My New Addiction...

Okay so I have a confession to make... I am hereby addicted to Pinterest! Someone should have told me it was this addicting as every time I pick up my laptop to do anything I find myself going to pinterest looking at cool new ideas for teachers.  As soon as I begin making things (Not sure what grade I'm teaching yet either staying in 3rd or going back to 4th) I will post pictures!

Until then...

Happy Pinning!

Guided Math & Math Stations

During my 1st year of teaching I had a revelation... Why on earth am I giving these poor students these 25 question tests? I didn't think about it at first but I was only making things difficult for myself because I was doing all of the grading and also attempting to re-mediate.

 I changed my game plan and I began only giving my students tests that only had 10 questions.  If a student made less than an 80% they would meet with me and be retaught the skill and then they would have a retest on that following Friday. 

 Needless to say this worked beautifully! I also created a note sheet where I would record the objective & skill at the top. Beside each students name I would write their score ( 8/10) and the date of mastery.  I would also note any mistakes made so even if the student scored an 80% I could still see if there were some sort of pattern of misunderstanding.  I could also send home additional homework on that skill so students could practice at home.

This worked so well for me I was able to use this again this school year with my 3rd grade students.  I loved the idea of having actual notes to discuss with parents at conferences if a low math score came up during our discussion.

I plan on continuing this for years to come because it is very simple and that means math groups change weekly for the most part.  

Now that was my small victory here is the small defeat... Math Centers!

I have a difficult time finding activities for my students to do that will keep them engaged during the 15 minute rotations.  At the end of this school year I created a sheet that contained all center activities and students knew they were to have all of them completed by Friday so that meant that they had to do at least 2 per day.  If any student finished early they knew they were to read silently at their seats. 

I am still looking for activities to add to the sheet to complete the 3 rotations as I would like but after visiting Runde's Room I think I am going to incorporate the math journal as part of center time.  My team also had our principal purchase Mountain Math & Mountain Language for us.  It is a really cool stand up book that has several problems that cover basic skills. It has a basic worksheet to fill in the answers too and students only need to flip the page each week to answer questions with new numbers.

I am not sure if this will help anyone but if so please let me know! If you have something that works wonderful in your classroom during Center time then please feel free to comment!!! 

Keep Them In Their Seats!

At the beginning of this school year I sat down and thought about the things I wanted to do differently from the year before. The easiest most inexpensive thing I did was give my students no reason to get out of their seats! After my year of rambunctious, out of control, 4th graders I was willing to give anything a try in 3rd grade.  So knowing I was going to have my students in groups I decided I was going to place a basket with all the things they needed so they had no reason to get out of their seat unless they wanted water or a bathroom break.

Each group had a small Sterilite basket that I purchased from Walmart. (about 2.50 each)

In each of these baskets I put a "character cup" that was also purchased from Walmart (.98 each).

Each basket then was given 1 of the following unless other wise noted, Kleenex, covered pencil sharpener, hand sanitizer, 2 glue sticks, 2 pair of scissors, a box of crayons, 5 sharpened pencils.

Total out of pocket cost for 5 groups: < $20.00!

I was so excited by this because it truly kept the students in their seats all year long! The students took ownership of this and were sure to be sure that they had their baskets daily and if they ran out of something I was told immediately! The pencils were to be swapped out only if yours broke and they you were to put your broken one in and take a sharpened one. Each afternoon the pencil sharpener would gather all the pencils and then divide them equally amongst the baskets.

 I will definitely be doing this again next year. The baskets held up great aside from the bottoms becoming dirty because they are white and the pencil sharpeners also broke but most students had their parents get them one because they knew they couldn't get up and use the electric sharpener after 8:00am.


Please try this with your students if you find they won't stay in their seats and you will see a big difference!

Maria

New Finds

I have somehow stumbled upon a few wonderful blogs that I now follow and I am all beside myself to try some of the things they are doing/sharing! The one thing that has me intrigued the most are the math journals found at Runde's Room. When I saw the post for yesterday I was floored and I have been reading up on them ever since. Since I don't know if I am teaching 3rd grade again or if I am going back to 4th grade I can't really begin to plan and also our state is adopting the Common Core Curriculum. I am sooooooo anxious to try these math journals I almost want to just create one as a sample! If you use math journals in your classroom and you view this post please share! I would just love to learn more!!!

Maria

3rd Grade

3rd Grade was WONDERFUL!  I felt like I was truly in my element this school year and  I am sad to see it go.  I had a wonderful group of students and I am so proud of them! I am not sure if I will have another go at 3rd grade since my principal has mentioned the possibility of me moving back to 4th grade but we will see! I am on assignment for God and wherever I am needed is where I will go!

Hmmm...

Just yesterday I was thinking about my grade school career and the teachers I had. They never seemed stressed and we rarely heard them complain or grumble about anything.  We were taught well and we were disciplined. Not to mention our teachers taught our parents, cousins, aunts & uncles.  So the question came to me what changed that teachers don't love their jobs unconditionally anymore? It's rare to find teachers that have been teaching long enough to retire and most are seeking early retirement.  As I  pondered these thoughts it became clear to me that the US education system doesn't really care so much for the children as they say they do... concern is solely on how good does our school / school system look when those glorious test scores surface.  SMH it truly makes me sad that our educational system has come to this because what it causes is added tension among staff and added stress on the teachers.  It's hard to teach when in the back of your mind the only thing you can think about is how much you have to do, deadlines, iep's, pep's, test scores, etc. 

I would love the opportunity to teach stress free like my teachers did...at least once would be nice.