Math Moms

As I was sitting in the doctors office reading through a magazine, I stumbled upon an interesting sounding website. It was called themathmom.com. Being a math teacher, I decided to investigate the website when I returned home. Upon visiting this site, I found some really fun things. There are weekly puzzles for all ages that you can try out (and even submit answers to!), there are at home suggestions of how mathematics tie in with our daily lives (i.e. efficiency in traveling, making the most of storage spaces, etc.), artilces, a store with some math T-shirts, and much more. If you are someone that is interested in mathematics (or you are a parent that has a math phobia and you do not want to show this to your child(ren), visit this website and enjoy!

http://www.themathmom.com/index.html

Re-Engaging Students

In Andrew Marcinek's November 21, 2010 blog titled Ten Simple Strategies for Re-engaging Students, I couldn't agree more with him. He begins his blog by talking about how his English 101 class is staring off into space or engaged in another activity (activities that did not pertain to English 101!). Marcinek then goes on to discuss what he was going to do to ensure that his students would be engaged in future lessons. In doing so, he came up with a list of 10 basic ideas. The very first one being to have fun!!! He then looked at open communication with others, constructive criticism, and working with others just to name a few.

I also believe that Marcinek was right on when he stated that we need not be ashamed for having "disconnected moments with our students" as this is part of teaching. As long as we adapt and make changes that will hopefully re-engage or engage for the first time, a majority of the students. An emphasis is put on a majority as we can not always connect with every student 100% of the time.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/reengaging-students-andrew-marcinek

Fun Activities for All Ages

While sitting at Thanksgiving dinner, one one of my husband's relatives had a pile of cartoon-like pictures sitting on the table that she had drawn. Not knowing that she was artistically inclined, I asked her about the pile of drawings. She told me about the website activitytv.tv. She had showed me how she came up with her drawings (according to her, she was NOT artistically inclined, but the website had guided her through the process). Each cartoon begins with a simple shape, number, letter, etc. From there, cartoonist Bruce Blitz describes the steps to creating a fun cartoon.

Upon going to the activity tv website, I found that there were many activities for kids to partake in - even at home. From cartooning and origami to cooking and crafts. Even though quite a bit of the material is geared towards the younger kids, I do believe some of my juniors and seniors would enjoy a few of these activities - especially at the end of a marking period or the day before Christmas break!.

Black Friday Lesson Plan

The Teacher's Curriculum Institute (TCI) website has created an interesting lesson plan that deals with teaching kids how to comparison shop, be a smart credit card user and evaluate the importance of quality product research prior to shopping (especially on Black Friday). The activity begins with having students come up with a list of products they would buy if given the chance to attend a Black Friday shopping event. Each student is given a $300 cash budget and a $500 credit card limit.

The second part of the project has students work in groups of 4 to prepare shoppers for the upcoming shopping season via a news conference. Students must conduct research on products, create resources and present their findings to their peers.

I think this is a neat way to expose students to the concepts of financial management, shopping sales and Black Friday. This is an activity that I will most likely implement this week into my classroom! Thanks for the post!

http://blog.teachtci.com/black-friday-financial-literacy-lesson

Using Technology on Tests and Exams

Edutopia posted a poll wanting to know how subscribers felt about students utilizing technology (IPods, internet, cell phones, etc) on tests and exams. The poll stated that the effective use of digital devices is more important in today's society than rote memorization. I disagree 100%. At least in the K-12 grades, students are still learning basic facts and knowledge. The basics are what build the foundation for future knowledge. If students are not going to be held accountable for remembering foundational facts, (i.e. 1/2=0.5, their-there-they're all have different meanings, mass IS different than weight, etc.) how are we going to expect them to engage in higher level thinking in a timely fashion? If we follow the idea that "rote memorization" of basic facts is not necessary, we may as well extend the school day and school year as students are going to require more time to get through each grade level as they will need to look everything up, both basic facts and the answer to the question being asked, prior to giving their responses.

http://www.edutopia.org/poll-use-technology-tests

Students As Financial Aides

Kudos to Patrick Flannery and Douglas Knight Singer for running a program that allows a group of San Francisco high school juniors and seniors to obtain experience in the world of tax preparation. Not only do these students get certified to prepare taxes for individuals with an annual household income of less than $38,000, they will also become certified in Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Students must attend a coaching session from October through December and then a refresher course in December and January prior to taking a certification test in January. Students must be recertified each year.

Not only are students exposed to the reality of tax rules and regulations, they are also receive experience in a small business setting. Within this setting, students must learn to act in a professional manner with a customer clientel, learn to work cooperatively with teammates and discuss questions and issues with peers. All in all, they are obtaining a very valuable real-world experience as a high school student. It also encourages students to take a leading role within their community. What a neat experience!

http://www.edutopia.org/high-school-tax-assistance

Great STEM Resources

Thank you to the Edutopia group "Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics" for generating a post with numerous STEM resources. I found these sites to be extremely interesting and I love the fact that they cover K-12 grade levels. The sooner we can expose our students to these concepts and get them "hooked", the better off we will be. I feel that it is extremely important to get kids involved in STEM projects early on and show them how the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics affect EVERYTHING we do on a daily basis. Thanks again for some great information!

http://www.edutopia.org/groups/science-technology-engineering-mathematics-education/6802

Structured Consequences for Missing Assignments

Upon reading Nicole Lemire's Edutopia's post Missing Homework Solutions, I was glad to see that some middle schools are taking a step towards teaching their students that there are consequences for late/missing assignments. Lemire discusses a conference her colleagues attended to help establish a structure for handling missing assignments and making students accountable. Lemire's district found that by making consequences that students could relate to (i.e. enforcing students with missing assignments to attend a study hall during lunch time until all assignments were turned in) helped to make students realize the importance of turning assignments in on-time the first time around.

As a high school teacher, I appreciate this effort coming from a middle school. In my classes, regardless of whether I have freshmen or seniors, I always try to iterate the importance of turning assignments/work in on time. As a class we talk about not only how it can affect a grade, but ultimately, in the work force, we discuss that late/missing tasks could result in a loss of a job.

http://www.edutopia.org/groups/middle-school/33093

Teaching Honors Students

One would assume that if given a choice, teaching honors or gifted children would be much easier than teaching the average or below average student. I too used to fall in this category. However, after going from teaching freshmen algebra to calculus students, I have discovered first hand, that it's not as "easy" as I thought it would be. Edutopia's article The Challenges of Teaching Honors Students by Heather Wolpert-Gawron, discusses some of the differences between teaching the mainstream child and teaching honors students.

One of the biggest things I have noticed and something that the article points out is the honor students ability to accept "failure". Failure meaning, not coming up with the excact answer or getting an A- instead of an A. Honor students appear to have a hard time adjusting to these. Additionally, I have found that when given the opportunity to work in groups, they would much rather work by themselves to ensure that the project is done "right". I have actually had instances where I have had to make the students work together.

Additionally, I have had honor student that get so wrapped up in the academics, that they forget about real-world applications. It's almost as if things exist only in a theoretical and ideal world. When they face a problem with an open-ended answer or worse yet, a problem with mulitple solutions, it's almost as if these students do not know what to do.

On the flip side, I have found that the honors students can be pushed to a higher level of thinking and that they are more than willing to accept new challenges. They are also more responsible when it comes to getting homework and assignments completed in a very timely manner - if not early. Teaching both levels has definitely mad me a more rounded teacher and has taught me quite a lot!

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/teaching-honors-gifted-students-challenges

Leading By Example

What a fascinating way to demonstrate one’s beliefs for a cause! Edutopia’s article, On a Mission to Link the Body and Brain in Education -- One Push-up at a Time, discusses how one individual has taken a stance and is trying to prove a valid point. Joel Kirsch, a 62 year old former sports psychologist for the San Francisco Giants and president of the Northern California-based American Sports Institute, has chosen to do approximately 50 miles worth of push-ups in California all in the name of promoting the importance of physical education and activity in today’s society. Moving about 1 mile a day, Kirsch is bringing about awareness that in order for students to academically succeed, they need to be fully engaged in physical activity.
Not only will the engagement of physical activity promote learning in education, it also teaches our students how to become healthy individuals, lower their medical costs and get a good night’s sleep without the use of pills or other medications. Who wouldn’t want that? Kudos to Joel Kirsch for actively promoting what he believes in!

http://www.edutopia.org/physical-education-advocacy-push-ups-kirsch

Visual Guided Learning

Fran Smith's The Eyes Have It: Potent Visuals Promote Academic Richness article is an interesting article that discusses how some schools have investigated the use of displaying an image and having their students learn based upon the questions/responses the the students have for the image. The teacher then paraphrases the response and guides the conversation into an educational discussion. I found this article to be a neat way to approach some topics as it really appeals to those students of artistic talents and it teaches other students that pictures really do "say 1000 words". However, like any other strategy, I feel as though this would be great to use in particular situations and probably more so in certain topics. I do not think it is a 'one-size fits all' approach. I still believe that there is a time and place for students to have to sit down and watch/listen to learn regardless of the generation that is being taught.

http://www.edutopia.org/visual-thinking-strategies-art-curriculum

Staying 'Caught Up' with the Curriculum

On November 2, Rebecca Alber wrote an article titled How to Stay Caught Up with the Curriculum. In this article, Alber discusses the pressure teachers feel to either be at a particular point by a certain time which in turn ends up being a "race" with collegues who also teach the same subject. She uses a phrase that I really like. She said "to compare is to despair". How true is this?! One cannot assume that a text book pacing guide (which is not to be mis-interpreted as a set in stone schedule) or a colleague's classroom pace will adequately ensure that your own students are effectively learning the material? Sometimes we as educators need to sacrifice the "extra" day or two and ensure that our students are students are learning the core objectives before we try to build upon them just to keep up.

Abler also discusses the importance of covering in depth vs. in breadth. She points out that sometimes, we need to "slow down to go quickly". It's only common sense that if we as learners understand step one thoroughly, we will have a better chance at understanding step two. However, if we lack the skills to understand the first step, it's even less likely that we will understand the second step.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/curriculum-how-to-stay-caught-up-rebecca-alber