Welcome! Thank you so much for joining me. My name’s Catherine and I am the teacher behind The Brown Bag Teacher. I currently teach a K/1 Combination Class and have lived former lives as 5th and 1st grade teachers. Based out of South Central Kentucky, I am a pro napper, a lovers of books, and am all about a fabulous barn. In our time together, we’ll explore my guided reading, writer’s workshop, and guided math classroom. I’ll share my favorite resources, tool, tips, and tricks to help simplify your teaching life and push your students.
To get you started, I wanted to share some of my reader’s favorite blog posts with you!
The Daily 3 and Guided Math are a small-group approach to learning mathematics, just like we meet with students daily during Guided Reading, we meet with students as mathematicians. It is a deviation from whole-group math instruction.
I love procedures and order and know my classroom runs smoothly because of these things. I’m sharing with you how organization helps maximize learning in our classroom and how I maximize my time as a teacher.
Especially in 1st grade, manipulatives offer a concrete way to represent a number and their thinking. At some point, this concrete thinking has to begin to transition into abstract and mental math processes. Number Talks offer a daily, short, structured way for students to talk about math with their peers.
I took time to reflect on what was working in my classroom and what still needed tweaking. Slowly, I’ve been taking little steps to fill the ‘holes’. I’ll definitely be sharing more about these holes in the coming weeks, and today I wanted to share about one change in our classroom – from morning work to morning tubs.
Until next time, let’s teach the children, love the children, and change the world.
-Catherine