Group items tagged

"Inside Mathematics provides a resource for educators around the world who struggle to provide the best mathematics instruction they can for their students. Too often, teachers who excel at reaching students have few ways of sharing these strong practices with others - and teachers who struggle, struggle alone. Our classroom doors have remained closed too often and for too long. Inside Mathematics opens those doors: to tested demonstration lessons presented to children and groups of observing teachers; to guided tours of reflective mathematics practice, identifying what makes teaching, learning, and improving instruction in mathematics a difficult enterprise and providing resources for teachers to improve their practice; to mathematics teaching and learning tools and resources to support classroom teachers', math coaches', and administrators' daily practices; and to a professional learning community in which you are invited to open your own classroom door and engage in conversation about your own mathematics teaching and learning. This initiative grew out of the Noyce Foundation's Silicon Valley Mathematics Initiative. SVMI is based on high performance expectations, ongoing professional development, examining student work, and improved math instruction. The initiative includes a formative and summative performance assessment system, pedagogical content coaching, and leadership training and networks. Coaches in SVMI learn strategies of re-engagement with students around mathematics assessments, and demonstration lessons on re-engagement are featured here."

"In a digital world where we can easily "find an app for that" to help solve many problems, rarely do teachers have a one stop shopping place for all their classroom digital needs. There are many individual tools that can aid a teacher in retrieving student's digital work, polling/quizzing students or assigning work, but each of these tools usually requires a separate account. However, there is one, free, Web 2.0 app that brings everything together that you need for your classroom, including a social learning environment. The app that does all of this is called Edmodo. Here are just a few features that make Edmodo so great for teachers and students:"

In some sense, all of maths should come under the label "logic", but mathematical logic has shown that mathematics isn't entirely logical. Makes sense? If not, then this teacher package may help.

Division of Fractions e-book

Several teachers, in the US and Australia, have asked us for assistance in teaching division of fractions.

My colleague Catherine Pearn (University of Melbourne) and I have written a short account of division of  fractions, aimed at teachers. Version 1.0  is freely available here:   Division_of_Fractions_Davis_&_Pearn

"Looking around, there are lots of activities for collecting and analysing data using small boxes of Smarties. Here is my version. The package includes three worksheets to scaffold the collection and representation of data: Collecting Data - this is where the student collects their individual data and records the whole classes data. Collecting Data 2 - students take the whole class data and display in Frequency Distribution Tables. Representing Data - from the Frequency Distribution Tables, students create Frequency Histograms and Polygons. The Excel file is used by the teacher, on a projector/IWB, to collect the data in the class. It allows the teacher to collect the raw data and represent in Frequency Distribution Tables. "

"Welcome to Inside Mathematics, a professional resource for educators passionate about improving students' mathematics learning and performance. This site features classroom examples of innovative teaching methods and insights into student learning, tools for mathematics instruction that teachers can use immediately, and video tours of the ideas and materials on the site. We are glad you're here and look forward to learning with you! News - Inside Mathematics is aligning its resources with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics."

"Students often forget geometric language they learned in earlier grades The meaning - precise or vague - of words such as parallelogram, rhombus, angle bisector, acute angle, escape them. They have not learned to talk "geometry". But the language is only a small part of the issue. Much harder is that their teacher is almost certainly thinking about geometry in ways they cannot imagine: they cannot know what they do not know."

"What does it take to learn the Index Laws? Surprisingly little if you (i) can fold a piece of paper (ii) can multiply by two. I first observed my head teacher do a version of this lesson last year with his Year 7 class, and had the joy of doing a more advanced version with my Year 9 this year. I have a feeling the idea goes back to the dawn of maths teaching, but I haven't seen a resource explaining it, so thought it would be fun to share my take on it."

Free Fractions Tools. These interactive, visual fractions tools are ideal for teacher-facilitated, whole-class instruction in fractions, "Number Talks" and for parents supporting their students at home. Each math tool is supported by Common Core State Standards alignment, key vocabulary, and IEP goals.

"Students need many concrete experiences with fractions to develop a deep understanding of the three models of fractions: area, linear and set models. Teachers need to address all three models in well-designed instructional activities so that students develop a rich concept of fractions that they can use to make sense of numbers, operations, measurement and probability. "

A new online resource will help teachers identify areas they may choose to focus on as they become familiar with the Australian Curriculum for English, mathematics, science and history. This advisory support resource provides an overview of each Australian Curriculum area and makes clear the key differences between the K-10 Syllabus and the content (descriptions) of the new curriculum.