School Week Linky- Day 3 Best Games

I have blogged about Remind101 before. Click here to read about it. 

This FREE texting service for teachers is an awesome way to communicate with parents and students. 

And now they are having a giveaway. Check it out here! 

And now, for Day 3 with The Teacher's Chair

Today we are sharing our Best Games 

I love using games to teach Math. Anything with cards and dice make sense. They are just really easy manipulatives that I have ready to use at a moments notice. Students can add, subtract, multiply, divide, create numbers, fractions, etc... with these simple manipulatives. 

Last year I was awarded a Donor's Choose grant that was specifically for games in the middle school classroom. It was great. These were the games I was able to purchase. I can't say they are my favorite, but they were great to have in class and for tutoring purposes too. 

The downside to these type of games is pieces go missing. But they are still worth having. I am definitely NOT complaining. 

Last year I found this awesome resource of Laura Candler and honestly, if you teach middle school math, you should get this!!! Its just a GREAT resource and easy to use for teachers. I like everything that makes my job easier. 

I promise, I don't get anything from sharing this. I just think its a wonderful resource and want you to have access to it. Plus, Laura has tons of free resources for teachers too!

And another giveaway to share with you. 

Teaching with a Mountain View is having a QUADRUPLE Giveaway. Check it out! 

School Week Linky- Day 2

Day 2 with The Teacher's Chair for a School Week Linky 

Today we are sharing Read Alouds 

What I miss most about elementary is Read Aloud times. Every year when I taught Kinder and First, I would read chapter books to my students. I always started with Charlotte's Web. I absolutely love that story. 

But, now I am a middle school MATH teacher. 

Thankfully, there are so many amazing authors out there who get that literature is still key no matter the age or subject. 

Last year, when I taught circles, I read these books to my kids and they absolutely LOVED it. It was the quietest they had ever been. I will definitely be including these again this year along with others. 

There are many books like this and when I just looked on Amazon, I found even more! Looks like I need t o make a list for my librarian. She is always asking us for titles we want. Now I know! 

One of my all time favorite read aloud's is Stephanie's Ponytail by Robert Munsch. I loved reading it in first because the students had never heard of it before and listened so intently. It is absolutely hysterical and great for teaching a lesson on being yourself, no matter what! 

Seriously, a MUST read for everyone!

Have you heard about this? 

Check this out. Here is a creative and fun way to meet other teachers and receive a box full of goodies once a month! I think this could be sooo fun! 

Click the picture above of this link to Lessons with Coffee. This is going to be GREAT!!!

Monday Made It!

My Monday Made it is showing off my new planner! 

It works for Monday Made it and A new link party starting today over at The Teacher's Chair. 

Each day of this blog you will share something different. Today is lesson planners! Perfect timing for me! 

I know there are so many out there for sale, but I am a glutton for punishment and had to make my own. My school requires certain documents be kept for each class period/student. They give us a binder, but it is HUGE and I hate lugging it around 

I also know there s a debate going on about whether a planner is even necessary. For some it is, for some its not. I use my calendar on my phone, but I am still old school and have to write everything down. I am hoping to have everything in one place. 

It turned out so pretty. I am super pleased with it! 

I chose to use a binder because I will need to add pages throughout the year. 

 We are required to have this document for each class period. It has accommodations for students in each class period. We call it a "one sheeter". It is wonderful to have handy when co-teachers (aides) come in our rooms.

 Since I am the ESL teacher, I am also required to have the student proficiency levels. I made one for each class period as well.

 I made notes pages for my leadership meetings, PLC (Professional Learning Community) also know as department mtgs and our faculty mtgs. Last year all my notes were in a spiral.

I did include a Gradebook divider. I do grades online, but sometimes need a checklist. I will print these from my online gradebook and include them behind that tab. They will have the students' names already. 

I did not include lesson plans because we are required to do them online. I already double up on so much, lesson plans, no way! 

I made dividers as well. I thought about having them made, but it was a little more expensive and I had my two youngest with me at the time. They were driving me nuts. So, I did the easiest thing for me. 

I am pleased with how it turned out and think I am officially ready to write in it. As you can see I haven't even labeled the divider yet. 

I should probably stop this post here, but since I have missed several Monday Made Its, I have more that I made this week! 

I  printed and made some class math posters, a vertical number line from Susan over at Middle School OCD and a horizontal number line from here. 

This is why I love blogging so much. I would never have known about these two resources if I hadn't seen it on Math = Love blog's. Love the community. 

I have random posters around my room with positive messages on them I printed last year. I plan to do the same with these Math posters. I hate plain walls and once we are in full swing I have a bunch of anchor charts, but these posters just make the room more inviting in my opinion. 

HAPPY CRAFTING!!! Its crunch time for me, I am off to make more. 

Math Notebooks- Vocabulary

Linking with 4mula Fun to share about Interactive Math Notebooks. This is her monthly link party for all things interactive notebook. All subjects!

Today, I have decided to share about how I have done vocabulary in my notebook.

First, for no particular reason, I use the back of my notebook for vocabulary. This is how it looked in my composition notebooks.

This is how we kept track of it in the table of contents.

This coming school year, I am using binders for my math notebooks. I plan to have the back still be for vocabulary. Our last divider will be for vocabulary.

I have done many different types of vocabulary.

This is the Frayer model. This was one I used in summer school this summer. These were bigger than I have used in class, but same method.

 I have also just had students write them out. This was just one variation.

This was a vocabulary wheel we made this past year.
















On the right is a vocabulary wheel without the cover.


On the left, we made a pocket to keep vocabulary note cards.I pinned them here.

 I have cut up card stock, students write the word on one side, definition on the other. The right side was flaps we made one day.

 I saw the left side on Runde's Room. My kids love using the gold brads for some reason.  The right side is a shutter fold we made for types of graphs.

 We made this one when studying circles. Another of my favorites because it was different than just writing definitions out. I am sure I found that on Pinterest too.

Then, this summer I found this. How awesome is this??!!!!
I absolutely LOVE it.

 

This is from Mrs. Hester's Blog, she has great posts about interactive notebooks. Definitely check her out and prepared to fall in love! 

How you use vocabulary in your class, doesn't really matter. But, using it is the key. I teach many ESL students and this is critical to their learning.
Having these words in their math notebooks makes it easy for me to direct them to use it as we are working. All of these words are posted in my room on the word wall or anchor charts, but for students to have these at their fingertips daily helped a great deal.

So now, I am forced with deciding to make a glossary type dictionary or by units with various methods.  I could still do foldables for each unit. But, I really don't have time in my day to do both. Just not sure what to do. I would love to hear your opinions.

Sparking Student Motivation Link Party-Rubrics

It's time for Joanne's Sparking Student Motivation over at Head over Heels for Teaching. 

I am middle school, so please remember that. 

It's hard to motivate pre-teens with hormones! They want candy and not to have to work. 

Since I already shared candy once, I am sharing a new grading policy I am going to try. 

RUBRICS 

Rubrics aren't new obviously, but I haven't used many. I use them when I give projects because students know exactly what they need to do to get the grade they want. That doesn't always mean they do it or do their best, but they want to pass. Grades do motivate middle school kids. (some of them) 

It's harder in 6th because there's no athletics for them. 7th and 8th graders care more because no pass, no play. 

My plan is to be up front for expectations and then give grades that way. 

I am going to use one for their Math Notebook. I have seen lots of rubrics out in the blog world. I made one to meet my needs. Honestly, it is subject to change. But, its a start. 

If you can use it, great. Get it here FREE! 

In a perfect world, my students will know the expectations and see this as an "easy A". It will be a daily grade each six weeks. I am hoping this motivates them to care more about their math notebook. 

Got some motivating strategies to share? Link up! 

And I know there's a lot of giveaways going on right now, don't miss out! 

And All Things Upper Elementary started one today as well!

And this giveaway is still going on. Prizes everyday!!!