Crazy-Good Math
Fresh Ideas For The Math Classroom
It Takes A Village, uh...Math Department
The 6th grade students have been learning about ratios. Building a strong foundation in ratios is a huge part of the 6th grade curriculum and is carried over into proportionality in the 7th grade. While visiting Ms. Lawrence's Geometry class at the high school, (10th and 11th graders), I got to experience her students using the ratio knowledge they carried up with them to learn and practice dilations. Even in the high school geometry classroom the students still have to use the same terminology (similar, corresponding, congruent) that they learned in middle and junior high schools; only now they need that background knowledge in order to apply it in different ways! Where in the lower grades, students use ratios and proportionality to determine similarity of figures, geometry is using the same concept to determine dilation factor (scale factor) in transformations (dilations).
It truly excites me when I can see the math background knowledge of our students being used and brought out. If it takes a village to raise a child, then it takes a math department to raise math student. We are all in this together!
Curriculum Ideas
Planning Math Instruction with PARCC Resources
This is a short, 4 minute video on the processes teachers need to go through for task analysis. What makes a problem good?
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/planning-math-instruction-parccCK-12 Free Online Textbook and Learning Resources
Create online textbooks (they call them Flexbooks) where you create the content from online resources. Choose from their content or add your own from the web. For all STEM subjects, not just math!
Classroom Ideas
10 Rules for a Successful 1 to 1 Classroom
Since so many of us are incorporating more technology in our classrooms, this article is a good one to read.
About Karen Heatherly
Email: kheatherly@bentonschools.org
Location: 207 West Conway Street, Benton, AR, United States
Phone: (501) 778-4861
Facebook: facebook.com/karenratliffheatherly
Twitter: @iteachyoumath