Grade 9 math - Part Deux - Improving Retention through Spiraling and Descriptive Feedback

Every year I complain to myself quietly about two things:  1)  lack of retention and 2) kids at this school only care about marks, and not about learning.

Yes, yes, I know - at least they care about something.  I am lucky to be at a school where they care about school, whether it's extrinsically about marks or intrinsically about learning.

However, these are two problems that I would like to solve.

Retention

Quite often, what I taught in September was entirely forgotten about by the time January came; I saw this in some of my 9 academic/11 university-preparation students who did their homework everyday.  For 9 applied students who are less likely to do their homework, retention would become a bigger  issue in my class.  I looked around online and found that some people were also trying to solve the problem of lack of retention through designing the curriculum in a spiral.  Unlike the linear curriculum that I still prefer to implement for my academic/university prep students (maybe it will change), this style of curriculum allows my applied students to see math concepts a couple times repeated throughout the semester, sometimes in a different light  or through a different problem.  The hope was that by seeing the concepts repeated tweaked in a slightly different way after a few times with weeks separated in between, retention would increase.

Learning vs Attaining Marks

This year, while I am still spiraling, it led to the use of descriptive feedback only.  I had a discussion a couple of years ago with a colleague at Trudeau about a situation where if a student scored better on their exam than their term mark, I should consider making their final mark their exam mark.  Their argument was that if a student can demonstrate their learning by the end of the course, it doesn't matter that they couldn't do it in September.  I still am not fully convinced, as I believe that throughout the term there are other pieces like "thinking" or "communication" which are more fairly evaluated when there is more time than a 1.5 hour exam.  However, the colleague still had a key point that I could not shake off - the learning cycle ends with an exam and if students can demonstrate their knowledge and understanding by that time, that should be all that matters.   

Quite often when my students receive a their test, they always look at the mark first before any descriptive feedback.  While the majority of my students react to the actual mark first, there are fewer students that can get past that initial reaction to read the descriptive feedback and actually learn. This makes sense for a student because the test is a natural end and judgement to the learning cycle of a unit or a spiral.

So, I decided to try descriptive feedback only for the first half of the semester to extend the learning cycle.  This emphasizes to them that the first 1 or 2 spirals through the curriculum would be about learning only.  As a result, the principal and the superintendent have given me permission to give "I" as opposed to any marks on the report card for my students for both the interim and midterm report cards.  This has given its own sets of problems as my students really want to know how they're doing in terms of a mark.  I am trying to emphasize to them that learning as much as you can is all that you should be worried about at this time.

I just want to leave you with this final quote from my student.  The context was this - it was September when I was having trouble convincing my own students that there wouldn't be any marks.  There was a general consensus among the twenty of them that they would actually want marks just to know where they are.  I was about to lose them when one of my students said: "I get it now...school becomes more about learning than it is about passing."  All the students had an 'aha' moment given to them from another student.  It was one of the more impressive 'aha' moments I have witnessed in my 10 year career...and I wasn't the source of it.  What's more interesting, is that this 'aha' moment was more rewarding than any other.  

I was so pumped after my 3rd teacher workshop of the year that I had to take a picture. 

Earlier this year I did my first math workshop.  Here was the description: 

Are your academic & applied grade 9s disengaged? Learn how other teachers and I transformed our teaching practice utilizing the spiral curriculum to increase retention of math. By using a combination of Dan Meyer's problem-based 3-act math, collaborative white-boarding, and Knowledge Hook's online technology, students are more engaged and rediscover an enjoyment of math. Come and learn how to efficiently implement one or any of these strategies to jump start your classes' retention and engagement! 

I checked quite often (even though I know it was unhealthy to) to see how many people were attracted to my description. It was crushing.  Even on the last day leading up to OAME, there were 3 people who signed up for my session. I managed to console myself by stating that it will be easy and having fewer people is  a good way to start one's first math workshop.  I also managed to convince myself that because it was on a Friday and it was the last session of the day...most people wouldn't come anyway.  So I managed to not take it personally.

Boy was I wrong about the number of people.  I had 30+ show up to my session!  Well, this OAME “Endlessly Spiralling  through Grade 9 Math” was much better than my previous two presentations on “To Blog , where No Blog has Gone Before”. 

There are a couple comparisons that are important to note here:

·         

• After two workshop presentations, I think I got the hang of it.  I went from a 1-way presenter of  disseminating information to an interactive teacher/facilitator that talked and listened to the audience.  I sometimes would lead a discussion with the audience but also lean on the experience of the audience as well for input or further expertise.  

• I’ve been using blogging as a tool in the classroom for over a year whereas I’ve been spiraling for only 9 months.  However, I am much more comfortable talking about spiraling in math than I am about the use of blogging in the classroom. 

• I used Pear Deck many times in the classroom before I did my math presentation vs my blogging presentation. 

Here is some feedback on my presentation.  Looks like about 7 people answered this first question, even though over 20+ attended.  Not everyone fills out feedback forms:    

Leading a discussion with fellow educators and administrators requires a very different than I had developed teaching teenagers. One of the biggest difference I learnt was that there was a curriculum when teaching the students versus no curriculum when at a workshop.  At a workshop, the content discussed better be useful for the audience or else it’s a failure.  In the classroom, the content discussed often isn’t the teacher or student’s choice, so we just have to make the best of it.  As a result, I started my presentation using Pear Deck to interact with the audience.  I used to only use it to get to know where everyone is from, which age group they most affect etc….

This time I used it to ask what they expected out of the workshop.  It became evident as I was browsing through their comments that some of my expectations and their expectations didn’t align.  I went through the list and acknowledged each one of their expectations; I would defer some, promising to get to it later in the presentation, and others I would answer on the spot.   A few questions I wasn’t within the scope of the presentation and I apologized but at the same time used this as a segue to the fact that I wouldn’t get offended if anyone left early.  This portion was informal in nature and opened up the floor quite a bit.  

I spent only 3 hours explicitly preparing for my OAME presentation whereas I spent days preparing for my blogging presentation.  It’s amazing that out of the 7 people that responded, 3 stated that I was ‘somewhat organized’ and 4 stated that I was ‘well-organized’.  However, upon reflection, I’ve actually spent a lot more time preparing for this presentation than the 3 hours beforehand. 

When I went to George Couros’s presentation back in October, he stated that he formatively spent 5 years writing on a blog getting feedback from all sorts of people around the world.  He would get his ideas refined and learnt how to wordsmith. 

Something similar happened to me here – I blogged about spiraling for 7 months beforehand, and I could whip together a presentation in 3 hours and then speak about it in an organized, confident manner the next day.  Normally I would have much trouble talking about my experiences, but blogging helped me refine my thoughts so that when I spoke, it wasn’t a big jumble.  

Wow.  I was thinking that OAME was hiding negative feedback at first here, because there seems to be only one person answering these questions now.  However, I looked back up and saw that there is still some negative feedback, so maybe? 

Nevertheless, I guess the respondents finished off the survey at the end, which showed I did an ok job:  3 people said it was ok, 3 people said good, and 2 found my session to be great!  I still have to work on things as only one person would recommend me as a speaker – now I have something to work towards.  Looking back – I have to work on my content.  I am not very knowledgeable about the changing math education.  My goal is to read Jo Boaler’s “Mathematical Mindsets” this summer and hopefully I’ll have a better scope and understanding of what her student Dan Meyer was going towards.    

Except….I forgot to apply to run workshops for 2016/2017 year as ultimate took up my entire life from May to June.  You live and you learn I guess.    On to the next year!  Can't wait to start tomorrow!

Ultimate Frisbee Season Wrapup

It's long over due as it's been 1.5 months since the season finished, but many of the players requested the speeches be placed online.  So here's the overview of the season from my perspective:  

We started with two teams, with both teams posting 0 wins in our first tournament.  ZERO.  0-9-1.  None of you guys let that dissuade you from practicing and improving.  You put your head down and worked. Every morning we put ourselves to the ultimate grind and became better.  Inch by inch, we clawed our way out of the basement, out of terrible deficits in games, and into the playoffs.  In the end we reached a high level of play and Trudeau finished 3rd in the tier 1 division.  This is no small feat, as ultimate is now the most popular sport in York Region with over 1500 students playing - and for Trudeau to finish 3rd among all teams in the tier 1 division is a testament to all the hard work that you've done.  What's even more impressive is that all of this was done with high levels of sportsmanship, honour, fairness, and incredible spirit throughout the whole season.

Recognition must also be placed on the support system of the team - assistant coaches and managers.

Both assistant coaches came back enriched from their varsity experience at York.  Tim, who would have a hard time going to morning practices, now voluntarily arrived early to give each player many small pointers, giving players the fine details that would all add up to the huge result we got this year.  Justin, came to all practices since school finished and had a hand in designing practices, lineups, and delivering motivational speeches during games.   His observations made in-game as well as the advice given to the players in practice were a huge boon in helping us reach our 3rd place finish.

@trudeauhs alumni coming out to help push our team to the highest finish ever in trudeau history! pic.twitter.com/NEwt30Q6JK

— Andrew Shin (@MrAShinYRDSB) June 7, 2016

In the above tweet there are my two assistant coaches Justin and Tim and a bunch of alumni coming to visit in the last tournament. Clockwise from left: Derek Choy (2014), Tim Truong (2015), Adwin Lau, Calvin (2014), Aaron Cheung (2015), Neil Patel (2014), Andrew Shin (myself), and Justin Cheung (2015)

Managers Grace and Kristy collected money, photocopied handouts, collected and checked sheets, made announcements, sent reminders, did attendance, tracked missed shifts, set up the field, separated pinnies, collected discs, organized payments of discs, designed practices, timekeeping, played guitar, sang, scorekeeping, talking with other coaches, booked fields and courts, sat down with Mr. Shin the day before each practice to design practice and know where pylons go, etc.  They made life easier without the second coach for me this year and none of this would have happened without their help.

Graduating members of the team:  From the left:  Doris, Grace (manager), Ivan, Eastelle (not graduating), Nathan, Maggie, and Kristie (manager)

Captains - thanks for handling the ordering of the jerseys and for communicating with the other team regarding spirit scores!  Setting up the last game as a spirit game was a tremendous idea as well and made for a memorable experience.

Others - there are certain days when managers weren't present...and the same people would help pickup pylons and collect discs at the end of each practice.  I appreciate you doing these small things consistently.  I know who you are, and so do you =)

I then had the opportunity to deliver speeches for four individuals in the night.  Here they are:

Female captain and MVP:  Maggie Zhang

Since grade 9, she carefully learnt and practiced the craft of ultimate, mastering the art of the ‘flick’, the backhand, the in-cut, the zone defence.  It wasn’t always rosy, as she often had to learn from the bench and practice only.  Her playing time in the past wasn’t always regular.   She would maybe touch the disc once or sometimes none in a game. 

Fast forward to today and you’ll see at the end of each game the other team offering their respect for her in the form of daps, mvp chants and awards.  Why?  She now touches the disc maybe 5 times in a span of 30 seconds, helping the team march down the field for a score. 

She also does the little, often unseen things for the team;  packing up discs if a manager isn’t present;  talking and trying to include other quieter team members into discussions;  making thoughtful observations during practice to improve things.    

I’ve coached her and watched her grow in the past four years.  To paraphrase a certain Toronto-born rapper, she started from the bottom in grade 9, and now she’s here – at the top – as a captain, helping to push the team to perhaps its best finish in Trudeau history. 

I present to you, the best story of the growth mindset, one who persevered, and never stopped improving - Trudeau’s female ultimate captain  & MVP – Maggie Zhang. 

Male Captain and MVP:  Ivan Yung 

With the opposition watching his flicks as if in a drive-in,

Helping at practices to help his teammates thriven,

Blocking the discs on defence like a bison,

Doing all the hard stuff and willing to just ‘dive-in’,

When our team is down, he hypes the team like a siren,

With a steely determination and perseverance as hard as a diamond,

I present to you Trudeau’s ultimate male captain and MVP – Ivan. 

Female Junior Athlete of the Year:  Talitha Ling

Her other coaches describe her as very skilled and dedicated.  Versatility doesn’t even begin to describe her as on the volleyball court she can spike, block, stuff, set, dig, place, ace, prevent campfires, serve, pancake (but not serve pancakes) – she can do it all.   And once she became the team’s setter, the team started to perform better. She was the glue the varsity girls’ volleyball team needed to succeed.

“An amazing athlete, with coordination and polished footwork” – said one of her coaches. 

And that coordination and footwork translated straight onto the ultimate field as she played her second varsity sport -  ultimate.  As a grade 10 player she quickly mastered the throws, was trusted by her veteran teammates to catch difficult passes as she quickly darted in and out of spaces like a shadow to get the disc and help the team move upfield. 

I present to you Trudeau’s junior female athlete of the year – Talitha Ling. 

Junior Male Athlete of the Year – Jonah Cheung

He can pass and he can go for a kill.  He can cover the baseline or the centre line with a defence that smothers his opponents.  He elevates his play during a pressure situations, on a match point, whether he needs a long or short serve. 

Wait, which sport am I talking about?  Volleyball or badminton?   

Both.  

But it’s not just about those sports.   

In ultimate, he is a swiss army knife when it comes to his assortment of throws that he can pull off.  He breaks through zones with relative ease, utilizing his multiple ultimate skills.  His determination and tenacity is on display as he plays every other shift, taking on the bulk of offensive duties as a handler. 

He is a responsible, intelligent, and athletic individual who is dedicated to his sports and his teams.  Oh and one more thing – he is often found during practice helping others the art of the ‘flick’. 

Which sport am I talking about now? 

Badminton and ultimate. 

I present to you, Trudeau’s helpful, knowledgeable, and  junior male athlete of the year – Jonah Cheung.    

My Grade 9 Academic Review of Mr. Shin

Every year, I ask my grade 9 academic students to review me, and give me my report card.  For a course that I've done a few times, where I don't think I can get as much out of my own reflection, it is important I at least ask the kids to write something.  Then, it forces me to self-evaluate and reflect on some level.

Here it is!

Mr. Shin should:

Start:
Giving more rewards so we can try for food. Food is life.
Add memes to your presentations.
Teaching us lessons for longer periods of time instead of entrance cards  +1
Do more interactive activities because that helped people learn/remember new information
More inquiry questions
More Knowledge hook
Practicing more application questions
Putting multiple choice on exams (I did?)
More interactive stuff
Projects +1
Start using pictures on the computer and technology more often
Use a ruler(joke) 
Check homework more often  +1+1
Check homework without warning
No option for wall sits or detention (always wall sits!  =)  )
Punish students with math problems instead of wallsits/detention
Ask people where they want to sit
Write bigger on board
EQAO review earlier


Stop:
Try not to make as many mistakes or your legs will be too strong (wall sits)
Making us go outside of class to do activities bc I don't want to move
Using technology and could teach us more lessons
Nothing
Wall sits, try burpee insteads
Stop doing one hour long lessons so we can actually try out the work ourselves
Stop using the whole class time on ecards
Shouting
Making mistakes
Making tests hard

Continue:
Being awesome
Teaching
Explaining Concepts
Being enthusiastic in teaching us math +1
Being funny =) +1
wallsits (because they teach you things and it is good discipline)
Being amazing, you really helped me improve this year and I really appreciate it.  Keep up the good work!
Entrance cards +1+1+1+1+1
Using technology in lessons
EQAO practice +1
Partner/Group work +1
Using Google classroom
knowledgehook +1
worksheets
changing seating plans
providing help +1
making puns
using the projector
Making lessons fun

Pear Deck Experiment - Final Thoughts

As I wrap up the semester, it's time for that reflection to see what went right and what went wrong.  This year, I decided to try a Pear Deck experiment.  I felt it would have the audience interact with me and also make use of the technology that my students seemed to have.

It was silly, but I first tried it out in my first ever presentation in front of teachers at the YRDSB QUEST conference.  Looking back at it now, I was quite a beginner and it wasn't the greatest place to try and fail at it as you can see the audience was made up of many big-wigs in the board and around the world.  Oh well, you live and you learn.

It looks like I've a wide variety of people from around the world for my presentation here! #YRDSBquest pic.twitter.com/VZYni4YZVK

— Andrew Shin (@MrAShinYRDSB) November 20, 2015

Wow, lots of middle school teachers during my session. I'm glad they stayed! =) #YRDSBquest pic.twitter.com/TvCjaeIGHt

— Andrew Shin (@MrAShinYRDSB) November 20, 2015

I learnt my lesson, and practiced Pear Deck more in the classroom where the audience was a little more forgiving.  It also modeled for my students the importance of trying something new.  Not being afraid to fail.  After a few lessons, I got the basics down.  As with anything new, a teacher has to let them play with the technology first before getting to the real learning that can come with the technology:

The students nowadays seem to be interested in the illuminati, it seems.

After a few trials with my students, I had the confidence to try it again during my 3rd presentation of the year at OAME (Ontario Association for Mathematics Education).

Hey, how come no one is here from northern Ontario? #OAME2016 #smallsamplesize pic.twitter.com/8KIe4o61pB

— Andrew Shin (@MrAShinYRDSB) May 6, 2016

Looks like I have some parents in my workshop and a few elementary school teachers, eh? #OAME2016 pic.twitter.com/vo64U2WIDd

— Andrew Shin (@MrAShinYRDSB) May 6, 2016

/script>

Looks like ppl r enjoying #OAME2016 thus far. I hope those dots didn't shift to the right after my presentation! pic.twitter.com/2Yt8BMfUR8

— Andrew Shin (@MrAShinYRDSB) May 6, 2016

Given the feedback I got from this workshop session I ran, it looks like my Pear Deck experiment was a success 8 months later.  There will be more on my OAME session later in a different post.

Moving forward, to make use of this technology properly, I have to get my pedagogy up to par.  Asking great questions is an extremely important skill as a teacher.  This technology can amplify the effect of a good question or bad question.  I saw that when I made deep, interesting questions, the Pear deck amalgamated all of the students' answers and we could have a discussion based off it.   It allowed my introverted students to participate without having to speak aloud in class.   However, if I made too simple of a question, the students would either not bother to answer or start to graffiti the slide.

When I ask a question, I have to be able to identify if we want to discuss it verbally or if it's a deeper question, I can let Pear Deck do its thing.

When trying to guide, discuss, push, prod - it's important to step away from the projector and to discuss with the class.

When it's time to let the students think - Pear Deck gives the students the space and time to think and illustrate their answer.

I'd like to practice using it next year, but I think I'd have to ask the administration for it, as it is super expensive.  Perhaps I'll try a similar software in Nearpod, next year.  

In the end, however, I had fun trying something new and the experience has made me a better teacher - which is all I can ask for.

Earth and Space Wrapping Up

To wrap up the semester, I decided to set up a bunch of guest speakers.

First up is a writer for space.com on the latest in astronomy apps, and astronomer -  Mr. Chris Vaughan (@astrogeoguy)  He arrived at the school at 8:15pm and 12+ students came trickling in afterwards.  It was a tough time for the majority of my class as there were many tests and assignments due that particular week.  A definite reason to not run this workshop towards the end of the semester.  Next time I'll change the time of year this occurs.    

@trudeauhs checking out Jupiter on trudeau hs pic.twitter.com/uo8166oa1m

— Andrew Shin (@MrAShinYRDSB) June 10, 2016

Nevertheless, we saw the moon in spectacular detail, then Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, and then a whole host of stars came out.  Antares, the "equal to-Mars" star, which twinkled, giving away its star status making it distinguishable from Mars.  We saw Vega, the brightest star in the summer sky.  Other salient and very interesting things in the sky was the ISS and the iridium flash by a satellite.

@trudeauhs We got a snap of Saturn thru @astrogeoguy 's telescope. Thx for teaching us about telescopes & night sky! pic.twitter.com/JapnU7u5o4

— Andrew Shin (@MrAShinYRDSB) June 11, 2016

Second up was Ms. Julie Lum, parent council chair for the past 3 years as well as a geologist + engineer for the Suncor/Shell.  We managed to tag-team this presentation, as I helped convert her quiz into a kahoot.it.  The change from last year's presentation to this year's was impressive as she incorporated videos and presented Shell's vision of clean energy and latest in fracking in an engaging presentation.  It's pretty cool to see a parent council chair who is willing to try teaching.  As a parent of 3, parent council chair, and now a 'teacher', she has put on hats as a parent, administrator, and teacher.

he skillfully guided students through their misconceptions of the universe.  He would take students' inputs and ideas and weigh them by guiding them through logic  - pulling on some of their ideas, like a loose thread, until it came loose.  He followed them through on their misconceptions to point out its weakness from their own logic that he helped guide to eventually crumble their misconceptions.

He arrived early, and I gave him the option of speaking to grade 9s.  He held a Q&A session.  He taught with humility and incredible openness.  The questions that those grade 9s asked (most of which came from my ex-grade 9 math students who I have encouraged to ask questions) were great - how is the universe expanding, how big is the universe, why is it so much harder to breathe as you get higher, how do we measure how big things are, etc.  Again - he has never taught grade 9s, but his ability to take such difficult concepts and simplify it for them was like watching Michaelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel.  He used anecdotes, simple math analogies, and drew upon everyday experiences to satisfy their questions.

He apparently teaches astronomy to humanities students - UT forces humanities students to take a science.  I could see that he used the same tone with my high school students - where every word he used was measured and carefully selected so as to keep his audience engaged no matter how difficult the concept.  I could tell that he used this tone and linguistic style for both the grade 9s and grade 12s as there was one hint where this 'armor' broke - one of my grade 12 students asked how can the universe be simultaneously infinite in size and infinite in mass.  His tone and pacing changed ever so slightly as the question started to enter the realm of math.  He excitedly rattled off the density equation and explained how the beginning of the universe can be infinite (because the universe is anything and everything that will be), but also be small in volume, exploding the density to infinity.

A colleague pointed out that I can do this same process as the professor with my math students - where I can help guide a student to use their own logic to to help them see the error of their own math solution.  And it's true...I can do that because I know the subject matter.  I just don't know my astronomy well enough to get to that level.  So it was spectacular to watch and see this occur for an astronomy course.

His visit, among many things, showed me that I have a long way to go as a teacher.  It was really fun to watch the art of teaching.  Time to get to work!

Math and Work

Balance.

If there is one thing I've learnt over the years, it's that balance is key.



Teaching math comes out with all sorts of different instructional strategies and technologies.

However, attaining fluency in math is just like anything else - practice is key.  Today's learners are less and less receptive to repetitive drill and grill - which is fine.   Drill and grill is for the assembly line workers of the 1900s.

The way English is taught in schools when I attended was that it was never really explicitly taught.  English was always implicitly a part of the curriculum from what I could remember.  Even grammar.  I was taught English in many different contexts, whether it was experiential by going out to the local fair or interacting with people from other schools in the collaborative learning environment.  Sure, there were some explicit grammar lesson to keep things in balance, but the learning occurred without me even realizing it.

I have been trying to attain this balance in the math classroom with those 3-act problems introduced by Dan Meyer.

Introducing a problem through a vague video is that first step.

Inviting the students for any questions or comments about the video is the hook.  Sometimes those videos are something that they would recognize from their world (ie:  a videogame) or sometimes the video can be about an abstract math concept.  I have to balance the context of the problem with their world and the 'outside' world to both connect with them and also teach them about something outside their world.

Spiraling through the curriculum is also a form of balance.  We stay long enough on a topic such as linear relations to challenge their attention span, but also switch to 2D measurement perimeter and area to keep them engaged.   We provide problems that vary and cross the different strands to show that math is not just one dimensional.

However, after problem solving we must go back to do some focused learning.  Usually in the form of worksheets that focus on a particular skill, I find that students have a little more motivation to practice the skill that we just introduced through the video that we just problem solved.

It's interesting to see them focus on practice and drilling and grilling.

One of my friends, who plays in a band for a living, stated that music and sports are probably the only subjects that students 'practice' anymore, where they are willing to try and do it over and over and over again.

The students still need practice.   I tried to vary the practice in a few different ways - with the use of whiteboards.  The whiteboards are super important as they are MEANT to be erased, which encourages students to try - regardlesss whether or not they fail.

Balancing differentiation.  These are the only two things that I have seen work consistently.  But it's hard to pull it off.

Kahoot is a Hoot!

One day, one of the students didn't have their presentation ready.  My emergency backup lesson plan was to run a kahoot on random space questions.

Kahoot.it is the latest in clicker software, where students can use any technology whether it is a phone, laptop, ipad, etc.  It's a good thing I was in the 21st century classroom as any student without a mobile device went over and grabbed a laptop or ipad.  

Kahoot measures who gets the answer quickest and awards the fastest student...or teacher in my case.  

Victory is mine! Kahoot on random astronomy questions for review! (old pic to maintain bragging rights) pic.twitter.com/y30G9BvB4s

— Andrew Shin (@MrAShinYRDSB) June 17, 2016

However, I didn't always win - the youth that my students have over me was shown in the next game. Their reflexes were much faster. See exhibit B below:

Anyways, I had quite a bit of fun and was fully engaged.  Some students took notice and included a kahoot into their next presentation.  (I lost that one too...but my excuse was that I didn't fully pay attention to content as I was scribbling notes on their presentation as a whole to help provide them with feedback on their next presentation).

Starting from the Bottom...and Now We're 3rd

Our tier 1 ultimate team went to our first tournament in February, and promptly lost every game we played.  However, there were some good plays and great sharing by the team.  These are good signs as we shared the disc with everyone and swung the disc around from side to side:

Catch the Spirit Ultimate Tournament! Trudeau Trailblazers getting ready! pic.twitter.com/rZNb6iP4SU

— Ms. Shin (@peths_PE) March 4, 2016

The tier 1 team is warming up, and my colleague who has the same last name is excited to be at her first ultimate frisbee tournament.

Rookies making the plays! pic.twitter.com/BCmkADWBHE

— Ms. Shin (@peths_PE) March 4, 2016 

Go Trudeau go! pic.twitter.com/oVLJ8I9cDU

— Ms. Shin (@peths_PE) March 4, 2016

Another great sign of the future was foreshadowed with this play with great defence from a grade 9 and terrific anticipation by another grade 9 to go for the score.  I'm proud of the way they competed against older and more experienced players:

Our tier 2 team did a little better by losing 4 games and tying the last - but we beat them by spirit points and won the spirit award for the tournament.  This assured that we brought home hardware two years in a row at this Toronto tournament.  Last year we won the tier 2 tourney and this year we got the spirit award, completing the collection.

I could tell this year's chemistry was something spec,ial as we came home from losing every game. Everyone's spirits were high from experiencing ultimate at such a high level.  Our beginning cheer is epic and our final cheer is pretty much always right on point.  It's not complete with the manager playing the guitar!  It was the bus ride home that really got to me - the buzz after a full day's tournament was really strong.  Many people in the bus were playing heads up with each other or having a good conversation.  Some were sleeping (it's a long day) but in general the team was upbeat. 

We practiced hard for the next month with a couple alumni coming into practice for some extra help.  7am morning grinds as well as after school practices got us into the work mode.  We improved a lot, but they couldn't tell....until we entered our next tournament - the Husky Huck. 

We started off the tournament with two strong wins to win our pool.  It was convincing with a balanced attack with points coming from everyone and going to everyone.  No one player dominated the pitch offensively.  It was a treat to watch.  

Our first playoff game was a tough one against a rival in TDCH.  We got down early but came back in the end as we showed great resilience and grit.  We dug deep and believed in ourselves to get back into the game.  Even though we lost, we learnt quite a bit.  

We played for 3rd in our final game and ended victorious.  We made adjustments in our activity level and beat another rival that beat us last year in the playoffs.  And really, I keep mentioning the final result when I believe that those results are just icing on the cake.  The real result is that the players are developing and getting better.  They're learning loads and adjusting well.  We are sharing the disc amongst all players - including the females on the team.  Our females have the confidence to throw forward.  I'm so proud that they've taken the initiative.  

It's considered a genderless sport and I'm trying to champion that.  

I'm also proud of the trust that the males have placed on them by throwing the disc to them and then running ahead to demand for the disc instead of standing behind them asking for a backwards pass.  

The bus ride home was really fun.  The sun was shining and there were no cliques.  Everyone was talking to everyone.  The team was again very upbeat and the mood was happy.  Multiple games of heads up occurred at the front and back of the bus...and even the most quietest of players would take part. 

The captain of the team organized a team dinner 3 weeks ago because she wanted to build the team up.  They played ice breakers and everything to try and break down barriers.  Looks like she succeeded.  

I completed my goal.  It's their team.  They own it.  They're happy.  They learnt a lot.  

I have two managers helping me with the administrivia.  I have two alumni starting to come out more regularly because their 1st year in university is done.  

I could just stop here and be really happy about the team, but we're only halfway through the season. We are starting outdoor season now.  

Fitness time.  

Disc up.  

Presenting at YRDSB's Edtech Spring

Today I presented to a total of 3 people for the second iteration of "To Boldly Blog where No Blog has Gone Before".  It was quite the different experience compared to my first time I presented for my 2016 QUEST conference with 60+ people from all over the world.

That time I didn't have my slides organized, I was trying to use Pear Deck for the first time, and I didn't know exactly what I wanted to say.  Needless to say, it wasn't very good.

Today, I distilled the presentation down to some key concepts producing an overall better organization. I allowed for some genuine conversation and discussion among the audience (easy to do with 3 people)- which actually allowed me to learn quite a bit.  

I had a senior kindergarten teacher, an intermediate French teacher who is part of the ETFO executive, and a person from the Director's office.  The vastly different perspective on education allowed me learn so much outside of my secondary school niche and it was an incredible exchange of information (at least for me).

As for blogging, the needs of the senior kindergarten teacher were unique and I was able to help her out with the newsletters that will connect with parents directly instead of relying on 3-4 year olds who lose those pieces of paper between the end of school, daycare, and home.  Communicating with the parents who want the constant updates that they used to receive from daycare was another purpose of the blog that I was able to help her with.

                                          Caption:  Edtech 2016 first time presenters!

Overall, this was a great experience as I learned much through the informal conversations as well as trying to meet the needs of my 'students' as they tried to create their own blog that serves its own needs.

Modelling the Expansion of the Universe

When teaching the space portion of this course, there isn't a lot of labs I can do when I compare with the chemistry, biology, or physics teachers.

However, when I do get the chance to do a lab - I'll jump on it.

Here we are, modelling the expansion of the universe with elastics trying to get something similar to Hubble's constant.  Each paperclip represents a galaxy and when you stretch the elastics in between each galaxy, you measure the change in distance from one chosen home galaxy and the others.

Fig 1: I hope they fixed the crooked rulers...

It's a lab that can be done with my grade 9s.  However, the analysis level and connection to the actual expansion of space might not be up to a level that I would like.

I've had some interesting error analysis questions as well as deep questions that strive for true understanding.  (ie:  improvement of measurement in the above picture - ie:  use of tiles? )  What this actually models and how it holds up to current theories about the universe and where it breaks down - all of these are important aspects of the lab that I hope we extract at some point.

Earth and Space Science - my second year teaching

Second semester has arrived, and that means it's earth and space science time!  This is the second year teaching it, and my goodness, my comfort level with this course has skyrocketed.

It certainly helps that my wife is teaching the same course, and we are learning it at the same time.  On our road trips, we wouldn't listen to music - we would download audiobooks and lectures from Neil Degrasse Tyson and Robert Hazen and get the education we needed in space and earth respectively.  I have read most of Carl Sagan's Cosmos book (thanks to last year's students who bought me that book)  and the textbook that my students use.  I know...my wife and I are both geeks.  But, we both love learning.  Here is the comparison of how I feel from last year compared to this year:

• I can now elaborate on my slides as opposed to just reading.  
• I can answer a good percentage of questions that they have.  (at least thus far)
• The engagement level is much higher, even with a much bigger class of 27. 

It's weird - but I'm changing the way I will teach this.  I understand that the students mostly take this course for space - so I will put all the cosmology stuff at the beginning.  However, with the next 4 strands - I will be spiralling through the curriculum.  I will weave my way starting with a little bit of minerals, to touch upon volcanoes, geologic time in the first spiral.  My second spiral will weave through rocks, more volcanoes, geologic time and and planet formation.  The rest of the spiral organization is laid out with my thought processes here, with each column representing one spiral.

Now that I have tried the spiral curriculum when I taught grade 9 applied math, I know what advantages and disadvantages it has.  I know what content lends itself to each of the linear and spiral curriculum.  

One of the coolest things that I have been emphasizing thus far is the contribution of females to this science. Astronomy and cosmology is a science that we're still learning much about and we certainly don't understand much of it even at this point.  We are still developing tools to study what's way out there.  (Hello gravity waves!)  Females now have more access to education than 200 years ago, and one can see their contributions from Leavitt's discovery between absolute brightness and periodicity between maximum and minimum brightness to today's Lisa Randall's "Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs".  Now that women can touch telescopes and things are opening up for them a little, we will see more and more contributions like Lisa Randall's.  I certainly enjoyed her lecture at the Toronto Reference Library.  

I'll show the Cosmos reboot episode entitled "Sister's of the Sun" by Neil deGrasse Tyson later on this week to show other men and women's contribution to our understanding of space and stars.

My ultimate frisbee team is also asking for more practices and they're getting anxious because they're unfamiliar with the system.  Looks like more 5am wakeups for me!

Character Education - Honesty with Marks

One of the things that I wonder about as a teacher is the relationship between marks and learning. While this debate can run quite deep with some teachers advocating to do-away with marks entirely and others on the opposing spectrum to anything in between.

 I am going to look at this from the student's perspective.  Especially when it comes to grade 12, many students focus solely on mark grabbing and hopefully learning occurs along the way.  I try to emphasize that if students focus on learning as the priority, then the marks will naturally come.

It's just easier, from the student's point of view, to focus on getting marks first which promotes behaviours that I don't consider 'true learning' such as passing around last year's tests, studying at the last second for the short term memory thing, cheating, and memorizing.    

Some will say it's the teachers' fault for setting up this system.  Others' will fault the universities' inability to sort through candidates other than through marks.  It might be a little from column A and a little from column B, and even from an unknown C that I haven't quite considered. 

The beauty of being a teacher is that in many ways, I control the classroom.  In my little world here, I can highlight and contrast the difference between a mark grabbing student and a student that learns for my own students.  

Every year, at the beginning, my students write a diagnostic that does not count for marks.  When I mark it the multiple choice portion, I purposely:

1)  take away a mark that they deserve 

2)  give them an extra mark that they do not deserve

In the end, their mark stays the same.  However, after I take it up the test and show the marking scheme, I go around individually to each student asking how I should change their mark.

I have found in the two years  that I have done this, many students state that their mark goes up by 1, a few ask to bring down their mark by 1, and many so no change.

I then ask the students to reflect on their action.  I cannot judge what they did because I do not know the rationale behind their action but I take the time to highlight the following:

A)  If you asked me to reduce your mark knowing full well you deserve another mark, then you are too hard on yourself.  You deserve another mark, and should ask for it - after all, you got the answer right as well as another question wrong.

B)  If you asked me to increase your mark by 1 or decrease your mark by 1 because you didn't notice the other mistake I made, then you have to pay attention a little more during test takeup.  This is a time to learn from your mistakes, which is quite often the best time to learn.  Be a little more detail oriented and listen carefully for these are important skills in life. 

C)  If you said "no change" because you didn't notice anything wrong, then you are not paying attention whatsoever.  (I may run the risk of an IEP student that has issues with the delivery, but I do make sure to show the multiple choice answers visually and say the answers aloud for each question so that should cover most minor IEPs.)

D)  A few students say "no change" but have already done their self-reflection on what question was actually right and what question was wrong.  This is fine as well.

E)  Each class, there's always one or two students that tell me explicitly that I marked one question right and one question wrong, showing true transparency to me.  This is awesome, and it is something I tell them I try to do for them as a teacher.

F)  This is the last option I go over.  I've learnt to explain this last option gently as a few of my more sensitive students feel guilty even when they didn't do this.  If a student asks for a +1 in marks knowing full well they should have a no mark change, then I ask these students that find themselves in this position to do some deep reflection.  I state: "You have just lied to me about your mark.  What did I do to you in the last week to deserve this?  (hopefully I did nothing wrong in the past week to start the school year off).  You have just inflated your mark to your parents about your mark.  Above all, you're willing to lie to yourself and pat yourself on the back for getting a higher mark than you deserve.  If you're willing to lie to yourself to inflate your mark, lie to me who has done nothing to you, and even your parents on a diagnostic test that doesn't even count for marks - what are you going to do when it comes to money or other situations?

This year, I delivered my speech well.  I returned a test on January 4th, and made a mistake on a multiple choice question.  This is almost 4 months after my little stunt.

Class 1:  I had 7 students come to for a mark increase. I had 8 students come to me for a 1 mark decrease.

Class 2:  I had 8 students come for a mark increase and 7 marks come for a mark decrease. 

As you can see, grade 9s are very receptive to this sort of thing.

When I pull this stunt with my grade 12s, I get into deep debates with my grade 12 students when I ask them these questions.  The one thing they always bring up is that this mark is so small, it doesn't matter.  From their perspective, this if this one mark occurred on a summative assessment, it would help them in their goal to getting into university and it doesn't hurt anyone.  If it doesn't hurt anyone, why not do it?

We then go back and forth about the fact that if you increase your marks unfairly to get into a university program, you're kicking someone else out of the same university program.


I know deep down that the system will have to change to have any permanent effects, but in the end, it's a fun debate and a good exploration on what honesty really means.  I learn much of my students in this little experiment and I'll probably continue to do it. 

Iterations Improving the Proficiency of my 3-Act Math Delivery

NOTE:  This is a late post - supposed to have been published last month but I've only recently found time (during exams) to post it.

For today's lesson, we turned to Dan Meyer’s video question on which cup contained more juice.  Here's my powerpoint that goes with it:  

It is a splendid 3-act problem that inspired some interesting questions.  However, the quality of their questions has decreased since September; the questions had more depth, and their observations keen.  Now, they are just giving me the question that I am looking for.  Wasn’t the whole point to emphasize the questioning to clearly define problems a little more?  It looks like I’ve fallen hard into my habits and have prized THE answer as opposed to prizing the question and problem definition. 

Wow, blogging really forces me to reflect more than usual.  It just dawned on me that the reason why the question quality has been decreasing since September is that I don’t answer all of their questions.  There were so many quality math questions that were generated by the students from the videos in September but I ignored the most quality ones because they would probably take a day to answer. 

I have placed 100% more importance on following my scheduled spiral curriculum than their curiosity. 

Looking back, I should have made more of a compromise, and actually followed through with at least a few of their questions.

It would show a lot more teacher willingness to venture into the unknown and really value their questions.  Following through to try and answer their questions would actually demonstrate how I learn – one of the most important things to model.   Instead, I’ve trampled on their curiosity and lost that opportunity to be a role model of a real learner. I feel really badly now. 

But, can’t be ruminating now, can we?  I’ll just change it for next semester.

So I’ve digressed.  Going back to the 3-act question:

After receiving their questions, I specified the question that we were going to answer today.  Which cup has more, and by how much? 

Here are their guesses as a completion to act 1: 

It’s interesting to see how many of them chose that cup A and cup B had the same amount. 

Nevertheless, act 2 came along, and with those measurements and the conversion ratio the students went about to work. 

After about 15 minutes of discussion and hard work on large whiteboards, the students put their answers on at the front.  Only 10% of them got the right answer:

 The stumbling point for many students was the CONVERSION!  I have to find another way of teaching conversions as I have been repeating it throughout the year and it still hasn't sunk in. 

In truth, the fact that many of my students weren’t able to complete this question in pairs disappointments me. 

I made this question into an entrance card to repeat for tomorrow in hopes that the students will get it during their second try.

I will take it up and repeat a similar question as an assessment on the next Friday. 

Update:  They did very well on their assessment.  I wonder if they’ve gained any ‘permanent’ skills along the way in this process or if they've just memorized the process.  I will only find out later I guess especially with that EQAO coming up soon.  

EQAO - math standardized test - the time is here..

Wow.  We just finished the EQAO and it looks like it's been quite a success.  The students, according to my marking, have scored the highest they ever have compared to the previous two times I've taught the course.  In their feedback of how they felt about writing the EQAO, the students reported a high level of satisfaction upon completing the test.

The success comes as no surprise as I've never had engagement like this before.  However, it just feels pretty good to have this spiral curriculum and 3 act math pay off.

Well, of course, I think in order to really see if all of this did work, I should compare their grade 6 math EQAO marks to their grade 9 EQAO results to see if I really did make a difference.  We'll have to wait until next year for those results.

I'll just have to wait, then.