Math Workshop

I love teaching math and science!  Over the last few years I have been refining how I teach math in my classroom, and now that I have switched to a math workshop model I will never go back to teaching math the "traditional" way.  So, how do I run my workshop?

I teach to a small group while everyone else is doing all sorts of math activities throughout the classroom. I have 4 distinct stations that the kids travel to each day.

One station is me, the teacher station. 

Then I have an independent work station, which usually involves some kind of paper-pencil work.  

There is a skill/enrichment station.  At this station the kids are assigned to work with a game or activity that will either enhance skill development or push them to think more in-depth about a concept. 

My last station is fact practice. When students are in the fact practice station they are partnered up with another student, and they tutor each other on the facts they are currently assigned.  

We typically spend 15 to 20 minutes at each station and then rotate.  Prior to starting the rotations  I will do a whole group mini-lesson, much like one would in a readers or writers workshop, to introduce a concept, or to reteach something that is giving the whole class trouble.  Then we break out into our groups.  At the end of the workshop, we all come back together and discuss the learning objective for the day and we take our 1 minute fact quiz.

Math Fact Fluency

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fact-Practice-Fluency-For-the-Classroom-Addition-and-Subtraction-746516

Last school year, I set a professional goal based on improving my students' abilities to retain facts.  Year after year I have done fact practice in some form or another, but every year I still had kids that just couldn't retain their basic facts.  I knew I needed to find a new strategy.  While attending a math conference on RTI, I heard about peer tutoring and decided to research it some more.  Over the summer I developed a fluency center for the kids to use during math workshop, and I tried it out this past school year.  It really made a difference!  In the past the students never had an accountability piece during the actual fact practice portion of our day, and to be honest I don't think I gave them enough time...  This year I not only gave them more time, but I also had them work in partnerships and tutor each other.  It worked very well, and all of my students mastered their basic addition facts through 20. As a math coach in my district, I decided to put everything I used into a packet for the other teachers in my building to use.  You can find it here if you'd like to try it out.  I currently only have an addition and subtraction resource available, but I am working on the multiplication and division set and should have it up soon.  I have gone through the routines involved in detail, as well as provided facts, quizzes, a homework option and fact practice folder set-ups.  I'll be posting more about my math workshop in the next few days, so stayed tuned.

  

Math Tub Organization

It is that time of year again!  The time when I sit, for what seems like eons, in front of my computer eating up computer file space by creating all the things I'll want to use in my classroom next this year.  I rarely purchase bulletin board materials or desk toppers.  I just create stuff at home and laminate it at school!  Last year our school purchased a laminating machine and it has been heaven!

Every year I do an owl theme for my classroom. However, the last time I created tub labels I had a space owl theme going on, so it is time to change them up.  I thought I'd share them with you and they are available in my store for free , but only for a limited time (just click on the pic below). I'll be adding more tub labels later, but if anyone wants to see something specific I'll see what I can come up with.

Happy Room Creating!