I look at other peoples blogs and try to find a common ground for having a math blog, but my mind is thinking about numbers and how do you get students to write about them.
First, let me compliment you on your blog layout - it's pretty cool, and goes along with your title nicely. :)
I'm also a math teacher, and I wrote on my blog about the same issue. I had started up a blog for students this past fall, but found it very difficult to come up with topics: http://superflea.edublogs.org/
If your students have worked with blogs before in other classes, maybe you could pose the question to them: "How can we use blogs to supplement our learning in math?" Sometimes students can come up with some pretty cool ideas.
You can also use blogs in other ways - sometimes I go to Dan Meyer's blog for ideas to spruce up lessons and/or inspire higher-level thinking. He has some really great ideas for inquiry-based activities: http://blog.mrmeyer.com/ Check out the one with the Coke and Sprite cans; I used it on Friday as a collaborative activity in the last fifteen minutes of my Algebra II class. It made for some great discourse!
If you come up with some good ideas for blogging in math, please let me know!
Your question interested me as my school has been struggling with their math skills. When it came to writing responses to problems the students really struggled with getting their ideas into words instead of numbers. We started some cross curricular education to help the students with some of the skills they needed to develop. Perhaps you can work with science or English and begin something where they can start a problem in one area and develop it through another. Having students develop consistency across their classes will surely make the education stick. For so long though I guess people think math as only numbers, getting them to develop language with it would be a challenge but if I come across anything through my English class I will definitely let you know. Great thought provoking question.
Sam, I too, like your background. I don't teach math, but a friend of mine does. Would you like me to ask him what sites he uses?
I'm kind of in the same boat. There are not that many interactive history sites for 8th graders out there, and the ones I find are either too low or too high.
One of the things we've started doing in my school, due to low math scores on the district administered assessments, is working with the students being able to pull out key information from the question. In a nutshell, we are teaching the students to summarize the word problem and rewrite it so they can understand what they need to do. Every subject is doing this during our classes. I just tweek the question to follow a history prompt so that my students are not missing out on their history lesson.
Sam, I understand your frustration about writing in math. In my science class, I have trouble getting my kids to write what they just did in a lab. The only thing I have found is taking baby steps. I have my students write the content words into sentences. You could have your math students write technical directions like they do in language arts and describe how it is important wo write every step for someone to follow. The could then have a peer follow the steps to see if it is correct. Just like anything in life..."Practice makes perfect."
Hello, Sam!
ReplyDeleteFirst, let me compliment you on your blog layout - it's pretty cool, and goes along with your title nicely. :)
I'm also a math teacher, and I wrote on my blog about the same issue. I had started up a blog for students this past fall, but found it very difficult to come up with topics: http://superflea.edublogs.org/
If your students have worked with blogs before in other classes, maybe you could pose the question to them: "How can we use blogs to supplement our learning in math?" Sometimes students can come up with some pretty cool ideas.
You can also use blogs in other ways - sometimes I go to Dan Meyer's blog for ideas to spruce up lessons and/or inspire higher-level thinking. He has some really great ideas for inquiry-based activities: http://blog.mrmeyer.com/ Check out the one with the Coke and Sprite cans; I used it on Friday as a collaborative activity in the last fifteen minutes of my Algebra II class. It made for some great discourse!
If you come up with some good ideas for blogging in math, please let me know!
Heather Sauer
Hi Sam,
ReplyDeleteYour question interested me as my school has been struggling with their math skills. When it came to writing responses to problems the students really struggled with getting their ideas into words instead of numbers. We started some cross curricular education to help the students with some of the skills they needed to develop. Perhaps you can work with science or English and begin something where they can start a problem in one area and develop it through another. Having students develop consistency across their classes will surely make the education stick. For so long though I guess people think math as only numbers, getting them to develop language with it would be a challenge but if I come across anything through my English class I will definitely let you know. Great thought provoking question.
Sam, I too, like your background. I don't teach math, but a friend of mine does. Would you like me to ask him what sites he uses?
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of in the same boat. There are not that many interactive history sites for 8th graders out there, and the ones I find are either too low or too high.
One of the things we've started doing in my school, due to low math scores on the district administered assessments, is working with the students being able to pull out key information from the question. In a nutshell, we are teaching the students to summarize the word problem and rewrite it so they can understand what they need to do. Every subject is doing this during our classes. I just tweek the question to follow a history prompt so that my students are not missing out on their history lesson.
Sam, I understand your frustration about writing in math. In my science class, I have trouble getting my kids to write what they just did in a lab. The only thing I have found is taking baby steps. I have my students write the content words into sentences. You could have your math students write technical directions like they do in language arts and describe how it is important wo write every step for someone to follow. The could then have a peer follow the steps to see if it is correct. Just like anything in life..."Practice makes perfect."
ReplyDelete