Talking to my teacher during her prep today, she confirmed that I should study the math vocabulary from the [Envisions] book to learn it after I confessed that I would not have known what a number fact family is. The students are on fractions now. Most of them seem to be getting what fractions are.
For my ASW2 I am focusing on these two standards: (3)1.12 model and explain multiplication and division as repeated addition or subtraction [NS/PS 1.3.4] and (3)1.14 Immediately recall multiplication facts (products to 81).
In other news, my wife is now on summer vacation with 9-month schools ending yesterday. I also brought a glass jar with a lid to campus to try to capture some fire ants I saw. In one of the greatest disappointments of my life, when I got an ant farm last year for Christmas and ordered the ants... they showed up dead. So I have been biding my time ready to pounce on an unsuspecting ant colony. I think they are in hiding today because it is so hot out.
Read More......
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Today
To approach my teacher, to start hearing from her, I had to lower myself. I had to put aside the notion that we are peers or colleagues. I had to view her as the teacher and me as the student. And then conversations started to come forth and actual learning. There is really a big gulf between us. I have one of the best teachers with the most to teach, but then I have so much further to climb and learn. I have a lot of brain activity right now. My mind is trying to cope with my environment and make sense of things. It's a sign of actual learning, but it's uncomfortable.
I coasted through Practicum 1 with straight 3's. I had some problems, but they were resolved by my personality and not from me learning anything. My teacher now is the REAL DEAL.
I am not someone who likes challenge, but now I do have a challenge and I stand to gain so much from her. Read More......
I coasted through Practicum 1 with straight 3's. I had some problems, but they were resolved by my personality and not from me learning anything. My teacher now is the REAL DEAL.
I am not someone who likes challenge, but now I do have a challenge and I stand to gain so much from her. Read More......
Math Language
When I taught my lesson on Introducing Area (Envisions 16.5), one of the things that my PSMT kept telling the kids as she helped them later is: You know this, it's like an array....array....array. So I probably raised my eyebrows, but brought it up yesterday and asked about it and happened to mention that it's not really a standard vocabulary word. She responded something like oh but it is! (For them). They had learned mulltiplication by studying arrays.
What is an array? When I think of "an array", I think of an array of abilities or an array of numbers or a satellite array, so things which are linked and connected. A satellite or computer array is a series of connected computers that work together. In video games your character has an array of attributes that decide how well you shoot or jump. When I asked Debbie what an array is, she couldn't tell me. I'm certain she could do the multiplication that an array suggests to my 3rd grade classroom.
On the Daily Spiral Review my students will do today for my unit on volume, there is a question about lines of symmetry, prompting me to ask my teacher if her kids would know that. She said they'd been studying it since first grade. Other questions will ask about congruence or vertices, irregular vs. regular polygons.
Two or three years ago the Review-Journal published an article about failing math scores and included some of the test questions being given to our students. They had a similar sort of vocabulary. My mother's then-boyfriend and she, both college graduates, couldn't understand what the problems were asking. His degree was in physics and he helped to design the early programming of ICBMs during the Cold War for Boeing.
So.... our kids must be learning a lot, right? I don't think so. Maybe the NCTM would be thrilled by kids learning (or not really learning) what math terms mean, but it creates a disconnect for other generations trying to help students with problems they could actually help them with. Read More......
What is an array? When I think of "an array", I think of an array of abilities or an array of numbers or a satellite array, so things which are linked and connected. A satellite or computer array is a series of connected computers that work together. In video games your character has an array of attributes that decide how well you shoot or jump. When I asked Debbie what an array is, she couldn't tell me. I'm certain she could do the multiplication that an array suggests to my 3rd grade classroom.
On the Daily Spiral Review my students will do today for my unit on volume, there is a question about lines of symmetry, prompting me to ask my teacher if her kids would know that. She said they'd been studying it since first grade. Other questions will ask about congruence or vertices, irregular vs. regular polygons.
Two or three years ago the Review-Journal published an article about failing math scores and included some of the test questions being given to our students. They had a similar sort of vocabulary. My mother's then-boyfriend and she, both college graduates, couldn't understand what the problems were asking. His degree was in physics and he helped to design the early programming of ICBMs during the Cold War for Boeing.
So.... our kids must be learning a lot, right? I don't think so. Maybe the NCTM would be thrilled by kids learning (or not really learning) what math terms mean, but it creates a disconnect for other generations trying to help students with problems they could actually help them with. Read More......
Monday, May 24, 2010
Teaching Area tomorrow
So I resisted talking about the disappointing LOST finale last night in class, but a Math blog is the perfect place to mention the absence of the "numbers". Quite a let down.
Ok, here is something I'm working on for teaching area to the third graders tomorrow in my practicum. I am using the Legos to brace and keep the plaster squares at right angles with one another as I glue them down. I'm going to ask the class how many squares I'll need to fill in the inside of the rectangle I'm creating.
I enjoyed class today. It was fun figuring out how to arrange the layout. When I first saw the grid, I thought of comic book panels.
Type your summary here Read More......
Ok, here is something I'm working on for teaching area to the third graders tomorrow in my practicum. I am using the Legos to brace and keep the plaster squares at right angles with one another as I glue them down. I'm going to ask the class how many squares I'll need to fill in the inside of the rectangle I'm creating.
I enjoyed class today. It was fun figuring out how to arrange the layout. When I first saw the grid, I thought of comic book panels.
Type your summary here Read More......
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Trouble in Paradise
I look forward to trying to figure out the columns and rows assignment with the 11 problems over the weekend.
I should admit that I am a skeptic of the modern math movement which was introduced today in class and which is implemented in most -if not all - CCSD classrooms. In my third grade classroom right now, for example, vertices were mentioned. When a rectangle was drawn the other day, the students called it a "rectangular prism" and when they saw a square, it was called a "cube". I hope to learn in this class why they are expected to learn such concepts in elementary school. I think they should be taught! But taught in middle school or high school. This mirrors the fact that at least one school in the CCSD students recite "digraph ph" when they see "ph" and "blend bl". Why do they need to know what a digraph or a blend is? It would be much better for them to be able to use that knowledge.
Instead of having automaticity with their arithmetic, most of the CCSD students I've encountered from subbing at 25 schools and in my practicum and observations have been very lacking in their ability to do arithmetic. I went to elementary school in the 1980s. I don't remember much about math, except that I found the multiplication facts around 12 very hard to master. At some point I did get them through repeated use. Many students do know know the helpful rule about 9 x a number (9x4 = 45, 4+5 = 9, 9x8 = 72, 7+2 = 9) It's not essential, of course. At one school though students have memorized number rules and the rule numbers themselves, so they say "Rule x: 5 times any number will have 0 or 5 at the end, Rule y: 2 times any number will always end in 0 or an even number.
Some school stuff behind the read more.
My title would be extra appropriate if I actually were teaching at Paradise ES this summer, but I'm not. What I've run into this first week and a half at my school is that I'm "engaging" my students too much. My natural personality is to jump right into things and then we were also encouraged to jump in at our Practicum Orientation.
This does relate to math. Math is the subject I see every day at my school. I try to help the kids as much as possible with the work. I don't do it for them, of course. I actually was teaching some counting strategies without realizing what I was teaching the last couple of days, not as a formal lesson, but as I coached some students through problems.
Anyways, I'm blabbering on. Read More......
I should admit that I am a skeptic of the modern math movement which was introduced today in class and which is implemented in most -if not all - CCSD classrooms. In my third grade classroom right now, for example, vertices were mentioned. When a rectangle was drawn the other day, the students called it a "rectangular prism" and when they saw a square, it was called a "cube". I hope to learn in this class why they are expected to learn such concepts in elementary school. I think they should be taught! But taught in middle school or high school. This mirrors the fact that at least one school in the CCSD students recite "digraph ph" when they see "ph" and "blend bl". Why do they need to know what a digraph or a blend is? It would be much better for them to be able to use that knowledge.
Instead of having automaticity with their arithmetic, most of the CCSD students I've encountered from subbing at 25 schools and in my practicum and observations have been very lacking in their ability to do arithmetic. I went to elementary school in the 1980s. I don't remember much about math, except that I found the multiplication facts around 12 very hard to master. At some point I did get them through repeated use. Many students do know know the helpful rule about 9 x a number (9x4 = 45, 4+5 = 9, 9x8 = 72, 7+2 = 9) It's not essential, of course. At one school though students have memorized number rules and the rule numbers themselves, so they say "Rule x: 5 times any number will have 0 or 5 at the end, Rule y: 2 times any number will always end in 0 or an even number.
Some school stuff behind the read more.
My title would be extra appropriate if I actually were teaching at Paradise ES this summer, but I'm not. What I've run into this first week and a half at my school is that I'm "engaging" my students too much. My natural personality is to jump right into things and then we were also encouraged to jump in at our Practicum Orientation.
This does relate to math. Math is the subject I see every day at my school. I try to help the kids as much as possible with the work. I don't do it for them, of course. I actually was teaching some counting strategies without realizing what I was teaching the last couple of days, not as a formal lesson, but as I coached some students through problems.
Anyways, I'm blabbering on. Read More......
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Understanding Perimeter
Today I taught a lesson on understanding perimeter. I had asked my PSMT on Monday if I could start teaching as soon as possible and she said "How about perimeter and area tomorrow?" and I must have made a face and said something, so she said Wednesday was fine. But she was then in a meeting with our site facilitator anyways and only caught the tail end. She still had some good feedback to use.
If this were Livejournal I could use a LJ-cut tag and put my lesson there, so it's not too spammy. Did this work?
Brant Polkowski
Understanding Perimeter
3rd Grade
Standards/Objectives
Nevada Standard D.3-5 - Use physical models to explain he relationship between concepts and procedures
Objective: Students will use standard units to find the perimeter of a shape.
Materials/Technology Resources
Graph paper (handed out by an on-task student), personal white boards and markers (students already have), Scrabble board, pieces of Lego, pieces of Dungeons & Dragons square floor tiles, poster boards with class examples and assessment ones to work through.
TW call on on-task students to help in collecting and distributing materials.
Procedures
Opener: TW discuss family members' upcoming visit and mother's pool, draw it on the board, and then discuss how to prevent young nephews from falling in, leading into perimeter. Teacher will define the concept of perimeter and explain the concept with students copying class diagrams onto their graph paper. TW lead class through finding the perimeter in standard units (squares)
Class will find the perimeter of a Scrabble board.
TW pass out floor tiles to four groups and have students draw tiles on their paper. They will then find the perimeter of the tiles and hand back. TW hand out Lego tiles next and repeat.
Students will create their own shape and exchange their graph paper with another student and have that student find the perimeter of the object that they created.
Teacher will then hold up second whiteboard and show the two additional shapes. Students will be assessed using white boards on comprehension of perimeter concept before handing out Envisions worksheets to work through perimeter problems.
Extension: How would we find the perimeter of the model house I brought in? What do we notice about the perimeter of a square?
Closure: We will be working more with perimeter and its cousin area in the next few days. We won't always be using square shapes.
Student Assessment
Teacher will assess student comprehension by showing several shapes to the entire class. TW use 2 square-based shapes shown on the back of foamcore. Students will then find the perimeters of the shapes and hold up their whiteboards with the answers. TW monitor for comprehension. Read More......
If this were Livejournal I could use a LJ-cut tag and put my lesson there, so it's not too spammy. Did this work?
Brant Polkowski
Understanding Perimeter
3rd Grade
Standards/Objectives
Nevada Standard D.3-5 - Use physical models to explain he relationship between concepts and procedures
Objective: Students will use standard units to find the perimeter of a shape.
Materials/Technology Resources
Graph paper (handed out by an on-task student), personal white boards and markers (students already have), Scrabble board, pieces of Lego, pieces of Dungeons & Dragons square floor tiles, poster boards with class examples and assessment ones to work through.
TW call on on-task students to help in collecting and distributing materials.
Procedures
Opener: TW discuss family members' upcoming visit and mother's pool, draw it on the board, and then discuss how to prevent young nephews from falling in, leading into perimeter. Teacher will define the concept of perimeter and explain the concept with students copying class diagrams onto their graph paper. TW lead class through finding the perimeter in standard units (squares)
Class will find the perimeter of a Scrabble board.
TW pass out floor tiles to four groups and have students draw tiles on their paper. They will then find the perimeter of the tiles and hand back. TW hand out Lego tiles next and repeat.
Students will create their own shape and exchange their graph paper with another student and have that student find the perimeter of the object that they created.
Teacher will then hold up second whiteboard and show the two additional shapes. Students will be assessed using white boards on comprehension of perimeter concept before handing out Envisions worksheets to work through perimeter problems.
Extension: How would we find the perimeter of the model house I brought in? What do we notice about the perimeter of a square?
Closure: We will be working more with perimeter and its cousin area in the next few days. We won't always be using square shapes.
Student Assessment
Teacher will assess student comprehension by showing several shapes to the entire class. TW use 2 square-based shapes shown on the back of foamcore. Students will then find the perimeters of the shapes and hold up their whiteboards with the answers. TW monitor for comprehension. Read More......
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
PE Today
I met the last two students who were absent yesterday and then went to PE with the kids and met Miss Alexis and Mr. Petros. I volunteered to help at Field Day on Friday and will be doing some kind of putting game with 4th and 5th graders. A student gave me a yellow sucker today as a gift.
I want to get some of the students multiplication flash cards and even one: addition and subtraction, which I happen to have. I think I have some Spiderman $1 flashcards from Target. Read More......
I want to get some of the students multiplication flash cards and even one: addition and subtraction, which I happen to have. I think I have some Spiderman $1 flashcards from Target. Read More......
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