• Articles - Singapore Math - US Education - Writing

    Bar Modelling For Two Types of Division

    December 4, 2018 - By 

    Many people aren’t aware that there are two different types of division. Even if you search the web, only one type mostly comes up. It’s the type we learn first: that when we share one quantity, we split it into equal parts. This is partitive division, or dividing a quantity into parts. When we divide a whole amount, partitive division tells us how many items there are in each group. Let’s look at a couple of examples. Jeanine bought 24 buns for a party. She wanted to put an equal amount on each of 6 tables.How many buns should she…

  • Common Core - Math Education - Math facts - Multiple Intelligences - Singapore Math - Special Needs - Teaching

    Math Doubles and Squares Fun Time

    June 23, 2016 - By 

    If you teach math, or want to enrich your children’s understanding of numbers, here is a set of activities that children will enjoy while learning a lot. You may have heard about Multiple Intelligence Theory. One thing it tells us is that we evolved to have intelligence not only in verbal and mathematical learning, which are the main focuses in our schools, but in a number of different areas. That’s why some of us learn better through music, or nature, or art, or bodily movement. This activity is a kinesthetic (movement-based) way to teach some important number facts. I’ve found…

  • Common Core - Common Core State Standards - learning - Math Education - New York education - Parents - Professional Development - Singapore Math - US Education

    New Eureka Math Books Available

    December 6, 2013 - By 

    Yesterday, an exciting package came in the mail: the first two published modules of the Common Core math curriculum for Grade 2, complete with my name on the inside! Even though it was only listed for Grade 2 (I’m writing on the Grade 5 team too), it was nice to see my name on another publication. While all of the modules can be downloaded and printed for free from NYSED, it may save money and time for schools to buy the printed books. Print editions are available from Great Minds, or you can order individual books for homeschooling, enrichment, or preview from Amazon.…

  • Common Core State Standards - Homeschool - iPad - Math Education - New York education - Singapore Math - Special Needs - Teaching - Technology - Tutoring

    More Math Apps for iPad: Singapore Math and Common Core

    July 6, 2013 - By 

    It’s been a while since my last post on iPad apps, and in the meantime a lot has happened. For one thing, I have downloaded and tried quite a number of math apps. I’m going to start a round-up of some of the most useful apps as I have time. First up: exciting news! The Number Bond software, that I lamented being only on Mac or PC for so long, is now ported to iOS. As far as I can tell, having downloaded only the addition/subtraction version, it’s pretty much exactly the same as the computer version. This has its…

  • Math Education - Math facts - Math in Focus - Singapore Math - Teaching - Uncategorized

    Singapore Math Cheat Sheet: Starting a Child Mid-Year

    March 13, 2013 - By 

    A teacher recently asked me a question: “What do I do with the student who is strong enough in his math concepts, but he has no idea about Singapore Math approaches like number bonds, and he starts our school late in the year?” For her and other teachers in the same boat, I’m making this “cheat sheet,” which is targeted at elementary school children who start mid-year in Math in Focus or Primary Mathematics. 1. Number Bonds Number bonds show the ways in which numbers relate to each other. They can also be thought of as “part-whole” pictures, in which you…

  • Homeschool - Math Education - Middle school - Printables - Singapore Math - Teaching - Videos

    Pi Day: Pi Music and Classroom Activities

    February 4, 2013 - By 

    With March (and spring!) right around the corner, many teachers are already thinking about celebrating Pi Day, or March 14. This is a great day to celebrate how much fun math can be. I was inspired all over again by this music video using Pi to make music.   If you would like to make Pi Day fun for your students, there are lots of fun ideas in this lesson plan, available from Teachers Pay Teachers for $1.99. I also offer a free downloadable Pi Poster showing almost 1,500 digits of pi. My students always love these. Enjoy!

  • Math Education - Printables - Singapore Math

    Free Printable: Money Pinch Strips

    January 12, 2013 - By 

    How is it possible to assess a whole classroom in a moment? One great tool for this is pinch strips. To use these, the children are asked a question, for example, “How much is $1 minus 95¢?” The children then pinch the strips on the segment showing the correct answer – in this case, the nickel – and all hold them up to show the teacher. I prepared these pinch strips for lessons on money, and then I realized other teachers would probably find them useful, so here they are. These get printed on card stock and can be folded…

  • Geometry - Math Education - School supplies - Singapore Math

    Fun With Blocks: Foundational Geometry

    September 1, 2012 - By 

    In the course of my teaching and tutoring experience, I’ve come across the fact that Americans often fall short of others in geometry1,2. Besides the fact of test scores, I see that in how difficult it is for bright high school students I tutor to grasp certain spatial concepts. In fact, I was recently tutoring one incoming tenth grader, and she was unable to visualize how many cubes were in a stack. Recently, I found these foam blocks in packs of 50 for $1.00 at Dollar Tree. I bought a bunch, and they have been so useful for my teaching…

  • Math Education - Professional Development - Singapore Math

    NCTM Illuminations 2011

    September 7, 2011 - By 

    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…

  • Math Education - Singapore Math - US Education

    Which Singapore Math series should I use?

    May 17, 2011 - By 

    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…