What's working in my classroom (after the first 7 days)

At the beginning of the year, we all have grand ideas about all the new, amazing, awesome things we are going to implement in our classroom.  Or is that just me?

I saw something cool on RockStar Math Teacher's blog - seriously, you should check her out.  She posted at the beginning of August about some great things she implements and I really love the team talk idea.  So I borrowed her team stars for my room, and what I am doing with them is really working.

I took the team stars and attached them to the lids of the bins I got for my tables.  The bins hold all kinds of stuff - rulers, scissors, glue, colored pencils, etc - anything they might need for class.

 I like this system because I am not having to stop class when a lot of students need one resource (and I forget to pull it out of my cabinets).  The lids cut down on the playing with the supplies and trash dumping in the bins. ( I do go and close all the bins between classes).

  I am also loving this idea because it allows me to randomly mix up the students' seating - so they get used to working with everyone.  I have two ways to do this.  The first way is using colored popsicle sticks to match the 6 colors on the stars. I hand them out as the kids enter the room.

The second way to mix up the kids is through cards I made - they have a number written on them - to go with the team number.  I have the cards spread in my hands, number down and I have the kids draw their card.  

I read this great blog post by Laura Wheeler over the summer and I really wanted to implement what she does.  So this is what I have been doing. On the plus side, since I am meeting the kids outside the room each day prior to class, it has given me a great opportunity to learn all their names!

Now to the next new implementation!