Barak brought me to TEARS today

I don't know if it's the loneliness I'm feeling from staying home so much because of our stay at home orders due to Corona Virus, or maybe because I feel like I want to do more in the Black Lives Matter movement or is it because I miss being with really smart people, but listening to Barak Obama speak today at John Lewis' funeral brought tears to my eyes and they fell down my cheeks. 

I trust him. I trust his words. I trust his ideas. I think he still has so much to give us as a country. MAybe it's the first time he has really spoken with politics since he left the White House. I miss him. I miss the idea of our leader speaking to us to inspire us and to help us be reflective of ourselves.

I'm working on my studio classroom and Scott and I are going to move rooms around so that I can have the bigger room to teach from.  Lots of emotions today.

Workshop Ideas for MITC

I've been asked to do a workshop for Math in the City at the end of August this year. Kara Imm was asked, but she doesn't feel prepared to do the workshop and asked me and then gave MitC my name and information and the most wonderful description or the leadership I've taken on this spring.

I did some prep today for my Google Educator Certification Level 2. I think I'll take the test at the end of the week or next Monday. I think I'll pass easily. Worried for the tech issues some people have had with ProctorU and Google. 

Be sure to learn about Hyperdocs. I've been learning about them. Adam Chawansky made some google slides that are probably similar. I think I will utilize them for my students as I teach remotely or in a hybrid model if we go back to school. 

Stay healthy by washing your mask and your hands. I think we need about 10 masks per person to wash them and have some variety. I only use two, so it's time to get some more. 

Today's tasks have included looking at and thinking about conditional logic with Google Forms. I am aware and have tried to create some forms with conditional logic, but I think a day or two of practice would suit me well. Thinking about a form to collect information from students so that we get ALL of the possible cell numbers, work numbers, home numbers for all of the people we would need to contact in the event of an emergency is one of those areas I think a form would work best. I think this especially because I am tired of misreading people's handwriting. 

So after I finish this chapter on my studying, creating that great form to collect information will be on my todo list. Using conditional logic in the form. 

Teachers Never Stop Thinking

Today I've done a lot of jobs at my parents house and I never stop thinking about what I can learn from them to help me teach other children in my classes. I can't always find ideas easily since this place is so different from where my students are from. However, learning the way to ask questions and to communicate with them as they age is a skill I've learned. My students need to learn to ask me questions differently than they as their friends because I'm different. I found a great article that talks about NYC finding interesting ways to teach in different locations. NYC can be the LEADERS

Teach and Create during the Pandemic... thinking

Yesterday President Trump and Secretary of Education DeVos got on the "schools must open" kick. Now the news runs with the ideas of how to open schools. The good thing is that maybe someone not in education can solve our impossible problem. Need social distancing, some kids need home instruction via internet, some teachers can't be in classrooms, some content doesn't work well online, small children NEED socialization, teenagers is all about social world.

I think we need to utilize parks, stadiums, parking lots with circus like tents (cirque de sole) so we can do social emotional teaching in social outdoor settings and then do more academic work online or virtually. Tap the companies that have done virtual work and find out what works and what doesn't. Jeff has worked with people in Lithuania for years and only been together IRL a few times maybe 14 days total. How do they get that to work? How are they productive together? We need to look outside of the education world to solve this problem.

Where are the think tanks? I need to be on one of them. Look here from 2015 an article to work apart.

Practicing my Blogging again

I am currently practicing to take my Google Educator Level 2 exam and blogger is a topic I need to practice, so I found my OLD blog. Ha! Sitting at mom and dad's typing away. I just had a study session with Ms. McKee and Ms. Higgs as they are studying for their Level 1 exams and plan to take them this week. They will rock the tests! I'm sure of it.

Do you still want to follow?

Some have asked that I do this again. Are you interested?

Assembly for our Code of Conduct

We had an assembly on Friday. Our first of the year. I am the chair of our school culture committee. We did 4 lessons during the beginning of this year on

Respect your self
Respect for others
Respect for your space
Realizing your Potential

From these lessons we are creating a code of conduct for the students. So we had an assembly to present the information to the entire school of what they had done separately. There was a group of girls that did Step Dancing. They were great. There were videos and pictures and skits. It was a great assembly.

I started the assembly with expectations for the behavior of the students. I helped the students understand how to applaud the correct and polite way. We practiced the applause and one student decided to continue to clap after the speaker started to speak, and he received a detention. That was different.

So, bottom line, the assembly was great. The student participation was outstanding, and the work that my committee has been doing since July has something tangible to show for all of our work.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about how students struggle with transitivity in math. The idea that if a+b=c then c = a + b and that c - a = b and c - b = a. They have a hard time knowing that they can change things around.

I had to convince them that if m = a + b = c + d then m = c + d. They don't substitute well into equations. I am beginning to think that the basics of math thinking are being learned too quickly and that we are rushing into algebra and abstract thinking before they can handle the ideas. I am thinking a great deal about this idea and looking for some research to read that affirms that 11 and 12 year olds are ready to handle abstract math concepts.

Two stories

1) I at times, have an agenda on the board for what we are going to do for the day. (I'm supposed to have it on the board everyday, but I mess this one up). So I had written, -Pass back to imply I was going to pass back work to the students. If I don't write it down, I forget to do it.

So I had erased part of the board and had erased a part of the P on -pass back. It left ass back on my board. The class tried to tell me in a very nice way that there was a bad word on the board. I thought they were showing me the projector was left on, so I turned the projector off and went on teaching. Later, one young man said, "Ms. Dyer, you erased some of the agenda." I told him No Problem, I had only erased what we had already done. He told me that there was a bad word on the board. I looked and said, "Thanks Rog. You handled that really well." The class didn't giggle or go out of control. Thank you to Rog. He is a wise kind young man whose feet don't yet touch the floor.

Story 2)
Ralph is a student in my 7th grade class. He is quite an enigma. He's pretty good in math, but is just weird. He's a class clown and he sometimes falls asleep in class. So yesterday, he fell asleep. I somehow got enough attention of the other student by panomiming. I indicated (ALL WITHOUT WORDS) that on my count of three, via my fingers, we would all say, "Ralph!" The class all understood what I wanted. I raised my fingers, one, two,... Three. And the class, having rehearsed unison answering in every class, shouts clearly and quickly, "RALPH!"
The look of fear and shock on Ralph's round face was priceless. He pounded his fists on his desk and did one of those silent screams. It was so funny. Funny .... I then lost the class.

It took 5 minutes to bring them back. I tried to write notes on the board, but that didn't work. I then had to have the class journal about what had happened. Many wrote the goings on in the back of their planner that has a place for "most memorable moments." I had another teacher in the room. He said that it was the best moment of his teaching career to be there. I'm sure I can't write the story as funny as it was, but the kids were talking about it still today.

another day in the life...

Best Note EVER passed in class

So one day this last week, I confiscated a note being passed across the isle from one student to another. I put the note in my pocket to read later so that we didn't disrupt the flow of the lesson.

Later I read the note and it basically was a note to everyone in the class from one of the students. It was a note that said "7C, Do your science homework. Ms. Nagin said she would give us crackers if we all did our homework." So it was a note about students working together as a team to receive a reward. Notice the reward was crackers. As a matter of fact it was Saltine Crackers. These students need very little incentive at times.

I gave the note back to the class via their homeroom teacher so that it could finish making its rounds through the class. Sure enough they all did their science HW and Ms. Nagin got them Oreo cookies instead of Saltine Crackers. I shared the note with her before I returned it to the class, so that she was aware of the amazingness of her class.

Love it!

When do the rules apply in math?

Today, I gave the student an expression to evaluate. I was working on doing math with the appropriate order of operations. So while the students were working on the expression

28-30+6

I had a student ask if this was integer work or order of operation work. I told him I didn't understand his question. I replied that yes, these are integers and that we always use the rules of order of operations. He said, "No, I mean do I still follow the integer rules?" I probably dropped my jaw to the ground.

I guess I hadn't made it clear that once we learn something we use it everytime. Interesting. He had compartmentalized and thought when we are learning a topic, that's the only time we use those rules. Could not believe it. It was truly a moment of understanding that I needed to have.

My students are honest with me

I have a group of about 15 7th grade students who are my advisees. Once a week we get together and talk. This week's talk was about respecting one's self. While we talked and the direction of the conversation led us to talking about smoking and the dangers of smoking or drinking, some of my students talked about family members that smoke pot. Some brothers, cousins, and even some parents were outed by the students.

I asked if any of them had seen someone smoke pot and every hand went up. OMG, I thought. First of all that the culture in our society is such that talking about this is very okay and that these students don't keep information to themselves. I will never breach the confidence that they have in me unless I am obligated by law. What I will do is to help them learn.

Last week they all told me how they have been hit for punishment (spankings, cords, belts). So drugs and fear of physical punishment, guess I'm getting to know these kids more and more. I have amazing students that are insightful, resilient, happy, and a joy to be with most of the time.

I retaught how to multiply 2 or 3 digit numbers this week. I also tested the 7th grade students on 5 different NYS standards. Hopefully they understand the different classifications of numbers and can tell the difference of a rational and an irrational number now. They also were tested on their understanding of adding and subtracting integers. Most of them can handle the integer laws. This week we finished multiply and divide integers. Next week the 7th grade students will delve into remembering the Order of Operations. This is one of the skills that they need to practice A LOT! My principal is going to observe me on Tuesday. It's my first formal observation. I video recorded myself this week to see what he will see. I am making some immediate changes. First of all, students fill any time you give them. So if I give them 5 minutes to do something that should take 2 minutes, they'll fill the entire 5 minutes. So... I have shortened the amount of time I give them to do tasks. Especially the time to get into the room and to get started. We practiced this on Friday. We reset the room and went back into the hallway and came back into the room and reduced the amount of time needed by 50%. That's a huge amount of time that I can use for instruction.

Enjoyed a night out with many of the staff last night. got home at 9:30 which is so early in a town that never sleeps. I slept and now I need to get my own homework done.

Peace!

Teaching Multiplication

I taught my students how to do standard multiplication today instead of the lattice system they love. It is a trick method that doesn't teach or help students with place value. I told them that if they needed to use it, not to put it onto the paper that they hand in for their work.

My class with the most IEP students were my last two periods of the day and they were not going to focus or work very hard. Why is handing back papers so time consuming? anyone with any suggestions? I am insistant that only a teacher hand back tests and quizzes to protect the students from others knowing the grades.

I had a boy complain that it was wrong that I had scored his paper an "F." I had asked him to round 3 numbers (no decimals) and he didn't do any of them even closely correct. He also didn't write anything in the area to describe how to round numbers. Some of this was because he had wasted classtime and note completed the task because he didn't know it was going to be graded as a quiz. Failure is Failure in my room. If there is understanding and focus in class, it's hard to fail.

I also learned that if a students grades are padded too high, then the school won't consider testing them for learning disabilities. I need to do my job of being fair. I really don't like students failing at items that they should have some understanding by now in their middle school career.

Struggling so far this week

I did not have internet in my classroom for 4 class days. It was like working without my left hand. I could do it, but it wasn't easy. I got the internet back this afternoon, so tomorrow I have some lessons to work on tomorrow.

I have a parent information night tomorrow. I look forward to meeting parents and sharing our goals for the year with them. I have a bulletin board that I still need to finish before tomorrow evening. Hmmm.... I guess I'll do that tomorrow afternoon when the students leave because they have a half day. Christian stayed after school to help me clean the bulletin board off today. I miss having Christian as my student.

I am tired from the small struggles of the few days. Bed sounds good now.

OHHHH!!! One of the students decided to "steal" a folder from me. I would have been happy to give her one had she asked me for one. However, she chose to just take the folder from my room and admitted to it. She'll be serving an In School Suspension tomorrow. Disappointed in her I am.

Pictures from this week.

We traveled to Staten Island on the Ferry and enjoyed a day next to the water. The students simply enjoyed a day without structure.

I'm so tired

The first week of classes done. Actually, I gave a couple of diagnostic exams and assigned a little bit of homework. Next week we really begin. This weekend I finish up my papers to hand to the kids for classroom policies and such. I also write a couple of lesson plans and do the reading for my own graduate classes. I did take a couple of pictures of my kids using the Macs to take an exam. Unfortunatly I didn't check the camera too well before I snapped the pics. Next week, I'll add more pictures of the kids.

Scott said the floor in the bathroom and laundry room looks amazing. I can't wait to see it.

I am so going to sleep hard all night tonight and not set me alarm for 5am. I found one of my students gets up at 4am and then goes to his grandmothers before school. Holy crap!

I so love the kids I can't get over how well they respond to my style. It truly makes me feel amazing that they learn and laugh and then take things seriously as well. We talked just a smidge about imaginary numbers today. I told them I couldn't talk about them that they were reserved for high school or for after school with me.

LOVE TEACHING....

Beginning Year #2

So tomorrow we start school again. I have a new homeroom partner, new students, a new neighbor in the science room and lots of new supplies. First of all.... Thank you to my parents and all of the other people who bought supplied for my students this last summer. I have so many notebooks, folders, packages of loose leaf paper, and pencils. I am so excited to have the basic supplies so that I can give them to my students.

Scott was here this last weekend and we went to the US Open tennis tournament. What a great time we had. We met really wonderful people and we watched great tennis.

Jeff is on to his second year at RIT. He had a great summer working for Hitachi in Boston. He lived with Andrea and her fiance in Waltham. They did really well together. I went out for a weekend and we all had a nice time.

Tomorrow starts a year of teaching math to 6th and 7th grade students. I am part of a couple of committees, and I've offered to keep track of the money our school collects in various fundraisers over the year.

So, here we go. Oh... two courses at Pace taken over the summer and another two start this week. I graduate in May with a Master's degree. It's a lot of work, but I'll be fine.

Zip me an email and keep me up to date on what you are doing!
D

Time goes so quickly

I had a great weekend. My mom and dad came to the city and stayed with me. They arrived on Friday with Scott. He drove them down and parked their van near my home. They took naps, had lunch and then ventured via the subway to my school on the Upper West Side. I showed them my classroom and talked about my students.

First we went to 46th street's restaurant Bourbon Street. After a lovely dinner, we went and saw Mamma Mia! that night. I heard my dad and my mom laugh a lot. They really liked the set and the singing. It is such an exciting show to watch. Heck, Mom didn't even fall asleep watching it. We then took the subway back to Queens. We arrived back at my apartment around midnight.

Mom and Dad slept in the bedroom and Scott and I found rest on the couch and floor in the living room. We woke Saturday to a glorious morning. We trekked down to Battery Park and bought tickets on the Circle Line to see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. We did not debark at the Statue, but instead spent the day at Ellis Island. We learned a great deal, and enjoyed the museum. We came back to queens and enjoyed a NYC Pizza and a fruit salad that I made from the fruit stand beneath my apartment.

Sunday we started out early and went to the Top of the Rock. The views were great and I believe it's a better tour and experience than the Empire State Building. The lobby at Rockefeller Center is simply beautiful. Mom and Dad took lots of pictures. Dad was impressed with mom being quite comfortable with the height. Then we went and took the GreyLine Downtown tour on the double decker red bus. We saw so much and didn't have to drive in the traffic. We ate down at the South Street SeaPort. After showing mom the wooden escalators in Macy's (she really didn't know how large the store was) we went back to queens once again and ate at a local Polish restaurant.

We got to bed at a decent hour, because I had to work on Monday morning. They left after rush hour was over so that the drive would be easier. I think they enjoyed their time here. They frequently commented they were happy to not feel rushed.

My first Panic Attack in NYCity

No worries... I lost my keys.(found them)

Before I leave anyplace I make sure I have my phone and my keys. Note that my keys are attached to my "wallet" that has my driver's license, credit cards, metro card and cash. It also holds my Dunkin Donuts card so I can get some free coffees sometimes. As I was getting ready to leave work this evening, I couldn't find my keys. I looked in about 8 or 9 places, but couldn't find them. I was stressed a bit. I told myself that they were just in a place I hadn't looked yet.

I called Scott and vented and swore a bit. I was safe and at my school, however, I had nothing else. He was ready to drive down and rescue me with a set of keys and money. But... I again traced my steps and found my keys... but for those 10 minutes, I was scared. I would have been stuck.

Then, I had an angel meet me waiting for the train. A lady asked me how my day was as we waited for the train on the platform. It was a simple question from a stranger. We talked for about 4 minutes, and then her train came and off she went. What a great moment for me. I love NYC.

Students walking Blindfolded

May 6 & 7, 2009 Princeton-Blairstown Center
7th grade Overnight trip