Loving the positive classroom environments and celebrating colleges for our college bound students!
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My take-aways this week were all about the students... tough to capture all the learning just through photos so I'll summarize a bit here... * Personalizing programs (like Wonders) is so important! This week, I saw students acting out vocabulary, having collaborative conversations with partners, and making connections from the reading to their own lives. * Students researched and presented information to their peers while peers gave specific and useful feedback using teacher created rubrics. The students in the audience also were tasked with collaborating to ask the presenters (high DOK) questions following the presentation. * In many classrooms, I saw the managing of inappropriate student behaviors with firm, calm, redirection and appropriate, pre-discussed consequences. * I felt intangible energy- the buzz of students and teachers learning and teaching together made my heart happy! Check out all of these great ideas coming to you from your fellow first year teachers! I had a great time with all of you this week as I heard meaningful student conversations, saw differentiation strategies being activated through math centers, and witnessed Wonders in action!
I saw some math activities that were hard to get "in action" (without students in the photos), but wanted to share the strategies I saw: Math musical chairs: After whole group instruction and small group practice, students independently create a math problem while teacher monitors. After approximately 5 minutes (or when students are done), teacher plays music and students walk around room until music stops (approximately 30 sec-1 minute- great brain break as well!). They sit at another person's desk and answer the problem, while teacher monitors and offers feedback. Math small group stations: After whole group instruction, students break into pre-assigned, intentional similar ability groups. They begin working at stations around the room until time to switch is announced (approximately 10 minutes). Stations included teacher guided lesson where manipulatives were used, computer activities, worksheet geared to student needs, and a game practicing math skills. The teacher-created-game in particular was differentiated. The groups were assigned colors, and the game cards were colored and differentiated. Math Talk: This was a part of every math lesson I saw. Remember that our Common Core standards require students to justify their thinking and reasoning. Asking the students "how do you know?" and "can you think of another way to solve..." are key! Think about how you could adapt these strategies from K-12 and across subject areas! We're well into Week 5 and it's exciting to see student work posted and discussions charted! Take a look at just some of the many great ideas your first-year colleagues have implemented in their rooms! Think about how you could adapt some of these ideas to make them work for you! If you have questions on anything you see, post them in the comments! |
KMR Mentor team
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