#MTBoSChallenge - Week 4 - Sunday Summary

Welcome to the #MTBoSChallenge! 

Each week there are two options:

• On Saturdays, you can choose to blog on a weekly prompt.  This week's prompt is about the first week of school.  Go check out the awesome and amazing posts submitted this week at Middle School Math Rules.  No worries if you didn't blog yesterday, you can still submit your post using the linky at the bottom of her post.
• On Sundays, you can choose to blog a Sunday Summary of your week.  The idea for the Summary is to provide you a way to reflect on the past week and share what you are looking forward to this coming week.

Feel free to choose either option (or BOTH!), add it to the linky on the host page and don't forget to tweet it with the hashtag #MTBoSChallenge as well!

Now on to my post for the day...

My Sunday 3-2-1 Summary

3 strategies I used this week:

• Word Toss - I learned this strategy in my AVID Critical Reading strand this summer and then ran across it again in the book 'Differentiating Textbooks'.  The idea is to take 6-10 words from a lesson, article, book, etc and ask students to write a single, coherent sentence using as many of the words as possible.  I used this as an exit ticket on the day we started talking about observational studies and experiments.  Next time, I would like to try it as a Pre/Post assessment where the students write a sentence prior to the lesson then again after the lesson to see how their understanding of the words change.

• 3-2-1 Summary - This strategy is an "oldie but goodie" that I used to summarize a short video that we watched over experimental design.  Students were asked to write about 3 things they learned, 2 vocabulary words from the video, and 1 question they still had. 

• Chalk Talk - I read about this strategy in this week's #EduRead article and I was quite excited to try it out.  I did our AVID Tutor Training yesterday, so I decided to use Chalk Talk after watching a sample tutorial video.  I really loved the comments and can't wait to use this in my classroom too!

2 things that I purchased this week:

• A good friend of mine (C.) introduced me to the Dexter 'DexFlex' flats from Payless Shoes.  I have not purchased shoes at Payless for YEARS because I didn't like the quality or comfort of the shoes they had in stock.  When C. told me that I really should try them, I was very hesitant at first, but now they are my go-to shoe!  I had 4 pairs already (black, pewter, floral, and white eyelet), but last weekend, I decided to check on their website to see if they had any new fall patterns.  I have wanted a pair of nude shoes for a while, but did not like the look of the nude shoes that were in the Payless stores, but I love the nude/black combo that is new this fall!  I think the gray/black combo will also be a great addition to my fall wardrobe!

1 thing that I'm grateful for this week:

• Air Conditioning!!  The a/c in my classroom hasn't worked at all very well for a long time.  No amount of "putting the man in the house" did anything to cool my room down.  After some a lot of begging and pleading for relief, it finally was fixed on Friday and my room is now quite pleasant!  Of course, this comes just in time for cooler weather to arrive, but that's okay.. I have a/c again! :)

What is YOUR Sunday Summary?  Add it to the linky below!

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