Warm-ups in Math Education

Based on your research and personal philosophy, what is the purpose of warm-ups in your classroom?

Warm-ups are valuable formative assessments, both reviewing topics that already have been taught in an earlier class or determining what students already know before a lesson is taught. Warm-ups also are a good routine to establish with students so they know what to expect and what is expected of them each time they enter the classroom. Establishing a routine reduces distractions at the beginning of class because students are expected to be seated and focused on the work by the time the tardy bell rings. This can be accomplished several ways, such as having daily worksheets, using warm-up notebooks or class games in which students go around in a circle answering the previous student's problem then formulating and presenting the next student with his/her problem.

As a teacher, I intend to include warmups as part of my classroom routine, and I likely will require students to keep a notebook for warmup exercises. Each class period I will post new question(s)/problem(s) and give the students about 5-7 minutes to complete them. Then I will ask students to share their answers, discuss the content and work it out on the board, then provide them with the correct answer, which they also will need to write in their notebooks. In doing this I will have reviewed/previewed lesson information, focused their attention to my class, checked their notebook for completion and assessed their understanding of the information, and provided them with the correct answer so they can use their journals as study guides.  At times, I will allow them to work the problems in groups depending on the topic, and though they come to the answer as a group, each student is responsible to recording what they learn in the notebook.

About me

I grew up in a small city in southeastern Ohio in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. I earned my bachelor's degree in journalism with minors in plant biology, geography and environmental studies, and I have worked at a few newspapers. I moved from Ohio to Oregon in 2007 and settled in Salem, working at the SJ for four-and-a-half years before deciding to leave my 11-year career. My choice to pursue teaching was based on my experience as a Master Gardener. After I moved to Oregon, I became a certified Master Gardener in Marion County, and I decided to focus my volunteer time with the "All About Seeds" schools program, in which Master Gardeners go to K-2 classrooms to do student workshops. It was during that time that I began considering becoming a teacher. My primary authorization level is middle school science/math, and secondary is elementary education. I chose science because of my undergrad experience and my interest in engaging more females into the sciences, and I chose math because it is a subject that I feel is necessary across many fields of employment. I enjoy gardening, hiking, camping, dragonboat paddling and learning to play ukulele.

I am late in joining this class, and understand I am not required to get caught up on all the previous blogging assignments, but I will attempt to complete as many as I can from before I was enrolled (such as best practices and standards) and, of course, continue updating from enrollment onward. I have joined the Lesson Plan group about Measurements with Joe and Ben and contributed information to that Google Doc as well.