Anxiously awaiting...

Tomorrow begins with 15 smiling faces ready to begin the day with me. (Yes, I only have 15 students.  That will never happen again.)  The room will buzz with conversation first thing because we had a long weekend and I know that they will have something to share with someone.  (Hey, we all know we enjoy to talk to our friends and catch up.)  I am slightly more lenient on Monday mornings for just this reason, but by the time the bell rings at 8 they will all be working diligently on their morning assignment.

I am excited for this particular Monday because I am going to be implementing and teaching a few new activities that will be utilized for the remainder of the school year.  The first thing I will be trying are two new differentiation strategies.  (Think-Tac-Toe and Choice Menu)  Both of these are exciting for me because I feel like my kiddos will enjoy having the choices and the ability to pick what they are working on.  (Who wouldn't!)  These are strategies that I learned in a recent training and I know that it will pay off!  I will post photos sometime this week.

The next new idea I am going to begin implementing is Math Notebooks!  I found this idea from one of the blogs I began reading a few weeks back when I was searching for resources.  Check it out, Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes!  I am super excited to try this with my kids and begin to build a great resource for my students as they prepare for the upcoming EOG.  (In North Carolina, this is the test that students take at the end of the year.  The end of grade test.)  I wish I would have found this sooner!  The first skill we will use in our notebooks is adding and subtracting decimals.  I chose this because I found a cool idea to create a t-chart for organizing the numbers and keeping them lined up.  The students have worked with this some previously so I can have more of a focus on how to utilize the notebook.

I am also going to begin using a new idea for my math rotations.  (I am very ambitious this week!)  This will not be as big of a change for my students but it will still be something new and different.  My main goal is to mix it up slightly so my students aren't in a rut.  (We all have been there and it is not a fun place to be!)  I got the idea from, yes you guessed it, another blog that I was reading.  Check this one out- Math Workshop!

As you can see, the title is very fitting because I am anxiously awaiting the use of these new ideas.  However, this is enough for now.  Until tomorrow, I will leave you with a quote...

"Education Is Not the Filling of a Pail, But the Lighting of a Fire"

-William Butler Yeats

 

I want to light a fire, do you?