Getting Ready for Class

Summer is quickly drawing to a close and I have read many posts about the fun activities that my colleagues have participated in... Trips with family, marathons entered and successfully completed, weddings, graduations and many other great things.  But now, as we prepare to start the new school year (we return July 30th), I find myself (dare I say) excited!  This fall, we will fully implement Common Core in our district. While many of are dreading it - the increased use of technology, the different strategies that will have to implemented, the change in the delivery of our most trusted lessons - I am not dreading it at all!  As the first day of school draws nearer, I am unable to sleep.  I have been completely preoccupied with getting ready for class.  After spending the last 12 years in a small classroom, I am moving to a larger classroom that I feel will help me better implement the new activities that will go on there.
Last year, I borrowed a strategy from the Language Arts Department to help my students remember their math facts in a particularly difficult lesson (I didn't mention it before but I teach 7th and 8th grade math).  I used popcorn reading with a new spin.  I posted the facts on the bulletin board as they are introduced and each morning, we start with the first fact.  I start by repeating exactly what we said about the fact the previous day and when I stop, the entire class must fill in the word that comes next.  This picture shows my students gathered around the bulletin board to discuss the information we placed there.  I found that this space was too small for all of them to gather at once.

Thankfully their backs were all turned!

In my new classroom, I am very luck to have a portable wall that separates my classroom from the one behind me. Why am I lucky?  Because that ENTIRE wall is cork board!!!  I now have the space to have all 36 students up there if  they want!  I can now put everything up and leave it instead of taking it down when we run out of room!!!

I am super excited about my new space!!!










Lots of room to post vocabulary and graphs!






We now have enough room for my students to come to the wall and demonstrate, clarify, call attention to specific parts of the lesson!!  I make large "post-it notes" with hints and clues and large arrows to point out specific information.  Since the time I took these pictures, I have removed the shelves you see on the left to provide even more space on the wall!  Once I put up the beginning of our first unit of study, I will snap a shot and post it.  In the second photo I made a banner with a general heading that applies to Unit 1 for both Math 7 and Math 8 and a kid-friendly version of the 8 mathematical practices.  I can hardly wait for school to begin!