Scheduling...How do you fit it all in!?

Well, I have been asked by two AMAZING teacher-bloggers to join them in this #2getherwearebetter LINKY PARTY! Some linky parties are definitely better than others (in my opinion). This linky is going to be a very informative read for you! 

LINKY=We are all posting about the same TOPIC this month and after you read mine (informative or not), you can look at the bottom of my post at the LINKY and find all of the LINKS that other bloggers that are part of this have added and you can easily hop over to their blogs to see what THEY have to say about this same topic. TOGETHER WE ARE BETTER! :) #2getherwearebetter

The topics that these two ladies have scheduled are to help all of us! TOGETHER WE ARE BETTER!!! Collaborating about important teaching topics from state to state and across the country, what could be better!? Well, I suppose we are even doing it AROUND the world! Let me know where you are from in the comments. I would love to hear how far away people are reading my blog posts!

Thank you Angie and Ashley for putting this together and letting us collaborate about SCHEDULES this month! Also, thank you for inviting me to a part of something so awesome! I'm honored!

        

I'll start by just showing you my overall schedule for the day! Keep in mind that I teach in the biggest district in Indiana and a lot of my schedule is not very flexible and determined by the district. When it comes to the length of blocks and intervention, it's district mandated. Then when it comes to the placement of those blocks, that is determined by our school. This is important so they can schedule para-pros to be in our room during our reading block, etc. 

Intervention Block

Our intervention block is a time that the reading and math interventionists (sometimes ELL too) come and pull groups of second graders from all of the second grade classrooms to work on skills. We also have a small high ability group that is pulled at that time.  Depending on the class, that sometimes leaves just a few kids in the classroom. Other times, that may leave a huge group, so depending on the time of the year, I do different things during that block. It’s always some kind of enrichment for the kids that are left with me in the classroom.  I say “depending on the time of the year” because at the beginning of this year, I had a lot pulled out, but now that they are learning and succeeding in the intervention some of the kids have graduated from intervention and now I don’t have as many pulled at this time of the year. So, depending on how many kids are still there, that makes my decision on the kinds of activities that they do.  Usually, I have students doing either math games or reading/literacy games. Right now, we are working on money, so I use every chance I can get to give them a few extra minutes of practice with coins!

 Reading Block

We use the Reading Wonders reading series. This is our second year using it. I have a more in depth blog post about how I use Reading Wonders and my “thoughts after one year of using it.” Our basic reading block schedule is 30 minutes of whole group reading, 60 minutes of literacy workstations/small groups. This year, I have four small groups and I do 20 minutes with each group. I meet with Groups 1 & 2 everyday (lowest), then I alternate meeting with 3 & 4 each day. I also have many posts about how I do workstations in my classroom! My workstations are differentiated and each student has a work plan that indicates which stations to visit, based on their readiness level. 

Math Block

I spend a lot of time on math in my room! My district uses Envisions Math. In my opinion, it doesn’t have enough included with it for the kids to really gain a solid understanding, so I have added many other things in. I have a detailed post on how I do my math centers/rotations that I recently posted. I start my math block with some kind of activity on the kids’ desks when they get back from lunch. This gets them busy right away and lets me have a few kids at a time do a quick bathroom break. Usually, it’s one of my monthly problem solving activities that they glue in their math notebooks and complete. Other times, it might be an interactive notebook page (From LuckyLittle Learners) that they know to cut, paste, and complete the activity in their math notebooks. All of these routines are taught at the beginning, so whatever is on their desk, they know what to do. I give them 15 minutes to complete this (along w/ bathroom!)

   

Then, we do whole group. (Approx 15 minutes) The kids come down the carpet with their white boards and dry erase markers. We use Envisions, so at that point we do the “Technology Bridge” video. I’m going to be honest and admit that at first (like the first three years!), I didn’t like those videos. I tried them, got bored with them myself and had decided I could teach it better. It wasn’t until this year that I really started to see the value in the videos because I started having the kids LEAVE THEIR DESKS, come down in front of the screen and interact with the video on their white boards. (Also, I’ve gone to math rotations after the video, so then I feel better that I can teach them anything they didn’t understand in the technology bridge when they are in my small group!) If you are teaching Envisions and get frustrated with the videos, I’d love to hear if we are on the same page. Like I said, it took me awhile and I had to give them a chance again this year. Also, it’s all about the logistics of it. I have a laptop that is always hooked up and ready to show the video. In the past, I had to move my laptop, hook it up to the projector every day during math time and honestly, I didn’t have time for that!

After the technology bridge video is finished (we have interacted and I have stopped the video throughout to show things to them on my own white board, etc.), we break into our groups and rotations. Each group/rotation is about 10-12 minutes. I don’t set a timer for it anymore. I take the time I need with each group. The first group that comes to me has the highest need, so they take a few minutes longer. The last group that comes to me is my highest math group, so if I have to cut that one short, I can! I have an entire blog post on how I do my math rotations in more detail! My centers each day are: Teacher Table (my small group where I teach the concept in more detail!), Computers, Math Games, and Seat Work. Students always go to seat work after they meet with me. They complete whatever we started in small group! They always go to computers after seat work because that way, if their seat work isn’t done, they can skip computers. The rotation schedule that I have works PERFECTLY for me. I am completely in love with it!

After math rotations/groups, I do the Envisions Quick Check that is included with each lesson as an actual grade and check for understanding. This can help me determine what needs to be worked on the next day in small group and if we are ready to move on in small groups. 

Science/Social Studies/Health

These are subjects that I have always had an extremely hard time fitting in! I don’t have much advice on this and I know that a lot of teachers have gone to completely integrating these subjects. The good news is that I have come up with an answer for myself now that I have moved to a new school. The great thing about the new school is that we have FOUR second grade teachers and they already had a plan! (Better for me, right!?)

Here is what we do:
4 teachers/4 subjects/4 days/4 quarters

(The 4^th subject is something extra that we need to cover, could be another science unit, a monthly unit, a needed unit like “Character” and/or anti-bullying.)

Here’s how it works. The last twenty minutes of each day, the TEACHERS switch classrooms. We each have a subject assigned to us for the entire quarter. We teach our own class on Mondays, then we switch Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays. We don’t switch on Fridays. So, for example: I’m teaching Science right now. I teach my class on Mondays, class B on Tuesdays, class C on Wednesdays, class D on Thursdays. Then while I’m teaching science to them, my kids have a rotation each day of social studies, health, and an “extra” subject. 

I’m not sure if my schedule can help others, but I hope it can give you some ideas! Please feel free to leave comments, suggestions, and ideas that you’d like to share!

TOGETHER WE ARE BETTER!

Where are you from? {Comment below in the comments section!}

An InLinkz Link-up

Math Monday: Math Stations and Rotations

I have honestly wanted to do math centers and small group math for years and just never found the time or resources. I think this is a horrible, stupid excuse now that I have started them and realized how AWESOME it is and how EASY it is! Why didn't I do this sooner!?

Well, for one thing, the past 7 years, I had a much shorter math block scheduled into my day. This year I have started at a new school and we have 80-90 minutes for math each day. At first, when I thought of how I had "always" taught math, I didn't know what I would do with all of this time!!

I kept telling myself, as I have for years, that I love how my reading block goes. Short whole group, then teaching the bulk/meat of my lesson in small groups and having the kids rotate through workstations.

Although I feel good about my rotations and groups, I know this is a work in progress and I plan to work on being more precise and differentiating even more. I'm just proud that I have it GOING!

I copied this rotation schedule from my teaching teammate, Michelle. Genius plan. I'll tell you why later. 

My four groups are lowest to highest math level. Group one is lowest/needs most help and Group 4 is the highest math level/most independent. 

This is the same rotation, everyday.

We use Envisions math. Although I'm not a huge fan, I use it for my whole group lesson usually. I start my math block with whole group teaching of the lesson. I try to limit this to 15-20 minutes. I used to teach the whole thing whole group...agh! Why!?

The rotations I use the baseline of 12 minutes per rotation, but sometimes if I get through my group fast or the kids are totally getting it, some groups go longer/shorter than others. Usually if one goes a little longer and needs more help, it works out that another group is really grasping it and the times always work out. I set a timer, but for the most part, I'm just having to go past it or stop it early. It's just a basic guideline.

Here are some reasons this works so well:

Group 4 is independent, so they start at the seat work and don't need much help from me. They get enough from the short whole group lesson that they can get right to work on the assignment. These would be the kids that during my LOOOONNNGGG whole group lesson in the past, they would be working ahead and bored. Now, they don't have to be bored, they can get what they need in 15-20 minutes, then get right to work without wasting any time. Sometimes it's only 10 min!

Group 1 needs the most help, so it's best to start with them, when I can give them the most time. I always figure that if I get to groups 1-3 and give them a lot of help and for some reason I can't get to group 4, then that's okay. But, that hasn't even happened yet! I have made it to every group, every day!

The other good thing about this is the order. After teacher table, they have "learned" even more from me, so they head to their seats to do the seat work that corresponds with today's lesson. Then after seat work is computers/ipads. SOOOOO, if need be, you can hold this over their head a little bit. If they mess around at seat work station, don't finish what they needed to, they don't go to the next station of computers, they just keep working. (It works!) This order is the same for everyone, even the highest group. They start at seat work, so again, if they mess around, they don't go to computers. 

As for the computers/iPad. We have four student laptops in our room. I utilize those four, plus my teacher laptop, plus my teacher iPad. From the beginning, for each group, I assigned who would be on each computer and laptop everyday. I have a trustworthy student in each group that always is on my laptop, and they sit near me on the floor while using it. (I have to code in for each kid, etc.) It works well! I like having them assigned to computers for some obvious reasons. SAVES TIME (isn't it all about saving time!?) and they aren't arguing over who gets to be on my laptop or my iPad. I chose at beginning who uses them, period. Argument over. :)

Math games on the left, Computers in middle, iPad on right

Teacher Table on bottom left, Envisions seat work top right, and Math Game choices bottom right

Some reasons that I LOVE my new math stations and my whole new way of teaching math:

I KNOW exactly what my kids know. I DID NOT KNOW that before. I may have thought I did, but I didn't. Honestly, I did not and I'm admitting it now. I realize now that I'm teaching like this! Now that I meet with 4-6 kids at a time, I know which kids can regroup, which kids are having trouble, which kids forget to regroup the tens place, which kids forget to add the third number, etc. Tons of details I can tell you, off the top of my head because they are right in my face working, not playing in their desks, staring out the window, copying their neighbor, or just trying to keep up with a smile on their face. They are right at this tiny table with me and I can see their wheels turning, I can see their mistakes and correct them instantly. I don't have to wonder who is paying attention, who is catching on, or be surprised later when someone totally bombs the test.

I also love it because it doesn't feel like I have to "use my voice" so much. I mean, I am talking just as long...but I'm not talking OVER other kids or having to use my LOUD teaching voice.

I love it because by the fourth group, I'm an expert at explaining how to do things and I can literally see the progress throughout the rotation of kids "catching on"!

I love it because I can SIT for the four groups. Lazy? Yes. Smart? Yes! It's just a more relaxing setting for me.

I also love it because I can look around the room and see 4-6 kids working at their seats, spread around the room, then I see 4-6 kids "plugged in" to laptops and ipads on MobyMax math, then another group playing fun math games together. Honestly, the room is QUIET!!! The only kids MAYBE talking are the ones playing math games and the ones right at my group. It's glorious!!! I'm honestly in love.

I should also add that after the rotations, I do also make time to give students a graded "Quick Check" at the end of the lesson, to check their understanding for the day. I use the quick checks that are included with Envisions, but I'm sure you have our own in place.

I will work on getting some better pictures of the process and have another post about my math stations!!!