Updated Parent Handout

After seeing this awesome pin on pinterest, I decided that my old boring parent letter must be redone!




The old one was two pages long and full of syllabus stuff. Now, I work very hard on my syllabus and it's full of good stuff, but let's be honest, when a parent gets TONS of "sign here, and here, and here..." during the first week of school all that good stuff doesn't get read. So I boiled it down into an easy-to-read format that hopefully will get read!

YAY! No more boring!!!!

And no, those colorful boxes are not actually on it. Those are just to protect all my personal info from internet crazies :)

I hope you're having a fun time preparing for the upcoming school year.
Let's make it a great year together!!

Planning Interactive Notebooks

Here how I plan for my interactive notebooks...

Feel free to steal, tweak, or laugh; you gotta do whatever WORKS FOR YOU!!!

Things that I need:

(1) My teacher notebook. This has my unit outlines and usually copies of my tests. It also has my year-long planning pages.

(2) Notebook from last year, if you have one available for ideas. If you don't, Pinterest will be awesome! Heck, pinterest in awesome for ideas even if you do have a previous notebook.

(3) Pencil and pen

(4) blank white copy paper

Alright...here's how I begin.

I first get out my unit outlines and copies of each test for the year. Yes, we make these items ourselves as a district math team. In order to create notes and activities I have to know where my students are going, right?

Here's a little bit of our Unit 1 outline so you know what I'm working with.

The items that I care most about at this point are overall objectives, the bullets about what those objectives mean, and the standards.

I also look at the unit test at this point and see exactly what my students are going to be required to do. I always make it a point to teach beyond the test, but I have to make sure I at least include the minimum!

Once I have my head wrapped around the general ideas, I go to my Interactive Notebook Planning Pages.

These are very simple pages where I  map out the bare bones of a notebook. I love doing this before the year ever begins because I want to make sure there is room for every glorious topic in my students' notebooks.

Now, did I follow this exactly last year? NOPE! Not even close by the end of the year! But it did act a guide for the entire year. I was able to see "okay, I need an extra page here, so I'll have to give up a page back there somewhere." It was really helpful to me. Your free copy is here if you want it.

As you can see in the picture above, these get hole punched and added to my teacher notebook. They stay with me all year long.

Once I have the year mapped out, I start creating the individual pages. I generally start on page 1 of the notebook or day 1 on my calendar. What will I need first? Alright...let's make it! I scour the internet and often steal great ideas from others. If I don't find something I want to use, I create my own. More often than not, I combine multiple ideas I like and create my own stuff.

When I'm creating foldables it's not a very glamorous process :)

I usually cut pieces of copy paper in half because a half-sheet is usually about right for a notebook page. I sketch out my ideas on that piece of paper and then stick in inside the notebook until I actually create those pages on the computer. Here, I've used half sheets but then folded them in half again to represent a double-page spread. Yeah, whatever works. It looks different from day to day. I'll think about what the most important pieces of information are for the topic and design around them. After the foldables and notes are created I make activities, games, homework assignments, quizzes, whatever else I need.

There you have it, the bare bones of my notebook planning process. I hope this helps you get started!! Best of luck in the year ahead - YOU CAN DO IT!!!!

If you fall of the wagon from time to time, it's okay! Don't beat yourself up. We've all been there! Just wake up the next day and try it again. Please let me know if I can help with anything!

Be Kind With Your Speech

 I've been loving all the "Accountable Talk" posters flying around pinterest and teacher pay teachers, so I decided to make my own! 

You know me... I have to make/tweak just about everything I use in my classroom :)

  

So here they are!

Feel free to download them and use as you like!

 LINK

Hope you're having a great week!

p.s. I'm sooooo not ready for summer to end!

Thanks!!

 Well, I have been out of town for a while and then catching up on some things so I'm a little behind. 

I was nominated for the Liebster Award - twice!

 

Thanks so much to Amy at middleschoolminions.blogspot.com and Robin at fliplearnshare.blogspot.com.

The Liebster Award is for blogs with less than 200 followers in order to promote that blog, show appreciation, and hopefully draw more followers. So fun!!

To accept the award you have to do a few things:

(1) Link Back to the Person that Nominated You

Thanks Amy at middleschoolminions.blogspot.com

and Robin fliplearnshare.blogspot.com!

(2) Answer the Questions from your Nominator

Since I have two nominators, I will answer a random conglomeration of their questions.

 From Amy:

1. What made you interested in blogging?

I kept reading all these great ideas online and felt like I needed to contribute if I kept stealing :) Also, it helps me reflect on my teaching, while gaining great connections and feedback.

2. Share your favorite easy recipe after a work day.

Burgers and onion rings. YUMMMMM!!! It's probably so "easy" because the hubby grills the burgers. Is that cheating? haha :)

 

4. Where did you graduate from college and why did you pick that school?

The University of Arkansas - WOO PIG SOOIE! I originally said I didn't want to go there because it was fairly close to home, but when they offered to give me a full ride I couldn't say no. I'm so glad I ended up there (met my best friends and hubby!) and cannot image going anywhere else.

 

5. How do you deal with difficult students and parents?

Patiently. Often times, they just want to feel heard and that their opinions are valued. Don't we all? I try to respectfully listen and then respond with something that makes us seem "on the same team." Once we are working together, everything gets easier. Also, if it's a more drawn-out parent issue, I never deal with it alone. I also try to schedule a face to face conference and include an administrator. 

 

7. What is your favorite television show?

I have a few... Bones, Castle, Biggest Loser, and So You Think You Can Dance. I love them all for different reasons, but I love them all!

 

11. How do you feel about grading? Do you grade everything the kids do or do you do participation grades for some of it? How do you grade their notebooks and homework?

Since I follow a type of SBG (at least in my opinion) I emphasize that all work and activities are for learning purposes. The students' whole goal is to demonstrate that they have learned it, either on the test or retest. Homework, notebooks, activities, investigations, etc. is all just to get them there. With that in mind, I sometimes grade for accuracy, sometimes for completion and effort, and sometimes not at all. You can see my post about retesting here and grading notebooks here. 

From Robin:

1. What was your favorite subject in high school/college?
In high school, definitely math. It was a fun puzzle and I had a fantastic teachers!

In college, math was still great but Anthropology was awesome!!!! Of the four branches, I loved cultural , biological , and paleontology; linguistics not so much.

 

2. Where is your favorite vacation spot?

Anywhere hot and sunny with a beach/pool. I love lounging by the water with not a care in the world!

I do also love skiing...hmmmmm.... okay, tough call.

4.  Why did you become a teacher?

I really respected my great high school teachers and also really enjoyed math. Math has such a negative stereotype that I wanted to help change that. I've also been told I explain things well, so that helps. :)

5. Do you follow your textbook from start to finish?

We don't have course textbooks, so nope! haha. Our district has been using Mastery Math documents for years that we create. We have some of the top test scores in the state (and nation) so it must be working :) (yes, I'm very proud of my district)

10.  How did you choose the title of your blog?

I didn't think about it a whole lot, probably why it's not very creative. Mrs. Hester's Classroom. Yep, that's exactly what I'm here to talk about.

 

(3) Share 11 Random Facts About Yourself 

1. I also have a degree in Anthropology, love that stuff! If I could have my dream job, I'd probably be an ethnographer or Egyptologist. Neither of those jobs work too well with a "normal life" though.

2.  I live in the same town I graduated high school from and will be teaching next year at the junior high I attended.

3. My sweet hubby avoided me the first night we were both hanging out with our friends. He says I was so cute he was scared. Awwwwww. He did a good job too, I don't remember him being there!

4. I was my high school's dance team captain. 5-6-7-8.

5. The hubs and I have a pet bunny and a corgi. I love my fur-babies!

6. I'm super short.

7. I love to color and crochet. The hubby teases me that I'm 8 and 80 all at the same time!

8. I look very young. I tell my students that I have two bachelor degrees, one masters degree, and have been married for 4 years, it helps them figure out I'm older than 18.

9. While I say I love the outdoors, I actually don't. I hate bugs. ha!

10. I have two best friends that I met freshman year of college who also became teachers. We still talk all the time, live in the same area, and hang out frequently. I truly have no idea what I'd do without those girls!

11. I desperately wish my hair would grow out super long, but it just doesn't. :( Never.

(4) Nominate Five More Blogs with Less Than 200 Followers

1. Math Equals Love

2. A Sea of Math

3. Lesson with Coffee

4. I is a Number

5. Mrs. Howard Math

(5) Pose Questions to Your Nominees

 1. What is your favorite thing about your job?

2. What is your morning routine once you arrive at school?

3. How do you decide what to assess?

4. If you weren't a teacher, what would you do?

5. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

6. What is your favorite meal to cook/eat?

7. What is your favorite school supply? You have to choose one!

8.  What is your best tip for new teachers?

9. How do you handle the tardy bell? What is the first thing students do?

10. How many years have you been teaching?

So... there you have it! Thanks again Amy and Robin for this wonderful award!

Grading Interactive Notebooks

I've been asked this question quite a few times and keep putting it off. Yep, I've been dodging it entirely... until now.

How I Grade Interactive Notebooks

...drum role please...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
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I DON'T

There. Secret Spilled.

I have only used math notebooks in my classroom for a year, so it's very possible that my opinion will change, but so far I haven't seen the need to grade them. My students loved them and they were an integral part of our classroom almost daily last year. I never once took a "notebook grade."

I had the expectation that my students keep up with them, and honestly, they loved using them so much that they enjoyed keeping them up to date.

Here are a few ways I quickly checked progress without assigning any point-value grades.
(1) Visual checks as students work. Most of what is in our notebooks took place during class time. I would give students time to complete the activities or set-up pages and walk around to monitor/assist. Students knew we weren't moving on to anything else until all members of our learning team (that's what I call a class) had accomplished the task. They usually stayed on task and worked quickly but thoroughly.

(2) I collected and graded individual assignments from time to time. If there was something specific assigned, I would walk around the room and look at each students' notebook very quickly while they completed a warm up or other independent activity. I carry my grade book with me and usually check mark students who are done correctly and make quick notes about students who need to fix specific things. I mention these things to students and they show me their notebook at a later time after the error has been fixed.

Sometimes students completed small review activities and turned in their notebooks on test day. While they took their tests I quickly checked their assignments. The red hanging system is how students turn in their homework daily, by number order so it's already alphabetized for me. :) It's the little things, right? Anyway... Since they are used to that system they just stick their notebook in their file on test day, I pull it out and grade the assignment (usually a review completion grade), and then put it right back in their numbered pocket. By the time they are done testing, their notebooks are graded. They pick up their notebooks from their pockets before leaving the classroom.

 

(3) Sometimes I let students use their notebooks on quizzes. This is usually an unannounced thing and they pick up on it very quickly after the first time. They keep their notebooks in order hoping that I'll say "notebooks out!" during the next quiz. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.

 

So Why Did I Hide It?

I dunno... I guess I felt kind of guilty. That "everyone else seems to be taking a grade, am I doing this wrong?!" feeling, ya know? But the conclusion I've come to... it works for me! And whatever you decide to do has to work for you. It's your classroom and your students. You're the one that will be living it daily and you have to choose a system that fits you. Don't feel pressured to comply with what everyone else is doing just because they're doing it. Dare to be different, right?! That's what we tell our kiddos!

 

Ideas for the future:

I have read a few ideas online and seen some pins that I might implement. I plan to keep most of what I mentioned above the same, it worked well for me, I just might add some little things to the mix.

 

(1) Choose between one and four students each day to look through their notebooks for completion and neatness. This will be for a small grade each time, maybe once per unit. I might try to integrate this into a warm-up rotation schedule I've been pondering. More to come on that later!

 

(2) Ask students to leave their notebooks in the classroom over a designated night (when they don't need them to complete a homework assignment). Grade about 5 notebooks, chosen at random, and record the grades. Students will be informed the next class period whose notebooks were graded.

 

(3) Have students take a quiz using another student's notebook. They will then care what their classmates are putting into their notebooks. Kiddos telling other kiddos to keep their notebooks up to date - golden! What would not be so golden is a great student having to use a sub par notebook on a quiz when their notebook is A+ work. Hmmmmm... Not 100% sold on this one yet.

 

If you choose to collect and grade notebooks, go for it! Just do it because you see value in it and it's a worthwhile endeavor in your classroom, not because you feel like you have to.

 

So there it is... my method for grading, or not grading rather, interactive notebooks.

Properties of Quadratic Graphs

We talked about properties and end behavior of graphs all year long. We started with linear, transitioned to piecewise through distance-time graphs, then absolute value, then exponential, then quadratic. These are the INB pages for our properties of quadratic graphs.

Since we had talked about end behaviors, average rate of change, intercepts, vertices, positive/negative, etc. before, this was a quick extension of ideas to quadratics.

Each student got two identical graphs. Two because all the color-coding info would be jumbled on one graph. We color coded and created our flash cards all first, then taped everything into the notebook.

When students walked into the classroom on this day, our "First Things First" section of the board told them to pick up two pages. One had graphs and the other is the flashcards and envelope. They also picked up scissors and immediately got to cutting everything out. This is something I often do, give students the directions before class officially starts. I begin on day 1 telling students that they are considered tardy to my class if they haven't  begun the First Things First activity before the tardy bell rings. They learn this very quickly and don't waste time once they enter the classroom. I also promise them that I will give them a 2 minute warning at the end of class so they have time to pack up and clean up the classroom, and therefore leave when the ending bell rings.

Anyway... small tangent there. :)

As students were cutting out their flash cards they were telling each other "hey, we know what these mean!" "I know this!" "Mrs. Hester, this looks easy!" I love when they are confident with their learning!!

Once everything was cut out, I asked students where they wanted to start. They knew we had to talk about everything, but might as well let them choose the order! They would call our words that they felt confident in and provide a definition. Classmates would add to the definition and we would talk through specifics. Once I had guided the discussion to a place I was comfortable with, we wrote down the definition. We then switched to a colored pencil, marked that particular feature on a graph, and wrote the specific answer for that definition in the same color on the card.

This provided students with a general definition, as well as a specific color-coded example.

Using the flash cards in an envelope added an element of fun, as well as a way for students for study. They enjoyed pulling them out and quizzing each other.

Got any ideas about how I could make this better? What are your thoughts about this lesson?

2013-2014 Grade Book

This is the cover of my 2011-2012 grade book, shown in this post.
This is the cover of my 2012-2013 grade book, shown in this post.

YOU get to help me decide the cover of my 2013-2014 grade book!!

I found an awesome pin on Pinterest today!! ALL of the wonderful digital papers you see pictured below are a FREE download on this site. LOVE IT!!!!! Go check it out!!
 

So I just had to use the Moroccan Tile papers to create my new grade book cover... but there's so many good ones... oh decisions!

Please help me decide!!!

Please cast your vote below.

Grade Book Cover!
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