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Learning Links: Podcast Edition

Life gets busy. Sometimes in the busy sitting down and giving my attention reading takes a back seat to putting on a podcast while I do all the other things.

This is one of those times.

And I’m grateful for it.

My podcast feed has been full of good stuff:

Learning Links: Podcast Edition. Educational Resource Round Up from Mathacognitive. Picture of a white desk with a computer and a vase of flowers.
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What I’m Emailing Myself: We Made It! Edition

We made it.

The school year we couldn’t have imagined is ending or ended.

I went on a date with my husband and ate in a restaurant without a mask for the first time in 16 months.

There are still things to worry about (aren’t there always? at least for those of us inclined to worry) but I am letting out a sigh of relief, and starting to look forward again, and feeling, for the first time in months, like I have the bandwidth to write.

But first, other people writing, about other people who made it…

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Take Care (and taking a break)

This is hard. I hope you’re ok. Please take care of yourself.

Friends, that’s all I’ve wanted to write. For months.

Whether your ‘this’ is figuring out how to connect with students through a screen, or going into a classroom and worrying about exposure, or juggling your own kids’ remote schooling with work, or just (as if this were a thing we could minimize to “just”) living through this past year, it’s been hard.

I hope you’re ok. I hope you’re doing what you can to take care of yourself through your ‘this’.

Taking care of ourselves looks different for each of us, and for each season. Sometimes it looks like finding the things we can control and doing what we can about them, and sometimes it looks like focusing on the positives (and remembering they are always there, despite the reality of the hard stuff)

Sometimes it looks like thinking deeply, and setting intentional priorities, and being gentle with ourselves and others.

I love teaching. I love talking about teaching with other teachers. I love thinking through the teaching and learning process, and the way writing helps me do that.

But for me, this is not the season to churn out a stream of tips and resources and new ideas complete with graphics and links and social media posts.

It’s a season to focus on taking care of myself and my people, to be gentle and real and thoughtful.

And in truth, it might be the best teaching tip or idea I can offer right now.

Please take care of yourself.

Please be real and gentle and practice care. Please pick your priorities and set some things down when it’s not their season. And when we’re ready and re-charged, we can again pick up the things that matter.

For me, this means I’m taking a break from writing/publishing here, until things shift and space opens up to do it with care and attention and gentleness again.

I’m looking forward to that time. Until then, take care.

PS – I’m not going completely off the grid. While I’m not writing here, I’ll be channeling my writing energy into my monthly newsletter

And connecting with other teachers in presentations at a bunch of great conferences:

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Celebrating the small victories

It must be a November thing.

Because when I sat down this week to to write, I thought “it’s been a hard fall, but I should count up and share some of the wins”

And then I remembered, I had posted something like that before.

Turns out it was almost exactly a year ago. I didn’t plan that, but maybe next year I will. (#MathacognitiveTraditions)

Maybe it’s the influence of a holiday about gratitude (and carbs, which are also a thing I am grateful for). Maybe it’s the declining amount of sunlight, which always challenges me.

But mostly, I think it’s about being a few months into the school year. The new-ness has worn off (even this year, with so much new) and a holiday break is sounding good, and I (and I assume you) could use a reminder of the positives.

(When I do teacher self-care workshops, this is always the first strategy I recommend, so practicing what I preach. Also, all the research agrees)

So, the struggles with tech and attendance and the impacts of the world on our students (and our teachers) are very real and very present. But, I’m taking a minute to remind myself of the wins.

Text: Noticing the positives ... even in a hard season. Image: Silhouette of a person on a road, facing a bright sun. Arms raised with fingers in a V sign

Including …

+The student who came, so sick and still determined to zoom class.

+And the classmates who taught her the exponent lesson she had missed. (And passed along home remedies and good wishes)

+And the one who had been MIA for a few weeks who came back (I think it was the email “I’m worried because we haven’t seen you…” Because, connection, even in the slog of managing remote attendance)

+And the one who asked for quadratics. And the one who has been in school for like 2 months in the last 10 years who jumped into algebra on Khan academy.

I am worried about other students, and the challenges of the year, but these and others can keep us moving forward and reaching out and putting the best teaching we can out there.

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What I’m emailing myself: late November edition (11.14.2020)

The election is done. There’s a vaccine on the horizon. Holidays are coming, and then a new year. It’s dark outside, but I’m feeling a little more hopeful, and have a little more bandwidth to take in media again. Here’s a bit of what I’m finding…

I share some of my favorite links on my facebook page… join me there!

Previous link round ups

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39 Ideas to Incorporate Teaching about Learning

So, I love metacognition. And teaching about learning. You know this if you’ve read more than a post or two here.

And, I love talking with teachers about teaching, and I know that many teachers are kind of daunted by this (“metacognition” sounds so Latin, or Greek, or something, and the to do list is already long). But it doesn’t have to be hard or super time consuming to incorporate.

(I have a keen sense of how long my teaching to-do list is, and little desire to extend it unnecessarily) 

So I put together a workshop to talk to other teachers about metacognition, and learning about learning, and fostering student independence, and keeping it all manageable. 

And I took it on the road. At least, I took it on the Zoom. (Silver linings of pandemics, it is easier to present at out of state conferences and events) 

But, the people who organize conferences have a lot to fit in. And the people going to conferences have a lot to get to, and also, zoom fatigue. So, I had 75 minutes. 

75 mins sounds like plenty of time. Except, I tried to make this presentation work three different times over 6 ish months, and I’ve learned a lot about delivering online PD, and let me tell you, it is not a lot of time. 

I have started over from scratch before each conference, trying to make it work the way I wanted it. And, after a very work-y weekend, I am happy to say,  the third version is so. much. better.   (Finally.) 

But, making it better meant acknowledging that 75 minutes was short, and I needed to focus, even if I have a million things I could  talk about. 

That old writing advice: “Kill your darlings”

Or, at least, relocate your darlings. 

So, here my friends is the darling that just doesn’t quite fit in the 75 minutes:

You can fit teaching about learning into any class. 

I fit it into my math class. 

I have a colleague with a whole unit in an ESOL. 

And, I know another teacher with ideas for a science class about brains. 

There’s definitely the intense, high-prep way to do this (see the phrase “a whole unit”) 

That’s cool, but not, actually my darling. 

I’m interested in the version you can manage on a random Wednesday, without a major curriculum design. 

The formula to teach about learning in any class:

Replace a text or prompt or topic with one that focuses on a learning process. 

You’re going to be looking for an article to read, or a topic to read about, or a video to watch or whatever anyways, so it’s not that  much more work to look for one that helps students learn about the learning process. 

“One that helps students learn about the learning process” might be study tips, or research on how memory works, or a profile of a student who has succeeded, or encouragement, or something about neuroplasticity (brains change!) that supports a growth mindset. 

And then, you do your thing.

Newsletter subscribers, I added a list of readings, videos and other materials to get you started to my free subscriber resources. Click here to access or sign up.

That seems like it should fit, even if 75 minutes is kind of short. And, it does, more or less. What doesn’t fit are the 39 examples I generated to show how in might work in math, ELA, ESOL, science, social Studies, ESOL, or digital literacy class.

Fortunately they fit here: 

39 Ideas to Incorporate Teaching about Learning

(1) Read articles about learning to practice vocab or (2) fluency with emerging readers. (3) Practice finding topic sentences and supporting details. (4) Use a passage from a learning article to practice punctuation in an ELA class. or (5) as comprehension or (6) dictation activity with ESOL. 

(7) Practice visual literacy by analyzing an infographic.

(8) Research and write guides for other adult learners with study tips. (9) Or write the guides for kids.  (10) Display your research as a bulletin board. (11) Or make a video to show at orientation or in classes. (12) Practice presenting or speaking skills by teaching peers. 

Read or watch profiles of successful students. (13) Write a summary, (14) map it out with a graphic organizer or (15) compare it to story arcs or other narrative structures. (16)  Read several and write a compare/contrast.

(17) Interview peers about what helps them learn for speaking and listening practice (18) Or, ask about challenges. Then (19) brainstorm with a mind map or other visual or (20) research solutions to common ones.

(21) Watch videos as a brain break. (22) Or make the video a listening comprehension exercise for ESOL. (23)Analyze it for persuasive techniques. 

(22) Do a survey about learning. Use the data to (24) make graphs.  (25) Analyze it with percents, (26) ratios, (27) fractions or (28) central tendency. (29) Ask survey questions on a number line with(30) fractions, (31) decimals or (32) signed numbers.

(33) Make the survey with GoogleForms, or (34)practice formatting in Word. (35) Or compile data and make graphs with Excel to practice digital literacy. 

(36) Use the survey to talk about representative and biased samples, (37) or about sample and population, (38) or about research methods. (39) Make a hypothesis and discuss whether the data confirms it. 

39-Ideas-to-Incorporate-Teaching-about-Learning-in-Any-Class

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Setting Goals… In a Year Like This: 3

Sometime last spring when “this lockdown thing will be over soon“, and “let’s plan for life after COVID” seemed like reasonable statements in reference to fall 2020, I pitched a plan to a couple of programs to do some instructional coaching.

“We’ll do it, right“, I said. We’ll start from strengths and build a culture of support, and I’ll work with teachers on goals and action plans that are relevant to them. 

It’s a good plan. And two programs agreed. And a funder. And I was glad to have something to look forward to. (#selfcare)

And, then, fall 2020 came and we are not in life after COVID. We are still in emergency remote teaching, making hybrid work as best we can or somehow teaching while socially distant. 

But, I’ve got this grant. And it says we’re setting teaching goals. 

So. 

Yeah. 

How in the world do you set teaching goals in a year like this? 

Image of a typewriter with the world 'Goals' on a piece of paper. Text: "Thinking about Goals.. in a Pandemic" Mathacognitive

It’s a good question. 

I have a whole bunch of answers for normal times.  I love goals. I love setting them, and there are few things I love more than checking them off.

But, these are not normal times. (As if we needed to say that) 

And, pretending we can operate like normal times is not helping; it’s making too many teachers (even more) frantic/stressed/overwhelmed

These are times for granting ourselves and others some compassion, and recognizing that some of the energy we might like to spend on goals is already committed. We’re spending it on living through a pandemic, learning a new way to teach, supporting our families and friends, on (too) many other essential tasks.  

My normal list of a dozen teaching goals is not happening this year.

But, some of us (still) find goals helpful. 

They can give us focus in crazy times, and provide a sense of progress. And, I think, all of us can benefit from bringing some level of intention to this strange chapter and all that we are navigating. 

So, 3 ways to think about goals, even in a pandemic. 

Oxygen Masks

We need self care more than ever. So, one way to think about goals, is to think about committing to practices that will help us through these times.  We might ask: 

  • What will I intentionally not do, to make mental space and time for the things I have to do?  (I will not do more than 3 takes of any videos; I will not check my work email on Friday nights …)  This fully counts as a goal to my overachiever, perfectionist self. 
  • What practices will I incorporate into my teaching or my life because they fill me up, even in the midst of all that is 2020?
  • What habits or routines of self care will I seek out to maintain my energy? 

Reaching Out

Taking care of others can be a path to compassion fatigue and burn out. It can also be a source of motivation, purpose, grounding and fulfillment. (The random links my internet browsers sends me told me so , but it is true) Just, know yourself and your limits, ok? 

  •  Is there a particular, impactful way you want to maintain (or cultivate) connections, to show others you care?  With your students, your colleagues, others? 
  • Is there a project or cause, however small or large, you can devote some time to to combat feelings of helplessness or frustration?

Looking Forward

This crisis will not last forever. Sometimes it’s hard to believe, but it is true. You might find it helps you cope to think about life-after. (You might also end up with a grant still in a pandemic… or maybe that’s just me) 

  • Hard times can bring clarity and focus.  If 2020 has clarified any priorities, goals or dreams, we  might consider what steps we can take now to prepare for or pursue them. 
  • We’ve all had to grow and learn this year,  perhaps you want to expand, re-purpose or leverage your new skills in the future? 

Some caveats, as we set goals, in the middle of a year like this.

Lets set goals that help us through, not weight us down; lets set process goals, not outcomes (because we can only control what we can control).

And let’s hold them gently — whatever goals we might set –as inspiration and intention, not sources of stress and pressure

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Practicing grace (Or: 15 ways to modify a textbook or worksheet)

Maybe it’s just me (except I know it’s not) But it’s easy to get caught up in an unattainable quest for teacher perfection. Especially here on the interwebs, where drive by comments are easy, and only the Pinterest-perfect shows in our feeds. 

But, if ever there was a year for letting go of teacher perfectionism….this is it. 

This will be — for many of us — a year of adapting and flexing and mostly making the best we can of decidedly not optimal situations. 

Personally, I am resolving to never complain about the photocopier again, because I so miss a physical office and a classroom that is not my laptop angled strategically for the best video conference background view. I will be grateful when we are back to it in a way I never was before.

And yet, the truth is: the photocopier frequently jammed, and it hasn’t stapled right in ages, and imperfect as it was, I will still be grateful to work on paper in a real classroom again (all the wistful sighs for group work, and physical manipulatives, and no more zoom sessions…) 

That teaching is better, and dearly missed, and also imperfect. 

I am hoping that this is a thing I will learn from all of this. (Because, we ought to learn something for all we’ve been through)  To be grateful, to flex and adapt, and also, to give some grace to the imperfections. Maybe, even, to my own. 

And so I’m thinking about the ways we adapt. Ourselves, but also our materials. 

Because, there is a place for creating the custom thing, beautifully designed and crafted precisely to meet your students where they are at.  And there’s a place for photocopying (or, uploading) the pretty good thing and giving your limited attention to something else.

Text books and worksheets are resources, if we use them well. I’m grateful for a shelf full (and grateful I brought them home when we first shut down) 

And, yet. They are not perfect either. 

Sometimes the examples are confusing or there isn’t enough practice or there’s too much of one thing. Or the critical thinking could be higher, or the focus clearer, or any number of other limitations.

So I hack it (read: adapt, modify)

Make a copy or a scan, block out the parts that don’t apply, hand-write in new instructions or questions, mix and match exercises or books, cut and paste if I have to.  Make it work. (Mentally apologize to the human who labored to creat the resource in the first place)

The result is not the prettiest, perfect-looking activity.  But it is a class that is planned, with a teacher who is calm(er?), and materials that are imperfect  but good (like the rest of us)  as we flex and adapt and make the best of it.

Picture of shelves of books, perhaps a library. Text: 15 easy ways to hack, tweak, adapt and modify math books and materials.

And so, 15 ways to hack math materials

(Get this as a PDF download in my free subscriber resources)

  1. Add a reading/writing/comprehension task: 

Nudge students to examine the  explanatory text and/or example problem (that always gets skipped!), by asking them to write a summary, or read/think/pair/share.

  1. Add a retrieval practice task. 

Reading/writing task + neuroscience. Read the passage, turn the paper over, and write what you remember on the back or in your notebook. 

  1. Isolate one skill.

Interleaving is great. But for the love of numbers, sometimes we need to learn one thing at a time. Select the questions that are most relevant, eliminate the others.

  1. Interleave: Merge two worksheets or problem sets. 

Use copies and a glue stick or scans and a computer to cut and paste questions from two skills together to review, or to practice distinguishing two similar tasks 

  1. Add an annotation task.

Ask students to underline or circle a particular type of information in each question. 

  1. Add a problem analysis task. 

“Before you solve each question, write the units you are looking for/operation you will use/restate the question/etc.”

  1. Break the question into steps

Particularly useful for complex problems. Add a), b) and c) with prompts to scaffold thinking.

  1. Change the question/answer format: 

Add or remove an answer bank, or convert multiple choice to open ended to differentiate or adjust the challenge level to you students

  1. Add or remove equivalent forms.

Ask students to give answer in two forms, or edit the answer key to accept un-simplified answers. Again, differentiation.

  1. Change number formats to reduce cognitive load

22/7 might be a better approximation of pi than 3.14, but sometimes you don’t want to reteach fractions in the middle of the geometry lesson. Sometimes you do. 

  1. Make it an error correction exercise 

Do the questions/worksheet, badly. Have students find and fix the mistakes.  (Especially satisfying if they can use red pens…)

  1. Add a creation task 

Ask students to write and solve their own questions(s) based on the examples provided 

  1. Add a metacognitive step

“How confident do you feel answering this kind of question?  Which questions were hardest? Easiest? Why? “

  1. Convert it to an interactive activity

Copy and cut apart sections to make task cards, or put questions and answers on separate cards to make a sort.

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I Wish my Students Knew (Sharing teaching values to build classroom culture)

I am not, generally speaking, a fan of making videos. (Or, often, of slide decks)

I feel self conscious on video, and do too many takes, and I’m not even really a video-watching fan, and we’re doing zoom sessions anyways, and, well, it’s just not my favorite thing.

But, when I started planning for this year, I knew there was one video I would definitely be making: a screencast of the my “Wish my Students Knew” presentation.

I’ve been trying to figure out how we establish a classroom culture, when we don’t have an actual classroom. It’s puzzling, but core values still seem like the place to start.

Originally Published Feb. 2018, updated fall 2020

I kind of knew what I wanted in a classroom culture: support, and listening, and welcome, and a palpable belief in every student. But, I wasn’t always sure how to create it. I would not have guessed part of the answer was PowerPoint.

I had been using ‘What I wish my teacher knew….’ to start my classes. I love this. It’s beautiful, and valuable, and works at least as well for centering the teacher (and reminding me why I do this!) as it does for giving voice to the students.

So, as I pondered all of the misconceptions, and information gaps, and misunderstandings about math learning that my students started with, I added, ‘What I Wish my Students Knew…’. 

A dozen or so slides with some key ideas that I share in some form or fashion every first week. It’s my chance — before we start with the variables and the word problems, in the middle of the attendance policies and school calendars — to tell them what I think is really important to know about math class. (And to start to debunk a few things many think they know)

It doesn’t create a culture by itself, but it sets a nice foundation. They know where I stand, and what I believe.

I’ve been adding to it as I think of new wishes, and playing with the presentation format. I’ve given this as a straight-up powerpoint, a gallery walk, a read-around, had pairs look at a few slides, and now, a video.

And, if some administrator ever comes looking for a teaching philosophy, this might be what I hand them.

So, without further ado (but with commentary)

Stack of books with text "What I Wish My Students Knew.. Sharing teaching values to build classroom culture in person or online

I wish my students knew…

… Everyone can learn math. (They are often fairly certain that this is not true, at least as applied to them.) (( If they learn this, I don’t care if they learn another thing))

… But we don’t all learn the same way, or at the same pace. And that’s ok

 

 … I hated my math class in high school. (I often talk about Mr. B – -, whose teaching style combined with the difficulty but apparent irrelevancy of cosines to my life, to convince me that I wasn’t a math person) ((I hope they hear “I can empathize”))

… Turns out I don’t mind math as an adult. And I love teaching it. (I hope they hear, ‘it can change’)

…You don’t have to like math to learn it. … But it feels really good when you get something that you thought was hard. (Those moments are the reason I keep doing this job)

… Most of math looks scary… until you learn it. (I’m a big fan of exposure therapy for math anxiety  “Look at this thing we’re going to do today….” …”Hey, nice job, maybe that crazy-looking thing wasn’t so bad)

 

… You really learn math when you do math. Not when you listen to or watch me do math. (So, no, we’re not going to sit in rows facing the board)

… You’re learning the most when you’re working on something that you can just about figure out, but it’s still kind of hard.

… Mistakes happen. Even to me. And it’s no big deal (I put mine on the board for all to see)

… Being a good learner is its own skill. Everyone learns in different ways and it will make your life easier when you figure out the best ways for you (Metacognition, my personal crusade)

… Checking your answers helps you learn. If you do more than mark it right/wrong, and instead figure out how to fix your mistakes. (Answer keys are a fixture in class and a learning tool, except for all the past-teachers in their heads scolding them about cheating. )

… It’s natural, but frustrating, for your brain to have a hard time remembering something you only do once a week. The best remedy is to do math more often (Study at home!) (Our biggest challenge, my constant plea)

… Asking questions is how you take charge of your learning, and get the information you need. Also, I’m a terrible mind reader. (Phrased for those with trouble asking for help, and for those who just want to help)

… It’s ok to ask for help. Better than ok actually.  (Some things bear repeating)

I added a version of this (adapted lightly to be slightly more universal) and to my  subscriber resources. Enjoy!

(If you use it, please leave a comment telling me how it fits in your class)

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Designing for Students + In the moment differentiation strategies

These are strange times.

It hardly seems that I should have to say it any more, it’s been said so often. And yet, these are strange times.

They are hard, and sometimes too full of video conferences, and sometimes not full enough with anything else. Pandemics are many things: stressful and scary and dramatic and changing all the things. And also, boring. I am — personally — dearly missing the mental stimulation of life before COVID.

I’m filling some of that space with designing materials, because staying busy helps, and so does — for a few minutes at least — thinking about a future, when this will be done, and we will be back in our classrooms, doing our thing.

Sometimes I design materials because inspiration hits, or I saw something on twitter that looked fun, or some PD told me that the best way do teach X was to do Y.

Mostly, though, I design materials for my students.

They’re awesome. (I’ve might have said this before)

And, I am a firm believer in differentiation, and student choice, and teaching them to be effective, independent learners.

And so, I want to be able to give them exactly the right work, for exactly where they are.

Picture of a hand writing with a pen on paper. Text: Designing for Students: reponding to student needs for differentiation.

All of which is to say, last winter a student asked me for more practice with order of operations that had division bars.

Something about the format (the resemblance to fractions? the assumed grouping symbols?) threw him off and he was metacognitively aware enough to notice it and ask for practice with the challenge point.

Go him.

I love when my students get to this point in their learning. I said ‘absolutely you can have more practice, let me go find some’

And, this seemed easy.

It was straight numerical computation practice. Open the classroom computer, google “order of operations with division bars” , click print, and my student will be on his way. Make a couple copies for the other students who chime in with ‘me too’s’ and ‘can I have one” (because they would, they’re awesome like that)

Differentiation, check.

Except it didn’t work.

Maybe my google skills were off, or I checked the wrong textbooks, but I found an abundance of math … but not quite what I (really, he) wanted.

In the moment, I’m pretty sure I gave up and made up some problems on scrap paper.

Which, is responsive and differentiated. But also, this is why I design materials. (Also, because, pandemics)

Because, if he needed practice, someone else probably will too. And he had thought to notice a point that I (and apparently the math publishing world?) hadn’t paid much attention to before.

I will now.

And, yet.

Practicalities.

In the moment, we can’t stop class to design something for each student. And, it took me months to design something for him at all. He has moved on.

Part of the art of teaching — that all the lesson plans in the world can’t quite capture — is how we respond and pivot and creatively problem solve mid-class, when a student has a question.

We can’t fully know what questions or needs will come. But we can know that some questions will come, and we can be ready:

  • Keep our options open. Among the best investments in my classroom: three milk crates + hanging files of math work. I can pull dozens of worksheets when I need them. For distance learning, I’m setting up a folder in Google Drive to play a similar role.
  • Adapt the materials we do have at hand. Pick only a few problems to do, tweak the ones there (I forget how many negative signs/fractions/etc. I’ve whited out, because sometimes we need a break), add a task to a worksheet etc.
  • Take note of the particular points students struggle, so we can prepare or research materials for next time. File the info or resources where we’ll find when the curriculum comes back around.