math Archives - Page 4 of 5

03 Oct 2015

Week 6 – Student Banking Chaos, Tests Without Grades, and Cheez-Its

Week 6 is coming to a close. I've gone home this week a few more times a bit more flustered than usual, mainly because of the chaos of getting students familiar with our classroom economy online banking system. But at least I had Cheez-It's to comfort me. Oh, and I'm not writing grades on tests anymore either. TEST WITHOUT GRADES I saw a video recently about a math teacher who will highlight where students made mistakes on their tests and doesn't put the actual grade on the top of the test. She posts grades online the day after they get…

25 Sep 2015

Week 5 – Mind Blowing Math, Class Fines, and Chatty Cathy’s

We've come to the end of week 5. It's actually Friday morning but it's a staff development day. I really enjoy staff development days. You don't have to be 'on.' You just show up and try to engage yourself in the discussion. It's coming at the end of a fairly good week. MIND BLOWING MATH In Pre-Algebra, we started exploring exponents. We delved into powers of 1, 0, and negative exponents. Power of 1 was easy enough; 31 = 3. Seems just like multiplication. 30 though...is actualy 1. 3-1 is...1/3...whaaaaat? Without going too much into it, HERE'S a video of…

11 Sep 2015

Week 3 – 9/11, Slow Start, Math Rapping, and PE

It's Friday and my advisory is working on their Weekly Updates. It's where they send an email to their parents and me and answer a few questions I have for them, usually around reflections on the week. Here's what I posed to them this week: PART 1 Write about two meaningful and engaging discussions or activities you had in class this week. What were they about? Why were they interesting? What aha moments did you have? Do at least a paragraph for each of the discussions. PART 2 Do you ever have any recurring dreams? Describe them in detail. If…

04 Sep 2015

Week 2 – Let The Learning Begin

I'm finishing up my second week of classes. For the most part they went well! CLASSROOM ECONOMY Students turned in their applications and I'm in the process of assigning positions. Students picked their top 3 job choices and I told them I'd do my best to give them one of those three jobs. A few jobs required a letter of recommendation and I was impressed with a few of the the letters that came in (I told them I'd be extra impressed if it was delivered in an official school envelope). The hard part is working through the matrix of…

28 Aug 2015

Week 1 – Less Stress Than I’m Used To

Last year I read a few blogs from folks who were reflecting everyday in the classroom. I thought a more manageable amount for myself would be a weekly update and reflection. Will hopefully stick with this as the year continues and will probably be more successful if I recognize that every post doesn't have to be a world-class entry. FIRST DAYS First weeks of school are sometimes the most stressful. When I was a 5th grade teacher, I was quite a disciple of the Harry Wong 'First Days of School' philosophy of the first day being the most important. I…

23 Aug 2015

Inquiry-Based Lesson on Arithmetic Property

Below is a slide show I plan on using for my lesson on properties (commutative, associative, identity, and inverse) for my 7th grade Pre-Algebra class. They will answer a couple questions, I'll have them share their thought process and drawings, asking them probing questions and having them convince the rest of us of their thinking. The questions will be as follows: Does the order of you multiply numbers matter? Why or why not? Explain and draw a picture. Does the order you add numbers matter? Why or why not? Explain and draw a picture. [HERE I SHARE THAT THIS IS THE…

07 Aug 2015

A Review of the NCTM’s ‘Principles to Actions’

Currently making my way through the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) publication Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success For All. It's pretty much a how-to for teaching math. They discuss eight aspect of effective teaching and learning. For each, I’ll share thoughts, questions, and aha moments. Establish math goals to focus learning Implement tasks that promote reasoning and problem solving Use and connect mathematical representations Facilitate meaningful mathematical discourse Pose purposeful questions Build procedural fluency from conceptual understanding Support productive struggling in learning mathematics Elicit and use evidence of student thinking. 1. Establish math goals to focus learning…

19 Jul 2015

A Belated End-of-Year Reflection : Lowlights

This is part 3 of my 2015 school year reflections. If you'd like, check out my previous entries: A Belated End-of-Year Reflection: Changes A Belated End-of-Year Reflection: Highlights In today's episode: LOWLIGHTS Lack of clarity in what to teach Coming from public school, you don’t really have to figure out what you have to teach. You’re given a scope and sequence; you know what units are to be taught and in what order. Sometimes a bit stifling and rushed, but you know what’s expected of you. I came in with a little bit more autonomy than I expected. The math…

19 Jul 2015

A Belated End-of-Year Reflection : Highlights

Check out some of the changes I went through from 2014-2015 in my previous entry. These middle schoolers aren't the only ones going through changes! In this episode: HIGHLIGHTS Low stress Behavior Management-The behavior problems I had this year didn’t even come close to the stuff I would have to deal with in the past. I had one student who was a bit too cool for school and wouldn’t always follow directions, but even she engaged in our class discussions. The kids generally did what you asked them to do. Behavior management was a huge stressor at Iduma. It was…

11 Jul 2015

Reflecting on ‘Building A Better Teacher’

Just finished up 'Building A Better Teacher' by Elizabeth Green. I anticipated a book that would discuss teacher preparation programs in the US and how we can do better. I was surprised by how much of the book seemed to focus on the history and development of an inquiry-based approach in a math classroom (which being a math teacher, I loved). I think Green went in that direction since math education seems to be where our teachers are lacking direction the most. The latter half focused more on the developments in teacher preparation programs (triumphs and failures) as well as…