Math Workshop Behavior Tips!

Do you want to try Math Workshop rotations next year, but your kid's behavior habits from the past have reallyyyy made you rethink that? Trust me, I get it!! I've had behavior in my classroom that I never imagined I would have to put up with... all within the last two years. The upside of that experience is that I've gotten real creative with my behavior management tricks, especially during math workshop.

Here are some key points that I will touch on in this post.

1. 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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Making Classroom Jobs Manageable!

So... I have a confession. At the beginning of each year, I promise myself to keep up with classroom jobs. I swear that I will give out new jobs each Monday. I will give the kids time do their jobs in the morning and when we pack up. It all plays out so perfectly in my mind... Then, comes week 3 of school, we get busy, we run out of time. Real school starts and... well... class jobs stop existing! I forget about them (ok, I ignore them). I pretend that we never even had them. Then, week after week after week after week (you got the point) my kids remind me that we need to do jobs. We do them, they take up 15 minutes because I forgot to mark down who had what jobs and then the kids are arguing. Basically, I think classroom jobs are a nightmare.  If they work for you, great! For me, I just can't!

I do not want to take away the student's abilities to help out in the classroom because their help really makes a big difference in how much I can get accomplished! I love having student help. I just needed a more manageable way of getting their help that didn't actually take up MORE of our precious time.

So, now we have weekly workers. Literally, all I do is switch out two sticky notes to assign new students their jobs... that's literally it! Like for real, so easy!

Here's a peek at how I make it work and make it a little more fun for the kids! :-) 

Integrating fun is a MUST! They feel such a sense of pride.

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I have two types of jobs in my room.

The first is called, Weekly Workers. 

To set up, I get out sticky notes. I put them in two equal piles. I write ALL of my students names on the sticky notes. I stick the two piles on my Weekly Workers poster. Each week the two names up top are the students who are in charge of all the class jobs. On Friday afternoon, I move those students names to the bottom of the pile to reveal next weeks new Weekly Workers. It takes like, 2 seconds! YES!

When weekly workers are working, which is normally in the morning and afternoon - I have little worker hats for them to wear while they're working. That way, everyone knows they're working. It also makes them feel a sense of pride. <3 it.="" love="" p="" they="">

As a little gift to the students, I also give them Weekly Worker necklaces. They can wear it all week long and take it home at the end of the week!

I prep all of these at once, so they just grab one when it's their turn to be the worker. 

I also have a poster displayed that tells the workers what their jobs are for the week. The jobs don't really change, but if I ever need something extra done (like stuff cut out) then, I can add it to their job list.

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I also give two other students jobs for the week as well to get more students involved (and save my sanity). I call these ones station coaches. I don't know how I would get through rotations without my coaches. They're the biggest help!

It's the same idea as seen above. Write all students names on sticky notes, make two piles, rotate the names. This one though, I am a little more choosy on who I pick. This is an IMPORTANT job and I make sure to tell my kids that. If they're someone who doesn't listen well or stay on task then they can't be hired yet for this job until they show me they can do so.

I advertise this job as a privilege. 

Here are the jobs the coaches do during stations. It's a lot, but honestly, they aren't bothered that much. My favorite job that they have... bathroom permission! Ahh... it's amazing - no one comes to the teacher table to ask. 

The station coaches, also get hats to wear while they're working. Since they're coaches, I thought a ball cap was definitely appropriate! 

They also get necklaces to wear as well. 

If you have trouble keeping up with classroom jobs like me, I encourage you to check this out. 

You will not regret it!

You can find it here:

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