Here are some key points that I will touch on in this post.
- Assign designated areas to complete a task.
When your students go to their stations, make sure they know where to do their work at. I have four stations that I kids rotate through. Each station that they visit, they have a designated area in the classroom where they must go.
Teacher Table: They come to the table for their math lesson with me
On My Own: Students sit at a table with privacy offices to work on their independent work.
Games: Students sit in a corner of the room at designated tables to play games.
Technology: Students find pink sticky notes that I stick around the room. They take their ipad to that place in the room to work on their activity.
You can read more about my math stations here.
2. Organize your materials.
Make sure your students know where their things are at. Make math tools easily accessible and easy to put away. Organize their work that they'll be doing when they're not with you so they aren't questioning things or wondering what to do. I give my kids math games to play that we've played before in whole group. Also, my kids complete math workbooks for independent work so they aren't having to deal with loose paper, glue, scissors and such!
3. Stay consistent with your behavior plan.
Don't let up with behavior expectations during math workshop. Start the year off strong. Stop if you need to and discuss what needs to improve. In between rotations, compliment positive behavior.
4. Play calming music.
There is just something about calm music that allows everyone to keep their calm zen. I love to play beetles calming music. It has a nice little tune and I find students stay quiet so they can hear it! ;-)
5. Set a sound meter!
Sound meters have saved my life a time or two. The kids learn to control their volume through the use of this thing! I love it! You have to turn your volume off on your computer and allow the microphone to work. When the sound meter goes to red, that means kids are too loud. You can also alter its sensitivity!
6. Set up privacy offices.
I started my teaching career with privacy offices and I've never looked back. Yes, I love collaboration, but students also need to learn to hunker down and focus on their own work. My kids use the offices during their on my math workshop station.
7. Assign station coaches.
This is something new that I started this year. It's a classroom job that's given to students who show that they can be responsible enough to listen and follow directions, help others and get back on task. When other student's have a question, they go to the station coaches first to ask for help.
8. Reflect.
Reflect. Reflect. Reflect. When beginning math workshop you have to talk about what just happened, the good and the bad. At the beginning of the year, I especially make it a point to reflect after everything we do. As the year goes on, I do it less frequently because it isn't needed as much.
When we reflect, we discuss 3 things that went well and 3 things that would go better next time. Sometimes we will jot them on the board and visit them before we start our math workshop the next day. It's so beneficial!
I hope you enjoyed this post, as well as all of my others about math workshop! To read more math workshop posts you can click the links below.
We are also having a giveaway to celebrate this series of math workshop posts! Hopefully there is something that you could use in your own classroom!
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