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:
If you are still looking for ways to make your math workshop more about collaboration and problem-solving rather than about independent work and computation, a Week of Inspirational Math by Jo Boaler/Youcubed might just be the ticket! If you have done any of these lessons before, you know how awesome they can be! Well--she has recently posted her WIM #4! That's right--4 weeks of math explorations and engaging lessons that you can use to build your mathematicians.
These engaging lessons are organized by grade level strands and are grouped into a week's worth of lessons. They are great to use a week at a time, but you certainly could use them independently if you needed to. They embody the paradigm shift in math education with a focus on growth mindset, visual math, patterns, and collaboration.
Besides that, each lesson will really engage your students for at least math period. (Oftentimes, students keep working on the problem after class...) Each lesson begins with a video that you can show if you wish. It helps to build the growth mindset in your students and presents them with mathematical thinking that helps them to see math is all around them. After the video, there is a lesson (with full lesson-plan) that you can have students work on in small groups and share out with the class. You can learn so much about your students as you circulate the room listening to their thinking, and they will learn so much about themselves as mathematicians!
With the craziness of the holidays, you might find a few days where some WIM activities are just the ticket, and they might cause you to begin rethinking your workshop! They might be a good way to spend your math time during those days right before holiday break, but they might also be an awesome way to set the tone for 2019!
I have blogged about WIM before, but I can't tell you enough how much they can invigorate and change your classroom, your student's thinking, and your own thinking! Time well spent!
Explorations and investigations help your students to take ownership of their own learning and are a great way to get students excited about math! They encourage critical and creative thinking skills. They build a sense of math community, and make us all better mathematicians.
If we get started with predetermined explorations, and our students become comfortable with the format, they may begin to come up with their own explorations that you can embed into your instruction!
I have posted about a number of explorations either that I have done with students or have seen others do. However, I wanted to remind you of some good places that you can go to find an exploration that works for you and your students!
WIM: The weeks of inspirational math from Youcubed are all set up and ready to go for you. I have blogged about them before, and I can't say enough about how they not only encourage a growth mindset, but also that they are a lot of fun!
Math Solutions: This location is full of exploration options for you. Many have a great connection to literature.
Math for Love: The free lessons on this site typically involve investigations.
100 Numbers to get students talking: This task has step by step directions and examples of how to use it to build your students' group work abilities this year.
Finally, I have blogged about some different explorations that you could try in your room. You might find one that will be a great review or introduction for your students this year. To find the blog posts, look over at the right side of my blog at the labels. Click on the explorations label, and it will show you all of my posts about explorations.
If you have other great explorations to share, please post in the comments below.
What a great way to start your year of math learning! Beginning with some explorations will give you plenty of time to get to know your students, build your classroom culture, and develop your routines. Let me know if I can help in any way!
Looking for ways to promote growth mindset in math in your classroom? I highly recommend trying some or all of the activities from Jo Boaler's weeks of Inspirational Math!
This was started 3 years ago, and she has three weeks' worth of lessons/resources available on her youcubed site. You can access them HERE.
The activities are identified by grade level and organized a week at a time. (K-2 only has two weeks worth of activities although you may be able to modify some of the 3-5 activities from the first year.)
You might decide to start your class with these activities each day for a week as you develop your workshop expectations and social norms. Maybe it will work better to just dedicate one day a week to the activities. You decide what will work best for you and your students!
Let me know if you have questions or could use any support!
