Math Work Stations Journey

One of my goals this school year has been to incorporate Guided Math into my instruction.  It really has been a goal for a long time!  I have really been mulling, reading, pondering, wondering for a few years now...that's what I do when I cannot visualize something.  When I found out Debbie Diller was publishing her book for Math Work Stations, I knew I would finally have something that would help me along.  This past summer I began pulling things together, but, continued to feel stuck so I went searching on the web.  I started with Debbie Diller's site.  THAT is when I discovered blogging!  I was beyond excited to find out that teachers were sharing thier learning, thier work and their advice!  WHAT!?  This is how teaching should be!  Of course I had been visiting websites that other teachers had created and shared gobs and gobs of their materials...does jmeacham.com ring a bell? But blogs?  I had no idea!
Anyway, I am  on the journey to better math learning in my classroom (I hope!)   Last spring I applied for and was granted  a Fellowship to do action research in my classroom and my Math Work Stations are my focus!  How is that for accountability!  Now I am going to be accountable here, on my new blog, to anyone who may come along and read it...

I have decided on this forum because, perhaps, I will do a better job keeping up with my 'Journaling' about what is happening in my classroom, and maybe, just maybe, I will help someone else along on thier journey.

There  many other teachers whom I have never met,  who don't even know that they have been my teachers!  Once I figure figured out the "link up" thing on blogs, I will re-scoure will continue to scour the blog world and give a shout out to each and every one I can find!   Honestly, so many teachers share their teaching life and put it out there...now I will too!

Math Work Station Tubs

I have my Math Work Station tubs set up just inside my door on 2 shelves I bought a few years ago.  I raided my local Staples for the Really Useful Boxes. I love the boxes for several reasons: they are clear, they have locking handles, they stack really well, can be carried by little hands and can be packed away with ease!   My blue tub on top holds the Math Journals we will be using more diligently in the new year!.  My prompts right now are from my math series, on the web, and random teacher resource books I have collected over the years.  I would like my journal prompts to have more order too! (on the to-do list). The blue tubs are from the ever wonderful IKEA.

Hey! This linking thing is working out! 

So here are the first few blogs I found on Debbie Diller's site:

Kindergarten Crayons

Mrs. Wills Kindergarten

Learning with Mrs. Parker

Primary Graffiti

Oceans of First Grade Fun

Patton's Patch

Lory's Page

From hopping around from site to site I was amazed at how many teachers have blogs, then I discovered that it is a business for some!  Wow!  Who knew?!  You did, now I do and hopefully more will!  This is fascinating stuff!

Ok, back to the Math Work Stations...
I am in the process of updating them for Monday, and I will take pictures and share with you what each contains and why I make my choices. 
Please, if anyone out there reads my blog and has something to share, a comment, a bit of advice,  PLEASE feel free! 

I will also share the books and reading I have done in preparing for my action research in a later post.