I really hope that when you read the title to this post you sang it. You know the song from Sound of Music! Haha just me? Ok I'm gonna post about 3 of my favorite things as a teacher.
First favorite thing: Kahoot
"Kahoot! is a free game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn" That's their wording when you Google Kahoot and I couldn't agree more. Kahoot is a website where you can make your own quizzes, discussions, or surveys.
I've only every created the quiz one. One of the reasons why I like this is that it provides immediate feedback so the students can see how they are doing- are they getting the questions right. Doing the same problems on a worksheet just doesn't provide that. Also at the end you can download the data from the quiz. Who got what questions right or wrong. Which questions they missed the most. Etc. To play you can either create your own Kahoot! as you see above- or you can search other teacher's public ones. When you're ready you launch it on your computer and project it onto an activeboard or just project it onto a screen (it's not important that the board be interactive because the students are interacting through their device). The students "play" by using a device that connects to the Internet- I let my students use their phones- but I always sign up for the iPad cart because not all of our students have access to smart phone. Once you launch it a PIN number pops up and the student type in the PIN to connect to your specific quiz. Then they can choose their name. I always make the rule that they must use their actual name I call them. If students try to use an inappropriate name you can kick them out of the game by clicking on their name.
I like this because students think it's really cool to be able to use their smart phones in class and I am always shocked how much it increases their willingness to do more practice problems. There are some downsides though. One is that on the quiz portion- it's timed and the longest you can give them is 120s or 2 min. This may be fine for a general ed class room, however it causes some anxiety and stress for my special education students who almost always need extra time. A way around that is to give them the questions before hand to work out. Another downside is there always seems to be that one student who realizes that by waiting and not answering, they can prevent the game from moving on and taking a long time. Any suggestions on how to deal with those students would be appreciated!
Second Favorite thing: Bullet Journal!
I was using something like this before I ever heard of it- a running to do list in a composition note book to try to keep on top of the 15 million things a special education teacher has to do in a week. I know that's only a few more things than the 14 million any other teacher has to do too. Now I am trying this method out. I keep all my notes and to do lists in this spiral notebook.
Mainly I just like the quote and spiral works for me cause I can clip it open to the current week's to-do list. I use a system very similar to the one in the video. Although I don't find much use for the monthly calendar part as my school uses google calendar and I have a desktop calendar I use for that as well. I do use it for both personal and school related activities. I just really like it because personally if I don't write it down- it goes out of my brain into nothingness and it won't get done or I won't remember. I also like this method because it's very flexible and you can personalize it to fit your needs. This could be done in a regular planner, a 99 cent composition notebook, a cute spiral notebook. You could have 2, one for school and one for personal life. However you want it- you can do it. I'm still working out the kinks on what works best for me. I'll let you know how it goes. Below is what I've done so far.
The bullets I use, as you can see to the left, are basically the same as the guy points out in the video. I love to color code so I came up with a key. However, I don't usually carry all those around with me so I've come to realize it wasn't that doable. However, I do like to high light my tasks from time to time so I can tell what I need to do for school, lacrosse, or personal at a quick glance. You can see what that actually looks like in the picture below. As you can see, I mostly use this type of "journal" for a running weekly to do list. I also use it on the weekends to try to be more productive with my time.
If you have any ideas on how to make this work better for me or ways it works for you, please let me know. I love anything organization related!
Third Favorite Thing: My Keurig!
Disclaimer- not my actual Keurig
I know, I know- this is supposed to be a post about what's your favorite thing in your classroom. Well I have an office because I float classrooms and I can't tell you how awesome, and needed, it is to be able to come into work a bit earlier and fix my self a cup of coffee exactly like I like it. I need those few minuets to my self before school begins to mentally put my self in the right mind set. It's almost like meditation. Sitting drinking coffee checking personal emails, work emails, catching up on my favorite blogs, sometimes listening to books on tape, podcasts, etc. Every teacher deserves a little me time and I find mine before anyone gets to school through caffeine. Don't judge.
So I tried really hard to write down everything I did last Monday for the #MTBoS blogging initiative. But alas, I'm a human and a teacher which means I got distracted about half way through and stopped writing stuff down. So the last half of this post is from memory. I will let you know when that happens, and I'm sure you'll be able to tell cause I think it gets less detailed and more general about what was going on. :-/ Hope it's not too long and boring. But here it goes:
Monday January 11th, 2016
5:50 am - My alarm on my phone goes off. I turn it off and go back to sleep
6:00 am- My alarm clock goes off and I hit snooze 4 times. Each snooze is 9 min long which means the last time I hit snooze is 6:36 am.
6:36 am - I jump out of bed. I have it timed down to the minuet. This is the latest I can stay in bed before I'm running later than I feel comfortable doing. The first thing I do is go to the bathroom (TMI?) then I make breakfast, which consists of me barely awake pouring cereal and almond milk into a bowl. Then I make my lunch for the day (spoiler- it's the same lunch every day). Then I get dressed, do my hair and make up and I'm out the door.
7:11 am - Getting in my car to drive to school. It's ~ 20 min drive.
7:25 am - Park in the teacher lot which is now like a million miles from the school due to construction.
7:30 am - Sign in the front office and check my box.
7:32 am - Deal with my dying Keurig to make my coffee. I need my coffee.
7:35 am - Chat with physics teacher on my hall about how my Keurig is dying and about how my sister's pregnancy is going. She had a rough Friday so the doctors put her on bed rest for the weekend and she wasn't going into work today too. She is also a special education teacher for the same district that I work in. Except she teaches 5th grade and I teach high school. Basically the same job ;).
7:45 am - Print stuff for 4th period resource chemistry today. Make sure it makes sense to put in the INB.
7:53 am - Schedule parent meeting for 8 am on Thursday.
7:55 am - Print IEP and re-determination for my meeting at 3:45 pm today.
7:57 am - Go make copies* of IEP and check that the social worker was invited and can come to the meeting this afternoon. * If the copy room isn't ridiculously full.
7:59 am- - Copy room wasn't full so I was able to make copies of my IEP and re-determination. Ran into the school's favorite sub and he told me that he was subbing for one of my co-teachers. Glad I found out before walking into the classroom.
8;17 am - Pack up my book bag with all the stuff I will need through 2nd period. Gear up to walk back out side to my 1st period class which is in the trailers. Brrrrrrrr it's gotten cold.
8:20 am - The bell rings to let students into the building. Say hi to geometry teacher as I leave towards the trailers.
8:30 am - The bell rings to start 1st period. Not that we can hear it in the trailers. We can barley here the announcements in the morning. My 1st period class is 11th grade Co-Taught Advanced Algebra. We finished up our introduction to imaginary numbers then moved on to adding, subtracting, and multiplying imaginary and complex numbers. Starting the Friday before we watched these really awesome videos introducing Imaginary numbers. Even I learned a bunch of new stuff about imaginary numbers! Always exciting when that happens. I've posted the first video in the series below. There are 9 videos all called "Imaginary numbers are real [part 1-9]"
9:25 am - bell rings to release kids from 1st period. My co-teacher and I have to watch the clock closely to make sure we are letting our kids leave at the right time, because, again, we don't hear the bells in the trailers.
9:30 am - 2nd period begins. I have planning this period and usually this is dedicated to collaborative planning with my chemistry co-teacher and the other chemistry teacher. Before I go to meet them, I make copies for my 4th period resource chemistry class.
9:45 am - Meet with chemistry teachers to co-plan. I have to get the video we are showing today because it was too big to put in our shared dropbox. I ask about the the timing of the class and decide not to have my kids do the quick write on their first impression of the project but rather have a discussion about it.
9:50 am - Get distracted talking to co-workers in the library on the way up to my office
9:56 - get back into my office and start working on getting my parent folder ready for my meeting today. This folder includes stuff like the draft IEP, parents rights, current grades, attendance or behavior issues, transcript, etc.
10:20 am - Bell rings to start 3rd period. I always feel like 2nd period goes by super fast, probably cause it's my planning and I'm usually doing work the whole time.
10:23 am - I walk to my 3rd period. My office is right across the hall from my 3rd period class, so it's not imperative that I leave my office right after the bell rings.
10:25 am - Bell rings to start 3rd period. My 3rd period is also 11th grade Co-taught Advanced Algebra. This class is HUGE with 31 students. I know I'm in for a doozy of a period because my co-teacher isn't here.
10:27 am - Take roll and chat with para and students about the upcoming national championship game.
10:30 am - Sub tried to get class started. I help by reminding students that I'm still here in class.
10:32 am - We hand out the work on adding, subtracting, and multiplying complex numbers. Some of this material is new so the sub tries to introduce it. Kids are totally lost.
10:35 am - I walk around and help students who are confused who actually want to do their work. This sadly is less than you'd think. Being a special education co-teacher usually means I'm demoted to about the level of a sub or student teacher, even though I'm there every day.
11:15 am - Bell rings to end 3rd period- FINALLY this class went by so slow! I ask one of my students who's dad played football for Clemson if he'd take a picture with me in our matching Clemson gear. (I went to Georgia Tech but I was most certainly rooting for the ACC!) (permission was granted to use this picture)
11:15 - 11:45 am - First lunch! I grab my traveling classroom (aka my cart) and my lunch head for the elevator to go down 1 floor to the science hall.
11:35 am - Finish up lunch and chatting with science colleagues. Everyone was asking how my sister was doing! Go to class room to get things set up before students come in. I have to turn on the active board and plug my computer in. Get out their INBs and glue sticks. I started the year with like ~20 glue sticks and now I have like 3.
11:41 am - Debate in my head whether I have time to run to the bathroom or not. Decide I do not have time.
*From Memory*
11:45 am - Bell rings to release first lunch. I stand in the hall way to greet my students as they enter but also to chat with the Bio teacher across the hall.
11:50 am - Bell rings to start 4th period. This is my 10th grade resource chemistry class. It is a small group class offered for certain students who are being served under special education. The small group allows me to give more individualized instruction and meet their specific learning needs. However, it's not such a small small group. It has 13 students.
11:53 am- Have given several prompts for the students to start their warm up that is displayed on the board. This warm up reviews single displacement reactions and the reactivity series of metals. Once they have been working for ~5 min I go over the warm up as a class
11:59 am - Remind students about their HW#9 which is due Thursday before class on Texas Quest. (website through university of Texas that allows them to do their homework online). It is more practice on single displacement reactions and the reactivity series of metals.
12:00-12:18 pm - Watch a video on how the Katana is made in Japan and how chemistry knowledge effects what they use to make it out of. This is a lead in to the project we are about to start which is gonna ask the students to research metals and choose the best one to make their chosen product with. This video goes over very well with the students.
12:18-12:25 pm - Discussion about their first reactions to the project prompt. What are they going to need to research.
12:25-12:45 pm - Each student is given a specific "problem" (such as jewelry, cookware, sport equipment, etc) to read about and take notes on one row of a graphic organizer.
12:45 pm - bell rings to release 4th period. I ask one of my other students, this time a rival fan for a picture. (permission was granted for this one too!)
12:50 pm - Bell rings to start 5th period. I teach a co-taught chemistry this period. We did nearly the same thing as my resource class did except my class didn't do a quick write on their first impression- we had a discussion. The Katana video went over well with this period too.
1:40 pm - Bell rings to release 5th period. I maneuver the classroom and the halls with my cart to bring it back up to my office for my planning period!
1:45 pm - Bell rings to start 6th period. Got a lot of work to do to make sure I'm 100% ready for my IEP and re-determination meeting this afternoon. Also finished up an IEP for another meeting on Thursday and gave it to student to take home so parents could review the draft before the meeting.
2:35 pm - Bell rings to release 6th period. I'm always like crap how did 6th period go by so fast. I always have so much special education work to do that it really does make time fly. So I pack up quick and head down stairs back to the science hall.
2:40 pm - Bell rings to start 7th period co-taught chemistry. This class is also very large with 30 students. But we do basically the same thing we did in the previous class.
3:30 pm - Bell rings to release students from school. I discuss with co-teacher about anything that will be needed to be redone tomorrow because we can never get as far in 7th as we can in 5th. Too many kids with big personalities who always want to talk and have the attention. They are fabulous though. Some of them might even be comedians someday.
3:35 pm - Run upstairs to grab everything I need for my meeting and head down to the central hub for ESS. The room that our co-chairs have their classes.
3:45 pm - All the teachers and the student are here we are just waiting on the mother....
3:55 pm - Decide mother is not coming. Try calling her multiple times.
4:15 pm - Still called multiple times and left a message. Tried calling ex-husband who's information was still in the system. No luck. Will have to reschedule meeting. I hate when this happens. I did all that work for nothing.
4:25 pm - Still discuss IEP with student and other teachers tell him how he's doing in their classes and what he needs to do to improve.
4:30 pm - meeting is definitely called. Everyone is told it's ok for them to leave. I stayed to chat with the head of our department. Also remembered that I had had to go to the bathroom since after lunch. Finally got to go!
4:45 pm - Walk up to see what chemistry co-teacher/co-head lacrosse coach was doing.
5:00 pm - Decided we wanted to go get dinner before our spring sports preview thing at 6:30. We walked to the Chick Fil A that is just a block away. Tried not to sit too close to our students who were also eating and hanging out at Chick Fil A (not doing their HW I might add).
5:50 pm - Walk back to the high school. Release we need to update the lacrosse info with rescheduled games so we have something to hand out to any parents who may show up
6:15 pm - Make copies of lacrosse information.
6:30 pm - The booster club made a little ceremony of giving the yearly money to the athletic director and then we split up into each sport in a different room
6:40 pm - We only had 1 parent show up because we had already had an interest meeting back in November before Thanksgiving to set up a conditioning schedule. This parent's child also plays basketball so she missed the interest meeting.
6:55 pm - Done with the spring sports preview and walk back to my car! Let my friends who are supposed to come over to watch the national championship that I was heading home and they could meet me there whenever.
7:15 pm - Got home and friends bailed. Of course. Changed immediately into sweatpants!
8:30 pm-12:30 am - Watched the national championship game. Sad Clemson lost :(
I, Jessica Mayer, resolve to blog in 2016 in order to open my classroom up and share my thoughts with other teachers. I hope to accomplish this by participating in the 2016 blogging initiative hosted by Explore MTBoS.
I think this will be a good activity to participate in as one of my new years goals is to be a more effective worker. Part of being effective is reflecting on what you did and how it went. Also I would like to become more active in the global STEM community. I think one of the greatest strengths we have as educators is our willingness to share with and learn from one another.
**In full disclosure, I totally stole the top part of this post from my Favorite MTBoS blogger Sarah Hagan.**
