The Power of FitBit

I've struggled to manage time in class, to remember to stop with a few minutes left to close, give announcements, whatever. This is compounded by the fact that our classroom clocks are not synchronized with each other nor with our MacBook/iPad clocks. So I'm never exactly sure when the bell is going to ring.

A few years ago when I was struggling with this, I thought about setting a silent alarm on my FitBit, but I thought it seemed tedious to have to go in each day to turn off or on an alarm for each class because we have a rotating block schedule.

On the first day of school, we spent a while playing Mao. It was really important to me that we had about five minutes at the end to debrief because I did not want them going home on day one saying that they played cards in math and have no idea what the purpose was. I decided to try the FitBit alarm. And I LOVED it. It was absolutely perfect as a reminder in each class. My back was to the clock and we never finished a game, so I certainly would have run out of time without the FitBit alarm.

But could this really work long term? I mean, setting alarms for one day was manageable, but would I really do it each day as the year went along?

I'm mostly concerned about my math classes because I have the timing set up differently in theology. For one day, that means I only need one alarm. For the other day, it's two. As I walk through my class, monitoring progress, answering questions, and checking in with my girls while they work, I don't have to worry about what time it is. I have all of the alarms scheduled but none repeat. That way, each day, I can just go in and "turn on" the ones I need that day. It's going to get annoying when I have to account for schedule change days, but I still think the benefit is greater than the annoyance.

At this point, I am thrilled with using my FitBit in this way and sort of annoyed with myself for not trying it years ago when I first thought of it. It helps that I have the FitBit app on my iPad as well, so for days like today when I realized at the beginning of class that I hadn't turned on the alarm, I can easily go in and do so even though I don't have my phone in class.

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.

What's Desmos?

Two of my new colleagues were talking to each other about their TI-84s today and trying to trouble shoot some issues. They looked over to me, and I said, "I don't know. I don't use it. I use Desmos." (Granted, I teach Algebra 1, not an AP class where you are more or less forced into the TI world.) They looked at me and asked, "What's Desmos?"

It's sort of crazy to me to think that people still don't know what Desmos is. I love it. Sometimes I graph things just for fun or because I'm curious about something. Since they gave me the perfect opening to evangelize, I launched in to what I love about Desmos. 

I always start with the fact that I can enter an equation in almost any form. I'm not restricted to y= which is incredibly liberating. So I graph a line in standard form. Then I graph one in point slope form. Just because I am. And guess what? They intersect. Do you know how I can figure out the coordinates of that intersection point? Click on it. Very intuitive. That same process on a TI is about 14 button pushes. By the time you get through the "how to do it," they've forgotten why they even want to do it. 

Since I keep hearing about the card sorts, I decided to go there next since I hadn't actually played with one yet. We picked the one about quadratic forms. They were immediately impressed. I showed them the teacher dashboard and what you can see while (and after) the students work on the activity. 

The teacher who has precalculus this year was so excited at the possibilities. And I'm excited to have another math teacher on board :)

Orientation days

I have started several posts, and I just can't finish. My brain is scrambled. Today I met my students in a five minute rotation of classes. I probably can't tell you any names, but I'm excited to work with them this year. Tomorrow the whole school will come for orientation. It's one of my favorite days in the entire year. The ruckus in the gym is a celebration of what it means to go to a school full of girls. For the freshmen, it's the time when they realize that this is a special place. For the others, it's an embracing of the new students into the sisterhood. For all of us, it's a transition from summer to another year, and I, for one, can't wait.

Opening Day

When my dad and I were in Chicago this summer, he bought me a dress at Loft that I decided I would wear on the first day of school. Having worked in professional baseball since before I was born, he refers to "the first day of school" as Opening Day. It makes sense actually, the hype and expectations are the same. The newness of the first day of school brings renewed hope for a year much better than or just as good as the one before. And in a new year, anything can happen.

The Organized Life

Now that I'm officially back from my summer adventures, it's time to get life back in order. Here are the ways I try to make my weekdays as efficient and thoughtless as possible:

Outfits:
On Sundays, I choose all of my clothes for school for the week and hang them in the front of my closet (with jewelry) on hangers labeled for each day. I thought I would miss the spontaneity of choosing clothes to match my mood each day; I do not. On a rare occasion I need to switch outfits because of weather or something, but I just choose another that I already had out for the week.

Lunches:
Normally I pack four or five salads on the weekend and shove them in the bottom of my refrigerator. Then each morning, I just have to grab the salad and a fork. I almost always add an apple and a snack (string cheese, rocket crackers from TJ's, yogurt) to eat during break. On Fridays we have smoothies at school so I don't always bring a lunch.

Gym Life:
I plan my workouts in my planner. The night before, I check to see if I will be going right to the gym from school (sometimes going home first means never making it back out again). If that is the case, then I pack a gym bag to throw in my car in the morning.

Dinners:
I also note my dinners in my planner. I actually plan for the month on a separate calendar I made in a Google Doc. Then I can link the recipes from Pinterest. I shop on the weekends and make myself a note in my planner the day before if something needs to be defrosted. Because I go to a 4:30 class at the gym on Mondays, I almost always crockpot something that day so that I can eat right away when I get home at 5:45 or 6.

Creating systems to organize my life helps me to be a better teacher because my mind is focused on my class rather than on what I will eat, wear, etc.

Interactive Notebooks

INBs were sort of the theme of my day. This is my fourth year of using them, and I've always used composition notebooks. One of the new teachers in our department also uses them (in Geometry - which is an awesome follow up to my using them in Algebra). So today, while we had a thousand other things to be doing, we launched into a discussion about the pros and cons of each style.

Composition Notebooks:
    PROS
-everything is contained
-copying everything two per page ensures a decent fit (and half the copies!)
-cheap

    CONS
-page size is awkward
-all the cutting/gluing
-running out of pages
-must decide order ahead of time/pre-plan

Binders:
    PROS
-add as many pages as you want
-can re-order as desired
-less cutting/glue

    CONS
-hard (but not impossible) to include foldables
-papers might not get put in
-holes rip through
-binders can be destroyed


In the end, I think we both decided to use composition notebooks. However, in an effort to save class time, we're going to pass out the papers for the next section at the end of class on test day for the unit before and create a video showing students how to insert them into their notebooks. Then they'll be good to go on test day. With our population, this is a viable option, but it might not be in other environments.

I'm kind of excited to see how she likes it - and maybe next year I'll consider using a binder if she can convince me that it's a better system.

So, what do you think? Which is better? What factors affect your decision?