Musings from Mrs. Galvan

My favorite Web Tools that I learned this week at CUE Rock tar Camp, drum roll please... Using Google Forms to create instant feedback quiz (share-able study guides) ThingLink - make images interactive - think: a poster that talks, plays music, video, has links Lino It - web based sticky board for discussion and collaboration Use Google Forms to sort student work While at the conference, I had time to think more about all the cool apps and websites there are for our students to use. It is overwhelming! In my former life as a history teacher, I could organize these (mostly paper and pencil) options in a list so they could have choices for completing projects. The list (mostly stolen from the internet) has everything from Make a Bumper Sticker to Film a Music Video . These days I'm teaching Algebra and the opportunities for projects are fewer. At the same time, the internet and mobile devices continue to revolutionize learning, so my List of Ways to Show you Know needed to ...

For the next three days, I will be at the CUE (Computer Using Educators) Rock Star conference. At the moment I am learning more about Google forms . Perhaps next year my students will take a quiz or two online.

Our headmaster is retiring this year. He emailed us all the following quote as words to "teach" by. I love it and will read it often in the years to come. “ I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess the power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or de-humanized.”    Haim Ginott

A student at my school used trig to help free a falsely accused man from prison. She also provided math teachers everywhere with another answer to the most annoying question we get: When am I EVER going to use this??? High School Student's Math Skills Contribute to Release of Man Wrongfully Imprisoned for Seventeen Years from David Hinden on Vimeo . Here is a handout on the calculations.

This was fun to organize... I am lucky to work where I work! I have talented colleagues who are willing to spend their free time creating  a fun memory for our students. Take a look at the lyrics and hear our polished version on the song here. 

So working at a prestigious school on the west side of LA means that I don't face some typical challenges faced by most middle school math teachers. For example, my students don't lack motivation. I have been sitting on this blog post for two months, meaning to post something about it or at least discuss it with colleagues and students, but working where I work, I have been busy organizing a staff musical number instead . Anyways, the research is a decade old, but the message is clear. When students aren't motivated they don't engage in school. When students don't engage in school, they are less likely to graduate, less likely to instantly become excellent, independent, happy contributors to society (yes I too became a teacher to "make a difference"). While we can't control all the socio-economic factors at play in students' lives, we can try to come up with ways to motivate students while they are at school. The Forbes article narrows the fo...

In the classroom and in life, I am continually frustrated by negative attitudes, so much so that I have the following rule in my syllabus: Never say "I hate math". I strive to encourage my students to see what is possible and not to get bogged down by what is challenging. For example, instead of saying, that they are bad at fractions, I make them repeat that they need practice  with fractions and remind them that saying is believing. I love reading this parenting blog - Short Fat Dictator . Not only is it is hilarious, but it describes my own home life as a mom of two small kids pretty accurately. I hope that this post about the writer's confident two year old will inspire my middle school students to start each day with this question: " I wonder how many good things are going to happen before bed today?"