MS Sunday Funday- Something Good to Share

This week Julie from ispeakmath asked to share something positive from the beginning of school. 

I have been in school three weeks. It as been GREAT!! Seriously, I am finally enjoying work again. The past two years have been hard. I am so pleased with how things have started. 

My students are sweet and overall, well behaved. 

Incorporating Class Dojo in my class has helped with my talkers and helped me manages randomization. 

But, what I am choosing to share is more personal. 

During the second week of school, before the first bell, one of my students asked if she could talk to me. We went into my room and she started talking about Girl Scouts and that she is going for something called the Silver Award. Then, she asked if I would be her sponsor. 

I was so moved. I wasn't even exactly sure what it meant, but I was so honored that she thought of me and asked. 

I am thrilled to be building more personal type relationships with my students. I know it will translate success in their learning as well. Plus, honestly, it just feels good to be liked, even by 6th graders! 

Saw this on Pinterest and this fits my classes this year! 

My First Week Back

Be sure to check out a fun giveaway hop with Diane at Fifth in the Middle and 

Amelia at Where the Wild Things Learn.

 

It's MS Math Sunday Funday with Julie at I Speak Math 

Last Sunday at a baseball game one of the parents had this shirt on:

I had to take a picture! My husband just rolled his eyes! Thankfully, I have known the man wearing it for years and he was okay with it.

Today's topic: the first week back

It was a GREAT week. Seriously, if this week is any indication, this week is going to be GREAT!

With my advanced kids, I actually did stations the fourth and fifth days of school! They went so smooth.

I set the ground rules with this poster. It's available here for free!

poster available for centers, stations or rotations

This is how I was able to get review in from fifth grade. I threw in place value with decimals and divisibility rules. They also made TWO foldables for their math notebooks and worked on their vocabulary for our upcoming unit. I was super pleased.

Working on "Numbers that are Important to Me" Cover page of their math notebooks. 

Vocabulary 

Place value task cards. (actually my best seller on TpT)

Divisibility Station (working on getting this in my store, soon, I hope!

In my regular math class, we worked on place value too. This lesson was created by the other two 6th grade math teachers at my school.
It was called Place Value Scramble. They made these cups for each pair. They were so fabulous to share with me. I only teach one section and when another teacher has a different prep, so she just shared her stuff with me!

I was the "caller". I pulled a number from one cup and a place value from the other.

We also incorporated some Kagan strategies with this activity. Students were paired up as A and B partners. The A partner wrote the numbers called in the correct place value spot and the B partner moved the cups around. They had to work together to check each others work.  Then, they switched.

This was a great activity for the first week. I am hoping to use it again, but add a decimal cup! 

As good as the week went (for a first week), it was very tiring. I am thankful for a three day weekend already. 

Polka Dot Heaven- My Classroom

Finally getting to share my classroom pictures. There are many, just warning! 

This is what I walked into a few weeks ago. 

Behavior Management Plan 

Brain Dump revamped. I have blogged about this here. 

Student created Math posters found here. 

Got these from Brown Bag Teacher. 

Changed word wall to "vocabulary" wall. The heading are the main categories. I am thrilled to add the cards I bought from Math Mojo, they are Uh-MA-ZING!! 

1st Prep Agenda board. The orange arrow says, Homework board idea from Fourth Grade Flipper"

2nd Prep Agenda Board

Great management tool! Students fill out, not me. 

Love this and it works! I have blogged about this here. 

Test Taking Strategies. 

"I don't know" is not an option in our classroom!

Mathematician posters from Miss Math Dork!

I actually have a few more I need to take, but will have to post another day. As much as I want to head to school, we have baseball today! 

Check out MS Sunday Funday for more looks into classrooms! 

Middle School Math Sunday Funday- GOALS!

First off, today begins the BIG, no HUGE sale over at TpT. I have actually loaded my cart already. I haven't checked out yet, because its early and I want to make good purchases! I am so wishy washy! 

Don't forget, the sale is 20% off EVERYTHING in my store, and when you use the code BTS13 you get an additional 10% off. It totals to 28%!!! SUCH A GREAT! deal!

And now for my Sunday link up! 

My Sundays are reserved for Middle School Math Sunday Fundays hosted by Julie over at I Speak Math. She provides a topic each week and we post about it. 

Today's topic is Goals for 2013-2014. 

I went back and reread my post from May 27th where I participated in a Linky called "Next school year, I am definitely going to..."

Happy to say that I can check one of those goals off my list. I mentioned holding a 6th grade orientation before school starts. We had one this past Saturday and it was a HUGE SUCCESS!!! I can't take credit for organizing it, but it was AWESOME! I can't wait to get parent feedback on it. 

Another goal was to create a parent resource pack to help parents help their children with math work. I shared this with parents this past Saturday and they were smiling and shaking their heads in agreement. I made sure not to make them feel "dumb" but honest that they don't use "6th grade math" on a daily basis and may have forgotten some things. Plus, this way they can see the strategies we use in class. 

I did work on it this summer. I am not finished because I procrastinated or started other projects, but it is HIGH on my list for the next few weeks. 

For homework, I mentioned keeping a homework board. I have two preps and I created two posters. I just need to get to Office Max and have them printed. (I have one week until students come, I can get it done!)

This is where I got the idea from, Fourth Grade Flipper. I will share mine once it is up! 

I always have the goal of getting and STAYING organized. So far, so good. Of course, I have only been there two days! HA! 

But, this summer I did create things to help me stay organized. I made boxes for my task cards and labeled everything. I am so excited about this and just plans to continue doing so with everything I make. 

I also mentioned "not adding more to my plate". I really just make a sign and place it by my desk, in my planner, etc... I need, I mean really NEED to say no more often. 

A big change this year in my classroom is moving from a composition notebook to a binder for Math Interactive Notebooks. I am nervous but also excited. I have already been working on organizing and foldables for my units. Can't wait to share more about this! 

So, how about you? What are our goals? 

oh, and don't forget to SHOP til you DROP today!!! 

MS-Sunday Funday- Studying for Assessments

It's back! MS Sunday Funday with Julie over at I Speak Math.

Our state test is 6 school days away. Last week we were in full review mode. We continue this week.

The boring stuff... our kids have homework every night. We just can not fit everything in during 50 minute classes. The kids are not thrilled about it, but we are doing a homework challenge which is helping some. We will see though, Friday was a bad weather make up day for us, they had homework Thursday night. I am hoping they did it Thursday night and put it in their backpack for tomorrow. I wrote about the motivation reward here.

Based on our previous testing data, we have focus standards. Those are the ones we are going over in class. I have tried so hard to keep it interesting, upbeat and not worksheet based. I kind of feel it has been hard because some of my classes are acting up. It makes me think, why do I try so hard? But, I know I do hands on things for me too. I can't stand lecturing and worksheets. Its not good teaching, I know that.

Last week, we did the following two activities. I posted about these here. Both of these activities you can get here.

I have a few more this week, I will be sharing later in the week.

MS Sunday Funday- To grade or not to grade?

How I grade homework

• Students are assigned homework three times a week on my class.
• It is due the next day.
• It s normally less than 7 problems.

 

After our warm up, we go over the homework.

• Students who have no completed their homework, sign the No Homework Binder.
• Students are deducted 5 points for each hw not returned and/or completed.
• Students are expected to copy corrections on their unfinished paper. Those who not return it use notebook paper. No one gets away with just sitting in class.

 

If 3 homework assignments are not completed or returned, students call their parents and  are assigned Saturday school.

 

At the end of the grading period, students who have not signed the notebook, receive a free homework pass.

 

Why I give homework:

• Students need more practice than I have time for in my 50 minute block
• Students need to see as many problems as possible for mastery.
• Their parents ask for it.

 

My system works, and I love it. All the credit goes to Leslie at Jack of All Trades for her inspiring No Homework Binder idea!

MS Math Sunday Funday- Grading Policies

Have you heard of Educents? Check them out and receive a $15 gift card before the launch in April.

And now, to today's topic: Math Class Grading

Grading was new to me last year. I had taught first for so long and the districts I worked in, didn't give grades for first graders. We did more of a "readiness". Then I became an interventionists for four years and I didn't ever give grades.

Then, came middle school and holy moly, grading was a rude awakening. I teach over 100 students. Grading freaked me out.

Grading policies, however were in place for me.

In my district, daily grades are weighted 40% and major grades are weighted 60%.

This year I have learned so much more about grading. We have given major projects outside of class. We assign these as major grades which has helped our students who don't necessarily test well.

We are required to give two grades per week. I sometimes give more, depending on what we are studying.

Another thing I have done this year is use rubrics for grading. I like that the students know exactly what is expected and what they will receive for their work and effort.

Next week I will share how I grade, or don't grade homework. This too, is something I have learned by trial and error.

Happy Sunday to you all!

Math Centers, Stations, Rotations, Oh My!

Math stations, Math centers, Math rotations.... No matter what you call them, they are everywhere you turn.

I started math centers as an elementary teacher and when I moved to middle school, I really wanted to use them. I couldn't figure out the logistics though. So many kids, big bodies, and short classes.

The biggest problem was behavior for me. Plus, students aren't always on task.

I have tried several methods. I like them all and I use them as I see fit.

1. Multiple stations, Students stay in one spot.
With so many bodies in one room, this worked well. We gave each group six activities. Students chose which to do first, but they had to do all six, any order.
First time, tough... Kids needed a lot of support, but semi success.

Wish I had taken a picture of this. We had 6 cards, different colors, clipped together by a silver ring. We made 6 sets for each group. (can you visualize this?)

2. Quick stations, cut worksheet apart.  I posted on this here, and the original idea came from I Speak Math of course!

I hate worksheets as much as students do. I have done this a lot and seen this on many blogs.Cut a worksheet apart, copy on bright apart and viola you have instant centers. I love because students work and then check their work.
I like this because it is fast to prepare.

3. Weekly stations: I have used this in my small, math lab classes. I have 4 stations for the week, students go to one a day. These are mostly game formatted. This worked well, but sometimes not enough work to keep kids on task. Best resource EVER from Laura Candler.











This is a picture of my center rotation pocket chart. The orange cards are the stations, the green cards have the students names on them. Each day I rotated the green cards. Students knew where they were going each day and what was coming next. It was simple for one group of kids.

4. Rotations: I did a learning walk through a Language Arts class and she had 5 or 6 rotations, students worked on maybe two a day, twenty minute rotations, the teacher I observed had obviously trained her kids. They knew what to do and actually did it. (They were eighth grade).
So I tried it. We needed six rotations with our class sizes. We had one rotation computers, one iPads, one was a teacher table and the others were designed for students to work independently.   Those were the least successful. We have 50 minute classes, with warm up and homework review, rotations were not 20 minutes...

I hung the rotation cards up, but also had a copy in each basket. Each basket had everything they would need to complete the rotation. Students stayed in their groups, basket rotated.

Semi successful, but not my favorite.

I recently tried a second round of rotations and it was nightmarish. I abandoned ship and we completed the activities much differently. Some classes worked independently, some worked in pairs.  It depended on the dynamics of each class. I think there was a full moon that week!

I gotta say, I like stations, rotations and centers, no matter what they are called. I like kids working together. I like kids practicing math concepts.

I wish I had one way that worked, but that is not reality.

So, I do what fits the lesson, my students, and of course what I can handle without becoming an alcoholic!

I have so much I want to improve in this area. I know there is so much out there and so many good ideas to explore.

Can't wait to see other ways middle school teachers use stations, rotations or centers.