I love starting the school year teaching geometry. I use it as a hook to get my students interested in math. Not that they aren’t. But often, kids come into class thinking that math is all about adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. I know this because it’s the first thing I ask during day 1 math. So I kick off the math school year in geometry. It’s visual, hands-on, and fun. All math is…as students will discover through the course…
This is Nathan. He’s playing By Loch and Mountain, one of my absolute favorite pieces he learned in middle school. That was five years ago. Nathan is now headed off to college soon and will not be taking his saxophone with him. So I’m selling it. Until today, it had been three years since he tooted a note. He quit band his sophomore year in high school. Even so, I’d been holding on to the sax in the off-chance that he might…
“There are three boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats. Are you not eating them, Nathan?” I was washing the breakfast dishes when Ryan opened the pantry door and noticed all the cereal. “I’ll eat them.” replied Nathan. “I just want to finish the Chex first.” I started to chuckle. A few weeks ago, this would have been a weird conversation between the two teens. But since Ryan has been doing all the grocery shopping, he’s beginning to notice things. Things…
Teachers often use the estimating jar as a way to promote good estimating skills in their students. Throw a little candy in that jar and now you’ve got students excited and motivated to do math! The following activities are a twist on the traditional estimating jar and have been done with second through fifth graders. I introduce the estimating jar, filled with Hersheys kisses, by asking students to give a reasonable estimate as to how many kisses they think are…
Ryan just got back from Winco. He was grocery shopping. For me. My entire weekly list of items. For over a year, Ryan has asked me if he could do the grocery shopping. He knows it’s way down on my list below scrub the toilet and clean the hair out of the sink. But for some reason, I thought it would be more of a hassle having him do it than me just going and getting it over with. I…