The First Day of School!

What a great first day!

One of my biggest goals for this year is to use debate in Algebra, in particular by using the language of "claim" and "warrant." I decided that I would use that same language in all of the warm up activities for the sake of consistency. That way, when we get to a larger scale debate activity, it will already be established.

When the students walked in, I had the expectations for entering and beginning class projected. As soon as the bell rang, we began with prayer and transitioned to the warm up (that will normally be the thing on the board when they walk in). We did Day 1 of Estimation 180 - as I've done for the past three years. This time, I introduced it as, "Look at the picture. You are estimating how tall he is. What is definitely too high? What is definitely too low? What would your estimate be and why? I care much more about your why than about your number." Then they had a minute or so to think and chat with anyone who was around them. I wasn't sure what would happen if I gave them the freedom to chat in the first five minutes of class on the very first day, but I walked around and every single conversation was about the picture! They were completely engaged.

From there, I introduced the language of argument, claim, and warrant - what it means to justify. Afterwards, I asked for estimates. When the first person raised her hand, I gave the instructions for her to stand and for everyone else to turn their bodies to face her. They were excellent about saying, "My claim is..." and pretty good about "and my warrant is..." but needed some reminders. Having done this with at least three classes for the past three years, I was amazed when I got warrants that I had never heard before. I love out of the box thinking.

We then did some course expectations, notebook set up, sort of boring but probably necessary stuff. I capped it at about seven minutes because I do not want that to be their memory of the first day.

Then we moved into a different space and played Mao. I was a little bit unsure about whether it was really a good idea to play cards with 6-8 kids on the first day and make everyone else watch, but I am so pleased with how it went! Those who were playing at at the table with me while the others stood around the perimeter. I made it clear that even though only a few were playing, I would be looking to the others to answer questions about the game at the end.

It was a blast! We laughed a lot. The atmosphere in the room was so overwhelmingly good. They immediately began helping each other. Halfway though, one of them made a comment that this was just like math because... Yep, they got the point, and I didn't even have to say anything. Afterwards when we debriefed the game, they picked up on so many things that they learned by playing/watching others play. We talked about encountering frustration when you try to solve problems and how working together, trying things (even if they fail), and giggling your way through it can help you. There were so many good things that I'm completely forgetting now (first day of school brain...), but I'm so glad we did this today. I would absolutely do it again.