Thursday, June 30, 2011

New Math Curriculum ~ SAXON.

So yesterday I decide to go by school to pick up my new teacher guides and check out the new math series our district just purchased for K-3.  Here is what was waiting for me:


There were 7 boxes of stuff... plus crates to put things in.  I started with OPEN THIS BOX FIRST.  So I found out there are 135 lessons and crates to put all the lessons into ~ GREAT... because my file cabinets are pretty full.  The 3 boxes you see on the right are ALL worksheets.  I started putting the worksheets into the folders and filled each crate... here is what it looked like after about an hour and a half:



Each crate has a lid and you stack them on a base that has wheels.  There is a small crate that goes on top to hold learning wrapups and other small manipulatives.  After I put it all together, I rolled it down to my classroom. 



I am very nervous about the meeting board.  The dimensions are outrageous and I have very LIMITED space in my classroom.  I don't have any large bulleting boards and my smartboard is right in the middle of my front wall.  Where am I going to put this?  I wish I had the space like Ms. Van Orman of First Grade Fun:

 

Her board looks AMAZING!  However, I just DO NOT have the room.  Just to prove it to you I will post some pictures of my classroom last year.

Here is a picture of my classroom from the door.  I will be changing LOTS of things this next year...PLUS my room has been painted including a new accent wall. (YAY)!!  But this will give you the general idea of the room in my classroom.  The window wall has shelves built in so I could not put it on that wall due to the kids cannot reach it or be interactive. 



I know what you are thinking... what about the back wall where the moose and bookshelf are now?  Well another addition to my classroom ~ a new whiteboard takes up that wall that is 4ft by 8 ft.  Here is another view of my classroom looking back the other direction.


NO room here!  You can see at the left corner I put my word wall on my cabinet doors last year.  I REALLY didn't like this and have now decided to put my word wall on my new magnetic white board at the back of the room... to allow for a more interactive WW.  But, I may have to use the new whiteboard for my SAXON meeting area.

My question is... teachers who are using Saxon... Could the meeting board be made for the smartboard and be interactive so that it does not take up so much space?  Does that go against the whole SAXON philosophy?  I just think if we have this technology available, the students could do the whole meeting process on the smartboard.  I have searched thinking that someone might have had the same idea and made a Saxon Meeting Board into a notebook file.  No such luck {sob}.  If anyone has ideas, I would LOVE to hear them.  Thanks ~ in advance!

8 comments:

  1. Good luck with Saxon! I think all of their materials are like that - tons of it and overwhelming and those rolling crates are just annoying! I only taught Saxon math during my student teaching but have Saxon phonics (which I never use...). I see no reason why the meeting board couldn't be made for the SmartBoard. As long as you're doing the meeting board and not totally abandoning it, I don't see why it should matter if it's on a bulletin board or the SmartBoard. Pretty much everything on that Saxon meeting board is on standard calendar math anyway!

    http://www.firstgradebrain.com

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  2. I don't use Saxon Math but I do my "calendar" activities on my Promethean Board and LOVE it. I also don't have a lot of space in my classroom. The kids seem to like it much better too.

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  3. A teacher I observed used Saxon Math and she seemed to really like it. She had a ton of bulletin board space to put up the meeting board, but I think it would be just as effective on the Smart Board!

    Magnificent Multiagers!

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  4. Hi! I just stumbled across your blog... not really sure how I got here! :)
    I taught Saxon for 2nd graders for three years and loved it! You don't have to put up everything at the beginning of the year for the meeting board- look at each piece and see what lesson it is used for. My best estimate would be to put up everything up to lesson 50ish, that will get you through the first few weeks of school.
    If you are able to get it to work for the Smartboard, I would love to hear about it! :)
    If you have any other Saxon questions, let me know!!

    Smiling Teacher
    smilingwhileteaching.blogspot.com

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  5. Hi! I just found your blog and love it! I've taught first grade for 14 years. First graders are the best! As for Saxon, I have taught it for 13 years. I loved it! Just this year, we adopted Pierson (Scott Foresman) so I'm very nervous about teaching it. The calendar is something that needs to be done everyday but HOW it's done can be changed up. I don't have a smart board (maybe one day) but if you could somehow do it that way, I don't see anything wrong with that. It just the repetition of the calendar parts that's important...the months, days, counting, etc. They will later on need to be able to spell the months and days so you will need to have a calendar and a list of the months and days somewhere posted in the room so they can see it at all times. You will enjoy it, I believe, once you get used to it. We've had great results with it. Just a side note, the wrap-ups are a nightmare in the beginning but after they get the hang of it, you will be amazed how well they know their facts! Good luck! Lisa

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  6. I have taught Saxon for years. DOn't mind it too much. Makes it easy when I have a student teacher:) It's the first thing that they take over because it is scripted. I now do the whole calendar on smartboard. Didn't have a lot of room and used it for the calendar, now I can use it for other things and still be interactive with sb.I have enriched my saxon lessons over the years and add too them. Enjoy!

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  7. I taught first grade Saxon math the past four years. There are many things I love about it, and many things I didn't like. It jumps around teaching a new math concept almost everyday (which made it hard for the at-risk students to keep up), but it did have some really cool hands on lessons like creating a class store, raps and chants to learn math facts, and apple math :) Anyways, I did all my calendar stuff(i.e. math meeting) on my Promethean board and my kids LOVED it, plus it saved me precious bulletin board space. I'm not sure if the same program will work for the a Smartboard, but it definitely works and I can send you my calendar program if you'd like it :)
    Our school is switching to Singapore Math this year, but I still plan on incorporating all the fun stuff we did with Saxon into my plans!
    Hope you like it!

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  8. I also teach Saxon math and do the math meeting on the smart board. The kids seem to really enjoy it and I have added a lot of educational songs from youtube.com. I can send you a copy of it if you like. Also, do you have your math station pages available? The pages you had them complete with unifix cubes and patterns and the domino addition? Easy enough to make, I was just curious! Thanks.

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