Why teach social justice?

Before I even write this post I want to stress that these opinions our my own and comments are here to make you think, no offence is intended.

Today I was reminded about why I should and all teachers should be teaching social justice and more importantly all the various isms. Now, when I mention the isms I am talking about racism, sexism, ableism, faith-as-an-ism, classism, and heterosexism.  I understand that this may be touchy subjects for teachers but it is so important to be discussing.  Let me start at the beginning.

I will be honest when I first started teaching, social justice meant nothing to me.  I taught knowledge and concepts. But four years ago, I met an amazing teacher who opened up my eyes.  She showed me the power of social justice and teaching through the isms.  Since then I have had my eyes open up to see that teaching through these topics is about caring for one another, loving eachother for who we are no matter on our beliefs and more importantly it is about accepting each others beliefs.  Unfortunately, these past four years haven't been the easiest. As I and other teachers have taught through social justice we have met many complications and resistance; even to this day.  This resistance has come in the form of ignorance and unwillingness to accept change. Now I know these words may seem harse but it is the only words that come to mind and I say them because before having my mind open it is how I felt. The funny thing is that most of these topics are fine. When we talk about ableism, classism, racism, sexism no one bats an eyelash but when we bring up the topic of heterosexism it becomes controversial. 

Now I understand that this topic brings many different views and view points.  There is religion and culture but if we look back on the other topics this was the same with them too.  We once thought that African American children and adults couldn't sit on the same bus, drink the same water or even have jobs the same as white.  We even had African Americans has slaves.  Those with disabilities both physical and mental were viewed as second class citizens. Now I am in no way saying that these ideas are gone, which is why I believe it's so important to teach about them, what I am saying is why is the topic of heterosexism any different then the other isms? Should it be? When I say hateful comments about the LGBQ community is it not the same has putting a white hood over my face and attacking a bus full of African Americans or allowing the horrors of the holocaust to happen? Is it not the same as saying girls can't be successful because there girls or those with physical and mental disabilities should be second class citizens? I say it isn't, what about you?

This brings me to the reason why I am writing this blog post.  In the past couple of years I have heard many various children, parents and unfortunately teachers saying many hurtful things. These comments are so bad, it makes teachers cry, children want to kill themselves, teachers want to quick teaching. The sad part is there is no defence no aid for these comments. Other comments range from Debating why we should be teaching these isms, that there is a personal agenda, or trying to change children away from their culture or faith.  The reason why it gets me so upset is that the teaching of these topics has nothing to do with personal beliefs but more with accepting one another for who we are, no matter what that is. There is so much fighting, war, arguments over needless things and it needs to stop. Hurt breeds more hurt. Hate breeds hate and if we don't stand up for it then who will.

As a parent, I want my daughter and future child, to love everyone for who they are. I want them to also be accepting of everyone's opinion. I am not saying they have to believe or follow but they must accept and love each person for who they are.  Personally I am a religious man, I have a strong beliefs and because of these beliefs I know where I stand and hate isn't part of it, love is.  When teachers teach through social justice we are teaching our future generation to love one another, to change and be the change we want in this world.  By teaching this way and these topics we are breeding a new society that hopefully may not have any war but peace.

So what needs to happen then.  As teachers we need to incorporate more social justice into our practise. I know some of the topics are hard but start small and build.  We need to stop ALL hateful comments coming from our students, colleagues and all that say them. As administrator, the words of hate should not be allowed or even debated, not matter the topic. Discussion is fine but there must be a stand at hate. There also needs to be a united front that topics of social justice will be taught in the schools and if there are complains or resistance that teachers are supported in their decisions because those decisions will change our world.  Dialogue wis accepted and should be encouraged as long as it's positive and not hateful. Parents need to have an open mind no matter on faith, personal believe or stereotypes. I can't speak for all parents but I know personally I don't want my child to grow up in war and hate, this is the only way to stop this. Students need to stop hateful words like that's retarded, that's gay.  Most importantly we all need to think about what our words may say and do to others, no matter on our personal feelings about the topic. We need to think beyond what we have been told is true and think critically about it.

Now I know as I write this it may not sit well with others but if we really want this world to change, if we really want hate removed then we need to think about acceptance and love for one another. We need to stand up for what is right and not what we have been told is right. So as I end this blog I ask, no implore you to think about your practise, to think about your walk, your life, how are you affecting change? How are you teaching acceptance? How are you being equitable for all? And if you have any stories to share about why social justice is important please share. Thank you for reading.

Problem based in learning in the context of math wars. Thoughts are myp.o.v.

I was recently given an article from Suril Shah (@thrilsuril), a colleague of mine in the peel Board, (http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/02/28/does-discovery-learning-prepare-alberta-students-for-the-21st-century-or-will-it-toss-out-a-top-tier-education-system/) and then later on another article from another colleague Aviva Dunsiger, a teacher in the Hamilton School board (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/canadas-math-woes-are-adding-up/article17226537/ ).  Both articles discuss (or rather reprimand) the notion of “Discovery Math” needless to say I had to respond.

As many of you know from my blog posts, math is a very important passion of mine.  I have in a way devoted my educational career to learning about math education and how it can help transform student learning.  This has gone on for me for the last 9 years of my teaching career and five years before volunteering at an amazing school in Peel.  Over the course of these 14 years the arguments in the above articles have always been happening; so I think it is funny that when Ms Wente mentions that this is a “new faddish fuzzy notion.”  Since mathematics was first introduced into the curriculum in the fifteenth century it has always been a debate over skill versus conceptual understanding.  This debate will always be there all I can give you is fact from experience and from the classroom (which I will say many who write articles in the Newspaper or make policy cannot).

Let me first start of with my own evolution.  Like many of you I was taught with very traditional methods.  My father drilled in me from a young age that fact recall was the most important thing.  I still remember practising for hours on hours flash cards and being randomly asked multiplication questions to see if I knew these facts.  I also remember that my Math class was all in a work book and my teacher sat at the front of the room and wrote many things on the board and then we did questions to practise and show what we learned.  This continued all the way through school and as I got into the high school and eventually University this is what I remember of my Math class.  Did it help?  No, I don’t think it did.  Don’t get me wrong, I did learn math.  In fact Math has never been a hard subject for me (except problem solving).  I was able to work through and memorize what was needed and then when the test came I was able to retell those facts and get an A.  My problems never came until University Calculus.  Here I because I didn’t have a good foundation in Calculus I struggled, in fact I failed. 

Sorry I digress here.  This method of teaching stuck with me, more so because this was all I knew.  During University I changed majors and decided to become a teacher.  I was able to volunteer at an Amazing school in Peel and soon learned Reform Mathematics (what discovery math was called at that time).  I was also fortunate enough to have an Amazing principal who let me question her and learn what reform mathematics was all about.  At first I said the same things that many of these article, and our parents say when they see problem based learning. You have probably heard these before (I know they are in the article):

1)      What is wrong with Rote, it worked for me?
2)      What about facts? There not learning them like I did?
3)      I memorized and got good grades?
4)      They can’t possible learn this on their own?
5)      What do you mean discovery? What is your job then?
6)      You’re the teacher so teach?
7)      This look chaotic, there is no order, how can they learn?
8)      What about the language, seems like more reading than math?

I can go on but they start to sound the same.  During this process I was able to see students truly excel and showcase their learning.  In fact, looking at scores (which is not the end all to be all), the school went from 42% to 93% in that first year in mathematics.  I was also able to reflect on my own learning and how I learn.  This started the ball rolling and has helped me to ask questions back.  Here are a few to think about:

1)      How do you truly learn as an adult learner? 
2)      Do you memorize things and then succeed? Or did you have to make mistakes, go back and relearn or have someone help you through it?
3)      When you are learning do you like to ask questions? Or just sit and receive information?
4)      (my favourite one) As a successful adult how did you become successful? What traits do you like in your employers?

Here are my thoughts to these questions:

I personal learn by doing, struggling, asking questions and then going back to relearn it.  True mastery comes from doing something over and over and over again.  Yes I can see how this backs learning facts, and I am not saying facts are not important, but my learning is in context to the concept not in isolation.  Memorization only works with some things but I still make mistakes no matter what I am doing and then I learn from them.  As for success to me I value students who are free thinkers, creative, adaptable and able to see past just simple direction.  This has been the case even when I was managing people in the private sector in my University jobs.  I don’t think the world can evolve from people who can only follow direction and not think beyond what is on the paper.

With this in mind I began my teaching career.  Here I too continued to question but now I also had to field questions from the general population about my style of teaching.  Here are my responses.

Q: Why is this better than traditional learning?

 A: I hope that I may have answered this above but most students, and adults do not learn through traditional learning.  There are a very few who do and we also have to consider that style but many don’t.  Learning is developmental.  It doesn’t happen in a linear fashion and PBL allows for this to happen.  Learning in PBL also doesn’t happen in isolation from the world, or other subjects.  It is always connected to a context, which helps all students to hold on to something and work with it.  Furthermore, all learners can access PBL, whether gifted or with a learning disability all students can do the problem.  Also, personally, it makes the day go by a lot faster, I enjoy it and so do my students.  Check out this video: http://curriculum.org/secretariat/justice/insights.html for student reflection on what context can do.

Q: You know my kids don’t know facts, why aren’t you teaching them?

A: First and foremost, I want this to be said, “FACTS ARE IMPORTANT!” they must be taught and learned; however, how are we learning them.  Let’s go back to my question back to you.  Can you recall something where pure fact learning has help you be successful?  If yes, no think was it just fact memorization or was it in a context?  Fact knowledge is important and needs to be done.  I prefer to do this through games and mini-lessons.  This allows me to talk about a strategy and have students discuss the pros and cons of the strategies.  The talk focuses the learning.  Check on my previous blog post on it.

Q: “Teachers and Students are learning together” Great so now we have the blind leading the blind!

A: This is the one that bothers me the most.  It bothers me because PBL actually takes more understanding, more planning and a lot more patience then traditionally teaching.  I have almost completed my thesis, in where I researched the impact of my questions on students learning of fractions.  It was interesting to see where I had moments of direct teaching that my students stopped talking.  In fact, they just sat there.  Which is exactly what traditional teaching does, students sit and listen then do.  PBL takes planning.  In another of my posts I talk about five practises that teachers should be following for PBL implementation (http://mrsoclassroom.blogspot.ca/2013/11/blog-post.html ).  Teachers actually need to learn the mathematics and it is through critically placed questions that the learning is brought out.  Students develop at a faster rate through this proper questioning style and can achieve a higher level of understanding.  I have grade twos right now who are learning about equivalent fractions, ratios, division and adding three digit numbers in their head.  It is truly amazing to see what they can do.  But this takes planning on my part.  It takes understanding of learning trajectories and  understanding what students are doing (so you can redirect or push beyond) and understanding the math to be effective in PBL.

Q: Test scores are falling?

A: this might be so but I would caution you on this.  First of all tests are a snap shot of learning at a particular moment in time.  They have a place in assessment.  In my personal opinion a very far place but a place nonetheless.  There are many factors to low test scores: 1) poverty, parents education, home life, social problems that day, being sick, stress, reading level, context, etc. The list is endless.  When we put all emphasis on test we are taking away so many other factors of learning.  I know more about a student from a problem that they solve then by what they can retell me on a test, just a matter of fact.

 I am going to stop here for now as I think I have written more than I ever have in a blog.  This topic is very dear to me and I have heard a lot of the questions in this “Math War.” It will not go away but please don’t take this as a discouragement to stop PBL or even start.  To me PBL is the best way for ALL students to learn.  It gives the teacher the most time for true assessment and understanding of their students needs and next steps.  It allows you to meet all levels of students and be able to get to all of them.  I have and will continue to only teach through PBL (problem based learning).  Love to hear your personal stories, questions or answers to this lovely debate. 

Helping students Master Facts

Coming from Junior grades I know that facts are important for students to help them with math.  In addition, I know that learning facts also helps students with solving problems.  However, whenever you talk to anyone this is such a bone of contention.  Some feel that facts are the most important parts of math and some feel they will be learned through problem solving and inquiry.  I tend to lie in the middle of these groups leaning moreso to the inquiry approach.  Don't get me wrong facts are very important to learn and are a critical part of mathematics.  They do help students; however, I also see the other part where students only know facts and cannot apply them to problems.  IN this case facts are harmful to students development because they keep trying to apply rote learning with no understanding.

So with this in mind what is a teacher to do?  I recently came upon some great advice from van De walle's book, Elementary and Middle School Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally.  In his book he has a whole chapter on mastering basic facts.  Van de Walle offers three components to learning facts and none are through strict drill and or quantity of drilling facts.

His components are:

1) Help children develop a strong understanding of the operations and of number relations.


2) Develop efficient strategies for fact retrieval

3) provide practise in the use and selection of those strategies

This is great but what does this look like in a classroom.  I can't say for others but in my classroom this is how I have interpreted these components.

Number sense is beyond just learning algorithms or memorized facts.  You need to understand how numbers work together, their significance, decomposing and composing, and other mathematical reasoning.  All of these help you with mental facts, which in turn helps you with mastering basic facts.  In my classroom, we do a variety of things:
                              
                       a) String lessons: this is fifteen minutes before the problem where we practise mental facts.  These strategies relate to the problem and I hope that students start to apply them in the problem.  This might be adding by tens, using friendly numbers, adding with doubles, etc.

                      b) Problem Solving: chosing a proper problem is just as important to helping students learn math facts.  The problem you chose should allow students to practise their fact recall and not just a traditional algorithm.  In addition, when you debrief the problem there should be some talk about efficiency and using these facts.  This will promote student thinking in this area and see why its important to learn and use their facts.                       

                      c) Teacher Talk: Often when students talk about a strategy I will articulate with certain math talk.  So what you are telling me is this.... Your use of vocabulary will always assist student learning.  I also sometimes do think alouds of my thinking, to help student conversations.  This always is accompanied with talk about what students think I did.

                         b) Math games that focus on these skills.  All of our games in the classroom focus on certain skills.  It helps students practise their facts and learn about numbers beyond just pure memorization.  It also brings out talk among students and teacher.

In addition to this we also do math fact Mondays and Math game Friday.  During Monday my students do a "mad Minute" type of activity.  Though it is not truly a mad minute as it is more about practice of facts then of fast recall.  Students do have a time limit but it is more that it happens at the end of the day.  I will also like to say that my students asked for this activity and relish the moment when they can show me how much they have learned from the week before.  I give my students ten minutes to answer about 60 questions.  We also graph our results over the weeks and set goals for the next.  The emphasis is on goal setting and improving their individual learning.  Results are never shared among the students.  On Friday we do a whole period on math games.  This is important as it give students time to play and practise.  Even though that after finishing a problem they do get to play games not every child gets the same amount of time, this way they do.

Furthermore, Van deWalles chapter there are many great suggestions on the type of strategies that these things can bring out and is a read I recommend all teachers doing.

This only some of the things that I do in the classroom to assist in fact recall.  It is important but how you do facts is just as important.  How do you help with facts?  What type of activities do you use?  Love to here from you.

Keeping track of my Assessment

Today i was able to participate in our boards networking PD. During this PD session I was asked about how I recorded my assessment and keep track of my student learning.  I shared these ideas but when I was asked if I had this recorded down I said no.

So the topic of this blog is: keeping track of student learning.

I have used a number of techniques over my teaching career but some of the best have been during this year.  As technology improves so does recording of assessment.  Here are some of my assessment tools: 

Evernote:

At the start of the year I began using Evernote. Evernote is a great app that allows you to keep track of pretty much anything.  Now there are many out there who have used Evernote more then I have (in fact follow: @thenerdyteacher http://www.thenerdyteacher.com/) but to make the most of this app this is want I have done.

I have different notebooks for each child.  I also have different notebooks for math, language and my reading groups.  After each lesson I record a reflection of how the lesson went.  This may include things that surprise me, problems, next steps or just some pictures of the lesson.  I also record individual comments for my students that I am observing that day or for the particular lesson.  Along with these notes I also scan students assessment of learning or work samples to the kids notebooks for easier connection and recall.

By having all of these observational notes it allows me to refer back to problems and give better feedback to my students.  It also makes report cards a lot easier.  Now there is one down side, it takes time but this is far out waded by the fact that reports are easier to write.

Twitter and storify:

Now you may think that this is a little weird, twitter is assessment but it does help.  Since January I have been challenging myself to make my classroom more transparent and twitter has allowed me to do this, well in combination with storify. As my students are working I have been taking pictures and sending out tweets.  At the end of the day I use the storify app to organize my tweets in chronological order.  This in a way creates a small microblog of the day.  Now here is were the real assessment is.  With a snap shot of the day, I am able to reflect a lot more easier. In addition, it allows my students parents to see what their children are doing and help at home.

Wiki sites:

Now I used this a lot more last year but have used it this year.  Wiki sites are a great tool to store pics and videos of the classroom.  It is a secure site, so each person has a log in and password.  In addition, students can comment on work and look at previous questions.  I have slowy been converting to edmodo, which is the same site but with more cabilities. More work is needed for this.

Thes are some of the tools that in use pin creating assessment for my students learning.  There all great opportunities for reflection and a great start for flipping your classroom.  How do you keep track of your assessemnt? Would love to here your ideas.

Why teach through inquiry? A real testimonial

Now I know that I have posted on this subject before but with the day I had I just had to write about it again.  Inquiry: WOW!  Man I love it.

I know that recently there has been a lot of discussion about inquiry in the classroom and if it is really making students learn.  There has also been a huge push to go "back to basics" all I have to say is wish you were in my class (even school) today.  Today's math problem was quite simple: 

"Mrs. Standring, our proud principal, needs help.  Our school has been open for two years now and we got more kids this year, because of that the fire Marshal has asked her to make a new fire plan.  I was telling her that we were studying measurement and she thought you could help.  How far is our door to the nearest fire door?"

The kids went nuts. It took them a while to get over the fact that they were helping Mrs.Standring.  Well they just started with the questions: what tools can we use? How are we starting? Which door is closer?

Most of them saw that a meter stick would be the best measurement tool, we had been talking about measurements for some time and been measuring in non-standard too and knew that it was inconsistent. So they all grabbed meter sticks and off they went.

We got a bunch of numbers and came to the carpet to discuss. They were all in confusion, why do we have different numbers. We used a standard measurement? We then asked the students to demonstrate how they measured.  Some saw that when you lift the ruler up, you sometimes, overlap the space or leave a gap.  I then asked them how can we prevent that?  This brought up the discussion of leaving marks, or placing fingers.  They went back at it.

Students then came up with an answer but when I asked them to tell our principal they didn't know what to say.  This of course then led us into a discussion about explanation texts, which we then made some success criteria and off they went to write.  When the bell rang half way through the students were very upset that they didn't have enough time to finish there work.

Not only did this problem happen in my classroom but my teaching partner did it too.  Her kids thought string was the best and then bring it back to measure against a meter stick.

Now you may read this and say so what? So what! The best part of this is that all this discussion was student driven. All collaboration, student driven, all learning student driven.  Yes as a teacher I am incharge.  I have planned this problem, I have thought of the big ideas and questions but it is the passion, and learning of my students that drive this problem.  Also, when looking back (though I will say to make it worth while this should be done first) my students met over 37 expectations from the curriculum and all of the learning skills that are in the report card.  In addition, the talk was amazing and the learning even more. Not only this but when it comes to assessment I have it all, with no tests.  I know my students skills, next steps and a mark of work.

Inquiry for me is the only way to teach.  Yes, students do need facts and knowledge but that fact and knowledge is gained through the inquiry process.  Also, if a student doesn't have that to start with as a teacher it is my job to scaffold the question so that they do learn; however, it should still be done in a way that the student is discovering the learning.

Now in the end, there is no wrong way to teach, all learning is valid and good. But through inquiry students do grasb and understand concepts faster and with a deeper understanding. It's been amazing to see our students development as our school adopts this approach. There is less review needed from year to year and the students are talking more and communicating their thoughts.  For me there are a couple of key reasons to teach through inquiry:

1) Students learn and enjoy the lessons more then traditional teaching styles

2) It covers more curriculum and deeper knowledge

3) Students retain information

4) Learning is integrated in real life, why separate at school

5) It validates the students and makes them buy into their learning. If they are invested you have less behaviours

6) students easily tune a teachers voice out but not their peers

7) It's fun for me too! Shh don't tell my students

What are some potential problems: (though to me they are not problems)

1) Problems take time: learning is not easily divided into 30, 40 minute time blocks

2) Can be and should be noisy but productive

3) Takes more planning: yes it takes more planning. You cannot wing inquiry. Even though it may appear as if it is winged or that the teacher is doing nothing it is an art form and requires a lot more planning (will tough on that in a minute)

4) Parents: you will get parents complaining and questioning your practice.  This is new for many and with new comes questions and fears. Stand up and proudly defend your practice because when they hear and see their kids they will love you.

5) you may not have all of the answers

What do I need to do to teach through inquiry?

1) know your content and curriculum: when you know your students learning it is easier to formulate questions and scaffold students learning.

2) plan: I wrote a previous blog post about planning but essentially you need to plan.  Inquiry does not happen by the seat of your pants.  You need to anticipate students questions, problems, and ideas.  You need to know what the big ideas are and where you want the lesson to go.  You need to understand learning trajectories and see where your class is and should go next and you need to do the problem first.

3) inquiry should be contextual and related to the kids life.  The best inquiries are ones in which the students really wonder or can invest in.

4) have fun and don't be afraid to make a mistake.

Overall, I feel inquiry has been one of the best things I could have done. It really benefits the students and it makes my assessment easier.  I would love to hear your thoughts on inquiry? Have you tried it? Struggles? Pointers? Thanks for reading.

Geometry

I started this blog to talk about the things I did in my classroom but it has turned into more of ramblings on education; however, this blog post I want to focus on some things that I have been doing in the classroom with my grade twos.  

As I have stated before, I predominately teach through inquiry and problem based learning especially in math.  Rarely, if at all, will you find me lecturing, I just don't think kids want to hear me ramble or that they are really listening. Instead I try to facilitate discussion through activities, problems, projects and carefully planned questions.  However, there are still some subject areas that I have trouble with, geometry is one of them.  The reason I struggle with this is it's sometimes really hard to come up with a context or a problem that allows students to explore the concepts that you are teaching. Not only this, but there is a lot of vocabulary, or social constructs as I like to coin it, that students just need to learn (e.g. The name of a four sided shape is a quadrilateral). Moving to primary has allowed me to shift my thinking nd find more ways to explore these concepts.  I have had to revisit many of my favourite resources, like VanDeWalle, Marilyn Burns and Fosnot. VanDeWalle has an amazing learning progression for geometry in his book.

Here are some of my activities: 

1) concept attainment: yes and no categories

For this activity, I had a bunch of 3D figures or shapes for students to see. I placed one object in the yes and then another in the no. I would then have the students discuss what they think is happening.  I would then place another object in the yes and no category.  Once this was done we would discuss and then I sent them off to try and figure out my rule or concept I was trying to get them to see.  This was great for teaching terms like parallel, shape names (quadrilateral, triangle, prism, pyramid), etcetera.

2) 4 triangle problem: 

This problem is in numerous resources but I found it in Mariyln Burns book.  For this problem, I gave my students four equilateral triangles and told them they had to make as many different shapes as possible. They then had to organize there shapes.  This was really good for teaching shape names and other various properties.

3) property hunt:

This activity is one that I traditionally do as it lends itself to exploring the various shapes and figures.  For this activity I have the shapes or figures out and the students just try to find as many properties as they can. Normally, I would tell my students what properties they would be looking for or at least brain storm ideas from them.  However, this year I just let them search.  This often would generate lots of questions, which I would then stop the class and have mini congresses ( debriefing).  This would then lead to more questions, exploration and so on.  This change has really opened up my students understanding and has helped me see what the students actually understand versus what they have absorbed.  

4) Make a figure: 

This particular activity is used for 3D figures but possibly could be modified for 2D shapes.  For this activity I gave my students various shapes and asked them to find what figure they made.  This actually generated some really cool discussions around prisms an d pyramids.

For me inquiry is the best way of teaching but it does have some problems here or there.  I hope that these are useful ideas.  If you have any great lessons you love, please share; would love to hear them.

Daily schedule

I have been inspired by Aviva Dunsinger, a teacher in Hamilton, to talk about my daily schedule.  She posted hers not too long ago, take a look at: http://adunsiger.com/2014/01/04/a-glimpse-at-our-day/, great read.

I have been thinking about how to describe what my schedule looks like and have been struggling.  I think the problem lies in that my schedule really blurs, moreso now that I teach primary.  For those that know me, know that I teach predominantly through Inquiry and problem based learning. In fact, it is more the only way I teach. Too me it allows me to reach all of my students and meet all of their needs but enough of that.  Because of this, subjects become obsolete, I mean the curriculum still guides my practice but it's not like set periods of math, language, social studies, etc.  It becomes more of a fluid motion between subjects where one is integrated into the next.  Let me explain a little more:

Our school day is divided Into eight periods, but first period is short so really seven.  I lose one period a day for prep.  This roughly leaves me with six periods to work in various activities.  But I try not to see it as periods in the day more like blocks of time.  I always try to have a double period of math and a double period for language but this may not necessarily happen in a set time, it's where ever I feel it fits the flow of learning.  Sometimes we need to do some language because it is building a context for our math or vice versa our math builds the context for our language. It's also Inportant to note that even though our time may not be back to back, it still continues.  I don't try to wrap things up because I have to go to gym.  We just leave things were they are at and continue when we get back.  At first this left some redirecting and focusing but now my students don't even stop they just get right back to work.

So what do these periods look like:  

Math: is always some sort of contextual problem or an inquiry approach to exploring concepts (some strands are harder to find contexts for all big ideas). For example, we are exploring geometry and 3D figures, so the problem might be there are a bunch of figures on the desk what do you notice. Or look at these categories, one is a yes and one is a no, place the other figures into the categories.  These examples are more inquiry base but help build understanding.  Other times we may be exploring distances kids travel to school around the world.  This context would be read about in class, journaled about in writing and then explored in math.

Language: is predominately done in center form.  I would have five centers that students rotate around for the week.  One center is vocabulary, one is writing, a guided reading group, a read and reflect and another that would be dependant on social studies, science or our writing focus.  Students have choice in the various centers and the reading is often about a social justice theme, science or social studies.  Sometimes, I may use this time to work on just writing or just reading.  

As I mentioned above I try to have two periods for each but this often blurs to three or four depending on student engagement, need and work accomplishment.

For my other subjects (social studies, science, drama, art, media, oral) they are all integrated into math and language.  However, I will often put science, social studies on my schedule board so the students know what to expect.

For both of these subjects it is all inquiry. For science, we do a lot of experiments and posing questions that students have to research.  For social studies, it is one big concept and the students read, write, present and pose new questions of their findings.  Often students will push other inquiry from the discussions and ideas they were researching about.  The arts are also taught this way, with making music videos, podcasts, art work to use in math or media posters.

I also do genius hour once a week for my kids.  Genius hour has been the best thing for inquiry and promoting student engagement.  Genius hour is all about allowing students pursue their own interest a as long as it promotes learning and helps the class.  The students are so engage.  But this is not just let the students do what they want time.  It is tied I to researching, writing, reading, and learning skills.  They are also making media posters, oral presenting and so much more.  My students live it.  Follow the genius hour hashtag for more info.

Hopefully, you see my deliema in articulating what my schedule looks like.  Too me, learning is learning and subject content should be integrated, just because you're in math doesn't mean we aren't doing language.  I think this helps students see the bigger picture and use various skills all through the day.  

I know that I may have been a little confiluding but my hope was to show what my day may look like.  In the end, all I know is that learning in my classroom is always happening and it is always connected together.  

I Would love to hear how other people schedule their day.