Take a tour of my class!
Take a look at my classroom. I am part of a two person team (this year we have three teachers to experiment with co-teaching) that has a strong technology integration focus. Keeping with that focus we named our team #HJW, where the letters represent the initials of the three teachers on the team. We have 27 students in each homeroom but often do a lot of activities as a 54.
My primary role is teaching 5th and 6th grade mathematics and science. My science classes are multi-age and have a blend of the two grade levels. My math classes are unique in that we give students a chance to accelerate in math, therefore my 5th grade math class includes a few fourth graders and 6th grade math includes a 5th grader. Below you will see examples of what the classroom enviornment looks like and some of the day-to-day learning activites that occur.
Class Culture & Enviornment
Class Constitution
2015-2016 Classrom Constitution
At the beginning of the year one of the most important tasks we complete is to establish a positive classroom culture . Part of our work in the first few days includes students from the #HJW team come together to decide on rules that we will live by each day. We create the rules together so students feel included in the decision making process. In the end our constitution generally includes rules that are consistent among most classrooms. Rule #1 is a newer rule for me. KVKWKA translates into “Kind Voice, Kind Words, and Kind Actions.” Reflection on our constitution occurs regularly. When we conference with students on their behavior student discuss what their strengths and weaknesses are when it comes to our class constitution.
Wall of Champions
In an effort for the students to take ownership of the room and feel like their own we created a “Wall of Champions.” This is their wall to brag and boast about achievements they have made throughout the year. They can be academic or non-academic, the choice is theirs. My students know that whatever they are proud of can be posted to their wall. I occasionally add to the wall as I see class achievements as well.
Wall of Champtions serves as a brag wall.
Small Group Norms
Once I was able to get general procedures to work with the students we incorporated guided math. This framework for teaching math required more procedures and guidelines and students were more than willing to contribute to. They created a list of what small group/guided math should look like and sound like to us and any other guest in the room. We work hard to follow these norms everyday not matter what type of activity we are working on.
Student developed norms for small groups.
Mathematics & Science
Help Wall
Creating a class of mathematicians takes a lot of practice and modeling. We spend a lot of time working on developing independence, especially for guided math. Our math help was is one of the tools students use when working on a particular skill or concept. The anchor charts have definitions, examples, and model problems to assist students with their work.
Anchor charts used for reference throughtout the year.
Interactive Word Wall
Students are responsible for creating our word wall. For upper elementary word walls most of the words come from content vocabulary. We start our word wall game at the beginning of the year and students are responsible for picking out the words for our wall. They pick words form our lessons or discussion that are content specific or that we classify as higher-level words. The words are color coded for the students and are used as a reference and for a variety of interactive games during transitions times.
Student selected Word Wall words.