Visible Accomplishments!

I'm taking a step back in time to my days as a student teacher.  I learned so much in such a short amount of time!  College really can't prepare you for being alone with 20 six year olds.  Really.  It can't.


One thing that my cooperating teacher did that has stuck with me throughout the years was use die cuts to show student progress on the lockers in the room.  Every other day or so in math, we had a "math minute" where students had to complete as many addition (or later on subtraction) problems as they could in one minute.  Math was at the end of the day and we had a final recess (I think) before they got ready to go home.  During that recess we would quickly grade all of the math minutes and award students who successfully got X amount right.  Take a look at the pic below!

If students got 5 addition facts correct, they got a +5 frog.  If they got 20 subtraction facts, they got a -20 frog!  Students LOVED cheering each other on when they received a new frog on their locker.  It was a daily reminder of their progress and gave them something to strive for each day we did the math minute.  The best part was seeing struggling students achieve their next frog -- gosh, the look on their faces was priceless!