One of my favorite things about Twitter Math Camp was when teachers would share something they do in their classrooms that has a made a difference...not a huge overhaul or system or curriculum. Just a small thing. I didn't want to go a school year without it so I asked Twitter and got a great response! I wanted to share so that everyone could follow links and such a bit better.

What is one small to medium change you have made in your teaching that had made a positive difference?

{I need a focus for the year that doesn’t make me want to redo everything I’ve ever done.}

— Elissa Miller 🦄 (@misscalcul8) July 21, 2019

Sandra Goodrich:
Student reflective writings. When I have students take the time to seriously reflect on the assignment and their understanding of the essential question, we both learn. The practice must be established at the beginning of the year, and the initial reflections have to be challenged for depth. Do you know what I mean? They have to do redo's. "Graded" in the way homework is graded - did they do it? ✅ But it does mean reading them and helping them progress in critical thinking.

Jennifer White:
I moved practice to the next day. So every period goes: -warm up -20-25 min practice previous day(s)/week’s stuff -20 min new material -closing The lagged practice feels more productive to me and kids agree. They say it helps with absences too bc they never feel out of the loop. It was such a small change that made such a huge difference!! Class periods are one hour. So it’s about half and half practice and lesson. So for instance, we’d spend 20 minutes (maybe 15 one day if hey don’t need a lot for a skill) doing question stacks or some other self checking practice and I guide/help when needed. We will see the topic again in a practice in a few days. And the. Again on the optional HW. Aside from students liking it and saying it helped (which is the main awesome part), I really enjoyed that it didn’t require me changing much. I still planned the same. Just taught one day and practiced the next (which is another awesome side effect 😂)❤️. I do this in both of my classes (geo w/9-10 & 4th level math w/11-12). Hw is suggested but not graded and lagged from previous week (@hpicciotto has blog posts about this) Ss do the hw even though it’s not graded bc we talk about how learning happens and the need for practice.
(Henri Picciotto resource)
(Alli George and Anna Vance resource)

Laurie Brewer:
I give a one or two question quick exit tickets several days a week. I stand over my trashcan in the afternoon and throw away all who show understanding. I keep those clearly struggling or lost. I pull those kids for small groups the next day.

Megan Heine:
This is somewhat in response to your "what do I do with the exit tickets?" in addition to what the other students are doing... 1. I have a final countdown in which the Ss rate themselves 1 -5 (1 - I don't get it & need re-teaching, 5 - I can teach someone else). The final countdown is a Google Form and when the song plays - they get it from Google Classroom. 2. I skim through the Google Sheet every day before I leave and make sure to note of those at a 1 or a 5...The next day's practice time is always "differentiated" or at least there are different options for students during the practice. So if I need to pull a group for re-teaching, the others are working on other types of practice....If a lot of students are at a 1 - I find a new way to explore or discuss the topic with the "whole" class... if there are some who don't need it - they are free to go straight to the practice....I use the same routine every. single. day. So once we get into the routine of the Do Now and the Final Countdown, there's definitely less time wasted. But I understand that pain very well. Next tweet on practice coming...I use @MrDeltaMath a TON for this. Each assignment has a name to identify the level of practice (BEGINNER, PROGRESSING, MEETING, ADVANCED). Those are the names of our district's level of proficiency. Then I also use the plastic dry erase pockets. I color code the practice in the dry erase pockets. So all the reds are Beginner, etc... I know what Ss are working on based on the color of their dry erase pocket. One more way I use differentiated practice is through Question Stacks and Scavenger Hunts... (one more tweet)Question Stacks are done by level as well... once students feel comfortable, the scavenger hunts are a MIX of all the levels. I usually do 2 scavenger hunts (one is in my room (Beg - Mtg) and the other in the hall way (Prog- Adv). Shoot me questions! (it's def not perfect)Lately, I've found Ss are grateful to be working on stuff at their level & not having to do stuff they're not ready for. No, Ss are not always on their CB's but I have them bookmark my Google Classroom, Delta Math, and the Google Form we use every day for quick access. I'm very deliberate about the language I use in class in regards to "your pace", "your level" and how it does not matter where you are as long as you are growing and learning. (I use a lot of my own stories to demonstrate this).

Druin: positive difference with students... high fives positive difference mathematically... number talks

Kent Haines:
Lagging homework! I like to interleave a couple of different skills starting roughly 3 days after they first saw it. So they could see it a few days in a row, but not immediately once they learned it.The last few nights of homework are effectively a study guide for the test, so it's on there but yeah, they don't get as much practice with that last concept (so I try to make it an extension of a big idea rather than a new big idea).

Ethan Weker:
Class playlists. Each student chooses their theme song. I use a random playlist for the class to choose students to share their work. Generally the song plays until they finish or the song finishes. For some interesting long problems, sometimes a second song comes on and they tag team the solution. It can be pretty dynamic Huge reward for minimum (and fun) setup. Absolutely I play it while they are working. (They often are willing to take more chances, work longer, and share more work.) I use Spotify (but I'm sure any good streaming service would work). It tends to have most things that kids request, plus I can justify having it for myself outside the classroom. I do filter explicit lyrics, and remind students to find school appropriate songs or at least radio edits. So far it hasn't been a problem, as far as I know. (Some songs are in Korean, Chinese, or Spanish, and I just can't be sure, but I trust my kids).

Jeremy Thomas:
I stopped telling students to "show their work" and instead made it "show your thinking" ...small change but huge difference! think “show your work” tells S’s to write only what they have to while they are getting the answer. But “Show your thinking” tells them to write the process their brain went through, even if they didn’t have to write it down.

Rachel Rosales:
I seat students in groups. I have had a lot of success randomly grouping each Monday (or every other Monday).

Bernard Soong:
Getting to know at least 1 thing about each person (student) I work with. Relationships. That is, not where they sit or their academic strength/weakness, but something about them, something they're interested in, etc. In secondary, that's over 200 students. As admin, it is 100's

David Wees:
Increasing wait time after asking a question and wait time after hearing a response is also a relatively small change that can be really productive, assuming you haven't worked on this already. Once a student has responded, everyone needs time to process their response, assuming the questions you ask require some thought (which they should), so increasing wait time after a response comes in is helpful. Also, if students are given a bit more time to answer, they tend to give a bit more information, so wait time after a response can also improve the quality of responses, and consequently, the quality of thinking done by students. Finally, YOU also get more processing time and are more likely to be able to hear what the student said and consider what you want to do next if you have even a bit more time. See @Trianglemancsd's talk on Listening to Students for more on this point.

Alethea Vazquez:
To add to what David said have them write their thoughts first. Gives those reluctant ones time to process and something to refer to when sharing. Ask yourself “why?” Sometimes we do or assign things just because. When I started asking “why” I did certain things it really effected my teaching. If the answer doesn’t support S learning then I tossed it!

Pam J Wilson: Wait time after the response gives everyone time to process. As well as asking other students if they agree or disagree and why to the response. When I was at my peak, questioning. In Philly @davidwees shared 3 types of Qs stop thinking, proximity and start thinking. As Ts, we should not answer the first two types. (https://t.co/jIgJnoMQVH)

annmariastat
Yes, I got that tip from a professor in teacher Ed. I just silently count to 10 in my head before I say anything else.

Amy:
I really try to respond to questions with questions instead of answering them right away. Try to pull the answers out of my students.

Matt Coaty:
Giving out unit study guides at the beginning of a unit instead of right before the test. One of the issues I had last year was that some students wanted to complete the entire study guide once I passed them out. As we explored concepts I'd remind them that it'd be a good idea to work on those skills on the study guide. It was much smoother after the first unit. I don't think they forget the earlier stuff if part of the class time is dedicated to review. Spiral homework also plays a role to help reinforce and remind students. Also, not everyone completes the study guide at the same pace/time so that's factor.

Tom Hall:
Similar idea to @Mcoaty, I passed out study guides earlier. I also took the 2 study guides I normally passed out each unit and split them into 4 worksheets, so reviewing was paced throughout the unit. It might sound overkill, but there's only one complete unit each in the 1st and 3rd quarters for the curriculum in my district. Tests reflect a lot of ideas.

Brooke Tobia:
We start our math class with Board Meetings everyday. It made a huge positive impact on our class culture and collaboration skills and really can be done anywhere at anytime! 3-50 min classes and 1-2 hr block👍🏻 We have worked on the idea of collaboration a lot in our class. I taught and encouraged Ss who understood the concepts to ask thoughtful questions in order to guide others. We also try to just use one marker for each group to encourage the sharing of ideas😜

Deb Vigna:
Using Visual Thinking Strategies

ann.on.a.mouse:
My class routine: Come in. Sit down. Begin. By teaching students that THEY are responsible for starting class, we gain 5 to 7 more minutes of class time.

Shannon Sirois:
Putting a larger amount of my focus on relationships. Not thinking time building relationships in class is time wasted. Realizing that 99.5% of behavior I see isn’t a reflection on me. It shows me what they’re dealing with outside of my classroom. Studying Trauma Informed Ed. Paper Tigers documentary is great! It gives a good starting point. A lot of my learning has been through PLC

Patti Sprague:
Greet kids at the door is my simplest change that elicits a big response. I added "passwords to enter" at my door this year. Positive affirmations kids can choose or make up their own. Usually they pick what they need me to say to them that day. We worked a lot on math mindset and this helped. I also gave kids the option to use their password silently. These are what we started with:
They say them to themselves and I eavesdrop. 🤣 Usually 1 or 2 Ss aren't comfortable saying it out loud so they point or just think it. What and how they choose tells me a lot about how they're feeling each day. Then as everybody comes in I share which one I choose for the day.

Robin Matthews:
1. Play music while they are working. They pick the apple radio station. 2. Visible Random Pairings that change daily. 3. Standing & working vertically with their partner. No hiding. Can see the work of others if needed. I can easily see everyone’s work. They don’t have to agree. I ask, I play 1st one said. I make sure to not always have it be the same person. In general, they love the 00’s playlist. I set up to block explicit songs. I can’t tell you how often my classes are standing, doing math, & singing together.

Diana Kolhoff
Think - Pair - Share So simple. So impactful. Keeps Sally smarty-pants from calling out, gives everybody a chance to process and be accountable for their thinking. Literally any Q you would normally ask. It’s a subtle shift in process away from traditional hand raising or letting Ss call out.. Low level Qs: think, whisper to a partner, everyone say it together. Higher order Qs: think, turn and talk, who wants to share what they discussed.

Emily:
I do a think - ink - share too. Have Ss write the answer before sharing w/a partner or small group. I'll spot check the writing to see thought process

Briana Guzman:
I have my students rate themselves using our grading rubric and why they rated themselves that way on a sticky note. Then on their way out the door they stick it to a poster in “bar charts” so I have a quick snapshot of their perceived understanding. If confidence is low we work on some more problems the next day. I have them make goals for themselves and talk about how we can move the bars so that the level of understanding is higher.

Michael Reitemeyer:
Daily randomized groups. Both for sitting and working. It really helped create a class community rather than pockets of collaborators. And it really helped reduce status issues in the class.

Sara Tenan Gray:
I came in one hour early every Monday. Turned on my happy music and prepped to set the stage for the week. For whatever reason, that one hour made me feel so much more in control and in front of what was to come. It set a tone that I had it all under control.

Heddin Bjornsson:
Giving verbal in class fleedback on written assignments, while the other Ss are working on standard problems. It frees up a lot of time for me to make more interesting lesson plans and new assignments, and my Ss get so much more training and more useful feedback. Project rapports, word problems and theory presentations. What ever I think they will need more than a class room presentation of a solution.


Jeffrey Watson:
Read the Language chapter of “Cultures of Thinking.” It will suggest changes that are easy, and that cost nothing.

Crissy Mombela:
Before the beginning of a unit, I did a brief overview of what they were about to learn, then I had them write permissions slips to themselves about their learning. They wrote things like: I won’t be afraid to ask questions, l will participate in class, etc. They only shared them with me at first. I would read through them to know what they were excited or nervous about. As the year progressed, we had a permission slip wall so they could share w/one another. We did a reflecfion activity. They reviewed what they gave themselves permission to do/experience to see if they followed through. If they did, they wrote about what they did/felt to get there, if they didn’t, why & could they be open to it next time. They really got out of their comfort zones & so did I! I gave myself permission to try different activities during each unit. I shared my permission slips w/ the Ss. They would check in with me as well.

John Stevens:
My small change that helped me a lot was exit tickets, which I saw others mention. Mid-way through the period, students circled how comfortable they were with content, then did the same at the end. Middle space was for one problem to gauge level of understanding. I was able to get through all 175ish of them in about 5 minutes, then adjust for the next day's lesson. If a bunch of kids filled in the top/middle circle, it meant that they didn't feel comfortable with content, so I slowed down the next day. If a lot were getting the problem wrong, I adjusted based on where I thought the issue was. It was *just* enough info w/o overwhelming me. If there were some good mistakes to share, I would also use them as part of the warm-up for some lessons (with permission from the students). Worst case scenario is that it's 1/6 sheet of paper for each kid, so only 30 sheets total if the exit ticket was a bust :)

Laura Cahill:
The 2 x 10 strategy that is detailed here worked nothing less than miracles during my last two years of teaching. I can't say how much it changed our classroom for the better.

Randy Swift:
Implementing and practicing protocols of student to student discourse during math lessons. Here’s a good resource to start. My colleague and I presented on this topic at AMTNYS last fall. This fall, some new topics in Rochester #strengthinnumbers

Lorin Davies:
You mentioned exit tickets. I do those as well and ask S’s to sort them in an anchor chart with 4 slots based on their confidence/ understanding on their way out. I find how they evaluate their own learning just as enlightening as their actual answers.

Carmen Bennett:
Not teaching “bell to bell” 🙄 Highly overrated. Two minutes at the end of class or beginning is a game changer. Amazing how you can grow a relationship in that time.

Amy Kolb:
Anchor charts

Leslie Butler:
Increase choice and always start with “thank you for letting me know” when a parent has a complaint

Nathaniel Highstein:
 I also try to end with "...thank you for your partnership."

Meredith Webster:
Weekly quizzes with a retake from the previous week on the back. My students felt like their grade wasn't permanent and that they could always improve. Not many of my students in that class were A students, most struggled with feeling success in Math and I wanted a way for them to see growth.

Gabe Kramer:
Giving students a few minutes to talk through exams before attempting them.

Allegra Reiber:
Before tests, I tell my students that what happens on the test does not define them, that their value has been demonstrated every day to me & that I already know how much math they own & can muster. The test just shows what happened on one day & is not a measure of who they are.

Leeanne Branham:
Check out this idea from @pejorgens

MrS_devon:
Throw in a random question in the middle of the lesson, one that has nothing to do with the topic we are on.

duane habecker:
A couple of simple(ish) ideas: 1. Number Talks 2. Five Practices/Bansho

Shahzad Hanif:
By making sure the all below average Ss occupy the front rows during my lessons so I give them more attention.

Amy Ellen Zimmer:
Stand and talks! @saravdwerf

Lorin Davies:
Used to intro skills whole group and then practice/ dive deeper in small group. Switched to teaching new skills in small group. I can monitor notes, they feel more comfortable asking questions, I can catch misconceptions more easily, etc. (5th grade math)

John Delle:
Ask students for feedback. Implement their ideas, try to give them what they want

Patricia Baltzley:
Number Talks!

Kate Ariemma Marin:
Moving seats around more regularly. Giving kids choice in seating with some parameters (e.g., sit anywhere you like with at least 2 people you haven’t sat with before). It totally changed the community in the class (in a positive way)

Doug Lane:
Others are saying this, but greeting every student at the door by name pays amazing dividends. I saw a noticeable improvement in engagement and it opened the door to relationship building with even the most hard to reach! ❤️

Maureen OConnell:
Start your lesson with a thinking routine like #wodb or #howmany. Or begin with a problem to solve rather than a lesson?

Math in the Middle Grades:
Mastery-based grading

Jamie Hall:
Reminding myself every morning to keep my focus on my STUDENTS! It’s so easy to get caught up in the “stuff” of teaching, that this simple reminder makes ALL the difference in the world. 😊

Randy Swift:
Formulating good questions. Let students fill the silence. They will. Truly embracing wait time. Time yourself one day. 5-10 seconds feels like an eternity.
crystal frommert: I try to put relationships first. The rest will fall into place.

Ralph Pantozzi:
See. And this.

Lisa Mellecker:
Also banning “it”! I don’t remember if this came from @TracyZager or @joboaler but having students use the actual vocabulary made ideas more detailed and revealed more misconceptions

There's wealth of knowledge here and I hope there is something for everyone! Each name is linked to their twitter account so please tweet them with any questions you have.


Click here to see all the tweets in one place.

I'm feeling really weird that I haven't formally set any goals or resolutions over the last two years. New Year's Day has always been a *secret* favorite holiday of mine. I love beginnings, fresh starts, organizing, listing, etc.

When I was younger I would always write letters to myself and a couple years ago I got really into bullet journaling. In 2016 I accomplished a lot and then it's like I've just been...coasting every since.

But also I feel really happy with myself and my life when before I've always had so many things I wanted to work on.

So of course I had to tweet about it.

Feeling guilty that I haven’t really set any goals in the past two years. Also feeling happy with where I’m at in life and teaching. But feeling guilty that I haven’t tried to improve in any tangible way. But if I force myself to set fake goals aren’t I setting myself up to fail?

— Elissa Miller 🦄 (@misscalcul8) December 28, 2018

I received two helpful responses.

Move to Oklahoma. There are more scholarships available. I have heard that every teacher should set a goal to change 10% of what they do every school year.  10% sounds doable. Set goals that you know will increase student learning & commit to two new lessons a month, that's 10%.

— Cindy Johnson, NBCT (@Johnsonmath) December 28, 2018

I'm modifying my bell ringer routine again this year. Surprise, surprise.

I am keeping mental math Monday because I loved it and it's already set up.

The rest I'm kind of copying of my friend Lisa's post and my friend Brooke's ideas smashed together with mine.

Here's the plan:

• Monday- Mental Math Monday improves listening skills, memory, and number sense
• Tuesday- Talking Points because students practicing listening to each other will seep into every lesson, every day. It can be used as a tool to develop their growth mindset and, bring out and clarify misconceptions.
• Wednesday- Estimation low entry point, builds number sense & measurement
• Thursday- Visual Patterns develop algebraic reasoning skills, applies to visual learners
• Friday- My Favorite No error analysis, clarify misconceptions, share student work

I'm a little scared to do visual patterns but then again they don't have to know where I get the patterns from. So I have freedom to deviate if I don't know the answer either. =)

Here's the template:



I made it a pdf so it would be pretty with my fun fonts but it still isn't as pretty as the real thing. So just go ahead and download or get the Word file here.

And then students have the option for Friday letters!

Comments?

Teaching

• Post all notes, notebook, powerpoints on google drive
• Create a tinyurl ahead of time and post in syllabus
• Make my own important formula sheet and give to students at beginning
• Play the soccer game with important math facts that should be memorized
• Counting circles
• Midsegments in geometry
• Start geometry with sketching and drawings and labeling
• Estimating
• Ask questions that have more than one correct answer to encourage debate
• Poster Project (pick specific standards, one per student and hang around the room) Did it. Didn't love it.
  
• Wheely cart for each group of desks (trash can velcroed to the top, scissors, glue sticks, stapler, hole punch, paper clips,rulers, erasers, calculators, pencils, paper)
• Start school with memorizing perfect squares and cubes
• Start school with powerpoint of last year's class comments
•  Start school with Emmanuel Hudson First Day of School video
• Make Remind101 a requirement
• Edit calculator boot camp (add in ACT sheet?)
• Order extra rulers and metal compasses
• Decorate heater with contact paper/shelf lines/wrapping paper, something?
• Turn filing cabinets sideways and decorate with contact paper/shelf lines/wrapping paper
• Use painters tape and then hot glue on top of that to hang posters. Didn't work out. 
• Better lesson plans or unit plans...ugh just fix it!!!
• INBsssssssssssssssss
• Beginning of year. My top 5 vs their top 5
• Practice proofs in stations and packets
• Glue clips to door for calendar, menu, etc
• Poster: Work is not done until it's correctly done.
• Test Corrections
• Exit Slips?
• Math speed drills instead of bell ringers. Or alternate plan.

Cheerleading

• Make new video (with menus and titles)
• Rearrange, correct, and add to cheer packet
• Burn cheer dvds over the summer
• Create permission slip for riding home with someone else
• Update contract
• Include price sheet and payment schedule
• Create entire packet for August tryouts (contract, permission slip, price sheet, schedule?)
• Previous cheerleaders have to create their own cheer for tryouts
• Lets teach harder cheers with beats/rhythms at tryouts to eliminate people that have no rhythm
• Use a routine from pinterest to help everyone learn how to do the splits

StuCo

• Add in forms to event book for more use
• Laminate event book pages for dry erase marker

Somehow this idea turned into three posts...

Make Up Quiz/Test: If students are absent on the day of a quiz/test, I write their name on the board under the heading Quiz/Test. Then I check the attendance to see if their absence if excused or unexcused. If unexcused, I erase their name and give them a 0 (school policy). If excused, I take their quiz/test and write their name on it and hang it on a clipboard. I remind them the next day to come in and make it up. If they don't come in that day, I put a 0 in the grade book. If they never come in, then the 0 stays and I don't have to worry about a missing grade. Some students see it and then it reminds them that they have something to make up.

Hot Dog Style: I only grade quizzes and tests and I have a green basket that all papers are turned in to. The papers are folded vertically with the white side showing and their name written on the outside. Then I can grade it and write their score on the inside. A student can pass out papers to the class while respecting everyone's privacy.

Seating Arrangements: This year I'm attempting survivor games, which is a year long competition among groups of students. I picked the groups at the beginning of the year and they have stayed together all year. Not my best idea I suppose. Each quarter I rotate the students to a new group of desks. Within those four desks, they get to choose where they sit.

Questioning: I feel like this is one of my best teaching strategies. My most used are: "How do you know?" "Because why?" "Are you sure?" "Can you explain?" "Can you be more specific? "Can you give me an example?" "What would happen if..." "What is the easiest part of...?" "What is the hardest part of...?" "What do you think?"

Some questions that I need to use more often: "Can you explain that in another way?" "Can you draw a diagram that explains this idea?" "What is a common error a student might make on this concept?"

What are some of your favorite classroom routines?

I thought of some more routines and decided to write a new post instead of adding to the last one.

End of Day Routine: It probably seems strange to start with the end of day but I am not a morning person so I don't do as much in the morning. At the end of each day, I clean off my desk so it's clutter free and organized. Random papers on hung on these clipboards so that they all are in a safe place that is NOT my desk.


I copy bell ringers and have them in their page protector and laid out on each desk for the next morning. I set up my powerpoint or notebook file on the computer/SMART board and turn the monitor only off so that it's ready for the next day. I change the date, turn off my digital clock, and erase all boards. I make any copies I need and they go into the correct bin for each class period.


 If there are any activities I need, I have them set out and organized to start right away. Before I leave, I check my school mail box and put away accordingly.

Beginning of Day Routine: I get to school right on time so that means I walk in, turn on the monitor, turn on the Smart board, get my copies for each day, and start my laptop up to take attendance and check my e-mail. I turn the clock on and I'm ready to go, standing at the door to greet my students.

Plan Period: My plan period is second period which means I struggle through first hour and then use second hour to get prepared for the rest of the day/week. But since I make copies after school, I can better use my time to plan. First of all, I take this time to use the bathroom and check my school mailbox as well as email. On Monday plan, I print out the bell ringers I need for the week and have them ready to go. I email my lesson plans to my principal and use that as a guide to see what I need to copy, create, or put together. It's very common for me to internal sub for an absent teacher. That means I bring their students to my room and give them their assignment and I sit and work at my desk. Sucks when I need to leave my room, nice when I get my paycheck. :) I've already wrote about how I plan a lesson, but basically, I look and see what I have, what the book has, and what I've saved online, and do a mash-up of whatever seems easy to understand. Always work out an answer key before copying ANYTHING. I don't know how many times I've had to learn this lesson. Almost every time, I find something I need to fix or want to change. It's always better to be prepared.

Saving My Work: I carry a Western Digital Passport External Hard Drive back and forth  to school where I have everything I've ever done in my five years of teaching. I've tried box.com and Sugar Sync and other programs but if the Internet or server goes down at school, I can't access any of those. So this works best for me. I save things by school year, 2013-2014, then create a folder for each prep that I have. Within those, I create a folder for each unit. Everything I use in a unit is labeled with the prep, the unit, the day within the unit, and the concept.


For example, A2 3 D0 Glossary means Algebra II, Unit 3, Day 0, Glossary. Next comes A2 3 D1 Polynomial Graph Investigation- Algebra II Unit 3, Day 1, concept.

This way I know the difference between what I actually used and stuff I just saved.

I like to know exactly where things are.

Desks: Last year my biggest class was 28 and this year my biggest was 14. The first thing I did over the summer was remove a bunch of desks! I kept 16 and grouped them into fours in a way that no one's back is to the SMART board. This is the best picture I have but I no longer use the bags zip tied to the desk. This is easy to walk around and between, to monitor students, to pass out papers, and to give students nearby resources.


Kleenex: As a high school student, all my teachers only had toilet paper and I was so embarrassed at how red and raw my nose would get. I swore I would always have Kleenex in my classroom. I keep one on my desks that mostly for me and one for students to use. I probably don't even go through 10-12 boxes a year so it's not a big deal for me to buy them myself. I also only use an electric pencil sharpener.

Birthday Candy: At the beginning of the year I give students a calendar that they pass around and write their name, birthday, and favorite candy. I give it to them on their birthday and summer birthday's get theirs on the last day of school. This is something I have always done and will continue to do. I really feel that some students get no presents or specialness on their birthday so I do what I can to show them they are noticed and their birthday matters to me. It costs me $50-60 a year since I only have 50ish students so it's not bad.

Survivor Games: If you noticed in my last post, I mentioned this game a lot. This is the tracking sheet I use. The students picked their own team names and at the top are the categories I'm recoding. I shaded the rows so I can easily see the changes between class periods. I just mark check marks if they did it and x's if they didn't. MMM is Mental Math Monday and I write down their table total. For bell ringers, I record how many they get right through the week. At the end of the week, I put a smiley face next to the group that won that category and over to the left, I write down the number of game pieces they receive. I write the week's date in the top left white corner.



And that's all I have to say about that!

Being the slightly OCD, analytical teacher person that I am, I LOVE a good routine. Here's some I've developed so far.

Bell Ringers: 2-5 middle school problems printed on paper inside a page protector. One per group of students. Students used dry erase markers to work problems. I give 2-4 minutes with my timer and collect. I set all four on the board and we compare answers. Students explain what they did. I record how many each group gets correct and the team with the most at the end of the week wins a survivor game piece. I do bell ringers Tuesday-Thursday.


Mental Math Monday: 10 middle school problems that I read out loud to students one a time. They use their dry erase markers to work on the desk and write their answers on a laminated card. At the end we trade and grade. Each group gives me their table totals and I record them. The team with the highest total wins a survivor game piece. If the class has an all time best, we celebrate with a funny youtube video.

Bell to Bell Teaching: I teach all hour, every day. I do not give free time or free days. Students start with a bell ringer and then move on to whatever I have planned. If we finish early and I have nothing else prepared, we get out dry erase markers and either work on the desks or at the board. I make up problems based on whatever we're currently doing or something I think they need to remember. This year I've been better about having the next activity ready in case I need it but I always have the whiteboard as back up. I have found that my discipline problems dropped dramatically and the class environment became a lot more focused on math.

Two Nice Things: Once a student says an insult or rude comment, they have to say two nice things. It doesn't matter if it's about themselves, their mom, a celebrity, a person not in the room, etc. Now the two things are usually made up or insincere, but it's the consistency of making them do it that gets them. It's hard for them to publicly say nice things (sadly) so it slows down some of the verbal diarrhea.

Binders: I gave all of my students three ring binders, sticky labels to put their name on the spine, colored card stock and sticky tabs to create dividers, an empty page protector to hold things, and a concept list of everything I plan to teach during the year.  Tabs are labeled notes, quizzes, and tests. Binders stay in my room at all times except the night before a test. I have a bookshelf with one shelf per period for students to store their binders. Except they normally look like this. How hard is it to stand your binder up?



Miniature Trash Cans: I use these anytime students are cutting. It collects scraps, prevents 80 million people getting up 80 million times, and keeps the floors much cleaner. I leave them there all day if everyone is cutting or if it's just for one hour, I return them to the cart and dump them at the end of the day. Sometimes students will dump them on their own. I got these at the Dollar Tree and they are even our school colors. Love.




Command Center: This hanging file has clothes pin with stickers on them labeling each class period. When a student is absent, I write their name on the paper we did in class and stick it here. The next day, they are responsible for getting it and copying the notes. The hanging file also has a pocket for my dry erase markers which is conveniently right next to my white board.The date is my magnetic numbers that I change at the end of each day. The blue magnetic container below contains the extra numbers. The blue digital clock also acts as timer, random student selector, and thermometer. I use it frequently so that when I say, "I'll give you four more minutes" that I don't waste extra time. The cart below is my supply cart on wheels and each drawer is labeled with a laminated card. Scissors, glue sticks, markers, erasers, paper, protractors, measuring tapes, highlighters, and mini staplers.


Mini Whiteboard: This miniature whiteboard is attached on the outside of my classroom door with sticky strips. I use it to remind students of quizzes and tests, if I take my class to the computer lab etc, and I write bus times for sports on there as well.


Dry Erase Marker Storage: One member of each group in every period is in charge of holding the markers and the survivor game pieces. I give them a zip up pencil pouch with three rings that stays in their binders. This has severely cut down how quickly I go through markers because they aren't so quick to waste their own. Before, I kept them in tub and every class used the same markers. Wasteful. When their marker runs out, they have to turn in a survivor game piece to get a new one.

Weekend Stories: EVERY Monday I ask students about their weekends. I find it's a pretty good way to get them talking and start the week off on a positive note.

Homework: I don't. The end.

I'm really trying to get back in the habit of blogging, but I'm boring this year and either I've created boring guided notes or reused things from the past that are already posted here. =(

A commenter mentioned something about planning so I thought that would make a good post.


How I Plan: Summer Time

• Create a new school year folder on my external hard drive by school year, by class (Alg I, Geo, Alg II) and by the units.
• Go through my pinterest board Teaching Ideas and save lesson ideas to my blogroll pages (see top of this post) separated by class and big ideas
• Read more blogs and also save lesson ideas to my blogroll pages
• From both above ideas, I download the documents and save them into my the correct unit folders on my external hard drive
• Reevaluate my pacing guide (I always rearrange things and I'm really trying to delete things as well) This year I made room in my pacing guide for notes to myself. Some examples of things I've written so far are vocab words that can be cut, concepts that need to be in a different order, concepts that can be cut, or notes of documents that I need to edit (although I try to do those asap)
• Recreate my EOC. This is only our second year of using end of course exams but I find that as soon as my pacing guide changes, my EOC will have to change to reflect that.

How I Plan a Unit

• My pacing guide is organized into units but from there I guess I create mini-units, where there is a natural break in the concepts. Basically, I am deciding which concepts will go on the same test. I like 4, sometimes 5, and never more than 6.
• I try to give a quiz at least every two concepts but preferably every concepts.
• I already have ideas saved from summer to get me started
• I go through my past years of units and move things I want to use to the current year (I've saved everything I've ever used in my teaching career)
• Look for gaps. What concepts am I teaching this year that I don't already have something for? Is this a concept I understand well enough to create something myself? If not, it's time to google/blog/twitter/pinterest.

How I Plan an Activity

• What materials do I need? Do I need to make copies for each student, for pairs, or for each group? Card stock or colored paper? Do they need to be cut ahead of time or can students cut them? If students are cutting, I put mini trash cans on each group of desks to avoid trash on my floors. Do I need glue sticks, rulers, tape?
• Where will I put materials? Can I lay them out for students to pick up, pass them out during class, or assign one group member to get supplies for their group? What is the most efficient way so students aren't crowding, pushing, flowing out the door, or standing in a long line?
• Is this a station activity where students rotate? Do I have directions at each station? How long will students have at each station? How will they know when to rotate? Am I giving students enough time so they don't fell rushed but not so much time that they are doing nothing? (I usually use a timer and tell them to rotate either left or right) Are they writing on something at each station or taking the same paper with them from station to station?
• What is my goal for the activity? Is this an introduction, reinforcement, or practice? Am I going to answer their questions or do they have to rely on classmates? Can they use their notes? Would the best way to reach my goal be individually or group work?
• Am I making them think?
• What parts are potential pitfalls to my students? How can we avoid them? Are my directions clear? Is there a question that every student or group is going to stumble on? Can I give them a hint or a place to look for a hint?
• Is this competitive? Do students know how they earn points? Is there a clear place to keep score? Is there a prize or just for fun? Clear expectations!
• How will I know if the activity achieved my goal? Is there some kind of student feedback? Am I grading or charting results? Quiz? Formative assessment? Exit ticket?

In my last post I linked to my pacing guides. Those are for me. This is what I give the students:







They are called Math to Know Sheets and they list everything I hope to teach my students written in student friendly language. The rows shaded a light gray are my priorities and are the concepts that will appear on the end of course exam.

Every Friday I will randomly choose 5 concepts from these priorities to quiz students over. I've already made a powerpoint of problems that corresponds to my priority concepts.





 
Students will answer the questions and graph their results individually as well as a whole class and track our improvements from week to week. The three columns next to the concepts on the Math to Know sheets are where students will write a + if they got the problem correct or a - if they did not. The idea is that the students will be exposed to the priority concepts three times through the year as an informal cumulative review. We will celebrate 'all time best' scores for students and class periods.

This is called L to J if it is something you are familiar with- the idea that in the beginning the graphs will look like L shaped bell curves and over time progress to a J shaped bell curve. No longer is the bell curve acceptable but we push towards a J curve as we constantly compare ourselves only to ourselves and the progress we've made individually. That is 2/5 of my bell ringer plan (see the first 1/5 here).

Now for the other three days, I'm being a little more flexible. Referring back to my Survivor Games post, I plan to have my students seated in teams that compete all year long. Monday and Friday bell ringer activities are done on an individual basis. So that means the other three days are team time!

I've decided to use my pre-algebra bell ringer powerpoint from last year to begin with but I will present it differently.



This year I will print out each slide, one per team. I will put it in a page protector so I can reuse it for different periods. As a team, students will work the bell ringer problem(s) and write their answer on the board. The team with the most bell ringer problems answered correctly at the end of the week (in each class period) will get to draw a game piece.

I'm using a new textbook series that the publishers sent as samples- they have some good activities and vocab exercises that would also make good bell ringer activities. But the presentation will be the same.

I think there will be more buy in to work together with a team, especially if it might advance their team in the competition. Last year I noticed a big difference when I asked students for their answer and wrote all of them on the board. I'm borrowing off that idea and channeling it into team mode.

Obviously I had to create all of this stuff but at least it is already created. That means no prep work for me other than make a few copies. Students will have a pencil bag zip tied to their desk with a dry erase marker and eraser so they can work on the desk and erase.

Less paper = less waste

Less prep = happy teacher

=)

I've been wanting to do mental math Mondays for a while now but I just found the best resource ever!

This is my plan for next year: Students will have a binder with a little zip up pencil pouch inside of it. (I know they will have it because I'm providing it). I'm going to print out this mental math answer sheet front to back with a coordinate plane on it (that could come in handy randomly throughout the year). Then I'm going to laminate it, cut it apart, and give each student one to keep in the pouch. (They will also have a dry erase marker, eraser, pencil, and pen in the pouch).



I made a powerpoint of mental math problems for every Monday, 36 in a school year, from this site. (Under Resources for Mathematics: Grade 8 under Weekly Essentials) The site has other great resources as well.



I plan to print out the slides in handout form for myself. I will write the date of each Monday on it so I can keep up and I will read the problems aloud one time only. The students can use their dry erase marker and laminated answer sheet to write down their answers. Then I will display the answers for that week on the corresponding powerpoint slide.

Students can check their answers, erase, and store it in the pouch for the next Monday.

Again, I did not create any of this material. I merely copied and pasted it into a nice powerpoint.

This is one-fifth of my bell ringer plan for next year.

To be continued...

Almost 4 months ago I wrote about my plans for warm ups and exit slips. I received a nice comment tonight asking me to revisit the topic. Of course that means I first have to re-read my post to see what the heck I was talking about.

Ok I'm back. I have alluded to different ideas in posts throughout the summer of more solid plans but this seems like a good time to explain.

Basically I used the feedback from that post and formed a new idea.

Jason comments:
I'd suggest that the warm up should be something that all kids can do with minimal guidance from the you. There should be (virtually) no (mathematical) barrier to entry. The last thing you want to have to do is to reteach/tutor while you are trying to take role, get kids settled in, etc. Think of it as time to build procedural fluency and automaticity.

Excellent thinking.

DKlemme comments:
At the Minnesota Math Conf. I saw some warm ups that interested me. 2 week cycles of questions, 3 review type questions of past material or skills needed for next concept. Use of vocab in directions, as the cycle gets into week two you take out the key vocab and Ss fill it in.

Also excellent thinking.

I combined those two ideas together and made a PowerPoint of pre-algebra skills, mostly three questions a piece, for three days a week of the entire school year (the fourth day is a practice quiz and the fifth day is a school thing). In the first half the questions go through a 2 week cycle where the first week contains hints and the second week does not. I use this PowerPoint for all my classes Alg I - Alg II because they all need refreshers and hopefully can at least start on the problems without me.

Creating that PowerPoint was a godsend although it took me hours and hours and I temporarily hated my life while doing it. But I always have a way to start class smoothly and it gives me a couple of minutes to get my stuff together. Oh, and I've been using blank quarter sheets of copy paper by the door that kids just grab on their way in. I told them at the beginning that I may or may not collect them and some students choose to keep them even when I tell them to throw them away. Truthfully, I've only collected them once. I've had a few issues with students not wanting to do them, especially since I don't grade them, but it's pretty hard for them to refuse when I stand beside their desk and ask them if they will do these problems for me. Overall I've had a very positive reaction.

As for exit slips....they died on the table. In a later post I briefly mentioned exit slips in my new beginnings and then proceeded to talk way more about summarizing. I've been using that more as a way of summarizing the lesson and getting feedback rather than an exit slip. I built this right in to the guided notes- after almost every example I force students to stop and write in words what we just did. I think it's been a really good idea and I hope that it has started to build the habit of frequently stopping and thinking about what we're doing as well as putting it into words. I don't really have any hard facts to support my thinking but I know that in review games and on assessments I have been asking students to explain, tell the difference, write examples, write analogies, etc and they haven't balked yet. I would say that's an improvement.

I had mentioned unit summaries which morphed into my PEEL graphic organizer but that just took way too much time and has since fell by the wayside.

The quarter ends this week so I'm thinking of trying something new. Since we made a summaries tab in our math binders, I've got to use that for something. I'd like to try Nora Oswald's Learning Log Prompts Poster. I could modify my original unit summary sheet to work for this where students write the date, the concept taught, and then answer one of the prompts. Actually, the more I think about that, the more I really like the idea.

That will be another good habit to get into and something I could use after the bell ringer to promote some discussion: turn to your partner and share what you wrote at the end of class yesterday. I don't know, that will probably take up too much time but you never know when you will need a time filler.

All in all, I'm satisfied with my bell ringer and I'm happy with how often we are summarizing- I guess if I can get this exit slip idea nailed down then I'll be all good.

Thanks mrsaitoromath for motivating me to write this blog post- you've reminded me of something I could be doing better.