Human Bingo- a Review Activity

On Thursday, we started class by playing Human Bingo.  We are currently working on the concept of percent of a number and have worked with a variety of "real life" activities involving this idea.  These ranged from "going shopping" where students went to Best Buy, Toys r Us, or Target online and "made" some purchases and then calculated a discount to a tax and tip activity where students took three people "out to dinner."  I wanted the kids to do some flat out number crunching with percents and so decided that Human Bingo would be a good activity to get us doing just that.  The students were moving about, doing the activity and I snapped a quick photo of one of their sheets with my iPad and made  this post on Twitter

 where I received a message back from Lisa Henry (@lmhenry9) who asked me about it after looking at the attached picture.

  Thus this post was born.  So for Lisa and anyone else looking for a nice review activity that gets kids up and moving and talking here is Human Bingo (borrowed quite liberally from Rick Wormelli.)


The whole idea of Human Bingo revolves around getting kids up and talking.  You start by giving each student a five by five  bingo board.  The nice part about the bingo boards is that they do not need to be different.  Here are a couple examples

Percent of a Number

Multiplying and dividing fractions

You should put a free space in the middle (everyone loves a free space!) and then place problems that you want to review around it.  I also like to put a couple silly things in (such as know the name of a person who signed the Declaration of Independence or has a dog at home) because I teach middle school and middle schoolers are pretty silly.  Once students have their bingo boards, they need to get up and get people to sign the squares.  Students can get whichever student they want to sign a spot but as you will see later, there is a rhyme and reason to the signing.  I do put a limit to students signing in that they may only sign twice on any one board (including their own.)  Since I'm in the classroom as are other adults (aides, special educator, etc) those people can sign too.  Once I feel that students have moved around enough and got plenty of signatures (and some have their whole board signed) I stop kids and have them go back to their seats.  This is where the bingo really begins.  I fire up the Smart Board and connect my iPad to it with the Decide Now app on it.

I spin the spinner and if a student's name comes up anyone who had that student sign their board can cover ONE (and only one) of the spots they signed.  I like to use Smarties candies as markers for this as the kids get to eat them after (yes I know I let them eat candy but its not THAT much).  We continue the spinning and marking (and the class progressively gets louder as kids start calling out names they need and cheering or groaning as names come up.)  Finally, someone gets a "bingo."  When that happens I have that students call out the name and problem of each part of their bingo.  As they do so, I call on the student who signed the board to correctly answer the problem, if they do so we continue on to see if a bingo was really made.  If they miss the problem, no bingo is made and we continue to play.  Lots of pressure on the kids to perform for one another but a lot of fun too.

As you can see from the above, there is certainly some strategy as students are moving around getting signatures.  Its probably helpful to ask me to sign a specific problem if there is a real tough one for instance.  I have a number of students who don't just take kids' word that they can solve problems but actually make them do it out (and along that line of thought, I have kids who "prove" to others they can do the problems by doing them out and bringing that paper around with them as they sign.)

I like this activity for a variety of reasons.  One as I might have mentioned a few times above :) it gets kids up and moving.  Two its differentiated, if kids struggle with problems they can work on and sign ones that they can do and if kids really know what they are doing, they can opt to doing more difficult problems.  Of course, there is also the part that it actually makes kids practice the skill because its not just their own selves who will be hurt by them not being able to do something but rather their classmates.  I continue to be amazed at how bad kids feel if they "let someone down."  It also amazes me that kids will try their hardest and not "throw" a question even though it isn't them that will end up winning.

I highly recommend this activity and would love to hear how other people put their spin on it.  Obviously there are a multitude of ways to change it.  The problems themselves, the number of times kids can sign, the way you pull names (popsicle sticks for instance) can all be changed.  If anyone uses this and makes their own boards, please share, I'd love to see them!

Math Homework- It shouldn't be readiness only!

Welcome back!  Let me first apologize for not posting in SO SO SO long.  Time has just caught up to me.  My district like so many others has been on the Common Core kick and thus we are having meeting after meeting about that which in turn is taking away time that I previously have had during the day and so I'm having less time to plan lessons.  I also volunteered to coach my little guy's basketball team.  (2nd and 3rd graders playing hoops, now there is something to see.)  In addition, it just seems that I'm wanting to spend more time making my lessons more interesting, more engaging, more everything including what today's MSSUN FUN post is about differentiating, especially math homework.  So on to the post

I find that differentiating math homework is an important role that we as teacher need to do.  Unfortunately for me, most of my differentiation of math homework tends to be solely for readiness. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that that is actually the case for most teachers (at least from what I've seen.)  It seems that when most people talk differentiation that is the main area they are talking about.  For myself, I tend to make two or three "levels" of homework where I do different things to adapt the difficulty.  I might make the problems easier or more difficult by changing the numbers.  For instance on an adding fraction homework sheet, I might have the lower level doing problems with denominators of 2,4,6,8, and 12 while the higher level would work with all sorts of integer numbers.  I also at times have students who struggle with word problems not because they don't know the math but rather because they can't really read the problem.  In this case, I try to rewrite the problems and level the homework not with easier numbers but instead with easier to read word problems.  For longer assignments and projects that students do as part of homework, I try my hardest to make the whole thing is fit to their readiness level.  For instance, our end of fraction unit project consisted of a project making a recipe book where students changed the recipe size by multiplying by a fraction.  (Thanks to Becky Goerend (@MrsBMG)  for this great project!) For students who were struggling with the concept of fractions, I had them double, triple, and halve the recipe.  For more confident students, I changed the fractions to more challenging numbers such as 5/6 or 1and 2/3

The one thing I most certainly do not do when I differentiate homework for readiness is to give the more struggling students less problems and the students who understand more problems.  I want the kids to know that the homework is important for them to practice the skills we are working on in class and because they don't really get it doesn't mean they do less or because they do get it doesn't mean they should have to do more and more because they can.

I need to be better at providing some differentiation through choice.  I have at times given students options of different homework which I've tiered for readiness but I don't think I've done it enough.  It's surprising because almost every time the students opt for the homework that I would've given them anyway.  They really do have a good idea on their readiness level. The other way I use choice during homework would be on longer assignments.  For instance, in class we use choice boards at times.  Sometimes, students are wrapping up a part of a unit and they have to finish their choice board activity for homework.  The choice that they have been given in class then simply roles over as their homework.

The other area that I do NO differentiation for during homework is learning style.  In class, I'm able to provide the visual learners with stuff to do, the auditory learners with activities, and the kinesetic learners the appropriate learning opportunity.  However, I don't really know how to move this into homework.  Since we are a 1 to 1 school, I could probably incorporate the lap tops and have kids use Audacity or some such program to podcast answers, use Smart Notebook for the artistic to "draw" me some responses, and so on.  It seems daunting to move to such an idea because of the time it will take, both to create the varied assignments and to spend time providing feedback on them.  (I don't grade homework, I like to provide some comments to the students on it instead.)

I'd be interested in hearing from others about what sort of way they differentiate their homework, especially for learning style and for choice.  Looking forward to the conversation!

The Locker Problem and Why the why is important

Today I had one of my classes solve the locker problem.  The basic premise of this problem is that a group of students is running up and down a hall in the school opening and shutting one hundred locker doors.  The first student opens all the lockers, the second closes every other one, the third opens or closes every third one and so on.  The question that then comes up is which lockers will be open after all one hundred kids get done.

A couple years ago, I was struck by the idea of making the problem more three dimensional instead of just a story on paper.  (Thanks to reading Dan Meyer of course.)  I also thought this might lead to the students generating the question instead of me putting it out there.  So I created this video and Google site.  I showed the video today as the kickoff to the problem and for the first time ever I had a student basically solve the problem out loud at the end of the video.  He looked at my video ending showing lockers 1, 4, and 9 open and said well all the square numbers are going to be open!  Now this is one of the better students I have ever had and fortunately most of the other kids were more interested in seeing what exactly was going on instead of listening to him.  More importantly, I was able to catch him from blurting out the more important "why"were only square numbered lockers open.  While the other students got to work on figuring out what lockers would be open, I pulled him aside and asked him why he thought it was square numbers, which he quickly explained to me (again not surprising, he's a good thinker) and so I set him off to another task and told him not to help anyone else. 

The rest of the kids were working in groups and many came up and told me square numbers would be the lockers that were open.  At this point, I was wondering if I would have to come up with something else to do with the remaining class time.  In year's past, kids took at least the whole period to get even to this point.

So as I often do when we are problem solving, I replied that their answer was great but why? And here is where the rest of the kids got stumped.  For the most part, they spent the remaining class period trying to figure out the "why" of the problem.  They watched the video time and again, they went back to their notebook items and made great connections (such as the people opening and shutting lockers were representing factors, the lockers were representing multiples.)  Still they had a lot of trouble with that question "why."  I even had one student tell me that I wasn't allowed to ask "why" for the rest of the week.  (I was most proud of that, apparently I've been doing my job and actually making her think!)

In the end, I had to give some hints and talk some parts through as they watched the video, but most of them were able to explain the "why" by the end of the period.  Tomorrow we will see how they did on their "Locker Problem Home Enjoyment."  I wanted to know some more "whys!"

Think Dots

This week's #MSSunFun post is about favorite ways to practice.

 I use a variety of ways to practice as I don't want kids to get bored doing math.  Just giving them practice problems or worksheets might work for some but will definitely turn others off.  I use a variety of games most often to practice, at other times I'll have students do some writing and reflecting and yes at times I do have them do some problems or even a short worksheet.  However, my most favorite way to have students practice applying their math skills is Think Dots.

I'm not sure exactly who I got the idea of Think Dots from.  It could have been in a Rick Wormelli book.  It could have been when we had Nancy Smith present on using differentiated instruction in math and science.  Anyhow whoever I got the idea from, thank you!

The basis idea behind Think Dots is that a student will work with another student to solve and discuss a minimum of six problems.  These problems could be all about one topic or about a number of topics.  I tend to use more word based problems that make students apply whatever we are learning (say prime factorization) but you could do Think Dots with mental math problems or even rote skills.

I print out the six problems onto a piece of card stock which I then chop into six pieces.

  On the back of each piece I use colored dots that our fantastic librarian (Thanks Kim!) gave me.

 Originally they were designed to be level books but we stopped doing that soon after she got the dots in and thus had no use for them (lucky me!)  I put one dot on the back of one card, two on another, three on a third, and so on.  I try my best to make them look just like dice.  Then I hole punch the upper left hand corner of the cards and use a ring to hold all six cards together.  Now the Think Dots are ready to go.

I pair students up (depending on the skill being done, I will often "make" the groups because I may have differentiated the questions for readiness) and give each pair a set of Think Dots.  I also give each pair a small stack of sticky notes and a dice.  The first student rolls the dice and has to answer the question that matches up with their roll.  They are asked to not only talk the answer out with their partner but also write a synopsis of their answer on the sticky note which they then attach to the Think Dot cards.

After the first partner has answered his or her question, they move on to the next partner who rolls the dice and answers the next question.  The activity continues in this way until all the questions are answered.  Once all the questions are answered, students turn in their cards to me (sticky notes attached).  This allows me to look at their understanding later and possibly be able to clear up some misconceptions the next day.

I love this activity for a lot of reasons.  It gets kids talking and writing about math.  Kids are up and working with a partner.  I'm able to get around and sit with groups and listen to answers and provide a thought as well.  Because of the nature of the problems, I'm able to differentiate them to meet students readiness levels.  It gives me good feedback on where kids are, both from what I hear and what I get back on the sticky notes.  Lastly, the kids enjoy it.  Oddly enough, they love to roll dice, they like talking with one another, and they like the fact they aren't just doing a packet of problems.

I highly recommend giving some version of Think Dots a try.  Here is a sample of my prime factorization Think Dots.  Please feel free to try them.

Alphabetical Numbers

So I missed last week's #MSsunfun post on games (darn it all!) because school just caught up to me and I became super busy.  I decided that I needed to make sure I posted this week, even though it was just going to be a short post on organization.

This year, I'm trying something different in terms of getting back papers (quizzes, home enjoyment, exit cards, etc.)  My wife teaches fifth grade and has been using a form of this idea for some time now and I figured I would go ahead and try it.  I've given each student in a particular math class (say math 1 my first math class) a specific number that corresponds with their last name alphabetically.  For instance, if Michael Adams is the first name alphabetically in my class, he gets number 1, Janie Betts is the second name alphabetically, she gets number 2 and so on.  In addition to writing their name on each paper, students are expected to write the number as well.  Then when I pick up all the work, I am able to simply put the work in order by the number and see who is missing and then I can go right over and approach them.  Right now I'm still getting used to doing this as are the students so I need to remind them and need to go back and look at what number goes with whom when I'm missing a number but I think both of these problems will soon go away as we get used to the system.  The other potential problem is that I teach on a three person team and we mix the kids up for different classes, so if my teammates try to do this, kids will have different numbers.  At this point, neither of them is using this method so it isn't currently a problem.

Overall, I'm happy with how it affords me a little more time which over the year will add up to a lot more time!

My Home "Enjoyment" policy

This week's #MSSunFun post has to do with homework, specifically homework policies.  My homework policy is really just a combination of things that I have borrowed and stolen from others over the year.  For instance, this year for the first time I'm not calling it homework but rather refer to it as home "enjoyment" thanks to an idea from Sam Shah (@Samjshah).  The thought is that it shouldn't be viewed as work and so we shouldn't call it work.

My journey to where I am now in terms of homework started when I first began teaching over ten years ago.  I originally assigned homework just about every night and graded it, in fact I counted it for as much as 50% of students' grades!  Over time, I realized that homework really is practice and counting practice toward the grade isn't really fair.  We don't count practice toward the final score in a soccer game for instance.  However, I do feel that students need to practice in order to do well so I go do insist that students complete the homework I assign them.  Along this line of thought, I'm instituting a type of responsibility binder much like Julie Reulbach (@jreulbach).  This will be a great way for me to get some data on which kids are completing assignments and which aren't.  I also go by an idea I heard from Rick Wormelli which is "the penalty for not doing your work is, DOING YOUR WORK."  Therefore, students who do not complete their homework are responsible for staying after school to complete it.  (this isn't really a problem in our district as the K-5 school gets out about 45 minutes later than we do and kids can take that bus.)  We are trying something new this year by having band and orchestra after school (it used to be during a time in school we called "enrichment.")  so I'm not really sure how that will play out if a kid doesn't do his homework and needs to go to band or orchestra.

So to sum it up my homework policy is basically this:

• Homework is practice and as such is not graded
• I still expect everyone will complete their homework
• If you do not complete your homework, you will have to complete your homework (after school)

Looking forward to reading some others thoughts on homework and how they manage it and probably stealing a couple other ideas!

How I set up my classroom

This week's #MSsunfun post is about classroom set up.  This seems like it is going to be a great set of blogs to follow as it is super interesting to see how other teachers set up their classrooms.  I posted about my classroom set up a couple years back.  Of course since then, I have moved classrooms twice (and a total of 5 times the past 7 years!)  Last year, I was in a classroom and a half as I was also teaching science and needed the extra room.  This year I'm back to a regular sized classroom although its shape is a little different than I'm used to because it is at the end of the building not in the middle.

Anyhow, onto how I set up my classroom.  Every summer, the custodians take all our furniture out of our classrooms which basically gives us a blank canvas on how to set it back up.  (They will put the furniture back as it was, in differently if you ask, etc- the custodians are great!)  Last year, when I moved rooms I went from plain old tables to science desks (you know the black ones made heavy wood that fit two kids on a side).  If you read this blog, you will know that I learned about Dry Erase paint and decided to make over the science tables.  I painted the table tops with this paint which enables kids to write notes, do math problems, draw, etc and also allows me to stop by and while discussing a problem with a student to actually write stuff out.  Both the kids and I loved it last year.  So, I took the tables with me.

  Its looking like I will need all 12 tables as I have class sizes of 24 students again this year (possibly even higher if more people move into the district.)  Because my classroom is long and narrowish I decided on doing four groups of three desks.  I like to group the desks because most of the work I do has the kids working in groups either of my choosing (or random choosing) or their own choosing.  The groupings of three actually should help with discussion and group work.  Later in the year, I use a different way of assigning seats (I'll post about it later) but to start the year off I allow students to sit where they choose.

When I set up the desks, I allowed for extra room in front of the Smart board so that I can put a carpet there and work with small groups on certain skills at times during math classes.  I also made sure to leave plenty of other spots around the room for groups to go to as I've noticed my 6th graders just LOVE sitting on the floor (well unless we tell them they have to at an assembly.)

I myself don't really use a desk but instead have a long table on which my desk top computer (the one that runs the Smart board) sits along with my ELMO.  I figure I spend most of class walking around or sitting with different groups that there isn't much of a reason for me to have a desk.  When I'm on my prep break and need to correct, the table works just fine.

I've always tried to put all materials that kids will need together in one spot and this year is no different with me having this nice white cubby set up where I can put dice, playing cards, crayons, staplers, and the like.  I make sure to go over this early in the year, telling kids they can use whatever they want but reminding them that they are responsible for picking up after themselves or the stuff won't be there anymore (the whole with rights comes responsibility thing that is so important in middle school.)

The other thing I do is use mailboxes to pass out things like homework, classwork, notes, etc.  I find this much easier than passing it out at the beginning of class or having a student in charge of passing stuff out.  I make sure early in the year to practice with students what they will do when they enter my room (go to their mailbox, grab EVERYTHING in there) and so it works pretty well.  I have three classes and so have three sets of mailboxes.  I suppose I could use one and share but I don't really want to rush between classes to put papers into mailboxes (especially if I tier assignments and need to pass out different stuff!)

New to me this year is having raised shelves to put student notebooks.  I love this because it gives me more room (as these shelves are right above the mailboxes.  Again, I practice with kids getting their notebooks as they enter and we will have to see how these new shelves work.

You probably noticed that my walls are pretty bare.  I do have a few math and inspirational posters that I put up but I like to keep most of the wall (and blackboard) available to post student work as the year goes along.  I'll include some updated photos throughout the year.

Well, there you have it.  That is how my classroom is set up for this year (starting for us in about a week and a half now!)

Math Notebooks

So this week's #MSSunFun post is about how we set up math notebooks with our students.  This is an exciting post just like the first day one because once again I'm going to get to "borrow" a bunch of other great ideas!

Anyhow without further ado, here is how I do my notebooks:

I use these large black binders for each students' notebook.

These binders are available because my school has done student led portfolio conferences for the past ten years and as we have moved toward more and more technology, including going 1 to 1 in both 6th and 7th grade, these binder have become obsolete for portfolios.  Therefore ,binders make great notebooks because they are free!

I have students set up their binders by following the order of our units of study.  We begin the year with whole number sense and follow that with fractions, decimals, geometry, measurement, data, probability, and algebra.  Each of these unit topics is a different divider in their binder.

Inside each divider I start the year off with a number of papers that I have already copied for the students.  The first paper is the KUD (what I want kids to know, understand, and be able to do) for that particular unit.     Here is one for whole number sense.  I also include a sheet to record notebook items (which I'll talk about later), a sheet to record exit cards, and a sheet to record how students did on their understanding of standards on quizzes.   I will admit that I need to do a better job of really showing the kids how to fill out these forms, reminding them early in the year to fill them out, and giving them more time to fill them out.

Once I have all these forms and papers in the binders, I store them here.

Students then grab them every day when they come into math class and go to their mailboxes and take out the papers that need to go into the binders such as this notebook item, returned quizzes and exit cards, and activities or homework.  I have students keep notebook items, quizzes, and exit cards for the whole year. (and in fact, I recommend to the kids that they keep the notebook items throughout middle school as they will only help as the kids do more advanced math.  I'm sure you can imagine how many kids listen to me about this though:)!   Activities and homework are cleaned out at the end of each unit.  Some of you might be wondering why I do notebook items instead of having kids take notes.  I have found over the years that middle school students don't have much of an idea on how to take notes.  By giving them basically a graphic organizer I help them get the idea of taking notes while making sure they get the information I want them to get.

So there you go, that is how I set up notebooks for my kids to use during their year of math with me.  I'm looking forward to seeing some other ideas and adapting them to fit my class!

The First Day

This is my first post in the Middle School Sunday Funday blog (#MSsunfun) that I had previously blogged about.  As I mentioned, each Sunday, a group of us Middle School teachers will be tackling a specific topic.  This week's topic is "What does the first day of school look like in your classroom?" 

I'm going to talk about the first day of "actual" class in my classroom.  The first day of school we have limited time in normal academics as we do a "student inservice" where the kids learn about the school, discuss our core values, and such.

I start the first class by getting the kids up and moving around by playing "vacation human bingo."  We spend a lot of time playing games and doing activities that involve getting up and moving around in my math class so this is a good introduction to that.  This is a "get to know you" activity where students go around and ask each other to sign their bingo board under a category that they did over the summer (such as visited three other states, etc.)  Each student can only sign another student's bingo board once so interaction with many different people is encouraged.  After a short period of playing time, we sit down and go over our boards.  This provides even more of a chance for the kids to get to know one another.  Next I go over class expectations, unit of study, my grading policy, etc.  Since we are a 1 to 1 school, I share this document containing much of that information with the kids (and their parents) before school and ask them on this first day if any of them have questions about what math will look like.  Then to wrap up I've begun using an activity I borrowed from Lisa Henry (@LMHenry9) where I give the students a bunch of numbers (32 to be exact) and sixteen things about me (such as number of siblings, number of my house, year I graduated high school, etc) and have them guess which ones go where.  As I walk around, I get a little feeling about the kids' ability to estimate and reason when they guess at what year I was born in (no, 1905 isn't correct!)  Finally I end the first day by assigning the first homework assignment.  I ask students to write about themselves in a million words or less (I borrowed this from Paul Bogush, @paulbogush).  We being school on a Wednesday so I make this assignment due the following Tuesday (thereby giving the students some time to think and actually write about themselves not just rush through.)

Overall, I like how the first day runs.  It gives the students a good idea of what math class will be like plus they get to play with numbers a bit too.  I'm looking forward to seeing some other ideas that I can "borrow" as well.

MS Sunday Funday Blog postings

Earlier this week, Julie Reulbach (@jreulbach) posted a survey looking for middle school educators who wanted to connect.  (Here is the link to her blog with the survey).  She had an amazing response to her survey with over 80 middle school math teachers responding. (link to her blog showing the results of the survey.)  Out of that came some good discussion on twitter with Julie, @4mulafun, @Borschtwithanna, myself and others.  We decided on the heels of the increasing popular #made4math Monday blogs, that we would add a new middle school math blog day.   After much discussion, we decided on Sunday to be the day to post blogs (largely because we wanted to use the name MS Sunday Funday for the blogs!)  The goal is to get as many middle school math teachers blogging and sharing ideas as possible with a common blog theme each week.  We decided to come up with a couple topics to start off with (first day activities, how you set up your math notebooks) and then we are going to go with a survey to get weekly ideas. Here is a link to the survey for new topics. The first blog post will this Sunday with the topic being "What do you do on your first day of school?" (of course, you don't have to wait until Sunday to publish your posts) Once you are done, tweet the link to Julie, @jreulbach so she can make a running list.  Please consider joining us even if you are not a math teacher.  Here is a link to the list of future topics that will be published in advance.  Julie has also provided a link to a spot on the MS Math wiki for those people who do not have a blog but would like to add a post. Looking forward to some great sharing!

A look at some summarizing techniques I've used

About a month or so ago on twitter, we were discussing summarizing techniques and I mentioned a few different ones that I have used and that students have enjoyed doing.  @Druinok said she would love to hear more about them and suggested I write a blog post about them.  So after much procrastinating and some summer vacation time, I'm finally getting around to it!

I've used a variety of summarizing techniques in the past, both written and verbal which have allowed my classes to interact with one another as well as share something that they learned or a question that they still have.  A number of these I've borrowed and adapted from Rick Wormelli who has a ton of great ideas, including many summarizing techniques.

The first summarizing technique I've used isn't really creative or anything but with my grade having gone 1 to 1 last year is something that has worked well (and something I've blogged about in the past).  I've found that kids like using Wallwisher to post a quick comment or question about a particular lesson.  I had tried this in years past but it didn't seem to be worth the time it took to log into computers, etc.  With students each having their own computers and not needing to log in, etc it has become much easier and works well.

Another technique I've used is called "Share One, Get One."  In this activity, students fold a blank sheet of paper into thirds one way and then thirds the other way (thus making a 3 x 3 grid or 9 boxes.)  Then after doing a class reading, after a class discussion, video, or activity, each student fills out the top three boxes with something that they have learned, questions they still have, or something they wonder about.  Once everyone has done that, students get up and moving around the room talking with one another.  They share one idea from their sheet with another student and have that student share one with them in one of the remaining six empty spots. (Hence the name share one, get one)  I've found that kids love this for a number of reasons.  First, they are up and about moving around.  Second, they get a chance to interact with a variety of their classmates.  I like it because kids get a chance to experience a variety of opinions and ideas from the lesson.

Another technique I use is called "Summary Ball."  In this activity, students all stand up and think about something they learned or a question they have from the day's lesson.  I get out a soft, even Nerf like ball and give it to one student to start.  That student needs to make a statement about something they learned or about something they still are wondering about and then throws the ball to another student and sits down.  The student who receives the ball needs to make a statement or asks a question and then passes the ball along.  This continues until everyone has had a chance to say something.  If someone can't think of something, they can pass and then someone will come back to them later.  Kids like this because they are active and get a chance to throw the ball around.  I like it because all the kids are in involved and it gives everyone a chance to say something.

                                           photo courtesy mag3737

A last technique I use is called "Snowball Fight."  In this activity, students write something they learned or a question they still have on a piece of scrap paper.  They then crumble the paper up and once everyone is ready start tossing the paper at each other.  We do this for a minute or two and then students need to pick up one of the pieces of papers and we go around and read them.  It should be pretty obvious why kids love this and I like it because it involves everyone (plus I get involved and get to throw paper at the kids!)

                                             photo courtesy photosteve101

These are just a few of the many techniques that I use over the course of the year.  I've found that kids enjoy these quite a bit, even asking to do these at the end of classes.

In the last two years, I have moved from a more traditional grading system of tests and homework to a standards based grading system where I grade students on various "skills" such as operations on fractions. I tend to gather their grades through quizzes (which are directly related to two or three specific skills) and projects. I'm loving how this works as it gives me a lot of information about what students are good at and what they are challenged with. At the same time, I've used almost daily exit cards in my math classroom for the past 8 years. I love these formative assessments because they allow me to get a quick "dipstick" into where my students are as a lesson progresses.

My problem (I guess not really a problem, more of a question) is how do I combine the two (standards based quizzes and exit cards)? I don't really want to start "grading" the exit cards but should I somehow include them as they do show student understanding of a particular skill. Does anyone have a thought on how I could combine the two (or if I even should combine them- maybe I should just keep using them as I do)? does anyone combine both SBAR and exit cards in their classrooms (math or otherwise?)

Any feedback would be great!

The Day in.....

Last year, I began to use a Google Presentation to send my students a quick blurb about what we would be doing each day in math and science. I did this for a number of reasons. First, I felt it was important for the students to see what we were doing and to see connections to what we had done. Second, it stopped the "What are we doing in class today?" questions that kids always ask. I love how if a kid does ask me that someone else in the class tells them to look at the "Day in..." This has also been a great way to keep parents informed on what is going on in class. I have a number of them who subscribe to the presentation. Several have told me it makes it that much easier for them to have discussions with their middle school students who normally don't say more than a few grunts. Lastly, its great for me to be able to go back and see the progression of the year through the different lessons I have done. Obviously it isn't a full on lesson plan but it gives me a good synopsis and I can go back to it to see which parts I need to tweak in the future.

As I said, I started doing this last year and it was moderately successful in all of those aspects but I didn't really follow through because the kids weren't using it as much as I'd like. This was due to the fact that middle school kids are often not a group that looks to the future even the very near future and so they wanted to check the "Day in..." right before class. Without access to computers this was difficult. This year, we are a 1 to 1 environment and the "Day in.." is working great!

There are a few tweaks I want to do. I need to include a more "student friendly" version of the standards that we are going to be touching on each day. I think there is still some disconnect from the kids understanding of why we are doing a certain thing each day. From a stylistic point, I have just added a new slide at the end of the presentation. At first this seemed easy enough to me, but now I'm realizing that we are some 120 slides in and it might be hard for kids to get to the current slide. Next year, I'm going to add the slide at the beginning so the show will go in reverse order.

Overall, I'm very happy with how it has turned out, especially with our 1 to 1 environment. The kids love using it to know what is going on and are actually upset if I miss a day for some reason! In fact, I've had a number of kids tell me that they wish they had one for their Language Arts class too (hint, hint Katie!)

Projects

For a long time now, my teaching partner and I have been known as the "project team." At times parents want their students on our team in 6th grade or don't want them on our team, solely based on the fact that we give "a lot" of projects. Some parents view this as outside the traditional, not the way they did school and can't understand why their kids would be doing "so many" projects. Other parents don't see a use in traditional testing and want their students to learn and be assessed in such skills as group work, creativity, and long term planning. Obviously because we give so many projects, we tend to side with the second camp. However, over the years, we have made some changes to the way we are doing things.
For one thing, we want the projects to be demonstrations of students work not of parent work. Therefore, we have given students more and more time during class to work on these projects. I like to be able to go around and talk with the students about the projects and how they are doing.
In addition, we have begun breaking down due dates for students. We begin the year by sharing a project and having multiple due dates throughout the project. Here is a sample project. These include things like a name for the project, a list of materials, and a rough draft. Slowly throughout the year, we start giving less and less due dates, so that eventually with the final projects of the year, students are responsible for only one due date, the date of the final project. I like this as it models for students the idea of breaking a large project into smaller parts. Many students will still wait until the last minute but if we require them to show work then they can't keep doing that. The problem I'm having is that I am still the one having to ask for each of these pieces. Students often will forget to share things with me unless I seek them out. I'm wondering what else I can do to make them value these due dates better.
Another change that we have made is the way we use rubrics. Here is a sample rubric I've used We have always given students a rubric as we begin a project. Two years ago, we went to giving a rubric that had only one column on it, what we thought would be a perfect project. Our feeling was that students should be shooting for the best project. They shouldn't go through a rubric and decide what they could do and what they couldn't do. I really like this idea. For one, I only have to figure out what the "best" is for each descriptor. I also like to show the students that the "best" is what we expect. This year, we have decided to change the rubrics a little again. We no longer have only one rubric but have split the rubric into two, one for the product itself and one for the content. I had found in the best that students would often focus on the product and the content would be an afterthought. By changing to two rubrics I'm hoping students will see the value of the content (since that is a huge part of why we are doing the project.) One major problem at this point is that many students use an "out of sight, out of mind" theory in terms of the rubric. They see it when I introduce the project and listen to me as we go over it but then they don't look at it again. Even if I have them assess themselves they don 't take it really serious and don't use the rubric as a tool to help them make a good project. What can I do about this?

Anyhow, at this point I'm happy with the constant changes we have as we go about assigning, creating, and assessing projects. I think students get a lot out of projects and it helps them understand and demonstrate their understanding of content. I'm planning on continuing my use of them and plan on refining my projects as I go.

Using Wallwisher

Alright so as I've said before, we have gone one to one in the sixth grade. This means that each student has his or her own lap top. One of the great side effects of this program is that I've begun using a few programs that I had only used sparingly in the past. My favorite so far is Wallwisher.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Wallwisher, here is a link to one that I had my students do on an outdoor activity that helped them learn about Carrying Capacity and Limiting Factors.

As you can see its a large bulletin board where anyone (in my case, my students) can post information, thoughts, or questions in a short little blurb. Really students should be able to go on and post a note in a minute or two.

Up to this year, I had tried to use it for kids to reflect on a particular lesson or unit. It had never really got off the ground because of the amount of time students were taking to get online, get to the site, post, and then share the computer with someone else to do the same (we rarely had a computer for each student, more like a computer shared between two people.) In fact, it would take upwards of 20 minutes for kids to make their post of 140 characters. To me, this didn't seem like a good use of time.

This year, I've found that I'm able to use it so much more. Students no longer have the wait time to get on. They are pretty much online right away and now that we have done a number of Wallwishers, they can get there quickly and make their post. Obviously there also isn't the need to share computers. The quick 140 character post is just that, QUICK. They do it in a minute or two, a much better use of time.

So what does all this have to do with anything outside of speeding up my class? Great question! I'm finding Wallwisher to be a great way for kids to do a quick summary reflection on what happened in class (particularly science class for me.) Then I'm able to take these reflections and see just where the class is in terms of understanding the current content. In fact, my student teacher, Matt, took a Wallwisher he had the kids make and organized it and then saved it as a PDF file. This gave me the idea of actually organizing the WallWisher into groups based on what kids said. I think this might allow me even more opportunity to check for understanding!

While I still prefer exit cards for individual understanding (particularly of on skills and in math) I'm finding that I really can get at whether I need to reteach something or not based on kids comments on the Wallwisher. I'm also finding that students are able to pick up information from one another and add on to thoughts that others are saying. I've yet to have students ask very deep questions on the Wallwisher but I'm looking forward to them answering one another on there.

Overall, I'm happy with how Wallwisher combined with our one to one initiative has allowed me to take my use of formative assessment into a different path and I'm looking forward to seeing what else I can do.

What are people's thoughts on Wallwisher? What other things have people used it for? How can I stretch myself and my use of it?

1 to 1 reflection: part 2

I'm going to use this post to reflect on the first month of the one to one initiative with this post looking at how the one to one initiative has changed my classroom from the perspective of my teaching and more importantly the students' learning.

To start, I think we have started from a different place than maybe other one to one initiatives. We had a set up of a dozen or so lap tops on each team the past two years and we have had the opportunity to borrow from other teams. We also had a couple dozen net books to sign out too. All these computers made it so that I had the opportunity to use computers with my kids just about all the time. Often it was in a one to two sort of situation but at times I actually was one to one. We have also had Google Apps for the past two years and I have used them fairly extensively, starting about a year and a half ago.

All that being said, there are a number of changes this year with students having THEIR OWN one to one computer. First is a simple matter of ease and making lap tops ubiquitous in my teaching. I no longer have to plan around other people and their computer needs. I don't need to check on who else is using the lap tops, if my teammates need them in their classes, and so on. If I have something planned I know I have access to computers and online resources. In fact, its to the point that I don't even think about this access and I kind of take it for granted. This is great in a number of ways. I can have the students watch a video, look at an online simulation, listen to audio, etc. on a particular topic. In fact, I can offer all of those options which helps get at different learning modalities. Also students have access to online files (Google Docs) where I can share the day's activities and students can do their work. Finally, with students having their own lap tops, I know students will have the ability to finish their work at home or during enrichment time.

It actually is getting to the point that I no longer think of the lap top as a different tool that I need to plan for but rather I treat it as a normal tool that students have and will access at different points in a lesson. I think this is probably as it should be. That's not to say that the students are using the lap tops at all times during all classes. There are plenty of times in math when students are working out problems with pencils and paper (or dry erase marker and desk),

playing games to reinforce concepts, or doing a simulation. In Science, students are engaged in hands-on labs, acting out the roles of living things, or reading and responding to text. The beautiful thing is that the lap tops can have roles in these activities but often I don't expressly plan for their use.

Along this line of thought, I have continued to do a number of activities that I have always done but I have offered new ways for students to demonstrate their mastery by using the lap tops and online programs. I think its important to not search out activities just to use the lap tops but rather to do activities that may benefit from using a lap top but are otherwise strong activities. For instance, I have had students make a "lesson" on the topic of using prime factorization. In the past, this has taken the form of a written "notebook item." This year, I had students download Smart Notebook and create a podcast of the lesson. The goal of the lesson was to have students teach a skill (because if a student can teach others a topic that shows that they have a great grasp of the topic themselves.) By using Smart Notebook students now had a multimedia lesson, one which allowed them to talk through the problem as well as draw out examples. In this example, I really believe that technology expanded on an already strong lesson.

Another area I see my classroom changing for students and myself is how we treat homeroom and enrichment time. Students now come in and fire up their lap top, check into the attendance page, and then answer a question that is posted outside the classroom on a whiteboard. Often the question requires some research which gets kids working with Wikipedia and Google Search. As the year progresses, I can see using these questions to even teach advanced search.

During enrichment, students have begun to "play" with their lap tops. Students have looked at world landmarks on Google Earth, made houses on Google Sketchup, and searched for a topic that interests them on Wikipedia. This isn't something that I had seen before nor was I expecting to see it now. Students in the past had used lap tops during enrichment mainly to do work that we had assigned. There were not enough computers for kids to just "play." I think its great that kids are doing different things now that they can with their own lap tops. They are experiencing programs that I might not be able to show them or not show them in much depth. They are learning about all sorts of things that I don't even know about! This ability to "play" is a great side benefit of students having their own lap tops.

Student collaboration has changed somewhat too. Students still chat with one another while working in math and science or even during enrichment. Students have begun sharing Google documents and working collaboratively, especially in science on labs. But I'm also seeing students chat using Google chat and even video chat! I see students sitting in my teaching partners class chatting with kids in my class (at appropriate times of course!) Some of the more adventurous students have even begun using the chat feature when they are doing group work and aren't right next to one another. I had never really thought about using this feature in learning but the students willingness to try it makes me interested in seeing how I can incorporate it into their learning.

Overall, its very early into the year and I'm still getting used to students having their own lap tops. I don't know that it has created this huge shift in the way that I teach largely because I've been teaching as if students had this sort of technology for the past couple years anyhow. I do know that I need to keep learning and introducing and trying new things. I'm excited about what this is going to look like and where we are going to go each and every month!

One to One Reflection part 1

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm going to be reflecting on the first month of our one to one initiative. I'll be cross posting these reflections on the Ozzie Peeps part of the PLP wiki. This first one is going to be in two parts. Part one will be the nuts and bolts and how I feel those have gone thus far. Part two will discuss changes that I've made in the way I teach. Enough of my blathering, let's reflect!

I'm focusing this part of the reflection on the nuts and bolts of rolling out a lap top initiative. This means things like the parent meetings, storage cases, and the actual handing out of the lap tops.

The Good:
1) Identify lap tops: We decided to have the lap tops engraved with an id number, write the id number on the lap top and charger in Sharpie, and add a sticker with student identification on the bottom of the lap top. All of these work great. Students know the id number of their lap top and easily claim their charger if I find it laying around and call out the number. The most important item, the lap top, has the number for the kids to identify it but more importantly, I don't have to know each number because the students' names are on the bottom. This way if a lap top is left laying around I know who it belongs to.

2) The physical roll out itself: I was pleased at how well the roll out itself went. As we essentially had six classrooms having lap tops passed out, I think our idea to pass out only two classrooms worth a day was a great idea. This allowed plenty of time for students to get the lap tops, take them out of the boxes (I think its important that the kids get to actually "open" the lap top and take it out of the box as well. In my opinion this led to more ownership of the lap tops), attach their name stickers, and then play with them for a little.

3) The timing of kids bringing their lap tops home: I liked that students couldn't take their lap tops home right away. I think it was a good idea to have get to know the lap tops while at the same time allowing us to get to know the students. We were also able to instill some responsibility into the students about the lap tops. I think by not just letting the kids take them home, we were able to show them how important we though the lap tops were and for most kids this transferred to them.

4) The lap tops themselves: I couldn't be happier with the way the lap tops have worked. Students can access anything we have thrown at them so far (although we haven't done much video editing.) I'm also loving the idea to have them not connected to the network. The amount of time I wasted last year waiting for lap tops to boot up and then having some not do so was tremendous. None of that this year! Granted it is early, we really haven't had any issues with speed or battery power. I think it will be interesting to see how they are doing next year at this time.

The bad
1) The lap top cart: there really isn't much positive to say about the cart. Its too small. It doesn't have enough power slots. The lock doesn't work. I think the idea of a mobile cart is something we need to examine. We obviously had previously used mobile carts because we were actually moving them around the building. Now the lap tops are going to stay in one classroom to store and charge. A better idea would be to have some sort of shelf where all the lap tops could be stored. We could then have some power strips so we would have enough outlets for all of the lap tops to plug in. I think we need to examine the idea of locking up the lap tops. If they are in our classrooms and the door is locked, do they really need to be locked up as well?








2) The timing of the roll out: Personally, I'd like to see the students get the lap tops on the first day. I think we could use the first week as a boot camp where students learn about their computers and the programs we will use with them. Not having access to computers for that first week and a half was actually somewhat difficult and I can only imagine it will be more so for me next year after having almost a full year in this one to one program. I think we might want to look into a way to roll out the computers on day one next year.

The so/so
1) The parent meetings: I was very impressed that almost all the parents made it out to the pre-school meetings. I was also impressed to see most parents paid the self-insurance money right off. It seemed that many parents were on board with the whole idea. That being said, I'm not sure we really got across the whole idea of why we are doing this initiative. I don't think this is anyone's fault. I just don't know that we knew what to say as this was all brand new to us. I certainly think future pre-school parent meetings will present what we are doing in a better light.

2) All those forms: Obviously there are a lot of forms we are having parents fill out. There is the AUP, the lap top agreement, the google form asking if parents want the lap top to go home. I think its important for us to look at this and maybe consolidate all these into one form. I've mentioned this before, but I'd like to see these forms (especially the AUP) done in such a way that they encompasses the whole Middle School experience, i.e. parents sign them and they work for all three years. I'd like to see them passed out in the spring of fifth grade for parents to sign so that we can get rolling on day one. I also think by consolidating to one form, it will make it easier on us. I hate having to check all sorts of forms. It would be so much easier if all the information was contained on one Google Form.

3) The carry bags. I really like the bags. Once students got them it made things so much easier. Prior to getting the bags, we had a couple students drop their lap tops. Since we have had none of those problems. I also love that students can "personalize" their bags by adding stickers, etc. That being said, the bags could be a bit bigger. There is barely enough room to hold the computer, the charger, and a mouse. What if students had a microphone/headset too? What about other things students might need? The other problem I had with the carry bags is the timing of getting them. They need to come out at the same time as the computers. This would avoid those drops I previously mentioned.




4) The programs loaded on the computer: I'm happy with all the programs loaded onto the computers although I don't know that anyone is ever going to use the libre office suite if we also have Microsoft Office on the computers. I love that Google Earth and Sketchup are on the computer as kids are already playing with both programs and I haven't introduced either. I imagine in the long run these kids will easily know more tricks with both programs than I can show. I also love that both Firefox and Chrome are on the lap tops as some kids prefer one and some kids prefer the other, with both having some positives and negatives. I do think that this year, we will probably have some idea on some add ons that we will want to use with particular browsers and may want to add that to the image for next year. My biggest issue with a program missing is Smart Notebook. This program has so many possible uses for the kids and we have a district license so it makes sense to include it on the lap tops. More so, it is a tremendous pain to actually put on the lap tops. It took me a couple of days during enrichment to get it on my forty four students' lap tops.

Overall, even though it seems like I'm negative on some things, I'm really pleased about how the one to one initiative started. I think there are some areas we can improve and I think its important to have the discussion about how to do so. Once do that, we can focus all our attention on how the lap tops can change our teaching.

Now on to part 2: the first month of teaching, how the lap tops have changed my teaching

Apology

So I've been really bad with my time management and have not posted since February. In that time, I've had pretty close to a million posts rummaging through my head, from my Dry Erase lab tables to our new one to one initiative that I and my sixth grade colleagues are undertaking. I've decided that its time to actually do something about it and start making some posts. For this first post back I'm going to provide some background of our one to one initiative. This will lead up to my next post which will be my reflection of the first month of our one to one initiative.

First the background. Last winter/spring, our sixth grade team meet for our monthly sixth grade meeting. Also sitting in on our meeting was the district technology integrationist and the district technology director. Obviously something was up! It was shared with us that the district was planning on increasing the amount of funds put toward technology with hopes of eventually having a one to one program in grades 3 through 8. This was exciting news! Each sixth grade team had previously had a cart of a dozen lap tops and had access to many other carts throughout the school. Therefore we were not going into this "cold turkey." That being said, it was a difference from anything we had done before and so we scheduled some meetings and preparation periods for the rest of the spring to ready ourselves for the "rollout" in the fall. We spent the majority of these meetings talking about the nuts and bolts of the rollout. These included such things as the when, where, and how of parent meetings, the software that we wanted put on the machines initially, and the plan on how to store lap tops during the school day or if kids didn't take them home. We never really got around to talking about how our teaching was going to change with the lap tops. The summer came and all of us did our own thing. We took different classes, went on vacation, and just re-energized for the new school year. In-service came and we spent some more time on the nuts and bolts and actually had our first two parent meetings. These actually went really well with only a few, small unanticipated questions popping up. It was at this time that our Director of Technology started to present us with some options of ways that we (the sixth grade team) could meet and begin discussing how we would implement changes in instruction because we had the lap tops. Obviously this was a very important issue to her as she needed to provide the Superintendent and the School Board with some data to show that the lap tops weren't just being used as glorified word processors. So we were signed up to go to a one to one conference run of local educators here in Vermont. We were also signed up to join the PLPnetwork with Will Richardson and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach. It was at the first PLP meeting that we began planning how we would gather and share data on how the lap top initiative is working. One thing we decided on was having students do a monthly "Thoughts on Learning" reflection in Google Docs. This reflection was simply an answer to two questions, neither of which was directly related to the lap tops and technology but both of which could be answered by referring to those things. Off of this, I suggested that we as the teachers should also reflect at least monthly on our learning and how it had changed. So basically, this long winded explanation is one reason why I'll be blogging more. I plan on cross posting my thoughts here as well as on our Ozzie Peeps website (the one used by our sixth grade). If you read through all this, Thank You. It was more for me to kind of summarize where we are coming from as I start reflecting.
Next Post: Reflections on the first month of one to one

I know I've been away for a REAL LONG time but I figure its time to start posting again. Anyhow here is a post I made on MSP2 about my new experience of "flipping" my math classroom.

So a couple months ago, I was having a conversation on twitter with another teacher discussing homework and how I had kids not doing it, doing it all wrong, etc. She suggested I watch a video link she sent me from youtube on "flipping the classroom." Here's the video link- check it out The Flipped Classroom.

Anyhow, it just made so much sense to me. So I decided to go ahead and "flip" my classroom. I was just finishing up my unit on fractions, so it made sense to start with my unit on decimals.

In the past, I had started many classes with what I call a note book item. This was essentially an explanation of how to do some math skill plus some practice problems on the skill that I would do. Then I typically have students work on an activity (maybe something involving a number line for instance) or play a game to reinforce the skill. Finally, I'd have kids take home a sheet of practice work that I had created. Overall, I wasn't unhappy with this way of doing things but I always questioned how the practice work was going. Sure it worked nicely for some kids but others never did it and would have to stay in for lunch or after school with me. Others would come in and tell me they had no idea what they were doing or worse would do it all wrong and then I would have to "unteach" what the practice had taught them!

Now with my "flipping" of the classroom, I make a video of myself doing the note book item and have students go home and watch the video (and fill out the note book item while watching it- nothing more than copying down what I'm doing).Our district has a district Smart note book license and I have a Smart Board in my room so I use Smart note book and the Smart recorder. This works well for me as everything I need to make the video is in one place. Here is an example Converting Repeating Decimals. Then the next day when students come in, they do a version of what I used to send home as homework. While they are doing these practice problems, I'll wander around and chat with kids, getting a sense of their understanding. I can then do some more work with kids who didn't get it and those that did move on to the game or activity that I had planned for class.

So far, its been working great. The kids enjoy it as they can watch and listen to me in their own time. This means they can rewind me if need be so that they can go over something that just didn't make sense. I think many of them like this because unlike in class where they feel awkward asking questions, the rewinding and watching again doesn't make them stick out in front of their peers. Many also like the fact that its a "video" for homework. It just seems cool to them plus to many who are more visual than auditory learners it helps them retain the information.

All that being said, there are some problems that I'm having. For one thing I still have a couple kids (4) who are still not doing any homework. What do I do with the kids who don't watch the video? I can keep them after but then what do they do in class that day? This is something I'm struggling with. Another thing I struggle with is how best to share the videos. Our district has Google Apps and so I upload the videos and then share with the kids. The problem is that I'm already at 15% of my file space and I'm not even done the decimal unit! I don't want to delete them because I think the kids may want to access them later. I can see possible benefits in putting them on youtube as kids could access them via their ipods, etc too. Of course then kids have to take extra steps (other than just going to google docs) to get to the videos.

I'd love to generate some discussion on here. What are people's thoughts on this? What issues do people have? Do people have ideas or thoughts about my potential problems? Let's get a good talk going!

No Names

So this year, I've gone away from grading homework in any way shape or form. I told the students I still expect them to do the work that I assign, but that it is practice and when they turn it in, I will only give them written feedback (comments) on the paper. There will be no grade, not even one for effort. This seems to be going well as students are still doing the practice and are doing pretty well on their skills quizzes. What I'm seeing that is different however is a tremendous increase in the amount of "no name" papers. I have a pile about 4 inches thick hanging on my blackboard. In years past, I've received no names here and there but they have never been in such high numbers. Students have also been more vigilant about going through the no name paper pile. It also seems like the kids feel that they are still doing their practice work, and since I don't grade it, who cares if I know whose paper it was. Assuming they understand the material and any comments that I made were only about silly errors or such, this seems reasonable to me. However, what about the students who did the work and were completely off base? They won't be getting back any feedback as to where they were going wrong. (Hopefully their errors were caught when I gave exit cards the day before anyhow but still...)

So I guess my real question here is how concerned should I be about these "no name" papers. I mean its pretty obvious that kids are still taking the responsibility to do their practice work both by the sheer volume of work I'm commenting on and by their scores on the skills tests. But will this eventually lead to bad habits that could come back to haunt some students later in the year?

I'd love to hear others thoughts on this