Showing posts with label classroom. Show all posts

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Me and My Desk: A Plea for Help

This post has been setting in my drafts for a while now. I'm not sure why I never posted it. So, the date references are all wrong, but I think you'll be able to follow along. I almost deleted this since it was so old, but I decided to post it as a plea for advice. Keeping my desk organized is a huge struggle or me. So, I want to hear all your tips and tricks for staying organized during the school year. I obviously need them!

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In high school, I won an award for being the most organized student. I was always the one with the binder full of tabs and sheet protectors. I always had all my needed supplies. And, everything had a place. I'm not sure what happened to me. The other day, a student asked, "Ms. Hagan, why is your desk always so messy?" I just don't know. When I do clean my desk off, I will have at least five people (coworkers and students) acknowledge how clean my desk is. That's a sign that it's quite the rare occurrence.

Last week, I decided that I wasn't giving any standardized tests on Wednesday or Thursday. So, I was going to make it my goal to clear my desk off before the three day weekend.

I even took a before picture to help motivate myself. After all, then I could look at the after picture and feel so accomplished.

WEDNESDAY MORNING

Wednesday afternoon, I got unexpectedly called on to proctor a state test during my planning period.

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON
(Not Much Better!)

So, Wednesday didn't end in a clean desk. There's still Thursday, though. Hope lives on!

THURSDAY AFTERNOON

What a great after picture, right? A clean desk should not be this hard.

Why am I showing you pictures of my messy, unorganized desk? This is a plea for help, guys. I promise. I don't want my desk to look like this.

I much prefer for it to look like this:

So, how do you keep your desk clean? How do you stay organized?

Detail: Me and My Desk: A Plea for Help

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Tombstone Project

Saturday, I attended my first ever EdCamp. I wasn't quite sure what to expect with #edcampTULSA, but I'm definitely glad I went! I still need to sit down and attempt to process and reflect on all that I learned, but that will have to wait for a while. My mind is overwhelmed right now with everything that I need to get done and review before state testing starts in EIGHT days. EIGHT days. My Algebra 1 students will test on April 14th. I hate how much emphasis is placed on this one test. This test will decide what math class my students will take next year. This test will decide whether they will be allowed to graduate or not. This test will influence what A-F grade my school will receive. This test will eventually decide how I am evaluated.

Jenks High School Math & Science Center

Anyhow, #edcampTULSA was hosted at the Jenks High School Math & Science Center (aka the most amazing high school building I've ever been in). If you doubt the building's amazingness, ask yourself this question: Do you have a 120-seat planetarium in your high school? We got an hour and forty minute break for lunch. I didn't exactly use the lunch break as they intended for me to. We were supposed to find people we didn't know and go out to lunch with them. Instead, I went and ran a couple of errands in Tulsa, and I wandered through random classrooms, looking for inspiration. I love seeing what other teachers do. One of the major downsides of working in such a small school district and being 60% of the high school math faculty is that I don't have many people to steal ideas from. I guess that's one of the reasons why I am so drawn to blogging. I can share ideas and steal ideas from others without geographic restriction.

I took pictures of the things that inspired me most, and I plan on sharing them over the next week or so.

I've always wanted to incorporate more mathematical history in my classroom, but I haven't done a great job of it. Last year, I asked students to decorate their interactive notebook covers with information they researched about a mathematician. That project flopped because I failed to account for the fact that most of our students do not have Internet access or printers at home. And, our school library was shut down at the time.

I think my favorite idea I stole from this classroom stroll was a tombstone project. It follows the same idea as my notebook cover project, but the medium is at least 500 times cooler. Design a tombstone that communicates the significant accomplishments of a famous mathematician. The examples I found were all in science classrooms, but I don't see why this project would just have to be restricted to scientists. Math teachers can have students design tombstones for mathematicians. English teachers can have students design tombstones for famous writers. A history teacher could assign students to make a tombstone for a historical figure. I can even see our computer teacher using this during her unit on the history of computing.

Scientist Tombstones

I think I will wait until after my students are finished with state testing to assign them this project. I think this project will go much smoother this time because I am much more informed about the culture and realities of the school I work at now. Many students still do not have Internet access at home, but our school library is up and running with computers and free printing. Our public library, though small, does offer free Internet access and printing at a nominal charge. Plus, many students can do the research on their smartphones. This project could actually be completed without printing anything if a student is artistic/creative enough.

My sister has decided that this project is a bad idea because I don't really have much flat display space in my classroom for these projects. I'm not going to let that stop me, though.

Here's what I'm thinking so far:
Required Elements
- Mathematician Name
- Birth and Death Dates

Optional Elements (Choose at least two!)
- Famous Quote
- Picture of Mathematician
- Mathematical Accomplishments
- Country of Origin (A map would be helpful!)
- Interesting Fact About Your Mathematician

How could you use this in your own classroom? Have you done any projects similar to this before? Tell us about it in the comments!

Since I'm a very visual person, here are other inspiring shots of this project. I love that this project allows students to be as creative as they want to be.

Detail: Tombstone Project

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My CLEAN(er) Desk

Two weekends ago, I spent 11 hours at school, working in my classroom. Why? I was so behind that I felt like I was going to lose my mind. Did I want to spend my weekend at school? Definitely not. I would have much rather spent my weekend reading or catching up on Downton Abbey or even grocery shopping.

My goal for that weekend was to get everything completely done and ready for Monday - Wednesday so this past week wouldn't be as stressful. To motivate myself, I wrote out my to-do list on the dry erase board. My students enjoy doing math a lot more on our dry erase boards, so I figured I would have more fun tackling my to do list if it was on the dry erase board.

My To Do List

Everything in the picture is what I crossed off after a 7 hour session on Saturday. After 4 more hours on Sunday, a lot of stuff was marked off. Still, some things remained. And, in fact, I still haven't done some of the things on the list. I just need more hours in the day. I need more time to do everything to my standard.

One thing I did was to clean off my desk. My desk and I are constantly at battle. I want to have a clean desk. I really do. But, flat surfaces have a tendency to not remain so empty in my classroom.

My CLEAN(er) Desk!

While working on cleaning my desk, I had an epiphany. Maybe if I had less stuff on my desk, it would be easier to keep clean. It sounded like a good idea, but what should I do about all the stuff I use regularly? I didn't really want to put my stapler and tape dispenser in a drawer. My first epiphany was followed by a more minor epiphany. Hello, Sarah! You have an entire wall of windows in your classroom. And, there is a ledge in front of the windows. Why don't you put the stuff you use all the time on the ledge instead of your desk?

Window Sill of Supplies

The comments made by students and other teachers were priceless.

Student: WOAH! You cleaned your desk!
Me: Yes, I did. Are you impressed?
Student: Yes. Now, I'll really freak out if you have ALL of our papers graded!

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Student: Hello, Ms. "Finally Cleaned Your Desk."
Me: Hi!
Student: That's what I'm going to start calling you.

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Another Teacher: There's something missing here. What used to sit here? I know there used to be something here! Where'd it go?
Me: I cleaned my desk off this weekend.
Teacher: Oh, that's it. That explains it.

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Student: You rearranged your desk. Is that so you can have a longer cocaine line?

If you want to see why this is such a big deal, let's flash back to a few weeks ago.

I think those pictures are worth a thousand words.

Detail: My CLEAN(er) Desk

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New Classroom Addition

This post is going to be short and sweet. I just had to share a picture of my new (to me) podium that has found a home in my classroom. My mom picked it up for me at a thrift shop because she decided every teacher needs a podium in their classroom.

I haven't stood behind it and taught. That's just not my style. Actually, one of my 3rd period students has actually claimed it as his desk. He sits there every single day.

The main thing I love about my podium is that it has three shelves of storage space underneath! And, storage space is something that is definitely lacking in my classroom. Plus, it gives me a place to set handouts and miscellaneous stuff while I'm teaching.

My New Podium!

Detail: New Classroom Addition

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Time-Saving Tips

The more I teach, the more I look for time savers. There is just not enough time in the day to do everything I want to. So, any time saving measure I can implement allows me more time to get my work done and still try to have a life outside of school.

Occasionally, I will admit to my students that I didn't grade their quizzes or homework or something else that they expected me to do. I usually apologize and try to make it into a joke. "Sorry, but you know I like to have a life sometimes, too." They usually follow this up with something like this: "Oh, did you go clubbing last night?" "Uh...no. Actually, I was asleep before 9 pm." I guess my definition of having a life and theirs varies greatly.

So, here are some ways that I try to save myself and my students time.

Make copies of frequently used interactive notebook forms. It's no secret that I love the Frayer Model for Vocabulary. I usually print 50-100 of these at a time and chop them in half. I keep them in a file folder labeled "Frayer Model." Whenever I want to use a Frayer Model with my students, I just pull out the file, and I'm ready to go without having to make copies.

I also run off our Unit Table of Contents pages in bulk. We put one of these table of contents forms at the beginning of every unit in our interactive notebooks. I also print 50-100 of these at a time and chop them in half. They are kept in a file folder labeled "Table of Contents." I always know where they are at, and it's nice to not have to make copies every time we go to put one of these in our notebooks!

Frayer Model / Table of Contents Form

Make copies of frequently used tables/reference sheets on colored paper. The next idea is something that probably saves my students more time than it does me. In Statistics, we are working with the Normal Distribution Model. Our textbook has tables in the back, but they are kind of inconvenient to use and find. Students quickly tire of flipping back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. So, I ran off copies of these tables, double-sided, on colored paper. I keep them in a folder at my desk. Whenever we are working on problems that require the use of these tables, I set out the folder. Students grab a table from the folder and return it when they are done. These have been a giant time saver!

Normal Distribution Tables

Laminate stuff so it lasts! My Algebra 2 students and I LOVE conic cards. I will continue writing about conic cards until the entire world knows about their greatness! :) I've learned the hard way that simply printing activities on card stock is not enough if I want to reuse them the next year. Laminating stuff and cutting them out is time consuming. But, having to recreate the same activities year after year is also time consuming. I've found it's better to take a little extra time and laminate stuff in the first place so I don't have to spend time the next year recreating it. I also laminated the answer sheets to my conic cards. The fact that they are laminated and color-coded makes it much easier for me to find my answer sheets.

Conic Card Answer Sheets

Keep Track of Future INB Changes In This Year's INB. Recently, I had an epiphany in regards to interactive notebooks. Every year's interactive notebooks are different. I'm continually trying new strategies to engage my students. From year-to-year, I keep the best pages and strategies from the previous year, and I try new things in an attempt to give my students the best education possible. Sometimes, I have a brilliant idea AFTER we create a page. Or, I find after teaching something for the third time that day, I decide that there has to be a better way to word something.

This summer, I picked up some light bulb post-it notes at Target in the Dollar Spot. I've started marking things that I want to change or did change with a light bulb note. This way, next year, I will be able to remember what did and did not work well with my students.

Light Bulb Notes - Reminders for Next Year

Make SBG Quizzes Easier to Write. I haven't written about it a lot, but I'm kinda sorta trying out SBG with my Algebra 2 classes. This means I've been writing more quizzes lately than I've ever written in my life. Quizzes can be time-consuming things to write if I let them. In college, I remember thinking poorly of professors for hand-writing their tests and quizzes. For some reason, I thought that if they really cared, they would type everything. Well, I'm coming around and seeing things differently.

I can hand write a quiz in about a third of the time that it takes to type a quiz. Let's be real. Equation editors are nice. But, it takes forever to input all of the various equations needed for a quiz. Recently, I decided to steal Dan Meyer's blank SBG test (at the bottom of his page before the comments) and use it to write my quizzes. I've made 15 or so copies of this that I keep in a file. When it is time to write a quiz, I pull out a blank copy, write my quiz, and make copies.

SBG Quiz Template

Split Up Calculators. To save my students' time, I have recently placed my calculators in two different locations in my room. This was actually a suggestion of one of my students. Now, students who sit toward the front of the classroom can pick up a calculator from the front of the classroom. Students who sit toward the back of the classroom can pick up a calculator from the back of the classroom. I'd like to think that this also makes students more likely to put up their calculators when leaving the classroom.

Calculators At Back of Classroom

Calculators at Front of Classroom

What cool tips do you have to save time? Share them in the comments!

Detail: Time-Saving Tips

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What My Classroom Really Looks Like

This weekend, I spent a good chunk of time cleaning at my inbox. Notice, I didn't say cleaning out my inbox. Despite spending 6+ hours organizing and writing replies, I still have 205 or so e-mails that require some type of action or response. This is what I get for putting off answering e-mails for pretty much the entire first semester. Oops...

Anywho, in one of those e-mail replies I was writing, I found myself saying something to this extent: I strive to be an honest person, and I want my blog to reflect that honesty. Someone had thanked me for the fact that I still blogged about ideas even when they didn't exactly work out as I would have hoped in my classroom. Yes, we all have our lessons that flop. And, I feel like I have to blog about those lessons in order to learn from them. Learning through reflecting on my blog almost sort of redeems the flopped lesson. After all, if you learn something from it, it must have been worthwhile.

The rest of this post will be me trying to be honest. The idea has been on my mind since August. At the beginning of every school year, we fix up our classrooms and take pictures to post on the Internet. Everything is in its perfect place. Shelves are organized. Desks are gleaming. (Of course, my classroom is never quite perfect. There always seems to be that pile of posters I haven't gotten around to laminating and hanging or something...)

At the beginning of the school year, my room looked like this. This is not me. This is not reality. I wish this was reality. In reality, I'm incredibly disorganized. It's bad. When I was in school, I would secretly judge my teachers for their messy desks. Now, I'm the one with the messy desk. Yeah. I told a student one day that I really just needed a secretary or assistant. Her reply? "You know, Ms. Hagan. Every other teacher has the exact same amount of time in their day as you do. And, none of their desks look like yours!" Ouch.

So, are you ready to see what my classroom really looks like? Now, these pictures were taken on our first day back from Christmas Break. It was a professional day without the kids, so I had time to clean my room up and get first semester grades finalized.

Disorganized Calculators and Christmas Decor That Never Got Hung Up

The (Very Disorganized) Back Table of Supplies

The View From The Door
(If you couldn't tell - we spent the last day of the semester playing board games.)

North Side of Classroom
(I'm not going to tell you how long it took me to figure out which cardinal direction to type...)

This brown cabinet collects stuff. I hate it.

Graded notebooks

My Desk

More of My Desk

Behind My Desk

Hope I haven't scarred you for life.

Detail: What My Classroom Really Looks Like

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What Can I Do With This?

Okay guys. I need some help. My parents are amazing. They have supported me every step of the way in my teaching endeavor. They helped me move to Drumright. They helped me set up my classroom. They painted the walls. They installed a dry erase board for me. They built me bulletin boards. My mom is always on the lookout for cool things that I can use in my classroom. Sometimes, though, she buys me things to use even if she can't think of a use for them.

This is one of those things. An ice cream bucket full of pink and blue foam washers. I've had these for months now, and I still haven't figured out what to use them for. So, I'm asking you! What can I do with these?

Foam Washers

Detail: What Can I Do With This?

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Organizing Absent Work

Box to Hold Absent Work

In a perfect world, every student would be in class every single day. Sadly, I don't teach in a perfect world. Last year, as I began teaching, I knew that I needed to have some way to organize the work that students missed. I ended up creating a "While You Were Out" Binder that turned out to be way too time consuming. After about a week, I stopped using it, and I resorted to a really lazy method. If a student was absent, they would need to come see me at an appropriate time and ask for what they had missed. This works okay *if* I can locate the papers they need in the mess that I call my desk, *if* they remember to come ask for them, and *if* students understand what constitutes an appropriate time to ask. That is way too many "ifs."

Absent Work Form "Today, You Missed..."

This year, I'm trying something new. We're not even a month into school yet, so I don't know that this works in the long run, but this new system is definitely working better than last year's system! On my cabinet, I have a hanging file box that says "Absent? Look here!" The first hanging file has a half-page form that I fill out for each student who was absent that day. I write their name, the date, and check off whatever they missed that day. If there are any handouts, I staple them to the back of the form. Since the amount of writing I have to do is minimized, I can get these done in a very small amount of time at the end of the day. Instead of dreading this end of day task, I actually look forward to it because it's one of the easiest things to mark off my to-do list!

When students come to me and say they were absent, all I have to do is point to the box. I can also easily check and see what students are not picking up the assignments they missed. If you are interested in the form I use, I have embedded it for your below to download!

Detail: Organizing Absent Work

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Made 4 Math: Domino Pencil Holder

Here's my latest (early) Made 4 Math Project. :)

Domino Pencil Holder

I teach in a small, rural school with a very high percentage of low-income students. The local businesses in town go together to purchase all of the school supplies for the students in elementary school and middle school. Thus, many of our high school students have never had to buy school supplies before.

Last year, I had a major problem with students not bringing a pencil or pen to class to write with. So, I had a cup of pencils on my desk that students could borrow a pencil from. It worked great except for the fact that the pencils never seemed to make it back to the cup. I was continually having to refill the cup with pencils. The school did provide these pencils, but it was a huge hassle.

Domino Pencil Holder - With Pencils

This summer, I decided there had to be a better way. Via pinterest, I saw an idea where you take a block of wood and drill holes in it to hold pencils. Since each hole should have a pencil in it, you can easily tell if all of your pencils have been returned.

My parents are definitely the do-it-yourself type. So, they have tons of tools and building supplies. I told my parents what I wanted to do and asked them if they had a piece of wood that I could have. Then, I figured I would just borrow the drill, ask my Dad to show me how to drill a hole in the wood, and complete the project in a matter of minutes.

That's not quite how it worked. First, I was told that I would want to use a drill press to drill the holes instead of a cordless drill because that would ensure that the holes were the same depth. Then, my Mom decided to take things a step further and make it more creative. She said I should paint the wooden block to look like something. Now, I have ZERO artistic talent. My sister, on the other hand, is studying to be an art teacher So, she got roped into this project as well.

I can tell that my love and obsession with math is definitely rubbing off on my mom. Her first idea is: "Wouldn't it be cool if the digits of pi were painted around the edge of the block?" We agreed that, yes, that would be cool. But, what color should we paint the block? The color black was decided upon. But, soon, we realize that if we paint the block of wood black it will look like a domino! So, why can't we just make a domino pencil holder instead? So, the digits of pi were abandoned for a beautiful double-six domino pencil holder.

Actually, I'm not quite sure if I can take any credit whatsoever for this project. My mom got out the t-square and ruler to square the wood and mark where the holes should go for the pencils. My dad used the drill press to drill the holes. And, he also spray painted it black. I've spray painted one thing in my life, and it was an absolute disaster... Finally, my sister painted the white dots on the domino. So, I guess I'm more of an idea person. And, the rest of my family takes my ideas, makes them better, and actually executes them.

So, this has been setting on my desk all week, and I absolutely love it. I was originally planning on putting small pieces of duct tape on each pencil to mark that it was my property, but the borrowed pencils have been making their way back to the domino without them. I think there's just something about the fact that the students know that I know that there are supposed to be twelve pencils in the domino. So, if they take one out, they return it. Of course, we are only 7 days into the school year. This is probably still the honeymoon phase... But, I'm feeling much better about the pencil situation this year!

And weirdly, I've been gaining pencils this year. It seems like everyday, I find at least one pencil that someone has left behind...

Detail: Made 4 Math: Domino Pencil Holder

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Classroom Pictures 2013

I finally got around to taking pictures of my completed classroom for the 2013-2014 school year. If you've seen my pictures from last year, you will notice many of the same elements in different places. I tried to reuse as much of last year's stuff as possible while still creating all new bulletin board designs.

My goal for my classroom is for it to be welcoming, colorful, and organized. One of my students from last year came by to visit earlier this week. When she walked into my room, she exclaimed, "You redid your room! And you made it even MORE colorful. I didn't even think that was possible!"

Warning - This post is FULL of pictures. So, it may take quite a while to load!

My Problem Solving Posters from last year have found a new home underneath my Smart Board!
You can download these posters here.

This bulletin board is right outside my classroom door. The poster at the top is from the dollar section at Target!

I reused my door decoration from last year, but I added a cute polka-dot border window cling that I found at Dollar Tree. You can download the door decoration here.

The Wall of Pride is based on a photo I saw on pinterest. The idea behind this bulletin board is that students are allowed to post anything that they are proud of. Last year, I had lots of students bring me pictures they had drawn. This year, I wanted to have a designated place to hang these. And, I'm hoping that students will post other things that they are proud of as well.

Of course, my room would not be complete without my University of Tulsa flag!

Aren't these the cutest hall passes? And, they're MAGNETIC!

The special education teacher gave me this poster to post daily homework assignments on. I definitely need to find different magnets to hang this because it falls down multiple times a day...

I'm pretty excited about this pink cart! I picked it up at a yard sale this summer for $10.00. If you look closely, you will see that it still has the labels from the previous owner. I haven't exactly got around to changing them yet. This cart holds notebook paper, graph paper, protractors, bingo chips, index cards, and other random stuff that needs a home in my classroom.

I also picked up these two basketball net shaped trashcans this summer. My students were very quick to notice these and get excited!

Mini-Trash Cans to use when we are cutting lots of little things out. I'm hoping that if I set these on the tables, students will throw their trash in these instead of the floor.

I'm trying out a new system for absent work this year. Blog post to follow!

Handy Dandy Magnetic Holders for My Dry Erase Board

New and Improved Dry Erase Grid. I did a terrible job of keeping last year's grid updated. I'm hoping that since this one has less information, I will be more apt to change it on a daily basis.

Every day, I write the date as a math problem. My students HATE this. This year, I am also posting a holiday each day. I found an Internet site that lists all of the crazy, wacky holidays and what day they are on. So, each day, I pick the most interesting one and post it for my students. I'm still not sure how many students have actually noticed this. I have had a few conversations with students who were extremely confused about why the board said "Sneak some zucchini onto your neighbor's porch" day.

For the Quote of the Week, I am using quotes I have already printed and laminated! These quotes are stored in the back of my absent work box for easy access. I've learned that there are never enough hours to get everything done in your classroom so it is important to make things as easy as possible on yourself.

Right Hand Wall Upon Entering - Number Line Posters; Common Core I Can Statement Posters; Math Posters,

I downloaded and printed these great posters of the Standards of Mathematical Practice in kid-friendly language from Everybody is a Genius.

Supply Table at Back of Classroom with Wire Organizer

Mini Dry Erase Boards - These are the most used item in my classroom!

Dry Erase Markers and Erasers (The foam hair rollers work remarkably well!)

Glue Sticks and Scissors

Highlighters and Markers

Rulers

A box of colored pencils for each set of desks

Pascal's Triangle Bulletin Board - Last year, my college algebra students searched for patterns in Pascal's Triangle and attempted to design their own triangle. I laminated their results.