Hunger Games - Final Round...

Our Hunger Games Competition has gone so well.  The girls won all three of the rounds so far.  Our forth and final round leading up to testing is not going to be girls vs. boys.  Instead, each student is going to be competing for themselves.  I have set a goal for each of my students.  If they are not are not currently on grade level than their goal is to get to grade level (no matter how many grade levels that is).  Students that are on grade level or above have a goal of increasing another grade level.  Their prize... once each student individual student reaches their goal they are exempt from homework for the rest of the year.  I hope that this final round is as successful as the rest have been.

Bulletin board used to track tributes

Girls Won...

My girls pulled out a win in round 1 at the very last min.  I am very proud of them.  :-)  Round 2 started Monday.  I am impressed at how motivated they are staying.  I am really hoping the time they are spending pays off and fills in some of the learning gaps from along the way.   More importantly I hope the kids realize how much they are growing.  I want them to be proud of themselves and see that hard work pays off.

Some of my lower kids are doing so much better with their basic math facts.  They have been working so hard on Reflex Math and now Moby Max.  It is great to be teaching math and have the kids answer me quickly when I ask what is 8 x 6.  We aren't held up trying to solving math facts and counting on our fingers so much any more, making us able to tackle more of the grade level specific content.

Hunger Games Math Competition is in Full Swing!!!

The Hunger Games math competition that we started a few weeks ago is in full swing, and is going so well!!!  I am very pleased with my kids progress.  The kids are really getting into it and working really hard.  Over the last 3 weeks the kids have solved 19,540 problems, completed 486 lessons, and mastered 448 standards.  My girls are losing to the boys right now, but they are working hard to change that.  I am very happy with how things are going so far :-)

Hunger Games Themed Math Competition

It has been quite a winter so far, I have been sick with mono, broken my foot, and we are on our third or forth snow day.  All this "down time" has given me some time to work on school stuff. I use the word "down time" loosely since in a teacher's world there doesn't ever seem to be true down time during the year :-).  For me though this down time as come from less time at the gym, Christmas break and snow days.  During this time I found a program on the internet called Moby Max.  It is a math and reading program geared toward identifying student gaps and providing lessons and practice right in the same program. Best part of all, the basic version is free!  Although I am excited about the program I really struggle with how to get the kids motivated to want to participate.

My teaching partner and I have decided in order to get the kids motivated we are going old school...  BOYS VS. GIRLS.  We are using Hunger Games as our theme for the competition.  Each student is a tribute and earns tickets to a drawing to have a chance to shoot at a target for points for their team.  In our case being a tribute with your name in the drawing a lot is good thing, not a dangerous thing.  They earn points for their team through various means built into the program like percentage of growth.  Each student also can earn bonus points for certain amounts of correctly answered questions in the program.  Again, the program tracks this. We are still working on a few things, but I am very excited!