Math Matters
2014-15 Vol 8 April
Math Moves U!
Sponsored by Raytheon, MathMovesU is a program designed to get students from elementary through college excited about math in order to drive the next generation of engineers and technologies in the economic sector. Their site not only has great games for students, and a mathtionary (math dictionary), but also many other resources for teachers including virtual field trips and thrill rides, scholarships, sponsorships, special events, interactive experiences, and national competitions. Check out their engaging content for your students and the benefits to being a part of their math community.
Math Snacks
Math Blogs for everyone!
But there are so many more out there that are great to follow just for new ways to think about teaching math. Here's one for each level - I hope you find something you love!
Elementary - The Math Coach's Corner
Middle School - Mathalicious (actually for both middle and high)
High School - Dan Meyer (of course!) and She Loves Math (again really all levels)
Classroom Instructional Focus
The American Math Crisis - Race to Nowhere
There is a math crisis in America. By middle school, two-thirds of our students will fall behind grade level in their math classes. By high school graduation, fewer than half will be prepared for college-level courses. And yet, success in math remains a powerful gatekeeper–the door not only to coursework but also careers in science, medicine, technology, and engineering. Equally powerful is the myth that math skills are fixed and inborn: the idea, persistent across decades, that some students are good at math, and that those who aren’t can’t be taught.
The film takes aim at this belief, asking why so little progress has been made to make even basic math accessible to all students. Drawing on the innovative ideas of experts like Stanford professor Jo Boaler and civil rights leader Dr. Robert Moses, the film examines how our traditional approach to math education favors rote performance over problem-solving and imitation over creativity–even among high-achieving students. Exposing the ways in which resistance from policymakers and parents has prevented better practices from reaching our classrooms, film interweaves the stories of struggling students with those of groundbreaking educators. And it reveals a new reality: a classroom where every student is good at math.
Feature: Formative Assessment Classroom Technique (FACT) - Analogy Writing
Analogies are not just for ELAR classes! And they can be a great way to help students connect their learning and for the teacher to see how students are reflecting on the current topics under study.
Provide a prompt in the form of an analogy such as:
The ___(concept)____________ is like _______________ because ___________________. OR
The most important thing about ___(concept)____________ is _______________ because ___________________.
This simple written reflection task will get students making mental connections of current learning to other concepts already learned, which makes the new ideas stick and make their way into working and long term memory! And you get bonus points for connecting your math lesson to a tool used in ELAR :)
New Titles!
Kelli Mallory, Ed.D. - K-12 Mathematics Curriculum
Email: integralmathematics@gmail.com
Website: www.mathcutups.com
Phone: 214-471-5760
Facebook: facebook.com/pages/Math-Cut-Ups
Twitter: @mathcutups