Don't Mess With Math by: Karah Quinones

Day 2 - Wizard Techies I love day 2 of school!  This is the day I get to introduce students to many technology programs we use in a magical way.  The students will enter the room as I welcome them with my wizard hat on and a musical wand .  As they enter, they pick up their techie badge that they will proudly wear on their lanyard upon completing the five challenges set before them.  They will "master" the following: 1.  Google Classroom 2.  Quizziz 3.  Navigating my Teacher Website 4.  Socrative 5.  QR Code Extension I love using technology starting day 1 of math lessons and after today my students will be ready to go!  I can not stress enough that I had a smooth day due to the help of my Instructional Technology Support in my room all periods.  She could help all my 6th graders get logged on and troubleshoot any other possible things that could arise of new kids to middle school.  She was also able to give us great tips...

School is starting!!!! My first two days....   Last year I really worked on increasing student engagement inspired by our Math Cadre book "Teach Like a Pirate" by Dave Burgess.  He is pretty awesome and skyped our math cadre and chatted with us for an hour.  Thank you Dave!  He discusses his first three days of class and how building rapport creates buy-in.  I am going to take this advice and spend two whole days of building rapport.  Here is what I have in mind for Day 1:) Day 1 I teach 6th grade and it is intimidating to come to middle school.  There are many unknowns and I like to make it easy for them to come in, find their seat and give them a warm-up so hopefully it will help with some anxiety.   Warm-Up Dear Me - I have the students fill out a worksheet that is all about them and their feelings on their first day of middle school.  I don't even look at it.  They fill it out, put it in an envelope, and seal it. ...

The Distributive Property...  I was at math cadre (a gathering of a representative of each middle school math teacher in the District where we talk  data, learn new high yield instructional strategies and collaborate to create activities) talking to my instructional coach and chatting about the my data  from the previous year related to TEK 6.7D.  My instructional coach used the word grouping and after that day I have revamped the way I teach the Distributive Property!! Step 1 - I continue to use the Target theme to discuss distributing packages to each "person" in the parentheses.  This is time where  I really cheese out and talk about how horrible it would be if Target only distributed a package to the older gentlemen and took money from the little boy and never distributed a package to him. Step 2 - Here is the big change that I made!  Now, I always have my students verbalize that we have 2 groups of x plus 4.  My students learn to ...

So... it's that time of the year again, No not Christmas, it's time for THE Observation.  I am a seasoned teacher (wait, 7-8 years teaching is seasoned, correct?) with many wonderful reviews/observations/walk-thrus, etc. behind my belt. I am a confident teacher and love all things curriculum, engagement, rigor, technology and building student relationships.  So, why do I freak out when I have an observation.  All of a sudden, my confidence goes out the door and I second guess everything.  Recently I have been noticing on Twitter teachers placing the "Observe Me" sign outside of their door.  I think it's amazing for the instructing teacher and for the teachers observing.  All I can think of is when the Principal walks in, I get the feeling of when you pass a cop car and slam on the breaks even though you are going the speed limit.  I freeze on the inside and put on my best game face I have.  I always ask myself why am I such a nerd about thi...

Actually, my students love you!  I can not ask for more engagement when I use the draw portion of Nearpod.  We do have a little fun with it... the students may or may not draw silly pictures or take a selfie when using it, but only and only if they show all work!  I make them swipe left and try again if they have a unicorn pic (it seems to be all the craze at my school these days) and do not show all their work.  I also take the time and look at each pic and praise students.  It really doesn't take too much time because I just keeping clicking right and keep on moving.  The students really feel validated when I highlight their work and praise them or give constructive feedback.  My lower students also get in the game because they see some of the other work on screen and it helps them get started. Here are some examples from writing equations from tables: Not all my students have it correct, but it is a great way to check for understanding and...

I have a substitute tomorrow... ugh I never could create a full proof substitute lesson plan until now!  I have fallen in love with Google classroom this year.  I mostly just add announcements so my students find all my links:  google forms, applicable games, etc.  However, now my students are trained to go to google classroom every day that I have a substitute.  They select the link to my google slides which provides all instructions and links to the activities for the day.  This is such a time saver and if I am sick, I can just do it from home.  No more early trips to school to run copies and sub plans!!! Here is an example of my lesson plan for tomorrow...