These first day of school activities will help you start the new year on the right foot! Whether you are a new or veteran teacher, planning for the first day or week of school can be a bit overwhelming. Planning is much easier when you’ve developed your routines, procedures, and you know what to expect […]
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I was hesitant to write this blog post on my top ten favorite chapter books to read aloud, because I know that we are all very passionate about our favorite chapter books. I know that without a doubt I’ve left some amazing books out…maybe I should make a top 50 list! For this list, I didn’t
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Upper elementary teachers frequently see their students’ misconceptions in math. Have you ever taught a math concept where you had to spend as much time undoing misconceptions as you do teaching new concepts? We often inadvertently teach misconceptions when we offer our students tricks and shortcuts to math concepts. This issue isn’t isolated to any
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We all have our favorite teacher supplies. Since I’ve been teaching, I’ve acquired quite the collection of teacher supplies and materials. In fact, when I moved schools last year I realized just how much I had. I am FAR from a hoarder, but it was still shocking to see how many teacher supplies I had
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Changing grade levels is difficult. I still remember crying my eyes out the first time I had to change grade levels. It was devastating! It’s hard to sort through years worth of blog posts, resources, and articles to find just what you need to get started. Since it’s such a challenge, I’ve written this post
Moving to 4th Grade Read More »
Math problem solving strategies are a huge component of math instruction. Problem solving should be consistently embedded within quality math tasks, rather than teaching problem solving as an isolated unit. However, math problem solving strategies often need to be explicitly taught to students, especially students who lack a repertoire of problem solving skills. Math Problem
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Classroom focus walls are nothing new, and to be quite honest there isn’t a set-up of focus walls that I haven’t tried! I greatly regret not taking pictures from my past focus walls, especially the year I partitioned a classroom wall with painters tape to create grids based on concepts within units. It actually wasn’t
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Does anyone else’s students think that the minute state testing is over, they are finished with school for the year? While that might sound nice, it just isn’t possible with 20 days left of school. I may have taught all of my standards, but there are still concepts I want to reteach and a few
Teaching Math Outdoors Read More »
As the year draws to an end, especially after testing, it can become more challenging than ever to keep students on task and engaged. It’s that time of year when I feel I have to step it up a bit with the fun factor for my students. And a great way to introduce fun math
Food and Sports Math Lessons Read More »
My teaching partner recently introduced me to my new favorite vocabulary review resources-Quizlet. I know that Quizlet has been around for several years. In fact, I remembered using Quizlet several years ago. According to the site, I made a quiz back in 2010, but I never used the website, because I didn’t see anything more
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