#DitLife Post 5/11/17 - Oops. That was not a good quiz question.

Today's my 'normal' day of the month for my #DitLife post and for once, it's a school day!

4:13 - I am the human slave to the cat. He demands to be petted. He stands on me and nudges my hand not so gently until he gets his way. Seriously? I need teach this dude to tell time.

5:45 - the alarm goes off.

5:53 - same verse, same as the first.

6:05 - I. Really. Hate. Mornings. But I will get up now. Find out the Pens shut out the Caps, and being in the D.C. area married to a man from Pittsburgh, I decide today is a good day to wear my Crosby jersey, um "sweater". This should go over well with my students... LOL.

6:23 - I am out the door. Once again, happy to have nailed my morning routine down to precision.

6:38 - I'm at school walking in the door. I check my mailbox first, noticing that I am one of the few mailboxes that don't have envelopes to go home to students in my homeroom and breath a sigh of relief realizing that they all have "passed the district test" meaning they live within my school's bounds.

6:43 - I am in my classroom, start my SMARTboard and get the materials ready for today. I spend the remaining time grading a STILE lesson I created on basic probability. I had given this to my students as a formative assessment (non graded) to see what knowledge they were bringing to the table about probability. Here are some of their answers. Hmmm. There is a great need for good differentiation - but hey, what's new?

6:55 - a colleague comes in to talk to me about an issue. Um. Ok. It's the end of the year, tensions are high. So I put on my reflective listening ears and give it a go.

7:05 - the bell rings and the kids come off the bus. I head to hallway duty.  Several kids ask to go to various teachers to gather missing work, get help on misunderstood assignments, go for extra practice with their instruments, or collaborate with peers on projects.  Students are noting my attire for today. Many are not impressed. HAHAHAAA.

7:20 - Homeroom officially begins, and I help a student through a make up assignment that he didn't understand at all. Of course it didn't help that we were interrupted 4 times in the process either. I also sent a student to get the iPad cart because it's checked out to me for the day! SCORE! Technology in the classroom during PARCC testing!

7:37 - started my first class with a Notice and Wonder from this tweet that I sent out from our local Target in addition to our warm-up. We discuss this math for almost 20 minutes digging into whether the color caused the difference to all the way down to the price per pad.  We go through and work on our normal warm-up routine and begin the weekly quiz. The 8:22 bell rings before the kids are ready for it!! Mrs. Scheetz 1. Students 0.

8:23 - I have a team meeting to discuss students. Some of the students are my heros. The difficulties they encounter outside of school they should never have exposure to. EVER. Let alone at 12 years old. 

8:55 - I return to my room and finish grading the STILE and make my key for my quiz. Its recycled from last year, but I like to redo my keys each time I give the students the questions. OOPS. #TeacherFail. I am not sure the students are ready for the mastery level question for systems. I think about how to have a brief conversation about how they can approach this question. 

9:11 - They return to the class. We pull together and talk about the mastery level question. I let them struggle a bit on the question for another 20 minutes or so. Walking around the room, I still see a wide variety of answers and the level of frustration of the students is on the rise. I might see a mutiny soon.  Hmmm. Guess its back to another quick discussion. This time I show how they can add the equations to eliminate a variable since we have a zero pair coefficient. I started by making up two totally different equations then what was on their quiz and ask them what similar quality their two equations on their quiz had that the equations on the board had. We bounce around a bit, but with my prompts of "Tell me more", "That's an interesting view, what lead you to that thought?" and "How do you know" we settled on noticing that the coefficients were opposites. When I cancelled them out, it was like I had some sort of magic. I actually don't think if I had done a formal lesson it would have gone as well as this misfire quiz question did. I let the students finish with their individual struggles, and decided ultimately that this is obviously going to be a bonus question. The bell rang and once again the students weren't ready for it. As they left one student said "Mrs. Scheetz, my brain hurts. You really blew it way today!". Well then. I guess it wasn't such a #TeacherFail after all. 

10:00 - that class leaves, I'm on hallway duty again and my Common Core class arrives to settle in by dragging their name into a quadrant for a Which One Doesn't Belong. We have a nice investigative discussion about the relationships of the numbers before moving on to their quiz. Their quiz is for my SLO documentation, so it's the third time they have seen the quiz on rational numbers. They were given this quiz in August, again in January and for the final time today with the hope that they score their highest score on today's administration. We've consistently worked on operations with rational numbers all year long through intensive interventions, homework, and recursive items on quizzes. So, I'm hoping these kiddos knock this out of the parcc, I mean, park. 

10:50 - the kids start to finish the rational number quiz, so they head to the iPad cart and choose an assignment. They can choose a GoFormative assignment I have set up for them or work on a section of IXL. Both of these assignments are based off of the results of the Stile lesson and the thoughts they had about probability. 

11:15 - everyone is now finished with the rational number quiz and have had some time to work on their choice assignment, so we put our iPads away and get out our interactive notebooks. We do our activity - probability card sort where students have to sort out the cards as likely, unlikely or as likely as not. There are 15 cards, so naturally they want 5 in each pile, but struggle to realize that this isn't going to happen. They need to figure out how to arrange the cards based on the likelihood and not just because they WANT even piles. 

11:37 - that class leaves. Once again, I'm on hallway duty, and another Common Core section comes it. They do what my 10:00 class does. 

12:00 - Once they get settled into their quiz, I ask my AP to come in and cover me while I run copies because I realized that I don't have quite enough for the card sort activity for this section. I swagged my materials last night when I left, and it became apparent I would be about 5 short. I also take this opportunity to run to the restroom. Crap. We don't have tissue. Thankfully a colleague was in the stall next to me and shouted "I can spare you a square". I have never been so relieved. Seriously, folks. This struggle is real. How many other professions have these team bonding moments? 

12:05 - I'm back and circulating around my students as they take their quiz. I am once again reminded of how grateful I am to be their teacher. They really are showing great progress. No one is rushing, they are all documenting their thinking and moving their skills in the right direction. This year has flown by. 

12:27 - the bell rings for recess. But it's raining. 

The students put their quizzes in the class bin, and play games. I provide a selection of games, but many just prefer to socialize. The noise level can get out of control quickly, so we use a noise meter. 

12:41 - I've survived. It's time for them to go to lunch. However, I have a lunch group as I've stated before in my other #DitLife blogs. I eat lunch with approximately 40 students in my classroom who don't want to eat in the cafeteria with the other 300 students for various reasons. Some play Mario Cart against each other on their DS, others plays a card game called Kings Corners, and some just sit and read books or socialize with each other.

My lunch group

1:11 - the lunch period is over and my 2nd Common Core class comes back. We pass out the quizzes, and they get finished. They also have the same opportunity to work on their choice of GoFormative or IXL assignments. This class also gets out their interactive notebooks and completes the card sort for Likelihood as well. 

2:05 - time for the kiddos to leave. Bus duty in the rain. I'm in the Pens "sweater" and get soaked even though I have an umbrella. Awesomesauce. I won't be staying too late after school today :) 

2:10 - I return to my desk and get my plans ready for tomorrow and grade the quizzes from today. I enter the grades into the online grading system and pack up some items to work on at home. 

4:00 - I am out the door and on my way home. 

4:15 - I am home and take a few minutes to get reacquainted with my couch. I didn't see it at all yesterday.  I check my personal email from my phone, text my husband to check in with him and think about what's for dinner. 

4:50 - my 5 o'clock tutoring student just rang my bell. Ok, I guess we will get started a few minutes early then. We work on his sixth grade review material and he gets frustrated with me every time I ask him to tell me why he selected the answer choice he did. He started to think that every time I stated that, it was because he was incorrect (which he often was), but when I asked this of him and he had it right, he responded with, "Wait? Why did you ask me that then, if I got it right?".  He then began to realize that I was going to ask this question whether or not he had the answer correct so I could hear his justification.

6:00 - we end the tutoring session and he has some time to play with my dog (a favorite of his) before his older brother picks him up. 

6:10 - his brother (a former student of mine) picks up him up & my husband arrives home with our cheesesteaks from the VFW.  My husband and I enjoy our fine cuisine in front of the television watching this week's Survivor. When I am finished dinner, I open my computer and enter more grades, and compile the data from the rational number quiz for my SLO. I'm happy to see most students have made growth, although not as much as I had hoped. I forgot to bring home my attendance log, so I start my list of to-do's for tomorrow. 

8:00 - I head up stairs to show and get ready for bed. Grateful tomorrow is Friday. I pack up my school bag and make sure I am ready to go in the morning before going to bed. I check my twitter feed and see what kind of inspiration I can get. 

8:48 - I am done. Done. I'm posting this now, and once my head hits the pillow, I'll surely be out. 

And this time next month, my #DitLife post will be about Summer break :)

#DitLife PARCC testing day

Today, was day 3 of 6 for PARCC testing.  You read that right... 6 days of testing. Today is the final day of three days for English Language Arts. Fortunately, we have several days between now and starting our Math tests.  I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures. Of course, if I took pictures during our PARCC test, that would not end well for me.

So, here goes my day....

5:45 -  alarm

5:53 -  2nd alarm

6:05 -  3rd alarm, this is getting serious.

6:06 -  talk myself into getting up. The kids get off the bus at 7. I don't have time to fuss around.

6:28 - I'm out the door with a breakfast shake in hand. Glad I have perfected my morning routine to be as streamlined as possible.

6:43 - arrive at school and realize I don't have my badge to get into the side door. Start to panic.... and then begin to pray that I just left it on my desk. Who needs a hassle of getting a replacement badge at the end of the school year. So I wait for another colleague to show up... because of course, my hands are full and I don't want to carry all this stuff to the front door of the school which seems to be a half mile away right now.

6:46 - get into the building and make it to my classroom.  My badge is on my desk. Breath. Deep. Sigh. Of. Relief. I set up my SMARTboard and load the homeroom document that tells my homeroom students which teachers are requesting to see them this morning, and also get the SMART notebook open that I need for 1st period. I then set up the Shilling Shop (details  below).

7:05 - the bell rings, and the kids rush in from the buses. I stand on hallway duty and give students permission when they come to see me about going to chorus, the media center, art, band, and other teachers. I've gotten good with remembering who is going where, so I don't need to write this down. 8 students out of the 32 have asked for permission.

7:15 - pull a student aside to mentor him. He hasn't been making good choices and between the principal and myself we are trying to help him right his ship. Still during hallway duty.

7:20 - homeroom starts. Administer 2 make up quizzes to students. Remind my homeroom of today's testing schedule since their class schedule is all out of whack. Discuss make up work with 5 students, and give permission to 6 more to go to the places they need to go to. Discuss PARCC testing briefly with the IRT.

7:37 - begin 1st period. Since we only have 45 minutes instead of our normal 90 minutes, I am not finding success in adjusting my schedule. Therefore, we finish the work we were trying to accomplish during the last class period now. We're working on starting systems, so I have my students looking at balance and puzzles to find the value of different items. I'm also having two of my students run the Shilling Shop.

8:22 - students go off to specials after dropping their items to their 4th period class. It is a crazy transition period. I review my PARCC testing manual to make sure I have the appropriate directions for today marked and ready to go. I check into my testing location (the media center) and check on my computers. My testing group is 58, so I need to make sure everything is ready to go now, so there will be minimal surprises later.

9:11 - it's 3rd period, but I have my 4th period kiddos. Since my Common Core students are needing some more work on samples and populations along with ratios, I have them working on a sampling task from Scholastic. While they are working on this task in partners or as an individual, I am running the Shilling Shop.

10:00 - students move to their testing groups. No one is testing in my room so it becomes one big locker. Various students come in to drop off their backpacks and electronics in my classroom knowing that my room will be locked during testing. Some of these students aren't even mine, they just know I will let them do this.

10:05 - I report to the media center and start my testing session with my 58 students. Once I get all students started, I spend the next 110 minutes walking around the media center making sure students are working. I think about how I need a new pair of sneakers. As students finish, I help them to log out of the system and instruct them to sit patiently until the time is finished or the last person has completed the test.  Since we have set aside 3 full class periods, once testing has finished, students watch a movie on the SMARTboard in the media center to finish the remaining of the class time once the testing materials are once again secured.

12:27 - we transition to recess. I have never seen a group of students who are so excited to be in the bus parking lot. They run, socialize with each other and play with the few sport balls they have access to.

12:41 - we line up to go into lunch. I hand off my classroom key to a student who opens my door for my lunch group daily and I help move the rest of the students into the cafeteria.  I spend the rest of this period eating lunch with approximately 40 students in my classroom. These students don't want to eat in the cafeteria with the other 300 students for various reasons. Currently, there's a DS group who play Mario Cart against each other, another group who plays a card game called Kings Corners, and others who just sit and read books or socialize with each other.

1:11 - Lunch is over and it's 8th period. I see my last class and repeat the plans I had with my 4th period class - the Scholastic task and running Shilling Shop.

2:05 - it's time to send them home on a bus. Woah. Busy day.

2:07 - I pack up the Shilling shop, clean up my desk and get my materials ready for tomorrow. I update my classroom website. These tasks are much easier to type then they are to actually accomplish!

5:17 - I am walking out the door to go home.

5:30 - arrive at home, sit on the couch, fall asleep.

6:10 - husband wakes me up, God love this man, he made dinner. Spaghetti and meatballs.

6:30 - clean up from dinner. Return to sitting on the couch and check my twitter feed. Fill my inbox with tweets that I want to follow up on at work. This is becoming a habit.

7:00 - watch last week's Designated Survivor with my husband, fall asleep before the end....

9:00 - My husband wakes me up and tells me to go to bed. I think he is tired of trying to watch tv while I am snoring. I go up stairs, get ready for bed, put on Designated Survivor (again!) and fall asleep again.....


As promised above, here's more information about the Shilling Shop. I hand out class money called Shillings. Students get this money by doing different class jobs, getting 100% on quizzes, helping other students, doing things that better our school community. This classroom money system is something that only I do. At least once per marking period (usually twice or three times), I will set up a Shilling Shop where students can purchase items with their Shillings. I have a variety of rewards - sheets of stickers, pages of coloring books from the new popular relaxing coloring books, fun pencils and erasers, frisbees, stress balls, single packs of oreos, snack sizes of other cookie packs, snack size pringles, Halloween size candy, and a few other items that change each time (like homework passes).  Students spend their Shillings or decide to save their Shillings if something catches their eye. The prices range from 50 to 300 Shillings, because we use 10, 20 and 100 Shillings in our room.

And please know, since I fell asleep, this post has been posted and submitted a day late :( I started it with the best of intentions during the day, but time just wasn't on my side.`