Exhausted Teacher in September!

🏫  OMG!  Our school changed from a 6 period day to a 7 period this year!  This was to ensure equality of teaching time for each instructional group but I am so so so very tired.  Can't think straight by the end of the day!

🍎  Teaching assignment include 3 grade 7 Math classes and 3 grade 8 Math classes.  Initially I was hoping that I would have three consecutive Grade 7 classes followed by three consecutive Grade 8 classes.  I am so glad that this is not the case 😃  instead the order is mixed (8A, 8B, 7C, 8C, 7A, 7B)

😃  I find that I have a tendency to go through the lesson faster and faster the more often I teach the concepts in the same day.  Having a different grade mixed in has allowed me to refocus on the grade, curriculum and students.


🎒  I teach 6 of 7 periods in the day.  Given 30+ students per class I am seeing about 190 students per day.  Thankful that I also teach my homeroom otherwise the number would be even higher lol

🍎  190 faces to match with names on the attendance list.  I am going to create 6 seating plans tonight as students did not sit in the same place on day 2 as day 1.  Confusing for me.

Brain Research & Doodle Notes

Minds In Bloom

🍎  I am always looking for new and different ways to engage my students in the Math curriculum.  Brain based research and Growth Mind Set has been a focus of my professional development in the past couple years.

Making Math Lessons More Engaging lists five ways to engage students in lessons.  

1. Tell a Story
2. Open with a Hook
3. Emphasize Your Main Points
4. Choose Images over Words
5. Address the “Why”

Two great sites Brain-Based Doodle Notes and Math Giraffe have an incredible amount of research and resources for using Doodle Notes in the classroom.

Doodle Notes meet all five points listed in Knewton's blog.  Doodle Notes enable students to understand the "why" of the lesson hooking the students while telling a story about the concept, emphasizing main points and include student created or teacher provided images.

Last year I used a couple of the resources from Math Giraffe modifying the content to meet my curricular needs.  My students loved them.  This year I plan to incorporate Doodle Notes into every unit as I create (and post) my own Doodle Notes that are specific to my curriculum.

Beginning of School Year 2017

It has been a incredibly busy three days (August 30, 31 & Sept 1) getting ready to start a new school year.  It is amazing the tremendous amount of work involved at the System, School and Classroom levels.  

Meetings - system & school focused meetings
I feel very fortunate 💜 that our school leaders acknowledge teachers need time to meet, organize and set up their classrooms in preparation for students arriving.  

System and school focused meetings are informational providing updates to policies and procedures necessary for the day to day operation of our school.  It is amazing how a seemingly minor change in mandate can have a far reaching impact on the school, staff and the reason we do what we do the 🠞 STUDENTS!

At the end of our first morning of meetings we were advised to come the next morning dressed comfortably for a "team building" exercise.  To be totally honest I was dreading it.  Prior experiences have left a bad taste in my mouth for such activities.

Well any and all misgivings went out the window!  Our amazing principal organized an "Escape Room" activity.  We divided into our six Teaching Pods and rotated through three activities created Mobile Escape.  Everyone raved about the activity.  It seems that many were as apprehensive as I was.

Pod Meetings

Each Core subject Pod consists of a English Language Arts teacher, Mathematics teacher (Me), Science and Social Studies teacher.  Pod 1  teaches 3-Grade 8 and 3-Grade 7 classes every day except Fridays where we teach 3 each Friday.  

My pod, Pod 1 (we have to come up with a name for our Pod) gathered to participate in the Escape Room team building activity and another time to discuss and share knowledge about the special needs students.

Department Meetings

Maternity leaves, teaching assignment changes and teachers moving schools has decimated our school's Math Department.  This year the other members of the Math Department's teaching experience ranges form 1st year to experienced.  We had productive meetings where we discussed long range plans, Course Syllabus, order of math units and assessments.   A positive to being the sole remaining member of the department going forward is that I get to say "how we do things".  

 Classroom Preparation  


   🍏  3 Staff Meetings  ✔

   🍎  2 Department Meetings  ✔

   🍏  1 Pod Meeting  ✔

   🍎  Clean & Organize Classroom desks ✔

   🍏  Organize 1st day activities & lockers, handouts ✔

   🍎  Create and print Math course outline ✔

   🍏  Organize teacher & student supplies ✔

   🍎  Create Bulletin Boards ✔

• How to Learn Math        
• Changing Words Changing Mindset 
• Class Expectations 
• Borders on Student word bulletin boards 

🍏 To Do List (working at school on Saturday September 2nd)

1. Math games - check that all games are complete
2. Cards - check that all decks are complete (24 decks)
3. Update Marks & Attendance binder dividers
4. print Homeroom & Class lists
5. Print Year Plans at a Glance & Detailed Long Range Plan
6. Create Teacher Day Book Plan sheets (changed to a 7-period day from a 6)
7. Print class lists

Math Class Agenda - First Day

Survived the first day with my students!

I am teaching 2-Grade 7 Math classes, 3-Grade 8 Math Classes and 1-Grade 9 Math Class

Today's plan was very simple but repetitive

1. Greet and Welcome the students
2. Attendance
3. Introduce myself
4. Course Outline
5. Expectations
6. Routines & Behaviour
7. Attendance
8. Supplies

Activity:

Students were asked to write the answers to the following questions on a slip of paper.  This activity was used as an 'Exit Slip' giving them practice in the classroom routines of getting supplies and handing something in.

1. Where they prefer to sit (Front, Back, Middle, Sides etc)
2. Anything I should know about them such as hearing or visions issues
3. The first word that comes to mind when they hear the word 'Math'
4. What they like or dislike about Math class

I have used Question #3 to create a Word Cloud to represent their thoughts and feelings about Math Class.

Resolutions - It's a New School Year!

As a teacher I make New Year Resolutions in September not January like people in other walks of life.

Summer break is over and a new school year has started.  I spent the last week moving from one classroom to another, organizing, setting up and getting ready for students after labour day.  It is amazing how much one has in their classroom and how much there is to do at the start of the year.

New School Year Resolutions!

1. Return marked assignments to students within 48 hours of taking it in.
2. Posting student marks online once a week
3. Keeping my desk clean (everything filed in binders after it is used in lessons)

Classroom Assessment

Types of Assessment 

Diagnostic – administered at beginning of the school year, term, start of course or unit (pre and post tests) to determine what students already know about a particular topic

Formative – ongoing processes that provide information about how students are progressing towards a learning goal

Summative – given at the end of a unit, course or year to assess student’s level of competency in a subject

7 Steps in Using Formative Assessment in the Classroom

Students need to know where they are going in their learning, where they are now and how to reduce the gap between where they are and their learning goal

Step 1 – Provide students with clear understandable learning targets

Step 2 – Provide exemplars of leveled student work

Step 3 – Provide regular descriptive feedback

Step 4 – Teach students how to self-assess and set goals

Step 5 - Focusing on One Learning Target

Step 6 – Design and deliver lessons focussed on learning goals

Step 7 – Provide opportunities for self-reflection allowing students to track and share their learning

OMG I made it to the end of the School Year!

After a break away from the classroom following a death in the family, I returned to the classroom for the wind down of the school year.


There are those who think that teachers have it easy, teaching six hours a day, weekends off, a couple of breaks at Christmas and Easter have never lived through the last six weeks of a school year.  

Teaching curriculum right up to the week before final exams - don't get me wrong that is my job and I love it - to students who have already begun to focus on summer vacation 6 weeks before the end of the year.



The month of June is one deadline following another.  Individualized Learning Plans, Report Card Assessments,and comments, Personal Development, Character, Citizenship indicators, Learning Outcome stems all have non-negotiable deadlines.  

Report card comments - are supposed to be prescriptive and descriptive so that they are of course about the individual student showing their strengths and next steps for improving their learning all based on the curriculum and referencing their citizenship, character and personal development in learning.  




So after all the marking has been done, marks are entered in the to grade book program the writing starts.  Six classes of students with an average of 32 students a class for a total of 192 comments to write.  

Every June we celebrate student achievement!  Athletic Awards celebration, the Grade 9 Farewell Ceremony & Dance and the Academic Awards evening.  Three very late evenings following full days of teaching

Committee work - those celebrations do not happen magically.  Many staff put in many hours before school, at lunch and after school planning, organizing and preparing for the celebrations and then cleaning up after only to be back at school at 7 am the next day.

_____________________________________________________________________________
213.75 hours or 53.4 hours per week.  That's roughly 70 hours of overtime hours based on an average work week of 35 hours per week.  I did not even factor in supervision, exam tutorials and helping students at lunch or before school.  Probably another 10 hours at least.

No wonder I am so very tired at the end of the year.

Now it's time to start planning for next year :)