Week of Feb 17

This week was a crazy week. One thing that I felt went really well was my lesson on place value. I used arrow cards that really seemed to help all of the students, regardless of their instructional level, understand. I felt that because I incorporated the manipulative, the students really were able to see the real value of a digit based on their location. Instead of the 1 was in the tens value, they were able to tell me that the 1 was really 1 ten, or valued at 10. I also implemented a math puzzle with the place value concept that was on-grade level, and the students seemed to enjoy working on this as a group.

I also incorporated a strategy that I like to call the students become the teacher. I would have one student go to the board, and explain the process they used to get an answer. The 6th grade class created equivalent fractions using their interactive notebooks for this strategy. I had each student cut out puzzle pieces, and then create an equivalent fraction. Then, I had the students explain how they created the equivalent fractions. The class seemed to enjoy this because they got the chance to go to the chalkboard, and become the teacher essentially.

One thing I would like to begin to incorporate is using the iPad to enhance skills, since technology is limited in my classroom. The students see me take attendance on the iPad everyday, and I feel that they are itching to use it. They seem more motivated to learn when incorporating any technology, so I would be interested to see how this would work when using for a lesson.