Here's a tweet from a few weeks ago so you can see the general layout. I've changed it a bit lately, but generally it's the same. The back right grouping is where they work on computers doing TenMarks, the back left group is quizzes/hw/etc, and the front 12 are new content with me.
The way my room is arranged for math workshop stations. #momathchat @luvbcd @Mcoaty @MichaelisMath @mary_dooms pic.twitter.com/0xF6Knv9Uq
— Jessie Hester (@MrsHestersMath) January 9, 2014
Things I'm loving!
- Students are getting targeted remediation. I am setting student-specific goals through TenMarks. I also have this taped onto each desk in the TenMarks station... very helpful!
- I feel like I'm reaching more students since I'm only giving instruction to about 12 at a time.
- 8th graders have a relatively short attention span - 17 minutes and then rotating is helping to keep them focused.
- Students are accomplishing a lot in one class period. Targeted, timed things to accomplish are working very well.
Things I need to improve:
- I still feel the need to monitor/watch the back groups. I need to let this go!
- I want to give students more than 17 minutes for TenMarks. Hopefully when I get for more computers (I'll have 10 total soon) I can move to only having three rotations of about 25 each.
- It's really hard to say the same thing over and over, especially now I'm doubling up in each class period. I have to be very careful and not leave anything out because I've already said it about 12 times!
Sorry I don't have pictures of this workshop thing in motion - I'm always with a group of kids! That's another thing that's hard. I used to grade during the few minutes that students were working on quizzes or homework. Now, I'm with a group of students while others are quizzing, meaning I don't have time to grade/check email/nothing! Bell to bell!! It's hard!
So what are your suggestions? Any ideas for my 'improved' list? Any general thoughts or ideas to add?