Last year, our school moved from 40 minutes of math to 80 (every day)….OMG!!!
By the end of the second week of school, I was SERIOUSLY looking into EARLY RETIREMENT!!
I had used warm ups in the past and had my agenda written on the board under the date every day and it was fine, but once I started projecting a Daily Agenda Slide and assigning a Daily Spiral Review, everything changed! And I didn’t retire!!
Each has a different theme… Motivational Monday, Talk About it Tuesday, Word-Up Wednesday, Thoughtful Thursday and Funny Friday!
Every slide leads to a discussion, even if it’s just “explaining the joke” on Friday.🤣
There’s also space for your learning objective, agenda and any other important info you want to share:)
Completing the warm-up and reviewing the agenda usually took about 10 minutes and then it was on to the spiral!
Each spiral review has 3 problems and those 3 concepts are the SAME all week long! On Mondays, I would usually give them time to work out the problems, we’d talk about the answers and then solve them together. By Friday, however, they were ON THIER OWN!! Although the problems get a little more difficult each day, they should be able to solve them with a little perseverance.
I made each slide into a Pear Deck so I could review their work and give them feedback in “real time”. But, some of my teacher friends who use the slides have the students do the problems on paper (they print the slides) or in their notebook. Either way is JUST FINE! Do whatever works for YOU!
Honestly, completing the spiral review each day definitely took LONGER than it should have!! But that just told me how desperately my students needed to keep reviewing what they previously learned. (In one ear and out the other!) Definitely time well spent!😊
The ROUTINE
Getting into this routine TRULY saved me!! My students came in every day and knew exactly what they needed to do… check the agenda and start thinking about the warm up. Then it was onto their Chromebook for the spiral! After that, what we had left was what I consider to be a REASONABLE amount of time to keep 8th graders engaged and learning new concepts.
I kept the rest of my class period scheduled in 15-20 minute time blocks that included guided notes, partner problem solving, group work, stations, games and assessments. Just when they were about to get bored (and on my nerves), I changed it up! The perfect plan!
If you think this may work for you and your students, click on the image below or use THIS LINK to check it out!
And please reach out if you have any questions! I’d LOVE to hear from you!❤️
~Kim