In a training today, I learned about sentence frames. These are helpful for English language learners, and also native speakers, to develop understanding of math concepts by filling in a statement with blanks in it. In researching this further, I came across a wiki that contains a number of sentence frames for various California math […]
For my educator friends and colleagues, I have added a new multiplication chart lesson plan, complete with reproducible handouts, to TeachersPayTeachers.com. It is free to download and use. It can be used in a classroom, in a homeschooling setting, or in a special needs or remedial context. The lesson is aligned to the Common Core […]
Teachers in my math workshops like me to share some multiplication and factoring tips I teach my students. These help with number sense as well. I hope they can be useful for you too. Tips for Multiplying Whole Numbers Times 2: Double the number. If multiplying by 2, the result will always be even. Times […]
On Friday, my young writers and I had a Thank Goodness It’s Over party to celebrate our accomplishments during the month. The TGIO party is a well-established tradition for any NaNoWriMo group. I have always used it to showcase and celebrate each individual child’s writing. We met at a family’s home, and each child had […]
Today is Wednesday, December 1, and November is finally over. All of the students in my program, Your Greatest Writing Adventure Ever, achieved their goals of writing a story in the month. The word count goals ranged from 1,500 to 4,700 words, and their ages ranged from seven to ten. What an amazing accomplishment! Not […]
Imagine my delight today to find out from one of my young writers that my students’ anthology from last year had been featured on the NaNoWriMo Young Writers’ Program blog in late October. I’m kind of surprised we didn’t hear about it sooner, but it’s inspiring to discover it now, since so many of us […]
The more I travel and meet people, the more I find that most adults in the US have difficulty with math. I read a comment by a woman from Eastern Europe who found that while she was a mediocre math student in her home country, she was miles ahead of American students when she moved […]
I was at the Westchester County Airport this morning, in the women’s room, when a woman and I started a conversation over soap. The topic soon changed to bathroom decor, which we discussed for a few minutes before wishing each other well. Then the woman walked out, and I was able to see her gait. […]
Yesterday was the first day of NaNoWriMo, and it began with a bang. My group has seven bright, eager children in it, and we all dove in to our writing projects yesterday. Prior to that, we had a couple of meetings in which we worked on character development, understanding what plot is, setting expectations, and […]
About two weeks ago, a post titled “Singapore Math Is ‘Our Dirty Little Secret’” appeared on the Core Knowledge blog. It criticized the New York Times article about Singapore Math that appeared on October 1. Apparently, the author believes that the poor state of math education in the US is due to what he calls […]