Are you thinking through your classroom management strategies for the new school year? I have the expert you need to hear from on the show today! 

Jenna shares practical tips so that you can feel confident in your classroom management. You will feel empowered to build strong classroom routines and relationships with your students after listening to this episode. 

In this episode we will chat about: 

1. How to build a strong classroom community (and Jenna’s secret sauce!)
2. Practical tips for classroom management (and what Jenna would tell newer teachers about management)
3. Building a strong classroom management foundation at the beginning of the year and referring back to it often

About our guest, Jenna:

Jenna has been an elementary educator for 11 years in New York. She has taught second, third, and fourth grade and currently teaches second grade! Jenna wanted to be an educator since she was in second grade. She LOVES supporting educators through her Instagram platform, That Strong Teacher, where she helps teachers become strong and confident in classroom management.

Connect with Jenna: 

• @Thatstrongteacher on IG
• The Classroom Management Playbook

You might also like:

• 8 Ways to Build Math Classroom Community
• 87: Why you need SEL in Math Problem Solving…Now!

 Math Word Problem Workshop

Save time and energy by planning a simple daily routine that increases student engagement, problem solving, & math proficiency!

When you join the Math Word Problem Workshop, I’ll show you how to…

• engage every student in problem solving, daily.
• create a daily structure that allows students to collaborate, reflect, take risks, and use mistakes as opportunities.
• a system to plan for problem solving, simply and efficiently.
• confidently facilitate a students lead problem solving workshop

Join today by clicking HERE!

The post 127: Classroom Management, an Interview with Jenna from That Strong Teacher appeared first on Mona Math.

Have you been thinking about how to establish clear expectations and a strong foundation for classroom management in math class this school year? I’m not a big fan of rules… and this rule is the best rule.

On today’s episode, I’m telling you about the only rule you need for classroom management in math class and how to use it.

On Today’s Episode The Only Classroom Rule You Need:

• The one classroom rule that changed the game for me
• Setting clear boundaries while preserving students’ dignity in rule making
• How this rule is equitable, responsive, and provides ownership to students

Is it your first day of school? If it’s not today I bet it’s soon… and I bet you’ve been thinking a lot about establishing clear expectations and a strong foundation for classroom management, right?

You want to express your care and concern for the students in your class while also establishing that learning will take place in your classroom through order and meeting the high expectations you have set for your students.

I’m going to let you in on the BEST rule that I learned years ago that completely changed my stance on rules. I’m a big fan of Love and Logic . The book Teaching with Love and Logic literally changed my approach to management. I love the shift from let me dictate everything you do to let me set some clear boundaries and you can make your own choices. Then, I’ll give consequences in ways that preserve your self dignity. It really is inline with how I feel about mistakes and what I want to communicate to my students about mistakes… it’s how we learn. Mistakes are something to be shameful about. Instead, they are simply a fact that you made a choice, that caused a problem and there is a consequence. Love and logic feels very loving and logical. Ha! You can check out this blog post on their website that I think illustrates this idea nicely.

Okay, but let’s get to the classroom rule

“You can do whatever you want…”
I like to stop there as I’m explaining it to students to really get them looking at me funny and gain their buy-in a bit on this “rule” discussion we’re about to have. 

Then I continue “as long as it doesn’t cause a problem for anyone or anything else.”

This is the key part right here. It really puts it back on the student to consider what it means to… 

• cause a problem

• what is a problem for someone (including yourself) 

• what is a problem for something 

So, at this point hte kids are intrigued usually so I start asking them to do some reflecting on what would be a problem.
I might say something like, “So tell me if you’d be allowed to do this…” then I give scenarios. 

“Throw paper?”  No! That is a problem. “For who? Why?” Then students consider who might be effected and how. 

“Not do your classwork?” I think that’s a problem. “For who?” The students might struggle with this one. For you Ms. Iehl. If we don’t do our work you’ll get mad. “Well, maybe but it’s not really a problem for me. But what might happen for YOU if you don’t do your work?” You’ll get a bad grade, you won’t understand,  you’ll be confused on the test. Your parents will get mad about your grades. “So I guess it sounds like it’s a problem for you?” Yeah, it is.

Okay so you get the point. We go through examples and reflect on if it is a problem and who it is a problem for.

THEN I add the last part of the classroom rule… which is the logical consequence part.

“You can do whatever you want as long as it doesn’t cause a problem for anyone or anything. If you do cause  a problem I will do something. What I do depends on  you and the problem.”

This is my favorite part. It shows students that you’ll do something about the problem, but it also communicates that what you’ll do is not always the same. This opens up the conversation (now or in the future) about equity. How equity actually means everyone getting what they need… which isn’t always the same.

I like to give examples here. So, if you’re disruptive to your group while we are working at the Vertical Whiteboards.  You’re not participating and just goofing off I’m going to do something. I might walk over and tell you to stop. That’s me doing something, right? 

Well now let’s imagine that you do that everyday multiple times a day.

What I do is going to be different. Maybe I will walk over to you and ask you to sit down at your seat to complete your work independently. Or maybe I’ll say you no longer get to work at the whiteboards. Maybe I’ll call your parents.

Let’s say you get really upset and you start to throw your books and materials down on the ground and complain loudly causing the whole class to turn and look at you. Now, remember the rule is “What I do depends on the problem and YOU.” Well now that you’re having this big reaction and making the problem bigger what I will do now has to address that as well, which means what I will do will be different. Maybe I’ll need to ask you to take a break outside of the classroom or ask you to come back at lunch for a conversation, etc. 

Here’s why this is the ONLY classroom rule you need:

• It is responsive to students 
• It allows you to hold high expectations while also meeting students where they are 
• It provides ownership to students 
• It gives students power to make decisions becuase they know what to expect. 
• It is an opportunity to discuss behaviors and problems in restorative and constructive ways.

Want More Classroom Management Ideas?

Check out Episode 75: Proactive Classroom Management Tips in 4 Steps

Be sure to let me know if this is something you’ll use. It is an open ended rule so you can truly make it  your own! Let me know how it goes for you.

Links mentioned in this episode about classroom management in math class: 

• Love and Logic
• How to Create a Love and Logic Classroom blog post
• Episode 75: Proactive Classroom management tips in 4 steps
• 8 Ways to Build Math Classroom Community

Leave a review!! 

If you love listening to Math Chat, please take a few seconds to leave a review so other teachers know this is a valuable place to spend a few minutes each week.

 Math Word Problem Workshop

Save time and energy by planning a simple daily routine that increases student engagement, problem solving, & math proficiency!

When you join the Math Word Problem Workshop, I’ll show you how to…

• engage every student in problem solving, daily.
• create a daily structure that allows students to collaborate, reflect, take risks, and use mistakes as opportunities.
• a system to plan for problem solving, simply and efficiently.
• confidently facilitate a students lead problem solving workshop

Join today by clicking HERE!

Have Questions? My DMs on IG are always open @hellomonamath

The post 126: The Only Classroom Rule You Need For Classroom Management in Math Class appeared first on Mona Math.

On Today’s Episode 3 Mistakes to Avoid When Planning for the Year:

• Focusing on the wrong content
• Misunderstanding “rigor”
• Leaving conceptual understanding till the end once kids “get the procedures” 

What truly matters when planning for your year?

What comes to mind when you reflect on that question? I think it will be different for all of us… but for me these are the 5 things that pop into my brain. 

1. Math vision 
2. Community 
3. Standards 
4. Major Work
5. Progressions 

I wanted to share with you the 3 mistakes I notice teachers making when planning for their year and HOW to avoid them. Are ya ready? Let’s do this! 

Mistake #1: Focusing on the wrong content 

Often times we teach what our curriculum includes or what we think is most important without really being informed of the “major work” for our grade level. 

Every grade has Major Work. In the adoption of CCSS in 2010 the standards outlined major work of each grade level. Achieve the Core.org has it clearly labeled for each grade on their website. You can check it out here.
If you’ve never thought about what the major work of your grade level and those below and above yours this is a valuable use of your time. 

So, here’s how we’re going to approach this mistake differentlY:

1. identify the major work 
2. plan your year to address major clusters in 65% (⅔ of your year) 

Mistake #2: Misunderstanding “rigor”

What comes to mind when you think of the word rigor?
I bet if everyone listening which is usually around 400 of you sent me a message (ooo this could be fun– do it @hellomonamath on Instagram or at gmail.com) and tell me what you think of when you think rigor. We would have a lot of different responses. If you send them to me I’ll share on my instagram stories and in an upcoming email!

But the thing is Rigor is a big education buzz word because of the major shifts in the adoption of the Common Core. Now, even if your state has made their own standards, almost all are based on these big shifts that were brought by CCSS. So, your state probably has also adopted this approach for rigor in math.

Rigor doesn’t mean harder or more difficult. Instead it actually means instruction that touches on these 3 aspects of rigor: Procedural, Conceptual, Application. 

You can find more information about that here.

How we’re going  to approach rigor differently:

I am not suggesting that we make math harder, but instead that we make math more rigorous through thoughtful instructional approaches. We need to match the rigor of the standard to the instructional approach. So, if the standard we are teaching is an application standard, then our instructional approach needs to ensure students are applying their skills. If the skill is conceptual, then we need to ensure that students are getting enough practice conceptually. There are certain instructional approaches that support each of the aspects of rigor.

Mistake #3: Leaving conceptual understanding til the end once kids “get the procedures” 

Too often we wait for the application and the conceptual because we want our students to get it first, right? This feels like the right move. It helps students build confidence because they know how to do it. However, we have to remember that we build procedural fluency on a conceptual understanding.

In fact Math proficiency has 5 strands. Each of those are woven and inter-dependent. We must have ana approach for instruction that allows students to develop their mathematical proficiency that is balanced in all 5 of these aspects.

How we will approach this differently:

We need to use class time to build conceptual understanding using instructional methods like Student-Centered Instruction, Math Tasks, Math Discussions, or my favorite combination of all of that is Word Problem Workshop. This allows us to build all 5 strands of proficiency while teaching the standards. It’s ambitious teaching that results in meaningful proficiency for our students.  

So, in order to make this happen this year… here are a few things you can do: 

• Do not try to teach everything (cut the crap!) 
• Pre-assess and skip the shit they already know, the goal is challenge everyday for every students. So, if they already know it and you have the data to prove they know it, skip it! 
• When you skip the extra stuff… it makes more time for building community, shift math mindsets, slowing down to teach in student centered ways. 
• Math vision– What matters most? Why are you doing this job? What’s your goal for your students?
  • Fidelity to your students, not your curriculum 
• Shows how you can do this and stay “on pace” 
• There might be anxiety of not “following the rules”, but if you can back your decisions with student data, research, and best intentions… then you can engage your administrator or leadership in a conversation about you why.

If you’re interested in planning for your year through a virtual on-demand PD…

If you’re interested in planning for your year through a virtual on-demand PD specifically for math teachers like us… I’ve got you covered with this $27 PD full of resources to help you avoid these mistakes and get a solid plan put together for your whole year of math!! 

Links Mentioned in This Episode

• Planning for a Year of Math ($27 PD)
• Major math work for each grade level (achievethecore.org)
• Rigor in Mathematics

 Math Word Problem Workshop

• engage every student in problem solving, daily.
• create a daily structure that allows students to collaborate, reflect, take risks, and use mistakes as opportunities.
• a system to plan for problem solving, simply and efficiently.
• confidently facilitate a students lead problem solving workshop

Join today by clicking HERE!

The post 125: 3 Mistakes to Avoid When Planning for the Year appeared first on Mona Math.

On Today’s Episode Word Problem Workshop What It Is & Why You Need It:

• Moving from the WHAT to the HOW in math 
• Using research to make shifts in how we plan, think about, and facilitate math 
• How Word Problem Workshop is a student-led approach to exploring and understanding math

For well over a decade I’ve been working on shifting the focus of my math teaching practice from students memorizing procedures and being “right” to students thinking and problem solving.

As a young elementary teacher I unsuccessfully taught math to my students using the same process my teachers taught math to me. I grew up telling myself the false story that I was “not a math person.” I now know the focus of my own education – and my first years of teaching math – was on speed and completion.

Because speed and answers did not come easily to me, I decided I was not good at math. Since my college education didn’t prepare me with a shift in mindset or solid instructional practices for teaching math, I went into teaching with a passion for teaching everything except math.

The way I taught early in my career relied heavily on planning lesson by lesson. I focused on what lesson, what activity, or what procedure we would do.

• What would I teach?
• What lesson would we complete?
• What problems would students have to complete?
• What would I do when students didn’t understand?
• What would I do if students are off task and talking?

My planning did not focus on how I would teach or how students would engage with math.

Shifting From Me to Them

Over time, I’ve shifted my math teaching practice, and I’m now considering different questions than those of my early career.

► Instead of “What will I teach?”… now I ask “How will students grapple with this content?” 

My planning used to look like this: choose the lesson; include examples to give; select questions students would complete, and move on to the next main objective.

Now I consider how my early middle grades students will work on a singular, complex word problem that will give them experience of the mathematical standard and objective for the lesson. This experience is hands-on, with plenty of time for independent productive struggle.

► Instead of “What will I do when students don’t understand?”… now I ask “How will I support students’ development of understanding over time?” 

I plan for the progression of mathematical ideas. I know students’ learning builds on what they already know and develops a little bit each time they have an experience with the concept. This means I plan for opportunities for exploration, discussion, and conferring every single day. I keep close track of where students are along the progression of mathematical understanding and provide “just in time” supports to help nudge them along that progression.

I know it is my job to help students have both the confidence and mindset to take risks and deeply explore mathematics. Now I also realize that I need a strong math culture in my classroom to allow my students to problem solve. I’ve shared about how I created that culture here.

► Instead of “What will I do if my students are talking?”… now I ask “How can I facilitate students’ learning in a discussion?”

I consider my role in the math classroom as the facilitator of students’ learning. I now know that when I provide opportunities for students to explain their thinking and collaborate, they are able to develop deep understandings and confidence in their problem solving ability.

So I plan for the questions I’ll ask as students progress along the trajectory of understanding. I plan for what models I’ll have students share to provoke a conversation worthy of making mathematical conjectures.

How Can We ALL Make These Shifts?

Start with the research. These are not concepts I’ve made up, but concepts I have found in inspiring books like:

• 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions by Margaret (Peg) S. Smith and Mary K. (Kay) Stein
• Children’s Mathematics, Second Edition: Cognitively Guided Instruction by Thomas P. Carpenter, Elizabeth Fennema, et al.
• Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

These three books helped me create a daily workshop model for my elementary and middle school classroom where students problem solve every day. The model incorporates a structure for planning and facilitation that helps engage every student in problem solving and building a positive math identity.

I created my Word Problem Workshop because I knew I couldn’t continue teaching the way I was taught. The daily blank stares as students gave up on word problems frustrated me. I needed a way to support my students in building problem solving skills, a deep understanding of math and a positive math mindset.

What Is Word Problem Workshop?

Word Problem Workshop is an instructional routine that helps teachers create a math class that empowers students to confidently problem-solve word problems.

In Word Problem Workshop students go through four key steps each day – Launch, Grapple, Discuss, Reflect. Within each of those steps there are strategic planning and facilitation moves to support students to build their mathematical understanding.

During the Launch the goal is to help students understand the problem and informally assess who needs more support getting started with the solving process.

At Grapple time students problem-solve independently as teachers confer and gather data. Teachers forecast how students will solve problems in order to plan strategic questions. Using these forecasted ideas, teachers will use their pre-planned questions to nudge students along the progression in conferences.

During the Discussion students discuss their thinking about the models and strategies shared. Each discussion is student-led and facilitated by the teacher using the pre-planned questions to move the class toward developing a math conjecture (or math “truth”).

After the Discussion students return to their independent work space for a reflection. This is a way for teachers to assess how students are progressing in their mathematical thinking and helps to inform the next problem chosen for the class to grapple with.

Word Problem Workshop is a student-led approach to exploring and understanding math. The teachers’ focus is on “the how”, not “the what.” In fact, the answers in Word Problem Workshop are never the focus. Instead how students got their answers holds the spotlight in all elements of the workshop.

Growing Along a Progression in Word Problem Workshop

I’ve learned that my students won’t learn to master a math skill in the one or two days my curriculum devotes to the topic, but I’ve also learned that about myself and my teaching skill. As I’ve grown into my own math identity and comfort level with teaching math, I realize I get a little better every day.

In recent years, I’ve begun to teach other teachers how to lead Word Problem Workshop, I always emphasize that this is a progression. Changing our teaching practices is not something we can implement tomorrow and expect to master, but instead we grow a little each day. I’m still in my classroom doing just that.If you’d like to learn more about Word Problem Workshop, I’d love to have you take part in a training session I’m hosting on March 11th @ 1pm CST. You can register at MonaMath.com/training. It’s free. I hope to see you there so we can continue to learn and grow together as math educators!

Links Mentioned in This Episode

• Word Problem Workshop
• Moving From the WHAT to the HOW in Math Class 
• Helping Kids Become Math Problem Solvers
• 5 Steps to a Student Centered Math Class

Research Mentioned in This Episode

• 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions 
• Children’s Mathematics, Second Edition: Cognitively Guided Instruction
• Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All

 Math Word Problem Workshop

• engage every student in problem solving, daily.
• create a daily structure that allows students to collaborate, reflect, take risks, and use mistakes as opportunities.
• a system to plan for problem solving, simply and efficiently.
• confidently facilitate a students lead problem solving workshop

Join today by clicking HERE!

The post 124: Word Problem Workshop- What it is & Why you need it this school year appeared first on Mona Math.