First, it's important to lay out the path for the rest of the math year which includes the following:
- completion of the division unit including a problem solving creation exploration activity
- fraction unit with a focus on the behavior of fractions
- measurement unit with a map making project and science connections
- geometry unit with a tangram start, origami, and "wanted" posters
- review
- systemwide fifth grade test
- state tests
- science/math exploration
Next, I have to look at how I'm teaching math--what do the math lessons, learning experiences, groups, format look like.
I'm adding a couple of early morning help sessions for a few targeted students--that will help. The established early morning help sessions will continue, but they are so popular that I don't have a lot of time with any one child--it's typically me and about twenty eager students so I added the more targeted times.
During class, I plan to employ the teaching assistants more strategically. For teaching assistants that are well prepared for math teaching, I'll likely ask them to work with students who need more in quieter areas so those students can focus and work at a good pace, and for less experienced teaching assistants, I'll likely ask them to work with some of my energetic, quick math students so that I have more time for those who need a more tailored pace and approach.
I also plan to teach students a few more online venues that will help them to learn the math at their own pace. That will free up time for me to zero in on students who may be quieter, less participatory, and less engaged in the math class because others will be working on their learning with online learning that's engaging.
Of course I want to continue to include Boaler's games and explorations as much as possible. My greatest challenge with this is the sheer depth and breadth of concepts I'm charged with teaching--there's so much vocabulary, skills, and specific concepts that it's sometimes difficult to branch out into greater floor-to-ceiling exploration, but I know that it's a good idea to do this. Recently I included a floor-to-ceiling volume exploration--the engagement was awesome as was the learning. I will do more of this in the days ahead.
And of course, I continue to revise the room set up to accommodate student learning better. The next iteration is to label and organize all my math tool drawers so students can easily access the materials they need, materials such as rulers, multiplication charts, blocks, tangrams, and more. I need to do the same for science too.
Day after day my room becomes more and more of an active learning center--the kind of center that invites student exploration, deep learning, and teamwork too. There's lots to do to better this effort. This is a positively challenging point on the learning/teaching path.