This is an excellent resource for Math teachers in all grade levels and topic areas. Mathalicious helps engage students in the study of math because it uses problems that are related and relevant to students lives. There are some really great ideas in here, along with sample lesson plans, teaching worksheets, and step by step guides. For a great overview of Mathalicious, click the link and watch the short video.
From Education Week:
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/sarameads_policy_notebook/2011/05/karim_kai_ani_founder_mathalicious.html
"Mathalicious builds high-quality, standards-based math lessons designed to transform how students learn math, and how teachers teach it."
"Mathalicious is rewriting middle school math around real-world topics that students care about, from sports to music to technology. By contextualizing math for their students and making math real, teachers can cover more material in less time, and with better results."
From iPad Apps for School:
"Marble Math is a fun mathematics game for kids to play on their iPads. The game has students practice basic multiplication problems through a maze layout. Students are given multiplication problems to solve by rolling their marbles through mazes that contain the correct answers. Students have to avoid the incorrect answers while moving their marbles toward the correct answers. Some of the mazes contain additional obstacles to avoid while searching for the correct answer. Students earn points for each maze they solve. When they reach 2,000 points (ten-fifteen correctly solved mazes) students earn a new marble."
From MathFlix's homepage:
"1000 FREE instructional math movies covering a wide range of math concepts including Number & Operations, Algebra, Measurement, Geometry, Data Analysis & Probability, Connections and Technology. In addition to MathFLIX's valuable video resources, the site also features 400 downloadable worksheets that reinforce concepts and provide valuable practice."
Videos are created by Loyola University Chicago School of Education and "NCTM (National Council for Teachers of Mathematics) Standards."
"Edutopia.org's Director of Video Programming, Zachary Fink, interviews UC Berkeley professor Dor Abrahamson about how to increase students' understanding of math."
From Apple App Store:
"With Numerosity, children will experiment with numbers and operations to develop their creativity with math. They'll move numbers around, dragging them into different positions to perform different operations so as to discover the rules of math on their own at their own pace."
Apps: Linear Program Plotter, Vernier Physics, DataAnalysis
Teacher: Jennie Howell
Jennie's used the iPads and several math specific apps with her Algebra 2 classes to graph linear programming models and find the equation of quadratic models. Read her documentation to learn more.
From Mathination:
"Mathination introduces a revolutionary new way of solving math problems on the iPad by simply touching them. Rearrange terms by dragging; simplify expressions by squeezing; and multiply them out by stretching. Enter any algebra problem from any textbook and solve it with Mathination. Just type in the problem using Mathination's specialized math keyboard."
From Apple App Store:
"Mathination also includes a library of sample problems covering basic algebra, polynomials, factoring, and rational expressions."
From Apple App Store:
"MathStudio is the most comprehensive math app available for iPhone and iPad. Whether you need a simple calculator to do your finances or a replacement for your TI graphing calculator, MathStudio is the most powerful and versatile calculator available on the App Store."
"By working together on problem sets in math and sharing their perspectives in roundtable discussions in English, students at The College Preparatory School are making collaboration the driving force in their learning."
Some great examples of collaboration -- both in practice and theory.
Excellent article about 6th grade math students using iPads, along with Explain Everything and Book Creator apps, to produce "iBooks on solving One-Step Equations."
From Red Jumper (app developer):
"The simple way to create beautiful books on your iPad. Read them in iBooks, send them to your friends, or submit them to Apple's iBookstore."
Watch this 3 minute video to learn about how you gear more of your in class instructional time towards helping students learning important course specific content, concepts, and skills. Even though this video is done using a high school math classroom, there are helpful ideas here for all subject areas.
Great article about the role blogs can play in improving students writing ability.
"I believe it's important for students to have their writing read by more people than just their teacher. When they know that their families, their classmates, and people from around the world can read what they write, the impact is measurable. Students pay closer attention to everything from the mechanics of writing to word choice to structure to clarity."
Excellent article about why emphasizing effort and behavior qualities has a powerful impact on student learning, motivation, and attitudes towards school.
A concise look at the role homework may play in student learning and academic achievement. Two key quotes:
"Our results hint that maybe homework is not being used as well as it could be," Maltese said.
"The results from this study imply that homework should be purposeful," Tai said, "and that the purpose must be understood by both the teacher and the students."
From Infotopia:
"Infotopia is an academic search engine accessing only trusted websites previously selected by librarians, teachers, and library and educational consortia. Infotopia is recommended for students, teachers, and especially, homeschoolers. Infotopia was created by, and is maintained by, Dr. Michael Bell, former chair, Texas Assocition of School Librarians, and Carole Bell, former middle school librarian and director of libraries."