Thinking about the First Day of School….

I can't believe that tomorrow is August!  I've already been in my classroom for about 9 hours, prepping for the year.  However, I'm pretty excited because I've got a great team of math teachers who are all on board for new and exciting changes.

Recently, I've seen a neat activity floating around Pinterest for a first day of school math activity.  I actually got onto my Pinterest account this morning to locate it and create my own copy, but was lucky enough to stumble across a link to Donna at Math Coach's Corner who had already created a blank template!  Thanks, Donna :).  I actually love the idea that's in the picture of having the students use the activity as their insert of the front cover of their math binders.

I've been trying to think about other activities to do that day as well.  We get to see each class for about 55 minutes that day.  I don't want to bore them the very first day and I'll probably spend a bit each subsequent day going over different policies, so I'd like to have something where they can move around a bit and get to know each other.  What I've decided on (I think…), is this:

When students come in the door, they will be handed a piece of 8 ½ x 11" paper that has a single number written on it.  The number might be an integer, a square or cube root, a whole number with integer exponent, or some irrational number like pi or sqrt 2.  After some introductions and necessary paperwork, I'll have the students get up and try and put themselves in number line order from least to greatest.  It will be a little tough, because there may be some numbers they haven't been introduced to yet, but I think it will get them talking.  I did this last year (not for the first day) and they seemed to enjoy it.  There can be some good discussions about why a person/number might be in the wrong spot as they look around the room.

So basically, my day might look like this:

• Students enter classroom with number and pick up a copy of the By the Numbers activity above.
• Teacher/Student Introductions
• Pass out any paperwork.
• Introduce Number Line game and have students attempt to put themselves into the correct order.
• Class discussion about Number Line and if they are correct.
• Students return to seat and By the Number activity is introduces (I'll project my own copy).
• Students work on By the Number activity and complete as homework if not finished.

Gearing Up for the Start! Post #1 - Prep Work

I cannot believe that there is only one week left before school begins!  Officially I have to report back to work on Wednesday.  Unofficially…. I've been back on and off for about 2 ½ weeks now.  Some summer in the future I'll have enough planned and ready that I'll have at least a month where I don't have to think about school :).  Not so right now…  But that's okay, because I love everything that I've been putting together in my classroom and with my two new 8th grade math teachers!!

Here are some things I've been working on:

1. Getting supplies purchased and put together;
2. Organizing thoughts from Minds on Mathematics (book study);
3. Decorating (obviously…);
4. Creating a "Math Around the World" bulletin board and notebook;
5. Math Survival Guides (woo-hoo!!!!), aka interactive notebooks;
6. Lesson plans;
7. I'm sure there is more and I'm just not thinking of them right now… :).

I'll be posting lots more soon on all of these topics - with pictures!

One of the things I've done is to create little notes that I'm going to laminate and tape into my plan book with reminders about all of the awesome prompts that I were in Minds on Mathematics (Wendy Ward Hoffer).  A huge shout out to Melanie from Confessions of a Grade 6 Math Addict who originally created these and allowed for sharing.  I've tweaked mine some, but I loved her outlines and colors.  I think these will be great reminders to me for class discussions and reflection time in the MSGs.  

(Okay… totally cool… this is the first time I've figured out how to embed a .pdf file in my blog.  Here's the website I used.)

Speaking of plan books… I was on Pinterest the other day (can you say LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!) and came across a pin about teacher plan books from Erin Condren.  Now, I am pretty fussy about my calendar.  I use Outlook on my computer because I get a lot of meeting appointments sent my way electronically, but I'm still an old-fashioned, big picture girl.  I like to see the long term plan ahead of me, so usually a two-page monthly calendar (with lines) is what I like to have.  Our planners at school are great (and free…), but they are a little smaller than what I'd like.  I'm also not particularly fond of spending a huge amount of money when I can create something myself.  However….. with all of the checklists I'd like to have after reading Minds on Math this summer, as well as a host of other things, I tried to weigh the time it would take me to make my own versus purchasing one of these.  They are so darned cute I'll bet you can imagine what I did :).  Yep… I bought one.  I'm so excited and it's totally personalized.  I guess that means no pedicure before school starts...