February & March Wrap Up

Function review station

Two more crazy months! Our days were full of everything but snow 😒. We managed to have a day off for wind though! Melissa and I attended several conferences and STEM events in VA where we discussed active learning strategies with great success. In the classroom, we have had a lot of great activities going on. We've covered topics from functions to transformations. We even squeezed in a little coding.

Coding made easy and accessible for all. 

We are approaching 8 months in our new classroom. We still feel as excited and motivated by it as we did in September. As we've had the opportunity to meet and train other teachers, we are continually impressed by how teachers are trying to incorporate active learning strategies into their "traditional" classrooms. Also, after being 8 months in, we have really been able to streamline our planning process. We have both said numerous times this year that we can't imagine having to go back to teaching in a traditional classroom. In fact, the furniture and space have had such an impact on our students and their learning that we would like to incorporate even more flexible seating next year. We are excited to be meeting with Steelcase next week to discuss the results of our pre/post assessments. 

We are planning to return to our normal posting schedule in April. As we move into SOL testing season, our hope is to incorporate even more hands-on, active lessons. 

STILL HERE!

My goodness! It has been a while since our last update. To be honest, it has been really crazy AND we haven't had a full week of school since winter break! After winter break, we had bonus break where we missed 3 days. Since then we have either had a snow day or a delayed opening every week. Needless to say, we have had some trouble getting back into the routine.  

However, lots of great things have been happening. Our kiddos are continuing to impress us with their efforts. We have amazing kids that work so hard! We moved right through our Proportions/Consumer Applications Unit during all the snow days. I'll share more instructional highlights next week.  If you aren't following us on Instagram, you really should! We update daily there. Come follow us @mathinmotionalc

On a professional level, there have been some exciting developments. We recently found out that our proposal was accepted and we will be presenting at VCTM conference in March. So, if you're planning on attending the two-day conference at Radford University stop in and see us! We will also be presenting at a local STEM Summitt later this month. If you are local (Stafford/Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania area) then you should consider stopping by on February 24th at Fredericksburg Academy. We will be highlighting active learning strategies!

Lastly, we had hoped to open our TPT store in January. Honestly, there just hasn't been a spare moment so we've decided to push the opening to summer. We are both disappointed but excited to have some more time to build our resources. Thank you for your continued support!

Oh, did we mention that you should follow us on Instagram?! Yeah? Pop on over there now and check out our cool Connect Four game! @mathinmotionalc

Weeks 15 & 16 - Holiday Festivities

We made it! Winter Break is finally here! Rejoice! 

Let's rewind the week...
Our 7th graders worked on gingerbread house themed activities in preparation for building actual gingerbread houses today. We spent a lot of time using drill and repetition with equations and inequalities. We also incorporated a lot of movement and hands-on activities to reinforce the solving process. Our favorite activity (aside from actually building the houses) involved the kiddos rotating through stations where they solved a problem and were given a part of the gingerbread house to decorate and attach to the house. 






Then we surprised them today with building real gingerbread houses. Take a look at the creativity!!






We've talked a lot about the ease in which we can do stations in our new active learning center. The tables, the chairs, and the verb boards have become vital teaching tools... after having this classroom for only 3 months, we already can't remember how we ever taught without them. Steelcase's grant is currently open. We strongly encourage you to apply. Never, ever did we think we would win and here we are! It has transformed our teaching and the student's learning and engagement. Click the link and apply, you've got nothing to lose! 

Week 14 - We Are Official...

It finally feels official! Our Active Learning Center sign was posted outside of our classroom and it looks awesome! Can you imagine being so excited about a sign? WE ARE!! 

I don't think our students even noticed... nor did they notice the day the maintenance men came to install it. Our kiddos are so used to us hosting visitors in the classroom that they aren't even bothered with the drilling and all that took place to install the sign. It's a good thing 😊

This week the 7th graders continued working on 2 step equations. We decided to take it back to the old school days and play some bingo. I think we both forgot how much kids love bingo! Overall, they are doing a great job with equations. 

The 8th graders are knee deep into our functions unit. We've done 2 rounds of mini-stations with them so far (3 stations per 1-hour class).  We both agreed that this unit was a little easier last year since we looped with our students. But we are making our way through it. 

We want to take a moment to discuss our seating. After having the classroom for a few months now and seeing the impact that flexible seating has on students, we really want to change things up a bit for the second semester. We are currently in the process of trying to get the couch and the campfire seating section front and center. It is proving to be a bit of a challenge to make sure everyone can see the board at all times (even though the board is not used daily for instruction, it is still used for the morning message, to do list, etc.). Luckily everything is easy to move. We will hopefully be able to share some pictures of our newest set up after winter break. 

Weeks 12 & 13

Long time, no see! Week 12 was a short week for us due to fall break. We hope everyone had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving with family and friends!

On to Week 13... Oh my goodness! This week has been so hectic. Not only did we have to plan and prep for stations for our kiddos, record videos for our blended lessons but we also hosted a visiting county in our classroom on Wednesday AND prepped and led three different sets of PD trainings for our staff on Thursday and Friday. Whew!! But, it was all SOOOOOOO worth it. The PD trainings went so well. Melissa and I lead three one-hour sessions on active learning strategies and we made sure to make the content relevant to our audience.  We trained the science, English and history departments (we trained the Math department a few weeks ago). Making three content specific trainings was a lot of work but we got it done and it totally paid off. Teachers were engaged and excited! We left the trainings feeling positive and hopeful that teachers would step out of their comfort zones and implement some of the strategies we shared. 

Next week we will the blog will return to student focused activities. Hopefully (fingers crossed) we will have a surprise to share with you towards the end of December!

Week 9 - Tom Turkey & Battleship

I have to start by giving credit to Lindsay Perro on TpT. We used her Building Frank activity a few weeks ago with our 7th graders and it was so engaging and full of content! The kids loved it! So, we used her activity as inspiration for our Building Tom Turkey activity that we created this week.The activity will be available in our TpT store next week. 


Each student received a paper plate. We had all of the other supplies (scissors, glue, coloring supplies) for them at each station. They rotated through 8 stations where they solved a word problem involving fractions, decimals and percents. The answer to the word problem determined the color of the feather they used to attach to the paper plate to build Tom. There was a station to determine the color of his body and his nose, also. We used the last station as an extra decorating station so that the students could personalized the turkey. They had so much fun! We took a topic, word problems with rationals numbers, that is typically pretty bland and turned it into a hands-on station activity that resulted in high engagement and energy! They worked so well together in their small teams and their turkeys turned out great!


In 8th grade we continued working on solving multi-step equations. We added the next step to the process of moving the variable to one side. We spent a lot of time doing example after example. We ended the week with a game of Battleship. The students worked in teams to solve the equations in order to get a chance to reveal a ship. This game is always a huge hit with our students. The template is a smart document. We simply insert our problems and rearrange the ships for each class/period. We weren't able to get through every problem but each team was able to reveal at least one ship. One of our favorite things about these games is seeing the students come together and help each other. We will definitely use this game again in the future with a different topic. 

Week 8 - Math, Art and Food

The 7th graders participated in blended lessons this week to learn how to compare and order rational numbers... WITHOUT calculators! One of the reasons that we are such huge fans of blended lessons is that every student is engaged in the instruction and note taking. Look at the picture below, EVERYONE is engaged! They have the ability to pause the instruction (video), rewind and rewatch until it makes sense. This is also a great way for our students to practice note-taking, at their own pace. 

One of the follow-up activities included artwork. We have some very creative students this year that really excel with creative projects. Students were tasked to create a picture using a variety of colors. Then they had to determine the equivalent fraction, decimal and percents for each color (number of squares) they used in their pictures.

Food was the theme this week with the 8th graders. We started our unit on solving multi-step equations. When I say multi-step I mean MULTI step....6, 7, 8+ steps. In the past, this has been a unit that students typically struggle with due to all of the steps and the exceptions to the procedure. We decided to break down each step, spending a few days on each step to really reinforce each small part of the process. We started with learning how to combine like terms. In order to make it memorable, we incorporated "Lucky Charms' into the lesson. The students sorted the marshmallows in order to identify like terms, determine which marshmallows could be combined, etc.

After mastering combining like terms, the students moved on to the Distributive Property. For the intro, we used everyone's favorite fast food restaurant McDonald's (truth be told I much prefer Chic-Fila or Chipotle but McDonald's works better for the lesson and all the students are familiar with it).We used value meals to help show how numbers are distributed. Breaking down the steps seems to have helped. Now we just have to work on making sure the students avoid careless mistakes (those pesky negatives).  

Week 3 - Tables on the Move, Kids on the Move

Our 7th graders continued working on absolute value and perfect squares during the first half of the week. Having the large tables made it easy for the students to spread out their game pieces for a memory game. There’s also plenty of room on each side of the table for two students to sit comfortably.

Students playing Memory

By midweek we introduced integers. The students participated in a blended learning lesson on adding integers. Students were then asked to create their own videos showing how to model adding integers with color chips and numbers lines. Having the verb boards be able to snap into the table provided each group (partner) with the ability to create their own white board where they could stand and model/teach the lesson to be recorded. They did an excellent job with using math appropriate vocabulary (zero pairs). The students enjoyed being the “teacher” and were super creative with their video/lessons.

Using the verb boards to record videos

Using ipads and verb boards to record videos

Our 8th graders spent the week ordering rational numbers. We were able to use the verb boards for individual and group practice. The week ended with the students rearranging the classroom for a game of Around the World with twist. The tables were arranged in a horseshoe manner with all of the chairs pushed to the sides of the room. Students were able to stand at the tables, complete their problem, and then easily move to the next spot. The competition style activity had everyone engaged and up on their feet moving around every few minutes.

Verb boards and ordering rational numbers

Horseshoe arrangement for a game with lots of movement

Week 2 - We're Just Getting Started

We spent the first part of the week establishing classroom guidelines and coming up with the various table arrangements we would be using this year. The students practiced moving the tables to the different layouts. We discussed the benefits of having different classroom layouts.

Students participating in a real number sort.

Hot Seat on the floor with tables pushed to the sides.

By midweek we started our first units. The 8th graders spent the rest of the week working with the real number system. They worked on sorting numbers into the correct subsets. We ended the week playing a super fun game called Hot Seat, where students race to identify real numbers.  Having the ability to roll the tables and chairs out the way made it so much easier to play the game on the floor. The competition was fierce. Everyone was engaged!

Students ready to play Hot Seat.

The 7th graders spent the remainder of the week investigating perfect squares and absolute value.

We both noticed that students seem to be much more productive in the new space. Having the ability to swivel in the chairs is a huge bonus for students with attention/focus issues.

7th graders using Cheez-It's to investigate perfect squares.

Week 1 - Welcome Back!

Our first week back to school was very exciting even though we were not in our new Active Learning Classroom yet. As part of the grant from Steelcase, the students had to participate in a survey before seeing the new classroom. We also took this time to get to know one another and build positive relationships. By the end of the week, we completed the survey and introduced the students to the various new types of furniture located in the room. Students participated in mini-lessons on each type of chair and established class expectations for sitting in the new, exciting chairs. The week ended with the unveiling of the classroom to the students. It was so exciting! The students were impressed with all of the new features from the connected floor and carpet, to the rolling tables and campfire area and even the new paint and lights!

"Campfire" Area with buoys (blue stools), a couch and a cool table the students can write on!

Two types of adjustable, swivel chairs.

Snapshot of our shorter tables.