Stores and Blogs

So, a lot of teachers are getting involved in creating their own Blogs and creating their own stores to share and sell their materials.  After reading through many of these blogs and stores, I am determine to create my own. 
As you have seen, I am creating my own blog and my goal with this is to update the work that is done in my classroom and share my thoughts and ideas.  My next goal is to create a store and start to share my resources that I have created.  Not that I want to make a living off selling my resources (as many of them have a long way to go to be outstanding) but I want to start getting my work out there and my name out there as well! 

Today, I officially put up some items in my TeachersPayTeachers store, and selected one to have a price on it.  They are the integer concentration cards which my students love to learn with.  I am hoping that as I get more and more items up in my store, that my store will become that much more popular for mathematics teachers!

If you are interested in looking at my store (and the few products I have available so far), please feel free to stop by: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Miss-Fitzpatrick 

Group Work and Differentiation

As this school year is coming to an end, I am working on getting my next school year prepared and organized.  One thing I am going to try to do throughout the year, and for each class, is to ensure group work and differentiation is available to the students.

I have found that throughout the year, we all get busy with teaching responsibilities, life and other things, and the lessons are not always 100%.  I am hoping that spending my summer holidays preparing for the upcoming weeks in August/September, I will be able to ensure that that does not happen.

At our school, there is a huge push for group work.  All of the classrooms have been changed to include group tables and most lessons should have at least one of two aspects of group work and discussion.  As I am a mathematics teacher, this will be one of my biggest challenges for the next year.  I am, however, up for this challenge.

My school wants to see group work and paired work throughout the lesson which will provide the students with the opportunity to help one another with the material being presented instead of always seeking the help from the teacher.  I am worried about some of my classes with this set up with behavior of some students and the risk of students getting easily off task, but I think if I start it from the beginning of the year, my classroom management strategies will be even better.

With the tables set up as groups, I am able to change the table groups around to allow different abilities to sit where it would be most beneficial for them.  Depending on the activity, I can have students of lower ability sit together to complete the work with scaffolding, where as other tables will have less support.  I can also change the table groups to allow a mix of abilities so that students can support each other and learn from one another.

Overall, next year is going to be a challenge, but I think I am up for it.  My first step will be to ensure that I am prepared for the next year before it begins and I stay ahead!

Welcome :)

I am a teacher of mathematics and I LOVE activities and independent learning adventures for all students!  Creating activities for students, I believe, develops their ability to problem solve, think outside of the box and helps them to remember their ideas!

This website is dedicated to my personal activities, lessons and ideas as well as many lessons I find throughout my teaching career. 

Happy lesson planning! :)