Scavenger Hunts to find X!

After last year, I've decided to change almost everything that I've done in my classroom. My organization and materials were not horrible, but I'm excited to make them better now.  

I've recently gotten into making a TON of activities to use in my classroom. Anything to get my students up and moving, instead of sitting at their desk for the full 90 minute class period. I've been lucky enough to be able to try some of these activities out in Summer School and try some different approaches to the same activities. My kids this summer have been great guinea pigs, even though they don't know that they have been. 

This post will be detailing everything I have learned about creating and executing the perfect, well okay, the best so far (still learning!) scavenger hunt.

{ONE}
Smaller teams, smaller disruptions
I've had a few scavenger hunts done in both "day" school and summer school and I've found that the smaller the groups or teams that are working together, the more work actually gets done.  This may seem like a no-brainer, and it took me approximately one scavenger hunt or around the room activity to figure this out. ;) I've had to add some stations or improvise on the rules for a couple scavenger hunts in order to make sure this works.

{TWO}
Copy the problem, work at your seat
It's worked best for me to have students copy the problem while standing, then go back to their desks or group of desks to do the actual work. This cuts down on the standing traffic and having more than one group at a question chatting instead of working. This also helps me to see who is working, instead of pretending to work standing in a group. I've also found that when students are sitting down, their handwriting for their work gets exponentially better than when they are standing and trying to find a flat surface to write on. 

{THREE}
Everybody does every problem
While sometimes it is beneficial to let students work in groups, I've found that if all students have to show all work, the more students learn. Whenever we do groupwork and I only require one work sheet to be handed in per group, only one person does all the work while the rest of the students in the group watch. This way, even if they copy (my students would never do that!) they are at least learning and doing something rather than just watching.  

That's what I have for now. I've got so many ideas and things I want to share its hard for me to find a starting point! If you want to see any of the scavenger hunts I've done, you can find them on my Teachers Pay Teachers store, here. 

Let me know if you have any other great ideas for using scavenger hunts in the classroom!

And so it begins..

Well here goes nothing...

I have decided that to better prepare myself for this new year of teaching, I will chronicle everything that I decide to do and how it works. That way, when this time next year rolls around and I am looking back to tweak and revamp things, I won't be stuck where I am now. I remember having all these great ideas at the end of the year last year and throughout the year of things I would like to try, but I can't remember the ACTUAL details.  So here is my remedy. Create a blog. And hopefully remember to update/actually blog every once and awhile so that I have these great ideas to look back on.

Since this is the first post on this blog, I'll start by sharing a little about myself.  I am about to be a second year teacher at a high school in Northern Virginia. This past year I taught Algebra 1, Algebra 1, Part 1 and AFDA (Algebra, Functions & Data Analysis). One Algebra 1 class and my part 1 class were team-taught ESOL classes. My favorite class by far was Algebra 1. I had 3 sections of it and my students were great. Luckily I feel that way, because this year, I will be teaching 4 sections of Algebra 1 and tackling a brand new subject (to teach, at least) Algebra 2.  I am so stoked to have all Algebra classes this year, even if they are all SOL classes. In order to prepare myself for the SOL classes, I have already started to stock up on my $0.15 folders at Staples, much to the dismay of my husband who thinks I am obsessed with school supplies. (He may have a valid reason or twenty to feel that way!)

So there you have it. A little about me, a little about my journey and a lot of math to be excited about! I am so excited to start a new school year with a new outlook and a completely different take on classroom management. It looks a little like this:

But more on that later... Thanks for sticking with me and learning with me as I prepare and begin for my second year of teaching!