Deb's Mathematics Blog

The National Council of Teachers for Mathematics (NCTM) is a large organization devoted mathematics education K-12. NCTM offers a wealth of resources, instructional strategies and professional development along with memberships that are reasonably priced. They also have a free Family's Guide to help support math at home for school aged students K-12. Most of all, the guide helps parents to understand why math is important and what math is all about in today's classroom. Parents will also find some great tips to help children succeed in math. The guide is in PDF and also comes with a supplement.

See also: Overcoming Math Anxiety

Wired math from the university of Waterloo provides some excellent opportunities to learn the key ideas in middle school math online. You can help Builder Ted climb his ladder by ordering decimals or go to the Fish Tank and work out the probability of Pythagoras finding fish or go from Rags to Riches as you solve the algebraic problems. What a great learning site, and as I always say 'trick them into learning!'

Cudos to the team at Wired Math, University of Waterloo for bringing great fun to a great topic! You'll want to bookmark this engaging and interactive site.

I have a rule of thumb regarding math homework and simply put it's 'keep it in the comfort zone'. All too often, students come home with their math homework and have no idea how to do it. Inevitibly the end result leads to that old feeling 'I can't do math'. There is a lot of research that suggests homework may actually hinder rather than help student achievement. If you are a math teacher, think long and hard about the type of math homework you assign. If it's busy work, why? If it's beyond the child, it will only lead to frustration. Homework needs to be within their comfort range yet move them along in the concept, challenging but not too challenging. If you have a method for keeping homework fun with a game type approach, great! Here's another great rule for homework: Less is More.

Have a great weekend, even if you do have some homework to do.

Teacher: "Who can tell me what 7 times 6 is?"
Student: "It's 42!"
Teacher: "Very good! - And who can tell me what 6 times 7 is?"
Student again: "It's 24!"

• Try the Tricks to Learn the Tables
• Multiplication Chart
• Strategies to Learn the Tables in 21 Days
• One Minute Timestables Fact Worksheets

I wonder if there is any research out there telling us that kids just don't commit the facts to memory like they used to?

The New York Times reported that mathematicians believe in God at a rate 2 1/2 times that of biologists, quoting a survey of the National Academy of Sciences. Ron Csillag is a freelance writer from Thornhill and tries to answer the question: What is it with math and God.

If you haven't yet heard about or seen the Classroom Performance System (CPS), it's worth checking out. All you need is a computer and a projector to start using the CPS. For math, it's ideal! You can download a test or create your own. Simply give each child a response pad (my students call them the remotes and they come with 32) and begin the test. The students select the answers (A,B,C,D, or 1,2,3,4 etc.) and CPS does the rest. It will provide you with a gap analysis report, individual student reports and class summaries just to mention a few. You can make up multiple choice questions, yes/no questions or create a challenge game with the challenge board. No doubt every classroom could benefit from this tool.

Some things I learned from using the tool:

• Do your first round in the afternoon, the students love it and get wired!
• Don't use this tool more than once or twice a week, you don't want the novelty to wear off
• Beware that there is still a need to do some open response type tasks, the CPS is limited to multiple choice type questions
• Make time for students to share their strategies for answers, this always helps to clarify misconceptions other students may be having.

All in all, what a great tool!

The 'Big Idea' behind fractions is understanding that fractions mean 'part of the whole'. Fractions are one of the concepts that a large number on learners struggle with. When working with fractions, use fraction bars and/or circles to promote understanding.

When learning to add or subtract fractions here are 2 methods:

• Multiply to find the common denominator
• List the multiples to find common denominators
For more tutorials and worksheets about fractions, try these.

Be sure to check out 'Counting Coins to 50 cents' worksheets. Identifying coins is a pre 1st grade concept and counting coins enters into the first and 2nd grades. Although, I must admit, it's much better to use real coins when teaching the addition of money but busy classrooms don't often have that luxury.

And, if you're wondering what young learners are supposed learn throughout the grades, check out the grade by grade goals.

Why take the SAT? Because just about every college in the United States accepts the SAT as part of its admissions process. Precisely why over 2 million students take the SATs each year. If you plan on taking the SATs, be sure to put May 3rd and June 7th in your calendar.

Here is some information you'll need:

• Fee Schedule
• Registration Information
• Official SAT Preparation Questions in Math

My rule of thumb is: work hard and get that great score the first time (over 2000 if you're hoping for a scholarship) however, if you want to boost your score, take it a 2nd time but make sure you prep well because going for a 3rd round won't look good. Remember, scores over 1500 are pretty good. Good luck!

When the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, was revised in 2004, a new commitment to support struggling students with progress in the math curriculum occurred. Response to Intervention (RTI), is the model of intervention to determine if and when a student does not perform at grade level. Often due to lack of instruction or effective instruction. Students then get special education as the result of a disability. See full story in eSchool news.