Anchor Charts-Algebra 1

With all the state testing that has been going on, I have already had to take off most of the things on my walls. I figured I would share a couple of pictures of the anchor charts I made so that I can reference them next year. They ended up in the recycling bin since we are supposed to build them with our students and some of them are ripped, not complete, and just not good.

Our district had us participate in Marco Ramirez training on making our classrooms effectively engaging. They have 3 major pieces to their program: 1. Journaling (Quick Writes and summaries)  2. Talk Moves (Partner Talk, Choral Response, Revoice, Adding on)  3. Anchor Charts 

Today's post is mostly about the anchor charts that we had (I mean got) to create with our students. I don't usually like people telling me what to do in my classroom, but we had to do this one. So I made the anchor charts, I referenced the anchor charts every time I taught, the students referred to the anchor charts daily, and I would call them an overall success. EXCEPT they couldn't use these on their STAAR test and some of them had gotten so used to referring to them, I think they might have never fully mastered the topic on their own.

So will I do anchor charts like this next year? I will probably be forced to, but I also want to in order to help build my students' vocabulary and reference skills. 

Will I change anything about them? I do not like some of them. They are unfinished and you can tell they got thrown together at the end of the unit before the walkthroughs happened. I will make the students write them down in their notes and I think they will "retire" when we are done talking about that unit/topic. 

The idea of the anchor charts according to the training we were in, are to build vocabulary. Most of these have just a list of vocabulary on the left side and a couple of strategies on the right side. We were also asked to keep it to 2 colors so that way it wasn't too busy. I will admit and warn you that some of these are not quality work, but I know this and will change this for next year.

My first one over equations.

Unit 2: Slope

Unit 3: Linear Functions (There is a lot going on with this one and it was the most referenced. I think I need to split it up next year. We ended up doing an entire unit on quadratic transformations and I have a pretty comprehensive anchor chart below) 

Unit 4: Linear Inequalities (It still surprises me every year that they struggle so much with inequalities)

Unit 5: Systems of Equations (As you can see, I didn't finish substitution. My kids didn't really like that method and found it easier to just solve for y and graph it. A few students liked elimination the best, but so many lack the proficiency in integer operations that they couldn't do this one accurately every time)

Unit 6: Linear Regression (This unit was really fast as it was squeezed in between Thanksgiving and Winter break so we had like 5 days for each block to do this AND review for finals. We did an instruction day and then they did a data collection project the other 2 days and they presented and took a quiz, and finally spent a day reviewing)

Unit 7: Exponents ( We started the new semester with exponent rules)

Unit 8: Polynomials and Factoring (We taught them both the box method and f.o.i.l. to multiply. We also used the box method to factor. Next year, I would like to figure out a way to expose all the methods to the kids {without confusing them} so they can choose the one that makes the most sense. We just don't have enough time!) 

Unit 9: Graphing Quadratics (I like this one because I actually cut up and glued pieces of our notes and activities on the anchor charts so the kids knew where to look in their notes. THIS is what I want to do more of next year!)

 Continued Unit 9: Solving Quadratics (This is the solving part of the unit. We had to teach quadratic formula, factoring, and completing the square. This was so rushed that the students could do it on the day we taught it, but I don't think they could solve them anymore or even know that they are supposed to use these methods. We have already planned an extra 3 weeks for quadratics next year so that should help!)

Unit 10: Vertex Form and Transformations (This was our first experience with vertex form in Algebra 1. The kids were pretty good at this, but when we put it in function notation like on the anchor chart they REALLY struggled to get the concept. Since it was our first time teaching this, I think next year will be much more smooth!!)



We also did an unit on Exponential functions, but I was in the process of buying a house and did not make an anchor chart.

The last unit of the year was our STAAR Review Unit from April 1- April 28. We did rotations and I will make a post about that later. Advice to all people out there: DO NOT BUY A HOUSE THE MONTH OF YOUR EOC ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU HAVE AFTER SCHOOL TUTORIALS UNTIL 6 EVERY NIGHT! You will be exhausted and stressed and feel like you don't have the energy to do anything. I promise that you will be okay and end up with your FIRST house AND kids that are feeling confident about their Algebra 1 EOC.

A Day in the Life...

This will be my first post for the #MTBoS 2016 Blogging Initiative. I decided to pick the topic "A Day in the Life" so that others can see what it's like to be a high school math teacher.

Thursday January 14, 2016

6:25 a.m. 
My husband's alarm goes off and he continues to hit snooze 5 TIMES.

6:55 a.m.
My alarm goes off and my husband FINALLY gets out of bed. Now I have to wait for the bathroom. I try to decide what to wear. I decide on layers because sometimes my room is freezing other times I'm sweating. I take my hair out of my sock bun but it didn't work this time so my hair is all frizzy. My eyes have been red and itchy from allergies all week so no make up today. Hopefully I don't get mistaken for a student today.

7:30 a.m.
My husband leaves for work and I have 15 minutes to play with the dogs before they have to be in their crates all day.

7:50 a.m.
I leave for work. I have found the perfect time to leave- 5 minutes earlier or later and there is a ton of traffic.
I make sure I have my lanyard. I forgot it yesterday and had to turn around to get it.

8:03 a.m.
I arrive at work AND GET THE PARKING SPOT RIGHT BY THE DOOR!

8:05 a.m.
I get to my classroom and turn on my computer. I'm really regretting not picking up at the end of the day yesterday. The custodians have picked up all the papers that were scattered among the desks and placed them in a pile. They all go into the recycling bin.

I immediately get to work creating a review worksheet for my kids to do as I will be out tomorrow for a training. I turn Pandora on and listen to some Christ Stapleton Radio (This is good stuff!)

8:30 a.m.
I go down the hall to ask another Algebra 1 teacher about the plans for tomorrow's lesson. We decide the worksheet I started making is a good review right before our Mini Test we plan to give.

8:45 a.m.
I sit down and eat my breakfast while I finish up my worksheet. I had to pour out my coffee because I put too much milk in it. Microsoft Word decides to not respond and I had only saved half of my work. I'm really hoping that it recovers it.

8:55 a.m.
There's a light knock on my door. I'm hoping it's not someone early for our 9:15 PLC. It turns out to be a student turning his homework in early because he is going on a field trip tomorrow. Man, I love it when kids are responsible on their own.

9:00 a.m. (School time is 2 minutes slower than real time)
The bell rings for 1st period but I don't have a class. This is our PLC planning period and I'm thankful I have 15 minutes left to write my sub plans before it starts in my room.

9:10 a.m.
My team members start showing up. We're talking about our next unit so I need to pull up the curriculum documents.

9:15 a.m.
Still missing 2 members, but 4 of us are there so we go ahead and start. My Promethean Board decided to stop receiving input so it just works as a fancy projector screen for now. This means I have to facilitate PLC from my desk, which makes me feel like a presenter rather than a collaborator. I am the PLC lead so it is my job to come up with the agenda and make sure all items are addressed. This week we are talking about Unit 7 TEKS and creating the test so that we can start planning lessons.

9:20 a.m.
Everyone has now joined our meeting. We have the Instructional Coach, 3 Algebra 1 teachers, Algebra intervention teacher, and Strategic Learning (like math lab) teacher.

9:25 a.m.
We realize that our next unit will be graphing quadratics, finding parts of a parabola, domain/range, and solving quadratics by factoring, quadratic formula, & completing the square. Some of us haven't done completing the square since we took Algebra 2 so we look up a YouTube video on how to teach it with Algebra Tiles.

9:30 a.m.
We look at the calendar and realize that we only have 2.5 weeks to teach all of the topics above. Our days are blocked so that's only 6 days. Also, it is mentioned that in the 4 days between Spring Break and Good Friday we must give a mock EOC and the Tuesday after Good Friday is the real English 1 EOC. That's 3 of our instruction days.  Oh yeah. In order to teach quadratic formula the kids need to know a little about radicals. We introduced them a little when teaching exponents, but they had no idea what we were talking about. We are a bit stressed.

9:45 a.m.
We decide that we'll spend a day on each topic. We are currently teaching factoring so we need to make sure our kids really master it this unit so it will be more of a review next unit. It's now time to make our common assessment. We find a couple of tests from Algebra 1 last year and add some questions from an old Algebra 2 test.

10:15 a.m. 
We disperse from our PLC meeting with assigned lessons. I have until next Thursday to plan a lesson all on graphing, parts of a parabola, and domain/range.

10:29 a.m.
The bell rings and it is time for PAWS. It is the beginning of the semester, so kids stay with their first period teacher and go through some powerpoints and videos the administration put together about course selections and important topics. On B days I don't have a 1st period, so until next week I get this extra time. I decide to finish tomorrow's sub plans.

11:04 a.m
It's lunch time. No one is ever at the copier during lunch so I go make my copies for Friday's classes. I also heat up my lunch while the copier is going. I take my lunch down to one of the World Geo. teacher's classroom and catch up with her.

11:34 a.m. 
The bell rings and I just realized I didn't update my Flipbook (Like SMARTNotebook, but for Promethean Boards) from yesterday. I run down to my room and copy and paste the new warm up from A day to my B day template.

11:39 a.m.
This is the start of my teaching day. It still amazes me that I've been at work for 3.5 hours and still haven't taught something.
They stopped ringing this bell because teachers kept sending kids out to B lunch early. It's hard to get a class settled in without that bell to signal the start of the period. I make the pretend the bell rang and a couple of students yell out like a bell.
This class is especially talkative today. I also have 2 new students that of course haven't learned this material.
We go over the warm-up, take some notes on adding/subtracting polynomials, and the do a walk around station activity.

1:07 p.m.
The bell rings and after all my students file out, I close the door and appreciate the silence as I update the Flipbook once again.

1:12 p.m.
Third period starts. There are only 2 homework papers in the tray so I remind them to get their homework turned in by the end of the announcements.

1:15 p.m.
The announcements start and I have to keep telling one student that he can't talk during the announcements.

1:17 p.m.
Announcements are over and there are now 5 papers turned in. I have them do the math. They realize that 5/17 students is not a good percentage to have completed their homework, especially when they had 15 minutes at the end of last class to start it. I teach the same lesson as 2nd period.

2:41 p.m.
The bell rings, but I hold the students until all the colored pencils are picked up off the floor. They're not happy, but I remind them that we're learning responsibility along with Algebra 1 and that was part of their job.

My 4th period students come in immediately so I don't get a break this time.

2:46 p.m.
4th period. My collaborative class. My biggest class with 25 - half of which are SPED. But I do have a co-teacher. Go through the same lesson. By now I can predict all the questions and misunderstandings and try to address them before they are even asked. This is the 6th time I've taught this lesson in 2 days. This class is very engaged except for that one kid that won't stop talking about all the fun things he has planned for the weekend. Introduced the word Polynomial and a kid said it reminded him of Polynesian Sauce from Chick-fil-a so of course we had to start talking about everyone's favorite Chick-fil-a sauces.

3:15 p.m.
Get a call from the office. My co-teacher is needed next door because that teacher is also a coach and they were hanging banners in the gym. This isn't the first time I've lost my co-teacher in the middle of class.

4:15 p.m. 
The day is finally over. Teaching 3 periods in a row is a bit exhausting. It's basically 5 hours straight with little break. I have to move my desks into row because they're taking a test tomorrow. I also have to clean my desk and leave all the stuff for the sub clearly labeled and organized. Did I mention I have a meeting at 4:45 at one of the other high schools on the other side of town?

4:30 p.m.
The intervention teacher comes in and checks in with me. He covered another Algebra 1 class 4th period and supposedly the kids were AWFUL. He will probably end up being my sub tomorrow as we never get enough for our campus. I show him where everything is so he can either help the sub or himself tomorrow.

4:40 p.m.
My meeting starts in 5 minutes and I'm just leaving. It takes 15 minutes without traffic and I'm going to be in the school/afternoon traffic. Hopefully I get there by 5

4:55 p.m.
I seem to be hitting every red light.

5:05 p.m.
I finally make it to the meeting. I have to sit at the front because I'm late. This meeting is for the Professional Development Steering Committee. We're discussing the district PD days for next year.

6 p.m.
The meeting is supposed to be over, but we still have 2 more items to cover on the agenda. Can we just vote on a calendar already? They are essentially the same thing!

6:15 p.m.

Finally get to leave and call my husband. We've cooked all week and ran out of stuff to make sandwiches so we decide to eat Chick-fil-a tonight. Maybe it was the discussion about it in 4th period that put it on my mind.

6:20 p.m.
EVERYONE IS AT CHICK-FIL-A TONIGHT! The drive thru is actually very fast.

6:40 p.m.
I FINALLY make it home. The dogs are happy to see me and my husband takes a break from playing video games to welcome me home.

6:45 p.m.
We eat our dinner and watch 2 episodes of Longmire on Netflix.

7:30 p.m.
I realize I need to write this post so I get my laptop out. It's dead so I let it charge some.

8:30 p.m.
I open my blog and update it a little bit. I then get started on this super long blog post.

9:30 p.m. 
I realize I'm not going to school tomorrow so I should look up where my training is.

10:30 p.m.
I finish up my blog, put some peanut butter in the dogs' kongs and freeze them for tomorrow.

10:35 p.m.
It's bed time! (By the way this is about 35 minutes past my normal bedtime, but I don't have to be at training until 9 tomorrow!)

MTBoS 2016 Blogging Initiative

I have had this blog since my first semester of teaching which was in 2013. There are only like 16 published posts. That's 3 full years with an average of 5.3 posts a year. That's just not acceptable.

At the beginning of every school year I have good intentions to blog about the activities that we do in class, since I get so much from other blogs. And every year I post the pictures of my room in August and then I get busy and stop posting.

My resolution for this year is to share more! So I signed up for the MTBoS 2016 Blogging Initiative hoping that having a mentor and the community would help keep me accountable.

So my goal is to get at least 1 blog post up each week and post a picture on Twitter for #Teach180.

Fourth Year, Fourth Classroom

Well this is the fourth classroom for me in my short 4 year career. All of my classrooms have been very different in their layouts, but this one feels the most like a traditional classroom.

I know it is late into October, but everyone enjoys seeing classroom layout pictures. Please note that my room has changed even more since these pictures were taken. I also move my desks pretty frequently to accommodate the different activities we do, but they default back into groups.


A lot of my posters and decorations I got from Sarah on mathequalslove.blogspot.com If you haven't checked her out, you should! She comes up with some amazing graphic organizers and foldables for all levels of math!

BEFORE PICTURES:   The room looks so white and boring!

AFTER: (Note that it changes just a bit in some of the pictures because I moved the giant useless TV cabinet)

My desk

The back of the room. Each period has a bin to keep their journals in. The board to the left is my information station where I have the bell schedule in a pocket chart because we have 3 different bell schedules depending on Pep Rallys, intervention time, and regular Fridays. I can just switch the times depending on the event happeneng that day. The class calendar is laminated and I write on with wet erase markers. It has due dates and school events. I have my tutorial schedule on the clipboard and have my students sign up to ensure a teacher stays and that they have their work. I'll post about tutorials later.

My word wall above the student supply center. These are words that I had typed out and laminated from last year. The definitions are on the back and they are attached to some twine with clothes pins.

My changing mindset, anchor chart, and problem solving wall. We are required to build anchor charts with each unit and this space is where they are "retired" when the unit is done.

I moved the Promethean Board to the long wall and the TV cabinet by the bookshelf. We don't have cable at school and the announcements don't run on the TV's. The cabinets are locked on the shelf  and the keys have been lost so it is literally useless to me. I was told it couldn't be removed because  the district spent a lot of money on software to project my calculator on it years ago. I HAVE A PROMETHEAN BOARD THAT IS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET!!! haha Education doesn't make sense sometimes.

My corner of the room. I have important things posted on the little board by my desk of things students and staff have given me. It encourages me when I'm having a bad day.

I use this board to post my objectives and success criteria. I also used some of the class norms from mathequalslove.blogspot.com. On the table are the trays for students to turn in work. I also have all the handouts/supplies for the day on the table so students can pick them up as they come in. (**Update: I moved these to the counter in the back corner because that's where I store extra supplies and I got lazy moving them every day)

Outside my room. Some inspirational math posters and our tutorial calendar. 

Close up of my desk area.

I hope you enjoyed a sneak peak into my classroom. I'll post about some specific details in future posts.
Check back for an awesome update on my class schedule!

I got a new job!

I no longer teach at an alternative school! I am now at a regular 5A high school. My husband graduated from Texas A&M in December and we made the move from College Station in January. It was really hard leaving my old school behind and I still miss the staff and students dearly, but I actually think that this move has helped me grow tremendously as a teacher.

In the spring semester, I subbed in 2 of the area school districts waiting for a HS math position to open up. This was an interesting experience for me and I actually think that every teacher should have the opportunity to substitute teach a couple of times! I learned the importance of sub plans, classroom management, and discipline.

I applied for 15 different HS math jobs, went to 3 job fairs, and finally got 2 interviews (turns out about 8 of the jobs involved coaching). That was a stressful process. My first interview was the day before my birthday and as a birthday present they offered me a job! This ended up being the job that I took because it was closer to home and I felt that the school fit my calling as a teacher.

Once again, I am teaching at a Title 1 school. While my school is very different from my previous school, the student population is very similar.

Some differences include:

• The school size: I went from 150 total in school to 130 in my classes and nearly 2,000 total in school.
• The school colors: I was stocked up in purple and gold shirts and now the colors are green and black.
• No more credit recovery: I'm teaching students for the first time. I get them before they have sat through the class 2-3 times and they don't completely blow me off and claim they will never understand it (although I hear that quite often).
• The students are generally excited to me freshmen.
• The age of my students: the average age is closer to 15 than 18.
• Extracurricular activities- students are involved in sports, clubs, and actually attend tutorials!

Some similarities:

• I teach Algebra 1.
• Title 1 school: low income, but awesome grants that allow us to have Promethean Boards!
• My classroom is very cold and smells a little old,
• My administrators are very supportive and offer a lot of feedback.
• The students at the school aren't always known to have the best academic record, but we're working on changing that reputation!

I think the thing I am most excited about is that I can use my experiences from my old school to help prevent students from dropping out or getting behind. I know that Algebra 1 is one of THE most important classes in a student's high school career. It is usually the class that sets their mood for high school and so far I am loving giving my students an opportunity to make it fun.

Third Year, Third Classroom

So in the 3 years I have been teaching, I have now had 3 different classrooms. I've gotten good at the moving thing. It also helps cut down on letting things accumulate as I either have to move it or can trash it.

I have been blessed with unusually large classrooms for the last two years and while last year it was a struggle getting my students to stay on the correct side, this year most of my students are on the computers all period so it's not so bad.

I know I always go searching for ideas of classroom layouts and decorations so I thought I would share what I've done in this new classroom.

View from my desk of my classroom.

I made the pennant banner over the summer with some leftover fabric I've had for years. It took forever to make but definitely adds a little touch of "home" to my classroom.

I have 3 doors to my classroom. The building used to be a hospital and when they took out walls to patient rooms to make our classrooms they didn't take out the doors. So having extra doors to the class are a temptation to my students so I've had to block the 2 we don't use. This one became my student information center. I have the class rules posted, the lunch menu, throughout the year this is where I post flyers about things happening in school. Our doors are made of wood so I just staple all of these things up. On the table I have white boards, markers, pencils, and pens. As well as one of the pencil sharpeners and some scratch paper and formula charts in the trays.

This is the other door that I must block. I laminated some of the things my students have given my throughout the year and put others on this maroon bulletin board my mom made me. My husband made me that wonderful name plate for Christmas. I am amazed by his talents! My students also can't believe he actually made it, they think he lied to me and bought it off the internet. Haha!

As you can see the pennant banner goes all the way down the length of the room. This is the area behind my desk. I was lucky enough to have this metal closet as well as a coat closet in my new room! My storage nightmare from last year was fixed! I got the posters here from Sarah at Math Equals Love. (If you haven't read her blog you should! There are a lot of good things on it!)

This is my supply bookshelf. All the markers, scissors, glue, and textbooks can be found here. We don't use them as much this year as last but the students know where to go to get supplies.

My desk area. I use the table to have small group pull out sessions during my computer class. On the other side of my desk is the table with 5 crates where my students leave their notebooks and folders. If they take them home, they'll be left on the bus, forgotten, taken to the park and left, so on and so forth. Since our school doesn't allow backpacks for safety reasons, we find it easier just to have the students store their work in class.

I have 15 computers in my classroom. Some may think this as a blessing, but the majority of our curriculum is online for credit recovery. However, I have more than 15 students scheduled in most classes and on any given day I might have 1-3 computers not working properly. I also only "direct teach" 1 block of true freshmen who have never been in high school but age wise are still behind (most of them were held back at some point in their school career and were too old to repeat 8th grade). 

Here are some problem solving strategies that I got from Sarah as well. 

I have 3 whiteboards in my giant classroom, but I only have power on two walls which happens to be the two that 2 of the whiteboards are on. That being said, I have to block my whiteboards with computers. I'm not losing much because the teacher before me had used them as bulletin boards so there is tape residue all over them making them impossible to write on anyways. I have turned this whiteboard into my word wall. I typed up and printed all the words that were common to Algebra, Math Models, and Geometry and will review one each day in each class and then put it on the board.

The little blue square is my graduate board. When a student finishes all of their classwork and are test complete they will get a special star on the graduate board. It's pretty common for Math Models to be their last class they need to graduate so my hope is that this will motivate others to finish and graduate as well!

My awesome magnetic graph board! I put my objectives up there and teach off of here. 

I used the calendar numbers from the teacher store and stapled them to a shoe caddy to make my calculator station. I have since assigned each student a number and they take their calculator when they enter class and we don't leave until each one is put away. I have also started storing a pencil in each pocket. This seems to have the least pencils go missing. I might only have to refill 5 a week now instead of like 20 a week.

During PD before school started, the principals told us we had to keep our doors locked and closed at all times so I put these posters on the back. Each time a student opens the door, my hope it that they'll think of something positive.I also took this from Sarah. Each week we go over how we can take one of these negative thoughts (in gray) and think more positively (the corresponding poster in color). 

Having the schedule in a pocket chart is helpful because on Wednesday's we have a different schedule to include a 20 minute Activity Period between 4th and 5th. I have a student just switch out the times 1st period on Wednesday.

This is the view of my class from the door. As you can see I have 4 circle tables that I used for my direct instruction time, but they didn't end up lasting long. It was really hard to keep already really unmotivated and distracted kids on task when they could easily look at each other and be readily tempted to talk to each other. I found a teacher who had too many desks in her classroom and traded out by tables for desks.

The outside of my classroom door.

The outside of one of my other 2 doors. I liked this quote because many times my students have bad days and I wanted them to realize that everyday is a new day...no matter what!!

This has since been written on and ripped down by some students passing in the hall :(

Our students get course completions with every half credit they finish and so when this happens I write their name on a star and staple it on this board in the hall. It is November and I have 8 stars now, some with more than 1 course.

We are required to post our class schedule outside our rooms. I decided to print them big and make a bulletin board out of it. I bought a twin size flat sheet at Walmart for like $4.50, folded it in half, and stapled it on the wall. It's at eye level up to the ceiling and surprisingly the border and  hasn't been torn down!

This isn't my creation but one of my fellow math teachers decorated the outside of one of her doors. Her and her friend actually wrote this out by hand!

Thanks for reading!