Math=Fun

As a supplement to our math, our classroom is using VmathLive. With VmathLive students can practice and sharpen their math skills, prepare for high-stakes tests, and play in real-time competitions of speed and skill - all exciting, web-based environment which creates confident, independent learners in math.

VmathLive is an exciting technology component that builds math skills in a fast-paced, online environment. Students are able to access VmathLive at school, home, the library—anywhere they can get online.Fatima: "It helps me learn more."

VmathLive's game-like environment engages and motivates students to improve their math skills. Students compete against themselves to beat their own scores.

Erick: Vmath Rocks!

Ashlie: It's awesome.

Carlos: "It's good for my brain and helps me answer questions fast."

Sindy: "I learn more things."
Jessica: "It makes concepts easier to memorize."

Ruben: "It's fun to learn online."
Julia: "It makes learning fun."
Arintzy: "It makes me work faster."
Angelica: "It's awesome. It teaches me stuff."
Lupita: "I can learn multiplication & division."

Writer's Workshop

Writer's Workshop is a teaching technique that invites students to write by making the process a meaningful part of the classroom curriculum. In Writer's Workshop, students organize thoughts to create a story or write about a given topic and develop it into an understandable narrative with a voice and focus that present information to the reader. Students are able to use writing mechanics comfortably and the shift in their cognitive abilities to higher order thinking allows them to develop a more sophisticated sense of what makes good writing.

Mini-Lesson
A Mini- Lesson is usually a 5-10 minute whole class activity and may be as simple as doing guided writing from a story, or how revision codes are used. For instance, today's mini lesson was about punctuation. One of the many sentences I used was..

The student said the teacher was crazy

Students had to figure out where the punctuation went. Of course they said it needed a period at the end of the sentence. The student is the one making the statement if the sentence does not have any commas.

After a discussion, the students realized that if we inserted commas, it would completely make the sentence mean something different. This is what the class decided on...

The student, said the teacher, was crazy.

When the students added the commas, it set off the dependent clause. It was a fun mini lesson the the students enjoyed.

Welcome to 6th Grade

The first week of school we did a lot of get to know you games and ice breakers. The one that the students enjoyed the most was the human knot. Our objective was that students would practice cooperative learning skills as well as find a solution to the group’s “knot”. It took a while for them to figure it out but after much trial and error, they realized that the only way to get out of the knot was to work together as a team.

Students had to form a circle. (it had to be an even number of students in the circle) Each student held out their right hand and grabbed the right hand of the person cross from them as though the two were shaking hands. Then each student held hands (left hands) with a person standing next to them or anyone in the circle. Each student had to hold hands with two different people. The goal of this warm up was for the students to untangle themselves from their situation so that a human circle would be formed.

The rules were that the physical hand to hand contact that they had with their partner couldn't be broken in order to facilitate an "unwinding movement". Sometimes students in the final circle ended up facing alternating directions, which was OK.