Chapter 3: Where students work

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 This one I'm kind of excited about while at the same time trying to figure the logistics of it. I love having the kids work together in groups on a large whiteboard. They work on problems, work on answers, work on all kinds of things. In fact, I have had kids ask if they could use the whiteboards when we aren't using them to help them work on things. I love it. Well, this chapter goes a step further. This chapter says that kids should be working on whiteboards but that they should be vertical so the kids have to stand. 🤯

What a great idea. Having the kids up and moving and working. I absolutely love it. He adds a couple of other things to this idea that I love also: 

  • only one marker per group
  • the marker has to move around within the group
  • sometimes the person with the marker can only write what others are saying, NOT what they are thinking
  • have groups in closes proximity to each other so they can see what others are doing
  • they are not allowed to erase someone else's work
There is another one, probably in another chapter, where I carry a different color pen. That way when I make a mark on their board we all know I did it. I can also use my pen to circle something that cannot be erased under any conditions. 

I love all of these ideas so, so much. I need to now figure out how to implement them in my room. I have a feeling that the first 3 or 4 days of school will be just learning the procedures and how things work in my classroom. That's okay. I've come to really like that because it actually saves time later in the year. There is nothing like having to do something quickly and having the class just know what to do. It is so, so worth the time spent on procedures and routines. 

The next question in all of this, I know that I will be doing this with chemistry, do I do it with biology also? In some ways it would be a lot easier because the procedures and routines will all be the same. In other ways it will be more difficult as I will have to modify the curriculum to this model. Hmmm...I think I'm going to go with this in biology too, but I need to work on the curriculum and get everything set. 

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