New Year's Resolutions

Two things I am really committing to for the rest of this school year are:

1. Less handouts
2. More VRG

1. I am so concerned about having things prepared for all five preps that I sometimes forget that what I've prepared is super boring. We put notes together in our INB that serve as the students' main resource. Then the handout is supposed to be practice. But why do I always default 'practice' to mean 'handout'?

One easy fix I've used has been to print a template of some sort on card stock and then slip it into a page protector. I make a powerpoint with the problem and solutions. This way students can refer to their notebook, get lots of practice, compare their work to others', and no one gets done way too fast or lags behind. Also I am free to walk around the room and answer questions.

This worked out really well for graphing absolute value equations and then a few days later with function transformations. In the middle of those we did parent functions and I literally apologized for how boring my INB page was {basically me talking at their foreheads while they write}. While thinking about the boringness, I thought of an idea. Next year make a sorting activity where they match  the parent function, graph, and characteristics, Then copy that into their INBs. Sorting = more meaning for them and less talking for me. 

2. Tomorrow is the end of our second week back from break which means Monday we will change seats again. I'm using an interactive page on SMART Notebook to randomly decide groups every two weeks. I'm a little nervous- some students have the potential to act ugly if they sit with someone they don't like. I'm going to try to inspire the best out of them beforehand. Surprisingly, the students who are most ready to switch are in my smallest classes where I thought it wouldn't really matter.

I think I need to work on mixing things up to keep classes engaged and feeling positive and productive. These two resolutions are pretty easy to keep up with.

What one thing has made a positive different in your classroom environment?