This is the last Guided Math Interview before the Guided Math Blog Series starts and this interview is the perfect one to lead up to this series! About a month ago, I had a conversation with Courtney about how she has been able to take ideas that I shared on instagram about Guided Math and adapt it for her students during her first year teaching! She talked about how Guided Math has truly been such a blessing in her classroom and changed her math instruction. I knew after this conversation, I needed to share more with all of you!
I would like to introduce you to Courtney…
Courtney: Hello! My name is Courtney Magill and I live in Utah. Last year was my first year of teaching and next year I will be continuing at the same school where I will be teaching fourth grade. Last year, we were fully in person, five days a week. Outside of the classroom, I enjoy cooking, exercising and being in the mountains. In the classroom, I am passionate about helping students feel confident with math.
Why did you start using Guided Math?
Courtney: I started using Guided Math to help students be more engaged and interested in math. I noticed my students were getting bored with our normal math routine as much as I tried to create engaging and interesting lessons. I also felt that I wasn’t using my time or the student’s time most effectively with the typical engagement methods that were being used. I wanted to try to incorporate guided math as a way to increase engagement and learning. Coming into my first year, I knew that I wanted to start reviewing topics as early as possible to help students retain information. Guided math was one way that I knew I could start helping students remember previous math concepts and connect them to future math concepts.
What has been a challenge with teaching math that you have been able to overcome with using Guided Math?
Courtney: One of the challenges that I have had with my math instruction was being able to see where students were struggling on the math concept. By having a structure in place such as guided math, I was able to successfully teach a small group and pinpoint which students struggled in which area. Similarly, Guided Math also allows me to differentiate for students in each center, so they can feel successful with math and gain confidence with the particular math concept.
Fill in the blank: Guided Math has changed math instruction in my classroom because…
Courtney: I have been able to see where my students are in their learning of math. Before it was hard to reach my students who were hesitant about asking for assistance, but with guided math I am able to help students in a small group setting. I can also target a skill for them to practice in the hands on group to get fluency mastery for a specific step of a process or help them practice a necessary background knowledge skill that we will need in an upcoming lesson.
What is a piece of advice that you would give someone who would like to try using Guided Math in their classroom?
Courtney: One piece of advice I would give to someone who would like to try Guided Math is to just try it! Since I was a first year teacher, everything I was doing, I was trying for the first time. Guided math was one of my favorite times during the day because the students enjoyed it and I knew that I was able to teach a small group instruction in math. Advice that I would give myself for next year, is to start with your expectations early and hold students accountable. I added a checklist for students where they were expected to write about their time on task and their level of understanding at each station. This provided a chance for the students to be self reflective and take ownership of their own learning.
I love how as a first year teacher, Courtney was still able to make Guided Math help her students be more successful with math! I often get asked if this is something that would be too difficult for a beginning teacher to try and my response is always, “I wish I would have started using it my first year and the sooner you can start the better!” I can’t wait to share more about how you can adapt how I do Guided Math, like Courtney did, to make math instruction something your students enjoy more and to help your students better understand the math concepts being taught!
Tomorrow, I will be releasing the first blog post for this Guided Math Blog Series and then will be releasing a new blog post every week for the next 6 weeks. If you want to make sure you don’t miss any of these blog posts, click the button below to sign up to receive an email every time a new blog post is released!
