I love the three periods I spend in 7th grade math. The teacher uses math talk and her own personality to build a safe, friendly classroom community. In some periods this is harder than others, but even in the most rambunctious class, there is still community in her classroom.
Some examples of the way she makes the classroom fun and warm - these won't sound as joyful in writing as they are in person, but they truly convey a happiness to be there:
She has the kids answer her phone when it rings during class with: "Mrs. Doe's classroom. Student speaking. We love math!"
Good answers get a "Kiss your brain!" which she models by kissing her hand and tapping her head.
She wears a special math lab coat on test days, which has a variety of math equations written on it with permanent marker. She wears it to bring in the good math karma.
When students don't have a pencil, they get to borrow one from her if they leave a shoe on deposit (so far the kids all treat this as silly).
She stamps homework and worksheets with a custom rubber stamp which says "Mrs. Doe approves!"
I have seen a teacher using the "shoe deposit" method with 6th graders in elementary school. She has a separate box for this. For some reason it works, but personally I am not sure about using "shoes"...may be something else could work too. I can see how 7th graders in middle school would find it "silly". I like how your CT wears a special lab coat for math class. I would want to get something like that too.
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