Last week a 20 page document was issued from the Common Core Math standards writers to make “more clearly visible” where materials faithfully reflect both the letter and spirit of the math standards… I read in this… just because it SAYS it is common core math aligned, doesn’t mean it is. Read this before buying and tread with caution.

A nice round up of some incredible math teachers. If you’re a math teacher, you’ll want to go to these sites and click on the RSS button and add it to your Google Reader.

If you don’t have a google reader go to reader.google.com and just paste in the links to each of these blogs and it will put them into the reader for you. Then, when new articles are posted on the blogs, your reader will put them together in a magazine like format using the RSS (really simple subscription) technology.

Go for it.

Larry Ferlazzo writes what may be one of the most important POSTS I’ve read all year. I like Larry’s balanced approach to education, and this post is one more reason why. Memorizing may give you a temporary bump in test scores but it is a long term recipe for disaster - aren’t we seeing that now? If you want to understand more, read Larry’s post and if you’re really interested, pay for the research study behind it which studied 3500 German students over 5 years about their work in math. Larry says

“A quick summary is that, though extrinsic motivation and “surface learning” (such as memorization) might result in short-term gains in assessments, they actually hurt long-term (five-year) academic growth. The development of student intrinsic motivation, “deep learning strategies” (requiring “elaboration” and connections to other knowledge — I think that might correspond to the idea of “transfer”), and students feeling that they had more of a sense of control (though this last quality had a less consistent effect — it seemed to depend on grade level) of their learning were the main ingredients necessary for increased academic growth…”

A fun math game for elementary teachers to share with their kids in grades 1-5. Math Facts and santa - great for finishing up the year.

Remember that you can have fun and teach — don’t waste time before you get out of school, use it to reinforce and have fun!

Calling all math teachers - take a few minutes to evaluate your math textbook and get a $10 gift card for Amazon and start your summer reading early.

I really like the idea of aggregating feedback from teachers in a way that protect’s a teacher’s identity. It is time to crowdsource teacher feedback and I think it would need to be a neutral third party.This provides a benefit to teachers, educators, and even to publishers. 

(Eventually, it sure would be nice to teachersource feedback on standardized tests - most teachers don’t mind accountability but it is being accountable for the right things.)

http://bit.ly/KcfLbu

 (Full disclosure: I really like what this company Classroom Window is doing and how they want to aggregate teacher opinions into something that can make a difference and am in negotiations to have a (very small) stake in this company. As always I follow the blogger’s code of ethics and my own and let you know if there is any other influence that you should be aware of. Also, however, note that I never work with anyone that I wouldn’t recommend whether I was officially “working” with them or not.)

This question peeked your curiosity didn’t it? It is an example of a great way to start a lesson, with a question. In this example Geometry lesson plan, the teacher asks if giants can really exist. The investigation uses volume and surface area as well as ration and weight. There are some films referenced as well. 

By having a powerful question, relation to pop culture (like films) and encouraging students to seek answers, you can have a powerful experience.

Think how this can be used in other subjects and in other ways. Can you design or share your inquiry based lesson? 

We need some alternatives to Khan Academy for many reasons. Here are some free tutorials for teachers and students on just about every kind of math imaginable.