Casa Bonita and a Curriculum Audit

 I recently had the opportunity to enjoy an evening at Casa Bonita here in Denver. It was opened in the 1970s in a large pink building and the inside contains a 70 foot waterfall and cliff divers. In 2021 they shut their doors and the Colorado community was devastated, soon after the creators of South Park (the TV show), bought the building and started renovations. It has been a huge process and since June of 2022 it has been invite only. 

Casa Bonita in 2015 - the stage and waterfall in the background.

As you leave the building there is a museum about the history and restoration of Casa Bonita. It's small but contains some treasured memories for many people. There are also pictures of the restoration along with artifacts they found behind bench seats and walls. So, what does this all have to do with education and curriculum audits?!?!?

I was starting to think about the process that was followed to break down the interior of this huge building and re-vamping, fixing, and updating it. This is similar to the process of a curriculum audit, you have to break down the curriculum and look at the structure provided, then dig into what needs to be re-vamped, fixed, or updated. Sometimes you may find old, unused parts that are buried and can be removed.

This process is slow and takes a lot of patience from everyone involved. My school went through a curriculum audit in the fall and now the feedback is being slowly combed through my our administrators. Honestly I was worried they would jump right in and try to make quick and easy fixes, but I am pleasantly surprised by the fact they are taking their time and really digging into the feedback.

The school uses Schoology to build our lessons and assessments. As most of the curriculum was developed, staff used whatever resources they could get their hands on. Specifically the math person who built the curriculum pulled bits and pieces from text books that were previously used in their classroom. Some content after that was pulled from another online curriculum. Schoology has some great features for building and using curriculum within it, and now we are in the process of finding something that can actually work for us as a school and create a smooth transition between courses.

A curriculum audit is hard (just like breaking down an existing building and trying to update it), but with a little time and patience we all can come out the other end with something that benefits teachers and students!

Virtual Snow Days!

Teachers and students along the I-25 corridor in Colorado celebrated this week for snow days!! Many schools start spring break next week (March 18th), and districts declared snow days based on high levels of snow being predicted. Mid-Thursday many of those districts called a second day, thereby creating an 2-day early spring break. Much rejoicing!!

Oh wait... I work at an online school... no early time off for me and my colleagues.

I'm not one for taking pictures of the snow, but here's a shot out my office window:

This is probably the only thing I can think of that makes me sad about working for a virtual school - no snow days. I work from home 90% of the time anyway, so it doesn't feel different, but my husband has been substitute teaching. The past week and a half he's been at the same school subbing for the same teacher, therefore doing a bit of planning every day. Wednesday night when he arrived home he said that the principal let them know Thursday would probably be a snow day. He was a bit disappointed because this is his first time actually planning and getting ready to teach students (as opposed to just following the teacher's given plan), but he also was excited to be able to sleep in!!

Thursday night, watching TV he would have just continued to watch late into the night, but I said, "I still have to work tomorrow!"

There is an upside though, the Teams chats were blowing up all day. Most everyone is used to being at the site, busy with students, but being at home it's much more quiet, so they needed to get their interactions online. Staff were sharing pictures of their backyards and their own kids playing in the snow at lunch break. It was very lively and fun to see what everyone was up to!

Asynchronously Teaching Math

 There is a lot of discussion lately about math discourse in the classroom. And I agree with every bit of it, if we can get students to talk about math with each other they can come to develop their own meanings and understandings about math. We could really make strides towards making math less 'scary.'

My classroom is asynchronous though, so how can I develop that discourse? Students work throughout the day and sometimes late into the night, sometimes they are online at the same time, but most likely not.

Using resources like Which one doesn't belong? and Would you rather? I have attempted to create some type of asynchronous discourse. It's not always successful, but as I continue to use it and encourage those around me to use, students get used to it. They are starting to get better at knowing what to do, and engaging with each a bit more as time goes by.

Here is an example of a WODB discussion post. Students were given the following graphic and asked to pick which one they think does not belong and why: 

Here are some of the responses and interactions I found: 

Student 1 says: I believe B is the one that doesn't belong. The others follow a pattern of being multiplied by 10 each time. Meanwhile B doesn't follow that same pattern and gets multiplied by 100 first.

Student 2 says: I think either B or D doesn't belong im honestly not 100 percent sure which one but i strongly believe its B because it goes from a single number automatically jumping to a 3 digit number when everything else goes by tens.

Student responding to student 2: Your the only other person I saw that also thought two didn't belong ut the the two I thought didn't belong are C and B.

Students 1 says: I think D donst belong to the fact that the pattern shown appears to be all numbers in the 1s place. It may still fit the pattern due to the transition into whole numbers but it doesn't appear to fit properly into the diagram.

Student replying to student 1: I agree that the decimal sets C apart.

Student 2 says: I think the one out of place is C. All the boxes have a right triangle shape and pattern while C does not. If not, D also seems sus, dealing in decimals while the other three are all whole numbers.

I love reading these because the students are using their math vocabulary to describe what they are seeing and to explain their reasoning.

There is still work to be done. I need to continue creating a safe space for making mistakes. In the first example, student 2 is unsure about their choice and states that, as a teacher if I can create a safer space for them, this student would just state their choice and reasoning without feeling like they have to back pedal just in case they are wrong.

Also, the student responses are very short and to the point most of the time. I pulled some better examples above, but when I look at the majority of responses to posts students usually just say 'I agree' and never delve into why.

These fun discussions will continue to be used in my classes, and I will continually reflect on how to make it a better and safer experience for students!