Monday, August 19, 2013

Made4Math - First Day of School!



Ready or not, it is Monday... that means that kiddos come today! I spent all day on Sunday working on last minute details to prepare for today! I just pray that it goes as well in real life as it does in my head. :) I am also trying to remember to capture a photo every day to document my year, so make sure you visit my #180blog linked above in the header bar.

Anyway, while I worked on a LOT of projects today, several of them were "borrowed" projects, such as the course information guide from @msrubinteach. I'm also borrowing heavily from her first day plans, so if you don't already read her blog, go do it now! She rocks!

So, on to today's projects...

Project #1 - Name Cards

One of the things that I am REALLy bad at is keeping track of student names! It takes me several weeks to learn everyone's names, so this year, I decided to do Name Cards. When they walk in, each group of desks will have 4 pieces of white cardstock and a set of markers. These instructions will be on the board:


I'm really hoping this will help me keep track of kids, plus it's built in formative assessment/exit tickets for the first week! WIN! :)

Project #2 - Seating Chart Cards

It was originally my intention to actually go through my rosters and assign kids to seats. Then time kept slipping away, so that idea got nixed. In the past, I have used a deck of cards for assigning seats, but that requires me to do some explanation. So I created a set of cards that is (hopefully) self explanatory!


Project #3 - Evidence Envelopes

If you have ever talked stats with me, you probably know that my favorite first day of school activity is the story of Kristen Gilbert. I first learned about Ms. Gilbert from the book "The Numbers behind Numb3rs". As soon as I read it, I knew I would be using it in my stat class. Graphs, contingency tables, probability, inference... it had it all! However, after talking to @approx_normal, I liked how she did the 'Evidence Folders' to present the data, so this year my students will have a similar setup as we go through the case.


So what did you make this week? Head on over to the Made4Math blog to see the rest of this week's goodies! Don't forget to submit your post HERE

7 comments:

Jessi Haag said...

Can you share a little about your Gilbert assignment?

Unknown said...

Nice tricks! Yeah, it's really hard to memorize names. I often have trouble with it. Thanks for sharing your methods! Best of luck in your new school year :)

Paul
ClassroomIQ
Grade any free-response assessment online in minutes!
www.classroom-iq.com

Unknown said...

I would also like more info about your Gilbert assignment, this is my first yr teaching stats and I don't have any resources.

Tuck12 said...

I would also like information on the Gilbert assignment.

Unknown said...

I'm a little confused by what goes in each evidence pack. I have found Hedge's stats bootcamp info, but I'm not exactly sure what goes in each folder. Thanks. I am planning to use this on our first day, Tuesday.

Anonymous said...

I love all of your cute ideas for setting up your classroom & 1st day of school. I also did name tags this year, but like the extra info you added - will need to note that for next year!

Do you have a template for your formative assessment strips that are in the table boxes? I totally want to steal, I mean borrow, that idea. :)

JamKaiReflects said...

Could you send me your first day information as well?

I am teaching statistics for the first time this year and I want to keep it interactive.

jamilakaimathis@gmail.com