This summer I gave a three-hour workshop on Singapore Math model drawing at the NCTM Illuminations Institute in Reston, VA. This was a fun workshop with a great group of people, and we accomplished a lot of model drawing practice and understanding. I was pleased to see recently that the workshop received a couple of mentions on the web. One is on the thinkfinity site, which is run by Verizon and which I first joined after attending ISTE 2011. The other is from one of the participants, who wrote a blog post mentioning it. If you are interested in seeing…
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ISTE 2011 is up and running, and it’s huge! Look for me there with Conceptua Math at booth 2852 on Wednesday morning before and after our session. I will also be presenting with Arjan Khalsa, the CEO and founder, at this session:
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Singapore Math is a rising trend in math education in schools and with homeschoolers, for the simple reason that it works. As an experienced Singapore Math teacher and trainer, I often get the question, “Which Singapore Math series should I use?” This question is posed by both teachers and homeschooling parents, and as more series enter the market, the choice becomes more challenging. In this article, I will present the pros and cons of each current series as I see them. Please feel free to contribute your views in the comments below. Singapore Math, US Edition, published by Marshall-Cavendish: This edition…
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MSNBC ran a piece on May 3 about third-grade students learning math using Singapore Math. This report outlines the importance of model drawing for problem solving, and of parent understanding to be on board with it. The report is well done, except it gives the mistaken impression that the only thing that makes Singapore Math unique is the model drawing approach. I used to think that too, but now I know better; developing number bond-based numeracy is at least as essential, as are other elements of the curriculum. View the video below: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and…
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I’m so inspired about a new tool to enhance math education. A friend sent me the link to a TED talk (embedded at the bottom of this post) showing the evolution of the Khan Academy into something truly useful for – well, for just about anybody. I had come across the Khan videos some time ago, and I thought they were useful and well designed to teach more advanced concepts. Since they were not necessarily pertinent to my work, though, I didn’t return to them. Then I saw this video, and how the Khan Academy has evolved, and I got…
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And now for something completely different! When I am not exploring math education or writing fiction, I love to make things. This includes everything from cooking to needle felting to making jewelry. So when instructables.com opened their Pi Day pie contest, I had to enter. Creating my entry required a great deal of calculation, from halving or quartering recipes to guesstimating how long it would take to bake this unique cookie, cake, and ice cream pie. Fortunately, I’ve had lots of experience with estimation, and I couldn’t have hoped for this pie to turn out better. My friends who shared…
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Yesterday was March 14, or 3/14, or Pi Day. It’s a great day to celebrate the circle, and that most extraordinary number, pi. With my second grade math club, I did several activities on my new teacher download, Pi Day Activities. These included cutting a circle, measuring a circle, and eating pie. We didn’t have enough time to play Pi Tag, though I’m sure we’ll be doing that one week soon! I also created a poster showing almost 1,500 digits of pie. You can download it for free either from my site or from my TeachersPayTeachers.com link. Happy Pi Day!
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A Delaware school district has successfully implemented Singapore Math, raising enjoyment, understanding, and test scores. This article describes their success. Here is one example: Mount Pleasant Elementary Principal Joyce Skrobot did not need to be convinced to add Singapore math to the curriculum. Her school piloted the program over the past four years in some second-grade classes, and, on state tests, they outperformed the classes that did not use the math, she said. “It really establishes a strong foundation of math skills with a lot of repetition,” she said. “It’s a very concrete approach to teaching.” The district plans to…
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Here is an excellent video demonstrating how ten frames can be used to develop number sense. The video shows progression from counting-on with touching, or the concrete stage, to the pictorial stage of being able to look at ten frames and see how many dots are present. Early in the video, it says the child is a kinesthetic learner, which may be true, but touching the objects is a natural early stage for anyone. So touching the objects doesn’t necessarily mean the child is a kinesthetic learner, but they may be at the concrete stage of learning a certain concept.…
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If you’re going to tell triangle jokes, you should do them in threes, right? So here’s the third one, also original: Q: Which triangles are the best conversationalists? A: The acute ones. The others are either too obtuse or always right. (That one got a laugh today!)
