Possible Ignite

Thank you CPM for the algebra walk activity that lined students up on the x axis from -3 to 3 and input themselves into the function y equals x squared.

via GIPHY

3D Printing @desmos Series (Proposal submitted)

1. My first 3D @desmos print
2. Student rough drafts and 2nd @desmos print
3. 3rd Desmos print with student sample work

CPM Presentation Feedback

2. How worthwhile was this session?	3. Please explain your answer to question 2.	4. Should the topic be repeated next year?	5. Was the speaker knowledgeable?	6. Please explain your answer to question 5.	7. Was the speaker organized?	8. Please explain your answer to question 7.	9. Should the speaker be invited back to present next year?	10. Was the session room conducive to a worthwhile presentation?	11. Please explain your answer to question 10.	12. We welcome any additional comments you may have about this session.
5	I will be able to use this in my classroom!	5	5	Nice usage of strategies	5	Thank you for the usage of your presentation during it. This way I could cut and paste right into my notes.	5	1	Too small of a room
5	He had so many resources! The session was packed with useful teacher resources.	5	5	He had correctly taught for many years.	5	Yes, they prepared so many activities and resources.	5	2	They needed a larger room
4	The strategies were helpful but similar to things presented in CPM training sessions.	4	5	He knew a lot about multiple strategies.	4	Slides and presentation materials were well thought-out.	4	2	The room was way too small. It was difficult to see the screen for the presentation.
5	Awesome. I have seen the group work strategies and have used a few. It was great to see how the other strategies are used. Great.	5	5	Yes, he was able to show how to use in classroom.	5	Came prepared with tools for all strategies.	5	2	Room was too small to actively moive around in.
5	Martin is so dynamic and inspirational. He offered tools and ideas to improve strategies during instruction.	5	5	Martin was so prepared and, by allowing us to actually practice the strategies, it reinforces the importance of student centered learning...don’t steal the words from the kids.	5	Martin came with all the necessary materials to actively engage the participants.	5	1	The room was way too small and crowded for ease of movement and ease of seeing the screen.	Definitely invite Martin back for next year; truly excellent presenter.
5	awesome	5	5	awesome	5	awesome	5	5	sold out crowd i had to take a knee
4	I knew of many of the ST strategies presented by Martin, but it was good to see them again. I'd like to hear more about what happens when things go awry with his study norms. Also after looking at my notes from the structure, I wish Martin had talked more about how he uses exit tickets to write lesson notes for the following day.	4	4	Martin had good examples of the ST strategies	4	All tools were easily given out, and presentation was clear.	4	1	The room was an odd shape, and not all attendees could see the presentation screen easily.
4	Good examples, suggestions.	4	5	Had practiced what he taught.	5	Well organized.	5	2	Too small.
4	Lots of ideas were shared and interactive	4	4	Yes, he had lots of great ideas and activities	4	Great job	4	1	4th floor Hyatt, this room should not be used. You can’t move around or see presentation. Presenter is stuck in a corner
5	There was a lot of useful material	5	5	He had command of all of the methods used in his session.	5	Very well put together presentation	5	3	The room was very small
5	This was a great session with lots of resources I can continue to reference.	5	5	The presenter obviously knew his material.	5	The presenter had everything organized and a great presentation set up.	5	1	The room was small and awkwardly shaped. It was very cramped. I was lucky that I was near the front. Some of the people couldn't hardly see the presentation.

7th grade Hot Seat Review, y=kx & algebra tiles

Before Friday's assessment I used the Hot Seat to review what would be on the assessment. I like how students pointed out that the unit rate couldn't be 8/3 because where x=1 the y axis was between 0 and 1.

After each student's turn on the hot seat, I ask volunteers to explain the answers before I advance to the next slide with the answers. I then see who got 2 points on the Hot seat and how many groups all correctly answered it. I encouraged students who weren't sure to ask their group and those that knew to check on their teammates.

Hot Seat for Trimester 2 Final Review Session & Student Reflections

I don't do a lot of review in my class, but I felt it was necessary the day before students took their Trimester 2 final, which is 10% of their grade.

I focused on 4 big ideas from the test, and sequenced them from the most need to the least need. If you have never used the Hot Seat study team strategy, you must try it. Especially if you are reviewing for a test.

Here are the Slides I used for 7th grade:
For 8th grade: 

Each student gets a chance on the hot seat to earn 2 points for their team. I half-joked at the end that some students did more in this class period then they had in Monday through Thursday combined. The positive peer pressure to understand the problem and show all the work for your team is a healthy type of pressure I believe.

I gave the students the following prompt at the end of their final: Did you take advantage of the option to retake an assessment?? If so how many times? Overall what were the positives and negatives of the grading system? Reflect on how the trimester in math went. What parts did you like? Dislike?

The best reflection was a student who said they didn't understand exterior angle and triangle sum theorem until the Hot Seat activity. That makes it all worth it for me.

Here is what they wrote by period:

1st period:
Positives:

• liked graphing and slope
• groupwork
• liked mix of independent and group work
• homework is worth only 10% so it doesn't break your grade
• thought the vocabulary and the word corresponding helped with their understanding of parallel lines

Negatives:

• disliked skill 13 (solving fraction equations and solving for y)
• teams that didn't talk or help each other
• doing homework
• transversals on parallel lines
• CPM and posters
• I should check students notebooks

4th period:

Positives:

• teacher trusts students
• helpful classmates
• Hot Seat was great study tool
• likes the amount of homework (less, more time, lagged)
• likes 3 attempts at a skill so you could see your mistakes leading up to 3rd attempt
• switching seats often
• liked Hot Seat
• grading system is organized

Negatives:

• didn't like IM Unit 1 packets 3 votes
• teacher doesn't check homework
• wants to change seats more often
• doesn't like book work (CPM) 2 votes
• students are dishonest with homework self and peer check system
• distracted during classwork

5th period:

Positives:

• hot seat is a great study tool (4 votes)
• liked Desmos partner activities
• Mystery student and class discussions
• transformations
• when classmates are not judging them because they don't understand

Negatives:

• peers not honest on self and peer check HW system
• same routine every day
• retakes must be outside of class
• disliked packets (4 votes)
• some group members didn't contribute which made it hard to pay attention
• when group doesn't follow study team norms
• Hot Seat. Didn't like the pressure to get it right (2 votes)

6th period:

Positives:

• when table worked together
• liked retakes, team reading aloud (helps EL students)
• grading system shows mistakes, no dislikes
• liked Desmos Land the Plane activity
• liked groupwork, helped a lot
• liked specific feedback with weekly assessments

Negatives:

• someone not working with the group
• thought packets (IM) was boring
• didn't like y=mx+b
• disliked who they sat with sometimes
• participation grade stays the same (This made me think I need a rubric for students to fill out at start of trimester, and then revisit at end of trimester. Encouraged Ss to talk to me if they think they deserve a higher grade for participation)

So, I got a lot of good feedback. I clearly need to do Hot seat more often, despite the fact that some kids felt pressure to get it right. Students liked the adrenaline and the pace which kept them super engaged.

Using the @CPMmath study team strategy to review for trimester 2 final. Ss find is stressful but realize the benefits of working on a team when one turn is individual! #mtbos @MillbraeSchoolD pic.twitter.com/FoJBCDptvr

— Martin Joyce (@martinsean) March 8, 2018

I discussed with my classes why they didn't like "the packets" which was the Unit 1 pilot we did of Illustrative Mathematics. Some top students said it was too easy, while a couple said it was very challenging. Kids said it was a little dry, while CPM is engaging with a storyline. They also like exchanging ideas with the whole group. On the other hand, some students liked the timing of IM where it's 2 minutes independent, 2 minutes partner, then whole class discuss. The warm-ups were super helpful because they admitted they didn't know how to do some and it made them more successful in the lesson.

Some said the homework practice problems for IM were too easy, and some said it was too hard. 

I'm not sharing the grade 7 classes feedback because it was more vague and less helpful. 

My CPM National Conference Presentation

I had a great weekend at the CPM national conference held at the Embassy and Hilton in Burlingame. I will post a full reflection of the sessions I went to when I go through my notes.

I tried to get the word out about my session:

Hey #mtbos and @CPMmath teachers I’d love to see you at my session on Sunday! Come if you want to learn partner strategies, develop group norms, project S work instantaneously, and more... (session is trimmed down and refined from asilomar) pic.twitter.com/m2dWwL8udE

— Martin Joyce (@martinsean) February 19, 2018

For my session, it was great! Much better performance than when I presented it at Asilomar. A big reason I believe is I chose to focus on solving equations with algebra tiles rather than rotating a Which One Doesn't Belong prompt around the table. We discussed how some people were flipping a tile over from one side of the equals sign to the other and I interpreted it as a valid shortcut that myself nor CPM I think have a name for. I said it's basically adding a balanced set to both sides and making a zero pair after all at once. For example, x-2=1. Adding 2 to both sides or taking the -2 flipping it over to be positive and moving it to the right side. Also, instead of solving equations with the sage and scribe strategy, I printed out a pre-gridded 4 quadrant coordinate plane using graphfree.com and put them into sheet protectors rather than passing out whiteboards. This actually worked out really well. I forgot to tell participants to keep switching roles instead of stopping after doing 1 each. Chubby Bunny for solving systems worked out well again. Mystery teacher went great. A majority of people were from outside California and then we narrowed it down by teaching above algebra 1 and hobbies. I got to talk about front loading vocabulary for a learning log exit ticket, and then briefly went over the last few activities with pictures of students doing Hot Seat. Thanks everyone who came for making it a great session!

Thank you to the 22 attendees who filled the room we had for my #CPMSF18 session. Bummer @CPMmath writer Dr Judy Kysh didn’t get a seat. Great partner and group action. pic.twitter.com/s2okSk8b19

— Martin Joyce (@martinsean) February 25, 2018

A major part of my presentation is using Google drive to display work to facilitate closure discussions. I recorded a YouTube screencast with a voiceover to explain the process.

I made a video for my presentation, feedback welcome @CPMmath #MTBoS Google drive app for 5 practices for orchestrating mathematica... https://t.co/thFwdvdvgy via @YouTube @mr_stadel @gfletchy

— Martin Joyce (@martinsean) February 21, 2018

Here is the work participants did that I displayed to discuss:

I used this process in my #CPMSF18 session today to select and sequence the following representations by participants: repeated addition, table, graph & algebraic. #mtbos 5 practices all day. @CPMmath pic.twitter.com/8yv5MNiyjF

— Martin Joyce (@martinsean) February 25, 2018

Unfortunately I only got one picture of people in action solving an equation with algebra tiles as a group taking turns using different colored pencils (Hot Potato STS, a study team strategy)

Thank you to the 22 attendees who filled the room we had for my #CPMSF18 session. Bummer @CPMmath writer Dr Judy Kysh didn’t get a seat. Great partner and group action. pic.twitter.com/s2okSk8b19

— Martin Joyce (@martinsean) February 25, 2018

Here is my Google Slides presentation. On the first slide is a link to a Google folder that has some of the hand outs to print out. Also some participants asked if my anchor charts for y=mx+b and algebra tiles were on the presentation. The answer is no. Here they are in tweets embedded below though.

After winter break kids I felt kids may be rusty with linear equations. Decided to make this anchor chart. Really helped with brand new EL S from Brazil who arrived today. Some Ss even asked to take a picture of it with their phone #mtbos #purposefulcolor pic.twitter.com/0D9uK7k6o8

— Martin Joyce (@martinsean) January 10, 2018

I’m really happy how my algebra tile norms inspired by @CPMmath and anchor chart of legal tile moves to solve equations turned out #MTBoS pic.twitter.com/ANCLaqElnk

— Martin Joyce (@martinsean) October 6, 2017

My Asilomar 2017 Presentation & Reflection

This morning, at 8 am (the first time slot session), I presented at a math conference for the first time. It happened to be at CMC North, which I had only attended once before nearly 4 or 5 years ago.

I was glad to be the first time slot. That way I wouldn't see other people's presentations first and feel inadequate. Haha.

I will be following up this blog post with a review of all the sessions I attended. Right now I need to publicly reflect on the day and how the session went.

It all started with getting over to the dining hall in the morning. It opens at 7 AM, and not a minute earlier, I assure you... To kill some time I bought a coffee the social hall and saw Suzanne Alejandre who organizes the Ignites and I introduced myself. We had a nice chat.

I scarfed down my food and jumped on the bus to the middle school. I arrived about 15 minutes to 8. Unfortunately, there was only a VGA cord, and I had an HDMI. Luckily, a participant named Marisa was presenting later and she lent me her laptop and dongle to setup my presentation.

.@MarisaAoki thank you to the hundredth Power for letting me use your laptop & dongle. It allowed me to start on time. Good karma your way!

— Martin Joyce (@martinsean) December 2, 2017

I planned on high fiving the participants at the door and have music playing, but that did not happen. I did get to talk to people before hand and met my volunteer, Michael, who is in Jo Boaler's Stanford undergraduate teaching program.

A couple people walked in 5 minutes late, so they missed the estimation, and I had to go back to the instructions for Dyads for the 2 way partner talk about their frustrations with group work and how they establish a positive classroom culture. Then we shared out.

People hadn't heard of Sara Vanderwerf's name tents, so I was glad I got to share that. Also, which one doesn't belong was new to some people. A few people used team roles in their classroom already.

The Hot Potato activity worked out alright, and one person suggested that the group have quiet think time before anyone started writing first. Great idea! Also, some commented about what to do when one person was stuck. I agree that one person should try to find a reason for all four, and I was trying to demonstrate this strategy with an activity I usually use as an individualized warm-up.

I had the study team norms that students and I co-developed printed out on a hand-out so that I could discuss what stood out to me and hopefully what their students would also come up with. It also was a plug for Boaler's YouCubed site which offered the prompts. I also said that Ilana Horn's Strength in Numbers is one of the best books I've ready and they should definitely read it since they were interested in my session.

Sage and Scribe went well. I might re-arrange my slide order to slip in Fish Bowl in between here to break up the action of doing math. A great question was asked: "What if neither student knows the first step to solving an equation?" That reminded me that I strategically partner students so there are no low-low partnerships (ew I hate saying that). Also, if one person doesn't know, they switch roles rather quickly, but then eventually switch back for the next equation. I saw some great conversations. One person had another piece of constructive feedback about it but I forgot.

Everyone LOVED how I used the Google Drive app to take pictures of their work to display on the screen. It shows the 5 practices by selecting, sequencing, and connecting student work. The next time I present this I will have to do some sort of screen cast animation with my phone to show exactly how it's done (is that possible??).

No surprise, they loved the mystery student, or for them, the mystery teacher activity. 16 participants were born in California, and 8 were not so I said stay standing if you were born in California. Then narrowed it down to stay standing if you like oil paintings, and then staying standing if you like to teach Trigonometry. That worked well.

I didn't have time to have everyone respond to the learning log prompt. I did share the tip on printing out quarter sheets of paper that some were already familiar with.

I briefly discussed participation quizzes with a sample from my class earlier this week. I had no time to do the Red Light Green Light activity or share about the Fish Bowl.

I loved getting feedback from participants, but some of the conversations went on too long so I have to be careful about when I ask questions and make sure it's purposeful and doesn't slow me down to the point of not presenting all the material. I may cut out some of the material the next time I present it, which will be at the CPM National Conference in San Francisco. Thanks for reading, and especially anyone who did attend my session! To see around 24 or 25 out of 30 possible seats filled was awesome.

UPDATE: Here's the feedback I got from my sessions, unedited. I am posting it here for transparency and also so I don't have to login to their system to look at it again:

796	Overall Rating	3
796	Was the presentation useful and relevant?	Yes
796	Was your knowledge of the topic enhanced because of this presentation?	Yes
796	Did the presenter speak clearly and presented well?	Yes
796	Did the presenter interact with attendees and encourage interaction among fellow attendees?	Yes
796	Would you attend a presentation by this speaker again in the future?	Yes
796	What could the presenter do to improve their presentation in the future?	Had way too much material to cover.
797	Overall Rating	5
797	Was the presentation useful and relevant?	Yes
797	Was your knowledge of the topic enhanced because of this presentation?	Yes
797	Did the presenter speak clearly and presented well?	Yes
797	Did the presenter interact with attendees and encourage interaction among fellow attendees?	Yes
797	Would you attend a presentation by this speaker again in the future?	Yes
797	What could the presenter do to improve their presentation in the future?	Have the volunteer help pass out stuff!
798	Overall Rating	4
798	Was the presentation useful and relevant?	Yes
798	Was your knowledge of the topic enhanced because of this presentation?	Yes
798	Did the presenter speak clearly and presented well?	Yes
798	Did the presenter interact with attendees and encourage interaction among fellow attendees?	Yes
798	Would you attend a presentation by this speaker again in the future?	Yes
798	What could the presenter do to improve their presentation in the future?	Have more time! I wanted to get to everything but we ran out of time.
799	Overall Rating	5
799	Was the presentation useful and relevant?	Yes
799	Was your knowledge of the topic enhanced because of this presentation?	Yes
799	Did the presenter speak clearly and presented well?	Yes
799	Did the presenter interact with attendees and encourage interaction among fellow attendees?	Yes
799	Would you attend a presentation by this speaker again in the future?	Yes
799	What could the presenter do to improve their presentation in the future?
800	Overall Rating	4
800	Was the presentation useful and relevant?	Yes
800	Was your knowledge of the topic enhanced because of this presentation?	Yes
800	Did the presenter speak clearly and presented well?	Yes
800	Did the presenter interact with attendees and encourage interaction among fellow attendees?	Yes
800	Would you attend a presentation by this speaker again in the future?	Yes
800	What could the presenter do to improve their presentation in the future?	Work on timing or focus on fewer concepts/activities.
801	Overall Rating	4
801	Was the presentation useful and relevant?	Yes
801	Was your knowledge of the topic enhanced because of this presentation?	Yes
801	Did the presenter speak clearly and presented well?	Yes
801	Did the presenter interact with attendees and encourage interaction among fellow attendees?	Yes
801	Would you attend a presentation by this speaker again in the future?	Yes
801	What could the presenter do to improve their presentation in the future?	Maybe give examples from other grades? But engaging and gave resources, examples.
802	Overall Rating	4
802	Was the presentation useful and relevant?	Yes
802	Was your knowledge of the topic enhanced because of this presentation?	Yes
802	Did the presenter speak clearly and presented well?	Yes
802	Did the presenter interact with attendees and encourage interaction among fellow attendees?	Yes
802	Would you attend a presentation by this speaker again in the future?	Yes
802	What could the presenter do to improve their presentation in the future?	Slow down.  I know you had a LOT of good ideas - but let the ideas that you have the time to present foster themselves.  Questions can be asked later.  Good job, though.
803	Overall Rating	2
803	Was the presentation useful and relevant?	No
803	Was your knowledge of the topic enhanced because of this presentation?	No
803	Did the presenter speak clearly and presented well?	Yes
803	Did the presenter interact with attendees and encourage interaction among fellow attendees?	Yes
803	Would you attend a presentation by this speaker again in the future?	No
803	What could the presenter do to improve their presentation in the future?	There just weren't many strategies for how to help ELs in understanding some of the language. We only talked about 1 strategy
804	Overall Rating	4
804	Was the presentation useful and relevant?	Yes
804	Was your knowledge of the topic enhanced because of this presentation?	Yes
804	Did the presenter speak clearly and presented well?	Yes
804	Did the presenter interact with attendees and encourage interaction among fellow attendees?	Yes
804	Would you attend a presentation by this speaker again in the future?	Yes
804	What could the presenter do to improve their presentation in the future?	I wish we had more time. Perhaps he could be in a slot in the afternoon instead. He had a lot of good strategies I had never been introduced to before
805	Overall Rating	5
805	Was the presentation useful and relevant?	Yes
805	Was your knowledge of the topic enhanced because of this presentation?	Yes
805	Did the presenter speak clearly and presented well?	Yes
805	Did the presenter interact with attendees and encourage interaction among fellow attendees?	Yes
805	Would you attend a presentation by this speaker again in the future?	Yes
805	What could the presenter do to improve their presentation in the future?
806	Overall Rating	5
806	Was the presentation useful and relevant?	Yes
806	Was your knowledge of the topic enhanced because of this presentation?	Yes
806	Did the presenter speak clearly and presented well?	Yes
806	Did the presenter interact with attendees and encourage interaction among fellow attendees?	Yes
806	Would you attend a presentation by this speaker again in the future?	Yes
806	What could the presenter do to improve their presentation in the future?

Sorry for not posting the presentation on the EduPlus app. It is posted below.