5/9/14 -XOXO

I teach at a K-8 school and I always feel like our 7th/8th graders are much better behaved than kids at the local 7-8 middle schools.  We haven't had a fight in two years, there is no cursing (well, none that we hear) and I rarely ever have to confiscate phones.  

So today at dismissal I was literally shocked when one of my 8th grade boys went over and kissed a 7th grade girl right on the lips!  They are just babies!  My husband is giving me a hard time about this, but I called both parents and gave the boy a detention.  I hope the girl doesn't get in trouble, I explained to her mom that she was just standing there and HE kissed her, but she sounded pissed!  I have a great relationship with the boys mom and she was like "And THATS why he's going to an all boys high school!"

Did I do the right thing by calling?  I think I did.  Other teachers saw it and if it I let go and it got back to the principal I don't think that would be too cool.

On a happier note, since 4th grade was finishing up the science portion of the state test today, we didn't have a regular schedule today again, so I only saw two real classes besides my homeroom so we played the 24 Game and it was AWESOME.  I love how engaged kids get with that game!  I really want to set up an official tournament since I have the whole kit.   One class got stuck on a good one and they ended up working on it all day in other classes and trying to get their other teachers to figure it out.  It was 7, 7, 5, 6.  Can you figure it out?

5/7/14-WTH?

So yesterday was the math portion for 8th grade and the first half for 7th grade.  I'm not sure why, but I came home from work made the kids dinner, washed the dishes and promptly went to bed. I slept until 5:30 this morning!!
I was was physically exhausted, I can only imagine how my poor students felt.
On a positive note, they said they felt good about the test and they confirmed that I had taught them everything that was on it which was all I was hoping for!
One of the things I hate most about the test is not getting the results until the end of summer. I think that is something that will change with PARCC.

5/6/14 State testing in full swing

Day 2 of NJAsk testing at my school today.  I could definitely tell the kids were "not as fresh" as they were yesterday.  What is going to happen tomorrow and Thursday when they have to take the math portion?

Also, why does 8th grade only get 1 day of math when everyone else gets 2 days?  4th grade has to take the Science also, but they get to do it on Friday.

I really hate this whole process.  I understand the need for it in a way, but I wish it was in June and given as a "Final exam"  We will still have 14 full instructional days after this and the kids think that school is now over.

5/5/14 -Something's Better than Nothing!

So I decided to blog everyday and promptly blew off three days!  Ugh!  I kind of have a good excuse, it was a crazy weekend at our house.  My in-laws and niece came to visit from KY so they could see my son in his first "starring" role.  He got to play the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz!  He was great!  I am so proud of him!

Today was the first day of NJAsk.  It went OK, kids acted like it was no big deal.  Hope the rest of the week goes the same way!

Oh, something a student said last week keeps nagging me.  He said "Mrs. Nehila, you are such a nice person, why do you teach such a mean subject?" I was like "What do you mean by that!?" and he went on to say how math is so horrible and I am too good of a person to teach such an evil subject!  I just don't even know what to think about that.  He is a good math student too!  Yikes!

Blogging Challenge Day 1!

Hey Happy May Day!  May 1st!  I'm starting my own 30 day blogging challenge.  Ready?  I am....not!

Ok here's whats going on.  First, non-teachery stuff...I went to an amazing concert last night-Twenty One Pilots.  I have a 16 year old daughter who loves the same kind of music as I do, and one of our only favorite shared activities is going to concerts.  I was not supposed to go last night, it was going to be the first time I dropped off her and her friend, but at the last minute her friend couldn't go.  So I went, first, let me complain that not only did I not get carded, they might have well said "move along grandma" I can't help it, I was bummed about that.  But, the show was really good!  I love every song on their latest album and the show itself was really entertaining. Although I complained about being old earlier, I am really glad that I got to sit at the bar and watch the show instead of toughing it out in the pit.  My daughter has bruises!

Now on to teacher stuff!  Not good news to report.  I had my first and only observation today and I was not pleased with my students.  I scheduled it for my homeroom which is the high achieving class.  I prepped them and they behaved horribly.  I haven't had my post observation conference yet, but I don't care, I was pissed at the way they acted.  Just to name a few things, they didn't listen to my directions, they argued over who was going to go to check the work of other groups, they didn't take out their notes to help them when I told them to do so, etc.  Then to top it all off, the third class of the day came in, rearranged their desks and found gum smeared all over one of them.  I was thoroughly finished with all of them!

 I just need to get through tomorrow and then next week is state testing.  I wish I could say that I am confident my kids will do well, but at this point, I would be surprised if anyone passes!  As far as school goes, I am a Debbie Downer today!

My Own Blogging Challenge

I think there is a 30 day blogging challenge going on, but I'm not sure.  What I am sure of is that I want to blog more, I stink at it, and I know that blogging more often should help me get better!
My plan is to blog every single day of May.  May is going to be an interesting month.  It starts off with my very first observation of the year!  YIKES!  I don't mind being observed at all, but now that I have tenure I only get one a year which is kind of scary since I feel like I only get one shot!   We are reviewing and preparing for our state tests the following week so I decided to do a lesson on similar triangles since we haven't really done much with that this year.
The second week will be NJAsk, that is going to be a boring blog week I'm sure!  Then we get one week of regular school and then its off to Washington, DC with the 8th grade for 4 days!  I LOVE our 8th grade trip each year.  I've toyed with moving down to 5/6th grade but the DC trip is definitely something that holds me back from moving down.

I think the biggest struggle I am going to have with my challenge is titling my posts!  I hate trying to come up with a title each day!  Any suggestions?

NJCSA Conference

Today my school attended the New Jersey Charter School Association conference in Atlantic City.    Overall, the conference needs some beefing up, with better sessions for teachers and more vendors.  However, I can't complain today because I attended an amazing session called Getting Messi:  How Mistakes make Mathematicians and Scientists.  The presenter was the winner of the Fishman Prize for Superlative Teaching (which I didn't even know existed today, but it is really cool!) Check it out here: http://tntp.org/fishman-prize/winners/fishman-prize-2013/keith-robinson  Anyway, the session was all about Mindset!  My passion of late especially since taking Jo Boaler's class over the summer and now participating in the Perts study.  Most of the ideas presented I was familiar with but did come away with some ideas for really creating the growth mindset culture, such as presenting my "fake" mistakes for students to analyze and awards for class culture such as for the hardest worker, or the best question asker, etc.
The best part was I was a winner of Carol Dweck's Mindset, which I've never actually read.  So excited to get reading!

Then after lunch I got to be a speaker at a session!   I was kind of thrown into it as another teacher was going to do it and backed out at the last minute.  I am so glad I did!  We talked about some of the things our school did to increase math fluency, deeper conceptual understanding and incorporating the 8 mathematical practices.  It was really easy, I talked about our "Mad Math" program, how we set it up, how if runs, some of the changes and improvements we made since last year.  Then I talked about using KWI (What do I know, What is the questions, What are my ideas for solving) for multi-step or word problems along with TAPPS, Talk-aloud-partner-pair-share also for problem solving.  Finally I talked about using kid friendly translations of the 8 mathematical practices and how I introduce three to four main practice to focus on when I introduce the objective of the lesson and also how I have them hanging above my number line and refer to them often throughout the day.  I got to present this with our math coach and the Director of my school.   It was fun, I could talk about teaching math all day long!