New School Year....Finally

As I had mentioned before, I started at a new school this year!  I think that is partially why I've been a bit MIA the last little while.  I finally have a moment to sit down and get caught up on some personal hobbies IE Blogging!

Here are some pictures of my classroom and some things I'm doing this year.  They are about a month old, so I promise they're bigger and better now.  Enjoy anyway :)

I have done this in the past, but decided to modify a little bit.  Whenever my students earn an 'A' on a quiz they get a post-it note to decorate and hang up.  When they earn an 'A' on a test they get a whole index card to decorate and hang up.  They love it because not only are they personalizing our classroom, they get to show off a little bit; what kid doesn't like to boast?!

This year I'm requiring all of my students to have a composition book to keep all of their math notes in.  I'm not doing a 100% interactive math journal, but I have them do quite a few things in there.  Composition books seem to be the easiest way to keep things together.  For the front of their books, I had them decorate a sheet of construction paper with their first name and numbers that have meaning in their lives.

It is important to tell the students what is going to be required for them each day.  Usually teacher will post the standards that students will be learning.  I post 'I Can' statements.  I know it's not unique nor new, but the students like it.  It helps them take ownership over their learning.

This is the start of my stations wall.  I put each student's name on a mini popsicle stick that has a magnet on the back (color coded by grade).  Each station has been numbered and the students go to whichever station they are assigned.  Now that we've been going at it a few weeks, I have it a lot more organized.  I'll post something separate on that later.

Finally, my Sumdog wall!  This is the wall all of my students LIVE to check out.  It keeps tabs of all of their ranks on Sumdog.  I've written about this program before....and I cannot reiterate how much I LOVE this site.  If you want your students to show marked improvement in their math skills, please check it out.  And it's my favorite price FREE!

Interactive Math Journals

Part of me moving to a new school next year is me being able to teach a new-ish subject!  I say new-ish because technically I've taught math the last four years; this was my first year not teaching it.  This will, however, be my first year teaching it with my new perspective on teaching!  I've always fancied myself a good teacher, but I now think that I have the ability to be a great teacher because of how my ideas have transformed and matured.  I suppose that darn graduate degree WAS good for something!

Made it Monday: My first TpT!

My first Made it Monday post!  Thanks to Tara for hosting.  Since it's a first, I thought I'd celebrate with another first: my first Teachers Pay Teachers item!

Math Glyph Fractions

I have officially made my first TpT purchase!  (well, that wasn't free anyway!)

A BIG thank you to Stephanie at Teaching in Room 6 for this wonderful idea!  You know that I'll be printing and using this today.

Please hop on over to her post about how these fraction glyphs work and get in on it!

Math Practice....Sumdog

Today I want to introduce you to one of my favorite math tools!  I discovered Sumdog this year and convinced my whole school to use it.  This is a site where students play games to practice basic math skills.  Over the years of teaching math, I found that my came to me lacking in a lot of computation skills.  This site allows them to practice skills that are specific to them while having fun.

Differentiate....Why?

I.1 I teach and/or encourage others to teach using differentiated instructional strategies and a variety of assessment strategies that encourage higher order thinking and are supported by current research.

Oiling Out the Kinks *Updated*

I've been trying very hard this year to make my classroom more learner centered rather than teacher centered.  I've been taking the things I'm learning in my Master's classes to heart.  One of my favorite classes so far has been the Differentiated Instruction class.  I'm trying to make my classroom more available to every type of learner rather than one.

Here is a short list of some of the things I'm working on:

Nonfiction Friction

It seems that every teacher at one point or another struggles with getting their students to read Nonfiction.  It's always been a mystery to me as a person because as a kid, I was that nerdy one who was in the corner reading a book about Sitting Bull.  Apparently, not all people learn like I do.

In order to tackle this problem, I've decided to start a new 'On-Going Project' for my students.  They already to a lot of intense Fiction studying with their Lit Studies, so I want to enhance that for their Nonfiction studies.  I've created a 'Nonfiction Review' that they will be turning in every other Friday.

It's a short little thing with only 10 points that they have to include.  They can choose any type of Nonfiction to read.  It can even be a super short 5-year-old book, as long as it's Nonfiction and they can get enough information out of it.  They can present the information in any form they choose.  Some kids are taking to coloring, some are using computers, some are just plain handwriting on lined paper.  As long as it has the info, I don't care.

I know that, in the end, it's going to be extra work for me.  But it's all about what's good for the kids, right?

Self Directed Learning

I am one of those old-school learners (even though I'm quite young) who can appreciate the Classic view of teaching.  I prefer a teacher to be in front of me giving a lecture so that I can take notes and know what exactly is on the test.

My first year of teaching tended to reflect this style of learning.  I stood in the front of the class and gave the kids notes.  They did ok on their assessments, but it had to be just horrible for those students who have different learning styles.  Thankfully I have since grown in my ability to teach, and switch it up quite often.

That brings me to today.  I was looking at my class as they worked in small groups.  Their objective was to answer the questions on the worksheet.  The worksheet corresponded to a section in our textbook that, in the past, I would have just had them write boring notes.

By using doing this, the students were able to gleen the information they needed in their own style.  They had the option to work together if they wanted; some chose to work alone.  They worked at their own pace, and learned what they needed in order to begin our new unit.

Best of all:  they seemed to like it.

Individualizing Practice

I've been trying to figure out all year how I was going to utilize the new assessment my school started using.   Essentially, every few months the students are tested on each of the Common Core standards they are supposed to be learning by the end of the year.

I can then pull up reports letting me know where each student is struggling or where they are right on track.  The kids hate the testing part, but in truth it’s not that bad.

I finally decided that I’m going to be putting together an individualized program for each student based upon which standards they are struggling with.

Every week, each student will be required to turn in a special paper designed with a particular standard they need help with.  Not every student will have the same work. 

It will be a lot of trees and time killed  on my part; but I think it will have a positive impact on their over all learning and achievement.

I will let you know how this goes.