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Week 4 Already!

It amazes me to know  we are rolling into our 4th week of school and already so much has been done!  I promise I will not complain about a school year flying by!  The first part of the year in math is always spent reviewing concepts from the previous year and adding a level of complexity to that.  For instance, my students who are reviewing decimal operations now have to work with those same operations, but they will need to round, deal with repeating numbers, or positive and negative signs with their work.

One thing I've incorporated into my lessons this year is the use of Interactive Notebooks.  There are TONS of free resources on the web for doing this thanks to so many awesome educators.   I research all types of graphic organizers and foldables and incorporate them into my units so that my students are essentially creating their own study guides for quizzes and tests.  One of my new favorite finds is used to solve equations whether they are one step, two step, or multi-step.  I was looking for this resource for my Algebra I class, but I am going to incorporate it with my other classes as well.  While those classes won't hit multi-step equations just yet, this gives them a look ahead.

You can find this foldable HERE!

This is my second year to teach and one lesson I learned the first year is that the biggest transition that takes place are for my students who leave the 5th grade and step into honors level 6th grade math.  The current curriculum is to essentially teach these new 6th graders to do 7th grade math.  This is my second year to take a little stumble as well.  My first year I had a crop of students who hadn't mastered their 5th grade concepts.  Due to this frustrated students = frustrated teacher!  This year, I know about the instruction those students had last year and I decided to pick up the pace.  The students can't handle it right off the bat, so we are slowing it down again.  One of the most valuable things I was taught last year was don't be afraid to back track!  If they don't fully understand the concept and they NEED to fully understand the concept, then reteach!

There will be so much going on this year that my head is spinning trying to organize it all.  I eat, breathe, and sleep teaching during the school year!  I pray that everyone's year goes well this year!

How many weeks into the school year are you?  Are you rocking and rolling or hanging on for the ride? 

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