My Classroom
I currently teach 6th grade math and science at Washington Woods Middle School (fifth and sixth grade building) in Holt, Michigan. I teach on a two-person team, where my class and my partner’s class come to me for math and science and go to her for language arts and social studies. In addition to these four core classes, my students also go to encore and a class called intervention. Our intervention class follows the Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) and acts as a Tier II class to help students struggling in math and/or language arts. Students who fall into Tier III are struggling the most and miss their encore classes two-three times a week to get extra help in math and/or language arts.
With Holt being located on the edge of Lansing, we get a large influx of students from Lansing making my students socio-economically and ethnically diverse. My students drastically range in ability level from a second grade reading level to a twelfth grade reading level. I have two Autistic students, one of which requires a fulltime paraprofessional and is almost nonverbal, and one severely emotionally-impaired student. Many of my students have attended sensitivity training and are involved in our Links program where they are assigned to students with Autism and help them out throughout the school day. This program combined with the very strict Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) system that my school follows, makes my classroom run very smoothly in terms of behavior.
Below you will find pictures and descriptions of my classroom layout and some of the lessons/activities that my students have completed.
Above Left- My students are using centimeter cubes to determine what it means to find the volume of a rectangular prism during an inquiry-based Connected Mathematics Program 3 lesson.
Above Right- My students are performing open-ended and student-designed investigations involving dry ice to observe how matter changes states.
Above Left- My students are playing Jeopardy to review for a Matter and Energy Test.
Above Middle- My students are playing an Order of Operations game where they choose the correct operation symbols to make the sentence true.
Above Right- My students are working in a small group with me to practice their Order of Operations.
Above- My students are showing the sign they created to represent Project Unify, a group dedicated to involving students with and without disabilities in activities aimed at building acceptance for all.
Above Left- This is my desk area and the agenda board where I write down what is going on in each subject daily. The students copy the agenda into their personal agendas and are responsible for getting it signed by an adult daily.
Above Right- This is the front board and contains the schedule, team points poster to promote teamwork, our PBIS questions that are asked to misbehaving students, a SLANT poster to remind students of what they should be doing, and the attendance/lunch count check-in.
Above Left- My students are learning how the scientific method works by performing an experiment with Alka-Seltzer to see if it dissolves faster in warm water, cold water, or vinegar.
Above Right- This is the setup of my classroom from the beginning of the year before I put the students in groups of four to aid in group work.
Above Left- This is the library area of my classroom where students can borrow age-appropriate books and spend time quietly reading.
Above Right- This is our classroom aquarium and our classroom job chart with each student's name on a clothespin to give them a sense of responsibility.