End of the Day Jar

Reflecting on Our Day

 Here is something I found on Teacher Pay Teachers that I started using with my class. The End of the Day Jar is a great way to finish up the day with community circle. Have students join you at your group space. You can pull out a card or have a student read the card. There are several ways to respond. You can call on students, have the student that chose the card respond or have students buddy talk and share.

Here is sample of some of the questions that are found in the jar:

• What is one thing you learned today?
• Did you do something kind for someone else today?
• Did anyone do something nice for you today?
• Did you give your best effort on your work today?  Why or why not?
• What are your goals for tomorrow?
• Share something about your day?
• What can you do tomorrow to be a better student?
• Name an adjective that would describe your day.

It is something to try with your class!  My kids are loving it!  I feel it is a good way to reflect on our day!

Poverty and Education

In my masters class, we have been talking and reading about how poverty affects our students.  Here is a graph stating that education is a foundation to human development and has a clear multiplier effect with benefits in health, broad-based economic growth and poverty reduction.  I was unable to make this infograph fit so you can read it.  So I will explain what it is telling you.  It states

• that a child born to an educated mother is more than 2x as likely to survive to age five.
• Educated mothers are 50% more likely to immunize their children mothers without an education
• Every extra year of school increases productivity by 10-30%
• A girl who completes basic education is 3x less likely to contract HIV/AIDS 
• Individual earning increase by 10% for each year of school completed  
• Educated women re-invest 90% of their income to their family.  Men invest 30-40%

But Still Today:

• 1-4 women around the world cannot read this sentence
• Girls make up 53% of the children out of school 
• 98% of people who can't read live in developing countries

With this information, we as educators need to remember the importance of teaching to all students.  We need to remember how it is important to get to know each student for who they are and understand that they might not come to school having the same home life as ours or the kid next to them. And with that, we need to understand where they come from to help them grow and learn! 

Math Journals

        My research was based on the use of Math Journals in a third grade classroom.  I have started implementing our math journals into my math class.  We divided our journals into three sections: math thinking, math working and math learning.  Each section has a purpose. The math thinking is where the students write how they came up with a solution, what they have learned or still have questions on (a place for reflection).   The math working section is where they work out problems.  The problems can be ones that I give them or ones they get from their math workbooks.  The math learning section is designed for a place to write notes and math vocabulary in.  The last thing we added to the back of our notebooks was a string to use as a book mark.  This way they can place it in the spot they are working and it easy for me to find!

      Through my many hours of research I found that writing in Math is beneficial.   According to Marilyn Burns, a national known mathematics educator, “Writing in math class supports learning because it requires students to organize, clarify and reflect on their ideas, all useful processes for making sense of mathematics." Burns has a great book and many great articles on the subject that you can read if you want to see the research on how using math journals can enhance the learning of your own students. Here a link to an article written by Burns called Math Journals Boost Real Learning.