Planning Maths Cafe

I have had a few queries about how I track students and their participation in the Dish of the Day during a cycle of learning.
This is the format I use to see who has ordered which Dish of the day, the days that I have taught each one and some ongoing formative assessments about how the children have performed during the lesson.

The children are named down the left hand side (not their real names here, I hasten to add!), and those working below (orange) or well below (red) are highlighted so I am always aware of the target students school-wide.  Yellow indicates that they have ordered a Dish of the Day, and they get / if they attended but really didn't understand it, 2 sides of a triangle if they are on the way, and a full triangle if they have cracked it.  @ indicates an absence from a teaching time.  More than one assessment might reflect more than one teaching time, or it might be an assessment of doggy bag work to see how the ideas have stuck.

I hope this is helpful - as always, please email me or leave a comment if there's something I can do to clarify what's going on.

Maths cafe introductory workshop

I ran a workshop this week for the APs and DPs in the NZEI Whanganui branch, introducing them to the idea of Maths Cafe.  We only had a small group, but it was fun, and I've warned my class to expect quite a few visitors later on this term, and into next term, as people come to see Maths Cafe in action.
It did mean taking a day out of school, but I've found an awesome reliever to work in my classroom, and the children had a good day with her.
I also think it's important to refresh ourselves regularly, and doing workshops for teachers is one of the ways I do that.  The networking was fabulous and the level of support for each other was really good to see.  Management can be a lonely place as you are the rock for everyone else, and it's encouraging to know that in Whanganui our APs and DPs are forming a supportive group to share and learn together.
There is more information about this workshop in the blogs on my website:
www.willoweducation.co.nz
See you there!