Every year when the unit for volume comes around it seems to be one of the hardest, and most abstract, units for students. While being asked to determine the volume of a prism or pyramid students are faced with a three-dimensional shape that becomes hard for them to visualize after
Picture it, Dallas, 1986… going into Toys ‘R Us for a reward with my parents and being the child who was always wanting to learn more, I picked up workbooks and many a puzzle book over being able to get toys. No matter where we went if I was able
When I began teaching Middle School math, I became apparently aware that my students detested working with word problems. It didn’t matter if I worked them with them, I asked them to show their strategies, or even let them work with partners or in groups… they HATED them. But I
Last month I had the absolute privilege of speaking to over 400 3-8th grade teachers at CAMT 2019 about Setting up Math Workshop for Success in two sessions. Not only was this year the absolute best I’ve ever presented, but the 3-5th grade session was so packed that we had
I remember my first Spring as a Middle School teacher when I came in with literally SIX WEEKS left before testing and had more to cover than I could dream of. I had to make a plan and stick to it. While for the most part, I was getting support
Blue 22, Blue 22… hut, hut! I can’t even begin to think of how many times I’ve heard phrases like that on tv and have no clue what it means! While I may not know a ton about football I sure know that the boys, and even some of my
Have you ever heard either of these from your students in class? “but Miss….. I don’t wanna…..” or “well, I didn’t think I had to do it.” You are probably nodding your head right now and totally get me because you have been there. Maybe you were even there this
Can you believe that we are coming close to the end of 2018? This means that when we go back to school we will have started a brand new year. I don’t know about your students but with mine there always seemed to be a HUGE maturity change over the
When creating my latest set of activities, Connect Four, for various topics I created a very easy to follow set of directions that made it the same throughout all of the downloads so that you could implement them easily into your classroom. After working with the Connect Four games with
Halloween is just around the corner and we all know that our students get SO EXCITED when it arrives! Long gone are the days when we get to do much celebrating in the classroom but that doesn’t mean that we can’t do a fun activity to make the day a
Every year it seems as if working on Order of Operations is a brand new concept for my students, as if it has all of a sudden become a foreign language. I will admit that if you are just looking at a mnemonic device it might as well be a
Creating a great homework station that has everything that your students need without them having to hunt for supplies is important to ensuring that homework gets done thoroughly and without any drama. Whether you’re setting something up for your own children or putting together some suggestions for your students’ families,
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