​ Self-assessment is more accurately defined as a process by which students 1) monitor and evaluate the quality of their thinking and behavior when learning and 2) identify strategies that improve their understanding and skills. That is, self-assessment occurs when students judge their own work to improve performance as they identify discrepancies between current and desired performance. This aspect of self-assessment aligns closely with standards-based education, which provides clear targets and criteria that can facilitate student self-assessment.  During the past several weeks my students have been exploring arithmetic and geometric sequences in pictographs and tables of values.    They have seen the patterns several times but still lack mastery of the concepts.  So prior to giving them an assessment like a quiz I will begin with a self-assessment activity to help students take control of their learning. 

Today my students had a substitute because I was pulled out for professional development training.  Well was it worth it?  So I will provide a personal reflection of why the school district pulls teachers out of the classroom and its importance to students, parents, and the school community. 

First of all I was aware of the training three weeks ago and I planned in connection with my fellow co-teacher activities to continue learning while I was gone.  Last year I was pulled out of the classroom for nearly 30 days for school business but my students produced 40% more credits the last year over the previous years because my emphasis is upon training self-directed learners.  By the third wek of school I have transferred the responsibility for learning over to my students.  I hold him or her personally responsible for their learning.  My goal is to lift up my students so that it will not matter who their next teacher of instructor will be because they will be self-directed and trained with the skills to learn any subject.   So I get pulled out for the following reasons:

1.  Writing professional development to instruct other teachers in the school district.
2.  Collaboration professional development about improving instructional practices. (Today)
3.  To attend and present at regional conferences about mathematics.
4.  Reflection, data analysis to improve instruction at the school site.

Assessments and the analysis of data is necessary to improve student outcomes.  Teachers need to plan for giving assessments but more importantly to plan instructional to help students become successful.  Today I had time to reflect and design instruction to help my students become more successful.  My mission is to help my students earn credits to graduate but also to become college and career ready and that requires the mastery of mathematical concepts.  Tomorrow the instructional will focus on areas requiring improvement.

There must be a why!  Change begins with a why!  I have a why and tomorrow my students must state his or her personal why!  Because without the why nothing will happen!

All Means All!  Every student must be able to have access to learning the standards through the curriculum and the instructional methods.  The below gallery are illustrations from the 2nd Period Warrior Math Classroom of Dr. Smith at Mountain View High School's "All Means All" Classroom for Common Core Mathematics.

Purple MathStudents should know the following each and every day
1. What am I learning today?
2.  How does this connect to real life?
3.  How do I know that I got it?
4.  I can explain it to someone else to help them understand as well.
As a teacher
1.  What do I expect them to learn today?
2.  How will I know that they learned it?
3.  What do I do when they don't get it?

Today is about teaching and answering questions #2  and #3.  Yesterday when doing close reading about the mean, median, mode, and range students struggled.  So today we extended the practice to make sure students fully understood.

Students refine their understanding about the mean, median, mode and range in their Math Journals.

Purple Math

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#sanjacintodifference, #howtolearnmath, #warriomathblog, #slayingthedragon

Having Fun in a Math Class?  No Way!

How to Slay the Dragon

During the past 14 years of teaching mathematics and helping students overcome their fears about mathematics reveals several shortcomings in methods and real life connections to help students develop a conceptual understanding of mathematics.  Students have arrived at our school lacking basic skills but leave confident after understanding how to use their skills and talents to remove the obstacles from learning mathematics.  So every day my students do close reading of passages that connect to reading using our self-developed strategies. Today's Task was a gradual release of responsibility to help develop strong independent learners of mathematics.

Task 1.  Students perform close reading on "This Day in History"
Task 2.  Students have to find the definition for mean, median, mode, and range and place the definitions in their math journal.
Task 3.  Students find the solutions and share with their teacher.

​Students are questioned by the teacher to verify they fully understand.  No direct instruction today.

#sanjacintodifference #warriormath
Home
Task 1 - Students are asked to define recursive and explicit in their math journals (google docs).  
Task 2 - Students review content objectives to identify and write their language objective statements.
Task 3 - Student discover new vocabulary words and place them in their math journal.

Students identify words like function, exponential, linear, describe, representations, etc.  Students are not starting to understand the importance of close reading in mathematics and the connections of vocabulary. They struggle to clarify their understanding to find the correct method and solutions.  Everyday Warrior Math  has a new adventure in Dr. Smith's classroom.  Making math fun!

Students reminded of their resources through Khan Academy, Learnbop assessments, and warriorcchsmath.weebly.com and this Warrior Blog

#howtolearnmath, #warriormathblog, #sanjacintodifference
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One simple and often over-looked instructional strategy is a Math Journal.  Warrior Math uses technology to do this.  These Warrior students are AMAZING!  

Today periods 1, 3, & 4 learn about recursive and explicit  functions and how to write each using strategies of noting the differences to get the next one (recursive) and how to derive an equation to predict one in the future (explicit thinking).  These are notes while working with one of my partner teacher's students showing that "All Means All" have the abilities to do Common Core mathematics at MVHS.  MVHS teachers use research-based instructional strategies on a daily basis.

Additional Help then go to:  Math I - Concept Videos like the following

COLOSO Worksheet

The driving force for helping students to become future teachers of mathematics begins with the leadership motivation from the summer trip to Gettysburg this summer.  I made a promise to not be isolated and to share my knowledge with others in the school district and the rest of the California this year.   I shall keep that promise and it begins with this blog to get information out to parents and students in the community.  Tomorrow is an exciting day as I share information with the comprehensive high school about intervention and the motto "All Means All."  The content objective is about developing understanding of the recursive and explicit equations for arithmetic and geometric sequences.  This is a difficult but a necessary concept of mathematics for student to learn.  These videos are available for review under  the CCHS Math I tab above under Math I - Concept Videos.   It is time to spice it up and have fun.  My next book will be about the connections to math and my favorite recipes.  So here is the first of the videos below: