Ms. K
An Effective Tool for Motivating Students to Learn Multiplication Facts
Research shows the best way for students to learn math facts is practicing for about 7 minutes daily. With this in mind, we gave a class of students a teacher made sheet of multiplication facts in which none repeated with the commutative property. So if there was a 2×3 fact on the page, this fact didn’t repeat with a 3×2. We timed the students almost daily beginning with five minutes to complete a page of 66 problems 2’s through 12’s facts. Students would count the number they left blank and that they missed and record this on their page. Then their teacher and students would call out all the answers chorally to check. Next their teacher would record the number students missed on a chart. Every week, after students had felt some success, the time was moved down by 30 seconds until the time was equal to 2 seconds per problem (or 2 minutes and 12 seconds). This method proved to be effective for most students because we encouraged them to get just one more right each time. Below is a picture of the chart which shows students times. Each different colored row is when the time changed which you can see listed at the top of each column. The chart shows a time period of about four weeks. Even if students didn’t make it to the goal of answering each problem within two seconds, they made drastic improvements from their beginning test. Ideally more time would have been spent on practicing, however the end of the year was upon us. I was so proud of these kiddos!
How to Effectively Teach Long Division with One Digit Divisors
A struggle for many students when learning long division is their lack of fluency with multiplication facts. To help students adapt to learning the process of long division, allow them to write their multiples using the divisor in the margin of their paper. This is one less mental process students must go through when solving a long division problem. I have seen this strategy prove effective with students who are emerging in their long division. For an example, when students are solving 84 divided by 3, they can write all of the multiples of 3 down the margin of their papers as a cheat sheet of sorts.
If students use the traditional algorithm, they can immediately look down the list and find that 3×2=6 and 3×3 =9. Since the first digit of 84 is 8, students can look at their list and find that 3×2=6 yields the largest number that will fit into 8 and that 3×3=9 is too large. When subtracting the 6 tens from 84, the difference is 24. Students can look down the multiples list again to see that 3×8 =24 to find the ones place of the divisor. This method of teaching division can be found in Marilyn Burns’ book Extending Division.
Staples Teacher Appreciation Day with Freebies
Staples always has excellent back to school deals for teachers in which they offer free goody bags. This year 2011 will be no different. If you are an early riser, be one of the first 100 teachers to arrive at Staples for a gift bag. There will also be special coupon savings that day. At my store, the Teacher Appreciation Day is Saturday morning August 6th. However, this day may be different in your location. Simply click here to find out what time the Staples Teacher Appreciation Day will be in your area.
Teaching Perception Rather Than Memorization
In Santa Monica, CA at New Roads School, students are testing out a new online program which teaches them to make quick decisions based on their perceptions rather than on the traditional methods of memorization. Students are taught to skim problems for a few key words and then make a decision about the correct answer for a problem. In this way students are able to find patterns and improve their abilities to answer problems. To read more click here.
Where Can You Find Amazing Word Walls?
I just heard some colleagues discussing word walls that come pre-printed with pictures to go with the words. They have math, science, and literacy word walls–all with pictures. I didn’t know how good they were until I clicked the link for myself…and wow! They are fabulous! Just take a look at the pictures. I am attaching a link to the picture so if you are interested in viewing more or purchasing them, just click the picture.
Need Supplies But Don’t Have the Money
Did you run out of pencils? Do you need a piano for your music class? A website–donorschoose.org of which you may have not heard is granting wishes to worthy public school classrooms across the U.S.who are lacking in supplies. Teachers do not have to write grants! All teachers have to do is request the materials needed, send thank you notes, and photographs of the project taking place. Ordinary citizens can donate as little or as much as they want. This website allows many people to donate to one need until that need is filled. Visit the site to see some of the amazing projects that have been fulfilled.
An Answer to Help Students Finish High School
While teaching in a high poverty school and giving students the best education I can with the resources provided , I still wonder if most students will succeed in the midst of their home life with all of its habits and distractions. I have often thought the only way to ensure achievement is to place them in a boarding school atmosphere with the 24-hour support of dedicated professionals to influence good social and educational habits. This is something that also This is an area I have been pondering ever since I watched Waiting for Superman–the documentary. In Washington D.C. and Maryland, charter boarding schools have been developed for under privileged students called SEED schools. These schools have a 91% graduation rate with 95% of these students enrolling in college within 18 months of their graduation. Students who attend these schools are three times as likely to graduate college as their peers from the same neighborhoods. Compare this to a 1998 study done in which only 71% of ALL public school students privileged and underprivileged in the U.S. graduated high school. Since the SEED school concept has shown such a high success rate, the are wanting to spread the SEED schools to other states. If you would like to learn more about the SEED schools or request a SEED school be started in your area you may contact the SEED foundation.
Need Free Clip Art To Spice Up Your Worksheets?
Take a visit to this free clip art website by Lee Hansen to find lots of cute borders, and clip art images. Many of the images are of holiday items. I especially like the borders. The clip art is completely free for classroom use, club use, non profit use, personal use, blogs, or web page articles. The clip art may not be used for commercial use.
Take a Ride with Division
My favorite way to begin teaching division to third graders (or fair shares with younger students) is to read Stuart J. Murphy’s Divide and Ride book. This is a short story about kids who go to an amusement park to ride roller a roller coaster and various other rides. In each scenario of the story different amounts of seats are available with different amounts of children to fill each seat. These scenarios provide a way to discuss division to students. Remainders are even discussed when students must be left off of the ride because there are no more seats. After reading this book, students can use a circle mat or egg carton to represent the rides with counters or beans to represent children on each ride. If you want to be extra cutesy, you can decorate an egg carton like a roller coaster and place puffballs with googly eyes inside to represent students :). For a free CircleMat which is useful for multiplication or division, click the link.
Pi Hoop–Deal or Dud?
After designing a lesson for students to discover pi and trying to collect many sizes of circular containers, I happened across this The Pi Hoop in the ETA/Cuisenaire catalog. Since I order all of the math supplies for my school, I thought, “Wow! At only $4.95 I could order a whole class set”. So I did. When the hoops arrived I was excited since this alleviated having to find multiple containers to teach the discovery pi lesson. On showing them to some teachers at a common planning meeting, I was dismayed to find that the cheap plastic cracked when trying to fold down the ruler part that creates the radius of different circles. If you are gentle with the pi hoops, the concept of the hoop is great because it allows for a discovery lesson–however if an adult was able easily to break the plastic, imagine a class full of kids with the pi hoops in hand. In my opinion, save your money–they may come out with a sturdier version later on. Collect containers for now. An assortment of containers most likely will engage your students more than a plastic hoop anyway.
