I've been getting some questions about how I organize and manage our workstations, so I thought I would just post with pictures to make it a little more understandable.
I do want to shout out to my First Year Teacher Mentor, Linda Ray, who taught me almost everything I know! Many of the things I do stemmed from her ideas and teachings-she is THAT awesome! Linda encouraged me when I was a first year newbie & in her room crying because it was seriously THE WORST DAY EVER...and now here I am! I wouldn't be the teacher I am today without her mentoring me and her encouraging me! Thanks, Linda!
Workstation Management:
Okay, where to start? When beginning workstations at the beginning of the year (I started the 3rd week of school) I sat my kiddos down on the carpet and taught them all there was to know about a workstation. We talked about how they have a job, just like their parents, and their job is to come to school and learn. Their job during workstations would be to..what?! They all reply, "WORK!" Great. I've got them on the right track. We talked about what would happen if you went to your job as an adult and didn't do your job. One of my boys replied with, well my sister gets grounded. So, we went with it. I told them that they had a job in each workstation and if they weren't doing their job, they would be grounded. A teacher that I am teaching with said that she told her kids that they would be FIRED if they didn't do their job. I love it!
So, we brainstormed what stations should LOOK like and SOUND like. What should they be doing? When I look at them from my guided reading table, what should I see and hear? I modeled it, had a student model it, had a student model what NOT to do, and then had that same student model the correct behavior. Similar to how The Daily Five trains Read to Self (which will be in another post, because we do it!) We made this anchor chart and I took pictures of them doing their jobs in each station. NOTE: This is the most valuable thing to do if you want your stations to go smoothly and be manageable!
Okay, so I would train them for a couple of weeks. You know, when one of them needed to be grounded, we would all come back to our meeting place and go over the anchor chart, with one of them showing me correct behavior, one showing incorrect behavior (usually the one that was struggling in their station) and then that same one showing me correct behavior. This goes on until ultimately they are in their station for 12-18 minutes without being grounded! They are up to being able to stay for 18 minutes now, with (fingers crossed...we have a whole week off from school) no one being grounded.
How are my stations set up?
I have 9 stations with 2 students per station. When we have more students (I started with 19 this year) I have some with 3 per station.
Each student has a picture card of themselves and their name to see which station they are supposed to go to. The students are heterogeneously grouped (not by level, by interest/personalities) and I usually change them out every six weeks.
Each station has a picture card with a bucket that has the same picture on it for it to be easily found. These are placed in the order that we rotate throughout the room. So, if the computer station is next to the writing station, they will be next to each other on the chart, too. When rotating stations, I take the first card out of the top and move all of the others up one slot and put the top card in the bottom slot. This keeps me from moving all of the name cards (I move 9 cards instead of 18) and keeps them in the correct order.
Each station lasts 12-15 minutes, unless I see that some of the stations have been busy and working hard, but still aren't finished and I let them stay for about 18 or so minutes. While they are in workstations, I am meeting with Guided Reading Groups or testing (seems like that is NEVER ENDING!).
How do they stay in their station without coming to interrupt me?
During our training at the beginning, they were trained to ask 3 before me. They can ask 3 of their friends what to do before they come to bother us during reading groups. I also tell them if they come to tattle, or if it is a small problem they can fix, they will be grounded if they come ask me. I sometimes put on these silly headbands with things sticking up, and if I have those on...they may not come to the table unless they are bleeding, it is an emergency or they are on fire! This seems to work fairly well on most days.
Our stations usually take a week to get through. Sometimes more and sometimes less. If it is more, we just carry them onto Monday-Tuesday or whatever day we get finished with them. Then I start new stations on the next day. If it doesn't quite take a whole week, I find something fun to do for Fun Friday and we skip stations, or I will go ahead and introduce the new ones for the upcoming week.
I keep all of my workstations in tubs/baggies/grocery bags/etc inside of the cabinets I have labeled Workstations/Math Activities/ABC activities in my classroom. It's overflowing.... :)
I also keep all of the recording sheets in a binder with labels so they are easily accessed!
At the end of the workstation rotation, I choose 4 "Station All-Stars" (idea from Mrs. Will's Kindergarten).
This has made them really strive to submit great work, and FINISHED work. This has been a life saver. Thank you, thank you for the idea!
Make sense? I hope so! Let me know any questions you might have! What is your station organization/management?
