sutton034

     We are less than a week away from the launch of our new book study of Minds on Mathematics .  I had a few minutes today to dig into the book and wanted to share some of my thoughts about the introduction.   Why Don't We Get Math? -Cultural: It's Okay Not to Get It    This is the one I see the most in my school and in my life.  I see over and over again an acceptance among adults that math is hard and it is okay not to get it.  I know of several well educated adults who almost brag that their fifth grader does math they don't understand.  I have never heard a well educated adult bragging that they couldn't read at a fifth grade level.  As the author states, "this social acceptance of mathematical illiteracy is a huge barrier to our children's progress and preparation for life beyond our classrooms."  - Pedagogical: Math is Memorizing     When I was in elementary school math was all about memorizing.  The pare...

   I spend a lot of time in grades 3-5 working on developing strategies for comparing fractions.  I have written before about the 5 strategies my students use to compare fractions.  I also shared my favorite free computer game for kids who are working on fluency with comparing simple fractions.  Today I was working with an intervention group of fifth graders and had a few minutes at the end of our session.  I knew that I needed something quick and fun so I grabbed my regular old deck of playing cards.      We split the deck and each flipped two cards and made a fraction.  The first card flipped became the numerator and the second card the denominator.  This allowed us to make all kinds of fractions.   The person with the largest fraction won all of the cards.  Some of our fractions were less than one, some were equal to one and some were more than 1.  It was a great way for students to practice comparing fractions. ...

How is your professional reading coming?  Mine has taken a big hit over the past few months.  I find I am most inspired when I am reading a really good teaching book and have been putting it on the back burner for way to long.  I have been keeping up with my monthly issues of Teaching Children Mathematics and a few of my favorite teaching blogs but haven't had my nose in a really good math book in almost 3 months!  Last year, I read 14 professional books that I can remember and this year I am at 0.  With that in mind, I am putting my professional reading on the top of my priority list.  I think the end part of the school year is a great time to read a new book and try new things.  It is the time of year I sometime struggle with finding the joy in teaching and it is easy to get bogged down in testing and administrative tasks.  Reading a good book keeps me motivated!  Chatting with all of you about what I am reading really keeps me motivated an...

The countdown to Easter (and the spring testing season) has begun!  Today, I planned a quick little project with a group of 10 second graders that was super engaging and a great way to practice estimating, counting, comparing numbers and early division concepts. It all started with little Dixie Cups of jelly beans (I used these ones ).  I put the kids in 3 groups.  I gave each group a little cup of jelly beans and posted these directions on the SMART board. Want to try this with your students? Grab these directions from Google Drive . Two of my groups had 3 kids in them and one group had 4 kids.  I gave the groups with 3 kids 45 jelly beans and the group with 4 kids 60 jelly beans.   I have really been working on independence with these kids and tried my best to step back and observe and not take over!   I saw so many things that made my math heart happy! Kids organizing and recording estimates One group organized all their beans by color and then decided ...