[This post originally appeared on Random Teacher Thoughts. Anthony Purcell currently teaches 6th grade mathematics in Enid, OK.] Ok, I’m jumping on my soap box . . . well sort of. My students are currently working on Mean, Median, and Mode in class. It is a tested standard. For those who need a review: Mean: Average […]
Opening Activity Tiffany shared an opening activity called Apple on a Desk where the teacher describes a scenario in which she asks what forces are working on this apple that is just sitting there…doing nothing… (I am glad Tiffany didn’t have a real apple to watch because, reading this I was completely imagining watching the […]
I know it is a little early to start thinking about Easter but we all have some of those plastic eggs laying around our house, so why don’t you turn them into manipulatives? Check out this blog about using them for a telling time match game and matching addition problems with their answers!
The mind is never passive; it is a perpetual activity, delicate, receptive, responsive to stimulus. You cannot postpone its life until you have sharpened it. Whatever interest attaches to your subject-matter must be evoked here and now; whatever powers you are strengthening in the pupil, must be exercised here and now; whatever possibilities of mental […]
Hilldale Elementary is quite an inspirational school. Kayla Hindman, the Early Education Director, went to see what they were doing in the reading areas and told me I “HAD” to go see what they were doing with math. A few emails later and I was visiting with camera in hand. If you have wondered what […]
[This post is a part of series on the Eight Mathematics Teaching Practices. If you haven’t had a chance to get to know the Eight Mathematics Teaching Practices, start with an introduction here. You can check out Practice 1 here. We also did a survey about the Teacher and Student Actions you can read about […]
Ever find yourself without just the right manipulatives for math centers? Legos can create perfect learning opportunities along with fun at the same time! http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-teaching/2013/12/using-lego-build-math-concepts Don’t just stop with these activities. Let your imagination go CrAzY!!!
Elementary teachers teach it all. Even if you are departmentalized, you work extremely close to your partner teacher and plan integrated lessons. Why not? Science and Math naturally go hand-in-hand. Science is the place in the students’ “now” where they can use the math they are learning. This definitely translates into me having to learn more […]
I have a new obsession…. have you met Thinglink? You can make images interactive…the possibilities are blowing my mind! Below is a picture of a bulletin board in Mrs. Winthers class. I uploaded the photo onto the website and clicked on the picture, much like tagging a picture in Facebook, and I typed in more […]
Here’s how I like to explain it… I had this crazy idea to send out an enormous survey and somehow there were over 100 crazy math teachers in Oklahoma who actually filled it out! Like Jeff Lay, Anthony Purcell, and so many others, I fell in love with NCTM’s Principles to Actions (link) almost immediately. […]
Ever wish you had number cards for numbers larger than 100? Think of all the possibilities of things you could do with these cards….ordering numbers, sorting numbers, creating decimals, creating operations, using them as the answer and having kids make up the problem, etc…. Enjoy!
Edmond Public School’s Elementary Math Content Specialist Robbyn Glinsmann Edmond Public School’s Elementary Math Content Specialist Robbyn Glinsmann has spent this year supporting her teachers with implementing math centers. She graciously agreed to share her trainings and ideas with us and then took us into classrooms to show the very different styles the teachers adapted […]
Is this not the coolest math word wall idea? Mr. Allen is a fourth grade teacher at Lee Elementary in Oklahoma City. He has his word wall set up as a coordinate grid. When he refers to a word on the word wall, he uses its location, as an ordered pair, to help the students […]
The long awaited resources… … well long if you were in one of the first sessions. Not so much if yours was this week! The tour is almost over. It is bittersweet to know we are wrapping up the PASS Plus Academies. It has been an amazing journey meeting educators around the state. You are […]
We are currently doing workshops for Math and ELA across the state. One of the goals for my 3rd - 5th Grade Math session is that teachers work together to create Math Tasks that Promote Real Problem Solving and Reasoning. Once the workshops are over in November, I will focus on getting them all in […]