7th Math in MN: Week 2 - Days 4-6

Week 2:
Day 4: White Board Game & Multiple Intelligences Presentation & Assignment
Day 5: Noah's Ark Problem (sub plans)
Day 6: Start Interactive Notebooks & Work time for Multiple Intelligences Assignment

We are still not to the Illustrative Math curriculum that I am so excited to dig into.  I believe that will happen on Thursday (Day 7).  So this week we started off like we do every week with a game I call "White Board Game."  This is something I got from a White Bear Lake math teacher many years ago.  It is pretty simple and gets junior high students working on math competition (MathCounts) problems in a relaxed group environment.  I wrote a blog about this game a while ago.  (HERE)

After that, we finished up my Prezi presentation (sales pitch) on why they would be successful in math.  The third and last day is all about multiple intelligences.  We talked through the 8 main intelligences and then they took a quick self-assessment.

With the 7th graders, I use this shorter one from Edutopia. 
With the 8th graders, I use this slightly longer one.

We talk about how to use the students' strengths to their advantages when studying.

I then have the students create slideshows showcasing their strengths to present to the class.  There is one little trick I use that totally changes the game.  I ask them to only put their names at the end.  So each day starting Week 3, I will present 1 student's presentation each day.  Then after the presentation, the other students try to guess whose it was.  It is pretty fun and the students enjoy it every year.  Here is a sample of a student's slideshow (name withheld), down below.

The students will also start their Interactive Notebooks on Wednesday (Day6) and then get the rest of class to work on their slideshows.  Then we will finally jump into the Illustrative Math curriculum on Thursday (hopefully).

I almost forgot, Day 5 was a weird one.  My daughter got sick on the way to school.  I had about 20 minutes to come up with sub plans.  So every class of mine did the Noah's Ark math problem today.  It seemed to go reasonably well from the notes the sub left.

7th Grade Math in MN: Week 1

During the first week, Wed, Thur & Fri, in our district I really try to focus on a couple points.  None of them are using any curriculum except some of YouCubed's Week of Inspirational math tasks.

My Goals of the First Week:
1.  Class Expectations and Routines
2.  Growth Mindset
3.  Group Work Norms
4.  Convince students I care about them

Day 1

Name Tent Feedback
Like many teachers, I start with Sara Van's great Name Tent stuff.  I continue this for the first 3 days.  Since this is the first time I am ever using this, I am not sure about next week.  Although I now curse the name SaraVanderwerf as I was up until midnight on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

Class Expectations
I have 4 simple class expectations.  We go over them in about 5 minutes this first day and we will revisit them many times over the next couple weeks.
1. No Meanness - from Dave Burgess
2. Make Mistakes - Growth Mindset
3. "YET" - Growth Mindset
4. Ask Questions - self-advocacy

100 #s Task
Like many teachers, I also start with Sara Van's great 100 #s task in 7th grade.  As they work, I take some pictures and then we notice and wonder about the pictures.  Great way to start group norms.

Numbers about Me
Then, if we have time, we do a quick group discussion and class discussion about my quick numbers about me quiz.  The kids usually get a kick out of it, and I get to introduce myself a little bit.

A busy and quick day 1, but it hits a little bit on all 4 of my goals.  This first day is super high energy, and I am usually ready for bed around 7:00 that night.

Day 2

Getting to Know Mr. Sieling 
Day 2 starts with ideas from Sara of MathEqualsLove.  I use the Getting to Know You Quiz.  Then the students create their own quiz for me to take.  That was great fun and students really loved it.

Sales Pitch
I have a 3 part sales pitch to the students I give every year about why they will be successful in this math class.  Part one is talking about What is Math and Brain Function.  We use SaraVan's definition that math is really just a "study of patterns."  Then we go into that the brain is made to identify patterns.  We also talk about what we need for the brain to function at its best.  We also talk about Mindset and that we make our brain stronger by doing difficult things and with effort.

Visual Patterns
We then finish up by working on a task from YouCubed's Week of Inspirational Math that is based on Visual Patterns.  After the sales pitch of doing difficult things makes you smarter, and a re-iteration that we expect students to make mistakes, they are usually super willing to give this task a go.

Day 3

We start with the students get their quizzes back from yesterday.  They can't wait to see how I did.  I ask them to mark them right or wrong, mark the correct answer and hand them back so I can study up over the weekend.

Blobs & Lines
Then we go to some movement and an icebreaker called Blobs & Lines.  It gets them moving, laughing and I get to learn a little more about them.
      Link to my Blobs and Lines slides

Sales Pitch
I then go back into Sales Pitch mode.  I quickly review my first part, then launch into my Mindset talk.  We watch this video on YouTube all the way through.  Then we go back through and pause each frame to talk about what it means.  The focus is selling them on effort makes you better.

Witzzle
We finish up the week by trying a Witzzle puzzle.  I have never heard of these until I read this post from MathEqualsLove.  A task that can seem daunting to a 7th grader at first, but when they get into it, they make good progress.  I even had a couple kids tell me they were taking the sheet home to finish this weekend.

All in all, a very successful week to start the year!

Illustrative Math in Minnesota

This year I am implementing a brand new curriculum, Illustrative Mathematics.  I am really excited as they always have had great mathematical tasks on their site. This summer they released their full 6th-8th curriculum.  Understandably so, it was based around the Common Core Math Standards.  However, in Minnesota we do not use the Common Core.  So my excitement was diminished when I realized that a complete re-organization of their units was needed to successfully do this in MN.

So after many hours I have come up with a plan.  It is briefly outlined below for 7th and 8th grade.  I will hopefully blog a little about this as I go.  I am sure changes will be needed, but right now, I am feeling pretty good about getting this done.

While I am excited to be diving into a new curriculum, and excited about all the amazing problems my students will experience this year, I do have a couple concerns.

1. I am trying to plan a curriculum I am only superficially familiar with.  Some of the units are out of the order to help students group ideas and give the class a better flow.  I am worried that some units will reference ideas we have not had a chance to go over yet.

2. 7th grade math in MN is packed to the brim with math.  It is hard to get in all the standards every year.  (I usually fail at this.)  Even with the IM units I have a planned 39 weeks of instruction.  This is too much.  I already know that.  We will see how the timing works out.  Since MN has packed so many standards into 7th grade, and those standards don't align perfectly with Common Core, I have had to grab some 6th grade units and some 8th grade units, while only getting to skip one 7th grade unit (7.7).  So with some of these units I will have to cherry pick the lessons so they flow into the big learning target ideas.

3. I will still have to supplement some higher end 8th grade material.  In Minnesota, the 8th grade math standards are all the linear parts of algebra 1.  So some things are not currently included in Illustrative Math.  So I plan on using some of my old CMP curriculum to hit these learning targets.  I hope when IM finished their HS curriculum, I can grab some units from there instead.