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Cooking With Ms. Pac Man & Patty Paper

In the middle of a day committed to visiting math classes at one of our 8 comprehensive high schools, I realized that I simply couldn’t do it any longer. I couldn’t spend the day watching someone else teach. Regardless of the quality of the lesson, there were things I wanted to try. There were risks I wanted to take. There were opportunities being missed, and I couldn’t afford to keep missing them.

So, during one of the classes, my partner-in-crime math coach, Paula, and I talked about it.

What do you think of this: instead of going in to watch others teach, we offer to give someone the day off and teach their entire schedule? We prep the lesson, print the handouts, design and deliver everything from start to finish.

Ah, yeah, I like that. Oh, and we can get their feedback to keep them in on the process, and to let them see how we envision the lesson going. I’m in!

With that, we packed up our stuff and got right to work, emailing the next group of teachers we were supposed to visit. Rather than visit, we want to give you the day off!!! Sounds great, doesn’t it?!

It’s actually very uncomfortable to give up control of your class for the day, and we respect the teachers’ feelings on this, holding no judgment over those who opt not to partake. But those who do… oh, they’re in for a ride. I sent the request out to our first site and immediately received a response from a 2nd-year teacher, among others. He is in his second year and already opening his door. This is big and I don’t want to lose sight of it; we’ll bring it back up near the end.

Once I found out who I’d be giving the day off, I needed to know content, what was coming before it, and what objectives he had for his students on that day. This was good because it caused him to reflect on the goals and objectives, rather than getting stuck into a rhythm of just teaching what is next. It’s nothing I’m blaming anyone for; it’s tough to be engaged in prepping that far in advance on a regular basis. What seemed like a day off was really a chance to do a demo lesson and model some different strategies in a not-so-sneaky disguise.

The goal was to have students understand and apply geometric rotations about the origin.

Great, I can do something with that.

Me: “Is there anything you’d like to see–or not see–in particular?”

Him: “I feel like I’m stuck in my comfort zone of powerpoints, desmos, peardeck, and worksheets.”

Perfect… not. There go two of the things I was hoping for. Once Desmos and Peardeck were off the table, I needed to find another way to introduce rotations that would still be engaging. With that, I turned to the best place I knew: the #MTBoS Search Engine and wasn’t disappointed. Using some of the ideas discussed in The Classroom Chef, I got into the lesson prep and settled on this:

The intro video would be Robert Kaplinsky’s Ms. Pac Man and the follow-up would be the video with only the translations.

Next, the students were tasked with helping me move Ms. Pac Man from the start to where the video ended. It was hilarious because every single class gave me only the translations, which worked perfectly because we could discuss the need for rotations.

It was frustrating and empowering all at once because the students felt the need for more than just translations in their toolbox of transformations.

Once we built up the demand as a class, I moved them to patty paper and a handout from Dane Ehlert:

Part 1
Part 2

I was surprised when it looked like, through my formative evaluation, every single kid in the class was rocking it. Patty paper worked, and conversations were rich. The patty paper was a major hit, with kids using it to visualize the rotations and begin forming their version of the rule for rotating a point about a center. It was so much fun to see/hear/witness!

Towards the end of the day, I asked the teacher if he wanted to take the last period. After all, he got to watch me do my thing for 5 periods, and if I were him, I would want to try some of the strategies I just saw. He ended up saying yes, and his reflection was very telling:

“After watching you, I thought I could do it, but you made it look much easier. You knew where to take the conversations and what the transitions were. I need to practice this more.”

Going back to the beginning where I said it was big for him to let me in, it was even bigger to take on the last class and teach it in a way that may not have been his style. This second year teacher stepped up, took a risk, and stayed out of his comfort zone for an entire period, trying teacher moves and strategies that he hadn’t practiced with someone in the room. I applaud that for sure, and it seemed like his students responded well, too.

One thing I can say is that I was exhausted after the final bell. Teaching 6 high school classes with no prep period, preparing a lesson you haven’t taught in years without any of the tools you’ve grown accustomed to using, being explicit about particular teacher moves, and building relationships with 210 new students in a day had me drained.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Happy “Eat The Blinking Ghosts” Fishing

R4SDSS Google Tools 2.0 3.11.17

The team at Region 4 has given us many opportunities to support teachers over the past few years, including The Classroom Chef workshop, Google Tools, and an upcoming full day of Desmos and how it can empower teachers and students.

This weekend was no different, with a room of teachers ready to take their knowledge of the Google Suite of tools to a new level.

We began the day by having everyone complete a Google Form that gave us some information about the attendees, but also to show off the quiz feature of Forms as each person answered questions about Polar Bears (a common theme for the day… you’ll see).

Once we had “taken attendance” with the Form, each attendee dove right into creating their own form that they could use in class – or role outside the classroom – this week. We saw a variety of Forms being created, from a 4th grade book review to a college visitation form to quiz about color palettes for an high school art course. The time was well-spent not only for the opportunity and freedom to create a product for their class, but to also see how others were using their newfound knowledge of Google Forms.

Next, we wanted to highlight some of the new features of Google Slides and to lean on some of its existing features that make presentations cleaner, more efficient, and more student-friendly. The group made a copy of our Polar Bear Slides template and built things like this:

More specifically, we introduced the addition and editing of video, insertion and masking of images, and theme design. After we all create an individual report on Polar Bears, the task became applying these principles to a slide deck that could be used this week, so time was given for the creation of a product.

For as little discussion that happens around Google Drawings, it sure is useful. From diagrams to flow charts to handouts and beyond, Drawings is the forgotten gem of the Google Suite; not in our workshop. All in attendance made a copy of a Bear Venn Diagram and sorted the descriptors, then created their own to use with their class.

This theme, along with Polar Bears, persisted throughout the day. When doing an advanced Google Suite training, we felt that it would be more useful to have a unit of study that teachers could refer to–and build on their own–before leaving for the day. After all, if you don’t use it, you lose it.

We closed by going through the various ways in which Google Slides can be presented, how content can be collaborative and shared, and encouraged everyone to take some risks.

If you are interested in having us come work with your staff on using the Google Suite of tools in class, head over to our reservations and get in touch!

#ESU10 – Kearney, NE

Full disclosure; this was our first workshop in Nebraska. And the largest. And the first with microphones (despite our best efforts to use teacher voice).

Over 100 people crammed into ESU 10 today, and we checked in with administrators and coaches before everyone else arrived. They shared concerns that echo those we hear around the country: We’re adopting a textbook, some teachers are resistant to change, and we’re feeling the pinch of time.

Yeah, we get that. Thankfully, Classroom Chef isn’t about the materials or the resources or the supplemental materials. It ain’t about the what, it’s about the how.

We felt our own challenges; moving 100 adults around a room is tough, getting 100 adults on wi-fi is tough, and speaking loud and clear to 100 adults is tough.

With all that, though, we had an incredible day of conversations, learning, and risk-taking. Yes, we poured cups of water into a pitcher, compared stacks of quarters to cash, and came up with reasons why shapes didn’t belong in a group. Beyond that were rich discussions that will be seen for weeks to come in teachers’ classrooms all around Nebraska and we look forward to hearing about them.

During the Mullet Ratio entree, there were some high quality epiphanies from the elementary teachers who were talking about using the lesson as a way of introducing measurement while others found useful modifications like relying on whole numbers versus the decimal values in the current lesson.

Because of the size of the room and the range of teachers attending, we showcased three different Desmos Polygraph activities based on grade level and gave Nebraska just enough Desmos to want more. Here’s to hoping they are still hungry to learn about what Activity Builder, Polygraph, and the Desmos calculator can do.

We finished with a delectable dessert of Choose Your Own Assessment, which can be summarized–in part–by the tweets below. Thank you to ESU10, Dianah and Denise, and the incredible teachers who drove up to 3 hours to spend their day with us!

If you are ready to become The Classroom Chef, please make your reservations early.