Teaching Advice: Be Professional!

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Being a teacher brings some more responsibilities. Just like any other job, a teacher is expected to be a professional. Some of my recommendations on being professional are:

• Be on time to your job
• Submit your lesson plans on time
• Contact your students' parents
• Be present at Parent Teacher Nights and any other school related events
• Communicate with other staff
• Don't take so many sick days off as long as it's not emergency
• Provide students immediate feedback
• Enter students' grades on time
• Prepare your emergency plans before you take a day off

This list can be extended. However, teachers' duties are never limited to those and they always need to go above and beyond.

Creating a Student Survey

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Two times a year, I give my students a survey to see if everything is going well. I prepare the survey on Google docs and they take it online. Since it's anonymous; it gives the students a little bit of freedom to say what they really think about my class. I have seen great results after giving those surveys and helped me out adjust my classes depending on their answers. I wanted share with you a couple of questions I asked my students on the survey:

How difficult is this class for you? 

• Very Easy
• Easy
• Normal
• Hard
• Very Hard

Is your teacher helpful to you when you need help? 

• Yes he is.
• Sometimes
• No, he isn't.

What do you like the most for learning?  (You can pick more than one.)

• Slideshows
• Worksheets
• Khan Academy videos
• Graphing Calculators
• Taking notes
• Accelerated Math (Clickers)

Do you think that the teacher is organized? 

• He is very well organized.
• I don't know.
• He is not really organized.

Tell me about a time in my class when you felt frustrated:

What do you like best about this class?:

Please type if you have any additional comments: 

 
(if you don't know how to create an online survey, you can watch this tutorial)

Math in the Movies

Image by Chuk Yong from Pixabay

Have you ever thought about using clips from the movies to teach math? I did. But first, I searched the internet and came across with two websites. One of them is Math Bits which has lots of resources about math and many of them are ready to use worksheets. It has a dedicated page called Math and the Movies. The other one is called Mathematics in Movies which has a huge library of video clips from different movies. The website was first published in 2006 by Harvard Professor Oliver Knill. He is constantly updating this website as new movies come out. Those two websites inspired me to create my own worksheets during my teaching years and I am sharing them with you here. Feel free to download and use them in your class. 

Abbott and Costello / Ma and Pa Kettle: This worksheet has two examples of how multiplication and division can be done incorrectly. Feel free to download and customize it. You will need the following clips which go along with the worksheet. The first clip is from Abbott and Costello: In the Navy and the second clip is from Ma and Pa Kettle.

Die Hard III:  Here is a worksheet that I prepared for the jug problem takes place in Die Hard movie. You can watch the clip from the movie here.

Little Big League: Here is another worksheet that I prepared for the movie Little Big League. You can watch the clip form the movie here.

Contact: This worksheet is prepared for the clip from Contact movie. The topic is the prime numbers. You can watch the clip from the movie here.

Live and Become (2005)

This French film (imdb rating: 7.8) was shot by a Romanian-born director: Radu Mihăileanu. The film is about the rescue of a group of Jews caught in the conflict in Ethiopia through an operation organized by the Israeli secret service and their resettlement in Israel. Based on a true story that happened in the 80s, the film beautifully conveys to the audience the story of a Christian child who is mixed among Jews, going to Israel, and the problems he faced after being adopted. 

In addition to witnessing a historical period, the film is worth watching as it contains many clues about Ethiopian Jews, of whom we have very little idea, and from there to daily life in Israel. Even though it is a bit long, the film manages to explain with a very simple language the problems that come with being different in a society. The original title of the film is Va, Vis et Deviens and if you want to get more information about the movie, here is the imdb link and the Wikipedia page.

TI 84 Resources for Teachers

Here is a list of great websites offer lots of resources, printable worksheets and tutorials for TI 84:

http://www.mr-ideahamster.com/classes/calculator_course_ti84.htm

 

http://hotmath.com/graphing_calculators/cabri_movie_index.html

  

https://mathbits.com/MathBits/TISection/Openpage.htm

   

http://www.mathtutordvd.com/public/department113.cfm

 

http://www.tiskills.com/mod1_lessons/m1_l01.php

https://www.professorcole.com/ti-84-tutorials.html

https://online.math.uh.edu/GraphCalc/index.html 

How to teach Integers

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A fellow teacher asked for help teaching integers. Students are having a real difficult time understanding integer operations and it's very crucial for them to learn it. In the past couple of years, I have tried several methods to teach integers but I find the following method better than others. It's making a lot more sense to the students.

Using Bank Account for Teaching Integers:

10-5 : I deposited 10 dollars, spent (withdrew)  5.

10+5: I deposited 10, then 5 more.

-10+5: I spent 10 dollars, and then deposited 5. 

-10-5: I spent 10 dollars at Store A, then spent another 5 at Store B. How much did I spent altogether?

-10+(-5): I have spent 10, then withdrew 5. 

10- (-5):  This could be a little tricky. I would suggest: Teach them subtracting a negative is the same thing as adding. So they would turn -(-5) into +5 and then continue thinking as above.

To explain why subtracting a negative becomes adding: You can try debt. Let's say you have a debt of 5 dollars. A friend of yours pays off your debt for you for free. This takes away your debt so your actual account would increase 5 dollars. A little complicated, huh? Then, just tell them to turn that into a plus :) 

Teacher's Daily Duties

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Some people think that teaching is the easiest job ever. You have summer days off, federal holidays off, sick days, personal days etc. etc. However, they never know teaching is not limited to working hours and many teachers spent their entire summer on professional developments, lesson planing or taking courses. I just wanted to write down my own duties throughout the week just to let you know how sophisticated teaching can be:

Daily Duties / Routine:

• Swipe your time card
• Pick up your attendance book
• Turn on your computer and print out practice/test for students
• Print out weekly grade book for the week
• Print out extra copies of slides for students who need copies, absent, late or suspended
• Provide additional work for students suspended in school
• Go to the copy machine to pick up your copies
• Turn off your cell phone, put it in your drawer
• Prepare some pencils/pens for unprepared students
• Make sure you have enough copies of hall passes
• Check whether the projector is working
• Fill your water/coffee bottle before classes begin
• Grade quizzes, tests, worksheets and enter them to the electronic grading system
• Grade homework and classwork
• Check the students suspended in school, provide them classwork, explain the work for them
• Fill out your sick day/personal leave paperwork or any other documentation
• Use the restroom during your break time so that you don't have to leave during class
• Eat to stay energetic, keep snacks handy
• Go to cafeteria to get your lunch
• Fill your water bottle two more times during the day
• Take attendance on the attendance book/ on electronic grade book
• Enter incidents/referrals/discipline issues to the system
• Respond to e-mails from staff and administrators
• Run an after school club
• Provide tutoring for students need help
• Tell students their grades if they ask
• Provide students their missing work
• Attend Grade Level/ Department/Staff meetings/ Professional developments
• Make copies for the following day
• Return to your wife's call, tell her when you are leaving
• Fill out the teacher input form for students with disabilities
• You have to call some parents because you gave their kids referrals today
•  Write attendance letters to the parents
•  Arrange your field trip/college visit/other events you are responsible.

 Weekends:  Teacher's don't work on Saturdays, do they?

• Saturday School: Tutoring for all students
• You spent at least half the day with the students, other half making copies
• If you don't want to be frustrated on Monday mornings, prepare on Saturday.
• Sunday: At home, lesson planning all day. All plans need to bu submitted before Monday morning.
• Prepare slides, make changes on them, save them on your computer, e-mail them to self just in case

These are things I can't remember right now, I know it depends on school, district and the students. Think again...

Syllabus Quiz

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Many teachers go over their syllabus the first day and start teaching the day after. I usually spend four or five days just to go over my syllabus, classroom rules and expectations. It's also important to demonstrate those routines and procedures. To see whether they understood the expectations or not, I also assess them at the end of the week about the classroom procedures. 

A syllabus quiz can be an open book quiz where students find and write down the answers easily. Everybody gets a 100 as longs as they know how to read and write. This is not only helpful for covering your first week of school but also gives you an idea of how long it takes students to complete such a task. This will also allow you to establish a weekly assessment routine. 

Daily Quiz

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In Holt Power Presentations, a typical lesson ends with a lesson quiz. In the past, I didn't really pay attention to those for several reasons but this year I changed my mind. After teaching a lesson, I wanted to check if they really understood what they have just learned and I can use that input data for the following class. This year I have two periods of math every day with the same group of students. This is my daily routine for those two periods:

First period:
Bellwork
Instruction
Guided Practice
Lesson Quiz
Independent Practice
Homework

Second period:
Lesson Quiz (going over it)
Re-teach (if necessary) 
Independent Practice

Lesson Quiz is a great tool that gives me instant feedback to see whether students have understood the concept or not. A Lesson Quiz has five questions: One easy, two normal, one difficult, and one more problem solving. While giving a lesson quiz, I also have such a procedure:

I pass out the quiz paper
Students show all their work and circle their final answers
Since it's open ended, they need to be graded
If I can quickly grade them I would show the students what they received on the quiz
In the next class, we go over the same problems if they missed any of the questions.

Daily Quiz is a major component of my assessment policy and students really try hard since it's quick, short and gives them instant feedback. I can also recommend using clickers for such quick grading where you don't have to grade all the papers on your own. However, I like seeing the students' work and I always tell them they can still receive credit even though their final answer is not accurate. 

Starting a New Marking Period Strong

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I always make a fresh start every marking period by making some changes, announcing new things and adjusting my grading policy. It's also a great opportunity to get better in classroom management by improving your daily routines and make them work better. For this new parking period, I wanted to go over a couple of things with my students so that they will remember the classroom rules, expectations and many other things. I usually do that on the first day of the marking period and it takes about a regular class time. 

Some teachers think that they can't afford to lose this much instructional time, but I think the opposite. Think about the benefits of "not losing instructional time" later in the year. If students ask questions, it turns into a discussion which is good. I also prepare a handout which requires them to take notes during the presentation and evaluate this as a classwork grade. You may find the following websites helpful to set up your classroom rules and expectations:

6 Must teach classroom procedures for the first days of school

IRIS Center Establishing Classroom Norms & Expectations

31 Must-Teach Classroom Procedures and Routines

Math-Drills.com

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If you haven't come across with this website yet, hurry up! Math Drills is providing thousands of ready to print worksheets for students who need more practice with their foundational skils. I have downloaded so many of their worksheets until now and I have used them many times in my classroom. Here is a short description of the website:

 

Welcome to Math-Drills.com where we have over 13,000 free math worksheets with answer keys. At Math-Drills.com, we strive to provide high-quality printable math worksheets for teachers, parents, home schoolers and other educators. Please choose a category from our navigation menu above or scroll down for more information.

Using a SmartBoard

Interactive Boards are very common in today's classrooms and a lot of teachers are using them. I have used multiple smartboards during my teaching career, and they have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

• You can create your own lessons with the software.
• You can find thousands of lesson plans on their website.
• You can involve students in your teaching by allowing them to touch the screen.
• You can use it with other files/documents where you can write on them.
• You can save your work to use in another class.

Disadvantages:

• You have to be in front of the class all the time which takes the power from you. 
• You might have technical difficulties any time, so you need to come up with a backup plan.
• Some smart boards do not allow you to write with more than one marker at a time.
• Some smart boards need to be mounted on the wall and hard to remove somewhere else.

If you are more interested in using an interactive board, here is a good website for beginners:
Benefits of Smart Boards

Here I have listed the most popular interactive board companies:

SMART Technologies | The Award-Winning Leader in Edtech Learning Tools and Software

Promethean | Interactive Displays & Software for Education (prometheanworld.com)

Innovative Technology in the Classroom | Boxlight

First in Math

firstinmath.com

First in Math is an online math program by Suntex Inc. The program is designed around 24 game which has been very popular across the nation. I have used this program with my middle school students, and they really liked it. It can also be used with elementary grades. The program is very helpful for foundations such as multiplication and division. Students love it since the program has its own incentives and allows them to compete schoolwide or nationwide with their peers.

MathCounts

MathCounts is a nation wide math competition which has regional, state and national chapters. The competition is open for middle school students in grades 6 through 8. You may find more information on their website: http://mathcounts.org/

Flipped Classrooms

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I think this concept has begun circulating around since Khan Academy has launched. In this model, the students study the new concepts at home by watching videos and come to school with some prior knowledge. The teachers spends very few amount of time for instruction and allocate more time for practice at school. Class time can be used for further explanations and more practice. 

Some research say 85 % of the teachers who flipped their classrooms have seen increase in their test scores. Personally, I believe that the students need to spend more time on practice rather than direct instruction. In the past, a flipped classroom model may not have worked if the students did not have a computer or internet connection at home. However, there are mobile apps for flipped classrooms where students can actually watch videos anywhere.

For more information, you may visit the following websites:

Flipped Classroom - Center for Teaching & Learning

 

Flip Your Classroom | Center for Teaching & Learning

The Flipped Classroom

Flipping the Classroom | Center for Teaching Innovation

Problem Solving Strategies

After reading Comprehending Math, I decided to ask students three essential questions while solving problems. Those questions are only a few that I took from Arthur Hyde's Braided Model. Those three questions help students to break down a word problem, understand it and develop strategies for solving. As a classroom teacher, you can turn these questions into a routine every time they come across word problems. Students can write down their responses or simply exchange ideas to help others lead to a solution. 

 

Here is an example:  The sum of three numbers is 98. The ratio of the first to the second is 2:3, and the ratio of the second to the third is 5:8. What is the value of the second number?

 

1) WHAT DO I KNOW FOR SURE?

Sample response: I know that the sum of the three numbers in 98. The ratio of the first number to the second is 2 to 3 and the ratio of the second number to the third is 5 to 8. 

2) WHAT DO I WANT TO KNOW, FIGURE OUT OR DO?

Sample response: We would like to know what the second number is. 

3) HOW CAN I SOLVE THIS PROBLEM?

Sample response: Since the second number is mentioned twice, I need to find the greatest common multiple of 3 and 5 and then represent the numbers as algebraic expressions. GCF (3,5)=15 so I can use the following expressions for each number:

Number one= 10x

Number two = 15x 

Number three= 24x

You can see that these numbers will satisfy the ratios mentioned in the problem: 

(10 to 15 is same as 2 to 3) and (15 to 24 is same as 5 to 8)

I will then add these three expressions 10x+15x+24x = 49x 

Since 49x = 98 x=2 and now we can tell the numbers are 20, 30 and 48 respectively. 

Singapore Math Experience

First, let's start with Singapore. You know that one of the highest math learners are in Singapore according to a study here. US being behind Singapore, some folks decided to bring Singapore Math curriculum into the United States. I believe that they did a great job. What makes Singapore Math so special is that:

• They don't have fancy, thousand-page textbooks.
• Their textbooks are simple, to the point, full of exercise and unlike their rivals not so much colorful.
• Their math goes in a sequential order so there are not much repetitions.
• Third grade math taught in third grade, no unnecessary repeats in later grades.

I think this is what Common Core people are trying to do right now. Other than those, Singapore Math has a different approach for teaching algebra, numbers and problem solving. You may see some of their work on Khan Academy as well. (Edit: They removed Singapore Math content from their website but they are still available on their Youtube channel)

 

Alright, I decided to use Singapore Math in my middle school classes because my students were missing lots of foundational skills which were supposed to be taught in elementary school such as long division or decimal multiplication. I decided to spend at least one class a week targeting those concepts but at the same time I didn't want to bore advanced learners.

 

So, I decided to test them all first to see which grade level they will fall into. In order to be able to do this, I have used Singapore Math Placement tests starting with 1A level. It says that on the website, if a student receives 80% or more, they can move onto a higher level test. A few students scored at 1A level and the others passed. I continued testing them until they score at any point below 80 %. Some students went all the way up to 4A and 4B level. These students were my advanced learners.

 

To be clear with the grade levels, do not assume that the middle school students are scoring at an elementary level. since they are not taught the Singapore way, it's quite normal for them to get wrong answers with the math questions they have never seen before. I have only done this to see where they belong according to Singapore Math curriculum and what level good be a good start for them.

 

Later on, I have shared them privately how they scored on the tests. Then, I have made copies of Singapore math textbooks in order to help them learn those concepts. They studied through the practice books and I have recorded their progress through those packets. This took me about two or three months in total but I have seen great improvement with some students.

 

For example, I had a very smart eighth grade student who didn't learn long division ever and I was able to teach him since he had to do lots of long division with those packets. At the end of the program, I had two types of students: The ones who liked it and the ones who hated it. I guess there were couple things missing at this cycle which I couldn't afford to do. Let me summarize the learning circle:

• They take a test and we identify students' level.
• Students start practicing (completing the packets with the teacher's assistance)
• Teacher gives them feedback on their mistakes and they learn from those mistakes [Yes, I skipped this part]
• Students fix the mistakes and they re-take the test they failed before.
• Students score more than 80% on the same test, so they can move on.
• Students scoring less than 80% means they need intervention.

By the way, I created a spreadsheet to keep track of which packet they have finished, what they got on the placement tests etc. When you put them all together, this was too much work but it gave me lots of new ideas to try:

Last year, I was teaching summer school where the students failed their math class and I had only fifteen days with them. Looking for what would be the best thing to work with them, I decided to implement Singapore Math curriculum. I did the same thing as above, except for one thing: giving them feedback. Since I had only five students, I was able to grade each packet and circle their mistakes, ask them go over again and fix them as much as possible.

This was very helpful since I saw the students actually improving their scores and learning the basic concepts which they never learned before (such as reading time, converting customary units and measurement). Everything seemed to be alright but we only had fifteen days so it was a little short to gain a great amount of success.

Overall, I still love the Singapore math curriculum but I would rather have students start with this curriculum in their first grade and become fluent with their foundational math skills. If you have any ideas, suggestions, you can share them here.

Math Game Night Ideas

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If you are thinking about organizing a math game night, here are some ideas for you: 

Math Challenge:
Students sit around like in a spelling bee contest. They go up on the stage and answer the questions by doing mental math.

Round 1: This round consists of questions 1-10 time tables problems.
Examples: 5 x 4 = ? 7 x 8 = ?

Round 2: This round consists of two digit by one digit multiplication problems
( 11x 1 to 19 x 10)
Examples: 12 x 8 = ? 14 x 5 = ?

Round 3: This round consists of two digit by two digit multiplication digit. ( 11x11 to 19x20)
Examples: 25 x 20 = ? 17 x 12 = ?

For this round, a multiplication table will be distributed to participants prior to the competition. In case of a tie, students will be asked harder problems.

Game 24:
Student sign up for the competition. Game will be performed as a tournament. In each round, two students compete against each other and the winner goes to next level. In each round, students are to answer three questions. 

Jeopardy:
First option:
In Jeopardy, there will be four players competing against each other. Every student will represent their homeroom. 

Second option:
Four students will be selected randomly from the audience. Student sign up before the game and a raffle takes place in front of the audience. After the raffle students go up and compete against each other.

Are you smarter than a seventh grader?
A group of 11the graders compete with a group of 7th graders. Questions will be from all subject areas of 7th grade. 7th grade students will be picked by the teachers. 11th graders need to sign up.

Millionaire:
The winners of the game show will be able to play at the millionaire. During the game they are allowed to ask the audience, call an outsider, or go 50/50.

Classroom Discipline 101

I am going to recommend you a great resource which is worth a lot more than it costs. Craig Seganti is  an experienced teacher especially in urban schools with the toughest students you can ever imagine. I have purchased his e-book and read it thoroughly. I will strongly recommend his product not only for new teachers but also everybody else. It's only $39.95 and you can download it instantly.

Why do I recommend it: Is because I have used his classroom rules, his techniques and followed his other strategies which worked out quite well in my class. I have also seen a couple of other teachers using similar strategies and they were also successful. Here is the link, check it out:

http://www.classroomdiscipline101.com/

Never Yell at the Students

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Students do a lot of things to drive teachers crazy. There will be moments where it's very hard to control yourself in those situations. Yelling at a student never gives you power; instead it takes power from you and gives it to the child. Yelling means: I don't know how to stop you or how to control this class other than yelling. Yelling also makes a person stressed, tired, and eventually the teacher wishes to quit his/her job. Even at times when the kids can be very annoying, you need to be able to control yourself.