Why Create "The First 14 Days of Math Stations" That is Posted Below?

In this posting I want to try to explain the reason I developed “The First 14 Days of Math Stations that included whole group lesson time using the Everyday Math Curriculum.  It seems to me as I read this book that it would be easy to think…”I’m not going to worry so much about the curricular lessons in the math program that my district uses, because I think the time spent interacting with manipulatives, mathematical talk between children, and a few small group lessons to monitor their growth will better serve my students.”  

Well, I say that is a huge task considering the spiral building of skills in math and the demands of the Common Core Standards.  Many times your colleagues that you teach with also don’t understand why you aren’t collaborating with them anymore and doing your own thing.  So my suggestion is a blending of the best of the two worlds. I found myself thinking…”That’s easy to say Deborah, but show me don’t just tell me! Many of you have huge time commitments in teaching the areas of reading, language arts, and writing and just can’t allot much more time to math.  So my plan was to show you an example that builds the strong foundation for math stations that Debbie Diller lays out in her book, but to continue to teach curricular materials too even if you had a split or multigrade class. (the same ideas apply to single grade classrooms too)

My next posting will be about what I might put INTO those 12 or 13 Math Station TUBS that would coordinate with Unit 1 and 2 in both Grade 1 and Grade 2 using the Everyday Math curriculum program.

Lastly can someone tell me some great sources of graphics that you use in creating your teaching materials?  I need some help in this.  I love cute graphics….I just don’t know how to find them and I am willing to purchase the right to use them. I’ve got to get myself a button too….