If I had a dime for every time I’ve asked my students “How Do You Know?”, I would have an awfully large pile of dimes! How do I know? Because I am asking that question all the time!
Third graders are quickly learning that Mrs. Brooks rarely cares what the “answer” is, because she would much rather find out how students KNOW that answer. What seems like such a simple question on the surface reveals student thinking in surprising ways.
Our “How Do You Know” bulletin board – focusing on the Standards for Mathematical Practice.
For example – our Every Day Counts calendar lessons give us lots of opportunities to answer the question of how we “know”. If today’s date is October 14th, what will next Monday’s date be? While most students can tell me the date will be October 21, I am always more interested to know “how they know”. I love hearing their strategies, as they are as varied as the children themselves.
My mathmagicians are artists, too!
Another example might be in reading. In the story for Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday, the students are asked if they think Alexander’s older brothers are fair to him. While all students say “no” to answer that question, it is the textual evidence they provide that shows “how they know”.
My favorite saying, hung above my favorite quilt. 🙂
You will start to see some work coming home with my handwriting somewhere in the margin – asking the question “How Do You Know?”. If you see it (or even if you don’t!) feel free to ask your child to support his or her answer with evidence and reasoning. Ultimately, I want our children to look inward for answers – not look for answers from me as their teacher.
🙂 Thank you to those who are willing to chaperone on our Plimoth Plantation trip. Please be sure to send in $5 per student and $18 per adult attending.
🙂 Room 204 is on Twitter! Follow us at @ThirdGraders!
🙂 If you have any plastic lids (like butter or sour cream), please send them in 🙂
Dream Big,
Hi again Mrs.Brooks I saw my t-shirt on the blog and I was so happy to see it. And I also saw them on the wall near Mrs.Lanmead and Mr.Faulths class. I think the t-shirt idea was so awsome!!! I had a really fun time doing it and I hope the other students did to!!! I wanted to coler it a little bit more but I thought what I all ready did was fine. Hope we get to do something like that again!!!
Hi Madeline!
Thanks for the kind comment – everyone did such a great job with their shirts – and I LOVE how they are getting so good at explaining themselves in math! I’m sure we will put together a new bulletin board at some point soon – nice work!!!
Dreaming Big,
Mrs. Brooks
Hi Mrs. Brooks, I have no problems with my locker at all. At Mark Twain middle school, we use tardies for being late. I only got 1 tardy. And I learned that I have to be on time for class. I had the earthquake drill today. Remember how we practiced fire drills? I got 2 locker combination 1 is for my hallway 2 is for gym. The earthquake drill took 5 seconds. That was a fast drill.
Jonathan
Hi Jonathan! This comment ended up in my spam folder and I just found it this morning. Spam is very frustrating for people who run websites!!
Earthquake drill? What do you have to do? We had an earthquake here in New England about a year or two ago – it was quite a funny feeling!!
It’s always good to be on time – as a matter of fact, Monday is the only day I drive Kendyl and Carson to high school, so I’ve got to run so that they are not late this morning!
Have a terrific day!
Love,
Mrs. Brooks
Hi Mrs. Brooks, for boy scouts I am the assistance patrol leader for boy scouts. For assistance patrol leaders if I caught them from playing around when they are not allowed to, they will get a strike. For boy scouts we had strikes systems if they got 4 strikes in a row they will be sent home.
For the first strike, it is a fair warning.
Second strike, they have to talk to the patrol leader.
for the third strike, they have to talk to the scout master
For the forth strike, they will be sent home.
On Monday at Mark Twain, I will be staying after school for the Video game room and after that I will be going home and I will get ready for boy scouts.
Jonathan 🙂 🙂
Hi Jonathan!
I bet you are doing a great job as assistant patrol leader. Hopefully no one has been sent home. How many boys are in your troop (though I am thinking it might be a pack or a den??). I have been a Girl Scout since I was 7, so that’s why I’m calling it a troop.
Do you think you’ll go for your Eagle Scout award in the next few years? I have my Gold Award, which is the Girl Scout equivalent. It’s a lot of hard work, but you learn a lot and it is a great honor.
You have a video game room in your school? I’d love to hear more about that!
This weekend I am working on two presentations I am doing this week. I am nervous about doing both of them, but hopefully with a lot of practice I’ll feel a little better. Tell everyone I said hello!!
Love,
Mrs. Brooks
Hi Mrs. Brooks. It’s me Alexis from your 2010-2011 class. I miss you so much. I haven’t seen you in a long time. So how are you doing lately. Morse Pond has been a blast for me fifth grade I had Mrs. Peterson and Mr. Briggs. For sixth grade I have Ms. Baker and Mrs. Hampton. The Monster blast happened on Friday and it was so fun with my new friend from Florida. She is so much like me she even has her own horse. I wish I could go back to third grade right now there’s just to much math homework than anything! I miss you so much. I wish I could see you more often.
From,
Alexis S.
Hi There Alexis!!
I’ve been chatting with your brother once in a while – I can’t believe he is the same little boy he was when you were in my class. I’m so glad you wrote to me! I loved 6th grade – do you remember my Valentine story? That was how I old I was. Still so embarrassing, but fun to share the story anyways. Math is difficult I agree – keep up with the homework because it helps so much with what you’re doing in class. What on Earth is a Monster Blast? You’ll have to tell me all about it. Have a wonderful Sunday evening and I’ll hopefully see you soon!
Love and miss you, too!
Mrs. Brooks