My thoughts on homework...

Every year, my teaching team and I wrack our brains discussing what we will give for homework and how it will be graded. I do believe that students need practice outside of the classroom, but I don't like giving textbook homework--it's extremely monotonous. Besides, with textbook homework, the kids have a myriad of excuses: I left it in my locker, I was at my Dad's house last night and my book was at my Mom's house, I forgot the page number, etc. We have an online textbook that works *sometimes*, so I tell them not to rely on that. Also, we have about 60 more 6th graders this year than we have had since I started at my school...so not every student has one! Then, there is the other issue of who is really doing the homework??

Enter the solution: last summer we went to CAMT, the Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching, since it was in Houston and it was close. We signed up for it in March...and it seemed like a great idea at the time...until the day came. We had to be at the convention center (a good 35-40 minutes away) by 8 AM for our first session! What were we thinking!? Well, I am glad we went! We sat in a session led by Brad Fulton who is an excellent speaker! He suggested we do this:

1. Homework is given on Monday and is due Friday. It can either be one assignment that will cover the material for the time period, or it can be shorter assignments for each night.
2. Students must show all work to receive credit, and if they turn it in Friday, no weekend homework. (Let me clarify, no extra homework is given to those that don't, they just have the weekend to complete it for a late grade).
3. On Thursday night, before it is due, I post just the answers to the homework so that they can check their answers and know if they need to make corrections.
4. On Tuesday of the following week, we give the students a homework quiz. We modified this a little bit from Brad's class.
1. We "grade" the homework ahead of time for a total of 40 points if work is completed and effort is there. No credit for just answers without any justification. 
2. The quiz itself is worth 60 points and here is how it is broken down:
1. 5 questions are questions from the homework
2. 5 questions are questions from the previous week's material (that if they completed the homework should not have a problem completing).
3. The rationale is, that if a kid is trying and does the homework, they will get a minimum of a 70, where if I actually took homework up each day for a grade, the grade would be much lower. Whereas, a kid who doesn't do homework at all, still has some way to get some points. (Hey, a 30 is better than a 0!)

Let me clarify a few things...I am a middle school teacher. I am not saying that this will work for everyone. And, 99% of the time, 99% of their kids do very well and turn in their homework. And, for those that never turned in homework before, now do. I do this with my 6th and 7th grade classes and will do it next year with 8th grade. Some of my 7th graders who I had last year were hit or miss with homework and it hurt their grades...this year, I don't have that problem. 

It also provides stability for parents. They know that each week homework is assigned and they know the expectation of when their child needs to turn it in. It eliminates the excuse of, "Well, Johnny told me he didn't have any homework..."

How do you handle homework in your class? Let me know what you think of this process and if you are willing to try it and want more information, I can help you get started!

Have a great weekend,

Danielle

Super Secondary TpT Giveaway!

Super Secondary TpT Giveaway! Just in time for Teachers Appreciation Week. 40 Prizes from TpT's Top Secondary Teacher Stores. ONE Grand Prize Winner. Scroll down below and enter to Win...

Enter May 1st to May 5th

We are so grateful to collaborate with such generous and talented teachers on TpT. Thanks again to all the teachers for their donations! Danielle Knight and Brittany Wheaton are giving the winner (could be you!) a $10 TpT gift certificate to each of their stores. 

To enter: see one of these lovely ladies' blogs for more instructions!

Brittany Wheaton's TPT Store (The SUPERhero Teacher Resources)

Danielle Knight's TPT Store (Study All Knight)

We are so excited! Good luck!  

IMPORTANT: New to Rafflecopter? By clicking the “Follow Me” link on the raffle doesn’t automatically follow the TpT stores and blogs of the featured teachers. It takes you to the TpT store or blog. It is then up to you to follow once you are there.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

• For a TPT Store, click on the red star or “Follow Me” above their name.
• A blog, look for how to follow them on the side bar. 
• For a Facebook page - click “Like” 

Then you can enter! The Winner will be announced on Sunday, May 5th So what are you waiting for? Join in the Fun!  

Leave a comment if you have any questions and I will be glad to help!

Danielle

Bring on the Task Cards!

Well, we made it through STAAR testing at our school and we should hopefully get our scores in a few weeks. This is the first year that it "counts," so fingers crossed (and toes, eyes, etc!)

I had some time to create some new products after school this week and I wanted to share them with you. I really have been into creating task cards lately. After purchasing a few sets on Teachers Pay Teachers, I realized how much I enjoyed using them in my classroom. Plus, like most of you, things are so much more fun to complete in COLOR! I think my students feel the same way, because they have been diving right in to solve these problems. I have been piloting them in my 7th grade class particularly because it is just one class of 28, so if it doesn't work right, I don't have to worry about scrounging for another lesson the rest of the day. However, I haven't run into that problem yet :-)

Variables and Expressions Task Cards (4 of 20)

Check out some of my most recent sets on TpT and let me know what you think!

Volume of Prisms and Cylinders Task Cards
Variables and Expressions Task Cards
Sales Tax, Tip, and Discount Task Cards
Ratios and Proportions Task Cards
Pythagorean Theorem Task Cards
Probability of Compound Events Task Cards

Take a look at all the sets I have posted on TpT and the first 3 people to leave a comment can have the set of their choosing! You must sign up to follow my blog :-)

Also if you have a set of task cards that you would like to see created, let me know in the comments section and I can get to work on those!

Happy Sunday,
Danielle

Unthinkable! A Fun Math Vocabulary Game

Well, I had every intention of keeping up with this blog during the school year to document all the things that I did in my classroom. Seeing as how my last blog post was in August, that obviously didn't happen! I, honestly, am not even sure where the time went. In October I felt like the year was just dragging on, and now, the week before state testing, I can't push the brakes fast enough! Here is some of what I have been up to lately:

I started teaching 7th grade this year in addition to teaching 6th grade, and I LOVE it. 7th grade might be one of the best kept secrets in middle school. Since I taught most of the kiddos last year in 6th, I know exactly where each kid is skills wise, and that makes things SO much easier. There really is something to be said about moving up with your kids each year. Who knows? Maybe I will teach 8th grade next!

A few years ago, my husband (also a teacher) came home from a professional development and told me about a website called Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT). I browsed through some things, not really knowing what it was I was looking for, and I found some pretty great FREE items to use in my class. Who doesn't love FREE?? Well, I would periodically return to the site, most of the time by way of Pinterest (again, another epic discovery) and I would purchase things to use with my students that were better than anything I have created (and cuter, too)! However, I have made several things for my team at school and my husband mentioned at dinner one night, "Hey, you should sell some of your stuff online and make some money off of it." WHAT?! No way is my stuff good enough to sell online! Who would buy it?

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I took the leap of faith on February 19th and uploaded my first free product. By the next day, 20 people had downloaded it! I was so excited--I started posting other things that I had created in previous years, some for sale, and some free. Sales started off slowly, and they still are, but I get a little rush every time I get an email saying one of my products has sold! I now have 28 products uploaded on the site and am pleased with the progress my store has made in the past 2 months.

One of the products that I am the proudest of is my take on the game Taboo, Unthinkable!. It is a math vocabulary game played similarly to Taboo. I created a different set of cards for each of the 5 strands aligned to the common core (primarily grades 6 and 7). Here is a peek at some of the cards:

 

The cards are color coded by strand. The 5 strands included are: Numbers and Operations, Expressions and Equations, Ratios and Proportions, Geometry, and Probability and Statistics. I bundled them all together for a total of 186 cards!

Take a look in my TpT store to see the rest :)

I promise it won't be 8 months before I post again...Happy Saturday!

Danielle

Ten Commandments of Math

I swore I would just relax this weekend since this is the "last" real weekend before I have to go back to work. Where the heck did the time go?!? Anyhow, since school is the only thing on my mind, I figured I should just give in.

A while ago, I found this pin on pinterest and thought that I just HAD to have this in my classrooom. However, I wanted it the size of a poster and not in my own handwriting. I was about to settle in for the night with my cricut when my friend, Melanie, sent me a link of her poster and told me to read this blog. Within 10 minutes I was rocking and rolling. The website, picmonkey.com, is SO easy to use. After about 30 minutes total, I had this masterpiece to call my own!

10 Days Until School!

On May 31, the first day of school seemed like eons away. I had all of these grandiose plans to "get things done this summer" like so many of my other teacher friends. Now, on August 15, nearly 10 weeks later, I sit here and wonder what I actually got done off of my to do list.

I didn't paint my bedroom like I have wanted to for the past 2 years...oh well, the chocolate brown keeps the room dark in the mornings (at least that is what my husband says!)

I didn't try all of those recipes I pinned on pinterest (I never actually paid attention to just how involved some of those really are!)

However, since we are on the topic of pinterest, I DID go way overboard with creating things for my classroom. I would show you pictures, but let's just say that my room is still "under construction!" I desperately want to have it finished by Friday afternoon--fingers crossed!

My teaching partner in crime and I attended SO many PDs this summer and learned quite a bit at some and not so much at others...that's the way it usually goes, I guess! I feel like I haven't had a whole lot of free time this summer, even though when I look back in my planner there are MANY open days...what exactly did I do? I probably spent the bulk of them between Hobby Lobby, Michal's or Jo Ann's just so I could gain the maximum benefits from having 12 million coupons. My husband tried to tell me that just because I had the coupons didn't mean that we needed to go every week. (umm, do you know me at all?!?)

Needless to say, I have actually accomplished quite a bit. We cleaned out our junk room and turned it into a scrapbooking/craft room for me. This way, when I am doing craft projects, the kitchen counter isn't covered in mod podge and/or glitter, and let's face it, whenm I am occupied doing something, that gives the hubs plenty of time to play his video games. He built me a desk (which is fantastic!) and we put together tons of storage containers in the closet. It is GREAT! I have probably spent the better part of the summer in said room and since I feel like every pin I find on pinterest just HAS to be in my classroom...this pretty much sums it up...

Happy last week of summer!