Month: April 2014

Our math curriculum co-ordinator had us visit a Chicopee school that has 90 minute blocks, access to amazing technology (IPADS for almost every student) and three teachers (or paras) per class.  The setup was that they had a 20 minute full class lesson then about 3 rotations of 20 minutes each in each station.  The stations were one full of a specific lesson with the teacher with 6 students while the others rotated through either a Versatile station, some with worksheets relating the topics, an online station teaching a skill, a game station with one other student.

It was stated that this station technique is pervasive throughout the school and has been able to bring the school from a level 4 to a level 3.  The students were well behaved and seemed on task.

We were told to adopt the station approach in math and this has been pushed through to reading classes as well.  The problem is that we only have 50 minutes for a class, are for the most part teaching alone for the majority of classes and have very limited technology.  The students on IEP’s have mainly severe ADHD and lose their work from one station to the next and tended to “break up” the work between the students so that they only did a portion and copied the rest.

I tried this for 2 months and became so behind in the curriculum that I gave up trying to do them.  The students were complaining the whole time during this and they felt they weren’t learning anything.  I am sure they weren’t.  If you are alone, you can’t give them new work to work on since they can’t access you for questions.

 

Does anyone have a successful station setup without long blocks?  I feel if I don’t adopt this approach in the future, I will have to look for a new job!

My co-worker, Liz Mattarazo, shared this great lesson on inequalities.  Most of my students have no trouble understanding why you need to change the inequality signs when multiplying by a negative number now.

Have students create their own number line from -15 to +15 using the long side of wide copy paper.  They will also make “A” and “B” markers from small pieces of colored paper.

Give the students two tables with three columns filled in with starting numbers under the “A” and “B” headers and 12 rows of blank cells under that.   Write in arrows with the operation that you want students to perform that take you from one row to the next.  Have the students use the markers to reflect the changes in the table and enter in the inequality sign on each row in between.   So if you start with “A” equal to 2 and “B” equal to 5, have the students first add 1 to each value, subtract 2, then multiply each value by 2.  You can then have them multiply each number by -2,

This doesn’t show up on visual basic too well so I will add more when I can take a photo of the page.  The steps are hand written but the students did not have any type of confusion when completing this.

 

A		B
2	>	5	+1

This morning, about half way into math class, my mobile phone goes off.   I usually shut it off before school but I didn’t today, I just forgot.  Anyhow, it is from one of the students that were supposed to be in class.  This kid, I don’t know why, specifically, has wormed her way into my heart, stopping by every morning with a greeting, asking me to her birthday party, all the stuff I am trying to avoid, trying not to feel favoritism.   I answer the phone against better judgment, but thinking to myself, “what if she is in trouble and really needs me?”  Instead, I get this, “Hey Ms. Boski, I am at Dunkin’ Donuts, do you want me to bring in a coffee for you when I get to school?”

 

I have to say, I couldn’t help but laugh!  I wish I knew how to act stern all the time, but it just isn’t in me.