Day 16: LCM & Mystery Numbers

6th Grade Math Standards: Find the greatest common factor of two whole numbers less than or equal to 100 and the least common multiple of two whole numbers less than or equal to 12. Use the distributive property to express a sum of two whole numbers 1–100 with a common factor as a multiple of a sum of two whole numbers with no common factor. For example, express 36 + 8 as 4(9 + 2). MA.4.a. Apply number theory concepts, including prime factorization and relatively prime numbers, to the solution of problems.

Objective: Find the least common multiple in a word problem context

Quote of the Day: “My mother was the greatest person in my life. She had an eighth grade education and cleaned floors at the Chicago Athletic Club for a living. Some of the greatest people in the world clean floors for a living. When you value everyone and treat everyone with respect, you may just be amazed at how they can make you better. Too often people will miss out on meaningful relationships with amazing people because they quickly pass judgment based on what that person does for a living, the clothes they wear, what kind of car they drive.” - Coach K

Question of the Day: "Is zero a prime number?" "Does zero have any factors?" "Why is it that we evolved from crawling to walking?"

Agenda:

1. Mystery Number
2. QSSQ
3. Review HW/Pepper
4. Word problem notes
5. Get to 10
6. Word problem practice with least common multiple

Assessment: Checked the homework, had students do a problem from the notes on their own, pepper to see if students were comprehending the vocabulary. Here is a look at one student's work on finding the mystery number.

Glass Half-Full: Get to 10 at the start of the second class was the best part of the lesson. Nowhere in my objective do I mention anything about numerical expressions, but it just kind of happened that students were writing and saying what a numerical expression was.

Regrets: Mystery number kind of flopped. I would have thought the three clues (multiple of five less than fifty, multiple of three and exactly eight factors) would have been a more enjoyable - at least it has been in the past.

Homework: Least common multiple word problem practice

Link of the Day: I thought that this was pretty informative as to the answer to the question about why humans walk instead of crawl. I also heard from a history teacher who happened to be in the hallway when we were discussing this that the humans would stand on their feet after they jumped out of a tree and into long grass to see if predators were present.

18 Education Research Links

Opinions and assumptions have their place in the world of education. I'm more of a cold hard numbers person. It's part of why I teach math I guess. This is a list of eighteen different links that I have gathered over the past two years as part of my daily reflection in the "Link of the Day" section that I found to be specifically enlightening on education related topics. 

1. Education Endorsement Foundation (EEF) - This is a UK based (London to be more specific) grant-making charity and quite simply the best resource I have seen for evidenced based research on what works at changing the achievement gap. According to their research the most beneficial interventions were also some of the cheapest: self-regulation strategies, feedback, mastery learning (breaking content into units with objectives that are pursued until learned), peer tutoring, and homework (forgive me young people!). The least beneficial intervention was retention and it actually had a negative impact on students as well as the highest cost associated with the interventions that were explored.
2. How Diversity Makes Us Smarter - The title hides this a little, but just also be prepared for diversity to create arguments (not necessarily a bad thing). Definitely something to consider with collaboration in the classroom and could even read it to the students to sell them on the value of not working with their friends.
3. Learning Old Concepts with New Concepts - This article from NPR discusses the ancient education model called "block learning." It basically says that instead of focusing on solving ratios with tape diagrams exclusively for homework or classwork, there should be a reteaching or more practice with a previously learned concept so your brain isn't just using rote to solve problems the same way.
4. Daydreaming Leads to Creativity - Another good read from NPR. This would be an appropriate share for students to help guide their use of cell phones and teach them about "multitasking.
5. Multitaskers Are Lousy at Multitasking - Research from Stanford shows that by doing more than one thing at a time, people are actually worse at each of those things than they would be doing them individually. With so many alerts coming in at once, it's a problem students will have to confront to reach their potential.
6. Knowing the Most Common Wrong Answers - This research from Phillip Sadler and Gerhard Sonnert indicated that teachers who know the most likely misconception for students on a science test see larger gains by the end of the school year.
7. Edudemic - This site offers insights into a variety of education related topics.
8. MTBoS - The best professional development I've encountered. All of these links really came to me because of people and organizations like the people that make up this group. Here is a list of everyone in the MTBoS "network."
9. The Gender Pay Gap - One of the reasons that this is still an issue in 2016 is because less women are entering STEM fields and according to the article written by Betsey Stevenson - an associate professor on economics and public policy at the University of Michigan. Women are also more likely to leave STEM fields because of the macho culture according to Stevenson's research.
10. Women Technophobes - According to a report from EMSI, who is a partner of job advertiser CareerBuilder that tracks analytics for college to workforce, roughly 75% of all tech jobs belong to males.
11. The Glass Ceiling Index - This measurement from The Economist of women in the work place looks at nine different factors and comes up with a weighted average for all countries. The United States ranks 17th and out of the 28 countries measured the U.S. ranked dead last in paid maternity leave.
12. Are Attendance Rewards Counterproductive? - According to research done by the University of Hong Kong, students that generally struggle to come to class will get worse in the long term with regards to attendance when they are presented with a reward. The book Drive by Daniel Pink never cited this research, but it would fit with the overall theme that intrinsic motivation trumps extrinsic motivation.
13. Think-Time - According to ERIC Digest research, changing the amount of time between a question to an answer from 1.5 to 3 seconds will allow teachers to ask more varied and flexible questions, increase student volunteers, and increase the length and correctness of a response among other benefits. Think-time opportunities are also available within a student response and immediately following the student response. All that silence (which could be longer than 3 seconds) can only be achieved by the gold medalists of classroom management (which I am not).
14. The Jen Ratio - According to University of California psychologist Dacher Keltner, this ratio can basically determine your happiness. In the denominator are negative events (getting the coin stuck in the vending machine, receiving a low grade on an exam, or watching the first couple minutes of the news) and the numerator is positive events (UConn Husky girls basketball fans watching a UConn Husky girls basketball game, getting invited to the girl you like's party, or a dog warmly greeting its owner). The higher the ratio, the higher the happiness.
15. Mindset for Parents - Taken from NYMag, this is a cliff notes version of how to explain the damage that a fixed mindset can have for students to their parents.
16. YouCubed - Brought from Stanford University (home to Carol Dweck of Mindset fame) this is a little bit more of an in-depth look at nine different factors to help shape the way teachers and students approach their jobs.
17. ADHD Correlating with Less Playtime? - In this short article, neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp (his TED Talk on emotions here) claims that a lack of play is to blame for a rise in ADHD in schools.
18. Power Shortages Impacting Aftrica - While there have been strides made in education in Africa, the eastern part of the continent is still particularly having trouble getting teachers and resources to educate their youth. As a result, online learning could be a powerful solution, but 60% of the African population is without power according to the article from the BBC.

Day 15: Least Common BizzFuzz

6th Grade Math Standards: Find the greatest common factor of two whole numbers less than or equal to 100 and the least common multiple of two whole numbers less than or equal to 12. Use the distributive property to express a sum of two whole numbers 1–100 with a common factor as a multiple of a sum of two whole numbers with no common factor. For example, express 36 + 8 as 4(9 + 2). MA.4.a. Apply number theory concepts, including prime factorization and relatively prime numbers, to the solution of problems.

Objective: Find the least common multiple of two or more numbers.

Quote of the Day: “If he is not totally frightened at some point in every day, he is not stretching himself far enough...There is nothing that you are presently doing that you did not have to learn. At one time the things you are now able to do were unfamiliar and frightening. This is the nature of life. But the important thing to remember is that you can learn.” - Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend

Question of the Day: "Are prime numbers always separated by 6 numbers?"

Agenda:

1. Estimation 180 Toilet Paper
2. QSSQ
3. Pepper with many factor and multiple examples as well as the divisibility rules
4. Cookout Dilemma
5. Father of the Bride 
6. Least Common Multiple Notes 
7. Fizz Buzz 
8. Start the homework which was just standard LCM problems 

Assessment: When students started the homework and did the notes I checked their work.

Glass Half-Full: Tons of good discussion today. Lots of movement breaks.

I tried something new with this lesson today. In the notes I did two examples (A and C) in which the greatest common factor of the two numbers being compared was 1 and then two examples (2 and 4) in which the greatest common factor was not one. After I had solved the problems by looking at the multiples, I had students partner up and see what they noticed about the differences between problems A and C vs problems 2 and 4. It was not immediately recognizable, but eventually students were able to wrap their heads around it.

Regrets: Using the words tons and lots above. I see it in their writing enough so I start to believe it is good writing meself.

Homework: 9 problems where students have to find the LCM of either two, three or four different numbers.

Link of the Day: Using this problem for Math Academy tomorrow. I think it will lead to some good discussion.

Day 14: Product of 72

6th Grade Math Standards: Find the greatest common factor of two whole numbers less than or equal to 100 and the least common multiple of two whole numbers less than or equal to 12. Use the distributive property to express a sum of two whole numbers 1–100 with a common factor as a multiple of a sum of two whole numbers with no common factor. For example, express 36 + 8 as 4(9 + 2). MA.4.a. Apply number theory concepts, including prime factorization and relatively prime numbers, to the solution of problems.

MP1 Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

Objective: List the first five multiples of a number. Manipulate a three factor math problem to find a product of 72.

Quote of the Day: “In the late 1960s Walter Mischel, then a professor at Stanford University, developed an ingenious experiment to test the willpower of four-year-olds. At a nursery school the Stanford campus, a researcher brought each child into a small room, sat him at a desk, and offered him a treat, such as a marshmallow. On the desk was a bell. The experimenter announced that she was going to leave the room, and the child could eat the marshmallow when she returned. Then she gave him a choice: If he wanted to eat the marshmallow, he needed only to ring the bell; the experimenter would return, and he could have it. But if he waited until the experimenter returned on her own, he would get two marshmallows…The correlation between the children’s marshmallow wait times and their later academic success turned out to be striking. Children who had been able to wait for fifteen minutes for their treat had SAT scores that were, on average, 210 points higher than those of children who had rung the bell after thirty seconds.” - Paul Tough

Question of the Day: "What is an anemone?"

Agenda:

1. Jumpstart 
2. Review the problem with 432 and 330 in finding the greatest common factor and greatest prime factor
3. Multiples my favorite no
4. Multiples Notes
5. Marvelous Multiples
6. Weekly Quiz corrections 
7. Multiples homework

Assessment: Multiples assessed in the notes, I circumvented the room during the jumpstart which took roughly 30 minutes per class, I also looked at all weekly quizzes that were turned in today, which was essentially the whole team.

Glass Half-Full: I did a think, pair, share with the jumpstart. It's amazing how the students went from "I don't get it" to "I have the answer" when we started working in pairs. I don't mean that they were told the answer by their partner - I mean both partners actually gave up on the idea of not getting it and started to hunker down. Nobody got it on their own, but then again neither did I the first time I saw this. It was such a moment of less is more. Students were engaged and while this was mostly a review of things we've already done and a little off of the greatest common factor topic, the connections were strong enough and the engagement was the key factor.

I also enjoyed not going over the homework from the night before. I went around the room and saw each student's work. That was enough of an assessment for me as most students were getting the concept, and if they were not it was a matter of the divisibility rules that was holding them back.

Regrets: Mystery numbers could have been added to this agenda as in some classes students actually finished the homework.

Homework: I had the students write the divisibility rules and also answer questions about why 3 is not a multiple of 12, but 12 is a multiple of 3.

Link of the Day: I love this. The calculator that only allows you to use it if you enter a suitable estimation.

Day 13: Greatest Common Factor Goodie Packages

6th Grade Math Standards: Find the greatest common factor of two whole numbers less than or equal to 100 and the least common multiple of two whole numbers less than or equal to 12. Use the distributive property to express a sum of two whole numbers 1–100 with a common factor as a multiple of a sum of two whole numbers with no common factor. For example, express 36 + 8 as 4(9 + 2). MA.4.a. Apply number theory concepts, including prime factorization and relatively prime numbers, to the solution of problems.

Objective: Find the greatest common factor of a number in a real-world context

Quote of the Day: “No error should go uncorrected…What Wooden wanted was correction, not critique, and the difference is that critique involves telling a participant how to do it better but correction means going back and doing it again, and doing it better – as soon as possible…So critique – merely telling someone she did it wrong – doesn’t help very much. If you do it right once and wrong once, it’s encoded each way equally in your neural circuitry. It may matter little which one happened first. If you are correcting, then correct in multiples.” – Doug Lemov

Question of the Day: "Is 3 ok for the greatest common factor of 18 and 45?" "Why do 12 and 18 have the same number of factors when 18 is the bigger number?"

Agenda:

1. Visual Pattern #7
2. QSSQ 
3. Review HW/Pepper
4. Assign new homework
5. Goodie Packages 
6. Work on homework

Assessment: Checking the homework, the only thing to look for is the problem that asks students to look at 28, 42, and 56. It's a great problem to see if students are listing factors in pairs and utilizing the divisibility rules.

Glass Half-Full: The goodie packages as I said last year when I used this manipulative real-world activity for the first time felt like my classroom. Controlled chaos. As Robert Kaplinsky would note in the link of the day, it was an opportunity for students to apply the concept that we had been using. The students were very excited, but it was highly beneficial to review with the students how to open the bags. I ended up putting 30 straws or 36 straws in each bag as well as 12 peppermints, 24 lifesavers, and 18 lollipops. The straws were very cheap, which is why I included them. I told the students to simply think of them as Pixie Stix.

I was really glad at the amount of time it took students to recognize what needed to be done. We had been working with greatest common factor for virtually three math classes, and students were still trying to decipher what steps they needed to take to get the most possible people to their birthday parties. To throw them off a little I put 12 Ziplock bags in each group. This forced students to think that they could fit everything into these 12 bags.

Regrets: I had students writing the work in their journals, but I would have preferred some exit ticket reflection question.

Homework: GCF practice with the option of the challenge problem that we did yesterday as a substitute.

Link of the Day: Love the way that Robert Kaplinsky translates the meaning of rigor according to the standards on this post.

Day 12: The Greatest Common Factor

6th Grade Math Standards: Find the greatest common factor of two whole numbers less than or equal to 100 and the least common multiple of two whole numbers less than or equal to 12. Use the distributive property to express a sum of two whole numbers 1–100 with a common factor as a multiple of a sum of two whole numbers with no common factor. For example, express 36 + 8 as 4(9 + 2). MA.4.a. Apply number theory concepts, including prime factorization and relatively prime numbers, to the solution of problems.

Objective: Find the greatest common factor of two or more numbers

Quote of the Day: "Routine, not-so-interesting jobs require direction; nonroutine, not so interesting work depends on self-direction. If you need me to motivate you, I probably don't want to hire you." - Daniel Pink

Question of the Day: "What's the difference between a factor and a multiple?"

Agenda:

1. Fabulous Factors
2. Pass back weekly quizzes 
3. Review the homework & Pepper as students go to the board 
4. Greatest common factor notes
5. Writing the divisibility rules and testing various numbers for divisibility 
6. Greatest Common Factor homework practice

Assessment: During the notes students would try problems independently. Last week's weekly quiz was graded. Homework was checked. Cold calling.

Glass Half-Full: Slowly the students are making adjustments to middle school, my classroom, and each other. It's not coming together as fast as I remember it coming together last year, but it's coming together. Today as a small for instance, I got the chance to work with two students at lunch. They worked, and I asked them questions away from the topic of math. One of the two is a Seahawks fan as it turns out, so immediately we changed the subject back to math.

Regrets: Not getting to fabulous factors as part of Friday's class hurt us a little today because this was not the best warm-up activity. It took too much instruction and the students still could not write on the side that they needed to. Not enough of them were colorful either. This is what happens in a country where standards are everything. The kindergarten in them never existed. That was a touch of sarcasm, but in all honesty the past two classes liked this activity more than this year's batch.

Homework: Greatest common factor practice (6 normal problems, one problem with three numbers as factors, one problem with hard to find numbers, and four word problems). Probably too much, but I did not feel like students were utilizing the divisibility rules well, and I want them to suffer through many problems to recognize the worth of the divisibility rules. Go ahead call me out.

Link of the Day: The magic hexagon. Perhaps as a bonus give the students no information about it and ask why it is magical.

Day 11: Factors Fun

6th Grade Math Standards: 6.NS. Fluently add, subtract, multiply, and divide multi-digit decimals using the standard algorithm for each operation.

Learning Objective: Multiply multi-digit factors to find a product.

Quote of the Day: “Exercise improves mood. Recent studies have found that a regular workout regimen is an even more powerful mood elevator than prescription anti-depressants. What’s less well known, however, is the profound impact exercise has on learning, memory, and creativity…Neurological studies show that when we exert ourselves physically, we produce a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) that promotes the growth of neurons, especially in the memory regions of the brain…Learning and memory evolved in concert with motor functions that allowed our ancestors to track down food, so as far as our brain is concerned, if we’re not moving, there’s no real need to learn anything.” – Ron Friedman

Question of the Day: "Why did we skip 7 and 8 with the divisibility rules?" "Is it true that we have more classwork and the other team has more homework?" "How do we calculate our grades when they are in fraction form?"

Agenda:

1. Write the divisibility rules in journals
2. Pepper 
3. Review homework on divisibility by having students come to the board and other students give feedback on their work
4. QSSQ 
5. Notes on factors - basically it boils down to four things. The definition of factor, starting each number with the factors of one and itself, using the divisibility rules, and writing factors in pairs
6. Estimation 180 the Stapler (at the start of the second class) 
7. Assessment on factors
8. Start the factors homework practice

Assessment: Factors independent practice, homework for tonight and from last night was assessed.

Glass Half-Full Take: What went well today was going over the homework. I targeted students that got problems wrong on the homework to come to the board and then called on people at random to answer what was wrong. It's a very typical routine from last year in my class, but was utilized to its highest potential for the first time today because students were answering the homework questions wrong at a frequently enough rate while still maintaining answers that were in the ballpark of where they needed to be.

Regrets: I did not have the opportunity to let students do Fabulous Factors as a more artistic part of the class because of time constraints. We will push it to Monday.

Homework: Factors practice

Link of the Day: NBA Math Hoops is right up my alley, but for an entire class I think that it would be hard to implement. Something to consider for smaller class sizes or even people being home schooled.

Day 10: Rules of Divisibility

6th Grade Math Standards: 6.NS. Fluently add, subtract, multiply, and divide multi-digit decimals using the standard algorithm for each operation.

Learning Objective: Multiply multi-digit factors to find a product.

Quote of the Day: “As it turns out, the more types of relationships a person has the less susceptible they are to developing a full-blown cold, even after direct exposure to a cold-causing virus. When people have a wide range of connections, it provides them with a sense of psychological security that buffers them from day-to-day stress. And because they experience stress less often, their bodies are better conditioned to fend off physiological challenges when they occur.” – Ron Friedman

Agenda:

1. Self-Assessment from the Operations Quiz
2. QSSQ
3. Rules of divisibility notes
4. Rules of divisibility song
5. Rules of divisibility pepper
6. Rules of divisibility practice

Assessment: Pepper, Self-Assessment, homework practice

Glass Half-Full Take: I tried to shorten the notes today. I originally had the definitions for prime and composite numbers in the notes but cut them out. The divisibility rules themselves are enough for most of these students and really require memorization. I also took out example problems from the notes and just used the homework problems as examples because it lessened the homework load while still giving me the opportunity to offer feedback. Less is more.

Regrets: I wish I provided a chart that shows every student in the class their grade on the first quiz because I list all grades in fraction form to make students do the decimal conversion all year. Eventually they adjust, but for now it would be good to keep us moving if I eased this transition.

Homework: Divisibility Practice

Link of the Day: Great game for teaching least common multiple. Fizz Buzz.

Days 7 and 8: Study Guide and Quiz

I've kind of been abandoning these daily update posts because they are so similar to what I've done in the past, but here goes from what I remember a week ago...

Learning Objective: Perform all four operations in word problem and mathematical problems; define factors, product, divisor, dividend, quotient, sum, and difference

Assessment: The study guide was done in pairs and I went around from partnership to partnership to see how students were performing. On the actual quiz, the class averages hovered between 86 and 94 for my three classes, which I'm pretty happy with overall. I want the grades to be high I'm not one of those people who believes in the bell settling everyone into a particular label. My job is to teach to the objectives and I want students to meet those objectives. Makes sense, right?

10 Activities for After the Test

My colleagues and I often ask ourselves what are we going to have them do after they are done the test or if they finish the work early. I truly believe reading a book is a valuable use of time especially because this activity is coming from a math classroom. Students need to see that there is no such thing as just focusing on one subject from their teachers too. All core skills can be applied to all activities. That said, these are ten truly fun activities that I've tried with my students that get them to critically think and I don't recall ever cueing kids to task once they know what to do.

1. Decimal points and place values - The numbers must be placed in order. Good strategy game where place value know how is a must. 
2. 2048 - Very addictive type of game in a Tetris type of mode. The only problem is that sometimes it's blind guess and check. It will give good exponent of two practice and area of rectangle components.
3. Get to 10 - The more fun version of "practice your flashcards."
4. Get to 24 - Not the best lay out for a site, but good problems along the same lines as Get to 10.
5. Ages of 3 Kids - From the Dr. Math website. Good for number sense.
6. Three Chips - From the vast library of Fawn Ngyuen. Good problem to give when students are done all of their work or as a warm up.
7. Fractions & Percentages - I go with the non-digital version of this in class and incorporate decimals, but once again as a more fun version of "practice your flashcards."
8. 4 Strikes & You're Out - Marilyn Burns, the game's creator, calls it a math version of hangman. As I was reading the article, it became clear that 35 + 10 was never more enjoyable.
9. Foxy Fives - From Fawn Ngyuen. Very similar to get to 10 - order of operations practice for the advanced orderofoperationsologist.
10. Connect Four - Make the hundreds grid come to life a little by having students partner up with two different colors attempting to get four in a row.

Day 7: The First Weekly Quiz

6th Grade Math Standards: 6.NS. Fluently add, subtract, multiply, and divide multi-digit decimals using the standard algorithm for each operation.

Learning Objective: Multiply multi-digit factors to find a product.

Quote of the Day: "Immigrants are four times as likely to become millionaires as American born citizens." - Steve Siebold

Question of the Day: What is the difference between the dividend and the divisor?

Assessment: In one class I gave an exit ticket of give three ways to check your work, in all classes I checked the homework, and circumvented the room for the classwork.

Agenda:

1. Fix the mistake
2. Quote, Star Students, Question of the Day
3. Homework Review 
4. Division Practice D (starting with the word problems)
5. Weekly Quiz parent letter passed out and read by the students in partners
6. Weekly Quiz explained orally by me
7. Students did a Weekly Quiz jumpstart to become more acquainted with the confusing routine of getting feedback from teachers, staying after school if they need help, etc. 
8. Division Practice D continued (last class started their weekly quiz)

Glass Half-Full Take: We successfully passed out the weekly quiz on a Monday. This is typically the way that the WQ routine works, but in all past years we have used half days to tell students about the weekly quiz and half days are never on a Monday. Since there were no September half days this year our hand was forced. To give up a full day though just to explain a routine on day seven of the school year is a bit much though, so we successfully integrated a regular math class in the first block and used the other block to explain the weekly quiz away.

Regrets: I need to give more in class time to start the weekly quiz and less time for students to work on Division Practice D. I gave essentially the same assignment for homework over the weekend, and the results really do not change much. Given how much time I spend explaining how a weekly quiz is done, the students naturally want to try that. At the end of the day it's math and I want them to be successful on this particular assignment so that they know it's possible to have success for the next twenty-four.

Homework: I assigned Division Practice D (another regret) as well as Weekly Quiz #1.

Link of the Day: This article from Edutopia discusses grouping, but I particularly found this line enlightening. "Investing in the small setup cost (time) of priming your students will highly increase class productivity." Nice way to advocate pre-assessment.

Day 6: Division Begins

6th Grade Math Standards: 6.NS.2 Fluently divide multi-digit numbers using the standard algorithm.

Learning Objective: Divide the divisor into the dividend to find a quotient.

Quote of the Day: "Don't whine, don't complain, and don't make excuses." - John Wooden

Question of the Day: "Do we count encores?" In reference to my question about how many students are in the school if every class has the same number of students as our class.

Agenda:

1. Visual Patterns 1 & 2 
2. QSSQ
3. Review the homework & pepper 
4. Division Word Exclusion
5. Division Notes 
6. Division Exit Ticket
7. Division HW Practice

Assessment: The exit ticket, last night's homework, and tonight's homework were all assessed by me and students were provided feedback.

Glass Half-Full Take: A student debated with me about whether factor was a division word or not. I said it could not be crossed off as a non-division word, but it could not be circled as one either. She countered with, "The definition of factor is that it is a number that is multiplied to get a product." It was day six and I already have a student that is not simply going along with everything I say. I love it. Every student gets better because of students like this.

Regrets: The notes do not need to include the part about division is the same thing as multiplication. The more time that I can cut out of notes, the better off for the students as this is usually the time that requires the least amount of critical thinking from the students.

Homework: Division Practice C

Link of the Day: Lectures are dying in the sense of I speak for an hour and you take notes, but it's not like the teacher needs to have their lips sealed either.

Day 5: Multiplication Intro

6th Grade Math Standards: 6.NS. Fluently add, subtract, multiply, and divide multi-digit decimals using the standard algorithm for each operation.

Learning Objective: Multiply multi-digit factors to find a product.

Quote of the Day: “Joanne came up with a big idea in 1990, but within six months her mother suddenly passed away. She was living in England at the time, and decided to accept a teaching job in Portugal to try and escape the grief.

Shortly after moving to Portugal she falls in love and gets married. Less than three years after being married her husband abandons her with their three year-old daughter. She moved to Scotland to be closer to her sister. Joanne was living on welfare and had hit rock bottom.

She started writing the story that was birthed back in 1990. Eventually she gets a publishing deal and is given a three thousand dollar writing advance. The publisher didn’t think much of the work and only published a limited number of books. They also asked Joanne to create a pseudonym to write under to disguise her identity as a female writer, and hopefully attract male readers. Joanne doesn’t have a middle name, but her mother’s name was Katherine, so she wrote under the name J.K. Rowling. You are probably familiar with her work. That first book she wrote was Harry Potter. ‘I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized and I still had a daughter that I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life,’ she said.” – Joshua Medcalf

Question of the Day: If we retake a test or quiz, do you average the two grades together or just keep the new grade?

Agenda:

1. My favorite no 98 x 76
2. QSSQ
3. Analyze my favorite no
4. 12 dozen donuts from PBS
5. Multiplication Notes (end of class one)
6. Estimation 180 Days 8-10
7. Finish Notes (if necessary)
8. Begin homework

Assessment: My favorite no question which was 98 x 76. Estimation 180 Days 8-10. Students starting their homework as I circumvented the classroom.

Glass Half-Full Take: I enjoyed the conversation we had about checking the work on a my favorite no problem and a test or quiz question. The students gave me three ways to check the work (redo the problem, do the inverse operation, and estimation). In this case, estimation was very simple because 98 is so close to 100. I told them that on the homework, I do not expect them to check the work. The problems are all drill and kill. If I were a student, I'd work to just be done as fast as possible (more on this in regrets). What I would say though is that the My Favorite No question was not checked enough. Inevitably there are too many students making errors that are just simple calculation mistakes which could be corrected by using one of the three ways that they would check the work. If I'm only giving one problem, my expectations are higher and I told the students this.

Regrets: On the homework, I crossed out many problems for students as I was seeing how proficient they were with multiplication. In year eight of teaching sixth grade, I'm used to seeing a large percentage fly through this assignment. In the future, I'd like to cut down on the number of problems for these students and increase the amount of checking that I see for these students. Checking the work and asking does my answer make sense needs to become engrained in students as a part of problem solving.

Homework: Multiplication Practice B.

Link of the Day: I've never heard of the term parallel tasks. I guess I would branch it under a code name for differentiated instruction. In any case, some good questions asked about whether it matters in a given lesson if a small group shares with the larger group when the tasks of each group have been altered but the standard is the same.

Day 4: Home Field Disadvantage

Agenda: 

1. Read through the syllabus
2. QSSQ 
3. Set up the binders including passing out multiplication charts for all students
4. Home Field Advantage from Yummy Math
5. My favorite no on subtraction 3049 - 1272
6. Practice A (addition and subtraction)

Quote: “If it seems a bit depressing that the most important thing you can do to improve performance is not fun, take consolation in this fact: It must be so. If the activities that lead to greatness were easy and fun, then everyone would do them and they would not distinguish the best from the rest. The reality that deliberate practice is hard can even be seen as good news. It means that most people won’t do it. So your willingness to do it will distinguish you all the more.” - Geoff Colvin

Regrets: The Yummy Math activity will need to be revamped by me or the site itself if we are to continue it. The copy machine did not pick up the win totals of several teams, which led to me orally explaining those wins 10,000 times per class. Disaster. 

Glass Half-Full: Last year 45% of students answered the subtraction problem wrong. This year the number was not as bad although teaching the routine and the problem itself is still something worth while (and probably always will be). 

Link of the Day: I've always had an obsession with studying the size of lines. Now there's a little bit of research on them - at least in grocery stores. 

Day 3: Baseline

What Went Well: The baseline is kind of a painful time for me. I'm not really supposed to help students so we get a true idea of their floor. I also do not have papers to correct or anything to pass the time and be productive. Since I do not know the students, I decided to call up about eight or nine per class as they were working on the baseline and just ask them questions about themselves. In a way I was building up my own baseline for the year in terms of how to develop relationships with the students for the year ahead. I relied heavily on their Welcome to Math warm up from yesterday in which I asked them what they did for fun, who they admire, and the hardest thing that they have ever done. 

Regrets: I still have not gone over the syllabus through three days of school. This is a huge mistake on my part. I think next year we have to force it in within the first two days. I hate rushing like anyone else, but in all honesty students forget what's on the syllabus inevitably anyway and the fact is that I think the students would rather be engaged in the curriculum than talking about it on day four. They clearly want to be challenged based on the reactions I got to completing Pascal's Triangle yesterday and arranging the numbers one through nine in a 3 by 3 square to find an equivalent sum vertically, horizontally, and diagonally. 

Day 2: Where Does a 6th Graders Time Go?

Last year I was able to get to the syllabus, but this year we had picture day so classes were a little shorter and I was unable to get to the syllabus and the letter home from your fifth grade teacher. I would have had time to let the students start a letter and finish it at home, but the weekend was four days long, and asking for something from home under that premise is a recipe for disaster.

We went through the Procedures Recap jumpstart and I also had the students fill out information to help me get to know them better. In the information I had students fill out, I asked them the following questions:

I know it’s hard because everyday is different, but in a day, how often do you usually…. (circle one)

Play video games	0 Minutes	10 – 20 Minutes	20 Minutes – 1 Hour	1 – 2 hours	More than 2 hours
Watch Television (including YouTube and Internet based programs)	0 Minutes	10 – 20 Minutes	20 Minutes – 1 Hour	1 – 2 hours	More than 2 hours
Spend time on your phone	0 Minutes	10 – 20 Minutes	20 Minutes – 1 hour	1 – 2 hours	More than 2 hours
Exercise	0 Minutes	10 – 20 Minutes	20 Minutes – 1hour	1 -2 hours	More than 2 hours
Read a book for fun	0 Minutes	10 – 20 Minutes	20 Minutes – 1 hour	1 – 2 hours	More than 2 hours
Write for fun (can be a journal, a blog, etc. but texting does not count)	0 Minutes	10 – 20 Minutes	20 Minutes – 1 hour	1 – 2 hours	More than 2 hours

To account for the range of answers, I just took the middle number of the range (so 15 minutes for students that picked 10-20 minutes) and just wrote 120 minutes for the students that picked more than two hours. Here were the averages for each category in terms of minutes:

	Class 1	Class 2	Class 3
Video Games	48.82	42.81	11.25
Television/YouTube	67.94	65.83	54.71
Phone	51.18	47.22	40.88
Exercise	60.63	51.39	59.69
Reading	18.75	14.72	25.88
Writing	12.19	11.39	7.94

Now I should preface this by saying that if you add up the total minutes of Class 3 and Class 1 there is a huge difference in the amount of time. Perhaps class three is a class that is spending time with friends or doing activities that do not cover the six topics I listed, or more likely there is a little off in how these students perceive the time they spend in these activities. In any case, I'm going to take their responses at face value. My goal with all of this is basically to take the students from being observers to becoming creators. I think that by taking the time out of the first three we can put more into the last three.

Our culture as a whole is losing out on the potential for creativity at a time when creativity has never been more important and avenues to be creative have never been more available. The problem is that the vast majority of people are standing on the sidelines watching the game instead of playing in it. True not all of these students are walking into my classroom with a passion for mathematics and while I want to close the gap on their love for math what I really want them to walk out of my room with is a sense for what it means to be in flow or to have a purpose.

Regrets: I tried to review the syllabus in the five minutes that we had left over. It was awkward because by the time I had passed them out, we had time to read the first paragraph. Perhaps instead, what I could have done was do a little role play about retakes versus owning the grade you get in partners to introduce my grading policy. 

Link of the Day: Finland takes brilliant ideas from the United States and implements them nationwide. Unfortunately the U.S. does not take these same ideas according to Tim because the boards of education are driving decisions. 

Day 1: A New Start

Instead of writing up a lot of nonsense about the structure of the first day, I figured I would go back to this post that I wrote last year and make a couple comments about things that changed so that I will be more prepared for Day 1 in 2017. So here we go...

• The morning started off with students all going from the gym into the auditorium so that the assistant principal could go over some of the rules, lunch menu, and to tell the 6th grade students that all 8th graders turn into monsters on Fridays. That lasted about 45 minutes.
• We dismissed by homeroom. Not every student knew who their homeroom teacher was. It helps to have lists of homeroom students. 
• The first thing I did with the students once the flight landed in the classroom was have them say my name. My name has ten letters. It is hard to say. Sure. End. Er. Now it isn't hard to say. 
• The locks were the first problem of the day. I tried showing a YouTube video this year. It did not do much for them or for me though. Never again. The only way to get through Lockapolooza is to have students try and fail. Give them feedback. Then have them try and fail better. Give them feedback. Then have them try and succeed. I think somewhere in my teaching journey I heard something about this process at a professional development seminar. 
• The classes themselves are kind of boring. Kids sitting. Me standing. I tried to do whole brain teaching, but kids were kind of dead. I think they were tired. I think they were scared. I think in a month I'm going to want some of them to be tired and scared again. 
• I changed the homework this year. In addition to having the forms signed, I asked students to log into their X2 and change their passwords. Habit forming! I also added bring supplies if you have not already. 

Regrets: When I give the schedules, I should really put in the labels for each class. The Day 1 Block 1 needs to be labeled A, the Day 1 Block 2 needs to be labeled B, etc. I missed this crucial direction this year.

Link of the Day: Greng jai is the feeling of being reluctant to accept another's offer of help because it is a burden on them. This article looks at ten other emotions you did not know you had thanks to the discoveries of neuroscience and of Tiffany Watt Smith from the University of London.