Damult Dice!:A Math Game Everyone Will Love!

What is Damult Dice?

During  #5thchat, a  "tweecher" tweeted: 

Enjoyed great games of Damult Dice today!Thanks for the reminder @maths_master ! twitter.com/Amy_Teaches/st…
— Amy Straus (@Amy_Teaches) May 11, 2013

My immediate reaction was, "What's Damult Dice?" Amy sent me all the info I needed to play this game and I was hooked. I shared it with my students the next day. I shared it with a few teachers. Yes, I was that excited about this game!

And you know what? My kids were too! They LOVED it, and did. not.want. to.stop.playing.

It's simple, yet so, so "mathtastic"! Each student gets 3 dice. They roll at the same time. Add the first two dice. Then multiply the sum by the remaining die.First one to 300, or whatever number you choose, wins! Actually they all win, because they are practicing their Math skills.  "Kill and drill" without any killing or drilling! Multiplication, addition,and critical thinking, because they want to get the most bang for their buck!

This is a great beginning, middle, and end of the year game! Use it anytime, and of course, try all the variations you can think of. I bet your students can come up with some of their own as well.

What is Damult Dice? It's a wonderful, exciting, simple, educational, Math game, that my students enjoy!

No Money for Schools..But Money for Pearson?

The content of this article, "Schools Add to Test Load, Just to Test Questions",. How our students are being used as guinea pigs to field test future tests.

But then, this jumped out at me, " The (NY)state currently has a five-year, $32 million contract with Pearson, a testing company."

What the...? Are you serious? A 5 year, $32 million  contract? Let's see, that's $6.4 million a year!

That can't be right. The state doesn't have any money. We are closing schools, getting rid of teachers, slashing the arts, hmmmm...no, that can't be right. We certainly wouldn't take $6.4 million and give it to a testing company, now would we?

As we all know, we are in this for the kids. There is no way any public official would let this happen. Right?

Why Can't We Keep the Music Teacher?: Losing Arts in Schools.

I sat, mesmerized, as the music teacher coaxed the most beautiful songs out of 30-40 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders.  This was not the first time. I have been to many of her concerts, and I am always amazed.

I'm not amazed at what she does, because I know it is a gift that she possesses. I am amazed at how effortless it seems. When you watch her with those kids, all you witness is the final product. You don't see the weeks and weeks of work that went into getting that many kids, to learn that many songs, and to sing them well, to harmonize.

And then you find out she's been fired, let go, riffed, or whatever term they use to explain that they are letting you go, and you sigh. Deeply. You wonder who would make such a choice to let go of this person. This person who can take kids, even the ones most people deem "behavior problems", and turn them into this group of kids whose voices touch your heart.

We need people like her. We need people who are not  "testers", but teachers. We need people who can take our kids, the "good" ones, the  troubled,  the struggling, and make them believe that, "Yes, there is something I can do. I can sing!"

Someone who gives our kids a chance to dress up in the pretty dresses and handsome suits, stand in front of their parents, giggling, taking deep breaths, fidgeting, squirming, waving hello, and then...belting out a song that makes you so, so, proud of them. A moment some of them NEED so badly.

If we can give millions to Pearson, to create tests that are meaningless, why can't we keep a music teacher? If we can pay data coaches, who have never taught a day in their life, why can't we keep a music teacher? If every year, we can purchase books form authors who have been out of the classroom for years, yet want to tell us how to teach, why can't we keep a music teacher?

Someone tell me, why can't we keep a Music teacher, who changes so many lives with a song, every single year?

Vocabulary and Spelling City: Lovin' It One Year Later!

 

It's been a year since I began using SpellingCity. I have to say that my students and I really enjoy using it. Not only that, but SpellingCity keeps finding new ways to keep my students engaged with added features, all beneficial to the classroom.

These are the features I loved a year ago, and thankfully, still exist today:

• You can set up individual student accounts.
• Instruction can be differentiated.
• LOVE the fact that I can input my own words. (Reading, Math, Science, you name it, you can input it.)
• Games/tests/tutorials/flash cards/ writing practice are created using the lists that you input. (talk about saving time)
• You can view the assignments that were completed, who completed them, and how well they scored.
• Reports and grades are generated for given assignments. (All this information can be printed
• There are TONS of lists in every subject already created. (Why reinvent the wheel?)

• My students love to get on this site and "play" the games. (Aaaah, learning + fun, don't cha love it?)
• They are part of the Edmodo community (Sharing great ideas with great teachers)
• There are so many games to choose from!
• The price for a Premium membership is reasonable, especially if purchased by your school.(Some of the features mentioned are only available with a Premium account, but even a free SpellingCity is great!)

New features:

• There's an app for that! Since my class is piloting BYOD, my students have uploaded the app on their devices. They work at their seats, on the carpet squares, wherever, right from their own devices!
• Even more pre-made word lists in every subject!
• Writing has been added. Students can write sentences and/or paragraphs with the words you provide.
• They are about to launch a Summer Study Program, great, fun, engaging way to beat the Summer Slide.
• New games and activities! The kids can't get enough of them!

My  favorite feature? I can differentiate lessons. I may have three different groups using the same words, but their assignments are unique. One example, my students that struggle, will receive the flash cards more than once, giving them more exposure to our Vocabulary words.

SpellingCity reinforces vocabulary without  the boring "kill and drill" And the best part, my students request SpellingCity assignments! If my students enjoy it, even though it's work, SpellingCity must be doing something right!

Teachers, Targets, and Test Scores!

My stomach is in knots and I want to scream.
I want to hit something.
I look at my students' test scores, the growth they have made,and I am proud of them.
I refused to teach to the test, and they still kicked DCAS !

I looked down the AYP column on the all-glorious data chart, and saw that some of my students grew by over 100 points. Only two of my students did not show "growth".

Then I look across at the column marked "Target".
That's when I wanted to scream and hit.
The target that they had to meet in order to prove that I was an effective teacher.
Not many of them met the Target. Many of them missed by a few points.
Doesn't matter, they didn't hit the bulls-eye.

A couple of months ago, my team and I called DOE to find out how these targets were determined.
We were told someone would get back to us.
Still waiting.

So now, next week,I have to sit in front of my principal and justify whether or not I am an effective teacher.
Welcome to Component V.
What is it,and how does it work, you ask?
Truthfully, no one knows.
I am not being facetious, no one knows.
The line is, "We're learning this just like you are."
All good and well, but your salary, your reputation, is not tied to it like mine.

 Here's a sample question I will have to answer: Did your target(s) lead to strengthened professional performance and improved student learning? To what extent? What evidence do you have to support your conclusions?

How will I answer that question? Honestly. Those targets didn't have a thing to do with how and what I taught in my classroom. The only target I aimed for was the ability to teach my students to be independent, critical thinkers. And while I had my eye on the bulls-eye,  they also learned how to problem solve, gained a love of books, wrote for an authentic audience, honed their Geography skills (Mystery Skype),opened their minds, used social media as a learning tool, I can go on...

I did my job, and I hit that target dead on. And test scores didn't have a thing to do with it!