What's up with math?

Our school is rethinking our math curriculum. What is everyone doing?

Managing the Holidays

Keeping the attention of first graders during the holiday season is a challenge. Do seasonal activities help or hinder us in the quest to maintain sanity during the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas? I'd love to know your thoughts.....

This is worth seeing - and will make you proud of all you are doing correctly!

What causes us who have taught more than twenty years in first grade to stay in that grade? More than anything, I think it is the innocence and joy in a first graders' eyes as they understand the joy of reading, writing, and numbers. The three R's...so much has changed in teaching the three R's over the last twenty plus years. We have gone from reading groups to whole group to heterogeneous flexible grouping to individual differentiated instruction...you know the list could continue on and on. Authors such as the sisters and Carol Avery have certainly changed my practice and the way I look at children. I have had administrators who have encouraged me to explore and develop my own philosophy of teaching. This year the thing that has impacted my teaching more than anything else is my own 6 year old grandson. While that seems odd since I teach six and seven year olds all the time, it took my own grandson to remind me that when a first grader comes in of a morning it is as important or more so that I listen to what that child has to say as it is for me to start the routines of the day. Sometimes, at least for me, things as simple as Morning Meeting, could become more about the process than the child. The Child is the most important element of all.

Why didn't I think of that?

With a gentle push from my administrator, not too long ago I left the front of my classroom and began the process of turning my room from a 'teacher-centered' classroom into a 'child-centered' one. It may sound like a little thing to others, but it was a BIG thing for me! It's rejuvenated me and my classroom. Now I work hard to keep my whole-group instruction time meaningful but brief - getting the children quickly into small groups and independent work. Not only is MY teaching more effective one-on-one and in small groups, but the learning and teaching that goes on among the children in these configurations is priceless!

Transition Time Trouble

This year's class has had a hard time with self control during the transition time of lining up. Since we learn a poem every week, we now say our poem as we get in line. I start saying the poem and the children join in. Our goal is for the class to get in line correctly before we complete the poem. The students are talking, but in a productive way!

Something little that affected my practice.....

The simple concept of "turn and talk" changed my classroom practice dramatically. I consider it a new rule of engagement. It immediately engages all learners, and gives first graders a chance to do what they most love to do - talk to each other. With this simple practice I empower children to be heard. And, it didn't cost anything and I didn't have to go to a week long seminar to learn how to apply it....