Collaboration

       I could write about so many teaching topics that deal with collaboration. Having a student teacher and being in an inclusion classroom means that I collaborate constantly. And, it's beautiful. It's great. No one knows everything, so when more than one person is involved with a lesson or idea, amazing things can come out of it.
      Here is one example of how collaboration creates great outcomes: Last week, the special education teacher, student teacher and myself came up with a math lesson involving vocabulary word riddles. The students chose a math word that we have gone over in class, and with scaffolding, created a 5 line riddle about the word. Then, they had to demonstrate their understanding of the word by creating a real life picture. Finally, they took a digital picture. This is an example of what the finished product looks like.

Here are clues about this student's math word.

Here is this student's picture and word.

Here is the bulletin board we created.

 Observing the students figure out how to demonstrate understanding of their word was fascinating. I loved watching their thinking and creativity. This is what you might have seen if you stopped into room 206 on Friday.

 

While I'm on the subject of Math...

Usually I do not blog in the middle of the week, but due to the copius amounts of snow that is plummeting outside, I decided to take some time to catch up on work and write a blog post.

This Friday, I will be presenting at WSD's best practices inservice on integrating web resources into lessons to make them more engaging. In the session, the participants will also be creating a Delicious Account in order to book mark great sites that they come across. Having a Delicious account has really allowed me to search for sites when I have the time, and gather the sites easily, when I need them.

Anyway, here is one site I came across a bit ago and was a huge hit in my class. It's called 3DStarmattica and the students "travel" to various places around the world to find hidden polyhedrons. My kids love this because not only are they learning polyhedrons' features, they are learning geography. Cross-curricular learning is powerful because it allows the students to make connections.

Happy Snow Day everyone!

Music and Multiplication

It's not too much fun memorizing multiplication facts! Flash cards work for some, but not all. So, I was on a search for fun ways for my students to learn their multiplication facts! I came across this video on square numbers. What a great find! I have used this video as an activator to several math lessons. The kids come to the carpet with a whiteboard and marker. The first two times I showed this video, I asked them to write down words or phrases that helped them understand the meaning of a square number. The following two times, they wrote down square number equations that they saw on the video.

Music WORKS! I hear my kids singing the song throughout the day, which means they are learning their facts. Here is a picture of my students in action!

Math Standards and Technology

On my search for engaging math activities, I came across this site. What is so great about it is that it is categorized by each math standard/strand(K-2 and 3-5) Here is an example of one activity that is found under the Geometry strand that would be a great activator. Others are great for centers or guided instructions like this one. I plan to use some of these activities during math workshop time on Friday, where 2 people at a time will be at the Smartboard.

I found many other sites and bookmarked them on Delicious.

Happy New Year!

Wow! Look at this Interactive Math Site!!

I decided that if I follow other educators' blogs/bookmarks, I will learn more about what is out there on the web. Today, I found this site. All you have to do is register and install Silverlight 3.0 (you'll be prompted) and you get access to a multitude of interactive math lessons/games for a variety of age levels! I can see myself using this as an activator of a lesson or as review/remediation for a flex group.

This might make my life easier.

I love when that happens.

Let me know what you think!