8th Grade Building Thinking Classroom

Funded Oct 8, 2023

Thank you so much for your support with this project! I started out introducing this idea of communication and working together (collaboration), by introducing non-curriculum tasks and the students hands down said this was fun and they could not wait to do it again. We revisit this idea of collaboration every so often with tasks that do not fit in with what I am currently teaching in my math class, when I feel as if students are in a lull or I see a couple of students not collaborating the best. This big idea is a work in progress; as they say Rome was not built in a day.

The great things I have seen about using the whiteboards (and the supplies) is the increased the flexible thinking among students. Students are paired randomly every time they are at the board and this has provided them with insights on how others think and work at tasks. We always circle back and compare the boards that were worked at, and we look for things that are similar and things that are different when students were tasked to solve a problem.

While we do not use the boards every day (it's 2-3 times a week), I always get the feeling that students really enjoy these days (and wish we could do it every day). They have stepped away from hoping that they are in a group with their friends and have become comfortable working and sharing ideas with whoever they are partnered up with. This is a priceless future skill that will benefit them in and out of the classroom.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Klindworth