Mrs. Armour's Math Blog

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h-kKhAz3IrIVJr3QATEtbRX-dKhWXzm8yA6Y1e_gIfQ/pub Monday             Today was a very difficult day. A student of mine was expelled and will no longer attend Stockbridge Middle. This young man was my hardest challenge as a first year teacher. He literally had me in tears once from the awful things he did in my classroom. I didn’t know what I could do to keep my classroom managed and I thought that maybe I wasn’t ready for this profession. When I went to my math coach, she said talk to him, clearly he wants your attention. She was completely right. We talked and I realize that he really actually liked me and wanted me to care about him whether it was in a good way or bad. Since then I have been his mentor and he had started to change and he was growing up into a great young man. But unfortunately, his anger never quite got under control and he started a fight. Now he’s expelled and I feel lik...

Action Plan:  Student Learning: At least 90% of eight grade students will demonstrate at least 5% progress toward reaching mastery (80%) on their overall District Assessments Math scores within each nine weeks. Professional Practice: Assessment will be done through formative assessments such as ticket out door, warm ups, and quick checks within the lesson. Also, weekly quizzes will be given throughout to monitor growth. Data will be use to constant develop lessons, group assignments and individual focuses. Student that are weak in each, which is solving functions, will go through a reteaching m odule that will go over the content again. Then students will work with the content through group work, mini assignments, small group session with the teacher, and digital stations and activities. They will be reassessed weekly and broken into smaller group based on the exact skills needed for mastery. If students are weak in multiple or all standards, the...

In my competency outline, I broke down each standard into skills that would lead to mastery of that standard and in the end, having the ability to attain competency for the unit. Students can approach each topic under the standard in any order, but they will need to master standard 1 with a 90% before continuing to standard 2. An overall assignment is given to show competency for each standard.

In the teacher assignments, it is seen that the classes with over 50 students will need to more extensive attention when it comes to differentiation and individualized learning. Also the AB courses will have more content to cover over time so it is vital that the pacing is set in advanced and that there is constant communication to ensure that the students are keeping up. Lastly being that all the classes are starting on the same day, it is vital that the teacher is prepared. In the roster, it is clear that the teacher had several students that need special attention when planning for instruction. two students will need 504 accommodations and one student will require time for accelerations since she is gifted. The students also have different session lengths, so it is important to ensure that students who have less weeks, still get all the required content that is needed to be learned.  In this communication  log, the teacher sends out general informatio...

I created a quiz using a state question bank that gave me a variety of questions based on the standards. I picked one standard and ensured that I used a variety of different type questions. It is considered valid, because I used questions that were specifically made for the standard I want to focus on. The quiz is reliable, because the questions are definite and will only have one exact answer, grading will not be interpreted by the teacher. Lastly, it is secure because I would make sure one question is given at a time, the questions are not available online and there are open response questions to ensure that students can provide answers using their own words.

You did a well job in showing mastery of the skills! You have improved tremendously since the initial quiz, and can tell you worked very hard to improve your initial score. I see you knew a majority of the properties but you had some trouble with the identity property. Please see the video link below, to help review on that topic. Also, the question on order of operations was very close, but you solved the problem out of sequence.  So I’m also attaching a video reviewing order of operations. Lastly, I see you are struggling with the distributive property. So I would like to schedule a session to do one on one with you to reteach the skill. Also, I want you to review the video below and take notes so if you have any questions, we can discussion them during the sessions. You did a great job, and I am very proud of your progress. Let’s keep it up! Identity video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkk1SjfE6mI Distributive Property:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-6MSh...

     I created a Quizlet for solving equations vocabulary. It gives the students random vocabulary words that they have to match their definitions. I chose to do a quick assessment on the vocabulary to solve equations which is a vital skill that needs to be mastered early on so that other skills can build off of it. Usually when teaching about functions or inequalities, the misconception comes from a lack of knowledge of vocabulary terms, so this practice leads to a bulk of 8th grade content. I chose to use Quizlet because I could quickly get the results and it can inform my direction of my lesson instantaneously before core instruction begins. I can also use the information to make choices in how I need to differentiate my class. Doing this, may save time in the classroom if there is no need to do a reteaching lesson during instruction. Also, the Quizlet requires students to think on a higher level, because they are taking the definitions and applying them in diff...

I think the Create module has prepared me for the online classroom the most so far in the course. Even in my current face to face classroom. I learned about creating interesting unique way to attract the student to learning while ensuring all the materials were standard based and legal to use according to copyright laws. I really liked creating the talking cartoon to create activities for the students to present information learned in the classroom. I have shown mastery of standards B and C because I was able to provide use a variety of technologies to show that I can plan for instruction such as locating good resources for my lessons. By creating flexible, interesting activities for student, I showed that I understood the importance of Standard K. Also, I showed mastery in standard E by reflecting on Fair use and the Teach Act.  I really pushed myself with learning about technology and experimented with a lot of new tools.   But I’m proud of my work and I think it has made me...

https://www.concrete5.org/ https://www.silverstripe.org/ Both tools allow teachers to edit their classroom websites with ease. Concrete5 transforms websites to be edited through a word processing feature. It gives users access to support to help teacher create the website they want that will look natural and professional. Silverstripe gives the added feature of creating a community of open source materials that can be used in the website without worry of copyright laws. 

I created two quick formative assessments that can be used to direct instruction in the classroom. The learning objects take only a few seconds, but can help easily group students for individualized, differentiated instruction. So in the classroom, I can send the link to students, and they could answer the questions on their phones or other devices. The results are sent to me instantly, and I can use the data to decide which materials need to be focused on more. Also, I can create groups so that every students gets what they need to be successful.

http://www.what2learn.com/ What2Learn is a site that allows teachers to create fun and interactive games that assess students on mastery off common core standards and content. This is a great way for giving students a formative and summative assessment while engaging them in the process. http://www.debugmode.com/wink/ Wink allows teachers to create tutorial course though Microsoft for student to interact with and create fun opportunities for remediation. This is a great tool for differentiation and creating groups with the classroom.  http://www.courselab.com/view_doc.html?mode=home Courselab is a online tool that allows teachers to build their own LMS for their classroom. This is beneficial because it give the teacher the opportunity to customized the LMS just how they want according to the needs of the students. 

Image https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Bijection.svg/1024px-Bijection.svg.png Illustration of bijection . 2006.  Wikipedia Commons . Web. 10 Apr. 2017. <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bijection.svg>. Text http://www.mathplanet.com/education/algebra-1/discovering-expressions,-equations-and-functions/representing-functions-as-rules-and-graphs "Representing functions as rules and graphs."  MathPlanet.com . Mathplanet.com , 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2017. <http://www.mathplanet.com/education/algebra-1/discovering-expressions,-equations-and-functions/representing-functions-as-rules-and-graphs>. Video https://vimeo.com/139892625 Establishing Math Goals to Focus Learning: Helping Students See the Bigger Picture . Dir. Patty Stephens. Perf. Patty Stephens.  Vimeo.com . N.p., 20 Sept. 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2017. <https://vimeo.com/139892625>

Fair use allows teachers of the online community the ability to use copyrighted work for applying them to the enhancement of the learning experience. It seems many of the copyright laws are aimed at just wanting to earn as much money as possible for their own work. But it blocks others the opportunity to grow from those works. I think it’s good that lawmakers saw the value of allowing educator access to these works in the classroom.

Open Educational Resource - A resource that can be used while teaching, learning, researching and in assessment. It is can be accessed freely and have open licensing for different media and documents format. The biggest challenge when using OER is that many sources are "labeled" as open licensing with free usage but will originate from non free licensed sources, which is still against copyright laws.

I used the GoAnimate site to create a video showing a student's answer to the activator given earlier in the blog. This allows students to show mastery of the skill by requiring them to explain the answer and the steps to solve the problem. This shows differentiation because students have the flexibility to show how to solve the given problem and how to show the information. Being that the activating question was given in story form, it allows the student to easily connect the content to real life situations and to branch out in various ways to show mastery.

This is a quick video that I created with the Voki site. I gave it audio to talk about a traveler who needs to know if they have enough money for a taxi. I would use this as an activator for a lesson about functions and how they can be used in the real world. This differentiates the lesson by ensuring that the visual and auditory learners are attracted to the lesson and interested in the topic. 

EDCite is an online tool that allows teachers to create engaging, interactive lessons for their students. EDCite provides the tools and the platform where students can sign in and complete the lessons or assignments and the teacher can view the assignments. All content is aligned with the common core content, and all subjects have a plethora amount of resources and the ability to merge contents are available for teacher to bring all contents into one lesson. EDCite is free for the teacher and students, and the organization of the resources are very well organized and easy to find. EduCreations is a great cite that allows you to record your voice while working on your IPad screen to create video lessons for the classroom. Once the videos are made, they can be shared instantly to multiple sites, including Twiiter, Edmodo, Youtube, Facebook, or stored on an online storage such as Dropbox or Google Drive. Also all videos are stored on a cloud s...

1. http://www.mindresearch.org/play/ 2. http://www.math-salamanders.com/free-math-worksheets.html 3. http://www.math-play.com/Middle-School-Math-Games.html 4. http://www.mathplayground.com/ 5. https://www.brainpop.com/ 6. http://www.xpmath.com/ 7. https://www.ixl.com/ 8. https://www.khanacademy.org/ 9. https://www.funbrain.com/ 10. http://nrich.maths.org/frontpage These sites I personally used in the classroom. Now that I have gone through the lesson, I have realized that the design for many of these sites are not as effective as one would hope. Site number one, six, seven, and eight all have great qualities of design by ensuring that they have clear deigns and goals illustrated. They keep it simple by not putting too much information in front of student and keeping all information organized and neat. Unfortunately many of the the sites are cluttered with things that try to attract students but in the end, it distracts them from the attaini...

Content maps should include all the skills and topics that leads to mastery of the standard. It should be an outline of the big idea and the subtopics that would help the students understand the big idea. When starting a content map, it’s import to break down the standard completely and begin using the breakdown to create sub topics which would lead to points that must be mentioned that all leads to the big idea.

This application is great for time management. It provides you with a full summary of what you spend your time on and which sites eats up your time and causes procrastination. This can be used for professional reasons and personal. Mind Meister is a visual mapping tool that allows you to set goals without have a written To-Do list. This is the perfect tool for visual learner who need to see things as a big picture. List.ly is a tool that creates to-do lists for the users and merges it with social media and group feedback. It allows the user to gain access through mobile or online. Nozbe is an application that organizes the users task based on the location. It also allows teams to collaborate and create tasks list through messaging boards.  Stay Focused is the best application because it allows the user to set time limits on sites that would cause procrastination or distractions. This is perfect for students who have trouble restraining themselves from ce...

This module has prepared me to be able to communicate with my students professionally, positively and effectively. I was able to learn about using technology do create meaningful feedback, as well as rubrics and newsletter. Strategies that I have learned is that in communications, I should be precise and on topic and straight to the point when addressing my students. In my newsletter, I made sure that I keep all announcem,ents biref anf straight to the point, as well as interesting and inviting. Also, everything I communicate should be standards based and educational. The lesson that was most beneficial to me was the lesson about feedback. As a teacher, I have given a lot of oral feedback to my students, but learning how it differs with an online classroom was very enlightening and I know the differences that have to be addressed in order for the student to get the support they need in order to be successful in the classroom. Using the screen cast site, I was able to still provide that...

Per previous videos, effective feedback must be standards based, instructional, positive, and timely; and that is exactly how the online environment should be treated in order to accomplished the goal for all the stakeholders—which is student success. It’s vital to give authentic feedback because students need that interaction in order to have the confidence to be self-efficient in their own learning. Also, great feedback, could lead to ensuring retention and low drop-out rates of students. Making sure that the instructor give effective feedback can make or break the students experience because they need to understand that their efforts have value and that they are not wasting their time.

This rubric is created for a math project and presentation. I based the categories on the qualities needed for a successful project and presentation. I started with what I wanted for each category, then gradually took qualities way to  find what was considered "Good" or "Fair". Also I made sure that there was a comment section for adequate feedback.

     I chose to do a video where I explained the feedback while having the test on the screen. I liked this way because I wanted to show exactly what I was commenting on when giving the feedback and sometimes and audio clip allows the feedback to be more welcoming than a paragraph that has to interpreted. The second resource, I used as a way to celebrate progress and give the students a fun way share what they have accomplished and what they need to continue. Lastly I liked creating a fun image that gave math a positive light because so many students automatically think that they are horrible at math and they lose confidence in their abilities. This will give them encouragement that they can do math.

Great job of completing the geometry unit! You have mastered many of the standards well including knowing the angle relationships and the angle definitions. Also, you showed mastery in volume and surface area—which can be tricky, but you were able to learn it with ease. Please take the time to review how to find missing angles in triangles with this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnDeYhBoCzs . Also, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caspFRZfWeI is a video that can help with finding missing angles in polygons. Lastly, remember to review the difference between area and the circumference formulas. You did a fine job in finding the circumference, but the question asked for area. You are very close in showing mastery for this unit, and I believe you will get there! If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me. 

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I.         Introduction              a.        The teacher will begin with putting a Warm up on the screen called “Sponge”.                                                    i.       Review: 1.        83 less than a number n 2.        2 less than the product of 7 and a number m 3.         Half of x                                 ...