Book Challenge

A few years ago I learned of the "Empty Shelf" book challenge. It's when you clear off a shelf on your bookcase on January 1st and everytime you read a book that year, you add it to the shelf. At the end of the year, you can see the amazing collections of book you read that year. I first did it in 2015 (the blog post is here). Of course, instead of a bookshelf, I used a word document. The shelf wouldn't be an accurate representation since I use many ebooks on my Kindle and I take full advantage of the amazing library that Merchantville is associated with.  So every year, I keep  a record of the books I read in a word document and at the end of the year reflect on what I read, which my favorites were, if I challenged myself, etc. I tell my students about it because I think it's always interesting to reflect on what you have done. I still have some folders and documents from my middle school years and I always find it interesting when I stumble upon them and see what books I read that year. Sometimes I recall fondly reading a book that has become a favorite of mine, while others I couldn't even tell you the basic premise. It's still interesting to see.

So with that said, I wrap up 2017 having read 51 books. Not my personal best, but I did finally conquer some long books that have been collecting dust in my to-read pile, and I read some books that will stay with me for a while. I look forward to reading more in 2018 and as always, exploring new authors and genres.

And since I'm a math teacher -- I should probably throw some math into the mix:

Facts:
- 51 books in 365 days means I averaged about 7.2 days per book.
- Sometimes I reread books that I just love, and I do count those for my total. 8 of the 51 were rereads of books that I can't get enough of. That means approximately 16% of the books I read this year were not new to me.
- Since my 7th graders just learned percent change, the percent change between this year and my personal high in 2015 is found through the formula: |51-111| / 111  x 100. That gives me a percent change of 54% decrease. That's kind of shocking (see how the math behind it made me aware of this!). As a person who always reflections on why things happen, I'm inclined to consider the differences between 2017 and 2015 and notice legitimate reasons for the decline. But, reading is reading and I will still feel proud for having read at a pace of approximately 1 book a week. Any adults reading this know that 111 books in one year is crazy! Even if I slowed down, my love of reading hasn't and I'll keep encouraging all my students to keep reading and finding books they love.

Who's with me for the 2018 challenge!?! :)

December Update

With December about halfway through, I wanted to share two fun things from Room 204. One math, one not.

Every year after we learn coordinate planes, my 6th graders create a town of their choosing on a coordinate graph. I love this project because I get to see what my students are interested in and their personalities come out. Here's this year's bunch.

In my book club, we made book ornaments. Simple project..... very messy, but simple. Here's mine book ornaments using lines from a discard Giver book, one of my all time favorites.

Card Sorts

 One of the activities I like doing is called... well, I don't know if it has a name, but I call it a "card sort". The students get 10 problems with answers on the other side. Except the answer doesn't match the problem. It leads to another problem, and then that one leads to another and so on. I like it because it gives students an answer bank that grows smaller as they progress. It's also more fun than a worksheet because you only see one problem at a time and lets you have a bit more flexibility with the ability to flip problems and create a pile instead of just seeing a worksheet with the same 10 problems.

Math Enrichment Activities

I have a few "early finishers" activities ready to go in my room for anyone who finishes an assignment and is looking for something to do. Most are either about using math sense and looking for patterns or are building on higher level thinking. Some are on paper, but I have two fin activities on the chromebook that I captured some students doing the other day.

Math Jong

It's like mahjong but with number tiles. The students need to create true math statements to clear some tiles. The more intricate the statement, the more points!

Witzzle

 This is a variation of an activity the students can do on paper in my room called "Today's Numbers". The goal is to use 3 numbers in a row, column, or diagonal to create a target number. It helps students look for patterns and use mental math.

Coordinate Planes

I said I would try to post more. It's still September, so I haven't missed too much time! ;) I do need to get better at taking photos, because we've done quite a few fun things in room 204, but I just don't have them documented. I did remember to snag a few photos of my 6th graders playing my math version of Battleship. They played "Civil War" style and were either Team Captain America or Team Iron Man. They had to hide their Avengers and then try to guess the locations of the other person's. Lots of requests to replay this game!!

      

Book Review: Solo

Solo

by Kwame Alexander

I LOVED The Crossover by Kwame Alexander. I first read it when I took over the Summer Reading program a few years ago. I fell in love with it and knew my students would love it. I couldn't wait for summer to get closer so I could finally introduce it to the students. I was right. The students who picked it for their summer reading devoured that book. Nothing made me more happy than seeing a group of boys who I usually had to cajole to do some reading during independent reading time ask me if they could sit in a circle and take turns reading aloud from the book because they were so excited to read it. I'm pretty sure at that moment, my heart was doing the snoopy dance.

Why did I know the kids would love it so much? First of all, it was so well written. It was, and probably still is, the only book written in verse I actually like. I'll admit it. I don't enjoy reading poetry and I don't prefer books in prose. But Kwame Alexander wrote this book with such rhythm. My students could hear the rap music in his words as they read. It also told a compelling story. All I knew going into it was that it was a "basketball book". It was so much more than that. It was about two twins, who yes are basketball stars, but they are also navigating life through middle school, finding their way, and dealing with some family problems. And it read real. My 6th grade (almost 7th grade) boys could related to the characters and it felt like it could have been someone they knew.

Okay, so why I have I spent so much of this book review talking about a different book? Because when I sat down to read Solo by Kwame Alexander, I was hoping for the same type of thing, but about music instead of basketball. In fact I was more excited because I personally love stories about music. However, this book just didn't live up to that. Maybe it's my fault comparing it to The Crossover, but I just didn't find the verse as compelling, the story as interesting, or the characters as relatable.

The author still keeps the book in verse, but it isn't as stylized as The Crossover. It also is very dialogue heavy which I felt doesn't need verse then. In fact, this book may have been better written in prose. The plot isn't bad -- a boy with a love of music, Blade, is born in a rock star family can't wait to get out if and go off to college. His drug and alcohol addicted father makes mistakes at every turn, even to the point where his girlfriend's father is so fed up and forbids the girlfriend from seeing Blade. Without spoiling too much, halfway through the novel Blade receives some information and ends up spending the other half of the novel in Africa. Originally presented to me as a love story, this is actually more of a "finding yourself" story. However, I just don't think Blade is as relatable to people as Josh and Jordan from The Crossover. Solo is probably fine when compare to itself, but unfortunately, I can't help comparing it to The Crossover, which in my heart will win every time.

First Week of School

As tough as it was to wake up in the mornings and drag myself out of bed, these first two days have gotten me so excited for the school year! We had lots of fun doing challenges and brain teasers. Unfortunately, I never think to take photos until I want to brag about my classes to someone else. Oh well, maybe next week.

I'm excited for the 2017-2018 school year!!

Summer Update

Wow.... I did not do a great job of updating this blog like I promised. I cannot believe the last post was in March! I'm hoping to be much better next year! In fact, I have a lot of technology related goals for next yet.

Let me post some photos from my phone in an attempt to sum up whatever I documented of the last 3 months of school.

The Pageturners had a day where we created forts to read in. Who would have guessed middle school students would take fort making so seriously!

Here's two photos of my 6th graders doing one of my favorite investigations/challenges. We do this lesson during the geometry unit. One of the 6th grade standards is to be able to find the area of composite figures by breaking them into triangles, rectangles, parallelograms, etc. After practicing a few days, they're ready for a challenge. We discuss oil spills, how the occur, the consequences, etc. I even show them videos. This year was extra interesting because the students really took the information to heart -- especially when they saw the affected animals. I explain that it can be hard to determine how many sq mi an oil spill takes. We can use an aerial shot to help us estimate.  So their job is to take an aerial outline of an oil spill, break it up into shapes of which they know how to find area, measure the dimensions, convert the inches to minutes using the scale, find the area of the shape, and eventually of the whole oil spill! It's a challenge, but it's worthwhile and they enjoyed seeing if they could get close to the actual size!

  

If photos had sounds, you would be able to hear 6th graders screaming my name from the Statue of Liberty. Someone always has to stay behind with the bookbags when we visit the Statue. This year I was the volunteer, but I didn't expect to hear some students screaming my name and waiving after climbing it. Always a great feeling!

"Merchantville is full of Stars" was our theme for Teacher Appreciation Week. I got pretty excited when I saw my name by the red carpet. Our PTA is definitely one of the best!

Another graduation in the books. So sad to see this year's class go. I will certainly miss them!!

Challenging Geometry Problem

Here's an enrichment activity for my 6th graders:
(Please get the information sheets from me when you're ready)

All credits go to Dan Meyers for this videos

The Girl Scout Cookie Problem:

Room 204 Happenings

Here are some happenings this week....

Algebra 1

I've been slowly acquiring graphing calculators for my students. We've been trying to use online versions, but my students struggled with seeing the buttons and commands. I didn't want them at a disadvantage for high school so I've been trying to get my hands on a bunch of used calculators. This week I revealed that I have managed to get a hold of 15 TI-83 calculators for them to use! The look on their faces made all those hours on Ebay worth it. We used them for the first time today to check out work when factoring quadratics to solve. It was amazing how much more proficient they were with the calculators in their hands rather than trying to use the online versions. I can't wait to find more ways to apply them to our class!

6th Grade Math

  

In preparation for our test next week, my students played a math version of Chutes and Ladders. Our classroom got pretty noisy and competitive today -- but it was all math noise. I try whenever possible to bring fun and games into our day.

7th Grade

Yes those are students throwing paper at each other. And yes, they have permission. To review a concept, we played "snowball". I have scraps of papers with problems on them that we crumble up into balls. Then my students have a snowball fight by throwing them at each other until the time goes off. When it goes off, they pick up a ball and solve one part of the problem. Then we have another fight until the timer, and then they get another snowball and solve step 2 of that one. It's crazy.... but they enjoy it and get practice out of it. Again, whatever it takes to make students enjoy coming to math class!

Another thing happening this week: MARCH MADNESS! I love doing the March Book Madness bracket. This year is an all time first. Since I don't teach language arts anymore I decided to do something different. Instead of just my class voting, it's now open to all junior high classes! Every Friday, every language arts class will vote on which books advance. Stick around to find out what the Sweet 16 bracket looks like!!

Love is in the Air

With Valentine's Day this past week, math class found some ways to celebrate ;)

First my Algebra students, who have been practicing graphing using Desmos.com got a surprise warm up.

They thought it was pretty corny. But they know to expect corny with me.

My 6th graders practice combining like terms and using the distributive property. They got to do a coloring page based on answering math problems. The page had lots of hearts, but unfortunately I don't have photos of that one.

 My 7th graders went Speed Dating.

Yes, Speed Dating. They love/hate that I call this activity speed dating. The idea behind the activity is that each student gets assigned one problem. They make sure they know the answer to the problem and exactly how to solve it. In essence, they become the "expert" of that problem. The students rotate around the room going on a "date" with a person. You trade "expert problems" with the other person. They solve yours, you solve theirs. If the person gets the wrong answer or doesn't know what to do, you get to help because you are the expert. Until the buzzer goes off and it's time to date someone else. They find it very amusing yet awkward. Here are two shots of a speed date.

 

FOUR Book Reviews

Wow, I've been a bit neglectful of this blog. Sorry for that! To make up for it, I will post FOUR book reviews in one post!

Heartless

by Marissa Meyer

I was so excited for this book. I loved Marisa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles series. A prequel to Alice in Wonderland sounded like a fun route to go after the conclusion of her first series. However, I just didn't have the same reaction to this book as I did to the Lunar Chronicles. I can't put my finger on what it was about the book that just didn't sit in the same way with me. I didn't care for the characters as much, I couldn't imagine the world as much, and I didn't fall into the story as much. Maybe it's a perfectly fine book, but going into the reading of it with Lunar Chronicles in the back of my mind, I couldn't help but be let down a bit.

Wires and Nerve

by Marissa Meyer

After being let down by Heartless, this book brought my spirits back up. This is a graphic novel sequel to the Lunar Chronicles series. The story follows Iko  helping Earth with the aftermath of the series and dealing with being a unique android. All the main characters from the series have a feature in this book so you can see what happened to them and what they are up to. Some characters have more of a prominent role than others, so I would love to have seen more from some of the others, but there is a Part 2 coming out soon. As someone who isn't the biggest reader of graphic novels, I thought it was a fun and quick read. The characters weren't quite like I imagined in my head, but it wasn't distracting, and made it fun to see the story played out in pictures. Now I just have to countdown to Part 2!

By Your Side

by Kasie West

Kasie West is an author I always preorder her books once I see that there's a new one coming out. She writes fun, simple, clean YA stories. I feel comfortable having her books in my classroom library because even though she deals with high school characters, she keeps it clean enough that I don't have to worry about levels of appropriateness. This book is about a girl who gets locked into a library over a long weekend by accident and finds out she's not alone -- there's a boy with a bad reputation stuck in there too. This book was entertaining and I appreciated how, unlike some of her other books, this one gave the main male character development and his own arc. However, I can't say I loved this one. I just felt like some of the plot points and storylines didn't play out well. One of my best friends read this book too and we disagree on our opinions. I would rank this low on the list of Kasie West's books -- she would rank this up at the top as one of her bests. I guess you will have to read it and decide it for yourself.

A Monster Calls

by Patrick Ness

Out of the four books in this post, this is the only one that's not "new". It came out in 2011. I never read it, but I am also one of those people who always wants to read the book before seeing the movie version. This book deliver exactly what it promised -- a gut wrenching tear jerker. The story is about a boy who's mother is sick with cancer. He is struggling to deal with it, and a Monster comes and tells him stories, that at the end deliver a message to him. Quick read that stays with you. I can't even imagine how it will play out on the screen. I knew there was a Monster that comes to the boy, but I didn't except so much of it to be stories told. It causes the book to feel a bit didactic at times and I fear can be a turn off for some students. But then again, this book is not for everyone. The other day a student told me she loved books that make her cry, so of course I had to recommend this book. You need to be ready for a book like this.

Back at it!

2017 has finally shown up! Getting back in the swing of things after that winter break was tough, for me and the students! I tried to keep things interesting with some fun activities. Here's a preview of what we did our first week back

6th Grade learned about writing ratios, simplifying ratios, and equivalent ratios using Smarties

7th Grade applied proportions to similar figures. In one of our centers, they sorted cards into similar or not similar piles.

Algebra finished learning about methods for solving systems of equations and played Chutes and Ladders to practice!

Trying to keep things interesting!