I'm pretty sure all those words mean the same thing. Lots of planning at the beginning, lots of downtime at the end. And possibly one of the most beneficial things you'll ever teach your students to do.
I didn't start using stations (the word I use for them) until last year. They are usually always different (for example, I know some elementary school classrooms always have the same station activities with different content but in my room they almost never are the same activity) but always have some "same" features. These "same" features are what makes it so super easy for me and what I am hoping to share with you to help you make it easier for you.
1: There are always 6 stations and we always rotate in the same direction.
-no, they are not always six different stations, sometimes I only had three good activities so each activity appears in the room twice and they only go to three of the six stations.
2: I never go through the entire directions for each station before we go to the stations.
-what a waste of time! How many people can remember directions for six separate activities (even three separate activities) when your immediate task is only to do one of them, and the last one you might not get to for two-four days from now! Also, this eliminates the student who thinks they remember the directions exactly from when I said it and executes something entirely different.
3: I do go through the "highlights"/"things to know" for this station.
-I teach science. We use glass beakers. We use hot stuff. We use smelly stuff. If there are any "make sure of..." or "be careful of...." parts of a station that is what I go through.
4: I give students 10-30 seconds to "clean up" and then a separate 10-30 seconds to switch. This time does not count against them for actually competing their station.
-This is important for giving the students those brain breaks that they definitely need.
When I first started doing stations I felt like a ringmaster. A bad ringmaster. I was so excited about all the activities going on in each ring that I was bad at explaining all the directions and got frustrated with my students assuming they knew what was about to happen. I realized that when you are watching a circus the ringmaster doesn't walk you through every thing that is about to happen he just gives you a preview. Here is a tiger - here is a ring on fire. Enjoy! I had to get better at giving the "preview" instead of a narration.
Those norms keep me and the students from being overwhelmed by the fact that there are 6 different things that we are all responsible for going on in one fairly small space for 23 people to be occupying.
I'll talk soon about how I plan my stations but figured it would make more sense if my norms had already been discussed.
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