* Add 10 minutes to the yellow as our time moves beyond 1 hour and 5 (as noted) to the blue. Students return to my room after Recess and Specials back to back. They tend to be hungry and thirsty, leading to my decision to switch my snack to the afternoon, rather than the typical morning snack. Between this and a water break, I noticed some waste of learning time. Ouch! We also begin our Math block with Conceptual Review rather than ending with review. If the review went with a new game and I hadn’t taught it the day before, I gave a quick model – again wasting time so begins ideas to improve my math block. I will return to morning snack, plus model the game/review prior to the math block, either in the morning before 8 or the day before. I also noticed that Conceptual Review has time that can be given to Guided Practice, but I really need to maximize the block I’m going to shorten. Because I went to a Kathy Richardson workshop this past summer, I will blend review time, inserting her program with the goal of strengthening number sense. I’ve not used her games yet. According to our Kindergarten and First grade teams, this program is excellent without being lengthy.

New goals – reduce wasted time and giving more time to Guided Practice. Within this increase learning in Conceptual Review by incorporating a fun, effective program.

As I looked at my clock, keeping in mind Andrew Stadel’s advice to make the 20% of what we use help out 80% of what we need, I tried to think of my year end goals for my students and I fall back to number sense. Since Kathy Richardson is designed for this and doesn’t veer away from my goal of bringing curiosity into the room, then this should help as I move my students in a better direction for learning, with time well spent versus time used up.