Math Autobiographies and Saving Paper

At the start of the year, I like to learn about the math backgrounds of my students.  In the past I would have students write their autobiographies (by hand or using the computer) and then give me a paper copy.  

Last, year I tried to be a bit more creative and gave students options of how they might want to create an autobiography.  Although the students were creative I feel as if it was a lot more work than was really needed for both the students and myself.  And it was a challenge to display some of the creative pieces because students had shared personal experiences.  As a result I had beautiful projects which I could not hang up.

This year I have reverted back to the typical format of the autobiography but in order to save paper students are uploading their work to my Dropbox using DROPitTOme.  This is free and very easy to use.  The only problem I have run into is that students have saved their documents using exactly the same file names.  This means this latest upload is saved and the previous work is "deleted."  Thank goodness Dropbox allows me to see and recover previous versions. If you are interested in using Dropbox or DROPitTOme with students make sure you ask them to save the document with their name within the file name. It will save you a great deal of work!

In the end I am getting exactly what I need and we are saving a great deal of paper in the process:)

Vistaprint for the Classroom

This summer I became addicted to VistaPrint.  First I bought a coupon for VistaPrint from LivingSocial.  I was sad to discover that I could not get the discounted values which VistaPrint offers when using my LivingSocial coupon.  But then I joined Vistaprint Ideas for Teachers on FaceBook and found out the there is a trick to getting the discounted prices and using the coupon in one transaction.  I then purchased a coupon on Groupon.

Here is the trick to the trade:
1. Go into VP through your Groupon link. 
2. Fill up your cart with goodies galore.
3. Enter in your Groupon code.
4. Go to your email and pick your best email offer from VP. 
5. Click on it and go back to your cart. It SHOULD combine the two offers. 


Here is what I ordered this summer:



Small Lawn Signs (without the metal stand):

 

Small Car Magnets:

 

Sad that I didn't catch the lowercase "is"

Address Labels:

Postcards:

 

Business Cards:

Small Rubber Stamp:

AND....I was able to choose two free items.  I think it can be a bit tricky to find the free items.  I actually had to do a search online for free VP items.  My free items included:


T-Shirts:

Pen:

Small Rubber Stamps:

Business Cards:

Flat Invitations:

I did use different email and mailing addressesto get multiple items....another trick.

First Day of Class

Our first "real" day of seventh grade math class is complete!

This year I began class with students watching the Pixar animation  "For the Birds."

Students were asked to watch the movie and then write about what they saw.  Students were also prompted to think of possible reasons as to why their math teacher would be showing this during our first math class. After writing quietly, I then asked students to share what they saw and possible reasons as to why I had show For the Birds.  Their responses were right on! 

Listening to one another, accepting one another's uniqueness, laughing with one another and not at one another, not making fun of others and realizing that if you laugh at somebody then sooner or later they may be laughing at your are all core ideas which they shared.

Managing the Classroom

As we all know some classes are more challenging than others.  Here are a few tools which may help you to manage your classes:

• ClassDojo (There is an app now too!) - Makes it easy to keep students alert and on-task. This teacher does a nice job explaining set-up and applicaiton.
• Classroom Carrots (Here is a short video for Classroom Carrots) - Classroom Carrots is a site that reminds me of a cross between Class Dojo and Class Badges. This is done by using their educational portal to create a class and add students. Once that is done a teacher can then modify their rewards/stickers and start adding these stickers to students. This is used to manage behavior as well as increase student engagement. Also, they have a nice iPad app for mobility.
• Use a Door Bell for brain breaks and a little math - Read how this teacher used a doorbell to incorporate a brain break in her class.
• GroupMaker  - GroupMaker is the best app for quickly creating diverse groups. Organize groups based on gender, performance level, or ethnicity. You can also just randomly mix everyone up into groups of 1-20 depending on your needs. GroupMaker is a tool to help teachers organize their classes into diverse heterogenous groups.
• Heads or Tails - Best coin flipping and tossing.  Use it anytime you need to make some choices:)
• How about a sound gauge?
• Teacher's Assistant - Teacher's Assistant Lite allows teachers to keep track of student actions, behavior, infractions, and achievements in the classroom. The lite version allows you to use the app with 5 students with up to 3 actions per student. Try before you buy!
• Pick Me! - This app makes it EASY and FUN to Randomly Pick Students!
• Do nothing for 2 minutes.
• You Can Handle Them All - Based on a best-selling book, You Can Handle Them All, this is an app for any educator or parent who’s struggling to manage a student’s or child’s inappropriate behavior!  You Can Handle Them All is a quick-action resource for managing 124 student behaviors at school and at home.
  Categorized by the 4 primary causes of student misbehavior, this app:
  • Clearly describes 124 different student behaviors you may encounter.
  • Identifies the primary cause of each behavior.
  • Offers a number of quick actions you can take to manage each student behavior.
  • Reveals the common mistakes teachers often make when trying to correct behaviors.
  • Cross references related behaviors. 
• Monitor the classroom noise level and create a visualization for students with the Calmness Counter. 
• Create musical cues for your class.
• How about some fun classroom timers?
• Music has been known to have a calming effect.  Although students may think this is corny at first...it works! A musical realization of the motion graphics of John Whitney as described in his book "digital harmony"
• Stick Pick  - Pick a student at random just by giving your device a shake or tapping the screen -- but that’s just the beginning. Stick Pick suggests question starters for learners at different levels and also records how well students respond during classroom discussions. If a student is consistently scoring near the top or bottom, simply change the level so students aren't bored or frustrated. Depending on students' levels of English proficiency, they might be asked simple yes-or-no questions or to elaborate in longer sentences.
• Random Name Generator Tool - Did anyone not answer yet? Who still has a popsicle stick? Are you kidding me? Bring your classroom management into the 21 century with the Random Name Generator Tool.
• The TooLoud! app is ideal for the teacher who needs to limit noise in the classroom environment.  It records decibels, displaying the volume levels in numbers.  Use it to let the class know when they cross the auditory line.  Hook your iPad up to the projector and manage the working noise level in class by letting the students see the feedback for themselves.  The data is also visualized in a live graph and in a sliding bar that indicates the rising levels of clamor and babble.  Watch out for the red zone...time to bring the level down!
• A traffic light flash resource to control the volume the children in your class.
• Happy Class - HappyClass automatically creates classroom seating arrangements based on your students’ needs and relationships.
• Challenge your class not to make the balls bounce with Boucy Balls.
• Dart Board name selecting tool or even a Random Name Selector can add some interest.

Have you tried one of the ideas or tools from above. Share your feedback.

What ideas, techniques or resources do you have for managing your classroom?

Girls and Math: Why Are We Still Having This Conversation?

A recent article To End the Gender Skill Gap In STEM, Add Competition To The Equation caught my attention and then made be ask, "Why are we still having this conversation?" Who says women can't do math and science?

Girls and math has been a topic of discussion for as long as I can remember.  Do you remember the outrage when Barbie claimed math was tough?

Did anybody see the off-Broadway play, Victoria Martin: Math Team Queen, which asked the question "Can a girl know Pi to 53 decimal places and still be popular?"  I personally did not see this play but do hope , for the sake of all women, that the answer was, "YES!"

NPR has regularly talked about encouraging American Girls to Embrace Math.  My preference?  Let's stop talking about it and take some action.

We have passed the holiday season but Tis The Season to Encourage Little Girls to Become Engineers. Lets stop talking about engineering girls for a man's world and take some action. As Danica McKellar so boldly writes, "Math Doesn't Suck."  And as Nell GreenfieldBoyce so proudly shared Girls' Math Skills Equal Boys. 

Kudos goes out to Diane Sawyer and Person of the Week: Sheryl Sandburg.  We need more women like Sandburg to take charge and change the future for women.

List of Books for Educators

February Vacation week is coming to an end. Unfortunately, I was not lucky enough to escape the winter weather and head off to the tropics.  This left me with plenty of time to catch up on my RSS feed, Pinterest boards, Edmodo posts and tweeting (@pendeskllc).  Once I was caught up with social media,  I found myself looking for new books to read.

Here is a list of books that I have added to my educational GoodReads listing.

How Full Is Your Bucket?  Educator's Edition: Positive Strategies for Work and Life by Tom Rath

The Tipping Point:  How Little Thinks Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink

Radical: Fight: Fighting to Put Students First by Michelle Rhee

A Whole New Mind:  Why Right Brain-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel Pink

The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander

The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy by Jon Gordan

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin

If You Don't Feed the Teachers They Eat the Students: Guide to Success for Administrators and Teachers by Neila A. Connors and Jennifer J. Streams

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina



To get started on this lengthy list of "to-reads", I decided to go one more step and start a professional development opportunity for fellow teachers in my building.  Our first book is going to be How Full is Your Bucket?  Educator's Edition which we discuss on line using Edmodo.

If you have any books that would be worthy of adding to this list, please share.