Data Queen

There are not enough words for me to explain how much I love data. I love organizing, analyzing and responding to it with specific action plans. Data is such an important part of teaching, since it is the tool that guides us to become efficient teachers and deliver effective instruction to the students' needs, because "Effective instruction is not about whether we taught it. It's about whether the students learned it." - Paul Bambrick-Santoyo, Data Driven Instruction. 

Last year I had the privilege to be part of our Leadership Team at my Campus, and participate in the Executive Ed. Program with Teaching Trust. I learned so much about how to become a better leader, both thanks to the program and to my Principal. I learned how to better utilize data as leverage to be more proficient. Even though I had already been using data to drive my instruction in my classroom, the experience was really eye-opening and allowed me to go deeper. This year again I am under the Teaching Trust wing in the Ed-Fellows program, and it has been an amazing experience. I feel stronger in my capacities of leading data meetings, and leading teachers overall. I know for sure that their support and guidance has helped me to open myself more as a person, and as a professional. 

This school year my Principal took the leap of faith with me and I took the challenge of becoming the Campus Instructional Coach for Math in my campus. I knew I had to be super prepared with Data, and continue responding to it by working with the teachers to increase student academic achievement. We have a Data Room for all the school's data including all subjects. But I wanted to create something more Math and student-specific. 

Creating my Data Wall was time consuming, and something completely new that I would try out. I had used data walls before in my classroom, but not student-specific. I did more general data walls by objective and sections that I worked with. But I wanted to move forward and go deep in analysis for our students' sake. So, I researched all summer how to make it effectively, and it took me around 2 weeks to have it all set up how I wanted to (there is the perfectionist in me). 

Today the Mr. Mike Miles, our Superindendent for DISD came by my campus and asked to see the Data Wall on my office. I was super nervous! First of all for meeting him, as I admire him & the vision he has for our students, and second of all for explaining how I set it up and use it!

But it went EXTREMELY well. He was listening very attentive, and asking questions on how I use the data with teachers. Then, I hear him say "this is how data should be used" as he turned back to the Central Staff that was with him. I was so HAPPY to hear that! It really made me feel like a Data Queen :D

So, I thought I would share my Data Wall with you, and hopefully inspire you to use it or tweak it! 

First of all I chose a color for each section:
A: turquoise
B: blue
C: pink
D: green
E: purple
F: turquoise (like A's but with a dot on the bottom left corner)

I used one Post-it Super Sticky. 

I focused on 3-5 grades, since these are the grades that I am going to be working more closely. So, I got each section's roster and started working on my cards. I split one post-it in two. Wrote the students name on the top. Below it I have 3 columns for information. 

3rd Grade Student

Anyway, on the left column of the card you can see:

B.O.Y. (Beginning of Year): 
Fall ACP: 
Mock STAAR:

In the middle and on the right I will write the student's score for every 6 weeks. 
1:                4: 
2:                5:
3:

On the bottom you can see MC: (Math Computation) and MT: (Math Total). These scores I got them our Data Portal, as a reference on how the students performed on second grade on ITBS (Iowa Tests of Basic Skills).

You can observe that I have the B.O.Y. and 1st 6 weeks grades color-coded, this is the break down:
Red: Equal to or below 69% of mastery
Orange: Between 70% and 79% of mastery
Black on Yellow: Between 80% and 80% of mastery
Green: Equal to or greater than 90% of mastery

So, every 6 weeks I take the cards down and look for their tests scores. That is what I write on the cards. Following the same color-coding, I will add the scores for the Fall ACP (Assessment of Course Performance) and the Mock STAAR that we have in February. 


I did the same thing for 4th and 5th grade students, adding their score on the STAAR from 3rd and 4th grade, as you can see here:

4th Grade Student

5th Grade Student

Green star: passed STAAR with Advanced level
Yellow star: passed STAAR proficiently
Red star: did not pass STAAR

Also, I made sure to identify the students that are TAG (Talented and Gifted) with a blue star on the upper right corner. Special Ed. students have a silver star on the upper left corner. This helps me to if they are performing to their personal level or need assistance.

TAG 5th grade student

To quickly identify students that are continuous "strugglers", I decided to place a round yellow circle on the upper right corner to identify if they have been retained before. Ideally students that have been  retained should be up to grade level, but most of the time this does not happen. Sometimes because they need individualized instruction to close the gap, or further assistance like being referred to the Student Support Team (SST). So, this system made it easy for me to identify which students have been retained previously and are still struggling. 

Special Education, 4th grade student

Yes, I handwritten all of the cards... yes, that may be why it took me forever... yes, my husband kept saying that there had to be an easier way... but as crazy as it may sound, all of it made me commit more to the academic growth of these students, even when I am not their teacher. It made it personal for me to see it every day when I walk into my office, it reminds me that it is in their teachers' hands and in  my hands that they keep on learning every day. It inspires me to see their name and treat them as individuals and not numbers. 

Here's what I look at everytime I walk into my office: 

As you can see, I am a big Data freak... Since our campus goal is that 100% of the students perform at least at 80% of mastery, I put on the data wall percentages of every tier of performance (yellow post-its). This will drive the conversation with teachers on how to move those students from tier to tier. 

Hopefully this was a good example for you on how to display Data. I know in a heartbeat that if I was still in the classroom, I would do this with my students. 

Some great books about Data that have helped  me tremendously are from Paul Bambrick-Santoyo. Make sure to click on the link under the picture to go to Amazon:

Driven by Data by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo

Leverage Leadership by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo

Also, The Principal as Assessment Leader

I will keep posting on how to use data within the classroom and different data trackers (public and personal) that I used in previous years and that teachers are using currently. 

I would love for you to comment below and let me know what kind of data trackers you use!

3D Pumpkin Math

So, after all the left overs I feel more stuffed than anything! I had a great time having my family here, but I'm a little bit sad it did not last longer :( I hope you had a great time with your family as well!

Back to reality now, and as I promised here I have the resources I used to create a 3D pumpkin using word problems that included multiplication and division. Even though Thanksgiving is gone, you can still do this for the rest of November...

I printed the problems separate from the orange construction paper and pre-cut everything because I know that if I have the kids do it, it would take them longer... and I was aiming more to check for their understanding of when to multiply and/or divide to solve problems, but doing something cute at the same time. Anyway, to make it easier for you I created a file with the pattern and the word problems included, so you can only print or make copies in construction paper, then cut.

So, I handed out the patterns and the problems already cut, and encouraged students to follow the strategies we use for word problems: Read a sentence, Stop at the period, and Think what important information was in the sentence. The students found the answer for each problem as a team, and wrote down the appropriate operation, and the answer in a sentence on the right side of the pumpkin pattern.

Whenever the problems were solved, they glued the pumpkins back to back. When the pumpkin books were done, I used hot glue to put the pipe cleaner inside and ta-da! 3D pumpkins ready :)

In my TpT store you can find the instructions to make the 3D pumpkins, the patterns with the problems included in English and Spanish, and the answer key! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Donaji-Salinas Hurry and get it! I will keep the discount price all this week :)

Have a great week!

Pumpkin Science (and Math) Investigation

Today has been AWESOME! Besides that today is the last day of school of the week... :) We did a two-day lesson using pumpkins and it went great!

I purchased on TpT this Pumpkin Science Investigation to do with the kids these two days of school: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pumpkin-Science-Investigation I only used the stations for Science and Math, and left the reading activities to the RLA teachers.

Yesterday I had the kids bring one pumpkin per team, so we did the stations for weight, height, circumference, number of ribs, and number of seeds. That made a total for 6 teams. Every kid had a trifold investigation log to record their predictions, actual measurements and comparison between the two.

Today we read the informational cards and completed the "background information" on the trifold investigation log. We also had an activity with the the Multiple Response Strategy "numbers in the poster". I displayed the pumpkin with the name of their parts and placed a number on each. I read the definition for each part and the kids, using their pinch cards, showed the appropriate label for it by pinching a number. This is how they also completed the parts of a pumpkin in their investigation log.

They decorated the logs, and then we moved on to the fun part: open the pumpkin. They observed the pumpkin's insides and estimated a number of seeds, recording it on their log. I handed out gloves and we covered the tables with newspaper, but I even had a team that came prepared with a tablecloth :)

I asked them to get a handful of seeds/pulp and then count how many seeds they were able to get. They rounded the number and record it on a piece of paper (one per team). Since the objective was "students will estimate products in real-life situations", they were able to notice that estimating was more appropriate than counting one by one all of them. The students kept on scooping out the seeds and counting how many they had, then writing down their rounded number of seeds. At the end, they had a list of numbers like: 20, 20, 30, 10, 40, 40, 40, 50, etc. We noticed that they were some equal groups, so they made the connection, and instead of adding, they decided to multiply. Then, they added the products and found the approximated number of seeds that were in their pumpkin.

Estimation is really hard for students to grasp, because they just shout out numbers like "one million!", "five hundred thousand!". So by really having their hands as a benchmark, they could experience estimating.

I must say, my kids had a lot of fun! The only bad thing is that I am not a fan of pumpkin and my classroom has been smelly all day... guess that is why I have a horrible headache. After the break I'll post pictures of the bulletin board outside the school. We created some cute 3D pumpkins with 6 word problems that include multiplying and dividing. I'll be posting the word problems too, just in case you like them! :)

Anyway, today's the last day, and now off to enjoy the rest of the week with my family that is visiting from Mexico... yay!!! I haven't seen my sister in a year! I am so excited that my mom, brother, sister, a cousin and an aunt come and spend Thanksgiving with me. I am so blessed that they have a chance to come, and I am thankful for the time and money they are investing in making this trip.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Day of the Dead / Día de Muertos

As you know, I am a bilingual teacher in 4th grade. We are departmentalized at my school, so I focus on teaching Math and Science. I have been teaching 4th grade Math for 4 years now, going into my 5th year. For Science is a little bit different, last year it was my first year to teach it and I did but very sporadically. This year I started committed to involve kids in doing a lot of science experiments, so here I am... trying to come up with ideas that let the kids experience more than just textbook work or word problems. 

Anyway, I wanted to do like a unit week with the Day of the Dead. Lucky for us, November 2nd was a Friday, so for a week we did different activities related to it. 

I know it is a little bit late for that, since the Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico on November 2nd. Anyway, I wanted to share with you what we did to incorporate Math skills like: measurement, practicing multiplication (arrays and facts) and symmetry. 

The Friday before I sent home permission letters, since we respect other religions/cultures and it is understood that some parents may not want their kids to participate. 

We started on Monday by watching some videos about the Day of the Dead, and what it means. The art teacher at my school did an splendid job weeks earlier on explaining to kids what the altars were and did some "papel picado" with them. So, it worked perfectly because some students already celebrate the day with their family and knew what it was about. We read some "calaveras" wich are poems dedicated to a person (alive usually), and present in a funny way how he/she was taken by the death (The Catrina). The Language Arts teacher dedicated the week to write some "calaveras" with them. 

On Tuesday, we started doing our sugar skulls to implement measurement. The kids LOVED IT! It was a little frustrating at times, since it was my first time of ever doing one! It went amazing! I bought the skull mold and the merengue at a store in Dallas, here is the link for it: http://www.lamariposaimports.com  You can find all kinds of stuff for the Day of the Dead! Even "papel picado" that I bought of course and placed in the classroom as decoration. 

If you are not in the DFW area, you can buy the sugar molds and all the material you need to make the sugar skulls on this website: http://mexicansugarskull.com , they even sell the foil paper and the special food coloring you need for the decoration paste. (I think here you can also order some "papel picado")

All the material needed and step-by-step instructions can be found here: http://mexicansugarskull.com/sugar_skulls/instructions.html

Tips
It took us two days to have the sugar skulls ready, you may want to use more time if your students are younger or if you have a complete day with them it may work easier. 

Tuesday
1. We did a rectangle instead of a square, just because I wanted to review its attributes, such as parallel lines and angles. They cut a 5in x 7 in using the back cover of the construction paper packets. They wrote their names on both sides of each cardboard.

2. I played the video on how to make a sugar skull, and set expectations as a class. You can see the video here: http://mexicansugarskull.com/sugar_skulls/index.html

3. I pulled 5 kids at a time to my round table, and walked them through the process of mixing the ingredients. Since they needed a cup of sugar, some students brought a coffee cup of just the complete bag of sugar, so we talked about how a measuring cup is used and why.  They poured the sugar in their own plastic container (a big one!), then they added 1 teaspoon of meringue powder. Once they mixed it completely, they added 1 teaspoon of water (yes, that's enough!) 

4. We packed the sugar mixture in the mold, and then scrap off the extra mixture from it using the cardboard. With the same piece, we placed it against the mold and then flip it really carefully so the mixture stays in the same shape. We did the same for the front half and the back half of the skull. One cup is enough to create one full sugar skull, you may decide to have them do only the front part, but it looks really nice with both. 

5. Let the sugar skulls to dry at a safe place (not humid) for at least 8 hours. We left them from one day to the other, so it worked perfectly. 

Wednesday
I made the royal icing in advanced, as well as the colored royal icing for decoration. With the royal icing we "glued" both halves of the sugar skulls, then we let it dry for the day. 

Thursday
I placed the colored royal icing in ziploc bags, since I did not have icing bags... not a good idea. The kids squished them too hard at time and it got out of it really bad... anyway, it was messy but still the kids loved it. We used foil to put the names of the people they were dedicating the sugar skulls to, and then "glued" it by using the royal icing. They came out good for the first time! 

Friday
We used the sugar skulls to make up situations by using multiplication and division. We used it to represent the operations and modeling arrays. They LOVED it! I put them on display outside my classroom for a week. Of course, they are not eatable... but it is a fun way to use ingredients that are easy to get ahold of and make something pretty and celebrate their culture. 

I also printed some skeletons and they used fabric paint to decorate them. Agains the windows the color really pop out and we arranged them in rows and columns to practice a few multiplication and division facts. 

I am a huge fan of the Catrina, so my lovely boyfriend helped me come up with the name of "Factrina" and made a coloring Catrina using multiplication facts (are you getting the hint of what we are focusing on Math: ;)). 

You can find the Factrina at my TpT account as a Freebie!: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Donaji-Salinas


As well, we made "papel picado" using tissue paper. The original colors are purple, orange and pink, but I only had a few of those in my classroom. So we used what we had available. We included symmetry in this activity, by making half circles, half hearts, half rhombus, half squares, etc.! I played the video before so they could get a gist of what they were doing, then we did what the video shows step by step. 
The video I used is in Spanish, but you can always just follow what she is doing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP-Ms2AWfHM and we only did the first and the second style. 

I found this one in English: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psmc1D2ddQo

Here is how the display table looked outside my classroom. 

We even ate some "pan de muerto", it was a great experience! :)

Hope you like it! :) thanks for reading!

- Donaji