Lessons With Coffee

Dear friends and readers I have some wonderfully fantastic news. My girls increased their multiplication fact fluency from 18 percent measured on February 17th, to 88.3% (and yes....they deserve that dang .3 percent!!!) on Friday March 28th! As it stands now the boys have a final total of 64.6% (they also deserve the .6% ☺ ) I am so dang proud of them.  All of them.  Even the boys.  hehehe It started in 2nd hour.  2 hour is my co-taught special education class.  I have 37 girls in there 15 of them have ieps and 9 504 plans.  Ironically the rest of the girls are all labeled GT.  It is one of the most difficult sets of students that I have ever had to differentiate for!  The girls came in on Friday ready to take the test...ready to kick the boys butts.  I asked if they wanted me to explain the homework first or if they wanted to take the test.  THEY ALL SAID TAKE THE TEST. Three minutes on the clock. Pencils up.... 3.....

It is that time of the month!  Hopefully you have sent out your SLANTboxes or are in the process of sending them out! So since I did not participate this month I have nothing to reveal which makes me a little sad...but you know...I sort of needed to get my life in gear before I start tying to do everything again!  I am thinking about doing April because I LOVE LOVE LOVE the theme....However I do not want to be a flake....agian.  :( So here are the rules,  I am borrrowing a bit from FARLEY at Oh Boy 4th Grade  and how she does her link for her fabulous Currently posts!  (PS. Can not wait for April!) Here are the rules... 1) You must link up directly to your reveal post.  If you do not have a blog, link to your Instagram or FB post that you posted.  Please make this be the specific post and not just to your main page.  I want it so that if someone clicks on your beautiful face, they see your awesome SLANTbox.  I too, like Far...

The April sign ups for the SLANT BOX exchange have opened!  I was so amazed that there were NO rematches in March!  "Lucky Me". Anyhoo, yes the April sign ups are open.  I decided if I want to participate yet.  I LOVE the theme but I do not want to be a flaker. We will see how many sign up!  If there is an ODD number of sign ups it is god's will that I participate!.  I am sure you are anxiously awaiting the theme of April.... I went with it....here it goes..... Spring Into a Good Book!   Basically the idea is to pick your favorite book. This book could be adult, children's , YA or professional Get your partner a copy of it (could be used or new...You know teachers.) Then the rest of the box must match the book! For example. Say your favorite book is Harrold and the Purple Crayon. You would get that book and fill a box with loads of things that make you think of this book. Custom box of Purple Crayons, or Purple ink pens. I would ...

And that sucks. If you have read my blog you know that this year I teach 3 classes of just 6th grade girls and 2 classes of just 7th grade boys and one class of just 8th grade boys.   We are a gender segregated school. Anyway.  We also have TERRIBLE test scores.  Our scores are so bad, the students that are placed in the "advanced" classes...are students who are scoring at proficient. It is pretty bad.  I would say of my seventy-two 6th graders, maybe 12 are really proficient at their multiplication facts. I watch students skip count, I watch students make tally marks, I watch students make arrays.   As I start teaching students how to simplify expressions using the distributive property, I am looking at these children and wondering how are you going to factor binomials if you have to count on your hands 9x5?!?!?!?!?!?!  I CAN NOT STAND lattice multiplication (this subject is sore, and worth it is own post), but for crying out loud I ...

The March theme and detailed rules for the exchange can be found  HERE .   Please go read this thoroughly before you email me with any questions. Instructions now that you are paired! 1) Below you will find a link to a Google Doc where I have created all of your matches - I have also sent out an email to you.  Please download the file before asking questions about it.  Here are some things to know about the Google Doc: There are 2 tabs. The first is a list of the participants  crucial  information.  Like I said in the email.  You are divided into bloggers and non-bloggers, and then willing to send internationally, and not willing to send internationally.  As months go on you are more than welcome to switch groups  The second contains the matches  To find who you are sending to: Look for your email in the first column (It is alphabetical) and the educator you are sending to is to the right of your email. To ...

Oh man, it feels good to be back.  Because my "BACK" is really coming back I am a little late to Farley's Currently.  I am happy that she got a sponsor and it is going on. BY THE WAY.  What the heck is a blog sponsor?  WOULD LOVE it if someone would help me out on that one.  Listening: I know it came out this summer.  I know it is kind of tired.  But I love it and I do NOT care. Loving:  Um seriously.  How can you not love this color? Thinking:  I went to a DAY LONG PD on the book Teach Like a Champion. I am not going to lie.  I like this book, but these are just TECHNIQUES.  I A) do not think that we needed to spend 8 hours looking at examples of UBER perfect classes, and B) think that this book has all the answers - like many of my colleagues do.  There are good things in this..but ultimately your classroom is your classroom.  You have to have buy in before kids EVER will.  SO, the whole...

As I stated in my last post I have some unruly children in my 7th grade boys.  We were told that we are not allowed to have children take breaks in the hallway any more and that we had to find a "safe environment" for them in our classroom. Seriously Mr. Assistant Superintendent.  You give me a classroom that is built for 24 and put 34 kids in it and expect me to SOMEHOW also find an "environment" for them to calm the EFF down? Fine. I went to Mecca Target the other day and scored this table for 11$. Do not judge my manipulatives on the shelf.  PS. When is Google/Word/Excel/Powerpoint going to figure out that manipulative not just a verb but is also a noun and therefore can be pluralized? It is perfect because it is only about 18 inches deep and maybe 24 inches across.  One person table. I also got the tiny clip board and the pencil box in the Dollar Spot.  Target is really starting to love teachers.  I have found so many good things in ...