September- Trout

How did the resources, prompts and discussion shape your thinking, encourage change, or validate what you were already doing in your classroom?

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The resources I looked at reinforced the importance of positive classroom culture. 

A few things I do to try to achieve this are to greet each students at the door every day (noted in one of the links provided), look at a picture and video (often funny, sometimes informational or interesting) as a class each day, and set up my lessons to be largely self-paced. I've found that setting up my lessons this way seems to encourage a sense of confidence in my kids that they can ask and figure out answers to their own questions, rather than being told to by me. The students so far have responded well to this type of set-up. 

I use the picture and video (taken largely from the ideas of Dan Meyer) as a way to show the students a little about myself (what I find funny or interesting), to keep the tone of the classroom lighthearted and fun, to show the students that I like things other than math, and to have something that is very easy leverage over them.