More homework- EXIT TASKS

Doubles are 1+1=2, 2-1=1 2+2=4,4-2=2, 3+3=6, 6-3=3....


Yesterday I tried something new with an exit task.  It was actually written into Bridges and I thought since the papers were already ran off, and it was in Number Corner it would work well as an exit task.

Thursday's challenge has been doubles and neighbors.  I had not been consistent in getting to Thursday's challenge because by the end of the week  it is called make up time!

I have been impressed with my students coming back from DI (Differentiated Instruction), from Jessica's class.  We have split our DI time between Math and Language
arts.  Jessica does the math and I do Language Arts.  My students keep bringing up doubles as an addition strategy and I knew I needed to share that with the whole class.

I made it a point to do Thursday's challenges consistently.  Yesterday there was a work sheet on doubles in addition and subtraction.  The instructions called for the teacher to walk around the room interviewing each students way of doing the addition and subtraction.  (Were they using their fingers?  Were they counting on?  Were they using doubles or neighbors to solve the problems?)  I thought this would be a good exit task and show me what I needed to do next with the group.

I was most interested in seeing how the students that were not getting DI in math would do with the doubles.  I had a suspicion that subtraction was going to be UGLY in doubles.  I was hoping addition would show  they were getting it because I had been teaching the Thursday challenges more consistently.

Math Studio survey- HOMEWORK on Saturday!

What connections are you seeing between your implementation of your learning during Studio and your students' understanding and achievement in mathematics? Give specific evidence from your everyday classroom observations, conferences with students, formative and summative classroom assessments, and/or standardized testing. 


It gives me the courage to try new things.  Yesterday we were doing the whale's flukes, and it was just automatic for me to want to make a public record of the pattern we saw between how many whales and how many flukes. That took me a long time to become automatic for me.   I also had students remembering how we labeled the crab chart and told me we need to label the parts.  In fact labeling got brought up twice  and I was thrilled!  That means it is becoming automatic for students to think like that  Yeah!!

I constantly think about select and sequencing as I move around the room.  We were doing the lobster problem solving and I kept remembering how Jill would look for someone to get it started, so other students would have a jumping off place.  Plus looking for multiple representations, so students can see there is more than one way to do a problem.

I also collected the data from the lobster problems to see how they were thinking.  I made a point to look at them the same day while it was fresh.  It was discouraging to see how few really get it.  Perseverance!  I think it will take multiple times doing this to get results.


15. Finally, are there particular teaching ideas, Mathematical Habits­of­Mind/Interaction, Mathematically Productive Teaching Routines, and/or specific practices embedded in those routines that you hope are addressed during the upcoming Studio? Please list those below. 



Refresh. Refresh.  Refresh.  If I was a computer I would say hit the old refresh button.  I can't pick out just one. 


But since I have never tried the math seminar I need to do that, though it gives me a sinking feeling in my heart because I know it means Teena will be in my room soon and it will be HARD work and probably painful.  Yep gird up those loins-ha!  Gird up the brain and go forth into battle against my self crippling mental self perceptions about myself and math.

The Transitive Property

I have the transitive property on my mind.  Last week at our PLC meeting (Planned Learning communities)  we picked a lesson to do our math studio homework on.  We needed to plan for justification and generalizations that our students could make.  We have a new supplement lesson we have never taught before which matches the Common Core.  It is a measurement series of lessons.  The first lesson involves the transitive property.  Before reading this lesson I would not have been able to tell you what the transitive property even is.  I did not even understand it till I did the math.

The transitive property of equality states for any real numbers a, b, and c:

If a = b and b = c, then a = c.

For example, 5 = 3 + 2. 3 + 2 = 1 + 4. So, 5 = 1 + 4.

Another example: a = 3. 3 = b. So, a = b.

I am still wrestling with this and have my strips of paper out to practise.  OMG how am I to teach something I struggle to understand?

We are to have various lengths of strips of paper in different colors.  We use one as the base line(a).  We compare a to b. ( a is longer than b)  We remove a  and compare b  to c. b is longer than c.  Therefore a is longer than c.  ( Hope that is right!)  

Because I struggle so much with this I wonder how many of my students will get this?  My gut says maybe a handful of 5?

Any way this has been on my mind.  Today in adult Bible class it came to mind once again. Here is what I had meta cognition on:  

God loves Jesus.  Jesus loves me.  Therefore, God loves me.

Then I read the Urban Dictionary on the Transitive property.  Ew.

I much prefer that God loves me because he see me through Jesus.  Because Jesus took my sins to the cross and died for me God can see and love me without sin.

Natural Law originates with God.  Mathematical Law originates with God.  all things orignate with God.

I'll let you know how many of my first graders get the transitive property. It may be another Common Core pipe dream.

Memories

I've been thinking about memories lately.  I've come to realize that some of my memories are not accurate or even true.  I've taken them out so many times to polish and shine them in the rearview window that they have come to mean something entirely different than what happened, which in itself is not always bad except when I confront them with the reality.  It was an anguishing moment to realize that my memories were really just something I longed for  and created as a backup for bad times.

So I then ask myself does the accuracy of my memories matter in all memories?  I don't think so.  Memories are deadly in an old boyfriend but are memories of happy childhood necessarily bad in their inaccuracy?

Today I had an opportunity to compare and contrast two memories.  It has left me a wee bit sad, achy, and bittersweet, kind of like the bitter after taste of a particularly hoppy beer.  The sip to the front of the mouth quenches and tingles on the tongue.  After swallowing it the hops bite the back of the throat and leave a bitter residue in the mouth.  With each swallow the alcohol kind of numbs the hop taste and gives a kind of a giddy feeling.  

I had one of those dreams last night.  I am always amazed that I can still dream of the first boyfriend for no rhyme or reason I can tell.  It is always a heady rush and I'm usually left with such longing that I am hungover for the day.  These are the memories I question for their accuracy.  These are the memories best left in the trunk and  in the scrapbooks.  I've found I don't trust the memories anymore.

Later while sitting in Starbucks reliving a childhood memory in verse I sent myself back to the time to taste and see the memory.

I could feel the sun and the sweat trickling over sunburn and freckles.  I could see the ribs of rock poking out of the dirt.  I could hear the low of cows, the clang of the windmill blades switching directions.  I could feel the ice flow of well water in the stock tank as I picked through the slimy algae to find the snails inhabiting the rusty sides.  

The wind in the cottonwoods make a certain rustling sounds that seem to be whispery voices.  I smell the grassy fresh manure with the blue bottle flies buzzing.  My feet make tracks in the powdery dust on the cattle trail.  I keep my eyes open  and feet on the path to avoid the field cactus and devil's thorn.  I can taste the dirt on the sweet wild onions from the pasture.  I wade through the dark chocolate mud at the pond's edge and strain my eyes to see the minnows darting and flashing silver in the murk.  

The pond in the pasture rimmed to the south by a grove of cottonwood trees was a magical oasis for me in my childhood.

As I relived that memory I asked myself,

"Do you suppose this memory is as inaccurate as the boyfriend memory?"

"Does it really matter if this one is inaccurate?"

No, I don't think so.

It's more of a conglomeration of memories, pressed, packed down with sediment to form a rock- a diamond or more appropriately a piece of limestone filled with dead sea creatures.  This one I won't pack away in a trunk.  It's seared in my brain like the Kansas sun on a 100 degree day.  It's in every freckle on my body.  

Memories,  a rock in a hard place?  Or a lie told to myself?

Or

I could think about possibilities.  This morning I'm on line checking my Facebook and I get a text from the Lutheran MediaMinistry Ghana.  We chat for a bit and they suggest I check out doing a rural outreach ministry in Africa.  This is the second offer I have had for doing a Lutheran ministry this year.  The other is to be a school teacher in Papau New Guinea.

Coincidence?  God calling?  I don't know but I am intrigued.  I'd stay single to do that!  I can't think of a better way to use my vocation and have an adventure!

It was a nice distraction today and kept me from my depression.  If God opens that door I will go.


https://www.facebook.com/lmmghana

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A Sad Achy Kind of Day

You know you are in a battle when you are in tears before you even get to work at 7 AM.    Granted I stayed up too late on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday night which made me overly tired and when I am tired I tend to be emotional  and crabby.  Today was no exception.  In the back of my head I knew this but it did not stop me from thinking about sad things in my life.

I also had some of those disturbing dreams with people in them that are toxic for me. Part of me still loves them while the other part knows it's toxicity.  Just having the dreams disturbs my equilibrium and kind of opens a doorway for feelings I don't want to be feeling now.

It all has to do with being single again.  I figure it is probably most likely in God's plan for me to be single for awhile and I hope and pray not forever.  Some days I do really well with living the single life.  Other times I just long to be a couple again.  I want to  laugh, to talk, and be connected with a man.

 I really believe that is how God made us.  I don't think we can be whole if we are not connected to a man.  Unfortunately sin does it's best to ruin this relationship.

I would just like that glow of attention from a man sometimes.  Today was one of those days.  There is no one and not even a glimmer of one on my horizon.  I resist the urge to make something happen just because of an ache.  I want so much more this next time if there is a next time.

This is when I know I need to use my mental health strategies.  I went to work out because exercise helps plus I have the camaraderie of the ladies I exercise with at the New Well.  I also started thinking about writing it down so I could examine  and clarify my emotions.    I shall also go to bed by 9 so I can rest and be stronger mentally and physically.  Through all this I talked to God.

I feel better and not so weepy.

From my Awesome Math Coach!

Aw my math coach just gave me status!  Love it!

Re: Making Conjectures--Post what you are hearing from students by Jill Board - Saturday, 5 January 2013, 10:17 AM

Barb, (and I hope others will read this too!!) Thanks for giving us a glimpse into your students conjecturing! The more we share our stories the more likely we are to hear student conjectures (or "almost conjectures") every day. (If you can't remember what Barb posted, please go to the forum and read the thread there.) One part that you wrote was particularly interesting to me. You said: That's when T. said the number has to end in 4 to be even. I walked the class through breaking 54 into the ten sticks, reminding them that we had already decided that 10's were always even so we didn't have to look at the 5. I asked Z then if he agreed with what T said and he did. I could just picture how previously your class may have justified the conjecture "If the ones digit is even in a double digit number, then the number is even." To justify that conjecture, I can imagine that students explored lots of double digit numbers and recognized that tens always can be broken into 5 partnerships of 2. They would have justified that all tens have to be even no matter how many tens are in a double digit number. Then the students could check to be sure that the ones digit was even (or odd) by giving it the partnership test. When students give a first grade justification (as above) then we can call that conjecture that they made a generalization. It doesn't mean that every child has made sense of the generalization yet, so that is one reason to keep revisiting these big math ideas. I'm curious: I wonder what T would do with a number that doesn't have 4 in the ones digit...like 0 or 8. Does T think that numbers are only even if they have a 4 in the ones place? More to find out and explore! So Oak Grove, Lone Pine and ALE teachers.....how are students justifying conjectures in your classrooms? We can be thrilled when we get student conjectures, but we also want to make sure we don't stop there......And sometimes they will show that a conjecture they posed wasn't actually true.........another important idea. Thanks Barb....Keep on, keep on everyone! See you soon. Jill