students 20-40 question multiple choice tests every week.
• The principal instituted something called a "power schedule", where classes were cut to 35 minutes and the last 2 hours of the day was spent doing test prep (again, teachers teaching subjects they're not certified in).
• Number of full school days spent taking practice tests: 15.

What really constitute the madness, though, is an inability to explain why this is happening. We were doing far worse overall last year and didn't adopt any of these excessive measures. In truth, our scores won't technically stay with us next year, because our high school is being dissolved and replaced with a "new" school.

Yes, we did not meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals last year because one of our subgroups, our 10th grade Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students, had a low passing rate. We met standards in all other areas. Instead of focusing on this one group, everyone is feeling the wrath. By the way--this year's 10th grade LEP students performed far better than their predecessors did on their 9th grade exams--which is usually the best predictor of their future success on these tests.

I didn't write about this to vent (okay, maybe a little), but to ask a few critical questions that we as educators need to answer:

1. How can we fix the tests themselves? A recent commentary in the Austin-American Statesman forsees a future where Texas eliminates the TAKS and replaced it with small, periodic, online assessments on specific objectives.
2. How can we prepare students for standardized tests without teaching to the test? What I've learned about the Rio Grande Valley is that school districts here have no idea how to do this. Districts create strategies focused solely on increasing passing rates, and when they're successful, everyone else copies them. They'll often implement conflicting or redundant ideas because it worked somewhere else, making things more difficult for teachers and students.
3. How can we prepare students for college with so much focus on standardized tests? With so many standards to teach, and tests often based mostly on material covered in previous years, there's little time to give them what they need to succeed in college. It's no surprise that in Texas, half of students entering college need to take remedial courses (among Hispanic students, it's 63%).
4. How does a dedicated teacher survive in such an environment? There's a reason most teachers leave the profession within five years, and this system is one of biggest.
   

I wrote about this problem in my new book, in a chapter entitled Preparing for the Test Without Teaching to the Test. It includes ideas for teachers trying to work around the challenges of high-stakes testing. Ten Cheap Lessons: Easy, Engaging Ideas for Every Secondary Classroom is available now at Lulu.com.

I just published my first book: Ten Cheap Lessons!!

I have been known to make grand declarations of things I plan on doing, only to do just the opposite a short time later. After months of excuses and stalling, I made a new year's resolution to sit down and write a book. I had the idea for a teacher resource book a long time ago, and I thought it would be the easier of the two planned books I wanted to do (the other being a memoir of my time here in the RGV). It would prove to me (and future publishers) that I was up to the task, and was something I wanted to do anyway. When I wrote out self-imposed deadlines for the month of January, I didn't know if I would follow through. Indeed, I almost gave up in the first week, when the crushing exhaustion of going back to school after winter break was making an already monumental task seemingly impossible.

Yet I persevered, and the product of my months of work is Ten Cheap Lessons: Easy, Engaging Ideas for Every Secondary Classroom. It is available now, for about $12 for the paperback or $6 to download immediately. I have put my heart and soul into this, and I can't tell you what it would mean to me to know that my book could help me have a far-reaching effect on the education of children I've never met.

Regular readers of I Want to Teach Forever will see some ideas originally published here, as well as many I've been saving for Ten Cheap Lessons. I hope that the book and the website grow together, so that I can have the opportunity to meet more great teachers and collaborate on great new ideas with them. If you read the book and would be interested in having me present a workshop or speak at a conference, please email me, as I would love the opportunity. You know I'll do a good job--I couldn't live with myself if I didn't provide quality professional development.

Thank you to everyone who visits this website, and for all of the positive feedback I've gotten over the past six months. Stay tuned to teachforever.com for updates and opportunities to learn more about it. Enjoy:

Ten Cheap Lessons: Easy, Engaging Ideas for Every Secondary Classroom

Reading and Writing in Math Through Journals

Every summer when I'm planning for the new year, I try to incorporate more reading and writing into my math classroom. There's many obvious reasons to do this--the TAKS, our state standardized test, is heavy on word problems that require high level reading comprehension. One of the easiest and most important to implement are journals. These are not just for the English classroom, since they require students to think, explain, and make connections to the material--all essential skills not only for testing but for higher levels of math.

You can use these as "Do Now" activities, exit slips, or short take-home assessments. If you need to provide content-area writing samples for state ELL assessment programs or student portfolios, this is a painless way to collect them. Here are some examples I've used, grouped by purpose:

Explaining how to do problems or defining vocabulary:

1. Explain the rules we learned this week for solving equations in your own words.
2. How do you make a table of x and y values into a function? Give at least one way.
3. Explain the difference between a dependent and independent variable.
4. Pick one word off the Word Wall and explain what it is (or give an example).

Explaining what they learned or are still confused about:

1. What questions do you still have about this unit?
2. What did you learn in Algebra this week? How can you do better next week?

Reflecting on their work ethic and behavior:

1. Name at least one thing you need to do better in Algebra I this six weeks. Explain why.
2. What happens if you fail Algebra this year? How many credits do you need to pass to 10th grade?
3. What would it take to get you motivated to do your work and pass the TAKS? If you are already motivated, how do you stay that way?
4. How did I do this week in math class? What did I do well? What do I need to improve upon?

Making connections and using higher order thinking:

1. What's the good part about using graphing calculators for our work? What's the down side?
2. List all the ways you use math while you're NOT at school.
3. What do you think is the hardest thing to do in math? Why?
   

Adjust the length depending on your needs and time limitations. Many of these questions can be well answered in a paragraph or two, some require a bit more exploration. Use your discretion.

Be sure to discuss the topics as a whole group, especially to accommodate those who may be better at expressing themselves out loud. Then, you can encourage and guide those students at how to put their good ideas into writing. It might seem daunting, but every second you spend working on literacy is just as valuable as any content you teach.

Lesson Idea: Hands-On Volume and Surface Area

Year after year, the students at my campus have trouble with Objective 8, which deals with basic geometry, measurement and similarity. Students have to find measurements, surface area and volume for various 3D shapes and their nets, and then apply those skills in faux real life situations.

I'm still not sure what it is about this that confounds students so much, but it could be any number of things: Too many formulas (and thus variables)? Lack of practice and training in visualizing drawings in 3D or putting together and taking apart nets of objects? Too abstract (not enough concrete, real life examples)? I think it's a mix of all these things, along with their poor preparation in even the most basic of mathematic concepts (times tables, anyone?).

So the first thing we did this year was to deconstruct actual objects, draw their nets and measure their dimensions before even thinking about formulas and advanced problems. I tried to use products that I could pull apart or unfolds and then put back together again:

• Cylinder: For volume and total surface area, I used a Pringles can, emptied and cut vertically and 2/3 of the way around the circumference of the base (so it stays attached). I taped the plastic top to the box to be the top or bottom (depending on your perspective). It was something the kids could unroll and roll up again, and that I could refer to repeatedly throughout the unit. The label of any soup can is a clear example of lateral surface area if you need it.
• Rectangular box: I used a box that had some extra tabs that made it easy to view flat or in 3D, but any rectangular box that you can cut so that the net is easy to see is good. I told students that when I saw a problem with a tall, skinny box, I thought of a cereal box. While I didn't use one, it would be another good example to cut and show. I would also suggest cutting a box that is a common sight in the room (tissue box, printer paper box, etc) which is easiest for you to get and easy for students to use as a reference.
  
• Triangular prism: Toblerone, the oddly-shaped Swiss chocolate bar, is one of the few triangular-shaped retail boxes that is both widely available and immediately recognizable. I had two boxes, one taped together (after I removed the chocolate to avoid any distractions) and another cut to form a easy-to-sketch net. A large 3-ring binder is another potential example hiding in your classroom.
  

I couldn't think of or find any common items in cone, pyramid or cube-shaped boxes, so I used a kit of durable plastic models borrowed from my co-chair. These were adequate, but since they couldn't be flattened out, it forced students to rely solely on their imagination (for better or worse).

Before we started this unit, we had worked on orthographic (top, side and front) views of 3D objects and drawings. On our state test these problems usually have stacked cubes in various arrangements, so I used Jenga blocks and a document camera to demonstrate what each view would look like. We did a lot of predicting, verifying, and modeling of 3D shapes from different perspectives, which made the next unit a bit easier.

On the first day of this unit, students sketched nets, measured the dimensions (using the rulers on my state's TAKS math formula chart) and labeled the drawings of each of the shapes listed above. They worked in groups to help each other work efficiently. I didn't tell them what exactly to measure, just to measure what they thought would be important and later, we would use these to find surface area and volume. I did tell them to focus on trying to visualize these shapes, because it was a skill needed for every word problem--figuring out what exactly was being described so that we could then figure out what to do.

The next step was creating a "better" version of the state formula chart, because the chart was far too generalized. This would, I explained, make applying these formulas a lot easier.

For example, the volume of every prism and cylinder is V = Bh, where B is the area of the base, which the student then has to figure out and then look up, making what is supposed to be an aid into more work on an already intense test. Things get quite hairy when they have to find the volume and surface area of other shapes. So we made our better chart more explicit; for example; the volume of a cylinder is πr²h and the surface area of a rectangular prism is 2(lw + lh + hw). We practiced on some nets we had drawn as a Do Now problem to bring the second lesson full circle.

Finally, we went back to the six nets and their measurements from the first day, and completed the volume and surface area of each one. With all of the knowledge built up over the previous days, this was a piece of cake for the vast majority of my students.

We wrapped up the week by working on challenging test prep questions that required a lot of visualization, sketching and multiple steps to complete. Students had to apply everything we had done to complete the problems, which we corrected, analyzed and reviewed afterwards.

So as tomorrow's assessment on this half of the objective looms (the other half deals with similarity and proportional change in these figures), I'm feeling confident in how my students will perform. I still worry, however, that this knowledge will quickly be replaced by other short term knowledge, so I am planning a project where students will once again be forced to apply all of these skills, finding their own objects to "deconstruct" (sketching nets, completing measurements, calculating volume and surface area, etc). I don't see much value in doing the same exact thing we did in class, but perhaps that practice done completely independently will be more memorable.

TI Training: Our long regional nightmare is over

I've spent the last two days at the Region One Education Service Center, the professional development resource provided by the state, at a T-STEM conference focused mostly on training from Texas Instruments. I really like the TI-Navigator system, but for the most part these have been some of the most excruciatingly painful trainings of my career.

Friday was an awful rerun of the last few days I've been there. Most of the TI workshops are the same, as if they are trained by telemarketers and motivational speakers about how to distract people long enough to take their money.

Standard TI Workshop Agenda

1. You help the instructor collect a bunch of data, and they graph the points.
2. The instructor has you write and submit a linear or quadratic equation.
3. The graphs are shown and they match the data points or copies a picture.
4. Everyone is impressed!
5. The instructor uses Quick Poll (the Navigator's instant feedback feature) to send stupid questions that solicit stupid answers, presumably to demonstrate to us how it will work in our real classroom.
6. At the end of the day, teachers are pointed to the TI Education website and told to find lessons and calculator programs to download on their own (in other words, doing the work TI is being paid to do for us).

Recently, my district decided that we hadn't flushed enough math department money down the toilet and purchased ANOTHER guaranteed-to-work, solution-to-all-our-problems, superfun-engaging-the kids will love it!-hands-on-ready-to-use curriculum program called SureScore. Of course, we're just getting this stuff in January, when we're already overwhelmed with everything, but that's another story.

I learned that SureScore tried to integrate their paper materials with the TI-Navigator, so that students could complete their activities through the system. The problem is, it doesn't actually work! It's like no one at SureScore even owns a TI calculator. I picked a random activity and completed the entire exercise on my calculator. First off, it was difficult to type in the answers, because the calculator would automatically switch back and forth between typing letters and numbers, which would be crippling if trying to use it with my students. Despite this, I was pretty sure I had done everything correctly, but when I scored it, I had only gotten 23% right.

When I compared my answers to the "correct" answers, I realized the multitude of problems: For any answer that had a thousands place or higher, the "correct" answer required a comma. Since my answers had no commas, each one was marked wrong. Some answers were expressions like "170 + x", but because I didn't put spaces between the 170, plus sign, and x, it was marked wrong (not to mention that x + 170 would have also been marked wrong).

Worst of all, there were some answers that were simplified square roots (like 2√2). Once again I had the answer correct, but I had typed it as 2√(2), because that is the only way to type a square root symbol on a TI-83/84 calculator. In other words, it is impossible to get the correct answer! If I had this many problems on just one randomly picked set of questions, imagine how difficult this would be for my students. What a waste of time and money.

Today was slightly better. I saw one project which seems like fun, called the Barbie Bungee, in which Barbie dolls are tied to rubber band bungee cords and you record the number of rubber bands (independent variable) and the maximum distance she falls (dependent variable). When you plot the data, it is a linear relationship, and students create an equation and make and test predictions for different distances. In the end it's another way to go about making a linear equation, but one that's actually exciting.

I also went to a session on paper folding, which was really exciting because of the presenter and the fascinating problem he presented (similar to this). It would be very exciting for math junkies, but was simply too difficult and time consuming for my Algebra I students. I could do it in an AP Geometry or Calc class. I also was exposed to Cabri Jr, a geometry calculator program which is available for free on TI's Education website. It is fairly intuitive and I'll figure out how to use it in the classroom.

There was a few hours of the Standard TI Workshop Agenda described above, but otherwise I am happy to report I got something out of the last day. I just wish the preceding eight days had been as helpful.

Mid-Year Student Surveys

The last few days of the fall semester were pretty rough. My students by and large bombed the semester exam, which I had thought was rather easy. The semester had went so well, and all indications were that the students were learning and retaining the information. It tore my well-constructed fantasy world to shreds, and I didn't know what else to say to my students to motivate them to do better.

I don't really yell, and I didn't this time. I usually speak to my students very plainly and honestly, from the heart, and more often than not they respond positively. This time, I told them I was so dejected that I wasn't sure I would even bother coming back after winter break, because it was my responsibility that they had failed so badly. Maybe I'm just not a good teacher, I told them.

There was no chance of me quitting, of course, but I didn't need to do any acting; I was really as upset as I appeared to be, and while I wasn't going to leave, I didn't feel like a very good teacher at all. I looked forward to the spring semester as a chance to prove to myself that I was, and that my students would live up to my expectations.

So as I do every year at the start of the spring semester, I gave my students a survey. Teach for America taught me to constantly reflect on my teaching and then make necessary changes to improve what I'm doing. Thus every so often I stop and ask them to tell me what's working and what's not, so I can keep doing good things and fix the bad things. I make the survey anonymous to ensure honesty.

I've been reading the results and I learned a lot about my students and myself as I do each year. Below you'll find the questions I posed, along with the student comments I found most interesting and revealing.

As usual, a lot of research and adaptation went into creating this document, so thank you to the wonderful teachers out there that inspired this survey. An editable copy is available here via Google Docs.

Dear Students,

You can help me become a better teacher by responding honestly to the sentences below. Write as much (or as little) as you want. Thank you!!!

- Mr. D

The one thing we did in class that helped me learn the most was…

"The study guide book" This was a common answer, and surprisingly I haven't posted it on the website yet. Keep an eye out for it.
"the basketball game. That made me think faster & it also made it easy to learn."
"small projects such as the one for the dependent & independent variables."
"when you explain it to me 3 or 4 times."
"the word wall"

The one thing we did that did NOT help me learn was…

"the fantasy football it doesn't help me" It didn't help anybody!
"when you just talk and talk about the same question for hours then you change to another question you confuse me"

If I could change one thing about this class that would help me learn better, I would…

"move my seat"
"take out the students that cheat and don't want to learn"
"ask the students that are missbehaving to live [sic] the class"

Mr. D could make math more interesting and exciting to me if he…

"actually looked interested & exciting about teaching us"
"would sometimes be a little happier"

Mr. D can show me he cares about me as a person by…

"Because I'm a big trouble to handle with and he just say to stay calm he almost never yelles [sic] and if he does its just a little"
"talking to me honestly."
"getting after me if I am not listening or I didn't pass"

I hate it when Mr. D says…

"test"
"when he gets frustrated!"
"that something is due tomorrow."
"keep talking & never gets to the point"
"gets mad and forgets we are human being he doesn't teach anything when he's mad."
"that he is not a good teacher"
"gets sad... it makes me sad!"

One thing Mr. D should do more is…

"seem more excited"
"laugh more"
"believe in his self [sic] and us more, and say 'good afternoon' when we come into the class" I thought I always did, but I guess I'll do it more.

Additional comments and suggestions:

"You can never force somebody to learn just work with who really wants to ask them or tell them to ask you for help and focus on them don't waste your time !!! :) U can do it if they really put an effort"
"You are a good teacher the one that needs to change is me. :("
"Mr. D you are a good teacher. I think what the problem is that students don't pay attention."
"Mr. D don't worry you are a good teacher to all of the class and it is not your fault we don't learn."
"Mr. D you have helped me improve a lot on my math skills and I'm thankful for having you as a teacher. I really didn't have anything bad to say about this class. Thanks for being a great teacher."
"Mr. D I wanted to say thanks for not living [sic] us cuz mayb [sic] to be honest there wouldn't be a nicer + more caring math teacher!! thanks"
"Thank you for being a great teacher even though people think you are not but you are thanks to you I get good grades every six weeks and I thank God he gave you math talent!!!"
"Please Mr. D don't get sad because it makes me remember so bad day's when I was little my mom kicked me out of my house and I was living in the streets and bad people did some bad things to me!"

That last one was the scariest and saddest thing I've ever been told by a student--and I've heard some awful things over the years. That particular student did put their name on the survey and rest assured I am addressing it.

What I learned from this is that what I said before winter break really did resonate with my students. I already knew that my usually serious demeanor is a put off for some students, and it's something I'm always working on. Most importantly, I'd be lying if I didn't say that many of the comments reminded me just why I'm in this thing for the long haul.

I hope if you use this survey you get some great insights of your own.

Mid-Year Student Survey (via Google Docs)

I Want to Teach Forever presents: The Best of 2007

I love this time of year, because this is the time for annual "best of" lists. I can't get enough of lists of the best music, best films, and most importantly VH1's recap of the Best Year Ever. I always learn about what I missed and should seek out, which makes for a better following year.

Keeping with this idea (while it is, admittedly, already well into 2008), I decided to compile the five best posts of 2007 as picked by you, the visitor. There wasn't any voting process, I just went by the most viewed and searched for posts. Without any further ado:

I Want to Teach Forever presents: The Best of 2007

5. Project Idea: Independent vs. Dependent Variables - Here I introduced the one-page poster idea which you'll see again as we cover parent functions and quadratic equations this month.

4. Lesson Idea: Proportions and Ratios using Statues and Action Figures - I like the idea of bringing abstract ideas to life, and this was one of the most successful activities we did this semester.

3. Every professional development workshop you've ever attended - Last summer was excruciating in terms of PD, and I think this just about sums up the frustration so many of us feel when we don't get the quality we deserve. Ironically, this particular workshop provided the free time to create the most popular lesson plan I posted this year.

2. First Day of School: sample student surveys, parent letters and more - This may not be that helpful for you anymore, except that for some of you reading this, you may be planning to start all over with your kids this semester. Stay tuned for ideas to get 2008 off to the best possible start!

1. Sample 5e Lesson Plan: a Card Game for Combining Like Terms - Many of you searched for "5e lesson plan" and similar keywords, presumably because you were stuck in the same kind of bogus PD as I was last summer, looking for examples to use as a framework or as is. In either case, I am greatly humbled and flattered by how many of you found out about this blog through this one idea. I am glad I compiled this list because it also gives all of you looking for that idea to visit both my follow-up article on what happened when we first played Like Terms in class, and a revised, simplified version of the game that fixes the problems that arose and should be considerably easier to use.

BONUS! Mr. D's favorite post of the year! Of all the things I have posted here, this inspirational story, entitled Why would I want to teach forever? from my year teaching at an alternative school will have a hard time ever being supplanted as my favorite moment as a teacher. I hope you have a similar story of your own already, or some day soon.