Task Analysis

What experience with and approaches for task analysis do you have?

Challenging behaviors in the classroom

real life applications for algebra 1

Here is the link to the document for the applications generated in class on Feb 20. In order to add your content, you need to have a google account.

You have to watch some of your students!

Notice the uncapped marker left by this group!

Final Chapter Plan

We'll use this thread for document links, discussion and Q&A for this plan.

Here is the link for the assignment document.

Here is the link to the example for the table cited in the assignment.

Algebra tiles

Below are a screen shot of algebra tiles on the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives and a photo of actual tiles in use (taken at Starbucks of course). Here is a link to an online pdf file with a template for printing your own tiles. Here is a link to the mat on which to place the tiles.

Example of special education revised curriculum or instruction

The topic of the day was an introduction to drawing conclusions from data in graphs. The Do Now was to create a bar graph. I had my students with autism create the graph on Excel as a medium more friendly for them and to help them develop a useful skill. Both the Do Now with a classmates artifact and the Excel graph are posted below.

Bloom's Taxonomy and Assessments

We have a quiz next week in our Special Ed class on managing challenging behaviors. The professor never discussed the format so one of my classmates and I asked him about this after class tonight. He said it was 25 multiple choice, true-false, and short answer questions. Immediately I understood that this quiz would focus on remembering and understanding. He then explained that there were alot of facts in the first three chapters and that we would get into essay questions by the end of the course when we had to create an intervention plan for a student with problem behaviors.

Bill's question about finding balance as a teacher

Bill asked how I am able to balance full time work, graduate school, ARC, and family. I've posted my response below. You'll see that I mention Starbucks often. I, like you, am in the middle of a career change. I'm taking classes and moving into special education. I'm also challenged by Gabriel's autism which at times weighs heavily on me and our family. I feel your pain in many ways and hope this provides a little clarity.

First of all, I am NOT able to do everything thoughtfully as I should. You HAVE to pay a price if you put in long hours. I drink lots of coffee, sleep only 6 hours almost every night (often 5), and I do not do as good of a job as I could in my all of my work. I do not go to the gym right now and eat too much comfort food. My wife and I don't get enough time together alone. She bears the brunt of watching the kids as a homemaker. This is very challenging because of Gabriel. Until I get my master's in sped, we'll often face this challenge. My mother comes up every other month and helps out a great deal. Our house often is cluttered but we finally found a balance between some clutter but not enough to drive us nuts.

What you see at Milner and ARC is the end result of an ability to perform efficiently and effectively because of many years of experience. I accumulated the stuff in my room at Milner over months worth of effort. I have to introduce graphing tables of data tomorrow. I have a lot of experience with this and thought about it at different points of the day - a little planning here and there.

At school, you sometimes have to get the kids on task then work on various duties or tasks. I have to be careful not to do this too because I have to monitor the kids.

Here is my schedule. I make sure to make time for the family. I do not have any me time aside from working and keeping up with sports and politics a little each day. I persevere because I feel I am pursuing my calling.

Mon, Tue:
6AM get up
6:30 out the door with a stop at Starbucks
7:00 arrive at school
7:45 start 1st period
2:15ish prep period starts (I am usually having to do other stuff aside from planning)
3:05 school ends (we have extended day)
I usually leave between 3:30 and 4 to go home
4-7:30 is family time: play with kids, take Gabriel to the mall for socialization, watch Sesame Street with the boys, feed them, help put them to bed
7:30-10:00 work (often I have to go to Starbucks because Lucas will cry which makes Gabriel cry)
10-12 iron clothes, clean a little, watch my liberal programs on MSNBC

Wed (changes only):
3:30 go to class at Saint Joseph College (approx 7 minutes from home)
6:30 go home
6:45-7:30 family time

Thu (changes only):
3:15 ish go home
3:30-6:15 family time
6:30-9:00 class
9-12 work, iron, TV

Fri with ARC the next day:
7:30-12ish work on ARC and iron clothes - maybe watch some TV

Fri without ARC:
I'll put in a couple hours of work MAYBE and might stay up later

Sat (with ARC):
6:00 up and getting ready
7:00 off to Starbucks and ARC
Family time from when I get home to 7:30
If I'm not exhausted from ARC I'll put in a couple hours of work after kids go to bed

Sat (no ARC)
6:30ish wake up and work on computer
between 7 and 7:30 get Lucas when he wakes, make him breakfast
8-8:30 get Gabriel, make breakfast for him and Michelle
Family time almost all day with some chores
I may go to Starbucks for 2 hours to work sometime during the day
I'll work a couple hours at night

Sun:
Same as Sat with no ARC and I work a couple hours at night

Johneye's question about cultural differences

At the meeting with Mr. Richardson, Johneye asked an important question how we can relate to kids given our cultural differences. I wanted to share some thoughts about this.

First, the kids notice race and cultural differences just as most people do. This may shape their perception early on but eventually what matters is who we are and what we do for them in our daily interactions. If they see that we care about and want to help them, our background is minimized as a factor.

We have many commonalities as it is. I talk to my kids about being prepared for high school, doing the right thing, and about simple things like clothes or food. If a kid yells at another kid, I'll ask him if he's having a bad day because we all have bad days. If an 8th grader is choosing a certain high school, I'll ask why and tell them a little about high school life - e.g. some kids drive to school and you have a lot more choices for your schedule. If a kid grabs a pencil from another student, I'll talk to her about alternative choices for the behavior. One of my students always knows the score of the Clemson basketball games and tells me. I tell him how evil the Yankees are.

In short, the kids care more about how we interact with them on a daily basis than about race or culture.

slope intercept form discovery

here's a document I am using for discovery into slope-intercept form

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AQzUHlNKmTNxZDhxdnJ0bl80NWdzNDM5dmMy&hl=en

Hartford Symphony at Milner

We had a 1 hour assembly during which the symphony played and explained various pieces.

The students were GREAT!

Journals and Portfolios

Glen posed the following question: What do you require from your middle and high school students in terms of journals and portfolios and how do you implement them into the middle school and high school math class for students.

I'll be perfectly honest and admit that I have not made use of either of these. The main reason is that I have not taught a class for enough consecutive years to develop either as a component in my class.

Not to play my grandfather's role and tell his grandkids to "do as I say, not as I do" but both are an excellent idea. These are activities/products I need to make use of and likely will in special education. The following is my explanation of why they are very good ideas.

Words and language are means to communicate ideas. As I mentioned on Jan 23, by explaining a concept, a deeper understanding is required. By having students write explanations for concepts, they communicate by analyzing and justifying - higher Bloom's levels. A journal in math can be a collection of prompts requiring an explanation. For example, it could consist of different open-ended CAPT or CMT prompts in which students must write an explanation for their answer.

Similarly, a portfolio can be a collection of student artifacts like CAPT or CMT work. It can also include posters and other student generated work that you might post in your classroom. In AP Stats, there are a collection of experiments or investigations that involve a hypothesis, data collection, statistical calculations and graphs, discussion, and a conclusion. This collection of reports along with completed rubrics can be used as a portfolio.

This is more advanced stuff that is likely more long term activities for you.

Review Activity to Share

CMT strand 18 is on spatial relationships: symmetry and reflection, congruence and similarity, rotation and some others. To review, I am having students create a poster using the directions below. This allows them to be creative and to do something different while addressing the objectives. This is a beta version so I'll find out how it goes tomorrow. I'll reflect on this in a post in the near future but am anticipating problems following directions.

Spatial Relationship Poster

CMT Strand 18 Review

You are to create a poster using markers. You are to have the following shapes and pictures.

Choose a theme: a farm, a football game, astronomy: planets and stars in the sky, a classroom with students, or you can choose your own.

Write your name and CMT Strand 18 Review at the top.

A line of symmetry and reflection – 20 POINTS

• Fold your paper in half
• EVERYTHING should be the same on both sides of the fold
• Your name and CMT Strand 18 Review should be reflected also.
• Draw a dotted line on your fold and label it “line of symmetry”
• Show how you have a picture reflected – label it “reflection”

Rotation 90 degrees clockwise– 20 POINTS

• Copy one of your pictures and turn it 90 degrees to the right (clockwise)
• Label it “90 degrees clockwise”

Congruent– 20 POINTS

• You will copy a picture so it is exactly the same size and shape on the other side of the fold.
• Draw an arrow pointing to the picture and its copy. Label them “congruent.”
• Explain why they are congruent

Similar– 20 POINTS

• You will copy a picture so it is the same shape.
• Draw an arrow pointing to the picture and its copy. Label them “similar.”
• Write why they are similar.

Creativity and color– 20 POINTS

• Be creative with your theme
• Sketch your poster in pencil
• Add color

Jan 30 Documents to share

Here are links to documents discussed in methods on Jan 30, 2010.

Bloom's higher level questions clearinghouse: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AgzUHlNKmTNxdFdRR3NzUXBpaUNWWEljaURXMzhzanc&hl=en

Link to Goog doc with stations handout: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AQzUHlNKmTNxZDhxdnJ0bl8xZHF2bnR0Z2g&hl=en

Link to links provided by Charlene: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AQzUHlNKmTNxZDhxdnJ0bl80NGZqY2MzOWZx&hl=en

Link to Charlene's PPT: http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AQzUHlNKmTNxZDhxdnJ0bl8zaGJ0N3FoZms&hl=en