Musings from Mrs. Galvan

Last week was our 3rd 4 day week in a row, making this feel like a slow starting school year. Three weeks in and I haven't given a significant assessment. Perhaps that is okay as I have given several small skills quizzes to Algebra and two in Geometry. They are getting feedback from me and I know which topics to spend more time on. This week in geometry included learning more basic terms, triangle inequality  (activity inspired by someone in the #mtbos), starting proofs and developing definitions for midpoint and bisect. I really like how my lesson on the definition for midpoint and bisect went this year. I facilitated a math talk punctuated by discussions in pairs. Step 1: Show them this image and ask them to come up with an If-then definition for point M that is general and doesn't name any points or segments from the diagram. Step 2: Gather ideas from the class and polish the grammar until it makes sense. Other possible items to clarify might be using congruent ...

Last week was busy in Algebra. I realize that I haven't written much about Geometry this year, so perhaps soon, but for now, I am happy to relay that my 3 Algebra classes are going well with one complaint: Standards Based Grading is taking a lot of time. Grading is always the "one thing" that teachers tend to wish they didn't have to do. Often I hear, "I love being with my students, but the grading is killing me!" I love seeing progress and seeing what they have learned, but like many teachers, I too wish it would happen faster. This year, it seems that I made it take even longer with my choice to give standards based grading a go. Maybe I am doing it wrong? :( Here is my method: I keep a spreadsheet  with students' names down the side and the skills across the top. Each time I see an error, I mark in the appropriate skill column. Then I consider the number of errors vs the number of opportunities and give each skill a score out of 4 (which for the u...