In my opinion, Sundays are one of the best days of the week. Although it is obvious and imperative to build upon the academic and SEL work that has been done last week, and the entire school year, it’s like a fresh start for a new week of learning, Whatever may have caused any stressors last week seem to fade to distant memory of Friday and Saturday with family and activities. Sundays are days of football watching, of straightening and organizing, and, of one of my favorite intellectual pursuits, planning for the math learning of my students, this year in grades four, and in grades six through eight.
I have always enjoyed the development of curriculum, and have never been able to just stick to the program that the school purchases. I use “the book” as a guide and a resource, combined with a the standards that students need to reach by the end of the year. I am blessed that I have always worked in schools throughout my career that have allowed me to utilize my creativity and my education to do what I feel is best for my students. I have added activities and ideas, from resources that I research or from my own creation, that I know will interest my students, or more importantly, be impactful to the students’ needs as math learners. As teachers, I know we have an intuition that sometimes supersedes data, we know what our students know and don’t know, and can use the “art of teaching” combined with the “science of teaching” to produce the perfect balance of challenges within a learning environment.
At this point in my career I am focusing on teaching math so that they get excited when they figure out problems, to excite students about numbers, to increase the confidence of all students, especially in mathematical pursuits. And… I personally strive to reach every student in a way that all of their gaps are filled without overlapping with prior mastery. My hope is that if I do overlap learning they have done before, I do it in a way that is more meaningful, more rigorous, and/or in greater context so that it builds numeracy, critical thinking, and appreciation. It is not easy to teach math in a personalized way, it takes time. And, as I am learning this year, and slowly documenting here, and in a notebook, and of course, in my mental notes, it takes prioritizing beyond just time.
Tonight’s planning for this week? Well, the middle school students, grades six through eight has been set with an upcoming assessment. My focus, as part of the prioritizing, is a new way to look at a fourth grade class of almost thirty students that I feel has not learned in a way that provides the education the students deserve- it needs to be more personalized. It needs to be more math. If I had my way, we would do math the entire school day! But, alas, I am only allowed so many minutes, so it’s about flexibility and thinking outside-of-the-box, and being grateful for the generosity of colleagues. Tonight, I am solidifying what I have been thinking about for a week- I am putting in a plan for hands-on, and face-to-face, and paper-and-pencil centers, all surrounding the topics of factors, multiplication and division, at a variety of levels. Let’s see how it goes!
Talking Math 