For those of you who do not know, I teach six different middle school curriculums in my position which include 6th grade Math, 7th grade Pre-Algebra, 8th grade Algebra, 8th grade English, 7th grade English and 7th grade Literature. It is a lot sometimes, and I often feel overwhelmed with all of the things I have to keep track of throughout the year. However, one advantage I have is that this is my seventh year at my school and at least the classes I have been expected to teach do not drastically change each year. (For example I do not have to teach art one year, English the next, then maybe Health. This at least gives me a little consistency). Like all good teachers I tweak things from year to year, and even though my students may have me for three years in a row (advantages and disadvantages to this as well), I will say that class is never the same as the year before.
Some may think that when I say that I have bitten off more than I can chew that I am simply referring to the material that I am expected to teach. I have moved past that though, and this is not where I am feeling the struggle. Last year I began with a basic flip of my 8th grade Algebra class and towards the end of the year my 7th grade Pre-Algebra class. I will admit I did not change a ton with the overall model. Students were still receiving instruction and then doing homework, it was simply that they received instruction at home and did the "homework" in class where I could work with them more, and offer more assistance. I eventually switched the 8th grade to a Mastery based approach so my students were working more at their own pace, allowing those that were ready sooner to move ahead, and those that needed more time to take that time. At the end of the year most of the students had nothing but positive things to say about class because they liked that there was less for them to do outside of school and they were able to get more help not only from me, but from each other. We even had a couple of the local TV stations come in and do a short story on what we were doing in the classroom.
Flipping Over Math in Maplewood
Anyways, I reflected on this a lot over the summer and had read countless ideas of how a flip class needs to be more about being able to address individual student needs and changing the paradigm from the traditional math class. I realized I really hadn't changed that much of what I was doing in the past. All students were still doing the same thing, it just might be at a different pace. This leads me into the thinking that I may have bitten off more than I can chew. I am now officially doing three very different things in all three of my math classes and discovering very quickly how labor intensive this is going to be, not to mention managing and keeping track of it all. We have new grading software at school this year, so while trying to learn to use that I am also trying to figure out how I'm going to record grades so that parents feel they are getting enough information about what their child is doing. Here is what I am currently doing in my classes.
8th grade Algebra: This is structured much like I was doing last year with more of a mastery approach. I did not want to totally change this because I knew I would be doing some drastically different things in my other classes. Since this class had a flipped class at the end of last year they are pretty self-sufficient in the process which makes it a little easier for me. I do have to keep track of what students are working on all the time and make sure I have things ready for the students that are moving more quickly. They do know they have to have an 80% or better to move on after a quiz and a 70% or better to move on after a test or there are corrective assignments before any retakes. The assignments they have to do are much looser than I did last year though. I explained that they are suggested assignments, and they are responsible for doing enough problems that they feel confident that they understand the material. No point in doing 20 problems if they get it in 5! However, I told them to focus on word problems if they are only doing a few problems because that is where students struggle the most.
7th grade PreAlgebra: I had planned on running this class as a flip class where all students were working on the same lessons at the same time to make management on my end a little easier. Our school did PD last year on differentiation and the importance of pre-assessment so I knew I wanted to build that in. After looking through the class's pre-test I discovered students all over when it came to what they needed to work on. So, what I decided to do was to give each student an individual assignment list that contained only the sections that stood out as needing work by them after the pretest. All students have access to the videos for all the lessons, and I mentioned that it might not be a bad idea to watch to review the extras just to make sure we are on the same page. The students are now all working at their own pace through their individualized assignments knowing that there is a set date that they have to have the post test taken by (I did tell some students that they do not have to take the post test because they did so well on the pre-test). Students that only had a couple of sections to work on will also be completing a project for the chapter to help enrich their understanding. I told them they could design their own (like a genius hour which they are also doing during Advisory Time) or they could research different careers and how they use math. So far they have had a very positive response to this structure because they like that they do not have to do problems for things they already understand. Hopefully things continue to go smoothly.
6th grade Math: I will be honest, this is the class where I really feel like I am hitting a brick wall. In my quest to have my students work on word problems more so that they are not so "scary" I devised a plan where I was going to incorporate more of the Explore-Flip-Apply model. My plan was to assign five H.O.T. (Higher Order Thinking) or word problems for student to explore during class with each other to see what they could come up with and work on problem solving skills. I was hoping that this would then lead to a hook of wanting to know how to solve the problem and have them watch a short video at home (flip) and then revisit the five problems (apply) and see if they would do anything differently. While doing this I wanted them to work on explaining what they did, why and what they learned through a personal blog they can share with myself and their classmates. So far this has been a giant headache/nightmare. Students have been having numerous technology issues for some reason and even though they only have 5 problems to work on, many have already come to class without their work done. I wanted to take them all into the computer lab on Friday to get them all set up on Kidblog, and was thinking instead of daily blogs to just have them blog during class on Fridays on problems they choose. However, it took us so long to get through other things that we never made it to the lab. I really do want to give this a chance to develop because I think it has a lot of potential, but part of me is scared that if I continue down this road and it doesn't work that students will struggle with finding success all year.
So now what? I have parents coming into my room for Meet the Teacher Night on Thursday and I need to be able to tell them what I am going to be doing with their child during class. After talking to the Kindergarten teacher at my school (@gielgirl) she suggested doing a little more guided practice during class for a few days before letting the students free again, and this will be my plan now starting on Monday. I will keep all students together while we work through problems, let them watch the video, and then revisit the problems as a class while discussing what we should change to give them a better idea of what I am expecting. **fingers crossed**
So right now I feel like I am just trying to keep my head above the water as I am doing all of this along with the other things I am trying like genius hour in Advisory Time, and changing things up some in my ELA classes as well. I know I always feel pressure at the beginning of the year because I also coach volleyball so there is not much extra time in my day, but I am really feeling the pressure this year. When introducing all of this I have been very honest with my students that we are trying new things that may need to be adjusted. If I continue to remind them of that, it may be beneficial for them to see me struggle, but keep going, and to let them see that sometimes its ok to fail because it is simply my First Attempt In Learning.
Have a great week!!
