New Desk Name Plate

Hello!

I have spent long hours trying to learn photoshop to start making my own things for the classroom. That way I can have things just like I want. So after watching many many tutorials on youtube, I was able to learn how to make them on photoshop as well as how to turn it into my first product on teacherspayteachers. Since I have always had a polka dot theme in my classroom, I have decided to add owls to that theme. This led me to making polka dot owl name plates for my kids.

Check them out at my store:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Polka-Dot-Owl-Desk-Name-Tag-1339849

I am starting to get really excited for the beginning of the year with my new name tags!

Math Daily 3

Math Daily 4

I just went to the Daily 5 conference workshop in Tacoma and the sisters talked about Math Daily 3. Math is an area where I struggled with setting up the perfect setting and opportunities for all the diverse learners in my class. I had started last year, trying to set up my math block more like reading. This summer I am spending time researching ways to become a more effective math teacher. I am thinking that I will be doing Math Daily 4. My four choices will be math by myself, math with someone, math writing, and math technology. Math technology isn't a choice from the sisters, but my school gets access to Dreambox website for each student so I want to make sure I am using that. I had all these choices last year, but the choices within each one would be different based on the standard we were trying to master. 

Math by Myself - This is where I put in our district math sheets and give additional tasks that help students learn the concept.

Math with Someone - This is where they work on a math game with someone

Math Writing - This is where students are doing problem solving and then writing about it. This is the most difficult for my first graders, but I saw the most improvement over the year with their ability to explain how they solved problems. 

Math Technology - Dreambox or other math websites

The set up of math daily 4 is very similar to literacy daily 5. I start with a whole group lesson on a standard. Then students make their first choice. Now last year, I would either do a follow up lesson or work on number talks. The sisters talked about using the mini lessons for gradual release. The first mini lesson is I do, second lesson is we do, and the third mini lesson is you do. I am going to use this ideas most days this year, but also keep number talks and number sense routines. I am just starting to read Number Sense Routines by Jessica Shumay as it was recommend to me by a math coach. 

I will let you know what routines I am planning for next year after I finish reading it :)