First Day of School 2015-16

I'm going to try to be a lot better at sharing what goes on in my classroom a lot more. I'll start with my first day of school!

Algebra 2 Honors

I began the class with the birthday seating challenge, as I have for the past four years. My first-period class is smaller, only sixteen students, and they completed the challenge in only a few minutes. The only class that ever did it faster had nine students in it.

My afternoon section of this class is a little larger, and had some more difficulty. They also have a more diverse mix of freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. The seat five person raised her hand to report that the class was ready to begin, even after people had openly admitted that they were still wrong. I told them it was not acceptable, and that they had to do it correctly. One girl went up to the board, wrote numbers 1-12 for the months, and then counted people into their seats. They did succeed at the second attempt, and completed the challenge 12 minutes after the bell had rung. Sometimes it's taken over half the class period to finish, so this was still very respectable. I also learned a lot more about this class than I did about first period since they struggled a little more (a great point to make about the importance of productive struggle and persevering.)

I then asked students on Socrative how the activity made them feel, and what they thought the purpose of it was. They got the point really well, and I got to make the point in the afternoon class about how frustrating it can be when team members don't cooperate.

Then, I had the students do a drawing activity with the person across from them. One partner had to explain to the other person how to draw their shape without letting him/her see it. Then we repeated the activity a second time. I'm sure you can see how much easier the second round was! :) I had the students introduce themselves and share something the other person might not know, since some students knew each other either not as well or not at all.

Drawing Activity: Round 1





Drawing Activity: Round 2




I wanted to use the intellectual need principle to motivate some of the early definitions that we are going to talk about with functions. The numbers are purposely written in all different directions, so students don't know which way is up (why you need the axes). A lot of students used coordinates to describe the graphs the second time, and I asked if any of them had trouble understanding each other or had to explain it a different way. This emphasizes the importance of consistent language.

Finally, I had students "notice and wonder" about their impressions of the first day. (I know I read this about the first day somewhere else, but I can't remember who it was.) The homework was to read the course policies (I gave a video option, too) and then notice and wonder about them. That way, I introduced the structure and had a way not to read the syllabus at students for 30 minutes. (I plan on doing the same thing in my Algebra 1 class, but in class.)

Some students noticed I was enthusiastic. That's a first, since I get quite a bit of feedback about my monotone voice. I must be doing something that's doing a better job of showing my enthusiasm. (Several evaluations I've gotten have something to the point of "Zach is really enthusiastic about math. He should share this enthusiasm more with his students.") Maybe it's that I've gotten more confident, and I also have become really passionate about what I'm trying to sell.

A lot of students wondered if the class will be hard. I will ask them a follow-up question of why they wonder if it will be hard on day 2. That way, I can get an idea of what fears they might have and/or what other needs they might have.

Algebra 1/Foundations of Algebra

Two out of these three classes are co-taught. I am already worried about several of the students. I know I am going to really have to make an effort to build relationships with some of the students in these classes. I know I have work to do in that aspect of my teaching. I've built great relationships with the students that like me and the students who will do what I ask them, but I need to work on building better relationships with the more "difficult" students. It's something I really want to make a more conscious effort of this year.

In order to try to start building relationships, I used this activity. It led to some really good conversations. We had to take care of a few other housekeeping things during the classes, but I think it was helpful that a lot of the time was dedicated to helping students feel comfortable with each other.

I'm really excited for this year, even though last year was a more difficult one. That's significant though, because the last time I had a difficult year, I was dreading going back the next year. I've drawn a lot of strength from the #MTBoS, and from some of my students who have really reminded me why I teach. They've inspired another goal of mine, which is to do a better job of showing gratitude. I want to write at least one nice note to someone every day.