What every teacher should know about using math journals...

Why should teachers use journals during math class?

1. Math journals provide an opportunity for students to communicate and process their understanding/thinking with themselves and others.
2. Math journals give a teacher an opportunity to communicate personally with students. 
3. Math journals provide an opportunity for students to use correct math vocabulary in real world contexts.
4. Math journals allow students the opportunity to see the BIG ideas and make connections with other concepts and patterns.
5. Math journals allow a students who traditionally would be quiet and less likely to participate, to share what they know through drawings and writings. 

What are the BIG changes I've seen in my class and in the weeks to come?

1. First, math journals have provided my students the opportunity to personally communicate their understanding with m, and also show me exactly where they are with understanding a particular topic. 
2. I am looking forward to the day when my students can look back at their previous journal activities and see their progress as well as connect the dots to their learning. I want them to see their growth over time, in hopes that they can make several connections to patterns. It is also important for them to notice what areas in math they might have struggled with and had been successful with. 

What does this currently look like in my teaching?

1. Currently, I am implementing my journals on Wed. and Friday. I've found these days to be most effective in regards to time. When working with first graders, I've tried to keep things simple for the first few entries, because of experience. A majority of my students need plenty of modeling which in turn means we are taking it slow now-to go faster later. Another piece I am currently thinking about pertains to the workbook pages that we are "nudged" to complete every day. I'd like to substitute several of the pages for a journal entry to save time, but if that was the case, the students would lose out on opportunities to practice previous lesson concepts on the worksheets
2. Instead of having students copy down the prompt for the day, I have been printing and cutting out the journal entries every day-in order to save time. Students will then paste the prompts in their journals. 
3. Collecting the journals and its process is taking time to get used to. Most correcting is completed once per week and once on the weekend.