First Days

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First Days—
Click on Image to see what #SundayFunday is all about


This year may be different because our HS has adopted CPM Integrated curriculum. CPM does a lot of upfront team building, which is what I naturally do. I hope I will have time to play around with my beloved openers and try some new ones from #talklessam.

I start by having my students make a name tent. This year I will use something like mathequalslove.blogspot.com, with room for feedback and questions on the inside. I like name tents because I use them for random grouping, learn student names, and giving the students an opportunity to express themselves. I usually ask them for birth order, and favorite something. I found this slide from last year:

I saw that I used the Right Hand Side for a Bell Ringer that was a visual pattern and I used the Left Hand Side for an Exit Ticket that was to answer: I notice…I Wonder…Some questions I am considering are "One thing you want me to know about you," " What is making you happy this week?" and "Tell me something I don't know, it could be about you or about the world at large." (Taken from Dinner Party Download Podcast)

After Name Tents and Warm Up, in Geometry, we start with WODB. (Which One Doesn’t Belong?) I get the students used to Upper Left, Lower Left, Upper Right and Lower Right by doing my version of Lines and Blobs, but only use the Blobs. I name the corners by preferred genres of movies, more likely to be (ie playing  a video, at the beach, texting, etc) Have students notice who is in the pod, so that they know who their peeps may be. (I also use these pods to make the next days seating charts!) I talk to the kids in the Blobs, ask them why they are there, I also poke around for folks to speak up when I ask if anyone is willing to share why they are there. Here are some of my favorite WODB to start with:
and



The 2nd day, I use an icebreaker I used in a “My Favorite” at Twitter Math Camp in 2016 . Check out the power point here. Basically from asking a group of 4 students to come up with a single favorite movie, book, and game, you gather a list of how group work gets done. It isn’t always the ideal; time constraints, loudest gets the voice, yet it is totally real. And then you get talking points. What is ideal? What does bullying feel like? How would you most like to get group work done?

Speaking of talking points, I want my students doing more talking and me doing way less, so I am going to try to set that culture up early. I will have the students do a silent response, a talking point, explained here best by Elisabeth @cheesemonkeysf, and a delve into this article, The Myth of "I am Bad Math," that is super revealing when you have the students first respond to the question about their beliefs and then let them read the article and observe if there has been a shift. 

What do you do that sets the norms in your classroom?








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About Me

About Me
Hi there, I'm Amy! A high school math teacher, poet, crafter, athlete, and mom. This blog features both math and teaching strategies, as well as some of my favorite recipes and everyday triumphs and struggles. Thanks for stopping by, feel free to share on Twitter, Facebook, or email me if you have any questions!

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