The Domino Effect

Mathalicious posted on Twitter a lesson involving real world math. He created a math lesson based on figuring out how much Domino's pizza charges for pizza. His objectives were for students to understand the ideas of slop and y-intercept within the context of Domino's pizza pricing, to write and graph a linear equation given two points on the line, and to understand what it means for a function to be linear (constant rate of change). The students were to use linear equations to find the base price (y-intercept) and cost per additional topping (slope).

Mathalicious takes the students to the actual Domino's website through a tutorial. He completes an order and then has the students compare the items from his order to answer the question. I think this is an excellent real world lesson. Kids love pizza and almost every kid has ordered pizza once in there life. So it becomes something that all the students can relate to, which in turn makes the lesson more interesting for them. It also draws their attention to look for little things like hidden fees and, depending on what you order, how to get the most for your money.

A Video from Ms. Cassidy's Class

Ms. Cassidy posted a video in her blog of her first grade class answering questions they were asked by a class of six and seven year olds from Dublin, Ireland.  The students answer cute questions about the school and about themselves. They then ask questions to the students in Dublin. Ms. Cassidy always uses technology in her classroom. These short, little videos are great ways for both groups of students to understand that everyone all across the world is different. I feel as though this is an important aspect to instill in children.

One thing I also took away from the video was the setup of Ms. Cassidy's classroom. I personally love the stationed classroom set up. After doing some observing in a preschool classroom, I think this is a great way for students to learn. The students are broken up into four groups of three and the students go to their stations. Some of the stations require students to practice their handwriting, their colors, their numbers, their shapes, etc. Some of the stations are more “real world”. For example, Ms. Janet sometimes has chef stations, waiter stations, news desk stations, fire fighter stations, police officer stations, etc. Some stations involve crafting and other things to stimulate creativity. Some stations allow the students to play with different educational apps on the iPad. In stations like handwriting, she has the ability to sit with each student and go over each letter with them. She pays very close attention to who goes into each group, focusing on their abilities and their interests. I feel it is a wonderful way for the students to get the most out of their day.

Food and Math

Joe Schwartz blogged this week about how he incorporated simple snacks into his math class. He used foods with simple shapes and asked his students to find the perimeter of them.

The students were first asked what units they would use to determine the perimeter of the graham cracker.

Schwartz revealed to them the measurements of two of the sides and then asked them to find the perimeter.

He used anglelegs to represent the sides of the cracker.

He then measured the anglelegs and revealed to the students the perimeter of the graham cracker.

The students were then asked to find the perimeter of the Wheat Thin.

Once they found the perimeter, they used it to compare it to other snacks.

The activity proved to be a great review and covered many topics including, perimeter, comparing, rectangles, measurements, and units. These fun activities are not only beneficial, but fun for the students.

Summer Learning Loss

The School Superintendents Association is collaborating with TenMarks, an Amazon company, to reverse the summer learning loss in math. Research has shown that students lose two to three months of math over the summer, so TenMarks Summer Math Program was created at no cost to students. They offer personalized learning for every students. "As school districts are making the transition to the new curriculum standards, this program will help students build their math skills over the summer break at their own pace and time". The program starts with an assessment to figure out where the student is at. They then set up a program that creates an individualized program for the student. The program will review concepts the students have gone over in the previous grade and introduction new concepts the student is expected to learn in the next grade.  TenMarks also offers reports that will be available to parents and school districts. This is a wonderful program that will be greatly beneficial to students.


www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?ald=186902#.U0ahZim9LCS

Ten Questions to Ask about a Math Problem

This week Joe Schwartz blogged about his fifth graders learning about order of operations and connecting the concept to solving number stories.

The students were given these number stories and asked to pick one.

They were then asked to pick one of these choices and change the story.

These are just two examples of what Schwartz's students came up with. He had volunteers share their new problems with the class, and the class was asked to hold up one, two, three, or four fingers to identify which way the story was changed. The students found the activity to be "creative", "imaginative", and "fun". As teachers, we all understand the importance of finding activities that are not only educational, but keep the students interest. Schwartz was able to have the students solve all of the different stories they had created.

Brain Chase

Mathalicious posted an article about Brain Chase, an online entertainment and education company based out of Austin. Brain Chase has announced a six week summer learning challenge and global treasure hunt for students in grades two to eight. Students must complete weekly learning challenges over the summer to unlock webisodes. These webisodes contain hidden clues to the location of the treasure, which is a $10,000 globe with gold plated continents. The weekly assignments focus on reading, math and writing, plus six bonus subjects. The assignments use sites like Khan Academy, myOn digital library, Google Sky, and the virtual Smithsonian. The first participant to complete the six week challenge and guess the location of the treasure within a two mile radius wins the $10,000 globe. The six week challenge is a great idea for students to not fall behind during the summer. According to the article, studies have shown students lose a month of math and reading ability during the summer. This challenge is a great way for students to stay motivated and educated throughout the summer.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/brain-chase-announces-massive-6-131500045.html

Nings

Nings are online platforms that are created for people to make their own social networks. They create a community for educators to stay in contact with other educators and learn from one another. Classroom 2.0 is the ning I found most interesting. Classroom 2.0 has a forum section which I particularly like. Here educators are able to post questions they have, ideas they have used in their classrooms, and different tools and technology they use. One post I found interesting was by Karen Cameron titled "10 Engaging Activities for Students Who Finish Work Early". Karen remarks on how as a student herself, she would never had in work early for the fear of being "rewarded with more work". She presents us with ten activities for students who finish their work early.

1. Newspaper Blackout - Give the student any newspaper article and a sharpie and ask them to say something about themselves by blacking out the words.
2. Write a Six-Word Story - Using Hemingway as an inspiration, write a story in six words.
3. Read Whatever You Want - Allow the student to grab any book, comic, magazine, or newspaper to read.
4. Wikipedia - Allow student to pick an article about anything that interests them. Then ask them to find a link on the page to a different website where they learn something that they never knew about the topic.
5. Reviews - Have the student read a review about a movie, game, music or book they like and summarize it.
6. Another Middle School - Have the student look up the website of another middle school that they don't know about. Talk about what they learned from their website.
7. World News - Have the student use Google news to find a current world news event and summarize what they have learned.
8. Found Poem -Have the student find any webpage they want and create a poem from it.
9. Suggestion for Class - Ask the student to find a website, game, or online program they would like to seen used in the classroom.
10. Make a Timeline - Have the student create a timeline with at least 6 events starting from the time of their birth.

I think that Nings are a great way for educators to communicate with one another and share ideas. It is definitely a valuable tool for all educators, both new and old.


10 Engaging Activities for Student Who Finish Work Early