Musings from Mrs. Galvan

One day recently (I am behind, I think this was Day 96), I had a thought after teaching two classes of Algebra 1: Sometimes students need to sit down and do a worksheet. I spend a lot of time trying to make class engaging and fun. I love playing games, getting them out of their seats and using the white boards to do group PrBL... They reflect, instruct, and create via their digital portfolios. I regularly feel guilty when class is just  a practice set. The day I had this thought though, class wasn't boring. Students were working on a (massed) problem set in pairs. The pairs were in sync, having great discussions, teaching each other the ins and outs of various factoring problems. I had pairs come to the document camera to present a few problems and they were comparing other problems with their corresponding graphs on Desmos . The last ten minutes of class was a low stakes assessment. Could it have been better? Sure. But I don't think I will do anything differently next ...

After two days of unbloggable lessons in algebra (lecture and practice with negative exponents), we finally had the skills to play a game. After our routine review of last night's homework, students took a skill quiz. They are getting used to the frequent assessments required by the shift to Standards Based Grading (though I did overhear, "Didn't we take an LTC yesterday ?"). By the way, I purchased a folder holder over winter break, which highly enhanced my reassessment system. Anyways, back to today. The kids love playing color wars . Once they are in groups, all I do is give problems on the document camera and run around the room. Class almost runs itself. I love the high energy, engaged kiddos, running around the classroom, good competitiveness, and overhearing kids discussing how to do math problems. I changed the roles a bit this time around. 

One take away from reading Nate's post yesterday was that perhaps I need to blog more about my average (or merely passable) teaching moments. Perhaps I will receive some awesome feedback and I'll be able to upgrade these average days to awesome? Or perhaps I'll just be putting forth a more complete version of my teacher identity, demonstrating that I don't " operate in a  bloggable  state at all times." Honest, real blogging will surely bolster the mtbos , though it adds the whole surplus of blogs problem... Nonetheless, here goes: Recently I overheard kids chatting in the math department with their computers open. To my delight, they were sharing their math blogs with one another and discussing their favorite posts. Funny enough, several of them shared that their favorite was the concept summary poste r on the different forms of a linear equation. I created this particular assignment because I wanted them to clarify all three forms of a line. I also wan...