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Math Misunderstandings

Just a quick note about a wonderful session at a conference I attended today called "Activities to Undo Math Misconceptions".  It was based on a book by Honi J. Bamberger and addressed the math concepts of money, time, counting, fractions, place value, and equality in K-3.


The best idea I saw all day was a way to help kids understand coin values!


You can use unifix cubes and a hundreds board to really drive home the understanding that different coins have different values.  What a great idea!  I can't wait to try this next year!

Here is a link for more info:
Click Here
~Nikki

16

Classroom Design Reflection

For the last few years, my school has used the Debbie Diller approach to literacy stations and classroom space. (My school even sent me to one of her workshops!)  I used Debbie's advice and used a cohesive color scheme with tidy, organized spaces.  I have my room designed around 10 literacy stations, space for whole group, individual space, and small group guided reading, and I am absolutely convinced that this helped my students work better independently and stay on task.
So, in preparation for next year so I have been looking back at pictures I took just before school opened last year.  I am trying to determine what needs improvement, what went really well, and where I can pretty things up a bit to give the room a homey, comfortable feeling. I was thinking of keeping the green and yellow (I have TONS of baskets and bins in these colors), getting rid of the red, and adding layers with a print, polka dot, or stripe.

Here's what I started with last year (keep in mind - this is before students came to school so everything is pristine and stations are a bit empty). 

We have a school-wide rules and social skills theme of "Stay on Track" so I bought real model train track from the Dollar Tree and hot glued it to a board outside my room.  This year, I would like to add each child's picture to their train car.

Helper chart and Write the Room
Listening Station

Math Stations and manipulatives

Pocket chart station
Read the Room


Small group guided reading and word wall
Writing station




ABC Station

Big Book Station
Whole Group easel

Part of the classroom library
the other side of the library




My desk!



There's No Place Like Home

~Nikki
11

Summer Planning

Teachers are completely nuts - you know that, right?  We have 10 whole weeks worth of beautiful, lazy, school-free, summer days available for turning off our brains, and what do we do?  Plan for next year.

Silly Rabbit - summer is for fun!

 Of course, some of us actually think planning for next year IS fun and that's a whole different disorder!

But, I am thinking about next year (and I do kind of enjoy it:) so I am going through my beginning of the year bag of tricks.  Top of the list - teaching PROCEDURES! We have to make sure our little darlings know exactly what is expected of them and model those expectations step by step.  Teeny tiny, itty bitty, piece by piece steps.  It can be tedious, but it will make the rest of the year much easier!

Speaking of tedious, I don't want the kids to feel like learning and following procedures is tedious, so I try to find ways to make it fun, or at least less like "work."

Here is a poem I wrote a few years ago that we sing during clean up or transitions.  It gives us a reminder of the procedures for being ready to listen and a time frame to get ready.  We sing the poem as we tidy up and are ready when the poem ends.  (And after some of our messier moments, we may have to sing it twice!)


~Nikki
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Brand Spankin' New

The blog, not me.

I've been teaching for 16 years so I'm not a newbie, but blogging is a brand new enterprise for me.  Reading other teachers' blogs, pinterest pages, and ideas on TPT and TN has helped me reach outside of my classroom, my school, my district, and my state to see what other teachers are doing to find success in their classrooms.

Teacher sharing really is at the heart of teacher survival.  Isn't that how most of us persevere in this crazy job?  We share ideas, what works, what doesn't work, crazy stories, frustration, our strengths and weaknesses, personal triumph and pain. Then we take it back to the classroom, put it all together and make it work.

That's why I feel like a 'teacher in progress.'  Just when I think I've had a terrific day (or week, or year) and everything went pretty well, I come across the most amazing way to share a new concept with kids, or I'll read a book that blows my mind and causes all kinds of upheaval in my ideas about teaching.  We're never really 'finished' becoming a teacher.  We just keep learning and morphing and becoming.

So here I am, up late on a summer night, thinking about school and planning for next year.  But I'm not alone.  There are so many others out there, up late while the family sleeps... thinking, planning, gleaning, sharing, becoming a teacher...


Here's to the journey!

~Nikki Sabiston
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