Scarsdale, NY is a model district in terms of scores and success. They attribute this success to five building blocks in their curriculum: Singapore Math, inquiry approaches to science and social studies, fluency in information technology, and creative arts. Yet they are having to cut teachers and programs due to budget constraints. They contrast this to China, which funded five educators to visit their district. Will Scarsdale have to cut back on their successful programs? Meetings of the Scarsdale Forum are happening during February. Read more at this Patch article.
We hear plenty of talk about teaching and reinforcing basic skills in math. Yes, these are very important, but computation skills aren’t what lead to breakthroughs and new discoveries; new ways of thinking do, right? This young woman exemplifies real creativity in mathematical thinking. I find this so inspiring. Investigating mathematical principles through art: what a concept!
An article published by the Rodel Foundation of Delaware describes how Kuumba Academy took a serious approach to remediating the problem of poor math achievement. They adopted a Singapore Math curriculum, and with it, they gave their teachers “intensive, on-going professional development to deepen teachers’ understanding of math instruction at the elementary level.” The school also implemented parent workshops and a “Bring Your Parent to School Day,” which would help parents and guardians understand the sometimes very different approaches Singapore Math takes. One minor incorrect point the article states is that Singapore Math uses math sprints to strengthen math skills.…
How do you explain the concept behind the formula for the lateral surface area of a cylinder, which is 2?rh? I ran into this question when tutoring a student to prepare for the New York State Integrated Algebra Regents exam. (For some reason, this exam contains a lot of geometry.) The lateral surface area is the area of the cylinder’s surface that does not include the circular ends. If you look at the cylinder, it resembles a can. If you imagine it is a can of something, the lateral surface area is what the label covers. So to show the…
The author of Social Media for Trainers and I have been having an interesting debate about the place of higher math education in schools. I had read her book and found it useful, so I looked up her Facebook page. There, under the heading, “Stop teaching math,” she placed a link on her Facebook page to the blog article titled “The Case Against Math.” Of course I found this provocative and clicked over to read the article. While I agree with the thesis of the article – that the way we teach math and value it as a proxy for…
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 standards categorized by grade level. These can be used in any context to fit your math teaching. You can even contribute your own sentences by joining the wiki. Go to the wiki here: http://mathsentenceframes.wikispaces.com/
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 3: Triple the number. Products alternate odd and even (3, 6, 9, 12, etc.). Times 4: Double the number twice. The result will always be even. Times 5: The result must have a 5 or a 0 in the ones place. Times 6: Triple the…
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 five minutes to read an excerpt from his or her story. I was impressed by the quality of the writing; three years of doing Nano for most of them has led to exceptional storytelling abilities in these young writers. During the reading part of the…
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 only the writing, but the fun they had doing it. I am so proud of everyone, but I’m also relieved that NaNaWriMo is over. In fact, doing this program is such a mammoth accomplishment that it’s pretty much a requirement to have a TGIO (Thank…
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 here. She couldn’t understand why, with all the time and finance poured into math education here, including an average of 1.5 hours per day of math class, her children were progressing in math far less well than she had when growing up. I think part…