Another busy day

I had an excellent morning planning with my new teammates. I got to spend some time with them and got to know them a little bit better. I was feeling pretty nervous about how I would fit in as part of the team. They are extremely organized and have systems down pat for pretty much everything they do. The good thing is that they made me feel very comfortable about doing things in a different way if I want to. They kind of expressed the attitude that they want to do it their way (it seems like they like the consistency of how they have done things) yet they were open to my ideas and were enthusiastic about my suggestions to do things differently with my own classes. We talked and planned all morning and then went out to lunch together which was fun.

I also met up with my old first grade team for some appetizers later on and it was so nice to catch up with them and chit chat for awhile. I did get some sad news from them though...One of the students I taught during my first year had a mom that was sick with Cancer. She had brain Cancer and because of that she didn't make too many appearances at school. She called to check in often though, and she was one of the sweetest women. She was so nice and cared so much for her daughter. She had been battling Cancer for awhile and earlier this year she passed away. I hadn't thought about this family in awhile, but they were always so sweet and I was really upset to hear this news. I just can't imagine what they are all going through and how hard it must be for young kids to lose their mom. My current roomie actually taught this student last year when she was in 4th grade and she said it was just a horribly sad situation. The youngest child in the family was in my previous team member's first grade class this past year and she said she actually had two students' mothers pass away during the school year. Such a difficult thing to deal with, especially when the kids are at such a young, fragile age. Even though this didn't just happen super recently, I know the family is still mourning and my heart goes out to them.

After returning home from seeing those friends, I hit up the gym for a good sweat session on the bike and started reading the book I just received from amazon today.

I have only read the first two chapters, but so far I LOVE it. I am so excited to try out the ideas! Here is a little excerpt for you:

It's the end of summer. School begins in just a few weeks. At night as you sleep, you find yourself dreaming about your new classroom, how it will be different this year. You see yourself sitting at the guided reading table with five young students gathered around you ready to read a new book. As you introduce the new text, no one interrupts you. There is no "Teacher, I need help with this paper," "The headset at the listening station doesn't work," or "He hit me." You glance around the room and see the rest of the class working cheerfully and intently at reading and writing tasks that the children find purposeful and fully engaging. Two boys stand beside the overhead, which is projecting a poem onto a nearby screen. Together they read this poem, which had been introduced to the class during shared reading. Then the pair take a dry-erase marker and circle the rhyming words. They read the rhyming words together and use magnetic letters to make other words that rhyme with those from the poem. They copy their rhyming words onto strips of paper, which they put in their literacy work station folders. You smile and return your gaze to the small group you're sitting with. You observe which children are using the strategies you've been modeling. You guide their reading and prompt when necessary, watching your students in the process of becoming independent problem solvers. At the end of your guided reading group, students move to different work stations and the learning continues. Is this just a dream? It doesn't need to be...

I am looking forward to reading the rest and getting ideas for great literacy work stations that I can use in my room. I love how the author, Debbie Diller, emphasizes the importance of creating work stations using materials that have already been used for instruction, the importance of modeling what to do in each station, and having the children demonstrate they understand what to do before they are released to work independently. She also stresses the importance of teaching the work stations one at a time and not overwhelming the children with too much stuff too soon. I like her reminders to take it slow!

Tomorrow I will be in a training for our new math curriculum adoption. I am really intrigued to see what it's all about. From what I have seen so far, it does not look at all developmentally appropriate for Kinder students, especially since  the manipulatives were not purchased. There are pages in the workbook that have very small paper "manipulatives" that have to be cut out. As if I would waste precious time having my five-year-old students cut out these paper pieces. No thanks! We are supposed to give the program a try, but I suspect we will be making some adjustments as we go along. In any event, it is always good to receive training and become more familiar with a program instead of just complaining about it, so I will give it a go and hope for the best!

Sharing is Caring

I recently tore out several pages from the most recent issues of Instructor magazine and I will be writing some posts this week on the articles I found interesting (I have a stack!)

(I also want to create some sort of system for organizing the little tidbits of wisdom I find so I can actually locate them and use them when needed. Frequently I come across great websites, articles, and ideas but without a system to catalog them I find that I lose track! I am thinking of starting an idea notebook where I can have sections for cool educational websites/blogs, books, ideas, inspirations, items to buy etc., but that will have to be a different post after I get it all figured out!)

How do you keep track of ideas???

One article I tore out of Instructor is called:
10 Ways to help ELLs Succeed in Math.

Great topic, right?

I am not going to summarize every point from the article, but I would like to share the basic bullet points of their top 10 strategies....

1. Create vocabulary banks

2. Use maniulatives

3. Modify teacher talk and practice wait time

4. Elicit nonverbal responses (like thumbs up or thumbs down)

5. Use sentence frames

6. Design questions and prompts for different proficiency levels

7. Use prompts to support student responses

8. Consider language and math skills when grouping students

9. Utilize partner talk

10. Ask for choral responses from students

 

What do you think of the list? 

What strategies are you already doing?

What strategies are new for you?

The article also included some additional teaching tips!

•  use pictures and manipulatives!
• show and tell whenever possible through demonstration
• get the students up and active
• use small groups to allow ELL students to feel more comfortable and confident
• give ELL's opportunites to work individually
• relate a concept to a personal experience
• have students keep journals (my friend Jill (third grade teacher) used math journals and had students write down vocabulary words, pictures, definitions, and examples. The students then brought the journals home daily so parents could see what they were learning and help with homework if needed). I really like this idea a lot!!!

Where do you get your best teaching ideas?

Math Meltdown

 My two closest friends here in Germany are both third grade teachers. They are in the process of working on the 7 page report cards that need to be completed by Friday afternoon and that is really time consuming (to say the least). Because my schedule as a specialist is getting lighter (due to all of the special activities that take place at the end of the year interrupting regular class schedules that don't require support services), I thought it would be nice to offer to cover their math classes today so they could spend some additional time during the school day working on their reports. I have also been trying to help them correct timed math tests since it takes a lot of time to check the accuracy of 80 problems per kid because I feel bad that they are so stressed and I am straight chilling with my less than full schedule.

I LOVE having the chance to substitute, even if it's just for one period and I love the third grade kiddos, so it doesn't even feel like work to me.

One teacher left a lesson and I worked on teaching the kids about long division with remainders. The other teacher had me administer a math test. I prefer having the chance to actually teach, but if I can be the body in the room so that another teacher can have extra working time, I am definitely game.

I used to be the TA in both of these classrooms at the beginning of the year prior to joining the support services team, so I am familiar with all the kids. I have continued to spend a lot of time in one of these classrooms for my new role but I have not been in the other classroom much since early this year. I know the kids' personalities and quirks and I felt really lucky to have that background knowledge today because in the middle of the test there was a meltdown.

One of the kiddos raised his hand to ask for help because he didn't understand how to "check his work" which was part of the directions (they were supposed to multiply to check the division). I told him that if he wasn't sure he should go onto the next problem, but he quickly became upset and expressed concern over not being able to receive full marks for the part he didn't understand. He is really hard on himself and has a hard time moving forward when he is upset by something. I tried to put all of my freak out prevention skills into effect but crouching down to his level, speaking in a quiet matter of fact voice, and coaching him through the options/choices he could make did not help.

The tears welled up in his eyes.

His mouth quivered.

I continued to speak in a soothing voice trying to relay to him that it was important for him to continue on with the rest of the problems instead of giving up and worrying about this one part.

Well....he lost it.

 He basically crumpled over and let out a wail that caused all of the other kiddos to look up from their concentrated states in shock.

I knew from having worked in this classroom previously that his outbursts really escalate quickly and that he has a lot of trouble calming down, so I told him that he would need to come into the hallway with me. The other kids needed a quiet room and I needed to give him some privacy to talk through the difficulty he was having. He sat down in the hallway outside the door and continued to cry.

I crouched down at his level and told him that I could see he was very frustrated about this. I explained that there were two parts to the question and that he understood one, but was having trouble with the other and that it would be a good choice to continue working on the part that he understood even if that meant skipping part of some problems. I gave him the choice of coming back into the classroom to continue the test or to remain in the hallway until he was feeling better.

He stayed in the hallway.

I felt really bad that he got so upset, yet I thought that I did a good job handling the situation considering he is not a child that I really know very well. I know of his reactions, but I had never before truly been a part of one.

I returned to the classroom and continued to help the other kids with their questions.

After a few minutes, this kiddo came back into the room, took his seat and continued working on his test. I was really really happy that he was able to calm himself down and make this decision.

Since the kids were still taking the test, I didn't want to make a big fuss, so I wrote him a note on a yellow post it.

"I am really proud of you for making the good choice to come back inside and give the test another try."

I simply stuck the note on his desk next to his test paper and continued to the other side of the room, monitoring the rest of the group.

When I came back around to his table, I noticed that he had crumpled my note and shoved it in his desk. He looked at me with a part confused expression and part glare.

But he continued working on the test.

 I was really happy that his meltdown simmered down and did not end up being a complete disaster. Even though he didn't seem entirely thrilled with my attempt to sweetly compliment his choice, I do think that my tactics were a success!! Maybe it was a small success, but it could have ended worse.

What do you do when there is a meltdown in the classroom?

Fun with Fractions

I came across these fraction magnets from Lakeshore a few months back and included them on my most recent Donorschoose wish list. Time has passed, and sadly, there have not been any donations towards my proposal of math materials requested for my classroom. I completely understand, with the current economy, why people may not have extra money to donate, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. 

We started a unit on fractions this week so I knew that it was time to get crafty again. This simple fractions puzzle set only costs $12.99, but I was able to create them myself for less. I really love these realistic looking food items and thought dividing food was a great way to teach fractions that would be meaningful to young students. When sharing food, being fair ** having equal parts** is essential!

I went to google images and searched each kind of food that is pictured in the image I saw on the Lakeshore website.  I have a color printer at home, so I did have to use my own colored ink (no biggie) and I printed two copies of each food item. I then cut one picture into equal parts (halves, thirds, or quarters). I have a student whose mother feels so sad that we no longer have a laminator at my school and she, very kindly, offered to laminate items for me because she has a laminator at home and gets a great deal on the paper. I sent the photos home in my student's homework folder and received nice, crisp laminated photos the following Monday! I simply added a small piece of sticky magnet to the back and voila! I did not write the fractions on my pictures because I wanted my students to be able to tell me the fraction by looking at the image and thinking about it, not just reading from the image.

 I think I made a pretty good replica and saved myself at least 10 dollars. 

I then spent that 10 dollars I saved on the ingredients to make these delicious cake balls from Bakerella's AMAZING website, but my staff was very appreciative, so it was worth it. 

Some photos of my food fractions...

Open Ended Problem Solving

UPDATED

Problem solving encompasses an important set of skills for young learners. For students, being able to find a solution to a problem and explain how they came up with their answer utilizes higher order thinking skills especially when the problems posed have many possible solutions. These types of problems require children to be creative with their answers and provide them with opportunities to think outside of the box. 

I recently started a session during math which I call "whiteboard review." During this time, we focus on whatever num

ber is that day's date. For 

today, our focus number was 26. We use this number to do a variety of math operations and then culminate with an open ended problem to solve. Each day we do the following:

• write addition or subtraction equations that equal the date
• write the date in tally marks
• tell whether the date is an odd or even number
• draw the date in tens and ones (we use rectangles for groups of ten and circles for ones)
• ***"purchase" candy using the number of cents that matches the day

*** The last activity is the newest that I have introduced and the kids really like it. I purchased three types of candy at the store; a Hershey bar, a pack of gum, and a Tootsie roll.  I put magnet strips on the back so that they can stick to the whiteboard. Under each type of candy I listed a price. 

Tootsie rolls: 1 cent

Gum: 5 cents

Hershey bar: 10 cents

**3/17/09 Candy types have changed since I last posted, but I wanted to update with a photo**

I wrote the problem on the board and change the amount of money each day to match the date:

I tell my students they should spend the exact amount of money that they have. The problem gets harder as we get closer to the end of the month. When we began, the solution was simple. On the first few days of the month, there was only one way to solve the problem each day. As we reached numbers like 10, there started to be more possible answers and it is interesting to see how the kids think it out and how they come up with all the possible solutions. It was actually a nice progression so the kids could get used to what I was asking before the solutions got complicated. 

Take, for example, the 10th of the month. Possible solutions include:

10 Tootsie rolls

2 packs of gum

1 Hershey bar

5 Tootsie rolls and 1 pack of gum

The students draw representations, shapes, letters, and words on their whiteboards and they came up with the coding of H for Hershey bar, G for Gum, and T for Tootsie rolls. I write all their ideas on the board in the code: 

10 T

2 G

 1 H

 5 T & 1G

My favorite part is that no two whiteboards look the same. It is not like asking for the solution to 2 + 2, it allows for more creativity and individual differences.

I also have large cardboard coins that I purchased at the Learning Palace that I use with the problem as well. I laminated the coins and put magnet strips on the backs, so that they too, can stick to the whiteboard. When I tell the students how much money they have to spend, I ask them to show me different combinations of coins that would add up to that number of cents. This is a great way for students to practice recognizing coins and adding mixed coins (both first grade math skills).

I started this activity at the beginning of February, but I do not want it to get old and boring, so I added a little motivation by telling my class that I will purchase different items for the month of March and that I will give away the candy on the last day of school in February to students who consistently demonstrate responsibility and appropriate behavior at school. Next month, I might get different types of candy or possible change the amounts that each costs.

At Home with Math

In getting ready for conferences tomorrow I was trying to prepare some simple math games that I can teach to and send home with a few families so they can help their children with math skills at home. I came across this great site called At Home with Math. My favorite part about the site is that the information is presented in the exact same format in English and Spanish (yay!) which is terrific because one of my students who struggles in math has a mom whose primary language is Spanish and this saves me the work of translating the documents. They will contain the same images as the documents in English which is important when sending information home in more than one language. The documents, although written in different languages, should look the same and one should never be of a lesser quality than the other.

This site offers 10 activities (with extensions and alternative versions) that parents can do with their children at home. What is great is that the math activities incorporate typical household activities and materials such as cleaning up toys, junk mail, coupons, and sharing which makes them easy to incorporate into daily routines.

I always feel conflicted about giving families extra "work" to do at home, but often I find that parents enjoy these kinds of activities and are very interested in helping their kids and they appreciate suggestions. Often parents want to help but may not know how or what kinds of skills they should be helping with.

I am going to print out packets in both languages to have ready for a few of my kiddos tomorrow. I think when informing parents about what skills their child needs to work on, it is always helpful to provide examples of how to practice and to give parents materials to use so they can go home with a plan!