Blog Party: Chapters 1 & 2

1. Materials used by the teacher first, then placed in the station: really need to work on this
2. Materials do not change weekly, but rather changed to reflect the students learning objectives:  I like themes and they work well for me (monthly), I think by switching the materials (keeping the skills consistent) help keep the materials fresh, even when working on the same skill for an extended period - this is where I need help!!
3. All students go to stations daily:  not in the way described in the book
4. Materials are differentiated: this is one thing I feel I do well as a special education teacher
5. The teacher observes work or meets with differentiated math groups: I need to work on observing more

ORGANIZING!!

I have spend the last month organizing all my school materials. It has taken 2 trips with a 10 foot trailer to get them. Lots of trips to Wal-Mart for storage containers! And been very rewarding! The local literacy center has been very appreciative of all the donations I have sent. I am not finished yet, but getting there.

Additional Questions (dont really know how to answer these, as I have not done work stations and currently all my materials are in a storage unit :))

1.  How do you (or will you) differentiate your math stations?

2.  How and where do you keep your math stations?

3.  How do you keep your math materials organized?

Thanks for any feedback. Virginia

Hello

I have just finished my 8th year of teaching. I have taught in a variety of settings:

• spring 2004: 6th-8th grade self-contained inner city middle school in SC
• 2004-2005: K-8 school resource and consulatative in rural SC
• 2005-2010: inclusion, consulative, resouce, self-contained and anything in between in a 4-8 inner city school in a large school district in NC
• 2010-2011: self-contained 9-12 year olds in a all special education school that serves students ages 3-21 in a moderate sized county in SC

I have just made the move to childcare. I am really loving the change of pace so far. I have started this blog to participate in the book study being completed on Debbie Diller's book Math Work Stations. I am looking forward to learning a lot, by asking a lot of questions and reading others responses.
Virginia