Student Made Anchor Charts

For the first time ever in my teaching career, students made their own anchor chart.

It felt like a big deal.  My students felt like it was a big deal.  I could tell because of the feeling of anticipation over who was going to be chosen to write and what color marker each student was going to choose.  (We don't use markers often, and especially not Ms. Talia's special smelly markers!)

We've been working hard on Number Talks with addition strategies for the last several weeks and it's time for us to head in a different direction with Number Talks.  But I wanted some closure to what we've been working on.  And during conferences last week, many parents mentioned that they wanted to know more specifically what strategies we are working on.  And of course Graham planted the idea of  student created anchor charts in my brain.  So it all came together today.

As students walked in the door, I gave them an entrance slip.  Solve the problem 27 + 8.  Solve it in one or two of the most efficient ways that you know how.  As students talked to their Turn and Talk partner about their strategy, I quickly went through the entrance slips to see which students were ready to showcase their strategy to the whole class (and now the whole world, thanks to Twitter!).

I found 4 learners to help share their strategy: the one for whom learning in general is hard, the one who has been unmotivated to learn lately, the one who is just this year beginning to learn English, and the one who floors me everyday with her math thinking.  

I didn't plan this.  I didn't plan those particular four students.  But those four friends showed that they were ready to have their learning be permanent and shared with others.  

Before I called each student up one by one, I asked the other students what they should be doing while waiting for a friend to share their strategy.  "Watch and try to understand their thinking" was their response, as if  --DUH-that's what we do--.  

And that's just what they did.  They watched students carefully pick their favorite color, carefully write their equations and their thinking, and tried to make sense of what they saw.  They used our hand signal to show they agree or used the same strategy, they shouted out the name of the strategy each student used, and I think they were inspired to be the next ones to make their own anchor chart.  

They will never forget making their own anchor chart.   The first of many to come.

And now I share it with you.  Enjoy!

Planning: Then and Now

In my previous teaching life (you know, like 4 years ago), planning was neat and controlled.  I had a compact list of math standards I had to hit and they were broken down into units.  The Saturday before the next unit was going to start, I brought home my standards and my calendar and starting matching.  Each day was a different standard.  Maybe two days for one standard.  That was the only planning I did.  As long as I knew what standard I needed to hit, I was ready to teach.  

I didn't plan what problems I was going to give students, never-mind actually doing the problems myself.  I didn't plan how I was going to make the math meaningful or relevant.  I didn't plan how I was going to engage learners.  I didn't plan for interventions or extensions.  As long as I knew what standard I needed to hit, I was ready to teach.  It was survival mode, after all. 

It was also satisfying and neat.  I could assure everyone (myself, really) that I was doing what I needed to do.  I was crossing standards off and crossing days off.  With a set routine, students knew the expectations.  I was in total control.  And it sure looked like that when you walked in.  Imagine it--my students sitting neatly in my meeting area.  I was at the front by the small whiteboard with a problem on the board.  Students had their math notebook open, writing down notes and steps.  Student desks were arranged facing the large whiteboard where I wrote down practice problems.  All students following along.  It was total control.

In my current teaching life, I plan week by week with my three other team mates.  We look at what standards we want to hit and what activities we are going to use each day.  Then, I take it a step further.  I look at my week as a whole, rather than day by day.  I think first about what Number Talks I want to do to help students along to the standards that we said we were going to teach.  Then, I think about how I can arrange the activities we said we were going to do in a flexible way rather than by day.  But then, I also think about what other activities we can do so that we are doing more math than just the one standard that's on the list.  We don't have time to cover each standard in isolation.  

So, my math time has become flexible.  There are no assigned desks, no chime to indicate switching to a new station.  Students work on the activity of their choice, wherever works best for that particular activity on that particular day.  Students work on the required tasks and the optional tasks within the time that we have.  We use timers and students are creating a sense of time and becoming more responsible with it.  I pull students to work with me for the time necessary, not just until I ring the chime again.

I don't have to worry about students finishing their "have to" work because I trust them.  And they don't want to lose that trust.  I think they also trust me that I am giving them work to do that is going to help them be better mathematicians. They know that's the goal.  So they do it with an open mind.  They persevere to solve problems.  They use the right tools in the right way.  They explain their thinking and try to make sense of the thinking of others.  They model with mathematics.  They look for and make use of structure.

They are mathematicians!

I'm a little nervous for parent/teacher/student conferences this week because I don't have a math test to show with a percentage grade like they are used to seeing.  But I do have excited mathematicians and flexible thinkers.  I do have math journals and a digital portfolio.  I think it will be enough.

Late Night Reflection

I think back to my second year as a homeroom teacher.  A mere 4 years ago.  I was a different person.

I was seeking out some sort of routine or structure for my math time.  It was the first part of my day and I remember thinking that as long as I could get my kids through to snack, we were going to be able to survive the day.  It was survival mode.

I was living in a small, rural, touristy town on the top of a mountain in the Cloud Forest of Costa Rica.  The school was a tiny, non-profit, sustainable school with very limited resources.  Most students are on scholarship and 95% are English Language Learners.  My classroom was literally surrounded by rain forest.  I would frequently have to stop my lessons to check out the birds or monkeys hanging from the trees outside our windows.  We had a view of the Pacific Ocean from 5,000 feet up.  It felt like you could just jump right off the mountain into the ocean.  I had never ever seen the sun set into the ocean from above.  It was amazing.

But still, I was in survival mode.  I sought out my good friend and principal of our school, Kris, and told her I needed some help structuring math.  Because I thought structure and routine was what I needed.

We ended up with the following plan: Number of the Day routine (thanks to Pinterest, of course!), mini lesson (I do, We do, You do), go back to your desk to practice, some challenge problems with bigger numbers if you finished, and an exit slip before snack.  Well, I thought I had nailed it!

Kids knew what to expect, I knew what to plan for, standards were covered.  It was manageable.

Kris wanted to push me even further as the year went on and I developed Math Mix Up Day when we did something totally different than our routine.   Maybe we did it once a week.

Kris then wanted to push me to think about creating UbD units and that was the first time I thought to use the internet to actually help me create a more cohesive plan.  (Remember, this was rural Costa Rica and I still had a USB internet device that I paid for by the hour!)  It was my first sampling of really seeing what other teachers were doing.  I was hooked. 

I ended up leaving that school after that year and went to a big, international school in Panama, where I currently teach.  One of the main reasons I left was feeling like technology in education was moving at a faster speed than I could keep up with on top of the mountain.  I had to catch up.  My first year in a new country and at a new school was again survival mode.  We had Everyday Math and it felt like a minor miracle to just follow along what the teachers book said to do.  I felt relieved when many of my students already knew what we were talking about thanks to the spiral structure of the program.  The pressure was finally off to actually teach my students math.  (Never mind the fact that most teachers were not teaching it to fidelity and the general consensus was that we didn’t really like the program.  At least there was something.)

About three quarters of the way through my second year at this school, I got an email saying that a math coach from the U.S. was coming down to teach us how to be better math teachers.  Ugh!  From the U.S.?!  We are an international school.  How could someone from the U.S. teach us how to be better math teachers?  I was skeptical. 

But damn, my mind was blown the first moment Graham Fletcher starting talking.  I don’t even remember what he said.  Maybe it was a funny math video.  Maybe it was taking out some math tools and having us do some math.  But damn, my mind was blown.  Those little dendrites grew in a way that I didn’t even know was possible (I didn't even know what dendrites were!).  He taught me how to change my math class right now.  Changes I could put in place tomorrow.  Ways to talk to kids, ways to structure my time, places to find resources, multiple ways to solve problems, Twitter.  He introduced me to it all.  My mind was blown.

Since then, I’ve been on Twitter daily, encountering new ideas daily.  Something I can do with my mathematicians tomorrow.  (Case in point-Clothesline, Estimation Station and Meatball Surgery.) I share with my coworkers, I lead a weekly informal math gathering, I am excited about math daily.

Every once in a while, someone comes into your life and just blows it wide open.  Kris was spot on with what I needed at the time.  But I always knew something was missing about the way I was teaching math, I just didn’t know what it was.  Graham came to my school at exactly the right time and influenced me in exactly the right way.  I have become a better mathematician.  My students have become better mathematicians.  And to quote my 2^nd grader Paulina: “Ms. Talia, I think I get it, my head hurts and it was awesome!”

I still have math first thing in the morning and now it literally propels me through the day.  I haven’t taught a mini lesson in forever!  I do a Number Talk everyday and my students know it's okay to disagree respectfully. We are explicit about the Standards of Mathematical Practice that we are using to become better mathematicians.  We play math games and use tools and explore 3 Act Tasks.  My kids love math.  And I do, too. 

I think back to those 4^th grade students who struggled together with me through long division and decimals.  I wish I could go back and do that year again.  Let Fabian and Cristian and Ashanty know that I made a mistake, and let’s try to learn math together again.  I always keep those students in my heart and know that going forward I still have so many more mathematicians to influence.

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I’ve never blogged before-never thought I was the type to do it.  It requires you to be a bit vulnerable (will anybody actually read this and care?!) and a bit proud (I have something important enough to share with the world!).  Perhaps I am the only one who will read this and I may never write another post. But this, this reflection, I needed to get it out.