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May 23, 2018

Organizing for Math Workshop

If you have been around my blog for awhile, or followed me on social media, you know that finding ways to interact and engage with my students that meet their learning styles was always the priority. While that began with all of my work with Interactive Notebooks (which is still a passion), I quickly learned that I could not only do that and I have implement something else. Coming for an Elementary background, yes, I taught 2nd and 5th or a total of 5 years prior to middle school, I knew of and had used math workshop in my classroom before on a regular basis. It was something my students hadn’t had in middle school so I thought why not, we can have a middle school math workshop.

Over the next several blog posts I will share with you the break down of how I got this to work in my class. If you want to get the info straight to your inbox, sign up for my VIP list and you will have it all brought straight to you.

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Determine Your Structure

Math Workshop Stations SheetDeciding how you want to structure your Math Workshop block is probably the MOST IMPORTANT component. You have to determine this based on your teaching style and your student’s learning style. There are many different options available out there with the most popular of them being different acronyms such as MATH, TIME, STACK or providing a choice board. In the free Math Workshop sheets I gave editable versions of the sheets that I have used to with my students.

The different acronyms can stand for whatever YOU choose. For me, MATH stood for Math Facts, At Your Seat, Talk to Me and Hands On Fun.

Pretty simply these were to allow my students to have time to practice Fact Fluency (yes, in 7th and 8th grade I still have them practicing Order of Operations and especially multiplication and fractions), independent work during At Your Seat time that allowed for easy differentiation across the board, Talk to Me was important to me because it allowed me to incorporate tasks where students really needed to communicate to get th

rough the project at hand and then Hands On Fun allowed me to incorporate manipulative based tasks where students went from abstract ideas to more conceptual.

Math Stations Pinterest Board

Other ideas during this time would be Math Games, All By Myself, Teacher Time, Technology Time, Independent Practice, and many more. I’ve created a Pinterest Board where I share a lot of visual items about Middle School Math Workshop and would love you to follow.

math workshop rotation board

Create a Visual for You and Them

I can’t stress enough how important it is to have some kind of visual for you and your students to refer to. This will not only help reduce the number of times a student asks, “Where do I go? Who am I with? What’s next?” Notice, I didn’t say it would eliminate them but it will greatly reduce them when you train students to refer to the Math Workshop Board.

Plan Effectively with Extra

Planning Extra Activities for Middle School Math Workshop

When planning out your Math Workshop stations each week, don’t just plan what the students MUST DO in each station but also plan something extra just in case there is a time where the students finish ahead of time. You will be working with small groups so you want them to use their time effectively and stay on task. Something simple as adding in a Solve and Snip, a Spin to Win, etc. will make sure that your students are on task and working at all times.

Be Consistent

No matter what you are doing when you are using Math Workshop in your classroom, be consistent. Consistency is key in everything we do in our classroom and we must keep that with Math Workshop. There will be times where you want to give up, there will be times where there are too many things going on at school (assemblies, early release, testing, etc.) and that’s okay, forgive yourself for the week and pick it back up the next week. Planning ahead with your calendar and knowing these possible interruptions will help you in the long haul but also communicating that with your students. They are resilient and will understand.

Math Workshop eBook with Editable TemplatesAre you ready to dig in and learn all there is to know about Math Workshop in one concise place? Grab my Math Workshop eBook today that includes 42 pages of of all the information you need to get started as well as over 20 EDITABLE templates to keep you organized and on your toes with planning and documentation throughout the year!

Filed Under: Math Workshop, Teaching Tagged With: guided math, math workshop, organization

Jennifer Jochen

Jennifer Smith Jochen has been an educator since 2003 with experience in elementary, middle school and college. Math has been her passion since a young age which no doubt resulted in her secondary math teaching career. Currently Jennifer is a Differentiated Curriculum Designer and Staff Developer traveling the nation to train teachers on the effectiveness of Interactive Notebooks, Math Workshop and All Things Math. When she is not traveling and training she lives in Fort Worth, TX with her husband and dachshunds where they are working to renovate their home together while channeling their inner JoJo and Chip!

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Staff Developer & Math Curriculum Designer Looking to Engage Teachers in 4-8th Grades #mathworkshop #interactivenotebook
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Jennifer Smith Jochen, M.Ed.
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Saw the doctor via Telehealth yesterday and got my Saw the doctor via Telehealth yesterday and got my official test done today. Hubby had his test done Thursday which has come back positive. 

We have had the symptoms of COVID since Monday so this is just to solidify what our symptoms are. Both of us are beyond miserable with aches, pains, sore everything and it just makes it hard to do anything.

We don’t wish this on anyone, EVER! While it’s survivable it is NOT fun while you are going through sore throat, cough, headaches, chills, feeling hot, chest aches, joint pain from head to toe, and then no taste or smell on top.

I don’t share this for sympathy, I share this ask you to please limit your exposure, wear your mask and wash your hands always.

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Yep, we are QUARANTINED at home for the next two w Yep, we are QUARANTINED at home for the next two weeks! @billyjochen.bbr was with a family member this weekend who had a positive test come back today. Nothing any of us did wrong but now we are keeping everyone else safe for precautionary reasons. 

I did wake up this morning (before we found out) feeling horrible but I’m truly praying for a cold, or heck, I would even take the flu. Doubling up on my vitamins and resting to help fight it off as well as taking Cold meds.

Christmas may not look the same for any of us this year but that doesn’t mean the reason and the spirit isn’t there.

We hope you find a way to celebrate your holiday traditions but also be safe as well. 

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Just a Sunday Morning chuckle.. 🤭 Just a Sunday Morning chuckle.. 🤭
🚫CLOSED🚫 It is MOST DEFINITELY the coffee-es 🚫CLOSED🚫 It is MOST DEFINITELY the coffee-est time of year! I want to give 5 of you a gift card to @Starbucks to grab you a morning mocha or afternoon snack!

All you have to do is...
1. Follow this account @SmithCurriculumConsulting 
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Entries close Sunday, December 13th at 8pm Central. Winners will be drawn in stories and tagged to claim their prizes!

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This week, I started working on converting Solve a This week, I started working on converting Solve and Snips into Solve and Slides (for Google Drive).

Each Solve and Slide will be two slides to have all 10 word problems available to quite literally, Solve & Slide.

Starting with the thematic ones for Christmas and Winter and will be releasing them soon!

Are you excited about having this self-checking activity available for you to use virtually, remote and in technology stations within your classroom?

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Today is a day that we gather and share our thanks Today is a day that we gather and share our thanks and while this year may look different, don’t forget to take that time to make note of what you are thankful for. 

Document those things as you never know when they might change.

For me, this year, I am thankful for:

- my family and all that we have gone through this year, 
- my husband and all that he is and can be,
- my dogs even when they can be a hot mess,
- my ability to work for myself and with my husband on a daily basis as we operate two companies out of our home and a warehouse,
- and my health as it has been good to me in 2020 despite all else that is going on in the world. 

If any year is important to share our gratitude, 2020 is definitely that year! #bethankful
What are your top 3 FAVORITE Christmas movies? What are your top 3 FAVORITE Christmas movies?
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