I strive to make all of my PD sessions with teachers targeted and tailored to their needs, knowing that every minute of teacher planning time is valuable. In an effort to make training relevant and meaningful for the teachers I serve, I use Google Forms to collect some data in advance. Prior to meeting with Math teachers at
Powdersville Elementary this month, I sent out the form below.
The information gathered from this survey helped me to identify the topic and outline for the Guided Math Structure and Stations session, which started with glimpse at what is going really well. I used
Tagul to make an
interactive word cloud of the positive feedback!
Next, we looked at the current challenges that teachers listed in the form responses. Many commented on issues with time management, organization, and letting go of the neediest students to allow them time to work independently. Another common theme was students struggling to work independently during small group time.
Several concerns were addressed through reflecting on the structure of the lesson and small group time. Several ideas were shared by teachers who have worked through some of these issues and have found a structure that works. Assistant Principal
Melissa Tollison and I shared ideas from our own experience with Guided Math and emphasized that structure can change based on standard or skill being addressed and level of student understanding.
Looking at survey results, I found that my teachers wanted help with organizing and creating stations for students to visit during small group time.
Using ideas from classrooms in grades K-5, I created reusable task cards for teachers to customize and laminate. By laminating the cards and using a vis-a-vis marker to fill-in the details, the teachers are able to reuse the same cards for a variety of stations... saving paper and time!
Reusable Task Cards for Guided Math
Click the links below to make your own editable copy of the task cards that were shared!
Fact Fluency - Grades K-2
Fact Fluency - Grades 3-5
Number Collection - Grades K-2
Number Collection - Grades 3-5
Tell About It
Vocabulary
Organizing Station Work
Students have been using
SeeSaw to submit station work for the teacher and parents to see. Though this has been an awesome way to see what the students are creating and share work directly with parents, many teachers were looking for an efficient way to track which students completed each stations during the week. (Some students were having trouble remembering which were already completed, and teachers found going through the feed with a checklist to be tedious.)
Borrowing an idea from the first grade teachers at
Concrete Primary, I created a
Task Completed List. Teachers can laminate and post this list along with each task card. When a student completes the station, he/she simply posts to SeeSaw and marks his/her name off of the list with a vis-a-vis marker!
Feedback
Teacher comments from this session were extremely positive... especially in response to the new task cards. I was excited to see that many of the teachers began to use the task cards and task completed list within days of our session together. My goal is to continue to add new task cards each month in order to give additional options for students as the year progresses.
Teaching sixth grade math for ten years was a transformative, fulfilling, and challenging experience. It was a job that became my passion, and I continue to reflect upon my work in the classroom as I strive to make a difference in my current role as an instructional technologist.
Because of my years spent teaching at the middle school level, I know all about the challenges of teaching during the week leading up to Winter Break! With that in mind, I pulled together a collection of holiday themed formative assessment options that my teachers can use during this final stretch. 
