What about context?

Does a problem situation or context matter?  Can it be used to engage (or disengage) students?  A recent example comes to mind where students seemed to be more interested in one problem situation than another.  While students responded differently, there is no way to know whether it is the students or the context that caused the resulted in the different responses.  I tend to think it was the context that did matter.

Textbook example:  Domingo decided to save $0.03 the first day and to triple the amount he saves each day.  How much will he save on the seventh day?

Variation:  Would you work for someone if they paid you $0.03 on the first day and tripled the amount for each additional day you worked?  Would you work for them for a week?  For two weeks? 

In the textbook example, there is a single answer:  $21.87.  Students calculated the amount and it seemed to end the discussion.  It is realistic for someone (or, if they personalize the situation, themselves) to have about twenty bucks to stash away at the end of a week.  Extending the problem into the second week becomes unrealistic because it is very unlikely anyone could continue saving at that rate.

When I varied the problem, however, it provided a lot of discussion.  While the context is unrealistic (no one would ever hire someone with this scheme), it did provide a connection to the students.  They had to decide whether they would work for this employer...  if so, how long?  Clearly, it would not be advantageous to work for only a few days.  However, someone would would continue to work would be rewarded generously.  This seemed to really illustrate the point of exponential growth!

Open House

Parents (and some students) attended an open house for 1.5 hours tonight.  I did not do an exact count, but I would guess about 20 of the approximately 140 students were represented tonight.  It is always interesting to meet parents - sometimes it is the clear the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!  Everyone was nice and asked about their student.  It was hard to provide many details as it is still early in the school year and we don't have many grades yet.  One mother overspent her time and wanted to report on several (minor) occurences her daughter had experienced already this year.  (I found out the other seventh grade teachers got to hear the same stories!)  Fortunately there wasn't enough time to do a full conference with her.  I don't know, but I may be hearing from her later.

Shakeup

Without the other teacher in the classroom, it seems the kids have tried to see what they can get away with!  Seventh graders are seventh graders so they like to be social... but failing to do homework, talking out of turn, and distracting others doesn't make for a productive class.  At the beginning of the year I seated the students somewhat arbitrarily.  Now that I have gotten to know the students (and they have shown their level of responsibility in the classroom), I have rearranged each of the classes - separating some students, moving others to the front or back as needed, and wishing I had more corners!  These changes didn't make some of the students very happy - which I take to mean it was the right thing to do.  :-)  I may need to make a few more changes in the next few days if there are more students who can't handle their position in the classroom.  The downside to having 36-38 students in the class is that there are very few, if any, empty desks.  I did get two more desks so that I can create a buffer if needed.  But now there is even less room to move around the room!

Baby!

I was completely on my own for the first time today.  (Another first day!)  The teacher whose place I'm taking was planning to work another two weeks before giving birth.  This morning she texted me and said she didn't feel well.  During the day I heard she went to the hospital and tonight I heard she has a new baby boy!  Things don't always go as planned...  Fortunately, I did all of the procedures (collecting lunch money, taking attendance, etc.) yesterday on my own so I was able to manage today.  She had been coordinating the Language Arts lessons so I'm now responsible for those, too.

First Day... After Strike!

And yet another first day!  Today was the first day back after the strike.  Most of the kids looked familiar and I even remembered some of their names!  For the most part we were able to pick up where we left off.  Next week will be rough... a full week of class without any breaks!

Opportunities

One impetus for the strike was conditions of the "full school day" initiative.  What extra opportunities do the students get?  Although the school offers all of the "core" subjects (math, English, science, social studies), there is only limited time each day for additional experiences.  Students get one hour each week of gym, music, library, computer, and art.  There was no music teacher last year but a new one was hired for this year.  The music curriculum is a "general music" experience; there is no band or choir.  Some of the library and computer time is spent on testing (they take 3 "progress" tests each year and the state tests toward the end of the school year).  The library is usually scheduled with classes from the various grade levels so students do not have "free time" in the library.  Likewise, the computer lab is heavily scheduled so classes or students cannot go in there during the school day.  There are no student activities after school.  In prior years there were parent volunteer coaches for girls volleyball and boys basketball.  Those parents are no longer coaching the teams.  There is talk this year of a cross country team for both boys and girls if there is enough interest.  There are no programs for "gifted" students and no special interest groups for students in the older grades.  There may be a "student council" formed later in the year to organize two in-school dances and a few academic teams might form, too (e.g., book club, cinema club, and math club).  To me, the school day seems "basic."  I know I had more required or elective opportunties in the middle grades.  When I taught 8th grade, those students, too had more opportunities.  It is unfortunate that these students can't have more opportunities to study journalism, ecology, computers, band, choir, foreign language, etc. while they are in the middle grades.

Rallies

 Saturday's rally at Union Park

 Thursday's Rally at Wacker & Michigan

Wednesday's Rally at Kelly High School



On Strike... until further notice

Downtown Rally

Big rally downtown on Monday afternoon!

First Day - Strike!

Another "first" day... teachers are on strike today!  An eighth grade teacher made some signs and brought them for us to carry on the picket line.  Our school was designated as a place for up to 3000 (or so I heard) students.  Fortunately, less than two dozen students showed up.  Some people reported there were more adults in the school than students.  Several parents and students came to support the teachers at our school this morning.  Many people also drove by to show their support. 

Exponents

A textbook was adopted and given to me.  What will I do with it?  (A question any teacher must asked her/himself!)  The textbook we have has a typical two-page spread with three (or more) worked examples followed by two pages of "Guided Practice," "Independent Practice", and "Practice and Problem Solving." 

For the section on Exponents, the stated goal is:  Represent numbers by using exponents.  This is not students' first experience with exponents, so the examples and exercises such as find 5^2 and 2^6, write 49 with a base of 7, and compare 15 and 4^2 did not seem very challenging.  Many students reach first for their calculators so these become even more trivial.

After examing the section and the teacher notes, I did find some tasks that I thought seemed a bit more interesting and encouraged students to think more about the meaning of exponents.  How would you characterize the cognitive demands of these tasks?

• Guess/Check/Revise:  Guess the missing exponent and use your calculator to check.
• 3^?=729; 2^?=4096; 9^?=4,782,969; 4^?=1024
• Explain how you can find the value of 2^11 if you know that 2^10=1024.
• Is 6^3 = 3^6?  Explain.
• In as many ways as you can, represent 64 using powers.

Note:  Of course the textbook does not use ^, but I didn't feel like taking the effort to format this entry.

Anonymity

I figured with nearly 3 million people in the city and 10 million people in the metro area, it would be unlikely to randomly run across people I know.

On Tuesday...  a former student who was in a club I advised started teaching in a classroom a few doors down the hall from me. 

On Wednesday...  a former student got on the train as I was heading home.  He is now working and going to school in the city.

On Thursday...  a girl on the bus asked where I taught.  After I told her she said her coach, who dropped her off at the bus stop when I got on, thought it was me.  I asked what her coach's name was and it turns out the coach had a been a student in one of my classes a few years ago.

Who from my past will I encounter tomorrow?

Uniforms and Routines

There are a few things quite different here from other schools where I have attended or worked.  Most noticeable, all of the students wear uniforms.  Top: Solid, light blue (powder blue) shirt or blouse w/collar (no prominent logos, words, pictures, stripes, or decorations).  Bottom:  Solid, navy blue pants, shorts, skirts or jumpers (no jeans, denim, nylon; no stripes, decorations, logos).  On gym days, students wear royal blue t-shirts and shorts or sweatpants. 

The students have been trained to be quite respectful.  During lunch count, for example, each student says "yes, please" or "no, thank you" when called.  During class they raise their hands and wait until being called on even when a chorus answer would be more appropriate.

Students always line up in two rows:  boys on one side and girls on the other.  They march down the hallway and stop at each turn until told to move on (e.g., top of the stairs, bottom of the stairs, end of the hallway).  Five are allowed in the bathroom at one time.  As one exits, another enters.  When entering a classroom or lunch room, the boys always wait and allow the girls to pass first.

First Day of School!

One day finished...  We shortened the length of each class period today and spent more time at the beginning and end of the day in order to get things arranged.  Students came in the morning with a big bag of supplies:  pencils, notebooks, binder, paper towel, etc.  We sorted things out, assigned desk and lockers, and established some rules and procedures.

There are 36 students in our homeroom and a similar number in each of the other three 7th grade classes.  I will be working with another teacher who will be leaving for maternity leave in approximately one month.  With 36 students, every classroom should have two teachers!  I will be teaching math to each of the four 7th grade classerooms and also language arts to the homeroom group.  Until she leaves, the other teacher will be leading the language arts class and I will take the math classes.