Ms. K
Are You Using Fabric to Decorate Your Classroom?
If you are opting to buy fabric to spruce up your dull concrete block classroom, then try out JoAnn Fabric stores. They offer a 15% discount to teachers who show their school ID. Fabric can be used to create a warm, homey, classroom atmosphere for curtains or bulletin boards. The great thing about using fabric for bulletin boards is that once it is cut, you can easily use it again the next year without having to re-cut large bulletin board paper–what a time saver!
Even Some Veteran Teachers Haven’t Considered Teaching Procedures In This Depth…
Do you know a teacher who has his or her classroom very well behaved no matter what crop of children they receive? Nearly every child is following directions in these classrooms for the majority of the school year. You could walk into these classrooms later in the year and wonder what their secret is. The secret lies in the first few days and weeks of school. The first few days of school are SO crucial. If a teacher allows and ignores whispering in the hallway now, then students will be yelling in the hallway by Christmas. You must “nip it in the bud” my college professor once told me. If students don’t do EXACTLY what you want the first few days of school, you must make them practice it over and over again until you get EXACTLY the behaviors you desire.
I was so proud of my novice teacher today! I mean smiling 1000 watt smile with all of my teeth showing on the inside. I had a long talk with her on the phone before our first day of school. I reminded her to practice every single procedure until she got the desired behavior she was looking for. I also told her to be specific about every detail when she explained each procedure.
In our conversation I said “Remember every behavior that got on your nerves last year,”.
She said, “mhum.”
I posed this question to her, “What happens when your rule is “STAY IN YOUR SEATS” and a child drops his or her crayons box? All of the students’ eyes follow the spewing of crayons while you are teaching. About six little feet patter across the floor to “help” the poor student who has just dropped the entire contents of his precious school box. You stand there not knowing whether to warn these “helpers” since they were only “helping” or thank them because they were assisting their peers.”
To hold students accountable for every action, a great teacher has foreseen the inevitable behavior of children and will address these actions before they happen. If a situation arises that hasn’t been addressed, the teacher will make a learning experience from it.
So, the reason for my 1000 watt smile : D is that my novice teacher was doing all of these things exactly like we discussed. As I walked in her room today I was so impressed of how she was having her students practice every procedure until they mastered it to her standards! She quickly dished out consequences for inappropriate behavior, and all children were attentive! I could take veteran teachers in her room into learn from such a model classroom! BRAVO!
Free Numeral Cards
At the beginning of the school year, there are many procedures, routines, rituals, and rules that need to be taught. If you are planning on teaching cooperative group procedures and norms, these numeral cards may be used with many different types of games and activities such as Close to 20, Close to 100, Close to 1000, Place Value Games and the like. I have searched for numeral cards on the internet before and had a difficult time finding some, so I had to make my own. You are welcome to download and use these. Just click the link.
Have You Algebrafied Your Word Problems?
Take a simple math textbook word problem and ALGEBRAFY it. (I love that new word!) A presenter at the NCTM algebra readiness conference used it. She showed us how to take a simple math word problem and provide other numbers as well as the one in the problem for students to solve the problem multiple times. Then students are able to make a generalization about the problem. For example:
Bill’s Airbrushed T-shirts is giving customers a 20% discount on all T-shirts. Find the discount on a T-shirt that had an original price of $12.
In addition to the textbook version, allow students to find the pattern when finding a discount on other prices of shirts.
Find the discount of a shirt that was originally priced at $13, $14, $15, $20, $50
If students write these in an organized way or use a table to calculate these amounts, they would easily see a pattern.
$12 x .20 = $2.40
$13 x .20 = $2.60
$14 x .20 = $2.80
$15 x .20 = $3.00
$20 x .20 =$4.00
$50 x .20 = $10.00
Math is all about finding patterns. Students can easily see several patterns above. Some will see the obvious pattern in the first few equations in which each product gains 20 cents. Students will also hopefully see the pattern of doubling the first factor and counting over two places to write the decimal. Then students can begin generalizing about multiplying any number by 20 percent. When students are able to generalize then the learning becomes their own personal discovery. Learning becomes fun again!
How Can You Make Almost Any Math Lesson Deeper?
I am currently at a regional NCTM math conference on algebra readiness. I am going to share one of the things I learned at the conference. Use conjectures while teaching math to make the task deeper. For example, when teaching the commutative property, have students find at least three pairs of equations with factors that have switched places and allow students to draw a conclusion.
3×4 = 12
4×3=12
7×6 =42
6×7=42
4×9=36
9×4 =36
Ask students what they notice about the factors that have switched places. Hopefully, students will say that the products are the same when the factors have switched places. Ask students if this is always true. Allow students to experiment with their conjecture by using other examples. Ask other students if they can prove this wrong. When all minds are settled on the conjecture and agree, then reveal the name of their conjecture as the commutative property. Teaching with this method of discussing conjectures allows students to take ownership of their learning and be involved in the process of discovering mathematical concepts. Less reteaching will occur and your teaching will be closely aligned with Common Core Standards.
Do you Have Procedures for Your Math Workshop?
As I mentioned before, specific procedures are critical to a successful classroom. Each time of the day has different procedures, for example, math workshop time. Do students know what to do when they gather on the carpet, what to do with manipulatives, how to work in cooperative groups, how to speak during their work time, and what to do when they need help? If students are given norms in these areas, then the teacher’s time is maximized for instructional purposes instead of behavior management. Below is another photo from the classroom I visited for a lesson study. I like how this teacher’s expectations are clear for carpet time in this poster.
Infuse Literacy into Your Math Bulletin Board (or door)…
Here is my door for this year. I just finished it! It took a lot of work, but it turned out so cute. I took the idea from Greg Tang’s book The Grapes of Math. I recycled the grapes from another project in the past to use on my door. The grapes were made from purple and green construction paper circles that I glued together. I then punched a hole through the top with a hole puncher and put some green pipe cleaners through the top. To make the vine tendrils curly, I wrapped the pipe cleaners around a pencil. I recreated the grape vine with twisted brown bulletin board paper. The grapes were made from purple and green construction paper circles that I glued together. To stimulate math thinking, I added a copy of Greg Tang’s poem so that students will be encouraged to count the number of grapes that are displayed.
Have You Exploited Proximity in Your Classroom?
At this point in the year, most of us are acquiring sore muscles from moving furniture around and deciding how to arrange our desks. While moving your furniture, have you considered your traffic flow? Can you easily see each student’s desk when you walk in a complete loop around your room ? Arranging the room in a loop allows you to walk around the entire room easily enjoying proximity to monitor students work and off task behavior. If students are seated without the teacher being able to easily circle the room, often times some are left out when materials or papers are passed out because of the disjointed traffic Where is your door located? the pencil sharpener? book bag storage? paper trays? All of these factors determine how many possible distractions there are in the classroom. Fred Jones’ book Tools for Teaching has two chapters entitled Working the Crowd and Arranging the Room. These are excellent chapters which have taught me to be aware of the above factors to room arranging. Most schools have a copy of Fred Jones’ book in their professional library. There are a few pictures of his seating arrangements from the book online that may be of help if you don’t have access to his book.
Turn Your Trash Into Treasure…
Frustrated with the old large maps taking up so much space in my closet, I decided to put them to good use. The metal piece was broken on the end of the maps so they were unable to hang above my board. I thought, “hmmm…what can I do with these?” Well, as you can see in the picture below, I decided to snip, snip, snip. I could now refer to the map in my reading corner when we discussed different books. Having a map in my reading corner proved to be very handy especially when we discussed a place that the students were unfamiliar with. I found some lovely flag border to place around the map, and it looked bright and cheery on the black bulletin board paper with red letters. I also gathered postcards to post above the map from volunteers and friends when they would go on vacation.
Use Rubrics Even In Your Classroom Management
Because rubrics are such a large part of our state testing, I decided to include a rubric with my behavior management card system. On our state testing a 4 is Advanced, 3 is Proficient, 2 is Basic, 1 is Below Basic, and 0 is an irrelevant response. To emulate the state testing rubric I made each card on my behavior system equal to a 4, 3, 2, 1, or 0. Students receive a score at the end of the week out of a total point value of 20. Students are allotted 4 points a day which equals 2o points for a 5 day week. If students get at least 18 out of 20 points, they receive a special treat on Friday. On Friday, I communicate students total score on a parent communication page attached to students’ weekly graded work. See the chart system in picture form below.
