Guess what time it is? ...It's TOOL TIME!

The first week is D-O-N-E!
I feel like I've been in school for at least three weeks...I finally moved things around to where it works for me. I have a girl driven class this year too.{ I have 13 girls and only 7 boys.}
I am going to have to get it together for this crowd!
I started my Guided Math routine, kinda! I forgot I had DUTY at 8:00 am Monday morning.
 (If I had turned on my e-mail sooner my calendar program would have given me a heads up~Thanks Kristin) It was a Monday, so I didn't go to my e-mail first. I was going to set my self up for a the premier of my  Guided Math lessons...<insert laugh/snort here>....well one thing led to another and while I was flitting around the room my intern might have reminded me I have duty..it was 10 minutes until 8 when it kicked in I have to go and can't be back to my room until 8:30 and yep, at 8:30 is when I start Math...yikes, I didn't have my Math vocabulary page printed off, yikes I didn't have my charts ready to Anchor the lesson..yikes I had 10 minutes to pee and run to the office to sign in and grab my attendance folder and make sure I had coffee..oh Monday, you are so cruel!
 My neighbor says casually, "I stay late on Fridays, so I don't have this issue on Mondays" OK... lesson learned! (but in my defense I didn't make those lesson plans until Saturday....)

Our school has started a new Math initiative.."Math Manipulative Time" Every grade level in addition to a scheduled Math time has to set aside 35 minutes (pre-determined) to incorporate math manipulatives(I call them tools) into a lesson. I know what you are thinking, "But I use math tools everyday in every math lesson I teach"...here's the punch line, not all teachers know HOW to use the tools, or EVERY tool. Some teachers (blaspheme) don't even use Math Tools! (yikes, hello..it's 2012!) BUT I'm not judging just putting it out there. I was shocked it has come to this. Obviously, to me, that means enough teachers are either not using them, or don't know how or aren't comfortable teaching with Math tools.

 Can I clep out of this 35 minutes ? I NEED to teach writing ...

.......but I can tell you this, the kids L-O-V-E this time, it reinforces the morning Math lesson, PLUS it saved the grand opening of Guided Math!
Tomorrow is Day 3 of my Guided Math time, and I haven't even met with a small group yet, which means I think I will be using Math Tool Time to catch up and start groups while the rest of the class uses the tools independently to finish up their Math problems, games and fluency! I think I might actually like this Tool Time after all....now if only I could find another 35 minutes to teach writing..oh I'll save that for another post!
See you soon!