MN Math Tweeter of the Month
Submitted by Megan Schmidt.
A few years ago, Nicole Bridge (@NicoleBridge1) couldn’t imagine any use for Twitter in her life. Now she can’t imagine her life without it.
Category: Middle School
The Only Way to LEARN Mathematics Is to DO Mathematics
Submitted by Sara VanDerWerf.
So what might the Learning of Math look like in our classrooms? Here are a couple of areas I am challenging myself in my own practice and I share with you.
Best STEM Book of the Year – The Martian by Andy Weir
Submitted by Anna Thompson.
I’m not much of a science-fiction reader these days, but I like to keep up on the books my students are reading and this one looked like believable sci-fi. As I read, I realized it was chock-full of mathematical problem solving that my students could understand.
Rules That Expire
Submitted by Amy Wix.
It’s our job, as the middle level educators to be
the go-between and start the dialog with our math departments K-12 to encourage the
reasoning and understanding with the use of precise language in our classrooms. Let’s
get rid of these rules that expire!
MCA Online Item Samplers and Teacher Guides
Item samplers and teacher guides are available as resources for MCA preparation. The teacher guides give additional information about each sampler item and may be used in conjunction with the samplers. (The online location for both of these is at the end of this post.)
Continue readingMCA Assessment Update
Now that the New Year has begun, it’s time to turn our attention to the MCAs. The following is some important information about OLPA and the 2016 MCA tests.
Continue readingGet Off the Escalator! “Teaching” is Active and Intentional.
Submitted by Sara Van Der Werf
As we enter 2016, my wish for the all teachers is that we would stop wasting time making excuses for why our students are not learning, we would not waste time wishing for students to arrive with more skills than they have. I wish we would see the assets our students do arrive with. I wish for all of us that we would actively do something different if our students are not successful. My wish for 2016 is that all of us would ‘get off the escalator’ and make intentional choices in our teaching.
Math On-A-Stick
Submitted by Jessica Breur.
Those of you from Minnesota probably understand that for most Minnesotans the last “official” summer event is the Minnesota State Fair. I attended the fair. I did not eat anything on a stick. I did, however, experience Math On-A-Stick, and it was amazing.
Observations from a New Teacher
Submitted by Heather Novak.
With any career pursuit, most learning happens in the first few months on the job – the learning curve is inevitable…In my classroom, the following have been absolutely essential in building a classroom environment where learning math is engaging, interactive and fun.
Graphing Stories
Submitted by Anna Thompson.
Does every picture tell a story?
Conversely, we might say that every story has a picture and in algebra that picture is usually a graph…. enter: Dan Meyer’s Graphing Stories.