We Play Math!: Welcome!

Check out this new blog by our Math Coach, Lorinda Kline. Share this link with parents an others who are interested in understanding our adoption of Singapore Math - Math in Focus.

We Play Math!: Welcome!: "Dear parents and community members, This is the newest development in an ongoing effort to improve communication and collaboration in our p..."

Extra Guided Practice Fraction Word Problems for 5th Grade Model Drawing

Fraction Word Problems 1. Muriel read 5/8 of a book on Monday and 1/4 of the remainder on Tuesday. If she read 60 pages on Monday, how many more pages did she read on Monday than on Tuesday?

2. Henry has 70 balloons. 1/10 of them are green, and 3/5 of them are orange. What is the difference between the number of orange and green balloons Henry has?

3. Kim has 45 picture books. 1/9 of them are mysteries. 3/9 of them are animal
stories. The rest of them are nonfiction. How many more nonfiction books does Kim have than the total of mysteries and animal stories?

The American Math Challenge starts today!

 The American Math Challenge is held on these days. It is not too late to get your students involved. It's free!

Harrison 4th grade students test their math skills in the American Math Challenge. 

Lorinda Kline works with a 4th grade student during the American Math Challenge.

Edutopia News / October 20, 2010

There are some great math tips in this edition of Edutopia Magazine.
Check it out!

Edutopia News / October 20, 2010

24 Model Drawing Problems

Here is a copy of an email you should have received from Lorinda.  It is a PDF file so you should be able to save it to a resource folder of your choice.  

Teachers,

I wanted to pass on to you a handout from the 2009 North Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference has 24 word problems that increase in complexity from #1 to #24. They would make very good extra guided practice problems for Model Drawing as you go through the year. Take a look at which problems would work with your grade level and begin a bit easier to learn the structure if you haven’t already.

Sixth grade teachers have been included in order to see an overview of the principals behind Singapore mathematics and the Model Drawing problem solving approach. These 24 problems would be a wonderful supplement to your resources, too.

First, learn the structure with the easier problems and then progress to solving quite difficult word problems using the structure as a tool.

Have a great fall break,

Lorinda Kline

My favorite interactive sites

A few have asked about my favorite interactive sites.  Here they are.  Some sites have great activities in other content areas.  Please add your favorites to the list.

Cool Math I (ages 3-12)

Cool Math II (ages 13-100)

Sheppard Software (all ages & abilities)  Mimio friendly!

Internet4Classrooms (multi-age skill-builders)

That Quiz  (adaptable skill practice)

Interactive Math Library

Math Buddies - Bridging the Gap

A Harrison 4th grader coaches a 2nd grade student in using digital base 10 blocks to represent a number.

A Harrison fourth grader uses linking blocks to help a second grader learn counting-on.

Deb McClintock closes the 2nd/4th grade Math Buddies lesson with a 

picture book story illustrating odd and even numbers.

A Reading Buddies program is being effectively used at Harrison, so Deb McClintock and Rick Glass came up with the idea of starting Math Buddies.   They are combining their 2nd and 4th grade classes for weekly joint lessons.  The students are using their time together to share what they are studying in Math. They are solving Math problems as they work one to one and in small groups.  The students also use maniplulatives and the interactive white board to demonstrate what they are learning.  The teachers believe that this time together is well-spent.  The second graders are learning from their peers as well as their teacher and the fourth graders are reinforcing their skills by teaching them to others.

Playing to learn math

"Playing to Learn Math," is a Prezi presentation by Maria Anderson.  When you visit this site, be sure to check out the other presentations she has created.  There is "Play to Learn Math v2," as well as one titled "Playing to Learn" and one to "Future-Proof Your Education."

Math is not linear

"Math is Not Linear" is a Prezi presentation by Alison Blank.  Her presentation is a thoughtful follow-up to our earlier post on "Rediscovering the Beauty of a Triangle in a Square," and the embedded article, "Lockhart's Lament."  Prezi is a non-linear presentation tool that is free for teachers.

"That was the best Math lesson ever." Phillip C.

At the risk of sounding hokey, I need to share a bit about today's Math lesson.  But first, I need to back up a bit.  In the middle of the day, we took the Acuity Mathematics assessment.  Most of my kids finished the hour-long test in about 20 minutes.  My discouragement was somewhat tempered by the fact that some of them took time to review their original answers.  Then, I looked at their scores.  Discouragement came rushing back.

We left the computer lab and returned to the classroom.  I wanted to deride them for not using the test-taking strategies I had laboriously presented.  I wanted to berate them for the poor scores I was noting from the Acuity report as they relaxed with a library book.  Unable to choose a course of action, I sent them out to recess.

While they were outside, I glanced through my earlier post, Rediscovering the Beauty of a Triangle in a Square.  I wondered what purpose a rant on my students would effectively serve.  I wondered if I could rediscover the beauty of numbers and their patterns I enjoyed when I was a fourth grader.

My students returned from their recess.  They sensed that I was either upset or otherwise distracted.  I stood for several long minutes.  The silence intensified everyone's expectations.  I finally handed a marker to a student and instructed him to write "72" on the board.  I stared at it.  The room fell silent once more.  I called on another student to apply a number bond.  He properly added an eight and a nine.
We added more.  Some came up with the idea of using a multiplication table to help.  Still others decided that just because they couldn't fine part of a number bond on the table, it didn't mean their ideas were incorrect.

While questioning the reasoning of their choices, we found ourselves in an animated discussion of even and odd numbers.  They began writing rules for working with them after they discovered even numbers plus even numbers equaled even numbered answers.  They followed that by realizing with a bit of amazement that odd numbers plus odd numbers equaled even numbers, too.  Imagine their astonishment when they proved to themselves that odd numbers plus even numbers would result in odd numbered answers.  Each student scribbled furiously to prove ideas and present them to classmates.

I "suggested" the relationship between addition and multiplication.  More brain synapses began to fire as a few began to realize their theories about odd and even numbers might apply there as well.  It was nearly time for busses to be called when I said that I would love to see an encore performance tomorrow.  A student asked what "encore" was and one of my ESL girls began to clap as I tried to answer.  More kids started clapping.  They stood.  They cheered.  They wanted to know if we could do Math first tomorrow.

I sent them home still laughing and applauding.  One of them turned and came back to me.  It was the boy who wrote "72" on the board an hour earlier.  He hugged me and looked up and into my eyes.  He said, " Mr. Glass, I never liked Math until today.  That was the best Math lesson ever.  Thanks."

I'm still trying to sort out what happened.  For that one precious hour, my students and I were completely in synch with each other.  I did very little talking.  When I did, it was to pose scenarios, to speculate about possibilities.  I hope I can recapture the experience, push the buttons that get them thinking and wondering.  I hope for an encore.

Rediscovering the Beauty of a Triangle in a Square

Do you have an "intellectual relationship" with your students? Read this blog post by Miguel Guhlin.

Rediscovering the Beauty of a Triangle in a Square

New puzzles from KenKen

KenKen, "The puzzle that makes you smarter." has shared some free puzzles for you to play with and share with your students.  Enjoy them here.

The American Math Challenge

Fun way for students to work on their mathematical fluency!
Practice begins on Oct. 18. The competition is from Oct. 26 at 8 A.M. until
Oct. 27 at 11 P.M. Students will compete with others from all over the USA in
real time. To learn more and register your class go to the link.

Get on the Mathtrain

Eric Marcos has a nice learning site going using podcasts to deliver his lessons.  I appreciate his use of technology to share his teaching.  Go to the iTunes store for a free subscription to the podcasts, subscribe via RSS, or simply bookmark the Mathtrain site.  He also has a site called Mathtrain TV.  Much more is available there.  You can follow him on Twitter as well.  The podcasts are short, sweet, and to the point.  They make great supplements to your lessons.

10-Frame online activity

During our Math in Focus conferences at Claypool, we learned about using 10-Frame as a teaching tool.  Illuminations has a great interactive 10-Frame activity tool you can use with your students.

NCTM president says it is time to stamp out the phrase, "I'm bad at math."

Collaborating toward Excellence

Teachers:

It has been a joy to become a part of your classrooms these last few weeks. Please continue to invite me in for math chats,visits, and/or to model a lesson. Don't expect me to sit back and just observe when I visit, I will dive right in with you to help students in whatever capacity necessary.

Last week, twenty of your colleagues came together in grades two through five to determine the best course of action in mathematics for this year. We are ahead of the state with Math in Focus because we are already addressing the Common Core Standards. However, the 2000 Indiana Standards are still the focus of ISTEP+ this year, so we felt it necessary to look for any gaps and give teachers a guide to how to proceed. The twenty teachers below worked diligently to find all target areas in the quarterly mappings from the state. Each grade has a longer document that will be emailed soon that shows where each target area is in Math in Focus or if it is missing. Although the document has excellent information, it is a bit cumbersome to be used as a guide. The teachers came back the second  day (unbelievably) and put together a compact plan to give direction for us all in this year of transition.  A tremendous thank you to the team that represented you so well:

2nd Grade:  
Tiffany Cooksey
Pam Brail
Deb DeMuth
Emily Hornaday
Neena Kishan

3rd Grade:
Julie Bishopp
Becky Brodhead
Paula Hunter
Barb Bean
Julie Martin

4th Grade:
Henry Zehr
Michelle Little
Rick Glass
Stacy Huffer
Marc Andrews

5th Grade:
Dennis Allison
David Wayne
Tori Reneker
Ann Sibray
Sarah Ashton

At this point these documents have most likely been given to you by your building team member. We wanted you to have electronic copies as well, so they are attached.

These teachers also benefitted from discussing math with their fellow professionals across buildings. Next week, we will all have this opportunity during the grade level trainings at Claypool Elementary. Monday: 1st grade, Tuesday: 2nd grade, Wednesday: 3rd grade, Thursday: Kindergarten and 5th grade, and Friday: 4th grade. Please bring your teacher editions if at all possible. We will start at 8:30 and end at 3:30 and break for lunch from 11:30 to 12:30. 

Lunch is a great chance to learn and laugh with each other. The Homestead Restaurant nearby is opening their doors to us for the week and offering 3 special buffet style options. The menu is found in the attached image. We hope you are able to join us for lunch and another hour of growing together as a grade level mathematics team. 

We truly are better together and with that spirit Rick Glass has started a Math in Focus math blog. You can access it at school at http://wcsmath.blogspot.com/ . We are continually adding information at this one site from videos of lessons to links on how to use your ebook and sometimes pure inspiration to remind you that what you do every day matters mightily. This is a medium in which we can consult with each other continually to improve our craft. 

Join us for a day of learning at Claypool, a country lunch and fellowship time, and high tech interaction all year long.

I look forward to spending time with you next week! 

Lorinda

U.S. schools adopt Singapore Math

Here is another article that describes the growing adoptions of the Math in Focus program.

U.S. schools adopt Singapore Math

Making Math Lessons as Easy as1, Pause, 2, Pause ...

For me, the worst part of a field trip can be the bus ride.  The students were quiet, thoroughly engaged in their iPods, DSi's, and Game Boys.  Lacking the opportunity for intelligent conversation, I checked my Twitter Feed on my phone.  A member of my Professional Learning Network linked this post about Singapore Math she found in the New York Times.  I found the direct link so you can see the article on your school computer.  Please check it out and share your thoughts.