Little Hiatus

To all my readers! I am taking a short hiatus, I will be back to full force August 15, 2013. I will start blogging about my daily life as a math teacher!

Classroom Management Tool: Group Points - Introduction

It has been a long hiatus since my last post for a LOT of reasons.
1. SUMMER FINALLY ARRIVED! It only rains at night (on a good day.)
2. I've been reading books I bought from Second Hand Book Stores! (Going to read "A Beautiful Mind" Next!!!)
3. And most of all, I've had Writer's Block! (Even now, as I am on the 3 bullet of my list. I do not have a title)

So hopefully this post will end my writer's block for a while.

Every year, we undergo the same problems. If we compiled a list of teacher problems, I bet the following would make an appearance.

1. Classroom Management
2. Organization
3. Syllabii
4. Seating Charts
5. Rewards
The List goes on and on!

Today, I am going to describe a classroom management tool that rewards a group of students, instead of a single student. I got the idea while reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for like the two millionth time.

          "'Welcome to Hogwarts,' said Professor McGonagall. 'The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.
           'The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours."

So, my grand scheme is to break my students into four groups. Every class I teach will have students that belong to each group. I am currently thinking that the students will be broke into their class status ... Seniors, Juniors, Sophmores, and Freshmen. 

Students will be broken into the four "Houses," Senior Maroons, Maroon Juniors, Sophmore Maroons (Still Working on It), and New Maroons (Still Working on It). 

Each group will be given a colored banner (It will be made by me using felt and will display the class colors.)

Seniors -- Maroon and Gray Banner with Maroon wording 

Juniors -- Maroon and Gray Banner with Gray Wording

Sophmores -- Maroon Banner with Gray Wording 

Freshmen -- Gray Banner with Maroon Wording

I will change these the banner to the group who has the most Group Points every Friday to display until the following week. 

How will the points be displayed? In the book, points were displayed with giant hourglasses that were filled with precious stones of the house color. My point system will be displayed proudly on a poster I plan to make soon! This poster will be displayed where students can see it as they walk in the classroom (to get the added effect, OH LOOK WE'RE IN THE LEAD or WHO LOST ALL THOSE POINTS!)

The most difficult part is how to award points fairly? 

Right now, I have the following organized and prepared to use

EARNED POINTS

1. When I do a homework check, every student who turns in their homework on the day it is due, will earn their group 5 Points. 

2. When I give a test, I will average the students scores in each group and award the group 2 times the averaged score of the test (rounded up). 

3. When I give a quiz, I will average the students scores in each group and award the group the average score of the quiz (rounded up).

LOSE POINTS

1. If I send a student to the office, his/her group will lose 20 points. 

2. If a student is late to class, they will recieve a tardy and lost 10 points from their group.

 

3. If a student is given a verbal warning, they also lose 10 points from their group. 

These are what I have so far, If you have more ideas let me know in the comments. 

At the end of the six weeks, the group with the most points recieves a "Group Code." The group code is a mystery and there are only 6 in existance. Once the class has been informed they are the winner for the six weeks, I will have them vote for their award, which is a MYSTERY, but are VERY nice rewards (Still thinking about it!) 

If you have any suggestions, Please leave a comment below! 

Favorite Things #3: QR Codes

I have found an idea that I hope works for the future of my classroom management, QR Codes. I have taken the advice of several pinners on Pinterest and made reward tickets that can only be read with a QR reader. This way I can keep tract of the rewards I am giving and the students will not know what they earned.

The rewards I've made tickets for so far are ....

1. A pencil in your time of need. No penalty on your participation grade.
2. An Extra Restroom/Locker Pass
3. Candy Rewards (1 piece and 2 piece)
4. Extra Credit on My Rigorous Assessments ( 3 pts on Quizzes and 5 pts on Test)

Here are my reward tickets....

The student will choose one of the reward tickets (which will be lamenated!) and I will scan the code with my iPad and then I will give the student the reward. 

You can make QR codes for free and I love using them to randomly give out rewards and point values in games. Here is the website in which you can make QR Codes here.

My Top 10 Hates about Mathematics - #7 - #6

This is a continuous series! You can see the first post here. 

#7 - Textbooks 

I hate textbooks! Why! 

1. They are BIG! 

2. They are BULKY! 

3. They are HEAVY! 

4. Some are not made to the best quality! 

5. The REAL reason why I hate them ... They provide enough problem sets, but NOT enough examples. (At least our textbooks and ALL of my college textbooks.) 

#6 - Trigonometry

Okay now it is my first concept I dislike!  I understand the concept, I understand the process, and I am blessed with identity charts. What do I hate about "Trig". Let's consider the following ... 

Let's suppose Q equals pi/2.    

Well using my table it tells me the answers is 1! Easy enough, BUT pretend I am a naive high school student to lazy to look up my chart that I carelessly "forgot" to write down....

......and I use my calculator. I type in sin(pi/2) just like the teacher told me to and press enter. 

The answer! Sin(pi/2)=0.027.... Next, problem! Sadly, there is a problem! Do you see that little DEG in the corner? No! Nor did the student! Why do I hate trig? You have to remember to do one of the smallest calculator Switch-a-Roos know to humankind! Change it to radian mode! 

Once you change the calculator's mode .... 

You get the correct answer! Do you see why I hate Trig? 

Pinterest Creation #1: Phone Jail

I got this idea from this pin on Pinterest, Phone Jail.

What do you need? 

1. a container - DOLLAR TREE

2. electrical tape - DOLLAR TREE

3. adhesive letters (phone jail) - DOLLAR TREE

4. scissors - ON HAND

5. sharpie -ON HAND

Estimated Cost: $3.00

Step 1: Gather your materials. 

Step 2: Put a band of electrical tape around the top and bottom of your container. 

Step 3: Put strips of electrical tape vertically all around the container.  

Step 4: Place your letters on the container. This can be done anyway you see fit. I had to color my letters with the sharpie. 

If you are like me, phones are the bane of civilization! So, now when I get one I will take it and put in my nifty new phone jail!

 

 

Favorite Things # 2: The Dollar Tree

Admit it, you love the dollar tree as much as the next person and I am not an exception! Why do I love the dollar tree? Well, can I be blunt? EVERYTHING IS A DOLLAR! Such things are a rare treat in this world. Really what brings me back is I can preform pins from Pinterest and my brain without paying to much for them. 

  

Mini shopping spree .... I have 8 dollars in my wallet, right now! So what will I make using the thing I bought? 

Here is what I bought .... a Mini Trash Can, a pack of Stress Balls, two packs of Foam Letters, a pack of Activity Pads, rolls of Electrical Tape, and a storage container. I know you've only counted 7 items, I also bought a pack of filler paper to donate to the locate school supply for students who may need the extra help to buy school supplies. 

I bought each of the following items because of pins I want to create or ideas from my brain or others brains.

The Dollar Tree can turn your ideas into reality! Its cheap and you can stretch your teacher dollars further! 

My Top 10 Hates about MATHEMATICS - #10 - #8

My mentor once said, " No one will like history as much as me." My friend said, " No one will like your subject more than you." So, the same saying said different ways. It's true ... I love mathematics! But I do have a few things I dislike about it and I will always dislike about it. Here is my top 10 hates about mathematics!

#10 - Calculators - The bane of the mathematics classroom is the calculator. I have to admit it, I once was dependent on the bane of civilization. Societies have gone thousands of years of doing math without the calculator. When did this horrible invention start taking over the way teachers and students do math today? in my research of this question, I found this nifty article, The Role Calculators have in Mathematical Education. It is a little dated, but it tells you all the myths and rebuttals to EVERYTHING I hate about calculators. However, it is out-dated and the myths have became reality. Check out this myth.... 

Myth #1: Calculators are a crutch! Students use them because they can't compute answers without them! They can not even start the problem without the silly machine and once you take it away from them, they instantly become .... Lack of better words.... Dumb! 

Which is actually brings up the funniest myth of them all.

The calculator started becoming a crutch in the year ... 1985! Where are you Doc Brown! 

#9 - Multiplication Tricks - I was taught this by ALL of my students! There is two tricks that's they teach students today to be able to multiply two two or more digit numbers. I must say I am a fan of the old way of multiplying 115 times 12.

But the new way comes in twos - Lattice Method and Line Method. (The tricks) 

The Lattice Method.... 

Okay ... Real world check. "Tom, what is 115 times 12? Quickly!" Reality check! Pssst.... 

The next method is even worst (I had to go research how to do it properly!) 

The Line Method....

To make life easier, suppose we had 25 times 12, 

Once again .... "Tom, what is 25 times 12? Quickly!" Reality check! 

#8 - The American Measurements - This includes the inch, foot, yard, mile, cup, pint, quart, and gallon. How many nations use these measurements? Guess! You can count them on one hand! FOUR! The United States, The United Kingdom, Liberia, and Myanmar (where in the world is Myanmar?)

Geography 101: Myanmar is also known as Burma, which is what I know it as, Cool huh...

This is why I hate the Imperial method! We are are one world, we need one measurement system! P.S. try converting inches to centimeter (rather having students do it!) YIKES! 

Budget for Tomorrow: Budget 1

Admit it, as teachers, we have to budget accordingly. Most of us get paid once a month and have to keep constant tabs on our funding! This month is the trial month. Because there is a lot I don't know and I dread finding out to be honest. I borrowed this from the blog, Live Half Full.

                                

10 steps, easy enough! The first thing I need to do this month is gather all my documents in one place and determine where my money goes. In turn, I will also determine my deadlines. (Which I know in my brain, but I'll write them down!) I will start doing this now. Any advice you can give me, let me know, in the comments.