How and Why I Spring Clean My Classroom

This school year has been one big long example of how life sometimes gets in the way.  Every time I feel like I have things under control again, something happens to push me back into survival mode.  I finally am fighting my way back to a semblance of normal now and one of the first I things I did to help me ensure I stay here was give my classroom a big old fashioned spring cleaning.  

5 Reasons Why I Prioritize Spring Cleaning My Classroom

Clear Out Clutter  

Like many teachers, I have a hard time getting rid of things that might be useful someday.  I have fought back against this urge by ruthlessly pitching things I no longer use each spring.  I think this works best in the spring because I can think about whether I have used something at all this school year or if I have plans to use it in the coming weeks.  If the answer to both of those questions is no, it gets thrown away, donated or recycled.  I also get ride of anything that is broken or no longer works as it should. This year I got rid of a bunch of non-geared mini clocks, a pile of very well loved student sized white boards, 2 boxes of math curriculum our district no longer uses, several board games that are no longer used and some old files on students who are no longer in my school.

When your flat surfaces are completely covered in books, manipulatives and more you know it's time for a good cleaning

Save Time

There is certainly some upfront time to spring clean my classroom, but in the long run, I save a lot of time.  As the weather gets nicer and I want to spend more time outside, I find myself wanting to be able to leave school earlier in the afternoon and not work so long once the kids go home.  When my classroom is clean and organized, I save time by being able to find what I need when I need it and having less clean up that I have to do by myself because my students know where to put things when they are organized. 

The way the heater is supposed to look!  I am so much more energized in clean spaces!

Rearrange and Revitalize

As I spring clean my classroom, I take a few minutes to think about the furniture and arrangement of the room.  Is there any furniture that I no longer use that can be removed to make more space?  Is there any furniture I am lacking that I can check the storage area for or think about ordering for next year? I re-arrange furniture to better meet the needs and flexibility of the space before I am finished.  This year I got rid of a few chairs that were starting to break along the side and dug out a few better ones from our storage shed.  I also rearranged some desks along the perimeter of my room to make them friendlier for pairs of students working together.  

This one is a bit embarrassing to share with the world, but this is what a math manipulative shelf can look like after being neglected for a bit.  Once things start to unravel, students don't know where to put things so they just shove them anywhere on the shelf.  

Clean and Disinfect

After 8 months of not getting wiped down, my book shelves, walls and those nooks and crannies the vacuum doesn't quite reach all needed a bit of love.  I use a bucket of soapy water and some microfiber cloths to give everything a once over.  I also disinfect all tables, desks, doorknobs and the sink area to help clear out those winter germs.  I also open my windows if the temperature allows it!  Getting everything back to clean and fresh makes me feel better every time I enter the room.  

So much easier to put things back where they belong now! 

Make Things Seem New

When I clean things up and move things around some, it makes things feel fresh and new to me and to my students.  I am much calmer and my thoughts seem better organized when I am in an organized space.  Switching things up with a few months left to go in school seems to help everyone feel more energized as well.

Finding Time For Spring Cleaning

I have three different ways I have found time to spring clean my classroom over the years.  Depending on my schedule and other life events happening during a particular year, I may use one strategy over the other.

This one is almost painful to look at!  Here is what it looks like when I have been in survival mode for to long! 

The Dedicated Day

I used this strategy for spring cleaning this year.  We had a week off for winter/spring break and my family was not traveling.  My mother in law wanted my own children for the day and the weather was terrible.  I spent the better part of a day at school alone and totally revamped my room from start to finish all at once.  I felt like I accomplished so much and got things exactly as I wanted them.  I feel like I have saved 1-2 hours a week in the 3 weeks since then.  As the weather gets warmer, those extra hours outside or at home feel great!

The top of my desk is brown!  I also have some empty spots on my shelves which is always a good thing! 

A Little at a Time

If I can't dedicate a bunch of hours together, I try to do a bit at a time.  Either choosing one area a day or just setting my timer for 10-15 minutes and cleaning furiously each day are great ways to get a lot done in small chunks.

Recruit Help!

Particularly for teachers who have the same kids in their room all day, spending an hour or so at the end of a school day doing a group spring clean can be a great way to get your classroom sparkling and teach your students about being responsible for their things and their space.  It can be a lot of fun to put on some music and work together to things back to the way they belong.  It is also a great chance for students who are great at organizing to get a chance to shine! 

What are your best classroom organization tips? Please share in the comments below!

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Yohaku: The Ultimate Low Floor, High Ceiling Math Task

Last spring when I was doing the Mathematical Mindsets book study, I wrote a lot about rich mathematical tasks that all students can access but that also keep going or growing for students who need more challenge.  Since then, I have been on a quest to add more tasks like this to my repertoire and recently I cam across one that I just have to share with the world.

I first heard about Yohaku in this month's issue of Teaching Children Mathematics.  I was sitting in a waiting room while reading about them and was instantly engaged in solving the examples offered in the magazine.  I quickly moved to their website and was amazed at the variety of puzzles they offered to meet many different math skill levels.  I knew this was going to be my next school wide low floor, high ceiling task.

A great Yohaku for beginners!  

I started by introducing my second and third grade group to Yohaku puzzles and by the end of the week, I had kids from K up through grade 6 working on them.  I highly recommend starting with one of the easier 2X2 addition puzzles when you introduce the idea of a Yohaku even if your students are older.  It is nice to be able to focus on the challenge of the puzzle and how to solve it and develop some strategies for solving these puzzles before moving onto more challenging puzzles.

Some Yohaku puzzles have some text at the bottom which limits the numbers you can use.  We have found these puzzles can be more challenging that the ones that do not include additional limits. 

The puzzles increase in difficulty by getting larger (2X2, 3X3, 4X4), changing the operation from addition to multiplication and changing the numbers included in the puzzle (whole numbers, fractions, decimals, algebraic symbols)

My students have generated so much enthusiasm for these puzzles that many adults in the building have joined in on the fun.  A few brave teachers have even been working together to tackle the algebraic puzzles which has really helped them move forward in their understanding of algebra. 

A teacher sent me this picture along with the words "I finally did it!"  

When kids (and adults!) are working on these, they are not only deepening their understanding of math content, they are also working on the Math Practice Standards.  

My students have decided that since these are so fun and since the entire school is working on them, we should turn our HUGE front hallway bulletin board into Giant Yohaku puzzles that are laminated so we can use dry erase markers on them and folks can solve them as they walk by or visit our school.  I think its a great way to get parents involved as well and will keep you updated here on the blog or over on Facebook once we get the project done.

I highly recommend trying these out with your students, you can get started over on their website or grab the Yohaku book!

I also have started documenting my journey toward personalized learning!  You can read more about that here! 

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Playing With Integers

Living in the northeast, my students get a lot of real life experience with negative numbers every winter.  Integers don't show up in our standards until grade 6, but my students get a fair amount of exposure to them much earlier than that through real life experiences with temperature.  Here is a problem I posed to my students earlier this week on the first day of spring.

I just snapped a picture of the outside temperature as it shows up in my car when I got home after school one night and then again the next morning as I was leaving.  We had quite a temperature swing and unseasonably cool weather for the first day of spring and many kids were talking about the weather that day.  I love when I get a chance to capitalize on their interest with a well timed math problem.  This problem led to some great discussions about addition strategies and integers in all the grade levels.  Many students used or thought about number lines and in the older grades we talked about writing equations to go with this type of problem.  

My sixth graders will have a more formal unit on integers in about a month but in the meantime, I introduced a game to my 5/6 math group a few weeks ago that is giving them a lot more experience playing around with integers. It is a card game called Absolute Zero.  Each kid gets between 3 and 5 cards in their hand then draws and discards a card each time it is their turn.  The cards are positive and negative numbers and the goal of the game is to get zero.  

The current sum of this hand is 10.  On the next turn, if I draw a -3, I could discard the 7 and the sum of the hand would be zero and the round would end. 

One particular group of kids has been playing this game every spare minute they can and really playing around with strategies for winning depending on if you have 3, 4 or 5 cards in your hand at a time.  

Another group of kids has loved playing war with these cards.  They have been playing addition war at this point, but some of them are ready to start thinking about integer multiplication so very soon I will be showing them how to play the same game with multiplication.  

Kids have been integer addition war.

You can learn more about Absolute Zero, print record sheets and see some videos of the game in action over at their website.

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Who Moved My Cheese?

A few minutes before I left for vacation, my principal came in and handed me a copy of a book he wanted all of us to read at some point.  As my vacation has been coming to an end today and I have been getting back into school mode, I opened my school bag this morning and saw the book. I picked it up a few times today and read bits and pieces and started thinking about the message in the book. The book is Who Moved My Cheese? and apparently it is the most popular  book I have never heard of.  It is a very short book (under 100 pages) but packs a powerful message about how different folks deal with change.

The story is very simple and short and is preceded by an introduction and followed by a conversation between a group of friends about how they interpret the story.  At my school, we are facing a great deal of change over the next several years and I think this book will really help us open up some conversations about the changes that are coming and how we are going to deal with them.  

The story is about 2 mice and 2 little people.  The mice, Sniff and Scurry are much more adaptable to change.  Sniff can sniff out the situation and sees change coming early on.  Scurry is able to take action immediately when presented with change.  The little people, Hem and Haw have more trouble adapting to change.  Hem is the most resistant to change and really wants to stay in familiar territory.  he has a great deal of fear over any change and really wants to stay in one place.  Haw learns the most during the story.  He doesn't see the change coming but once things change, he is able to see what he is doing wrong and make some changes himself.  The change actually ends up changing him.  

When I was reading this story, I could see myself and my colleagues in all of these characters.  It really made me think about how I deal with change at work and at home and how I can improve my response to change and my attitude about it.  I look forward to discussing this book with colleagues! 

I also think this book has a great message for my students.  In particular, I have a group of sixth graders right now who are fearful of the changes coming next year when they move up to our district middle school.   I also would like to share this story with my own children who could always use more practice dealing with change. Luckily, there is a picture book version and several animated versions available on You Tube.  

Have you heard the story Who Moved My Cheese? Which character do you identify most with? How would you use this story with students? Please respond in the comments below!

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Gatekeepers: Let's Talk About Teaching

If you have ever read the blog Forever in First, you know what in inspirational educator Tammy McMorrow is. The good news for all of us in the education world is that she has now written a book called Gatekeepers: Let's Talk About Teaching. She is a very well read author and brings a lot of other experts into this book.  She has been a first grade teacher for over 20 years but this book is really fitting for all educators.  She writes a lot about teaching writing but the lessons learned are those that would apply to teachers of any subject at any grade level.

The format of this book is short chapters based around a quote.  There are 50 chapters but they are quite short, around 300 words on average.  They can be read in any order and are great short pieces that helped me reflect on my practice and think about what is next for me.  I read the first half of the book in one sitting and then decided to slow down a bit and read a little each day.  I also did something the author says she does herself and began a journal collecting quotes and ideas from my professional reading.  I had this beautiful journal laying around waiting to be used and I have to say it is so nice to have all my thoughts about my professional reading collected in one place instead of on sticky notes all over the place. 

Here are a few quotes from the book that I found memorable along with my own reflection on them.

From Chapter 26. Slow Down to Speed Up

"Being deliberate and explicit about the smallest of details is essential.  If my students don't know what I expect of them, come January they are certainly not to blame when things are not going as planned.  It takes a considerable amount of time, patience, and energy to be deliberate in those first several weeks though, especially when curriculum is impatiently piling up.  Rushing into the academic  fray too early without a sure foundation could sabotage everything. "Slow down to speed up" is my mantra"

This chapter really resonated with me because when I read it in early November, I was just begging to feel like I was getting out of the back to school rush.  Some years that busy back to school time seems to go on longer than others and this year was certainly one of those years.  In the moment, it can feel painfully slow and almost agonizing to make sure classroom routines and procedures are set up properly, but it is always worth it in the end.  Thinking about the idea of slowing down to speed up is a great way to frame it and remind myself that the speed will come later.

From Chapter 28: Grace

"I often envision the teaching profession as a path without end.  It's occupied by teachers but all at different points.  They're all moving but at varying paces.  Then I spot myself.  It's plain to see how far I've come, and I can identify many teachers who are currently where I once was.  They deserve my grace.  I can also look ahead to where I'd like to be and see many teachers occupying that space.  I hope they show me grace as well."

This quote really made me look at other teachers in my building and in the world in general that I know and to think about where they are along this path in relation to myself.  I have so many things I want to accomplish still as an educator and it can often seem like I have so far to go.  However, when I look back to where I came from, I see an equally overwhelming amount that I have already accomplished.  It is so helpful to me to think about my teaching career as this path without an end.  It makes me proud of what I have accomplished and hopeful for my future.

From Chapter 42: The 3 R's of Teaching

"Simply put, reading + risking + reflecting = meaningful change.  I suppose we could call them the 3 R's of teaching.  Is this equation evident in our schools, or, better yet, in our own classrooms?"

Doing a lot of professional reading has been a great way for me to make meaningful changes in my classroom.  Some of the biggest shifts in my practice including formative assessment and number talks came from reading about them, trying them out and reflecting on how well they worked.  I can't emphasis enough how much reading about teaching and trying new ideas has moved me forward as an educator.  I know that not all teachers have made room in their days for this type of professional reading and I have been thinking about ways to help them increase the reading they do.  One thing is sending shorter, blog post length links to them.  Another idea is sharing podcasts I enjoy or encouraging teachers to sign up for a free trial of Audible.  There are quite a few good general education books available in audio format now. 

Gatekeepers was an inspirational read and would make a great holiday gift for your favorite educator.  

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Looking at Strengths

Over the past few years, I have put a very high priority on keeping up with professional reading.  As my kids have gotten older, we seem to be on the go more than ever and I found my pile of to be read books growing and growing and very little reading getting done.  After discussing this with a colleague I decided what I needed to do was give audio books a try.  I signed up for Audible, got 2 free audio books and was off and running.  After my 2 free books, I decided to stay subscribed and now I can download new audio books whenever the mood strikes. I have found that teaching books specifically about math are pretty limited,but general books on education, leadership and mindset are almost all available on Audible. 

The first book I listened to via Audible was Strengths Based Leadership by Tom Rath. (He also wrote one of my FAVORITE picture books How Full is Your Bucket?)

I have been in a teacher leader position in my school since almost the beginning of my career.  Much of what I have learned about being a leader has come from experience and mentors.  I am now interested in exploring more about leadership and how I can take things to the next level.  I read Lead Like a Pirate back in March which is much more specific to education than this book.  Despite the fact that this book was written for leaders in general, I got a lot out of it.  

The biggest thing I took away from this book was a deeper understanding of my own strengths as a leader.  The book details many different strengths and comes with an access code to the leadership version of Gallup's Strengthsfinder Program.  The strengths the program identified for me are Achiever, Maximizer, Learner, Activator and Arranger. Each of these is described in detail in the book but I also received a customized report about how exactly each of these applies to me.  I was surprised how well this assessment pinpointed my strengths and to some extent, even parts of my personality. 

Another huge take away from this book was about looking for strengths in others.  It really made me think about how to best utilize members of my team and my colleagues to support me, my students and the mission of our school.  There were certain strengths that when listening to them talk about, I would think so clearly of one teacher or another that I have worked with.  Looking at people's strengths has helped me make ground as a leader in just a few short months. 

What other books about leadership would you recommend?  If you use Audible, what education books are available in this format that you would recommend? Please respond in the comments below! 

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Let's Talk About Multiplication Fact Fluency

Earlier this week, I shared this post about memorizing facts versus knowing facts from memory. In this post, I talk about how I used to think timing kids daily on multiplication facts was the backbone of my fourth grade curriculum and how my perspective has shifted over time to one where I believe kids should know their facts from memory rather than through memorization.  If you are not familiar with this idea, here is a video where Graham Fletcher explains it better than I ever could.

After re-sharing this post from last summer on my Facebook page, I received the following comment from Michelle:

"While I agree that strategy is the way to go (it's the only way we teach math facts), I'm second guessing myself when it takes 15 mins to work through a 2-digit x 2-digit multiplication problem bc every 'part' (when using partial products for example) has to be worked out using a fact strategy when kids don't know their facts well. It takes soooo long. I'm so proud when my intervention students get the correct answer but it might take 40 mins to do 3 problems and I start to second guess myself-should I be drilling them more often. I know that they know AND can discuss the fact strategies they used as they go, but I sometimes wonder when is the leap to automaticity going to come. Maybe I need to just be more patient? I'm speaking of intervention students that are seen multiple times per week. Taught the multiplication strategies last year, didn't retain the strategies over the summer, now reteaching but feeling stagnant...guess I'm just having trouble bridging the gap b/t them knowing the various strategies and automaticity. I am supposed to be teaching division to one of them but it is so so difficult when they don't know their mult. facts. This student can complete problems correctly using 100 bead number line or draw a picture and circle groups (divisor) but w/o that are completely unable to make an educated guess bc multiplication facts are not solid. I just hope I'm doing the right thing focusing so much on strategy. Would really love for them to be proficient by the end of the year."

Here is how I would respond to Michelle and to anyone else facing this struggle.

Michelle makes some excellent points!  Their strategies do need to have some level of efficiency.  First of all, are your students fluent with adding 2 double digit numbers mentally?  The ability to do this is the backbone of multiplication fact strategies and is a super important pre-requisite skill.  This is one of the many reasons I hold off on introducing the standard algorithm for addition.  If this is a skill you find is missing in your students, here are some great games that can be done to get your students comfortable with this important skill. Another excellent resource is the Number Talks book which offers a great framework and specific problem strings that can move your students forward with mental addition strategies.

Once you are feeling good about your students' fluency with double digit addition,there are lots of ways to work on building efficient strategies.  I know it can feel like you are moving backwards to have to go back and work on multiplication fact strategies but it will pay off in the long run.  Your work with double digit multiplication and with division will be so much easier if your kids have efficient strategies for multiplication.  Again, I have to say the Number Talks book is an excellent resource that provides a framework and specific problem strings that will move your students forward on fact strategies.  Here are a few of my other favorites for moving kids forward with fact strategies:

• Making Array Cards
• Math Cards from You Cubed
• Multiplication Fact Playing Cards
• Example of a multiplication fact number talk
• Another Number Talks resource 

Your students are lucky to have you Michelle!  I am sure you will make a big difference for them.

What advice would you give Michelle? Please respond in the comments below

In other news, my blogging friend Tammy from Forever in First recently published an amazing book about teaching!  She has been an inspiration to me for years and you can read my full review here!

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