The past few years I have become so much more conscientious about not only teaching basic money skills to my second graders, but also teaching the concept of money and saving. I have noticed that these concepts don’t seem to be taught much at home anymore. Sure it’s easy for me to implement a token […]
Mathematics
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Using Literature to Teach Math: Five Great Books to Use in Middle School
I’m always trying to come up with different ways to teach math that will grab the interest of my students. If you’ve ever taught math or been taught math, you know there are some students that just don’t like math, but love reading. So, what if you incorporate literature in math instruction? I’ve got five […]
Posted inMathematics
An Invitation and a Demand for Equity in Mathematics
I heard a refreshing voice today. One that silenced the annoying diatribe I have encountered so many times in the past regarding the mathematics dilemma. (Caution: A moment of personal trajectory coming in 3…2…) As an African-American womyn, I am twice marginalized by the discipline of mathematics, and yet access to it has catapulted me […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Math Education: Why U.S. Students Fall Behind
The failure of math education in the United States has several reasons. After looking at the results of two international tests that we participate in, I can suggest some of the reasons for this problem. The PISA (The Programme for International Student Assessment) and TIMSS (Third International Mathematics and Science Study) are international tests that […]
Posted inInstructional Strategies
How to Apply The New American Lecture to Mathematics
While it is important to gain the attention of students through activities that create opportunities for learning, sometimes lectures are necessary to help students connect prior knowledge to what they need to learn, and the New American Lecture is designed to teach students in a way that provides them with opportunities to interact with the […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Differentiated Assessments in the Inclusion Classroom and Beyond
A great way to begin a discussion on differentiated assessments is to answer, “What does the word assessment mean to you?” This question holds a lot of meaning for a lot of different people. For some teachers, assessment means giving students quizzes and tests. For others, it means much more. In order to determine how […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Unit Fractions: A Math Teacher’s Grand Slam!
As I slowly walked down the hallway to my classroom I told myself, “Last school year was a complete disaster but this year is going to be different!” If I could paint a picture of the students that I had last year, it would look like a scene from Major Payne. Every morning when I […]
Posted inSpecial Education
My Math Learning Disability: A Student Perspective
As a student with a math learning disability, there are a lot of difficulties I experience in the classroom that get in the way of my learning, including “memory, language, attention, temporal-sequential ordering, higher order cognition, and spatial ordering” (WGBH Educational Foundation, 2002). Many times, as I sit in the classroom, I feel like I […]