#MTBoS12days Yule Blog Challenge Day 6 “a tried and true task/strategy – I can always count on”
I’m quite a traditional teacher mostly using direct instruction with about 44 minutes per day (except on Thursday with 35-40 minutes). I do try to ask good thinking questions to help the students explore the concepts, provide some variety of activity occasionally such as desmos or geogebra, card sorts, etc. About a year and a half ago, I mentioned to my colleague I was thinking about getting some white boards. She had a class set of small boards that she gave me to try. The students really enjoyed them – yes, some classes more than others. So when I feel like I need to spice up the class a little or just wanting them to review some skills such as factoring or graphing rational functions or differentiating implicitly, I bring them out. Sometimes I have a few problems on the smartboard, but often if a spur of the moment, I just make up some problems and give then orally. Sometimes they “buddy up,” sometimes work alone. Sometimes it’s a quick time, sometimes longer. Occasionally we look at a mistake – especially common ones. Mostly done at the beginning of a class, but occasionally at the end to see what they know from the new lesson.
Mim's Reflections 