New things for next year....

Thank you JOY in 6th Grade for hosting a linky party!  I've actually really enjoyed getting in on these.  Who knew blogging could be so much fun? ;-)

Next year is actually going to be a whole new adventure for me.  I'll be back to teaching math and it'll be at a new school!  I've taught math for the past four years, this is the first not teaching math, so I'm okay with that [though I've LOVED teaching LA].  The scary part will be that this is going to be my first time ever in a different school!  I've only been teaching for five years, but all five of them have been here.  I'll get into that, and my soppy farewell, later.

Three things popped into my head though that I am DEFINITELY going to do....

As I'm back in the math scene, it is important to me to continue to improve upon my Differentiated Instruction.  I think that with math, a huge part of that will be hands-on activities.  I already have planned different projects students will be doing throughout the year and I know that I'll get more amazing ideas from the blog families I've found recently.

I was a little bit late to the game this year in starting my students off in Composition Books.  When I finally made the switch, it made such a difference.  I'll be posting later more specifically what I had them do.  I'm hoping to have our Math Compositions complete with color coding and foldables for easy reference.

Finally,  I'm sure it seems silly but I have got to stop relying on what the text book offers in the way of a test. Let's be honest, it's not best for the students, it's best for the teacher.  Half the time the text-tests are unreasonably hard and don't really test on what I'm looking for.

I want to slow my roll for next year and actually create these tests using things from their homework.  I don't need them to reinvent the wheel every test, I just want them to show me they understand how to use the skill I tried to teach them.