Teacher Report Card

Usually I wait until the end of the year to get feedback about my teaching and classroom practices from students.

Writing that sentence sounds crazy.  WHY would I wait until the end of the school year?!  I can't make any adjustments to my teaching practices then.  I can certainly make changes for the coming year, but by then I'll have a new group of students; some changes will still be for the better, but current students are telling me what works for them now.  It's like giving a formative assessment after the unit test.

A few days ago, I saw this tweet about giving students a Teacher Report Card.

And it just made so much sense!  Get feedback from students during the school year so that I can start making adjustments now.

While January 1 and the new calendar year are natural starting points, that's just not feasible for me right now.  I came across this tweet at the start of winter break, so I will not see my students until after January 1st.  However, second semester starts at the end of January, which seems to me a great alternative to the new year starting date.

I edited the Teacher Report Card google form slightly - I am not brave enough to ask my students if they think I have bad breath, and there were a few questions I wanted to add.  Then I emailed the link to my students.  I planned on explaining the report card survey to students when we return from winter break and let them know that they have two weeks to get me their feedback.  I was surprised to see that some of my students have been checking their school email over break and have already completed the survey!

Here are some of the comments on the open response questions so far.  The enlarged ones are the comments that had the biggest initial impact for me.

Sometimes, the teacher ________, but not always.

• Freaks out over small things
• has moments
• let's kids take advantage of her
• controls the class

  
Sometimes, the teacher lets the class ________, but not always.

• Talk while doing work
• Talk
• run around too much
• get off topic

 
What do you like BEST about the class?

• She teaches the lessons clearly and not rush the lesson.
• i like that i can learn the math at the pace that helps me but also at the same time makes sure the class is fun and a great class to come to each day
• She makes sure I get the help I need and she cares that I want learn a lot more about math. I like that she listens to me. I like when I am stuck she comes over and help me. I glad she is happy when I ask a question. ( I might ask too many, in my opinion, she might think differently)
• I like how she is involved in our lives and helps us no matter what 

KEEP: What is one thing Ms. Ess should keep doing in class?

• You should keep the number pockets with all the supplies and also keep doing the review on the do nows.
• Not giving home Work often.
• Explains things to a point
• Ms Ess should keep doing the same organizational note book for future reference or more help with units we don’t understand that well.

CHANGE: What is one thing Ms. Ess should change about what she does in class?

• You should change my seat. And the seating arrangement. It’s hard to see with the sun glare and also from the side it’s hard to see the do nows. 
• Ms Ess should change having assigned seats that she picks, but have us pick our seats and tell her that’s where we want to sit until otherwise based on behavior and work ethic. 
• maybe you should be a tad bit more strict to make sure kids listen to you and behave
• you aren't harsh enough on the kids if they're rude make them leave. none of them know respect sometimes including myself so just make them leave. 

START: What is one thing Ms. Ess should start doing in class?

• You should play calming music.
• give more harsh punishments/control the class
• Ms Ess should start having efficient time limits on assignments to keep the class on task at all times and to have more time to go over more thorough topics.
• putting percents on tests and quizzes.

STOP: What is one thing Ms. Ess should stop doing in class?

• stop letting kids take advantage of her niceness
• allowing kids to do what they please
• letting the kids that disrespect her get by with out a punishment
• Ms Ess should stop treating the kids that are misbehaving with such simple simple punishments so the kids think it’s okay to continue their same ways.

Anything else you want to tell me?

• You are a good teacher you just freak out for no reason
• I like the way the lessons go but I am confused on your grading system and wish it was more fair with the way we understand things on tests.
• you're an amazing teacher! if i'm having a bad day i always look forward to your class to make it better! you're so nice and a better teacher than a lot of the teachers i've had. thank you for being so great and never doubting me. p.s. i don't really hate math like i say i do i just get confused too much keep being a great teacher :)
• you're cool as heck

It's an ego boost and a lesson in humility all in one.  While I'm really not surprised that my students have identified the same weaknesses that I see in myself, there's something about hearing it from them that is a little more motivating.  Time to get to work.

Buddy the Elf's Journey to NYC

"First, I traveled through the seven levels of the Candy Cane Forest..."

I loved this holiday-themed assignment I created a few years ago for my students to practice finding the slope of a line.  But then the district changed the sequencing of our curriculum and I wasn't teaching slope until third quarter.  This year we were wrapping up the Pythagorean Theorem just before winter break and I realized that I could modify this old slope assignment to practice using the Pythagorean Theorem to find distances on a coordinate plane.  I think I even like this version better!

I am sharing a few versions of this assignment.

1. Slope Assignment
Version A asks students to plot points given the coordinates for each location on Buddy's journey.  You have the option of giving students cardinal directions or ordered pairs to plot the points.  Students then find the slope of each part of the journey.

Version A - cardinal directions

Version A - ordered pairs

Versions A and B slope calculation chart

Version B allows students to plot points for each location wherever they want.  Students record the coordinates for each point and then find the slope for each part of the journey.

Version B - student-designed route

2. Pythagorean Theorem/Distance Formula Assignment
Version A asks students to plot points given the coordinates for each location on Buddy's journey.  You have the option of giving students cardinal directions or ordered pairs to plot the points.  Students then create right triangles and use the Pythagorean Theorem to find the distances for each part of Buddy's journey (or you may choose to forgo the right triangles and have students use the distance formula).

Pythagorean Theorem version

Distance Formula version

Version B allows students to plot points for each location wherever they want.  Students record the coordinates for each point and then create right triangles and use the Pythagorean Theorem (or distance formula) to find the distances for each part of Buddy's journey. 

Which version should I use?
Use Version A if you'd like all students to do the exact same assignment - same calculations, same answers, meaning that you can create an answer key.

Version A

Use Version B if you'd like students to have a bit more creative control, as they decide where to plot the locations of each stop on Buddy's journey.  Grading this version will definitely take more time, and you'll want to instruct students not to plot all their points on the same horizontal/vertical line.

Version B - Student Sample

Version B - Student Sample

Version B - Student Sample

View/Download: Buddy the Elf Assignments

Pythagorean Theorem Converse Maze

I recently tweeted a #teach180 picture of a maze I created for my students to practice using the converse of the Pythagorean theorem.  I had originally hand-drawn my version of the maze after seeing the Combining Like Terms Maze that Sarah Carter used with her students, but when my photo got a fair bit of attention, I figured I'd type up a nice copy of the maze to share.

Version 1 of the maze lists side lengths in numerical order, meaning the numbers can be substituted in directly for a, b, and c.

Version 1 - sides in numerical order

Version 2 of the maze lists side lengths in random order, so students will need to determine which sides to substitute in for the legs and which side to substitute in for the hypotenuse.

Version 2 - sides in random order

View/Download: Right Triangle Maze

The Power of a Note

I've been without internet at home for two weeks now which has made blogging much more difficult.  And planning.  And grading.  On the brightside, I've read three books!  Who has time to do that during the school year?!

A couple of weeks ago, I had been struggling with the behavior of and attitude from a girl in one of my classes.  Then one day, out of the blue, she walks in and says to me, "I'm going to have a good class today."  She sat in her assigned seat without complaint, completed all of the classwork, and ignored the poor behavior of some of her classmates instead of getting involved and arguing with them.  At the end of class, I thanked her and told her that I thought she had a really good class.  I really wanted that to stick with her, so that night, I wrote her a thank you note.

I used to have a memo pad of sticky notes like this; when they ran out, I figured I could make my own and just use regular paper.

In the note, I thanked her again for making the decision to have a good class, that I was proud of her, and that she really had made my day!  Since giving her the note, her behavior and attitude have really improved.  She came to academic support today after school and I noticed that she had the note I had written her tucked into her phone case.  It made me really happy to see that she kept the note in a special place, and it makes me wonder how many other "difficult" students I could reach in a similar way.  How much more of an impact does a written note have than verbal praise in class?

Cats Are More Loyal Than Men

I'm dying! 😂

My teacher is married to a cat.  Cats are more loyal then [sic] men.

Approximating Square Roots Question Stack

Lately I've been using a lot of question stacks with my students.  I like that this practice structure is self-checking and helps students gain confidence.

My students have learned to approximate irrational square roots to the nearest whole number.  In past years, my students have always done well with determining the closest whole number; however when I asked them to plot an approximate point on a number line, many students put a point right on the whole number.  For example, my students would tell me that the square root of 46 is between 6 and 7 (closer to 7), but when they plotted a point on the number line, the point was right on the number 7 instead of somewhere between 6 and 7.

This year I wanted to give my students more practice with recognizing and plotting these irrational square roots on a number line.  I created two question stacks with different levels of difficulty.  Instead of writing the approximate answers in words (between 6 and 7), all of the answers were shown on a number line.

When it came time for a quiz, I found that my students this year did a much better job with approximating square roots on a number line.

Level 1

Level 2

View/Download: Approximating Square Roots Question Stacks

Making Group Work WORK - #SundayFunday

It's weird to me to think about how we are such social creatures, and yet, adults and children alike have such a hard time working with other people in a group.  I've had many a classes where "group work" meant sitting with other people, but ignoring them while you do your own work.  Often the task is split between the group members, and each person does an unequal share of the work.  If the task can be divided and completed independently, I might argue that it is not a group-worthy task.

Although we live in communities and most of us have probably never gone a full day without interacting with someone, working with other people does not come naturally to most.  In the classroom, that means students need to be taught to work in groups.

Here are just a couple of links to activities designed to teach students how to work in groups.

Sara VanDerWerf's 1-100 Activity

• The Task: Students work together to circle the numbers from 1-100 in order.  
• Your Job: Take pictures of students working in their groups and use these photos to facilitate a discussion about what good group work looks like.
• My Experience: Because taking photos of my students is kind of iffy, I do weird things as I walk around the room to see how many students notice.  For example, I might do some walking lunges or pat my head.  During the discussion, I ask how many students noticed that I was doing these strange things.  Usually not many students do, which leads to the questions, "Why do you think you didn't notice your teacher acting like a weirdo?  What were you doing that made you ignore some of the distractions around you?"

Sarah Carter's Broken Circles Activity

•  The Task: Students work silently to use the pieces in each of their envelopes to create a full circle.  Students must give away and accept others' pieces to do so. 
• Your Job: You don't have to do much during the task, but use Sarah's Broken Circles Reflection sheet to facilitate a discussion afterwards.
• My Experience: Some groups will figure this out in less than 5 minutes.  Others will take closer to 10 minutes.  Bigger groups definitely make the task more difficult. 

Rating Group Work Norms

Sarah identifies the Group Work Norms that Broken Circles is designed to practice.  I used her Group Work Norms posters to create another short activity for my students.

 

First I asked students to rate the importance of each of these norms independently.  I explained that they could have as many 1's, 2's, or 3's as it took to rate all of the norms.  Next I had my students partner with someone else.  I asked them to compare their ratings and then focus on two norms: one whose importance both partners agreed upon (same rating) and one whose importance they disagreed on (different ratings).  Afterwards, partners shared with the class.

List of Perfect Squares Foldable

It's simple, but I love this perfect squares foldable I created for students' notebooks this year.  In the past, I've just had students write a list of perfect squares up through 25^2, but then I'm left with the dilemma of deciding if I should have students write that a whole number squared is equal to a perfect square number or have them write that a whole number is equal to the square root of a perfect square.  I like that students are able to see the relationship both ways with this foldable.

 

    

They print two per page.  Print double-sided (flip on long edge) and cut down the length of the paper.  To fold, first fold in half lengthwise with the picture on the outside.  Then fold in half the other direction with the picture still facing out.

View/Download: Perfect Squares Foldable

Repeating Decimals Exploration

My students have been working on rational number conversions.  We started with fraction to decimal conversions.  I blogged about the notes I used and question stack my students practiced with here.  Next we reviewed how to convert terminating decimals to fractions.  Students put this review sheet in their notebooks.

After a brief review of terminating decimals, I had my students complete a repeating decimals exploration.  I asked them to convert special fractions to decimals using long division or a calculator, and then look for patterns.

 

Students noticed that all of the decimals were repeating.  They noticed that the denominators were all 9s.  They noticed that the numerators showed the digits that repeat when written as a decimal.  They noticed that the number of digits in the numerator matched the number of 9s in the denominator.

Then I asked students to predict what the fraction would be if I gave them the repeating decimal.  After making their predictions, students checked their answers with a calculator.

Things I Like About This Investigation

• Students get practice with converting fractions to decimals - whether that is by long division or entering it correctly in a calculator.
• Students do some notice/wonder while looking for patterns and making predictions.
• Students discover the 9s trick for repeating decimals themselves. 

Limitations and Room for Improvement

• Students didn't learn why the 9s trick works.
• Students only discovered how to convert repeating decimals to fractions if all the digits after the decimal repeat. 
• There was not a big emphasis on simplifying fractions, so students may not realize that simplified fractions with denominators other than 9 can still repeat (e.g., students may not recognize that 7/11 repeats and that it is the same as 63/99).

We summarized the 9s trick in their notebooks with this notes sheet.

View/Download: Converting Decimals to Fractions Notes and Repeating Decimals Exploration 

 

New Kindness Dares

My students are really into completing the Kindness Dares I have in my classroom.  Several students think they have completed every challenge in the bag because they keep getting repeats now, so they have asked me to write some new ones.  I realized that when I first blogged about the dares here, I never shared the files for the dares I used.  Now that I'm writing some new ones, I figured it was time to share them all!

 

Kindness Dares Set #1

 

Kindness Dares Set #2

View/Download: Kindness Dares

Rational Number Conversions to Memorize

My students have been working on rational number conversions.  They need to know how to do these conversions by hand, but when they're actually using them, it's faster to just have some conversions memorized.  I gave my students this chart for their notebooks and had them fill in the equivalent decimals.  I told my students that these are conversions worth knowing, and they should work on memorizing them.

View/Download: Conversions You Should Know

Real Number System Auction

Last week, I held a silent auction in class to give my students a chance to review classifying real numbers before their quiz.  This activity was based on the Function Auction I first heard about from Sarah Carter.  Check out her post for all the details!

Students were split into groups and each group was given the auction handout.  First my students spent 10-15 minutes deciding with their groups which statements were true and which were false.  I also encouraged them to decide in advance how much they were willing to spend on a single statement.  I reminded them to make these decisions quietly so that they didn't tip off any of the groups around them.

When it was time to begin the auction, I reminded students that they only wanted to bid on the true statements.  They asked what happens if they win false statements.  In the past, I've said that it counts against them, but this year I told them that all it really meant was that they had less money to buy true statements.

The opening bid for each statement was fifty dollars and each subsequent bid had to raise the previous by $50 increments.  Each group recorded the statements they won and how much money they spent on the bottom of the auction handout.  One thing I have learned after doing several auctions with my classes is that students are much better at keeping track of the statements they win and how much money they have if I give them fake money to play with.  If you hold an auction review with your students, I highly recommend giving each group fake money to use!  I use money I created with the name of my school and our school mascot on it, but I also created generic money featuring famous mathematicians.

Two of my classes really enjoyed this activity.  Although I had to remind them often that it was a silent auction, they quieted down so that we could review each statement after it was won.  One of my classes got too excited by this activity.  They continued to talk during the bidding and when I tried to review statements after each was auctioned off.  In anticipation of this, I had an independent activity copied and ready to go.  After some warnings and three strikes, I stopped the activity after auctioning off only two statements.  Groups had to return their money and paddle and students worked silently and independently for the rest of class.

Although I was disappointed we didn't get to finish the auction in that one class, I was pretty proud of myself for sticking with the three strikes and packing up the activity when students didn't follow my directions.  They couldn't stop talking during the auction, but they knew I was serious when we packed up and they worked silently for the rest of class.  Slowly but surely I am making progress with classroom management.

View/Download: Real Numbers Auction Handout and Auction Money

Photo of the Week - #SundayFunday

This past week my school participated in Red Ribbon Week.  Each student and faculty member was given the opportunity to anonymously write how drugs and alcohol have affected their lives on a paper "brick."  Hundreds of these bricks were then displayed down a high-traffic hallway for students and staff to read and know that they are not alone.

Here are some of the ways drugs and alcohol have impacted my school:

• neglect by parents who were drunk or high; feeling like they can't talk to their parents; feeling unsafe around their parents
• moving to a new state because of drug problems; living with a foster family due to drug issues at home
• deaths of family members and friends; family members being revived multiple times from overdoses; being encouraged to commit suicide by a family member who was high
• family members who were or still are in jail; awareness of an increase in drug-related crime; awareness of financial trouble related to drugs
• friendships that have ended because of drug use; friends that skip school or come to school high; encouraging a friend to stop doing drugs
• neighbors who do drugs; restrictions on places to play outside due to high drug activity in some areas
• family members in rehab; family members who are sober now for: 21 days, 1 year, 8 years 

Rational Number Conversion Question Stack

Last week my students practiced rational number conversions.  That meant a review of long division.  This year only a few of my eighth graders needed a refresher on how to set up a problem for long division.  We put this reminder in their notebooks and a few students in each class walked us through the three examples.

Next I had my students do some practice with a Question Stack.  I first heard about Question Stacks from Sarah Carter and I love using this practice structure.  I had my students create their answer bank with the decimal side up so that when they flipped a card to reveal a fraction, they would have to do the long division to find the equivalent decimal.

If you wanted your students to practice converting decimals to fractions, they should create their answer bank with the fraction side up.  This question stack includes both terminating and repeating decimals and some of the repeating decimals only repeat the last digit.  That means your students will have to know how to change repeating decimals to fractions and not just the 9s in the denominator trick if you use this with them to practice decimal to fraction conversions.

Fraction Side

Decimal Side

I have done many a question stack with my classes over the last few years and one of the things that has always bothered me is the number of paper clips that are lost when students spread out the cards for their answer bank.  I think I've finally solved that problem!  This year I laminated the Question Stack Explanation Mat that Sarah shared and I drew a paper clip on the top-right corner.  I explained to students that while they are working, they should clip their paper clip to the mat.  Having a designated place to keep the paper clip worked because I didn't lose a single one that day with 85 students using the question stacks!

View/Download: Converting Fractions Notes and Question Stack here

My Teaching Story - #SundayFunday

This week's #SundayFunday prompt is to tell your teaching story.  I'm in my fourth year of teaching middle school math.  I started because I love math.  I continue because I couldn't imagine my life without these kids.  In just the first month and a half of school this year, twelve of my former students have already managed to sneak back into the middle school to say hi and tell me about high school and their lives.  And I am filled with such joy and gratitude that they are a part of my life.  But I didn't always think it would be this way.

I never expected that I would be a teacher.  I was (and I guess I still am) painfully shy and soft-spoken.  I've always been a behind-the-scenes kind of person.  But I've also always loved math and sharing my love of math seemed to make interacting with other people easier for me.

In college I studied Math Education and Spanish.  I tutored for the Athletic Department and volunteered in local schools.  I went through a five-year program to get my Master's in Secondary Mathematics Education.  I spent my fifth year completing a year-long student teaching internship at an inner-city middle school - a completely different setting from the small town school where I grew up.  At the end of the internship, I still wasn't sure if I wanted to teach.  I knew that I liked working with kids, but I didn't know if being a regular classroom teacher was the best fit for me.

I didn't send out any applications until July of that summer.  The only classroom teacher position I applied for was in the same district where I did my student teaching.  I applied for paraprofessional positions in other districts and an AmeriCorps position at an inner-city high school in a neighboring state.

I interviewed for the AmeriCorps position first.  The position was basically for an in-school math tutor at the high school level.  I would be working with small groups (2 or 3 students each period) to do re-teaching and pre-teaching.  More than 50% of the students at the school were Hispanic, which meant I would also get to use my Spanish.  I was very excited about the position - a feeling I had not had when I thought about having my own classroom.  Being a certified teacher in another state, I was more than qualified for the position and at the end of my interview I was offered the job on the spot.  I had until the end of the week to decide.

Three days later, I had my only interview for a regular classroom teacher position.  It was at a different middle school in the district where I student taught.  I sent in my application so late that they actually had to pull the interview team together again a week after they had held all other interviews for that position.  An hour after my interview, the principal called to offer me the job of the math teacher on a 7th/8th grade split team.  By then, I had one day to make my decision.

I went back and forth so many times.  I wanted to take the AmeriCorps position because it was high school.  It was small groups.  I would get to use my Spanish.  It felt more comfortable to me.  On the other hand, was I going to be able to figure out if I really wanted to teach by taking a job as a math tutor?  The regular classroom teacher job was going to challenge me more.  I would be working at the middle school with the greatest percentage of students eligible for free/reduced lunch in the entire state.  I would have classes of 25 or 30 students.  I would be working with a team, but I'd be on my own in the classroom.

Both jobs were one-year positions.  Ultimately, I was going to be in the same position the next summer with regard to finding a job, and I decided that taking the regular classroom teaching job was going to be the best move for deciding if teaching was really for me.  I knew I would do my best for those students for that one year, and after that, I had an out if I determined that regular classroom teaching wasn't for me.

That first year was tough.  We were a brand new team at our school, a team formed to alleviate large class sizes in the seventh and eighth grades.  Our team consisted of two first-year teachers and two veteran teachers who hadn't been part of a team in a long time.  On top of that, one of the sixth grade teachers told me that my incoming seventh graders had been her worst year of teaching in 19 years!  Man, do I have stories about that first year!

Like the time I had to call the office to say that there was a student sitting on the roof of the school outside my window.

Or the time one of my students told me that he wears multiple pairs of socks as a cushion because his father makes him stand in the corner for hours at home.

Or the first time there was a fight in my room.

And the time I stepped in between two boys about to get into a fight, and then realized that they were both much bigger than me and I'd better hope they just take a step back and not start swinging.

Despite all the discipline issues and stories of horrible home lives, I have really great memories of that first year as well.

Like the time we were practicing finding measures of central tendency and one of my students refused to do any work at all until I told him to look up the prices of five of his favorite pairs of Jordan's and use that data for his calculations.  He was done in less than ten minutes!

Or the time when the principal told me that one of our most difficult students said that I was his favorite teacher.  When he was in school, he usually spent his lunch in my room and would come talk to me during my prep period when he was having a problem.

Or the times when another challenging student who rarely lasted a full period in my class due to such serious behavior issues would come to my room after school to talk with me and get his homework done.

Or all the times when my student and I shared a laugh about how we were wearing the same sweater on the same day again!

Or the laugh I got when a parent emailed me, saying, "Apparently my son thinks he's a duck!"

And that was just the first year!  I knew I wanted to teach.  The connections I made with my students were so important and inspiring.  It must have been meant to be, because my one-year position was extended to a permanent position at the end of that year.  The following year, we followed the bubble of seventh graders up to eighth grade and looped with many of our students - an experience I absolutely loved and for which I am so grateful.  I also taught a Functional Math class that year which provided a whole new set of challenges.  Since then I have switched teams, but still teach eighth grade and that Functional Math class.  I spend my summers teaching Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2 to satisfy that itch to teach at the high school level.  Maybe one day I'll move up, but for now I'm really loving my eighth graders!

Math Games - #SundayFunday

This week's #SundayFunday topic is Math Games.  Here's a list of some of the games I like to use in class.

Review Games: can be used for any topic

• Trashketball - compete as teams
• MATHO - compete as individuals
• Snowball Fight - students write their own review problem, crumple the paper, and have a "snowball fight" before picking up a "snowball" and answering that review problem
• Kahoot - online review game; search for a topic or write your own quiz

Content-Specific Games: to practice specific skills

• Slope Dude Says (from Sarah at mathequalslove) - practice classifying the slope of a line
• Dance, Dance, Transversal (from Jessica at Algebrainiac) - practice angle pair relationships when parallel lines are cut by a transversal
• Zero Game (from Denise at Let's Play Math) - practice adding integers and finding absolute value
• 24 Game - practice the order of operations

Time-Filler Games: for the days when you have an extra 5 minutes at the end of class

• Eleven (I've seen it so many places that I forget where I first read about this one) - the class must count to 11 (or a number that you choose) while following these rules:
• no talking/hand signals/communicating a strategy to classmates
• students must count in order
• no student can say more than one number
• if more than one student says a number at the same time, the class must start again from the beginning
• Petals Around the Rose - you roll 5 dice and tell students the score; they must figure out the rule

Free Time Games: math-y games/puzzles for when the majority of a class is on a field trip

• Tangrams
• Blokus
• Make a Million (from Julie at fractionfanatic)
• Set
• Rubik's Cubes

A Call for Advice

For several years, my last period class has been my worst behaved.  I've always boiled it down to, "it's the last class of the day and they're tired."  Also, "it's my last class of the day and I'm tired."  I know that my last period class gets away with murder compared to my earlier classes.  I feel like I say the same things all day to get students back on track that by the last class, I already feel defeated and like my students are not going to listen to me.  I forget that those are not the same students I saw earlier in the day who I've already told to change their behavior.  I know that by the end of the day, I am tired and sometimes frustrated just like my students.  Instead of getting stricter, I get more lenient when I'm frustrated.

I recognize all these things in myself, but I don't know how to change.  My classroom management has improved since I started teaching, but I've still got so far to go.

I recently covered a class period for two teachers on a day that we didn't have enough subs.  The first was a sixth grade computer class.  That class ran itself.  I was so impressed.  Every student came in and sat in their assigned seat.  Every student wrote the homework in their agenda book before I even prompted them to do so, and one student had the job of stamping everyone's agenda book when the homework was written down.  After their typing practice, we read an article together and the students were to answer the questions independently; and there wasn't a single student who tried to get away with working with someone during that time.

The second class I covered was for the social studies teacher on my team.  This experience puzzled me the most.  I was covering a class full of my own eighth graders.  They all sat in their assigned seats without complaint.  They did all the work expected of them during class and were SILENT during the guided reading activity that they were completing.  I had to prompt some students to keep working and I did take a phone away that period, but for the most part, the kids were fantastic.  At the end of that period, many of the students in that class followed me down to my room for math.  And it was like they were completely different people.  They had a warm-up to do that was projected on the board the same as every other day, and yet the students came in and wandered around the room talking to their friends, ignoring the work that they'd been expected to do every day at the start of class since the first day of school.

I need better procedures.  Or maybe just a better way to enforce them.  The number one piece of advice I got from my students at the end of last year was to "stop being so nice, especially to the bad kids."  I'm not trying to be nice.  I'm not trying to get kids to like me.  I am trying to be patient and understanding, but at times I take it too far and at the expense of other students' learning.  And that's not fair to anyone.

I'm looking for advice - mostly proactive, but also some reactive.  What can I do to make my class run more smoothly and to better convey my expectations to my students so that I don't end up with so many discipline problems?  But also, how do I regain control of my class when behaviors have gotten out of hand?  Even something as minor as how to get the attention of the class when they have gotten too loud during an activity.  I'm not supposed to yell and I'm not supposed to flick the lights; ideally we'd never get to that point, but what can I do when they do get too loud, and I just need to get their attention to remind them of the noise level they should be working at?

I know what works for one teacher may not always work for another, but any and all advice would be appreciated!  I'm open to trying just about anything, because I know that I haven't yet found what works for me.

Integer Operations in Eighth Grade

It can be so difficult to teach kids what they think they already know.  Every year, integer operations seems to be one of those things.  Many of my students come to eighth grade knowing, "Same signs add and keep, different signs subtract, take the sign of the bigger number, and then you'll be exact" to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."  Unfortunately, that doesn't always translate to accuracy when working with integers.  They know that "two negatives make a positive," but overgeneralize that rule to include integer addition.  I've struggled with helping my students build a conceptual understanding of how to work with integers when all they want to do is try to remember the rules they were taught.

Zero Game
To see what my students remembered about adding integers, I started with some problems where my students had to determine what value must be added to make zero.  I wrote problems on the board like the following:

-4 + ____ = 0

7 + ____ = 0

12 + (-9) + ____ = 0

-14 + 8 + ____ = 0

15 + (-20) + ____ = 0

We then played the Zero Game from Denise at Let's Play Math via Julie at I Speak Math.  The game is played with a deck of cards where red cards represent negative numbers and black cards represent positive numbers.  Cards are dealt to each player and the object of the game is to get a sum as close to zero as possible.  Read either of the posts above for more complete directions.  My students then completed this check for homework.

Positive/Negative Chips for Adding/Subtracting
The next day we began modeling how to add integers using positive and negative chips.  We modeled problems adding all positive integers first and my students did a Think-Pair-Share about their observations when adding all positive numbers.  Next we modeled adding all negative integers.  After a few examples, we did another Think-Pair-Share about what they noticed when adding all negative numbers.

Finally, we modeled adding numbers with different signs.  We moved all our zero pairs to the Sea of Zeros on this Integer Work Mat from Sarah Carter at Math Equals Love and students made observations about what happens when you add positive and negative numbers together.

Next we modeled subtracting integers using counters, adding in zero pairs as needed.  I tasked my students with using pictures to model what we had done in class for homework.

Adding/Subtracting on a Number Line
I love using a number line to think about adding and subtracting integers.  Adding means you move toward that end of the number line and subtracting means you move away from that end of the number line.  I like that this gets students thinking about why adding the opposite works for subtraction.

We did a few examples together and then my students completed this packet on their own.  The problems are paired so that students see an addition expression and its equivalent subtraction expression, and how the same movement is shown on the number line.  I wrote this packet up a few years ago and I'm not completely satisfied with it; however I haven't yet figured out how to change it.  All suggestions welcome!

When we reviewed this packet as a class, we spent a fair amount of time rewriting more examples of subtracting integers as adding the opposite.

Multiplying Integers Desmos Investigation
Next we explored multiplying integers.  This was my first time using Desmos with my students and I blogged more about that experience here.  We did Andrew Stadel's Multiplying Integers investigation.  Students modeled multiplication on a number line, looking at groups of positive or negative numbers and the opposite of groups of positive or negative numbers.  I've always been a fan of saying, "the opposite of" instead of "negative" and that tied in well with this lesson.

Integer Operation Rules Foldable
After four days of  what I hoped was a more meaningful look at working with integers, we were finally ready to summarize the rules for integer operations.  We put this foldable in their notes and did a few order of operations examples.  This foldable is available to download below.

One Incorrect Order of Operations Practice
The next day my students worked on this "One Incorrect" worksheet from Greta at Count It All Joy.  What I liked most about this worksheet was that my students knew that if they didn't get an answer of -13, they had most likely made a mistake somewhere since only one of the eight problems had an answer other than -13.  This was our first #VNPS day, and I let my students choose to either pair up or work individually around the room.

One extension to this activity was shared with me on Twitter: have students write their own set of "One Incorrect" problems.  I'm excited to try that the next time I use this practice structure. 

Two Truths and a Lie
Sarah Carter shared this template for a Two Truths and a Lie activity.  For homework, I had my students write their own statements about integer operations.  Some students chose to write about the rules, while others wrote numerical examples of using integers.  On the day of the quiz, we spent about half of the class reviewing the student-generated Two Truths and a Lie homework.  This gave us a chance to clear up some misconceptions as some papers had two or even three lies.

Integer Flashcards
Finally, I gave my students about ten minutes to quiz themselves using these integer operations flashcards from Sarah Carter before the actual quiz.

View/Download: Integer Operations Files