Ep 2: 5 Steps to Setting Up Math Workshop for Success!

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Hello and welcome to Making Number Sense Makes Sense, a podcast for elementary teachers,

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specifically early elementary teachers, looking to really make an impact in the number sense

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of their students.

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Hello teachers, I am on spring break right now ready to come back to those kiddos and

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stations math workshop always needs a bit of a tune up even after the weekend to be

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honest even after the weekend it needs a little bit of a tune up.

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Some years you have a crew that doesn't necessarily need a lot of revisiting of expectations they

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remember and they're good to go.

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We'll see if that's the case for this year's crew and you never know when it's going to

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be a good time to revisit your expectations.

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So when setting up your five steps to success in math workshop they are simple.

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They are number one don't do math during math workshop.

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Number two set clear expectations for math workshop.

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Number three practice.

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Number four use some kind of visual station chart to help kids know where they're going

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or what they're doing and number five revisit expectations as necessary.

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So number five is definitely coming back around for me but let me go a little bit further

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into numbers one through four.

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So number one do not do math during math workshop especially at the beginning of the year when

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you're starting out.

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The idea at least for me the idea is I want them to get used to going to a certain space

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in the room doing the activity that is set out for them and then when they hear the bell

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or whatever you're using clean up and move to the next space.

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And since this is a routine that I want to last throughout the year I don't necessarily

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want the kids to be worried about if they got the answer right if they know what they're

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doing so the first stations for at least at least a week two weeks sometimes even three

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weeks depending on the crew that you get just have them doing things that they will enjoy

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that feel more like play because I really want my math station time to feel like play.

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I just feel like that is success that they don't even know that they're doing math.

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Just like music to my ears when my kids see my station chart and they go Yay stations

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that's the goal all year long.

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So we want it to feel like play that could be at the beginning of the year exploring

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different math manipulative stuff they're going to be using throughout the year like

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pattern blocks cubes geoblocks inch tiles anything really that you know you're going

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to be using a lot the time for them to play with them is now so that later on when you

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use them for the purpose of this math game or this math work they kind of got the play

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out of their system.

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So again not doing math for the beginning of math workshop time number two is set clear

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expectations so I will share what I do in my in my class but it might be different for

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you what your students need how you want your class to run before you even really go into

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the school year you really want to think about if I had a perfect math station time what would

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it look like what would it sound like how will the kids know what they're supposed to

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be doing and when they're supposed to be doing it so for me that's number one being engaged

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in what they're doing so if we're at this station using this material we're staying

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at the station using that material we're not walking all over the place we're not

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screaming I obviously don't mind talking I especially since we do a lot of partner games

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it's going to be a little bit louder it's not going to be silent how about that it's

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not going to be silent in my classroom and I'm okay with that but when it gets to the

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level of screaming it's too much so for me I really want them to work on keeping their

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voice and inside speaking voice instead of a screaming voice I also want them to know

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where to look if what they're supposed to be doing or where they're supposed to be going

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so I have a visual station chart and I will touch on that a little bit later I also set

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a timer that they can't see I've tried it where they can see the timer but a lot of

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times if they see the timer and there's two minutes left they think two minutes means

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two seconds and then they clean up two minutes early and then they're just sitting there

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so I keep the timer somewhere where they can't see it but they'll be able to hear it and

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know what they're supposed to do when they hear the timer and the expectation for the

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timer is that when it goes off you're going to stop what you're doing and start to clean

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up your space and get it ready for the next group so those are my big three really our

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volume being engaged in what we're doing and when it's time to stop we need to stop and

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in my classroom I have a bathroom in the classroom station time is not a time where I think that

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they need to ask me to go to the bathroom if they need to go and it's available I usually

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just let them go that's not a time where I like need them to be at their station the

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whole time if you need in fact station time is a great time to go to the bathroom because

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otherwise we're about we're out the door ready to go to recess and then five people need

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to use the bathroom I would rather they go during station time then during recess time

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or lunchtime number three is practice everything that you worth visualizing in your math station

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math workshop routine needs to be practiced their voice levels need to be practiced what

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cleaning up looks like needs to be practiced what is an appropriate level of clean like

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if there's math manipulatives all over the floor that's not necessarily clean and we

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need to practice checking the floor before we move on to the next place and adding on

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to that how they're moving around the room are they walking around the room well they

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should always be walking around the room but sometimes it seems like these kids just have

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an internal motor and they just need to run everywhere and it's definitely not the safest

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thing they can be doing in the classroom with everybody else trying to move around at the

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same time so all of the things that you think might be an issue practice those a lot and

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don't be afraid to practice again if something's going wrong you can stop and practice again

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interactive modeling is great for this kind of thing so you would have the students watch

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you clean up maybe and move from one place to another place and then have a class discussion

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about what they saw you doing and that's the kind of thing that we're wanting to see and

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encourage them to do the same so you saw me cleaning up quickly you saw me walking from

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place to place you saw me checking the floor all of those things to really draw attention

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to the behaviors that we do want and make sure that we're reinforcing those while we're

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practicing while we're in this practice time of math stations I mentioned it briefly before

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but using a visual station chart one thing I will say about 2020 is pandemic teaching

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was no joke and if you were teaching during the pandemic you know that but something that

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kind of was kind of a holdover from the pandemic for me is using Google slides in a lot of

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the lessons that I'm doing just because the visuals are so big and all of the kids can

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see it every time I do stations I have a station chart that shows the group that they're in

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and where they should be going for each station time that they have whether it be three stations

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four stations six stations whatever time works for you I have a visual so that the kids can

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see so it's usually a picture of the manipulative that they'll be using and the background of

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the table is the color of the table that they're going to so in my classroom I have red table

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blue table green table yellow table and a purple table so the background of that station

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is where they're going and the object is what they're going to do when they get there so

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if for some reason they don't remember where they're supposed to be going or not quite

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sure what they're supposed to be doing they can look up at the chart to refer to and get

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to the right space something else I always encourage the kids to do is to ask someone

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else in their group if they know what they should be doing and if neither of them know

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what to do then to ask a teacher I would much rather them I would still rather them ask

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me what am I supposed to do then not because they will they will either stay at the entire

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station not doing anything or they might be playing around and get really loud get really

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rowdy and we don't want that we want them to be engaged during their station time so

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I would rather them ask me or ask a groupmate what they should be doing at their station

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and the fifth and final step is to revisit as needed like I said after break is a great

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time to revisit every few weeks or once a month or if you notice something is going

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wrong that you're finding you're having to give a lot of redirections that might be

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a time where you need to stop your stations discuss your expectations and practice them

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and then get back to it I really want my station time to feel like a play time where they're

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also learning math not just a worksheet time or a dull time I want them to enjoy it so

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they're usually very motivated to get to stations like I said when they see the station chart

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there's always a little cheer and I'm here for it I love it I love to hear my students

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excited about math and excited about learning so whatever I can do to smooth that process

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is something that I really try to do with my students if you're wanting to have your

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stations be more free flowing that's absolutely fine you can still use all of these steps

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like how should you clean up when it's time to clean up how do you move from place to

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place if you're not necessarily with a group it's very unlikely that you would be at a

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station by yourself so you can still ask someone who's there with you what they're supposed

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to be doing if they're not sure and what exactly they're supposed to be doing at each station

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space that you have they don't have to be in groups with specific kids all the time it's

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really what works for your kids and what works for your teaching philosophy but these steps

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will really help you have a successful math workshop all year long I will have a link

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to a post where all of this is written out if you want to reference it let me know if

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you have any questions and I will catch you on the next one