Life is Good... A Day in the Life

4:50 AM- I am an early morning person. My alarm rarely goes off thanks to my Jack Russell, Henry, who starts making noise at around 4:45. After taking Henry out for a short walk around the block I settle down with coffee in front of my fireplace to read my newspaper on my iPad as well as catch up on twitter and check out interesting new posts from blogs I follow on my Google Reader. I send a couple posts to teachers I work with that might be able to use the information for their classes. A second cup of coffee and a bowl of oatmeal gets me through my emails. This morning I have an email from a former student telling me that she has been thinking about me because a math song I taught them for SOA CAH TOA to the tune of The Hallelujah Chorus helped her on a test- A nice surprise. I send her a quick response and head upstairs to get ready for school.

6:50 AM- I walk through the doors of my middle school. Besides being an algebra teacher I also serve as an instructional coach for my building. I like to get to school before the rest of the staff so I can get prepared for my classes before teachers drop in for help with one thing or another. This morning a parent drops in unannounced to pick up work for his son who had surgery the previous week and who will not return until after Thanksgiving. I give dad everything he needs and show him how to access the online texts, lesson tutorials and homework calendar. After dad leaves I send an email to this student to wish him a speedy recovery as well as send him the links for all that he needs just in case. I am also a sponsor for our student council and one of my officers walks in with updates about our "Penny War" that we are having this week to raise money for The Red Cross and Hurricane Sandy-  pretty quiet morning compared to most.

8:00 AM- School starts. My schedule this year is not the best. I teach an algebra class every other hour and  coach the rest of the day. Seems like I never have enough time to get any major projects going so I end up taking lots of work home each night. My first hour is for coaching. I make preparations for a technology session over lunch tomorrow- "Appetizing Apps To Be Thankful For". Our district provided our staff with iPads last summer so a focus of mine this school year has been helping staff with  some of their technology issues. Once a month I plan a session during their lunch period to share apps they might find useful in the classroom. It is totally optional. Lunchtime is the best time to reach the most people so I try to make it worth their while. I've been getting a pretty good crowd every month so far. I also spend some time this morning working on a session for New Teacher Academy for tomorrow after school from 4-7 PM. New teachers from our district are provided with sessions once a month to help them with their first year of teaching. Tomorrow's topic is classroom management. I am presenting on Randy Sprick's CHAMPs approach. I spend time on these two things throughout the day as I have time.

My algebra lesson today is on graphing linear systems of inequalities. Students have been working on graphing inequalities in previous lessons so they do well on todays lesson. All of my classes have time to get started on their practice problems for tomorrow before they leave. I am able to get around the room to check on their progress and answer their questions before they leave. I have great students this year. They are actually much easier to deal with than teachers most of the time!

8th grade team plan time today was spent working on updating our curriculum maps for the common core. Tomorrow we will be going over individual students learning plans and progress reports are going out so I make sure all grades are entered into the gradebook. I love our computer gradebook program. What a time saver it is! Technology has really made a teacher's job easier.

Teachers drop in to see me throughout the day with questions about one thing or another. Simple stuff today- nothing very time consuming. Four o' clock is here before I know it and I head out the door for home. I bake a batch of Ligonberry Bars for tomorrow's Appetizing Apps Session and then go to my 5:30 PM yoga class while they cool.

I get home from yoga in time to watch the 2nd half of my Jayhawks basketball game. They are playing Michigan State tonight. The game is pretty close- the season is just getting started so the game is somewhat sloppy. I check things out on Twitter, my gReader and work on this blog post before my Jayhawks lose the game in the last few seconds...Oh well, it's just a game! Henry needs walking, so I think I will call it a day. I am grateful for this job that I love, working with people that I enjoy. Life is good.

Middle School Sunday Funday

Livebinders is a great tool to organize all of your teacher stuff. A virtual file cabinet! Save videos, pdf documents, links to websites, pictures and more. My classroom file cabinets are pretty empty because I have moved almost everything to one Livebinder or another. I have created Livebinders for CCSS, Math Topics, Technology, Language Arts, Bullying and more. You can even find and use other teacher Livebinders by topic. If you have not taken a peek at the Livebinder site you really should.

Below is my Digital Toolbox in honor of  Technology for Sunday Funday. Hope you can find a digital tool that you might find useful in your classroom.

My Favorite iPad Apps

Our school district sent our teachers home last summer with an iPad. How great is that? I forgot to take it home from school last night for the first time and realized just how much I rely on it now instead of my laptop. I love my iPad! That being said, I do not find it to be the only tech tool that I depend on in my classroom. Our IT staff took away our Document Camera as well as our Interwrite/Smartboard with the intention of staff using the iPad Splashtop and camera for these purposes instead. Did I say I love my iPad already? I do- but I have to say it does not do as great a job as my Document Camera, and I have yet to find an app that works as well for me in my math classroom as my Interwrite. (If you know of a good whiteboard app please share!) The math teachers at my school revolted. The delay time with Splashtop really bothered us and we were able to get some of our Interwrites back- but the Interwrite tablets will not be replaced when they break down. My search for a perfect replacement began in earnest this August. Anyway, I thought "My Favorite Friday" would be a good day to share the apps that I would not want to do without on my iPad.

App Finder
Apps Gone Free- Everyday this app sends a list of apps that are free for a certain day or short period of time. I have found some great apps this way such as Pages Templates (normally $14.99), a variety of books, games, and more. A must have for your iPad.
Discovr Apps- Just type in a name/type of an app and hit search and you will get an array of similar apps that might be of interest to you. Another must have.
We Want Apps- You can select age, topic/subject, free/cost and find lots of great apps for the classroom here.

Math Apps 
These are what I use most for my middle school algebra classroom.
Quick Graph- Calc Pro HD- Free Graphing Calculator- Graphbook/ This is really cool!-Parabola- eSolver HD- Math References Free- Math Terms/Glossary-  Pre-Algebra (Barron's)- Easel Great! Algebra 1 Pro- I like it a lot. Algebra Boot Camp HD- Minds of Math- Haven't had time to check it out yet but it looks cool. Algebra Quiz-

Math Game Apps
Number Line- Nice practice for students.Tanzen Lite- Fun Seaquations- You might get "hooked" on this one. 32 HD- Good math practice site.Pick-a-Path- Students like this one. Math Doodles- I love the art on this.

Mindmapping Apps
Idea Sketch- Inspiration- Pearltrees- Tools 4 Students- Every graphic organizer you can imagine.Simple Minds- iBrainstorm

Productivity Apps
Evernote- Diigo-Dropbox- I love and use all three of these all the time to bookmark/store/create documents and so much more. Newsify-  My iPad Reader tool that keeps track of all the blogs I follow. Zite- Great way to keep up with Current Events. Customize the news you want to read about. Love this app! - Twitter- Pinterest- Photo Transfer- Transfer pictures between you phone, computer and iPad in an instant. Well worth the $1.99. I got it for free from Apps Gone Free- but can I say I would not want to live without this app on my iPad. iMovie- Prezi Viewer

Whiteboard Apps
Educreations- Create and record lessons for your students. Easy to share and free! Show Me- Another free app to create/record and share lessons.  Screen Chomp- I love how this whiteboard erases itself- cute!
All the above apps are great if all you need is a small amount of space for working problems. I have found them super user friendly. Problem is there is not enough space for multi-step math problems without creating all new pages- which is not optimal.
Capture Notes- neu.Annotate- Notability- Explain Everything- These all offer more than your basic whiteboard app.They all cost money. I have other favorites that do more. Notes Plus- $7.99 Sundry Notes- $2.99 These two are my favorites. You can access the internet and capture pages, (I love to capture samples from my online textbook), PDF documents, videos and more. Lots of tools, choices of paper, etc. available. Both give me the space that I need for working more complicated math problems...but I still prefer my Interwrite for ease of use and the many more tools it offers. Like I said earlier, if you have a great whiteboard app please share.

Classroom Apps
Wolfram Alpha- This app can answer just about any question you throw at it in seconds. If  I was a student this would definitely be on my iPad. Stop Go!- This stop light is a great tool to use as a timer for classroom activities. Dice- Select the number of dice you need and give it a roll. Mastery Connect Common Core- CCSS at your fingertips. BrainPOP- School Notes- Livebinders- I have several Livebinders that I have created. This app gives you access to your Livebinders as well as all the other Livebinders on the Livebinder site with just a tap of your finger.

Personal App Favorites
Qrafter- Simple to use and create QR codes for class activities. Kindle- Nice to be able to read my books on my iPad. Houzz- Love all the decorating ideas and tips/ home designs shared by professionals. Beautiful app. Pepperplate- Great way to create and share your own virtual cookbook. My daughters and I love it. Yelp*- Your iPad would not be complete without an app that helps you find the closest bank- movie theater- restaurant and more. Maps too!

Have a great weekend!

1st Quarter Report

The first quarter of the school year has flown by. Between adjusting to a new principal, helping train  staff with new updated technology, co-sponsoring our school's student council, implementing a new mentor program for the school's 6th graders, planning interesting lessons and aligning my curriculum with the common core, I have had little time or desire to blog. I am just too tired by the time I get home at night and to be honest, am still busy working at home finishing up what needs to be done before I head back to work the next day. Luckily for me I have a great group of students this year- probably the most polite group of young people ever. They come to class with positive attitudes and seem to enjoy the lessons I have planned. Something new that I have implemented with my students that I am most proud of this year are Interactive Notebooks.I picked up lots of ideas for INB's at Twitter Math Camp this summer. I am so impressed with how organized they are and how well my students are doing keeping them up. I collected the notebooks to grade this past week and was blown away by how nice they all looked. The content page and numbered pages help me to locate items that I am looking for when I grade. The right side of the notebook is used for class notes, foldables and "teacher input". The left side is for student practice and reflection. I even got a couple of positive comments about the notebooks from parents at parent-teacher conferences this past week. This is something that I will continue to work on and improve upon. I like the way Busyness Girl describes how she has students set up their class notebooks. I like how easy it is to find items for grading purposes. Here is a video that she created explaining how she has her students set things up in their learning notebooks. I have found that it takes very little time to grade student work using some of her strategies.

Ready for Students

It's that time when the room is set up and ready to go for a new school year. My website is updated with a student resources page containing my homework calendar, online textbook, 8th grade algebra Livebinder containing favorite helpful student sites and a link to my algebra Moodle course. Tarsia number match cards are on the corner of the desks. Students will get a corresponding card for them to match up as they walk into the room to find their seats. Classroom desks have a welcome letter from last year's 8th graders filled with information on how to be successful in 8th grade algebra. (I make copies to keep for myself because they are so fun to read.) These letters give students something to read while they wait for class to start. I have discovered over the years that several students keep these letters and still have them at the end of the school year tucked inside their textbooks! My teacher website with a welcome note from me is displayed on the screen.

The first day's lesson plan is very simple. After welcoming students to the classroom I ask them what previous students said in their letters they've just read about how to be successful in my classroom. We usually have a laugh or two about some of the things previous students have said about me which really helps to break the ice. I share with my students how to access my teacher website and we look it over quickly. After giving instructions on how to enroll in my algebra moodle course and showing them where they can find my classroom rules and expectations, they take an on-line quiz on Ms. Roitz in Numbers. This usually leads to several fun questions and dialogue between myself and the class. I then ask them to write a story about themselves using numbers and math which I plan on having them upload onto the site You Are Your Words which creates a picture of themselves that I will display around the classroom. We probably won't have time to upload their stories that first day but here is an idea of how they turn out.

That is pretty much it for the first day. I follow this day up with having my students take a math learning style survey and showing them how to set up their interactive math notebook for algebra and then the learning begins in earnest!

Made 4 Math Number Puzzle

 I have a shelf in my classroom that has math games for those students who finish work early and need something to do. Krypto, Uno, 24 and Set are games that they can play with their classmates. A favorite activity of my students however is this number puzzle that is really easy to make and costs nothing. All you need is some construction paper and scissors  Fold your paper "hot dog" style and repeat so that you have 4 columns- then fold your paper "hamburger" style and repeat so that you end up with a total of 16 equal-sized sections on your numbered paper. Fill the sheet of paper with numbers 1-8 on both sides of your paper. There should be four of each number between the two sides. The school secretary does not like us to run construction paper through the printer so I just wrote out the numbers with magic marker front and back.

Now fold your paper in half hamburger style and make 3 vertical cuts along the inside creases of your puzzle- but only to that first horizontal crease...not all the way to the end! Once you have made your cuts it is easy to maneuver your paper by bending and folding one way and another to try to make a square showing all four of a certain number. I have completed solutions for one and two of the puzzle as an example for you below.

Students will work so quietly trying to find all eight of the possible solutions to this number puzzle. I like taking a few of these number puzzles along with me when we take state assessments in the computer lab. Keeps students busy and entertained when they finish testing before their classmates.

Made 4 Math #5- Show Off Student Work

Besides teaching math at my middle school I am also a part-time instructional coach for our staff. My summer ended last week. I am already back at work getting ready for the new teachers who will be here in just a week. One of my projects for the new teachers is a handy resource sheet containing all of the important email addresses, phone numbers, links, etc., for my school as well as space for writing down password and log in information for their class textbooks, teacher sites and such. Starting a new school year can be really crazy and I think it is nice to have all of this important information on one sheet of paper that can be put inside your teacher plan book. (Make sure that you never include your grade book password on a resource sheet or any other password that you would not want your students to possibly get a hold of.)

My Made 4 Math project this week is another idea I found on Pinterest. All you need is a paper towel holder, plastic sleeves, 3 rings, and student work. Really simple. I have enough sleeves for each of my algebra students and I can always add more if students need more than one for their work. I love to hang up my student work on the walls but I thought this project would be a nice way for me to save samples of  student work that I can keep on my teacher shelf once the papers come down. There could be lots of different ways to use this project. I am thinking about having students select the work they want to have in their sleeve that they can update as they wish during the school year. The student display would be easy to put on my table at teacher conferences for viewing. It is also a fun way to look back on favorite projects and lessons over the course of the school year. I plan on adding ABC tabs to make it easy to find individual student sleeves. Hope everyone has a great school year!