Funny: Who says we don't need algebraic thinking?

iPad Apps for the Classroom

Here is a list of iPad applications for the classroom.  Virtual Manipulatives and Math Squared are my favorites for the primary grades.  Enjoy, and "Keep Calm and Do the Math!"
iPad Links for the Classroom 

Uh Oh...She's Drinking the Kool-Aid Too!

Shout out to Ms. Tiffany Jackson!  She is a 2nd grade teacher at my school.  I caught her drinking the "Math Kool-Aid" in big gulps!  Her students are studying Native Americans in their social studies unit.  So, she decided to integrate what they were learning about the Creek and Cherokee into her math centers.  She created some great problems for students to solve.

Notice how she listed names of actual crops planted and utilized by these Georgia Natives?  So actually, these problems are actually similar to real-life scenarios these people would have had many years ago.  This is really rich instruction.  With her permission, I am sharing them below.  Thanks, Tiffany for giving our students quality learning experiences!  

The Celebration

A Native American family of  16 need to plan for a celebration.  They need enough corn, potatoes, and melon to feed everyone.  There should be one ear of corn for each person, 1 potato for each person, and 3 people can share a melon.  How much food should be prepared?

On the Hunt!

Cherokee Native Americans hunt and fish to get many of the things they need.  They trade some of the things from their hunt to get other things they need.  During one week, 5 hunting mates traded 65 deer, 8 elk, and 137 salmon and trout.  What information do you not need to solve this problem?  How many non-fish items did they trade?  How many items did they trade in all?  

*Challenge:  If each hunting mate had the same number of things to trade from this list, what could each person have individually to trade?   

Instructional Tip:  To help students to really make sense of the math, provide manipulatives for them to use as they reach a solution.  Encourage them to solve using pictures, numbers, and words.  

Here's a picture of Mrs. Jackson's Mathematicians!

Fake Fact Fluency, Time with Daddy, & Timed Tests...

I grew up taking timed tests. As a child, my Daddy would sit at the kitchen table every Thursday night and quiz me on my multiplication facts in preparation for "Fact Fluency Friday." Decades later, I cringe at the thought. Was "Fact Fluency Friday" REALLY about fact fluency? Nope.

As a matter of fact, it could have been renamed, "Fake Fact Fluency Friday," or "Memorization Madness." You see, I had my facts memorized, and I made good grades on my timed tests. However, practices such as this came with a cost. In exchange for lots of memorized "times tables," and good grades, this is what I paid...

1. Wasted time! I spent hours doing rote recall when I could have been doing something else more worthwhile. The only time benefit I got from it was time with my Daddy.
2. Stress! There was a looming 5-minute test to answer 50 questions the next day.
3. Deficiency! I had complete memorization, but no strategy. Honestly, I did not develop true and usable strategies until later in my matriculation.
4. Counterproductivity! I had lots of "times tables" memorized, but I was unable to quickly and accurately apply a variety of strategies to solve problems in multiple ways.
5. Quality! In this case, as in many other situations, quantity trumped quality.

Teachers, parents, loved ones...please help our children to develop authentic number sense. They will thank you for it. Check out this article!  Article: Timed Tests and Anxiety

This "New" Math & Teaching the Parents

"We need math books."
"I didn't learn math this way."
"I don't get this new math."

How many times have you heard a parent say one of these statements?  In my heart, while statements such as these sound like criticisms, I like to consider them cries for help.  Most parents truly want their children to be as successful as they can.  So, if we are not teaching with textbooks, worksheets, and flashcards, why give them to parents as they work to help their children?

On that note, I would like to send a "shout out" to a 2nd grade teacher at my school, Mrs. Valarie Amerson.  It all started with a homework assignment.  One of her students refused to solve a problem using the standard algorithm at the request of his parent.  So, Mrs. Amerson decided use part of her parent-teacher conferences to engage parents in authentic, standards-based minilessons!  This is what she had to say...
"During my parent teacher conferences, I have been teaching parents how to do math. I have been teaching them how to use the empty number line and modeling using base ten. I also tell them that students have to be able to explain their thinking. We also talk about how the students are expected to use mental math to solve problems and I show what that looks like. Many of them are shocked at how much math has changed."

 

Wouldn't it be more powerful to engage parents in experiences like this that give them what they need to truly understand the math and help their children to be truly successful with Common Core Mathematics?  There are several sites and resources that would give parents exposure to meaningful math.  Some are included as links on the right side of this page.  Here are just a few more:

• www.georgiastandards.org/Common-Core/Pages/Math-K-5.aspx - an all inclusive bank of Common Core standards, lessons, activities, tasks, assessments...(Hey!  It's what we teachers use!)
• www.khanacademy.com - FREE tutorials, lessons, and activities
• www.teachingchannel.org - videos and explanations
• www.k-5mathteachingresources.com - grade-appropriate activities, problems, tasks by standard
• www.mathpickle.com - videos, demonstrations, activities

I believe that knowledge is power.  As we educators work to build solid mathematical foundations with our students, let's give our parents a taste of the "Math Kool-Aid!"  Trust me, the parents and your students will eventually thank you for it.

P.S. I have decided to start doing Number Talks with the parents who come to my lunch and learn session!  ;)

2nd Grade Teacher Drinks the "Kool-Aid"...and LOVES It!

A 2nd grade teacher at my school began to slowly accept "The Math Movement." She took baby sips of the "Math Kool-Aid" at first. Now, she's gulping it in large quantities! Boy, do I feel like a proud Mama! Kudos to you, Melanie Henderson! Stay thirsty! Here is one of her "lightbulb moments" below!

Standard Algorithm Lightbulb Moment!

"Today, after my class finished math corner and we moved on to the number talk, I brought up how it's important for us to use different strategies to make math problems easier to solve. It was interesting because after I said that, one of my kids said, "Mrs. Henderson, I know why you don't teach us to solve problems with the standard algorithm. If you did, that's the only way we would solve problems instead of using all of these different strategies that we know!" So cool that a seven year old was able to recognize that!! :)"

Need a Laugh?

A fellow math coach sent this to me.  Thanks for the laugh, Mike W!

So...how much was the tip?

More Football...Bucky the Badger!

The Georgia Bulldogs just lost.  What is going in with football in this state?  So, here is another football problem for you to try and share. 

"Bucky the Badger" was first shared with me by a beloved colleague of mine a year ago (Thanks Graham!).  Engaging with this problem led me to Dan Meyer.  This man is PURE Awesomeness.  Check out his TED Talk and blog!  Dan Meyer's perspective is fresh, clear and simple.  Teach quality math, and the rest will come.   One of the problems on his site is the "Bucky the Badger" problem.  It comes with a video, and questions in "workshop friendly" format.  Share this with your students and see how they do!
*Click the title to see the actual lesson and resources.

"Bucky the Badger"

 

It's Football Season...Those Darn Falcons!

This is how I feel about my "great seat" tickets right about now. 

I am an Atlanta Falcons ENTHUSIAST.  As an Atlanta native, I am a true "Dirty Bird", win or lose.  After a dazzling season last year, I was terribly disappointed at this year's 0-4 record (so far).  So, I stumbled upon a problem I could share with some of my teachers to investigate in their classrooms.  Maybe listening to some of the students' brilliant observations will help me to not be such a "sore loser."  DARN FALCONS!

Do Teams That Spend a Lot Win a Lot? 

*Credit: www.yummymath.com                  

First ask students to look at the table below.  What do you notice?  What does it make you wonder?

Team	Team Payroll	Wins	Sport	Season
N.Y. Yankees	$223,302,212	95	MLB	2012
Oakland A's	$59,493,290	94	MLB	2012
Philadelphia Flyers	$71,072,500	47	NHL	2011 - 12
New York Islanders	$29,573,500	34	NHL	2011 - 12
Minnesota Vikings	$123,553,646	10	NFL	2011 - 12
Jacksonville Jaguars	$92,768,120	2	NFL	2011 - 12
New York Knicks	$117,024,192	36	NBA	2011 - 12
Charlotte Bobcats	$38,032,540	7	NBA	2011 - 12

In this activity students compare team wins with team salaries in the four major North American sports … the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL.  Students use data from recent seasons to create scatter plots comparing wins and salaries for each sport.  You can run the lesson anyway you wish.  

Practice Standards or Content Standards?

So on my journey, I began to notice that teachers would jump right into the content standards and neglect the practice standards. They were so focused on getting the content covered within the time allotted on the pacing guide, they placed all (or most) of their eggs in the "content standard basket." Personally, I feel "some kind of way" about rigid pacing guides, but that's a topic for another day. So, I do understand my teachers' struggles. I have been focusing a lot of my professional learning on the importance of the 8 Standards for Mathematical Practice, and I have even rolled out a student engagement initiative here at my school. We have been implementing ways to help students to experience mathematics from a quality vs. quantity perspective, and teachers are gradually implementing patient problem solving practices into their instruction. The realization that true and meaningful math instruction is more than checking off a list of standards covered is alive and well here at SES. On that note, as I was researching (as I often do), I came across this graphic that another math coach uses to help her teachers to make sense of it all. It is a beautiful illustration, actually, so I thought I would share it. Shout our to Donna Boucher at http://mathcoachscorner.blogspot.com/ You are my hero!

Yummy Math, Lots of Cookies, and My Battle with Sweets...

So...some of my fellow math coaches introduced me to Yummy Math (www.yummymath.com). This site is so cool, and relevant to "The Movement." On the page is a banner that reads, "We provide teachers and students with mathematics relevant to our world today." This site is so good, it's only natural for it to be called "Yummy Math." It is full of math from real places, real people, and real problems (not a factory, or textbook software program). Teachers, parents, and students can access problems by interest, grade level, and by focus. This is exactly the direction we should be tailoring our instruction and learning experiences to. This is good stuff. Yummy, actually.

I have been trying to eat healthier. So I guess it would only be right for me to come across a problem entitled, "A Whole Lot of Cookies."

So, this is how it goes...

Whole Lot of Cookies!

Jennifer Fairbanks from Hopkinton, MA sent a picture of the cookies that she baked in 4 hours using 13 eggs and 5 cups of sugar.

Questions:

1. About how many cookies are there? What techniques did you use for counting the cookies?
2. About how many cookies made per hour?
3. About how many cookies is it possible for her to make per day?
4. How many eggs or how much sugar per cookie?
5. About how much value if sold at a bake sale?
6. About how much profit could we make from a bake sale?

Now CHEW on This... How much more would students benefit from engaging in a problem like this than completing 50 procedural problems from a textbook using algorithms?

Number Talks

Inside Mathematics: Number Talks

Today, we are discussing the power of Number Talks. A key part of "The Movement," Number Talks is growing in momentum and popularity. To me, this is a good thing. Students must learn to engage and critically think about Number in order to acquire true understanding. In their quest for true understanding, communication is key. With Number Talks, students must talk about their thinking, and share their strategies. Yes, the strategies should be theirs. They need to own it. In order for them to internalize the strategies they develop and apply them flexibly in problem solving situations, strategies should come from the students themselves. As a bonafide "control freak," this was hard for me. I wanted total control at all times. However, I am reminded of a saying that comes from a colleague of mine that shares the same last name..."If it is for the children, then make it so. In addition to the video, I have provided a link to Inside Mathematics. It offers a beautiful illustration of Number Talks. Check it out!

My First MOOC, "How to Learn Math"

So, I am starting to engage in a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) at Stanford Univeristy entitled, "How to Learn Math." Jo Boaler, the professor publishes videos, questions, and interactive platforms about the subject matter. I predict a "butterfly effect" to occur, which is a good thing. Today, I watched a video from the MOOC. From it, I learned about a study conducted where certain habits of learners were identified and examined. When solving problems, many low achieving students used counting all and counting on to solve problems. However, most high achieving sudents were able to use numbers more flexibly and apply a variety of strategies to solve problems accurately and efficiently. The power lies in the reality that even though low achieveing students are able to learn and use strategy and numerical flexibility, their support systems are typically based on procedure. What implications does this make about changes that need to be made with the way we remediate and support our students? This disparity also carries over to algegbra. It is documented that many students struggle in "upper mathematics" such as algebra because of a lack of number sense. I agree. As an adult who used to struggle with mathematics, I remember having the most difficulty when I had to remember lots of steps or procedures and not have the ability to apply them. The video compares this type of math to a "never ending ladder." However, I experienced the most successes when I could make sense of what I was doing. My brain was able to internalize, organize,and apply my understandings to a variety of scenarios. There is power in true numerical understanding and flexibility. As a matter of fact, the video calls this type of thought processes as "compression," which is more like a well-organized math triangle. This is powerful.

The Journey Begins...

I am a part of a forward thinking group of math leaders. Currently, we have been issued a challenge...to blog about the "math movement" in a suburban Metro Atlanta County. So, the journey begins...