Let's Glow Crazy

Funded Apr 7, 2022

What an amazing experience we had reviewing for our state exam. I built up anticipation leading to the activity. Their warm up work was to create a song they would like to listen to while studying and I created a playlist from most of the song's students shared. We then began our review completing various activities using highlighters as our writing tool. Students collaborated by reviewing formulas and math rules we studied through the year. Students asked many times why they were doing math work using highlighters; they were surprisingly apprehensive, yet excited. The day before our glow day, I asked students to wear light colored, or bright colored clothing to enhance their experience. They didn't disappoint, some even made sure their socks and shoes glowed.

We did "glow crazy!" Prior to entering the classroom, I explained the rules to the students, had them enter the room by the study groups assigned for the week. Students couldn't wait to get busy studying math (you can see the work in the photos- those are my favorite pictures). They had 20 minutes at each of the 9 station rotations. Each station was self-checking, which allowed me to walk around, listen to math conversations and intervene if I saw a misunderstanding of the concept. Comments heard were: "I never want to leave this class" "Math is so much fun." "Oh ya, now I remember how we do that." Our principal came in and immediately left to tell other teachers to come and see this activity. Teachers came before and after school because they wanted to try something like this next year. One 8th grade math teacher said "I can't wait to have your students in my classroom next year. Our assistant principal came in twice, he loved the Jenga. My students told him that he had to complete a math problem before he could play the game. That was FANTASTIC.

I would like to extend a sincere thanks to each of you for this opportunity. Our review was a complete success and my students will be heading into our state test with a positive attitude toward math due to an exciting review experience. I am looking forward to seeing how much they grew this year. Thank you so much for providing this experience for my current AND future students.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Vecellio