Teacher Tip: Some students love to doodle.  So, get that out of the way in the beginning.  Ask students to draw their best doodle for you.  Sometimes I will select an item for them to draw.  One day I asked everyone to draw their best panda.  It was a lot of fun for my students as well as for me to see their artistic abilities that have been hidden from me.

Here are some ideas for how to get going with whiteboards in your classroom:

Elementary Math
Fluency Practice
Read-Draw-Write Problems
Modeling – Ten frames, Number Bonds, Arrays
Show your thinking

Middle School
Fluency Practice
Modeling a problem
Tape Diagrams
Order of Operations
Graphing
Make a problem for your neighbor to solve

Algebra
Graphing Lines
Identifying Slopes and y-intercepts
Making Tables
Solving Equations
Model the problem with a picture or words
Make your own problem – give to a neighbor to solve

Geometry
Vocabulary and Notation Check
Sketching Transformations
Identifying Angle Pair Relationships
Solving for unknown angles
Practicing Trigonometry Ratios
Segment and line relationships with circles

Algebra 2
Factoring
Sketching parent functions & identifying them from a graph
Writing Equations for a graph and identifying key features
Solving Equations
Powers of numbers

It is easy to get into the habit of always calling on the same students who have raised their hands to volunteer an answer.  One way to make sure that you are including all of your students is to use Popsicle® sticks when selecting students to contribute to class.

Materials:

• Popsicle Sticks
• Your favorite sharpie or flare pen
• Rubber bands

The task of writing all of your students names on Popsicle® sticks may seem a bit daunting.  (I know; I had 145 students one year!)  You can always give each student a stick and instruct them to write their names “legibly” on them.  Or, wait until your favorite show or sports team is on television and complete the task while kicking back a little.  I usually group the Popsicle® sticks by class and wrap a rubber band around them.

When it is time to go over homework, I usually select a couple of problems that I want to go over with the class.  I will have the students present their solutions on the board.  I use the Popsicle® sticks to select a student.  I never want to put a student completely on the spot, so I always let them choose a classmate to work with for this task.  The two students would then be responsible for writing the solution to the homework problem on the board and explaining it to the class.

Homework is a learning process, so sometimes the solution is not correct.  Wrong answers are wonderful to review!  It is important that students know that it is okay to make a mistake when they are learning new material.  Students create genuine error analysis problems when the solution is not correct.  As a class, we can work together to find a viable solution.  It is important to review classroom expectations and create class rules/norms so that everyone is respectful and understands that making mistakes are part of the learning process.

I hope to be watching the Red Sox this year as I make this year’s set of sticks! What will you be watching?

HOMEWORK PHILOSOPHY 

I believe that homework should be used as a learning opportunity for students and not graded for accuracy. Homework provides students a chance to process and reflect upon what they learned that day in class. It helps students retain information and practice transferring it to a new scenario.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

When I check homework, I look for:

• Work shown
• Calculations Pictures/graphs
• Explanations/justifications
• How much is completed
• Spot check 2-3 designated problems
• Correctness (to guide future instruction)

I track homework completeness as shown in the chart below.

How do you track homework?  Please share in the comments below.