The excitement of a summer of fun is palpable at this time of the year--in both students AND teachers. It is important that everyone have a little time away to "sharpen the saw" and give some much needed time to themselves.
However, it is also a good time to set some goals for next year. Next year--a new beginning. Here are some ideas for change that you might ponder this summer, and maybe you will think of some ways to make them work for you.
Start small! You don't need to change everything at once! Choose one change that you want to try to start the year. Here are my ideas and some resources to help you:
More Number talks/Math discourse: Consider starting each day with a number talk or other math routine that encourages student discussion, reasoning, and critiquing. Many teachers find that these help build fact fluency. Be sure to build visuals into your routines. Be intentional with your planning. You shouldn't plan a year's worth of routines/number talks this summer. The routines will vary with what your students need. A necessary piece to this change is that you must really build a classroom culture that encourages and celebrates risk-taking, making mistakes, and curiosity. You can find a number of resources to help you with building routines here, or you can use the word cloud on the right and click on Number Talks or Routines to read previous posts about the subject.
Heterogeneous grouping: Many teachers group students by their perceived abilities for instruction. Not only is this inequitable, it also leads students towards a negative perception of themselves as mathematicians. Consider trying Visibly Random Grouping or other heterogeneous groups during your workshop. There may still be times where you focus your reteaching with a small group on a particular skill, but in general, we want to offer the opportunity for all students to work together as much as we can.
More time for Exploration: Be less helpful. Let students make sense of it all on their own before you begin telling them what to do. Let them struggle with it a little, and let them use manipulatives to represent their thinking and look for patterns. When they are done with exploring, then you can work your magic by bringing it all together at the end of the class. You'll be amazed of what they can do when they are not being told what to do. (This may take a while unless you have already built a great culture in your classroom for risk-taking.) These explorations could be small ones in a daily lesson, or they can be larger ones like some that are available in the word cloud by clicking on explorations. Using Jo Boaler's WIM are also great ways to build exploration into your classroom and inspire your students.
Make tech time meaningful: Sometimes teachers get caught up in offering tech time every day during math. I am not a huge believer in this, as there are so many good rich problems out there for students to solve and too many rote drill and kill sites for students to work on. Move away from these rote sites. Instead, place students in small groups and have them work to solve meaningful problems or puzzles like those from Nrich or KenKen. When students do go online to do work, consider trying some of the activities found on Desmos that align with your targets. These activities require student thinking rather than just computing.
Reach out to me if you would like my support as you start to make some changes in your math instruction. I am happy to help!
Finally, if you like to read professional books over the summer, here are some to consider:
