Rotations and half time breaks

In response to student feedback about maths lessons being too long, I shared with my team and we discussed some of the things we had set in place in the beginning of this year. Having a look back on how my class has been set up for the last 5-6 weeks, I realised that some of the systems we had put in place weren't actually happening. Some things that have impacted this are GLOSS testing, 2nd year student teacher on full control and just the general busy schedule and change in timetable that comes with being in the senior block.

So to tackle this, I put back into place our rotations for maths groups. This ensured students are able experience different activities and not be stuck doing the same thing the entire maths block.

With maths being a 80-90minute block, each rotation would go for 20minutes and there would be a 10minute break in the middle for a quick maths game or quiz to break up the long block. In the 2 weeks we have been working with these rotations in place, I must say the classroom atmosphere has been more up-beat, more settled, and students actually looking forward to moving to different stations. 

My work as a teacher, has been to monitor what students actually get completed at each station. This has involved: 

• Showing their maths progress for maths whizz after every second day 
• Changing their topics for maths whiz each week
• Going onto their blogs to comment on completed slides
• Allowing time to show off progress stages for DLO
• Find engaging maths games (whole class games) to play during the break