Establishing a good elementary math classroom system takes a lot of trial and error. This is the part of the year where I reflect on what is working, what isn’t working, and what routines I want to add for next year.
Now, I already have a post where I share all about what to include in your 90 minute math block, and you can read that here. This post is about the systems and routine supporting the math block.
Before I go making changes, I want to make it clear to you – sustainability is the game plan. Always.
Throughout the year I keep a Google Doc that is a running list of all things that are working and things I might want to change or add for the next school year. When I’m setting up my classroom and begin planning, the doc is my go-to for a jumping off point.
We started with a new curriculum this year, so I was focused on getting acclimated to the new-ish structure and terminology of the program. The structure was similar to what we’ve done with some variation to timing and terminology.
Pro-tip: while I’m in this organization mode for next year, I am also taking pics of the set up so when I come back in August to set up I know exactly where everything goes.
What’s Not Working in My Math Classroom
Thinking about all the things I have done in my elementary math classroom this year, there are a few things I want to do less of (or not at all, if I’m being honest!). For me, these things were just not sustainable and didn’t last the year, so I’m nixing them!
Hoarding manipulatives like my life depends on it
The “C” of the “CRA Model” is concrete, basically manipulatives. Last year I had them all over the place and tried to make sure every kid had a baggy of all the manipulatives to use for every lesson. It was a lot to keep up with and honestly, they ended up being more work than were worth.
Instead, I am going to keep my manipulatives in a bookshelf, organized in bins, and let kids take them freely when they need them. I’ll leave a couple at every table for kids to use if I know they’ll need them for the lesson, but I’m done with the individual baggies of all the things.
Not giving students enough think time
This one is hard because we want to use all the time in our classroom for instruction, but think time is the instruction. I am so guilty of saying “Turn and talk” and then talking at the kids while they’re supposed to be talking about the question. Or I’ll tell them “think about it and give me a thumb up when you have a thought” but then talk about the question while they’re “thinking”.
That was literally useless and next year I am going to use a timer for thinking time and always give at least one minute to think.
Frontloading the skills they’ll be learning
Okay, this is not something I would do if I had the choice. The curriculum we have has what’s called an “explore” day, with frontloading. The students are supposed to explore the skill before I teach it, which is great in theory. However, we used the curriculum with fidelity this year and it was basically a word problem with the skill, not exploring the conceptual understanding. The curriculum had them “look ahead” and see the skills before they had a chance to learn through the CRA model.
Now, some of these things might work for you and that’s great! For me, it isn’t worth the energy to promote student learning. Let’s see what systems and routines are worth keeping in my elementary math classroom next year.
What’s Working (Keeping These Systems in My Math Classroom)
Center Time Organization
One system that I started (and stuck with!!) this year was my center organization. Honestly, I was nervous at first because I didn’t implement it until January, but it was a seamless transition and something me and my student could keep up with all year. I wrote a post about it last month and you can read it here. This has honestly become one of my favorite elementary math systems that I’ve set up because I know exactly what to do each round of centers.
Gallery Walk
Every day, students answer a problem-solving question about the skill they are going to learn before I teach it to them. One way I get students talking about each other’s work is with a gallery walk. Around my room I have 5 whiteboards set up that are partitioned into 4 small rectangles. Each kid shows their work in their rectangle and then we rotate throughout the room to see everyone’s work.
I especially love doing this on an explore day because it gives students a chance to share their thought process and me a chance to see their background knowledge before we jump into the rest of the content.
Solve with a partner
Before this year, my guided practice looked like me guiding my students through solving a problem. They stayed at the meeting area and then we’d talk about it. This year, I switched and now they solve problems with a partner for the guided practice. They have assigned partners at their table and they know who to work with when they have to solve problems together.
Pro tip: assign them the same partner for the unit. Whenever there is partner work, no matter the part of the lesson, they always go to the same person.
What I’m Changing in My Math Classroom Next Year
My i-Ready trackers for motivation
In the beginning of the year, I created this beautiful bulletin board with an i-Ready tracker for each class and it was great! I have 3 classes and whichever class reached 100 lessons first got a prize. The problem was – the same kids were completing lessons and getting the class there and yet the whole class was getting a prize.
This year, I want to do the same concept and display their lesson progress, but I am changing it up. I’ll still call it “Lesson Leaders,” but I am going to make them individual trackers. At the time of me writing this post, I haven’t made them just yet, but when I do you’ll be the first to know.
The way I do behavior management & accountability
This is something I am guilty of doing every year. I always think I have a good system, then halfway through the year I change it. The issue I run into is that the system is not sustainable (are you sensing a pattern here?). I never truly give a behavior management strategy a true try because it falls off before I can see the benefits of it.
I’m not sure if it’s the ADHD or my love of researching and learning that has me hopping around chasing shiny new objects. The object being behavior management systems. This year I feel like I did the most all the time and I need to rein it in and go back to the basics.
This year I did a complicated ticket system, an “Oops &Oh yeah” chart, and used our schools kindness cash as a motivation tool. I even resorted to making a poster for the whole grade to earn sprinkles so they can have an ice cream party at the end of the year.
There was a lot going on and it was hard to keep track of.
From what I hear, the group coming up needs a simple system that will motivate them. I am thinking of doing table tallys so they are motivated to help their team. This is obviously flexible depending on how the kiddos are when I meet them.
I’ll keep you posted!
Something New I Want to Try Next Year
The following list are things I want to try for my elementary math classroom systems. I may or may not do any of these things, but the thought is there!
Student jobs
Every year I say I am going to give students jobs and every year flies by before I get a chance to set them up formally. The third grade teachers at my school have a whole application process for the kids and I am thinking of adopting something similar, but simpler.
The hard part of having student jobs is that we’re departmentalized. I am going to start small and just have table jobs, so every kid has a job. I am going to have a Resource Manager, Clock Monitor, Captain, and HW Checker.
Towards the middle of the year I might open a “tech support” position for kids who are good with the iPads to handle minor troubleshooting.
My homeroom kids will have specific jobs like Calendar monitor, iPad Cart Manager, and 3-4 Janitors.
Again, this is going to be something that starts small and I’m probably going to change it a million times before I find something that works, but that’s teaching right?
Portfolio days/student goal accountability
Something I preach is student ownership, but my student portfolios don’t show it. Next year, I want to make sure I spend at least 1 period after each assessment and let my students make corrections to learn from their mistakes.
Basically, it will look like me giving their tests back, letting them look through to see what they got wrong, and then giving them some time for test corrections. I have a test correction form that I used with upper grades that I will modify for these kiddos.
I will also give them time to reflect on their goals for the unit and track their own progress on a template that will be created at some point this Summer! 😆
Tech-less Tuesday
I love using technology whenever possible, but I think it’s important to take a break. I am going to try to do Tech-less Tuesday where students won’t be using their iPads in my classroom. Who knows, maybe I’ll convince the other teachers on the grade to do the same!
Tech I’m Leaning On
Now to help me with my elementary math classroom systems, I am going to be using technology. Here’s a list of a few tools I loved this year that I will continue to lean on next year as well.
Google Sheets
I’m leaning into my Google Sheet template for my pacing calendar. It has space for 5 subjects, so I’ll use the other spaces for my center plans and special events I need to note.
Google Slides
Google Slides is what I teach my lessons from. The curriculum supplies us with Google Slides, but they’re ugly LOL! I of course make them seasonal and put my own little touch on them.
If you’re looking for my seasonal slides, you can check them out here.
Gradebook
My Google Sheets Gradebook is still going strong, however I will be tweaking them just a smidge. I use MailMerge to send test letters home to my kids, so I’m going to adjust my sheets for each test.
Parent contact tracker
This is a biggie for me. I struggle hard with keeping track of parent communication, and if I’m being honest just communicating in general. I send messages on ClassDojo, but sometimes forget to check it. 🤫
So that’s where my head’s at for next year. Some of this is locked in, some of it I’ll probably tweak three more times before September even hits (looking at you, behavior management). But that’s kind of the point of this list. It’s not a final answer, it’s just where I am right now.
If you’re doing this same kind of reflection, I’d love to hear what’s making your keep list and what’s getting the boot. Drop it in the comments or send me a message, I’m always nosy about what’s working for other math teachers.