Community:

Getting to know your students and your classroom dynamic is so important in the first few weeks! Making time to learn more about your students and for them to learn a little bit about you helps to set up a positive environment for the rest of the year.

Here are some of Shannon’s favorite activities for the first days of school:

• Team Building Exercises
• Ice Breakers

Here are three of Christine’s favorite activities for the first days of school:

• Stats about Me
• Let’s Make Squares
• Personality Sphere and Find Someone Who

Illustrative Mathematics has these tips and tricks for creating a mathematical classroom community.

Send us your photos and activities from the first days of school, and they might end up on the www.okmathteachers.com website or #OKMath Facebook Group!

Procedures

The first few days of school are an important time for classroom management. You have an eager  group of students, ready and willing to learn. Take advantage of this opportunity. Start your year off by teaching the policies and procedures on how you would like for your classroom to operate. Below are just a few short and simple procedures that you may want to implement into your classroom.

• Set your classroom rules
• Positive Behavior Reinforcements
• Consequences
• Lining up
• Walking in line
• A policy for using the restroom
• How you would like for your students to enter and exit your classroom
• How you would like for them to communicate during instruction
• Where you would like them to turn in work

Have a conversation with your students explaining WHY classroom rules and procedures are important. Often students tend to “push back” when they do not understand why they are being asked to do something. Next, make sure you take time to model your procedures, and have them practice the procedures until the majority of students are able to complete them flawlessly.  Once students have an understanding of the procedures, you may have to reteach them in order to keep them on track throughout the year.

 Here is a link to the Professional Reference for Teachers written by Harry K. Wong ”The Well-Managed Classroom.”

 Once you have set clear expectations for your students and have gone over procedures, here is one fun way to reinforce positive behaviors.

Self-Care

Take care of yourself! It is exciting to get back into classrooms, but sometimes that excitement leads to stress and burn-out. Make sure to take some “me time”, especially during these first few weeks. There are tons of apps out there to help relax, reflect, and rejuvenate. Mindful Teachers also has some great ideas.

Meet Shannon Ashong, Director of Elementary Math

Hello!  My name is Shannon Ashong (with a silent g), and I am thrilled to be a part of the Curriculum & Instruction team as the Director of Elementary Math. I attended the University of New Mexico located in the city of Albuquerque, where I received my Bachelors in Elementary Education. If you have never been to the “Land of Enchantment” it’s a beautiful place to visit. After I graduated, I moved to Virginia where I taught for eight years. During that time, I attended Averett University earning a Masters in Instruction and Curriculum. I then moved to Memphis, Tennessee to be closer to my family. I taught there for a couple of years.  Two years later, I met my wonderful husband, Horatio Ashong. He is also the reason I became an Okie.

I am no stranger to Oklahoma Mathematics. Before working for the State Department, I served Oklahoma City Public Schools as their Elementary Math Curriculum Coordinator.  I also had the privilege of being a part of the second phase of the OKMath Curriculum Frameworks project and have served on multiple other committees for the Oklahoma State Department of Education. My mantra of “Are we doing what is best for students?” guides every decision I make. It’s amazing what we can accomplish when we're in it together. I look forward to working with you.

Meet Christine Koerner, Director of Secondary Mathematics

Hi everyone! My name is Christine Koerner (rhymes with “learner”) and I am excited to join the Curriculum and Instruction team as the Director of Secondary Mathematics.

I am originally from the Chicago suburbs, where I grew up loving the Cubs, Chicago-style pizza, and the Chicago museums. After going to Mizzou (Go Tigers!) to earn my Math and English Education Degree, I went back to the suburbs for my first teaching job; I taught 6-8 math and Language Arts in Plainfield, Illinois for five years.  During that time I also earned my Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction.

When my husband, Bryan, earned a spot in a doctoral program at the University of Colorado, I went with him, moving near Denver in 2013. There I taught middle school math, Algebra I, and writing while coaching cross-country and track.

We then moved along to Oklahoma, where I taught Pre-Algebra and Algebra I and coached cross-country at Summit Middle School in Edmond Public Schools. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with all Oklahoma math teachers in my current role as director, and I enjoyed meeting so many of you during EngageOK (my first couple weeks on the job). I believe in setting high but reasonable expectations that each student can achieve and creating a safe and comfortable learning environment for all students. I look forward to collaborating with you, learning from you, and working with you all so we can help our students succeed!

Get More Math: Oklahoma Full Day Training (Register by clicking this link)

September 11th or 12th

Details (from Event Site): Get More Math is extending an incredible offer to every school in Oklahoma to try their math practice platform for an entire school year! Would you like for students to get additional practice to ensure mastery, daily spiral review that is differentiated for each student to ensure they never forget a concept, and to be able to create tests in minutes for standards from thousands of math skills, ALL FOR FREE?

Get More Math is uniquely powerful math practice software that supports 4th Grade through Algebra 1 (Geometry and Algebra 2 coming soon). Many math software products provide individualized instruction, but Get More Math (GMM) takes a different approach: daily focused practice on a new skill and then adaptive cumulative mixed review that is differentiated to each students needs to ensure long-term retention.

OPSRC member schools may receive a year of free membership for students! In order to become a Pilot member, you must attend a one-day, free training!

Click here for more information!

High School Mathematical Contest in Modeling (HiMCM)® 

November 9-19, 2018

HiMCM offers students the opportunity to compete in a team setting using mathematics to present solutions to real-world modeling problems.

Click here for more information!