Student learning is no accident!
As a middle school ELA teacher, I became aware very quickly that there are NOT enough minutes in a class period to possibly address all of the Common Core State Standards. After experimenting with a variety of different lesson planning and scheduling strategies, I landed on this. Whether you call them warm ups, bell ringers or do nows- those first… Read More
A while back I took stock of what we were doing as a math department to improve kids’ math fluency. It seemed that every year we had a chunk of kids who came up to sixth grade with amazing fact fluency. We had another chunk who fought with basic addition and multiplication much like struggling readers fought with multisyllabic words…. Read More
Do you want your students to behave or do you want more than that? If you spend all day managing behaviors, you are EXHAUSTED by 3:00. I know!!! I’ve been there. It takes so much mental energy, so much executive functioning to anticipate every fire that might start- and to put out all of the ones that do. So, take… Read More
In the next few posts, I’m going to focus on Differentiating Instruction in the Math Classroom. I will give you three strategies you can use immediately in the lessons you already have planned- to reach all of those kids! I promise not to ask you to do ANYTHING that wastes your time. I promise to only save you time.
If you’re thinking about fractions, you might be a 5th grade teacher… Thanks to the Common Core State Standards, fifth grade now throws the wildest fraction party on the block! I taught 6th grade math back when that was fraction central, and I learned 3 key things along the way. They have been just applicable in the 5th grade classrooms… Read More
“The ones that are doing the talking are doing the learning.” I know that. But, no matter how many times I say it, the impact on student learning in front of me is profound and somehow surprising. There is no example stronger than that of talking about fractions in math class. I’ve spent most of my career spending part of… Read More
Love #2!!Building relationships with kids is more than being nice to them. Here are some ways we can go deeper.
#teachergoals #HackingSchoolDiscipline
Here’s my favorite grouping hack for teachers... I learned this from my favorite math coach at least 10 years ago, and I’ve been using it and sharing it with teachers ever since.
👑1- It looks pretty cool when kids get up to find their group members! They do it silently in my room- like a “silent sort.”
📁2- I drop colored folders on desks around the room so red dots meet in this area, green over here etc.
🤸🏻♀️3- I use this often so students are pros!
🧠Pro Tip- I never put kids into collaborative arrangements until they’ve had time to struggle and think about the material independently. For example, students spend 5minutes jotting notes in the margin of this discussion sheet BEFORE getting into groups. This way, I know everyone has something to share. No one feels on the spot to process the demand of the task, get to know a group and take a risk to share all in the same moment.
🌈Mix it up! I keep students guessing by sometimes asking them to get into rainbow groups instead. This means they need to silently sort into groups with one of each color!
Student learning is NO accident! Teachers do amazing things to create the conditions for students to have AHA moments every day.
👩🏼🔧How do you engineer success during collaborative group work?
Have you laughed REALLY hard lately?? If not, it’s time to call that friend who makes you laugh until you cry! Every. Time. You. Hang. Out. Tag that friend!
😂🤣🤣🤣
6 year olds get it! Set yourself some 6 year old goals and bring back joy.
Help someone else today by making them laugh.
Laugh with some kids. Let them show you how it’s done!
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