In last week’s blog post, I discussed challenges I was running into with the math curriculum in my district. The curriculum does not allow a lot of leeway when it comes to bringing in your own activities and ideas. I noticed that because of this, the math lessons were becoming very routine for the students, creating a lack of engagement and differentiation.  This week, I decided to implement some changes in order to get the students more involved and engaged.

Change #1: The first thing I noticed about the math lessons were that the students were sitting in their seat for the whole hour duration of the math lesson. I could tell this was a huge aspect of why I started to lose students towards the end of every lesson. In order to get the students moving around more, I thought of ways that students could get out of their seats while still following the set curriculum. For the Visual Learning Video that is in every lesson, I now have students come sit at the carpet to watch it, rather than watching it in their seats. Although this is a small change, it makes a big difference just having them get up and change their seating arrangement for a portion of the lesson.

Change #2: Another thing I incorporated into the lessons was stations around the rooms. For each problem on the Independent Practice page, I put a sticky note somewhere in the room with the number that correlated to it. Each student is assigned a group,  a number to start at, and instructed to bring a folder, pencil and their paper. Whatever number the students are at is the number the students will work on while they are at their station. A timer is on the board that is set for 1 minute and 30 seconds. When the timer goes off, the students move clockwise to the next station. The students love doing this, and I have seen a huge improvement in their engagement for the Independent Practice problems. This also helps with pacing and keeping the students on the same page. After the stations are finished, we come back as a class to discuss and go over the problems.

(As an example, for this lesson there would be 5 sticky notes around the room, 1 for each problem labeled “5”, “6”, “7”, “8” and “9”.)

Change #3: The final change I decided to implement for myself was using a timer to gauge how much time I was spending going over each problem. Since there is so much material to cover in just one lesson, I have learned that it’s important for me as a teacher to pace each and every problem in the lesson to ensure that we are able to fit everything in. Before  a lesson, I decide ahead of time how much time I am going to spend on each problem and section of the lesson. Again, planning is so important and taking the time to do things like this really help and make for a more effective lesson.

Overall, I saw a lot of positive improvements from these changes! I hope that they will continue to be effective, and plan to keep thinking of new ideas throughout the upcoming weeks. These changes took preparation and a lot of explaining about instructions and expectations to the students, but once they became routine, the results were rewarding!

As every week has been a learning experience, this week I really learned the importance of planning and everything that goes into it. Even with districts that have a set curriculum for certain subjects, you still need to consider “What kinds of modifications do I need to make to accommodate the different learners in my classroom? What supplements can I make in order to promote engagement in student learning?”. One thing I have been struggling with is my district’s math curriculum. It is very specific and by the book, so it has been a challenge to make the lesson my own. I have also noticed that it is very routine, going through the same motions every day, which seems to be boring the students and in turn creating a lack of engagement. For the weeks to come, I am challenging myself to think of ways to get the students moving around the room (since math is an hour long, too long to be in their seats the whole time), as well as ways to make the content more engaging to promote critical thinking and student participation. Next week, I will share some of the ideas I came up with, as well as the results of their affects and impact! Stay tuned 🙂

As I have been in my full-time student teaching placement for a little over a month now, one of the biggest things I have learned is that classroom management is key to a successful classroom. It is also one of the hardest things to accomplish. In this blog post, I want to share some great classroom management quotes that my cooperating teacher shared with me. These quotes came from “500+ Teaching Tips for Really Good Teachers”, and I found a lot of them really helpful and important to managing young students.

“It’s far more productive to praise the student who is doing the right thing than to correct the one(s) who aren’t. It also leads to a much happier atmosphere in the classroom. This is simple to say, but more difficult to consistently do”. -Judy Rachow

“Build community in your classroom, and have high expectations of everyone, including yourself!” -Lija Rago

“When children act out, remember, they are young, but people with feelings, too. They may not be able to control their behavior. Don’t take it personally. Tomorrow is a new day with a clean slate.” -Debbie Reinier

“Students follow your tone and your intentions more than your words. Remember, you are modeling behavior even more than teaching facts. Find joy every day.” -Rachel Selig

What I found in common among all of these quotes was that remaining positive and patient with children is so important when managing their behavior. When we allow negative student behavior to make us as teachers negative, this reflects upon our students and breaks down the sense of community in the classroom. For more tips, you can find this resource at reallygoodstuff.com. As a new teacher this resource is great as it gives tips about classroom management, building relationships with students, organization, planning, teaching techniques and more!

As you could imagine, the 100th day of school is a pretty big deal to 1st graders. My cooperating teacher definitely treated it that way, planning a day full of fun “100 day” activities! I learned from this day that sometimes, it’s important to take a step back and remember these kids are still kids, and it’s important for them to have fun and love school.

The day before, the kids were asked to bring 100 of any item they wished to school the next day. This could be anything from pretzels, beads, sea shells, pasta, or pennies. For math, the students were then asked to sort their objects into groups of 10, which is the concept they have been practicing in previous weeks.

Some had more trouble than others, but A for effort, right?

One of my favorite activities that the students got to do was write about what they would do when they are 100 years old. Then, with an app my coop downloaded on her phone, she took a picture of each child that made them look like an old person and printed them to display with their writing.

The students also found how many times they can jump up and down, say the alphabet, blink, clap their hands, write their name, sit up and sit back down, and count to 10, each for 100 seconds. There’s even a Scholastic News about the 100th day of school.

Overall, I loved seeing the kids so excited about the 100th day and just genuinely happy to be at school 🙂