This is a good explanation of relationships that are NOT proportional and why. The candle problem is a good one--ask students, "How could you turn this into a proportion?" They would want to say that the statement should change to something like "How much candle is burned each hour?"
What a great resource this is! Word problems are often a challenge, but modeling them helps a lot, and Thinking Blocks at Math Playground are an excellent way to model word problems. Sure, drawing pictures can be fun, but sometimes time doesn't allow us to draw detailed pictures. This Singapore math-style of modeling works, and Math Playground did an excellent job with this tool.
Achieve the Core has put together this list of major, supporting, and additional content areas with the key instructional shifts. This is helpful when deciding which areas demand the most attention.
Ohio's Online Resource Center has a very good collection of inquiry-oriented, open-ended math questions that you can choose based upon grade level and topic! The range is from third grade to high school, so finding a quality question that meets your students' needs is easy!
A mathematics consultant created a series of open-ended math questions for elementary through high school. This document has the questions as well as answers and rubrics.
Are your students stressed-out about learning? This article discusses how students learn better when content and activities are relevant to their lives. Very good Edutopia article.
This is an interesting look at how Americans have led the way in developing math instruction but not following through on it (according to the NY Times author).
How can you answer the perennial math question: "Am I ever going to use this in real life?" PBS's "Get the Math" website is a great way to show students how math is used in areas like music, fashion, and video game design. Thanks to Emily B. for sharing this one!
Need a great activity to get your students working on problems while moving about the room? This middle school math activity is explained in a short video, but while the topic is math, you can adapt the exercise to other topics too!
Need some posters that explain the mathematical practices from the Common Core in terms the students can understand? This page has links to displays for grades K-7.