Many times, we start the school year with the best intentions to make guided math work for us. We have great math station ideas, the perfect station acronym, and great small group activities and games. But somewhere along the way things fall apart. Been there, done that, I feel ya! Here’s the deal, there are …
Looking for the perfect math classroom decorations or theme? I LOVE classroom set up and classroom decor! Who’s with me??? Okay, okay I get it! It’s not everyone’s thing and that’s okay! It is so incredibly important to balance making our classrooms welcoming, but also functional and meaningful! Over the years I have learned it …
“The student is expected to select tools, including real objects, manipulatives, paper and pencil, and technology as appropriate….”blah blah blah. I know you’ve seen it! That process standard shows up in every TEKS strand from kindergarten all the way to statistics and pre-cal. But are we really allowing students to choose their tools…or are we …
Math workshop and small groups are my jam! I have done guided math in many different ways and my math block schedule changed a lot depending on different factors. But THIS is my absolute favorite way to schedule my math block and teach in small groups. I’ve done this type of schedule with anywhere from …
I believe that any successful classroom starts with some type of daily warm up or bell ringer. Something that the students are expected to do right when they come in to class. A daily math warm up sets the tone for the rest of the class period. It also gives you as a teacher the …
Speaking to parents terrified me for years…like sick to my stomach, mad anxiety, terrified. I dreaded the thought of parents being upset with me or dealing with those particularly difficult parents. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to teach with THE Lindsey Driver. Not only is she one of the most amazing math teachers on the …
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Building relationships is the most effective classroom strategy out there! One way I start to do that from the start is with this back to school postcard for students. After the first couple weeks of school, I write a personalized message to each student and mail them a postcard. Who doesn’t love getting snail mail?! …
So, you’ve gone to the workshops, read all the books and blogs, researched your resources and you’ve decided to get going with math workshop. Stations, rotations, guided math, whatever you wanna call it! Small groups will absolutely change your classroom for the better. There is so much value to sitting down with a small group …
March means test prep season is upon us! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, room transformations are my absolute favorite way to review and prepare for upcoming test! Thus, a basketball math transformation! Students work to complete different tasks that review various math skills we’ve learned throughout the year. Y’all…it’s a packet …
A few days ago, I posted about how I progress through the CRA (concrete, representational, abstract) model for introducing division. From the very basic use of splitting base 10 blocks into groups, all the way to a method very similar to the standard algorithm (that still builds conceptual understanding without just memorizing steps). You can …
Ahhhhh long division! The bane of many of our existence…only kind of kidding. But on a serious note…teaching division can be some pretty rough times. BUT it doesn’t have to be that way! Many state standards now require teachers to teach wayyyy more than just the standard algorithm for long division because they want students …
Order of operations is one of my favorite math topics to teach! Mostly because I refuse to let my students be those people on Facebook…arguing over a math problem and how to use PEMDAS…you know what I’m talking about… Maybe that’s not my only reason for loving it, but it definitely ranks high on the …
Figuring out motivating classroom management strategies for older kiddos can be quite a challenge. We had practiced our procedures endless times toward the beginning of the year, had anchor charts hanging as a reminder of our classroom routines, and many, many discussions on what the expectations were. But I was still needing something more to …
Hey friends!!! I absolutely love doing classroom transformation and have found they work best for me during big review times. Doing transformations to review several skills allows me to use the transformation for a few days, making it well worth it. The first transformation I did this year was our football math review classroom transformation. …
After dreaming of having a stage in my classroom for at least a year, summer was the perfect time to make this happen! My husband may or may not have rolled his eyes a bit…in the most loving way of course when I asked if he would help me build a classroom stage. This was …
Hey everyone!!! We just finished up our first full week of school! #survivalofthefittest I have loved getting to know my new kiddos. My homeroom class this year is amazing! In the past, I’ve done some form of flexible-ish seating. During independent work, students knew that they may sit around the room and use pillows, clipboards, …
This was one of my first “full-blown” transformations! I had done a few smaller special themed days in my room, dressing like detectives, hanging a few themed items up in my room, but nothing major. We were getting close to state testing season, and I wanted to do something that would keep my kiddos engaged …
