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. 

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.

Easy Math Stations from a Boring Worksheet

Saw this on I Speak Math and holy moly, she wasn't kidding, it was so easy to make!!!
 These were her stations.

I had this boring worksheet to the left.

I cut the questions apart, copied them on brightly colored paper, created an answer key and seriously, within 20 minutes I had a cooperative group/stations activity.

I didn't have the stand up holders yet. So I slid them into protective sleeves and they were ready. I love bright colors!

Today I used it and the students absolutely loved not having a worksheet to do and they didn't have to listen to my voice the whole class period droning on and on...

I swear these pictures are not staged. Do you see how intently they appear to be working? Well, THEY ARE!!!! I was so proud of them.

To end class, I asked them to tell me what they liked and didn't like about this activity. It was their exit ticket. I gave them the option to add their name or not. I told them I needed the reason why they liked or didn't like the activity. I loved reading the responses.

I have over a hundred, but let me share a few with you:

• like the groups, didn't like the problems
• I liked that I understood all the problems I didn't like that no one listened when I was right (I have a grouping issue here)
• I liked to not do a worksheet what I didn't like was we didn't do a lot of easy questions
• I liked the questions I didn't like that it was hard
• I liked everything about this except my partners (I had several comments like this, good to know for next time)
• I like that we didn't have worksheets. I didn't like that we couldn't use pictures (we have moved to symbolic, maybe next time they can still use them if they need to, why not?)
• I like how it was like a game but we learned. I don't like how (name) was acting and trying to boss (lol, too many chiefs in that group)
• I didn't like the page because it was too hard for me. I did like that you put us in a table (they normally sit in twos)
• I like + I hate -  (lol subtracting fractions is hard, I know)
• I liked everything, dislike nothing
• I like groups, but too many boys (lol, I agree!)

My favorite: me gusto todao el travago del dia de hoy
I have two students who are brand new to America, they speak ZERO English. I speak ZERO Spanish, unless queso and guacamole count. But of course, I could read this and knew he liked what we did in class!!!! I may need to frame that one!

I have so many. The consensus is they like groups, but the problems are hard. Yes, I know that. That is the point. They needed practice. Plus, they did the back side of it for homework. They did tell me they disliked that part. yea, I figured that. 

I also had a few that really struggled and they told me so on the post it. They wrote their name too. Thank goodness. So, tomorrow I plan to pull them aside and work with them in a small group.

Today was a really good teaching day. I am having more and more of those this year and it is such a good thing for me. I can't believe I actually look forward to teaching 6th graders. Math can be fun, my students are proof.

Thanks to Julie for helping me make something boring and hard, more fun for them. Still hard, but I think they learned a lot from it as well.