Ever feel overwhelmed by the idea of setting up learning centers in your classroom? Let's break down those barriers with Amy Haskell from Curriculum Associates as she joins us to debunk myths and simplify the concept. In our revealing conversation, she spills the beans on how to craft structured and effective learning environments with just a few consistent elements like a technology zone and a teacher-led group. Amy's wisdom extends beyond the traditional boundaries of math, offering a blueprint for versatility in teaching various subjects.
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Ever feel overwhelmed by the idea of setting up learning centers in your classroom? Let's break down those barriers with Amy Haskell from Curriculum Associates as she joins us to debunk myths and simplify the concept. In our revealing conversation, she spills the beans on how to craft structured and effective learning environments with just a few consistent elements like a technology zone and a teacher-led group. Amy's wisdom extends beyond the traditional boundaries of math, offering a blueprint for versatility in teaching various subjects.
Read Curriculum Associates' blog: CurriculumAssociates.com/blog
Follow us on Twitter: @CurriculumAssoc
Follow us on Instagram: @MyiReady
Have feedback, questions, or want to be a guest? Email ExtraordinaryEducators@cainc.com to connect with us!
Curriculum Associates presents the Extraordinary Educators podcast, with hosts Danielle Sullivan and Sarah Loveris here tips, best practices and successes to improve your teaching and leadership and drive student growth and learning. We're here for you. Hey everyone, welcome back to the Extraordinary Educators podcast.
Speaker 1:This is Sarah, and this week I am joined by Amy Haskell, who is a product marketing manager, one of my amazing colleagues at Curriculum Associates, and Amy and I spoke a lot about centers, particularly in the math class, but if you don't teach math, you can definitely apply this to whatever subject you do teach and kind of the misconceptions or potentially vision you have for these said centers and why that might not be the most practical way to engage your students, and so she offers a lot of great insights and tips for you as you think about setting up centers for your classroom, and she also wrote an amazing blog about this with lots of additional tips that you can check out in the show notes. So here is my conversation with Amy. Welcome, amy. Thanks so much for being here with us today. Thanks, sarah, of course. So just to dive in, tell us what's on your mind and what have you been thinking about lately as it relates to your work with all things math.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you. So I've been thinking a lot, especially. You know now, midway through the school year, a lot about different ways to differentiate instruction. You know knowing where students are coming from all different points in their learning and making sure that you're able to address all of those different needs all during. You know one 45 or 60 minute class period and one way to do that really is through learning centers.
Speaker 1:Yes, very true, and I definitely use them in the classroom when I was a teacher, for our audience. Just so we can kind of start off on the same page here what is a learning center?
Speaker 2:Yeah of course.
Speaker 2:So learning centers to me are, you know, a way to differentiate learning. As I said, there are usually. It usually means breaking your, your students, up into individual learning groups where each group is working on something maybe slightly different, all often around the same content, or even possibly reviewing previous content or enriching their learning. So the definition of a center can be different depending on what your students' needs are, but in my experience, they're just such a great way to make sure that you're addressing the needs of all of your students and you have time to work with a smaller group of students maybe, while a different group is working on something else that's related to their learning and their individual learning goals. So, yeah, I think that there is such a great way to meet the needs of your students.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, I know. I do know. However, we were talking about this before we hit record from our own teaching experience and from, especially, a newer teacher. They can seem really overwhelming or almost daunting. I think people have this image of them in their mind of what it needs to be, and then that might not actually be what's best for students. So I'd love to hear about, like your experience in the classroom with these and kind of what you've learned along the way and your hopes for teachers who are listening about how they're going to implement these in their rooms.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so I know from my teaching experience. I taught fifth grade math for several years and in my mind I felt like centers were really scary because it meant planning in my mind again, and then planning so many different things for all of the individual groups and making sure that students knew the routines for each center. And then I also had this image in my mind of what you see on social media for what a center might look like, and so I think they feel really felt really unapproachable to me and so when I tried to implement them, I felt like it was almost too much for me, too much for my students. So I think that you know what I've learned through my own teaching journey as well, as you know learning my own professional learning outside of the classroom is that centers. Centers can be so much more approachable when you approach planning them in a way that can be, it can be repeatable when you want to use them, each day or each week, however you decide to implement them in your classroom.
Speaker 1:That's really helpful and I totally agree and kind of shifting the mindset from oh, this has to be Pinterest, perfect, and I have to reinvent the wheel every single time and students don't expect that you don't need to do that, right, because what they need might already exist and and repeating things is often very helpful for students in terms of just knowing the routine. And, as our listeners think about whether they're math teachers or other teachers implementing centers in their room, what are some best practices or tips that you have for them that they could quickly turn around and do tomorrow, for example, in their classroom?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I think again, again, kind of hammering home that point of of making your life easier as a teacher and making class time more predictable so that they can feel successful with what they're doing.
Speaker 2:I think by by selecting a few centers that you always use when you do centers in your classroom, I think that can make make centers feel a lot more approachable and also allow you to see a lot more of the results. Right? So if there are, you know, if you always have a technology center where students know what they're going to go on to to work on whether it be some sort of app or something that you, you or your school subscribe to that you know is vetted and related to your students learning that can be a center that's used every time and students will be excited about that, and then we'll know what to do when you get there, if you have a teacher led center, knowing that what the expectations are for when you're working with a small group, I think that's a great tip, you know, for the students who are both working with you and for the students who are working separately in other centers.
Speaker 2:Knowing you know what your expectations are. If they have a question for you, would you prefer that they you know wait till a certain point to ask that question? I think that by kind of going through those expectations with your students and almost rehearsing them together as a group at the beginning of your school year or when you're ready to begin implementing centers, can really set everyone up for success in the long term.
Speaker 1:That's super helpful. Yeah, planning out your routines and systems. Yeah, the question thing is obviously really important because that's one of your centers is teacher led, because you you don't want to have constant interruptions. And I think something else you didn't explicitly say but you talked about is categorizing your centers, like, say, you're going to do three, having the teacher led the technology and then one other. So that way, as you plan, it just makes it seem it's almost like menu planning, like on Mondays you're going to have chicken, whatever chicken dish it is. That's fine, but it just makes it a lot more approachable, I think, from just a human perspective and the mental load that all that you're planning for 30 kids at one time kind of takes. So I appreciate you sharing this.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and then you don't have to keep reteaching routines for centers every single time you get in there, which you know can take some time at the beginning of each class period.
Speaker 2:One other thing I wanted to mention was that I think that centers can sometimes feel a little bit less approachable for older students. Right, I know that in my mind as a teacher, I think of younger students working through centers and maybe doing a center rotation. But I think there are a lot of ways that you can include centers into your day to make sure that older students have some autonomy within centers, have an opportunity to work in a variety of different grouping structures. It doesn't just have to be circle tables set up around the realm and having students rotate between those.
Speaker 1:Right, right, definitely. Well, thank you so much, amy, for sharing all of your tips and expertise. I'm sure teachers are excited to dive in, hopefully soon, with some more purposeful planning and stress-free centers in their classrooms. So that is all the time we have for today, but thank you so much for being here. Get inspired by following us on social media and please tag us in your posts on Twitter, at curriculumassoch, and on Instagram, at myirety. If you have feedback about the podcast, a topic of interest or want to be a guest, email extraordinaryeducatorsatcainccom. Subscribe where you listen to podcasts and if you'd like to help more educators like you, join the conversation.
Speaker 3:Please leave a review and remember, be you be true, be extraordinary. The Extraordinary Educators Podcast is produced by Curriculum Associates. Editing by Whiteboard Geeks, social media by Atstie Hannan, guest booking by Sarri Laveris, production by Hailey Browning. This podcast is copyright, material and intellectual property of Curriculum Associates.