Summer Summer Summertime!

Wow, I haven't updated since March! The school year ended on a positive note and it seems like the entire year was a blur. My hypothesis is that the more experienced you become, the more you know what to expect, the easier things are to manage, and the faster the years go by.

This summer we've been using ratios and rates from Pearson for the first domain. I will probably pull resources from IXL or A-Net and even the 2016 released questions to count towards the student portfolios. This summer session is comprised of two groups of students. Some of whom I'm assuming did not do so well on the test, and the others whom just did not produce any work all year. Nevertheless, the days have been going fast (we're on day 3) and pretty soon it will be time for another vacation.

This summer my plan is to come up with a group-management system. I feel that when I group students, they fall into three categories:

A) Students that do all of their work all of the time and actually discuss the work and attempt to complete the problems (what I want to focus on this year and what I want my new system to address)

B) A group where one or two students produce work but they mostly work individually, and the third student does not produce anything or attempts to just copy from their group members


C) Students that do not produce any sort of answer or work, are heavily off task, and do not attempt to discuss the problem

The biggest part of the problem obviously stems from the fact that a large portion of students are far behind where they are supposed to be and simply do not understand the work or problem. And so, they shut down, tune out, or act out. However, I would be content if the kids made serious attempts to work together to try to at least discuss the problems and attempt to come up with a solution. I have been thinking about using the wheel as a template. Going to spend some time this month thinking about it. Stay tuned! P.S. - Kudos to you if you know what song the title of this post refers to!

Never Say You Can't!

Meet "Z". He's a student that struggles and feels as though math is "impossible" like plenty of other adolescents. While it took an immensely long time to get the job done, he managed to solve it all on his own, and his reaction is priceless. The following problem:

Mr. E has 7 packs of sugar and 14 packs of tea. He wants to make groups using the same number of sugar and tea packs, with none left over. What is the greatest number of groups he can make?

How many packs of sugar will be in each group?
How many packs of tea will be in each group?

Preparing for the New Year

While Summer '15 was certainly filled with laughter and joy, this is the final week. This is a short clip of what we did in week 2 (the Smartboard is now working and in daily use...).

Lately I've been preparing my mind, clearing my thoughts and thinking of things that worked and didn't work this year, and how I'll change them. This time, I want to create a classroom culture where more emphasis is placed on listening to whoever is talking, and somehow incorporate that into tokens. I also want to take Concept Constructions up a notch and incorporate it into tokens as well.

Because the tokens were so strong last year, I need to find ways that I can improve the system and make it more fun for the kids. This includes switching prizes from time to time, and added reinforcement to other positive behaviors that we need more of to run a successful math classroom.