Teacher Resources

Looking back on this semester I started wondering where on earth I was going to find all the materials I needed in order to teach math. We had to do a project as well that involved making an interactive map that would teach a chapter we had learned. I decided to do my map on the basics of whole numbers, but what I learned was in no way basic.

There are so many resources right at the touch of a button available for us today. I now realize that many great worksheets were already created and could save a teacher valuable time. One site in particular carried great information, http://www.proteacher.net. This website is a collaboration of teachers who have questions, information, papers, games, and more to share with each other. To give you an example, I was looking for information on working with number sets. I could not find this information anywhere on the internet- but then remembered this site. I typed in basic wording and came up with 3 forums. One includes a great worksheet from a teacher who used it in her own classroom (Here is a similar link to the one I found http://amazingworksheets.blogspot.com/2009/02/count-and-match-ladybug-1.html).

I am so impressed with all the wealth of information out there for teachers that I am now feeling quite confident I will have all the materials needed, plus some! Additionally, using an interactive map gave me an area to link all of this information to without overwhelming my computer. This map saves the information directly onto it and allows the user to easily access it anywhere with internet availability and a computer. The specific map we used was by http://www.mindomo.com/#editor, but there are many out there for use. I can't wait to get my teaching career going, and now I have confidence in knowing that I have access not only to great materials, but great people as well.

Applicable Integers

What are integers? Why are they even important? Words like integer can often times be confusing and frustrating. I have found, especially with this last semester in math class, that it is important to carry a dictionary on hand or be able to research words to learn their definition. Often times when we learn the definition of a word, we realize we already knew what it meant- we just didn't know the "official" name.

Granted, Integer is a basic term- but many people don't know it or don't remember it anymore. So, to make sure we are all on the same page I am going to use Merriam-Webster's definition:

Definition of INTEGER

1: any of the natural numbers, the negatives of these numbers, or zero

2: a complete entity 

(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/integer)

So, as we can see here... an integer is basically a whole number or zero (ex. 0,1,2,3, etc). But this also means that integers can be negative as well... -3,-2,-1. If we put these numbers all together we could represent them using a number line.

By using number lines we can quickly visualize the total number of items we have. Say we have 3 dollars. We want to put exactly $3.00 of gas into our car. We put the pump into the car and pull the trigger and two or three seconds later the pump suddenly shows we owe $6.00- we went from one full end of the scale to the other. This is revealed in the following number line.

When you study this number line you can see that a positive $3.00 is shown on one side of the number line and a negative on the opposite. If we were to count all the numbers on this scale we would come up with our absolute value of 6, or in this specific case $6.00 of total gas cost.  We can also see that we had $3.00, but now we are negative $3.00- in other words, we better start digging for change or use a card! 

So, although the words we learned today were very mathematical (integer, absolute value, number line, etc.) there's a good chance most of us knew the basic concept behind these terms. Also we likely  use these concepts repeatedly throughout each day whether consciously or unconsciously, pretty amazing! I will end this post with a cartoon I made for my other math class, I hope you enjoy it!

Multiplication Meltdown

In this post we are going to discuss multiplication. I'd like to start out by discussing how confusing multiplication can be for many of us. I will use my husband as an example (again!)... he uses math daily at his work- but hates trying to multiply in his head. He gets so confused... all the numbers get jumbled up inside his head. There are reasons for this... possibly, he never learned the basics of multiplication (times tables, etc.)- even more likely... he never really learned how we can group things out. The below video shows this conflict in a somewhat humorous- but rather realistic manner... the age of the video let's us know that this has been a problem throughout the years.

To look at multiplication... we must first learn to break apart what we are multiplying. We are going to observe this in one more video- one you may be familiar with! It's going "old school" but it is a great video to show how we break multiplication problems apart and group the numbers we are working with.

From this video you can see that multiplication isn't just about memorization... 5 x 5 = 25, it's about breaking apart the problem. Imagine 5 kids who each own 5 toys... if those kids had a party and brought their 5 toys each... how many would there be total? You can visualize each kid owning 5 toys, you can visualize them bringing their toys to the party... and then you can see the 5 separate groups of 5... then you could even count by 5's.... 5, 10, 15, 20, 25- our answer is 25.

By visualizing the problem we can work at solving it in a way we are going to fully understand- a way that will set the foundation for other similar (and even different) problems. We will learn the skills to break things apart and look at them in a way we will really be able to understand- and just as important, we will see that there is more than one way to solve a problem... and still get to the correct answer.