Class #18--6th Age Math

Wednesday, October 27, 10:10 A.M. Sixth Age Math Class. Class #18 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” trek. On a rainy, unusually warm Wednesday morning, I am here in Mrs. Miles’s colorful, vibrant classroom. I arrive just as class is starting, slightly out of breath after hustling up from the girls’ gym, where the Pilot Class students taught me how to do the “Chicken Dance”! (Fortunately, no photos were taken!). Mrs. Miles always has a variety of ways to teach and “reach” her students, whether the class is math, reading, or discovery. Mrs. Miles is using an overhead projector to show images of small leaves and pumpkins. She shows the images and then quickly covers them up, in an effort to help students learn what numbers “look like.” In other words, she wants her pupils to be able to see a group of five leaves and immediately recognize that there are five leaves rather than counting the leaves one at time to determine that there are five. I have never seen this teaching technique before, but it makes great sense and the students enjoy the competitive nature of the activity. The students then get unifix cubes (basically like Legos) and return to their spots on the rug. Mrs. Miles reads aloud Five Spooky Ghosts Playing Tricks at School, and the students follow along and build various stacks of cubes, in accordance with the storyline. By the end, the students have a pattern of cubes, as shown in this picture.

Students then look around the room and identify places where numbers are “in order.” The boys and girls find the clock and calendar, among other examples. Quickly, the class is on to its next activity. Mrs. Miles distributes ghost cut-outs, with a number on them (0 through 5). The students have to get themselves in order and stand in front of class. Mrs. Miles then removes a student and the class needs to figure out which number is missing. The students enjoy this game and the kinesthetic movement involved. For the fourth and final activity, the class members work individually at their seats, coloring and writing numbers, with Mrs. Miles actively circulating among the students to check their work and assist and encourage as needed. At one point, a boy says, “Mrs. Miles, I forget how to write a 2.” She replies in a song-like way, “Around the tree and back to you, that is how we make a 2.” The child then wrote his 2, and a classmate exclaimed, “That is really good!” To Mrs. Miles and her hard-working students, I enthusiastically share the same message: “Your class was really good!”

Class #17--5th Grade Math

Monday, October 25, 10:15 A.M. 5th Grade Math Class. Class #17 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” expedition. I arrive just as Mrs. Nessler’s math class is beginning. Mrs. Nessler used to teach a 5th grade girls homeroom; now, in addition to teaching math, she coaches cross country, teaches fine arts, and serves as Middle School Academic Support Coordinator! The students have just finished snack (cornbread, which is always delicious) and recess, and they are ready to go. A math challenge problem is on the board. The number 5 is circled, and the following numbers are written around it: 1, 3, 6, 8, 4. The twelve students are racing to find the right order of operations, using the numbers above, to equate to an answer of 5. It turns out that there are a number of correct answers, but the student who gets to a correct answer first shares this:

[(4+8) -3] – 4 x 1 = 5

Another correct answer is shared, and then the class pulls out their math homework, which is a chapter review in preparation for Wednesday’s test. The students are working on decimals and approaching them a variety of ways: greater than/less than, place value, estimating, and computing. At 10:35, the class moves on to its third activity, one which involves group work and problem solving. This is not your average group activity, however! Once the group (either two or three students) has the answer, the team members have to determine how they will teach the class to solve the problem. Then, each group comes to the board and explains how to approach the question and work through to an answer. An example of one of the word problems is: “A local frozen yogurt shop offers three flavors of frozen yogurt and four toppings. How many one flavor, one topping combinations are possible?” The group in charge of this problem shows the class how making a chart is an effective way to arrive at the correct answer of 12 combinations. Four groups have a chance to present, and the final two groups will present tomorrow. The students really got a great deal accomplished in 45 minutes today! Based on what I observed, I am confident that they are in more–than-good shape for Wednesday’s test.

Class #16--8th Age Reading

Thursday, October 21, 8:30 A.M. 8th Age Reading Class. Class #16 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. I arrive just as Mr. Shep’s reading class is beginning. (Most of my readers may know this, but Mr. Shep’s real name is Mr. Shepherd, but everyone calls him “Mr. Shep.” In fact, when I started working at Calvert in 2004, I thought Mr. Shep was his real name until someone clarified it for me!). Ten smiling faces warmly greet me. This is prime learning time, and the students are ready to go. Mr. Shep, as a change of pace on Thursdays, begins his reading class by reading aloud a “Tell Me Why” story. Today’s story, accompanied by a colorful PowerPoint slide, is about the invention of candy. While he is reading aloud (looking down at the book and directly facing the class), Mr. Shep employs some otherworldly peripheral vision (which is a special teacher power) to notice that one of his homeroom students has just arrived—in the hall! I honestly do not know how he saw the boy in the hall. Without breaking stride, Mr. Shep gives some instructions to the late arriving boy and then goes right back to reading. It was a small moment but one that demonstrated his veteran teaching expertise. (Did you know that this is Mr. Shep’s twentieth year at Calvert?!). After the candy story concludes, the students read independently for a few minutes. The class is quickly onto its third activity, which is a discussion and reading of Smiling Hill Farm. However, Mr. Shep has disappeared, and “Pioneer Pat” has arrived. A man who bears a striking resemblance to Mr. Shep but wearing a Davy Crockett-style coonskin cap is now teaching class! This actually happens often, with Mr. Shep “disappearing” and a variety of characters taking his place, including “Mr. History,” "Thor," and “King SWEN” (King of South, West, East, North for geography class). Mr. Shep asks some questions of the class to refocus them on the storyline and to contextualize the book . The boys and girls then take turns reading aloud, interspersed with questions and comments from Mr. Shep. He is patient and caring with his group of up-and-coming readers. The class is focusing on two key skills: reading comprehension and oral articulation. It is a pleasure seeing the students accomplishing a great deal this morning in an enjoyable, appropriately relaxed atmosphere! Young alumni that I encounter always ask about Mr. Shep; his outstanding rapport with his students has made a genuine, lasting impact on them.

Pictures from Class #15

As promised, here are some pictures from Mr. Howe's reading class that I observed yesterday, specifically the book making project. Enjoy.

Class #15--9th Age Reading

Wednesday, October 20, 8:30 A.M. 9th Age Reading Class. Class #15 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” marathon. WARNING: Get out your reading glasses, because this blog post is long! It has been a full week since my last observation. Time is really flying this school year. How can it be October 20 already? I am on my fifteenth class observation, so I am at 30% of my goal of 50 classes. The school year is not yet 25% complete, so my pace is good! I am in Mr. Howe’s reading class on this Wacky Wonderful Wednesday, as Mr. Howe describes the day. On Wednesdays, Mr. Howe explains to me, the class does some “out of the box activities.” Some fast facts about Mr. Howe: he is a Calvert graduate (Class of 1977), coaches baseball in the Middle School, and is a recipient of the Apgar Award for innovative teaching. The twelve students arrive and, clearly knowing the routine, open an independent reading book and begin to read silently. This is essentially a warm-up to get the students in the swing of reading class. After two to three minutes of silent reading, Mr. Howe explains that the students will be discussing a crucial “element” of every story—the title. Mr. Howe says to the class, “Studies show that the comprehension of the story begins with the title. The title influences how the reader thinks about a story. The title is a powerful part of the story.” A story about a whale, rabbit, and elephant is projected on the large screen on the wall. The title, however, is not given to the class. After a few students read the story aloud, the class offers suggestions about what the title should be, including: Small Animals and Big Animals, Rabbit’s Problem, The Elephant and the Rabbit, Big Animal’s Rudeness, and The Elephant’s Rudeness. Two stories are posted on red and purple paper on the classroom walls. Mr. Howe has the students get up out of their seats (movement is always a good idea in class), read one of the two stories silently, and then offer suggestions about appropriate titles. Their suggestions are outstanding! It is only 8:47 A.M. and the class is moving on to another activity. As I have said in prior blog posts, the pace is brisk but appropriate. The next part of class deals with another crucial element of a story—illustrations. Mr. Howe states, “Illustrations are powerful. They give information and draw the reader into the story.” The students take a piece of paper, divide it into quadrants, and then move into a creative activity I have not previously seen. Mr. Howe projects an image onto the screen for ten seconds, and removes the image. The students have approximately one minute to draw the image they just saw. There are three rounds, and the pictures are all different…but they turn out to be the different pieces of a jack-o-lantern shown in varying configurations! The students’ recreations are excellent! At 9:00 A.M., Mr. Howe, fresh off a bookmaking workshop he attended just yesterday, passes out sheets of paper and scissors and then walks his pupils through a variety of folds and cuts. The students will make a book out of a single sheet of paper. I am very impressed with their ability to follow Mr. Howe’s directions during this process. The class follows the same procedure again with a yellow piece of paper, only this time the directions are even more advanced as this version will be a pop-up book, made out of a single sheet of paper! Only six minutes remain in class and the students are working diligently to make every second count. Class ends at 9:20, with the students still fully engaged and wanting to do more. I honestly believe the students could have kept going for at least another 45 minutes. I look forward to coming back to see how the final versions of the stories look, with compelling titles and illustrations. Congratulations to Mr. Howe and his students for a wonderful class! I am sorry I do not have any pictures of the students' pop-up books to share today. I was so busy typing I neglected to take any pictures, but check back in the coming days as I plan to post some pictures.

A Great Alumni Event

We had a tremendous young alumni event on Sunday. About 75-80 of our alumni (all of them in high school) came to watch the Ravens game in the Black Box Theater in the Middle School. There was a great deal of camaraderie, Calvert spirit, reconnecting with old friends...and lots of pizza, wings, sodas, and cookies! The only thing missing, unfortunately, was a Ravens victory.

Congratulations and thank you to the development office, Alumni Board, the technology team, and the maintenance department.

What A Day!

One of the reasons I love my job so much is that I get to do so many different things every day. Between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday afternoon, here is a sampling of my schedule: attended the first 2010-2011 meeting of the Calvert Board of Trustees, participated in Pilot Class Pajama and Pancake Day, observed a 9th Age math class (see blog post below), helped supervise our annual lock-down drill, watched the 10th Age Crow-Canary field hockey game, coached 5th grade intramural basketball, and watched the Middle School football team battle St. Paul's. With days like that, I always look forward to coming to work! Below is a sampling of some pictures from today.

Class #14--9th Age Math

Wednesday, October 13, 8:30 A.M. 9th Age Math Class. Class #14 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” It is a crisp Wednesday morning, and there is no place that I would rather be than in a 9th Age math class! Ms. Gentry has clearly already established a good routine with her seven students. As they arrive, they get their homework out, and then five students go to the board to complete one of the homework problems. The students are solving various addition equations and then indicating whether the problem is an example of the associative or commutative properties. The class then discusses the differences among rounding, estimating, and providing exact answers. Ms. Gentry reminds her pupils to look for key phrases in the word problem, e.g. the word “about” suggests that an estimate is required. Knowing that the students will get antsy if they sit in one place for 55 minutes, Ms. Gentry has the students stand, stretch, and then move to a different seat. Next, she projects a “Five-Minute Check” onto the wall to ensure that the students have a solid understanding of the concepts. (Our new Lower School math series (Math Connects) has a rich suite of online resources for faculty and students to use). The class is only 25 minutes old and the class is on its third activity. The pace is brisk but entirely appropriate. This “Five-Minute Check” is a win-win—the students enjoy the technology, and Ms. Gentry gets a good sense of her students’ comprehension. Still employing the projector, the class plays this really cool (honestly, “cool” is the best word here!) called Roboworks. It is an interactive game; if a student gets a correct answer, then a piece is added to the robot’s body, with the goal of constructing a complete robot. The students construct two whole robots with their correct answers! (One “cool” feature—the two robots that are made look entirely different). The period concludes with a preview of the night’s homework. Please enjoy the pictures below, one “old-school” (a student doing a massive addition problem on the board), and one “new-school” (Roboworks). Congrats to Ms. Gentry and her students for a terrific math class! By the way, here are two fast facts about Ms. Gentry: she is a Calvert graduate (a proud member of the Centennial Class of 1997), and she played collegiate lacrosse at Boston University.

"Superman" is a Must-See

I enthusiastically recommend that all my readers take the time to see Waiting for Superman, an educational documentary directed by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth). The film follows five families in their quest for quality education for their children. Dissatisfied with the zoned public schools in their district, they turn to “lottery” public and charter schools, which do not have ample spaces for all interested students. The movie has received national attention and is now showing in Baltimore at the Landmark Theater in Harbor East.

I had the opportunity to see a screening of the movie two weeks ago and found it to be moving and inspirational. After digesting the documentary, I had three overarching thoughts: 1) sincere appreciation for the education I received at Calvert; 2) the need for Calvert to provide the best possible education for the students of today, and 3) the call for all Americans to take an interest in broader educational issues.

Nationally, public schools will always be responsible for educating the vast majority of children. Approximately 90% of students in the United States attend public schools, with roughly 9% attending parochial schools and 1% in independent schools. The long-term success of our country is directly tied to the quality of the education that children are receiving in all schools across the nation.

Since 2006, Calvert has joined seven local independent schools and eleven public schools in the Middle Grades Partnership (MGP), a program designed to offer “academically promising Baltimore middle school students the opportunity to excel in the city's most challenging high schools by providing them with comprehensive summer and after-school learning opportunities,” according to www.middlegradespartnership.org . In the summer, approximately 75 students from our partner school, Francis Scott Key Elementary-Middle, take classes at Calvert that are taught by faculty members from both Calvert and Francis Scott Key. Generously funded by the Baltimore Community Foundation, MGP significantly improves the chances that Baltimore public school students will attend selective high schools and then college. Participation in MGP also provides professional development for Calvert teachers across multiple grade levels and subjects and provides several Calvert alumni the opportunity to serve as program interns.

In closing, I again urge you to see Waiting for Superman. If you click the following link, you can access more information about the movie: www.waitingforsuperman.com

8th Age Folder Papers

“Folder papers” are a hallmark Calvert tradition. We believe strongly that student-generated work is crucial to educational development. At the end of each month from 7th Age through 10th Age, students send home a representative sample of their work. (In the Middle School, folder papers are called “portfolios”, and they go home quarterly). The work is compiled during the month and reviewed and checked by the homeroom teacher. Then, each student meets individually for a few minutes with an administrator—the Head of the Lower School or Assistant Head Master for example—to review his or her work. I review about three or four homerooms of folders each month as well. Today, I sat down with the boys of 8-1 (Mr. Shep’s class) to look at their first 8th Age folder papers. What a treat for me to be able to speak individually with each of the boys about their work and their progress! Below, you will see some pictures of their papers and folder covers.

Class #13--10th Age Grammar

Friday, October 8, 1:45 P.M. 10th Age Grammar Class. Class #13 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. It is Friday afternoon, the sun is shining, and it is grammar time in 10-B! Ms. Silberstein’s attentive girls are eager for grammar! As I walk in, the class is just beginning, and I yet I can already sense the enthusiasm from the girls. Ms. Silberstein—who also coaches Middle School squash in the winter—displays a PowerPoint presentation explaining declarative and interrogative sentences. The PowerPoint is not static; rather, it incorporates software which allows for interactivity. Ms. Silberstein clicks on a button that is projected on the board, and then a sentence scrolls across the screen. The girls take turns reading the sentences and then stating whether it was declarative or interrogative. Next, girls go up to the board and punctuate sentences that are displayed. The girls who are not at the board copy the sentences down on paper and make punctuation and capitalization corrections at their desk. In this fashion, all the students are working and engaged—not just the one student at the board. Everyone is working hard! In a relatively short amount of time, the information was presented in multiple formats, and from my observations, I can tell that the girls “get it.” The period was an excellent review of some grammar essentials.

Class #12--5th Grade Math

Tuesday, October 5, 10:15 A.M. 5th Grade Math Class. Class #12 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” trek. The bell rings and Mrs. Liotta’s twelve 5th grade math students quickly get to work on the tasks at hand. Did you know that Mrs. Liotta graduated from Calvert, in 1979? Yes, she is an alum of the school and also a former member of the Board of Trustees. Mrs. Liotta has instructions written on the board: 1) check your homework (equations and mental math) with your table; 2) work on the problem of the day. The problem of the day deals with a pattern of numbers. There are two columns of numbers, and the students need to discern the relationship between the integers at hand. Mrs. Liotta does not just go over the answer to the problem; rather, she explains how to approach the problem, to figure out what is being asked, and then to attack the question. The class then moves to a chapter one review, starting with exponents, standard form, and variables. The students are quite participatory, raising hands, asking questions, and providing on-target answers. Next, the class reviews order of operations by playing a game. The student have learned about “PEMDAS” dictating the order of operations—Parentheses, Exponents, Multiply/Divide, Add/Subtract. The object of the game is to use the numbers and operations given to get as close to possible to 48. For example, the numbers are 4,5,6 and the operations are + and x. The winning equation in this case is (6+4) x 5 = 50. The students work in groups of three at their tables, sliding around cut-out cards of numbers and operations. Good work, class!

Class #11--10th Age Math

Friday, October 1, 11:30 A.M. 10th Age Math Class. Class #11 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” journey. The calendar has flipped to October, and the incredible monsoon-like rains of the past two days have finally left the area. I am on the terrace level of the Lower School, in Mr. Brian Mascuch’s classroom. Mr. Mascuch taught a variety of grade levels at Calvert (primarily 5th grade) from 1999-2007 and then left to pursue a unique, enriching opportunity to teach at Shanghai International School for a few years. He is now back at Calvert, teaching the 10-1 boys’ homeroom and coaching several Middle School sports, including football. As the thirteen students settle into their seats, a problem awaits them on the board: Guess the 6 digit number. All the numbers are the same and their sum is 24. After a brief discussion, the class agrees that the correct answer is 444,444. The students spend some time reviewing rounding concepts and adding three-digit numbers. Mr. Mascuch actively moves around the room, checking homework, calling on students, and making sure his pupils are on task and engaged. He then passes out two “Zip” game cards to each student. The cards are numbered 1 through 32 and have clues on them. The game incorporates listening, reading, and math; I decide to participate, and by the end, my brain is tired! The game starts with Mr. Mascuch, saying “I have 27. What is this number minus 9?” I have the 18 card, so I say, “I have 18. Who has this number divided by 2?” The game then volleys around the room, with the clues getting progressively harder. The students meet the challenge extremely well. I am impressed with their accuracy and speed. We move through two rounds and then Mr. Mascuch takes a moment to review the associative property of addition. Next, we transition to another game called “Right Price Race” which involves teamwork, rounding, and speed in discerning numbers from an advertisement chock full of numbers and words. The class is so enthusiastic for the game! Unfortunately, we run out of time; the period ends with a pledge from Mr. Mascuch to continue the game next time they meet. Kudos to Mr. Mascuch and his bright, energetic students!