Welcome to another edition of The Tuesday 12! I recently had a SMART Board installed in my classroom and I’d like to incorporate it in my math lessons. Then I began to think of creating a math focus wall on the bulletin boards that surround
Welcome to another edition of The Tuesday 12! I recently had a SMART Board installed in my classroom and I’d like to incorporate it in my math lessons. Then I began to think of creating a math focus wall on the bulletin boards that surround my SMART Board. I looked through Pinterest and couldn’t really find the perfect plan (which is odd because Pinterest has everything!), but I did find one picture to use as inspiration:
(Aside: I tried linking the picture to the original source, but I can never get that page to load properly)
Based on previous experiences teaching grade 7 and 8 math, some research, and some creative thinking, I’ve come up with 12 items I’d like to include on my math focus wall. Some things will be static, while other things will be dynamic. This list isn’t carved in stone…until I get into my classroom at the end of August and begin to put everything together, it will be hard to imagine.
I’ve decided to turn this into a series of posts from the initial ideas to the final creation! So join me in creating a math focus wall for my classroom and then adapt the ideas for your own grade levels!For my next post, I’ll draw some pictures to help me visualize my ideas.
12 essential (for now…lol) components of a math focus wall:
1. A number line…really a no-brainer for a math focus wall, but it will probably be from around –45 to + 45, since integers are used throughout the grade 7 and 8 math program
2. A spot for our learning goal and success criteria which we will be co-creating with each new lesson.
3. A section with math accountable talk sentence starters (I’m working on a set now!)
4. Challenge question of the week
5. Steps to problem solving…like our lovely GRASS posters!
6. Help in decoding math word problems (e.g. multiplication-of, product, twice, times, multiple)
7. Key terms and definitions for the unit we’re working on
8. Our posters—what does a good mathematician do?
9. Different problem solving strategies (e.g. work backwards, draw a diagram)
10. Examples of math in everyday life
11. Bright and colourful parts—I’m thinking a blue or green background, a patterned border, and something really cool for the title (maybe just the word MATH done in an interesting way)
12. The SMART Board…I just need to start incorporating it into lessons regularly!
Do you have any suggestions? Let me know! As I said before, until I can go into my classroom and begin arranging all the different sections, this list can—and most likely—will change!
Tune in next week for another edition of The Tuesday 12 and more on my math focus wall!