As with most of my best teaching tools, color-coded graphic organizers are a result of listening to my students. In math there are often many steps. As I don't lecture, I found that students were not really understanding the steps just from the notes even when I included steps. It was actually looking at a student notebook in which the student had created her own color system for notes on polynomial long division. I thought what a great idea. I noticed she did some practice problems using her color system but eventually worked in just pencil. It seemed the colors helped her see the different parts of what we were working on. I thought I'd give it a try.
I've rarely had my own classroom. As such I have limited space not only for assignments but also any kind of decor. With multiple classes and limited space, it can be difficult to give student work their due. To solve this dilemma I created the "wall of awesomeness".
The wall of awesomeness:
-encourages high quality work
-demonstrates what constitutes high quality work
-promotes student recognition of each other's skills
-develops persuasive argument skills.
-delivers smiles.
Rampant cheating in high school classrooms is a common discussion in the teacher's lounge. I've even heard of students who have bought the teachers editions of curriculum. While we. An debate the reasons for the cheating, and definitely we should, sometimes band aids need to be put in place until the source(s) of the problem are addressed.
My solution, and you may not like it, is open-ended projects. Students can literally not find the solution on the internet nor can they cheat off each other's papers.
