Today is a minimum day, and so this is my monthly MTBoS blogging day for December. I will be describing today in "A Day in the Life" format:
9:00 -- I arrive on campus. On this minimum day, only certain teachers have a meeting before school. There is an all-staff meeting after school, of course.
The big thing that's on my mind right now are the district Benchmark Tests. The students have finished them, but now it's time for us to grade the Performance Tasks. The department head has told me that we should work on them together for the grading to be consistent. But unfortunately, the department heads are the ones in the morning meeting, so I must wait until after school.
9:45 -- First period begins on this online day. This is the first of two eighth grade classes.
All classes today have the same format -- a short lesson followed by an APEX test. For me to have enough time to do both, I decide to do something I haven't done in a while -- play "Who Am I?"/Conjectures Game. As usual, the first question I ask today is "Guess my age."
Yes, I see you running to check the date. Yes, today is December 7th, my birthday -- and I always try to play "Who Am I?" to ask "Guess my age" on my birthday. It's a birthday that everyone dreads -- the Big 4-0. It's also my tenth Julian birthday. As every Julian cycle of four years contains 1461 days, so this is the rare day that I know my exact age in days -- 14610 days.
This is the first time that I've attempted "Who Am I?" since the pandemic, and today is a fully online Monday. So, here's how I do it -- I divide the class into three teams, and I tell them which team they're on. The teams are Team #1 (first names A-Ja), Team #2 (first names Jo-Z), and Team #0 (those who haven't the Benchmark tests yet). Team #0 automatically loses -- they must work on their Benchmarks instead of playing the game.
The second question is usually "Guess my weight," but I haven't stepped on a scale since well before the pandemic. Instead, I change this to "Guess my height" -- since we're online, the students can't just look at me to see what my height is.
Afterwards, the questions are based on the Lesson 4.3.1, on solving equations using roots. This lesson lends itself well to the "Who Am I?" game -- I just ask the students to solve blank times blank equals 25, then segue into x^2 = 25 and explain that +5 and -5 are solutions. I also go over equations with cubes in them as well, not just squares.
Here is the relevant Common Core standard:
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.8.EE.A.2
Use square root and cube root symbols to represent solutions to equations of the form x2 = p and x3 = p, where p is a positive rational number. Evaluate square roots of small perfect squares and cube roots of small perfect cubes. Know that √2 is irrational.
The students get 15 minutes for this lesson and then 15 minutes for the APEX quiz. But the APEX quiz is actually based on the previous Lesson 4.1.5, which they haven't taken yet. I've already covered most of this quiz, but I only brushed over linear equations with no/infinitely many solutions (the one topic taught better on APEX than on our worksheets). So I go over this again as the students start the test.
10:20 -- First period ends and second period begins. This is the first of two seventh grade classes and the first class with an aide.
I also play "Who Am I?" with this class. But unfortunately, the lesson doesn't go as well. I attempt to go over the "Working Backwards" problems in APEX 4.3.1, followed by solving some equations of the form p(x + q) = r, as described in the following standard:
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.7.EE.B.4.A
Solve word problems leading to equations of the form px + q = r and p(x + q) = r, where p, q, and r are specific rational numbers. Solve equations of these forms fluently. Compare an algebraic solution to an arithmetic solution, identifying the sequence of the operations used in each approach. For example, the perimeter of a rectangle is 54 cm. Its length is 6 cm. What is its width?
Because of this standard, APEX insists on solving p(x + q) = r by first dividing both sides by p, rather than distributing p. The department head and I have already decided that this technique will only confuse the students more, and so we'd like to skip it, if not for the fact that three of the five problems on APEX Quiz 4.3.5 use this technique. So the goal is to use the game to teach both working backwards and p(x + q) = r in the first 15 minutes, then move on to the APEX quiz.
But the lesson doesn't go well. In fact, we'd be hard-pressed to teach all of this in 15 minutes period, with or without the "Who Am I?" game. The students struggle on the APEX quiz.
10:55 -- Second period ends and third period begins. This is the second of two seventh grade classes.
The only difference between this class and second period is that one girl guesses my exact age, while another guy accurately guesses my height. Of course, the game falls apart again as soon as we leave the age and height questions and move on to the math questions.
11:30 -- Third period ends for a short five-minute break.
11:35 -- Fourth period begins. This is the second of two eighth grade classes and the second class with the aide.
During "Who Am I?" one guy -- who just happened to earn a perfect score on the Benchmark multiple choice last week -- decides to guess 0 for my age, and then gives silly answers from then on. Luckily, this might be the rare time when a student goofing off is actually a good thing. If he had taken the game seriously, he might have dominated it, and no other student would bother participating. But since he takes this game off, this gives the others -- both his teammates and his opponents -- a chance to participate in the game.
12:10 -- Fourth period ends and fifth period begins. This is the Math Skills class.
Fortunately, ST Math and Dreambox are now working again. I'd spoken to the regular teacher over the weekend, and so we agreed not to count any grades for last week. This week, of course, the students must get back on track.
12:45 -- Fifth period ends, and so does my teaching day. But my workday is just getting started. This time, we're given a lunch break before the meetings begin (unlike in November).
1:30 -- It's a math department meeting today. We first meet as a department, along with the principal and assistant principal. Then we break off into our usual Math 8, Math 7, etc., groups to discuss the scoring of the Benchmarks, as well as our upcoming week of teaching.
In eighth grade, we decided that the Unit 4 Test will be given this week. This is actually the first part of Unit 4 (that is, Unit 4a) -- the skipped Lesson 4.2.1, on systems of equations, will be taught first thing after winter break.
As for seventh grade, the department head and I realize that today's Quiz 4.3.5 was a disaster. We might throw it out and move on to Lesson 4.4.1 starting tomorrow.
I actually have much more to say about the curriculum, but I don't have time to post much more today because I'm still grading the Benchmark Tasks! I've already completed seventh grade -- I stopped to write this blog post, and then I'll continue with eighth grade after I post. I'll just add a few brief notes about my day today.
Notice that "Who Am I?" is a game that involves competition and speed. Therefore it is what Eugenia Cheng would call "ingressive" -- it might turn off more "congressive" students, including some girls. (I know -- I'm supposed to be done with Cheng for now. But I'll be quick, and I won't include the label "Eugenia Cheng" in this post.) But many students enjoy it -- as long as I don't overdo it and instead play it mainly in situations where speed matters (such as on minimum days wth half-hour periods), then the game is fine.
Four years ago at the old charter school (yes, I'm allowed to mention the old school on monthly blogging days), I also taught on my birthday -- my ninth Julian birthday. It was a Wednesday and hence it was an early day, just as it was today. But I didn't have to spend all night grading Benchmarks, since our school had already completed Benchmarks about a month before my birthday.
Indeed, among the birthdays when I had to work very hard, this one is comparable only to my 21st and 23rd birthdays during my years at UCLA. In both cases, I was studying hard that night for December 8th tests -- one was the GRE to get into grad school, and the other was for a Set Theory final once I was in grad school. This year, I'll have to work hard all week -- coming up on Wednesday is some sort of math department observation, and there are special ed meetings the rest of the week.
Today was the first day of a statewide coronavirus shutdown in California. Just as with the color purple, schools that have already opened may stay open. To me, the only good thing about the shutdown is that there was much less traffic, and so I had a easier commute to and from work today.
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