I am actually writing this blog for our Green Hills Math Team. I may write for a while using everyone's ideas but we may have guest writers along the way. If you find this enlightening you may want to write for this audience as well.
I am going to try to give short insights into my new learning for the week. Targeting 3 topics I am always interested in learning more about.
- One, technology use in the classroom. Not the gimmicky stuff we see sometimes but the true use of technology that pushes student to think deeply about mathematics or gives good practice with immediate feedback.
- Two, a user friendly version of the Common Core Math Standards. I work with many teachers that avoid reading and understanding the standards for a variety of reasons. I want to have a place to help teachers support ALL students in reaching high levels of mathematics.
- Three, learn more about teaching students who struggle. This needs to include screening and diagnostic assessment and research based instructional strategies for struggling students.
One: Math Planet. This is a free app for kids. I recommend this app because it uses a number line (battleship line) and visual representations for numbers (whole and fraction). My own children are also getting good at telling time because of the practice and immediate feedback. You will want to download each grade level planet because you get more levels.
Two: Kansas Flipbooks for each grade level make it much easier to understand the Common Core standards. Other resources can be found on our Math Team site under Iowa Core Supports.
Three: This can be used to start the year off....Connie Terry and I hosted a math camp for girls entering 6-8th grade. This camp was held at UNI this summer for 1 week. We used material from Stanford Professor Jo Boaler and saw growth results like we had never seen. She has not only created materials for her summer camp, she also makes many of these resources available at youcubed.org. Many are found within Week of Inspirational Math and her free online course "How to Learn Math: for students"
You maybe asking what does this have to do with strugglers? Well, research tells us that 1 of 8 factors that contribute to success or failure of struggling learners is motivation. Meaning if kids are motivated to work hard and make it through the struggle they will succeed. So Jo Boaler has taken Carol Dweck's research and laid it along side of mathematics. The first three lessons in her free course take growth mindset straight on. We had students watch these videos independently, answer the "quizzes" within the course individually and THEN did a small group processing activity. The results were amazing. We learned lots more from our work with these girls that we will highlight throughout this blog.
Two: Kansas Flipbooks for each grade level make it much easier to understand the Common Core standards. Other resources can be found on our Math Team site under Iowa Core Supports.
Three: This can be used to start the year off....Connie Terry and I hosted a math camp for girls entering 6-8th grade. This camp was held at UNI this summer for 1 week. We used material from Stanford Professor Jo Boaler and saw growth results like we had never seen. She has not only created materials for her summer camp, she also makes many of these resources available at youcubed.org. Many are found within Week of Inspirational Math and her free online course "How to Learn Math: for students"
You maybe asking what does this have to do with strugglers? Well, research tells us that 1 of 8 factors that contribute to success or failure of struggling learners is motivation. Meaning if kids are motivated to work hard and make it through the struggle they will succeed. So Jo Boaler has taken Carol Dweck's research and laid it along side of mathematics. The first three lessons in her free course take growth mindset straight on. We had students watch these videos independently, answer the "quizzes" within the course individually and THEN did a small group processing activity. The results were amazing. We learned lots more from our work with these girls that we will highlight throughout this blog.
We collected pre and post profile data using Brainology's work found here. Like we said, "we couldn't believe the results"!
If you try this in your classroom let us know how it goes in the comments below. WE can trouble shoot problem areas as a team.
If you try this in your classroom let us know how it goes in the comments below. WE can trouble shoot problem areas as a team.
