Wednesday, November 14, 2012

I Know, I Know...

I've been AWOL...but it's been for a good (?) reason. I started two Masters classes on the first day of school back in September. To say the least...I've been a little overwhelmed. I even missed returning a BOO! I got from Teacher Kirra over at Maestra Kirra! These end December 10th and I AM READY! I literally whined to my husband last night about not wanting to do my homework:-( (I know, pathetic!)

Anyway, in my spare time (ha!) I have religiously been following Donna over at Math Coach's Corner. With the implementation of Common Core and math not being my strongest subject area, she has been an incredible resource! After reading several of her posts, I purchased some invaluable resources. (Two of which I can't keep in my room, and one other that two teachers have gone ahead and ordered for themselves.) Here's my list, and little bit of what I've learned so far about each.

 The two "It Makes Sense!" books are great K-2 resources that include ways to make the practice of hundreds charts and tens-frames part of daily routines, but also help you walk through using these invaluable tools to build children's number sense and help them think aloud as they solve various math tasks.


The Van de Walle books are set up for K-3 and 3-5. As we combed the internet today in search of states who have already created math tasks for the various math strands at individual grade levels, we found MANY who had adapted or used tasks from these two books. As Donna says, every teacher should have a copy of one of these in their classroom.


Number Talks is a book that one of my first grade teachers came to ask me about as I was ordering it! Thanks to Teresa, we have about 3 additional teachers who want to delve into this deeper. It's all about having 10-15 minute daily conversations about solving math problems mentally. Very excited and can't wait to start!

What's Your Math Problem is all about teaching....problem solving! The component of math that we don't go deep enough with with our students. This has practical lesson ideas and strategies for teachers to follow.

So there it is. What I've been up too, who my new math idol is and some great resources for you. Next semester I'm only taking one class, so I'm hoping to get back on schedule!





Enjoy the rest of your week and STAY WARM!

1 comments:

Dancerteach said...

Oh yea! I can't wait to start Number Talks and all these other books you have me looking at!!!

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