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Works4Me presents weekly practical classroom tips from real experts -- your colleagues! Sponsored By: University of Scranton Get Ahead of the Curve! Keep your certification current, earn a pay raise or open up career opportunities with an online Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction or Educational Administration from The University of Scranton – 100% online! Earn a nationally recognized degree from a top accredited university no matter what your schedule. Get information now. Snake Review From Susan Reid (sqreid@gmail.com), a math teacher at Center Hill Middle/High School in Olive Branch, Mississippi :
"Reviewing for tests in any subject can be boring especially if using worksheets. I came up with something that my students love! I call it Snake. I write fifty problems on numbered index cards. No answers are provided, but I have a master answer sheet. Students number an answer sheet from 1 to 50 where they record their answers and show the work on another piece of clean paper. I arrange the students' desks in a snake pattern and then give each student an index card. They work the problem from the card, being careful to number their work and show all the steps needed for solving the problem. Their answers are recorded on their answer sheets, and they pass the card on to their left as they finish. I allow them to have two cards on their desk at a time, but if more cards are passed than they have time to do, they just pass the extra cards on to the next student. I pick up the cards from the tail of the snake and start them back through again so that students who didn't get them the first time will work them the second. I also take note of anyone who is sitting without a card to work on and feed them one. When most of the problems are worked, we stop and I call out answers so they can check their work. I have never seen students work so hard. One word of advice is to stress to them that they are shooting for accuracy and not for speed! I think that the pressure of having cards passed to them makes some of them try to go too fast." Can Do Challenge From Rita M. Thompson (rthompson48@lworld.net), a counselor and life coach in California : "Here is a fun way to help students overcome 'I can't do it' thinking. While students are sitting at their desks, tell them to: 1. Lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles. 2. Now, while doing this, draw the number 6 in the air with your right hand. 3. Your foot will change directions and there is nothing you can do about it. 4. Let them try it a few times and see if anyone finds the solution. 5. Then tell them, 'You CAN do something about it.' 6. Lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles. 7. Now, while doing this, draw the number 6 beginning with the lower circle, progressing clockwise and finishing at the top. 8. It CAN be done and opens valuable discussion with a little humor."
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