Working with students in the Gifted Education program, my biggest goal is to stretch their thinking! Many of these students are used to getting all the answers right without putting forth a great deal of effort. I plan to change that! I want my students to explore challenging possibilities.
Reading a textbook and answering questions or doing vocabulary activities may not be the most exciting way for everyone to learn, especially if you do well in school without having to try very hard.
Small groups of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students (many of whom are like the description above) come to me for enrichment. I want to give them the extra push in order to make sure that learning continues to happen for these students.
My Project
As a teacher, I provide activities for my students to learn and one of the ways to learn is by DOING. I want my students to be DOING math problems and showing their work, especially when they are in a small group at a math station. When they are DOING math, students are drawing pictures, writing equations, and solving problems as well as building and creating when working on STEAM projects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math).
Since I can't see inside their heads and read their minds (although sometimes they think I can), students need something to write on to show me the thinking that is going on and they journey that is being taken.
I don't want to waste paper (and I don't really have that much paper), so my students use dry erase boards all the time to show me their thinking, which is why I am in constant need of thin dry erase markers for the students to use. The big thick markers just don't work well on small boards.
And if I can put one STEAM challenge sheet or word problem inside a dry erase pocket, then I don't have to run copies for every student. Just this week we were doing a project designing a dream clubhouse, and students were able to explore area and perimeter using graph paper inside a dry erase pocket so I did not have to use as much graph paper to work with all of the small groups. I have some dry erase pockets but see so many possibilities with even more!
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