Manipulative Math Vocabulary

This is my first year in a new class [Grades 1 &2]. The former Grade 1-2 teacher is right next door, also in a new class so I can consult her when I need to, but there are some things I need to learn on my own.

One thing I have had to learn on my own  -- in fact anyone would have to learn this on their own -- is the students vocabulary levels.

After the first few days I saw the they all were having trouble with the words: greater than, less than, equal, before, after, below, and between. Needless to say, without knowing the meanings of words, the math lessons involving those terms were difficult for all in the classroom.

I am thinking of next week getting them to know and understand those words more fully. As a start, today I had a lesson where I tried to combine manipulatives and the vocabulary.

Say what?

1. I started by giving the ma sheet of paper with some words they were having trouble with.

2. I then played a little word recognition game with them where I said the words and they slapped the word. (No Picture)

3. After that we cut out the words.

4. I then took some small blocks and had them work with partners. I would call out a word and they would show me with the blocks and the word. See below.

This one is "between".

It was an OK lesson. Reflecting on it right now, I would have them write their own cards. Next time I will also push them to make more sentences.

What else?


Twitter writing tip.

@danielscib
Look for common mistakes or those that interfere most with meaning or organization. Teach those points in a small group.

Class Needs

I was doing some planning on the day before school when I saw a Tweet from @whatedsaid about the the beginning of the school year.

I did/do not really know what my new grade level can do, but I knew there were some ideas I could not apply to a class of first and second graders. I did think that we could spend some time talking about how they learn and what they need to learn.

I stood at the whiteboard and asked them, "What do you need to learn?" At first I was getting answers about physical materials -- which is not what I was looking for -- but I wrote all the ideas on the board while trying to guide the students.

After one student said "Responsible" things started flowing (although immediately it was just the students regurgitating the school ESLRs.

Eventually we came to a list that we agreed on and I put the list in Wordle.

The Story Behind the Abstract Art in the Hall

Last June we had a morning where the students went to their future teacher for the morning.

To prepare for that morning, I asked the art teacher to draw something on a big piece of cardboard I had. She drew a scene with dinosaurs in it.

I then cut the cardboard into different pieces to make a puzzle. During the "carousel morning", we painted the cardboard pieces.

The students did not know what the puzzle was, so they had no inhibitions about how they painted the parts of their puzzle; all they could see were some lines.

I wanted to have them put the puzzle together on that June morning, but the paint did not dry in time. 

The puzzle turned out to be a good first day activity. It was great to see them all [all 6 of them at the time we are now up to 7] working together to put the puzzle together. Unfortunately when I went to take a picture for the blog, I tried to shoot through the Tumblr app, but I had internet issues and I did not even think to simply take a picture with the iPad camera.

It's too bad, it was a great sight.

After they put the puzzle together, I wondered what I would do with it. I wanted to put it on the wall, but it is fairly big so I did not want to use precious bulletin board space on it. So I taped it together in the back.

Then I thought of hanging it outside my room since there was nothing out there yet anyway. Somehow I got the idea to use these heavy-duty magnets with hooks I have laying around. I used two for the base, and two to hold the top.

At least it is colorful.

Creativity in a Box

While I was working in advertising after graduating from university, I took a course on account management at a small hands-on mentoring school. It was an awesome class taught by people in the profession. One quote that we were told that has always stuck with me was:

Creatives can be more creative the smaller the box they are in.

Here "creatives" means the people in the art department. What the instructor was saying was that when you give boundaries to people when giving them a task, it pushes their creativity further.

I often feel this way when planning units (at least right now). I wonder if it would be better for the school to hand teachers a unit plan with the investigation points, central idea, and the standards they want covered already filled in so teachers can focus on activities and lessons.

That's how I feel today.


*Note: This was written from me being at a school where the only control over my unit is the standards I put in them.

Using the Cloud for School Documents

Before this year I had a problem. I would often work on files at home, and then need to transfer them by email to school. It was not so bad (but not so good either) when working with documents, but when working with photos, I would have to use a flash drive.

Last fall I downloaded a file sharing program onto my PC at school. At first I only used it occasionally to transfer photos from home to school. Then report card time came around, and the capability to directly transfer between computers saved me a lot of time. The advantage I found with email over services like Box.com and Dropbox is with email, you have an archive of the previous versions without having to change the file names.

I would really like for the school to start using either Google Documents or SkyDrive more. SkyDrive has the Microsoft name, so it has better compatibility with MS Documents, but it is still a little awkward to use when editing uploaded documents online. Google Documents has similar issues, but I feel it is more flexible than SkyDrive.

This year I am teaching younger kids, so I am not sure how, where, or when I can use the cloud with my students in my lessons. I have some ideas right now, but I need to see what they are capable of first.

This fall, however, I want to try to find another school that I can link up with to write a story together.

Everyday Practice

"Practice makes perfect."

I don't really like that quote because I believe it leaves several other factors that allow for people to excel.

But practice, and especially consistent practice, is essential for success. There is a reason that people studying karate practice punching hundreds of times everyday.

The problem comes when you have kids who don't enjoy practicing. It is the teacher's job to get the motivated and to make activities fun and exciting, but that is not always enough.

A few years ago I had a student who was positive in her outlook about school, but she was reluctant and lacked confidence. She was writing very little at the time. I tried to encourage her at school, but she was not improving as much as I believed she could.

Before

After

With some encouragement and (a lot of help from her parents who made sure she was writing at home) this girl went from writing a few sentences per journal entry to now writing two or more pages.

But it wasn't only the volume that increased; her sentences are now more detailed, she is developing her own voice, and most importantly for me, her entries flow and make more sense.

The best part about this particular student is that I stopped having to hound her for her journal, after a while she was hounding me to have me check it!