Thankful, day 4

Thankful staff development day is over!

Thankful for patience and patient people.

Thankful I got to talk to my bestie and my mommy today.

Thankful B made me mac & cheese.

Thankful I have no immediate work to do so I can relax this evening!

Glad that's over!

Back to back staff development days are done...sigh!

I presented yesterday on an organizational template and the 8 math practices.  Today I presented on 2 different math games, one of which is 20 wins that you can snag here on my TpT store.

Weirdly the math games were much more well received than an administrative directive, passed down from our bosses' boss.  

I was stressing all weekend.  Irrationally, I know.  I've been at this school site for 10 weeks, so I was a tad nervous to present for staff development day when I don't know everyone's name.  

It went fine. I had lots of positive feedback.  I'm just glad it's over!

How do you use math games in your classroom?

Thankful, Day 3

The thankfulness continues.

Day 3:

I am thankful to be in a profession where I have the opportunity to constantly learn new things and try new strategies.  I am thankful to be at a school where I can learn from others. I'm thankful for my grade level and for the support I receive from the other math chair.

Today I presented on math strategies for staff development.  It went fairly well and others were appreciative of new strategies and planning time.

Side note: I didn't teach math last year.  The two years prior to that? I taught stations in an inclusion classroom with the special ed kiddos.  Before that? A traditional classroom.

However, I've attended lots of math trainings over the past few years because I didn't want to fall out of practice.  I guess they've paid off!

As frustrating as these math trainings are, I do appreciate that I have the opportunity to attend them to learn more information (and be paid to learn).

Veteran's Day Sale

All of my TpT items will be 20% off on Monday, November 10th and Tuesday, November 11th in honor of Veteran's Day.  Shop here!

Umm...that's special?

My new school's ID badge has my first and last name on it, which normally isn't a big deal.

Except now my students know my first name.

Which lead some of them to make me a character in their most recent narratives.  It's a little weird to keep seeing my name pop up in their stories, but at least I'm wearing pink and not the villain?!

I'm going to choose to see this as a flattering thing...as strange as it is.

Thankfulness, Days 1 and 2

I frequently fall into the habit of focusing on the things in life that aren't going right, rather than stopping to appreciate the things that are.  Like so many others, I'll be participating in Thankful November.

The premise is simple: find time each day to be thankful for things in your life.  Speak them aloud, post on social media, spread the thankfulness.

Day 1:

I am thankful my car was returned from Carmax in a timely manner and earlier than promised. I am thankful Carmax & Chevy have a good relationship. I am thankful I was in a stable financial situation to buy a newer car (she's a 2012) from Carmax and be covered with a warranty.  The check engine light came on and everything was checked out and fixed, free of charge.  They even washed the exterior and vacuumed inside, which was a pleasant surprise.  I'm thankful for transportation and I'm thankful for companies that truly do their best to take care of customers. 

I am thankful for my students' effort.  One munchkin retook his first math test for the third time.  Yes, three times taking a math test on the same concept.  The numbers are changed each time but I know he's been working hard on mastering place value and powers of ten.  His dad is a math teacher so I know he practices at home.  He failed the first test.  Got a D on the second.  We've kept working on it and I know he plays math games at home with his family.  This time? 90%.  Can't wait to share that with him!

Day 2: 

I am thankful for two healthy kittens who have such sassy personalities.  Crookshanks, who is normally sweet tempered, gave me this face when I stopped petting her:

Yes, major sass right there.  I plan to use this image as a morning meme with my students the next time they need a reminder about putting their names on their papers.

I'm thankful I was able to make the decision to adopt my two furballs a few years ago. I went to a no kill shelter with the intention of adopting a 12 week old Chloe, but when she was curled up with her sister...I ended up with both furballs.  One of the best decisions I've ever made since they bring me so much joy.

What are you thankful for?

Table Solving

We like to switch things up in my classroom.  A majority of my math block is spent with students collaboratively solving problems and discussing them.  I pull a small group a few times a week during their independent work, which is usually for about ten minutes.  I give 5 problems or so and get through 2 with my small group (that's ok).  I think they should be collaborating during math time.

While not everyone agrees on my math practices, I'd rather have my students solving challenging problems together and talking about strategies as opposed to the opposite: always silently working in ancient text books.

We are in the midst of a long weekend (thank you Nevada Day followed by 2 staff development days), so I gave a math test on the Thursday before the weekend.  On Wednesday, we played jeopardy.

In the past, I noticed that some students were being passive participants, merely smiling and letting their tables do the work.  Not coincidentally, these students weren't doing so great on their tests.  So I let my students pick their own groups and limited the number of students to 4 rather than 6.   This helped with engagement and participation.  True, there were a few students who still didn't want to work but instead of me harping on them, their teams did.  Nothing like some positive peer pressure!

Instead of having them solve on white boards, I got large sheets of butcher paper for each group.  We also used markers because that always seems to make math more exciting!  

They had a great time working together to solve multiplication problems!

On a post-grading note, I had higher scores on this test than previous ones!