Without a doubt the number one struggle I hear when I talk to teachers is that teaching fractions is a pain. Not that the teachers don't understand them or know how to teach them but they are such a struggle of a concept for students to understand. And the fact that there are so many concepts to cover with fractions it basically could be taught every day for at least a full school year and you ... View Post
7 Ideas for Test Prep in Middle School
Test Prep... two of the most DREADED words for teachers and students alike. We all know it is coming, we all know it is (somewhat) necessary, and we all know that if we don't try to make it fun it will be the death of both of us. Test prep doesn't have be dull and boring. It doesn't have to be "sit and get". Test prep can be fun! It can be engaging! And, test prep can be some of the most fun ... View Post
What is Response to Intervention (RTI)?
Our role as Educators is to ensure all students learn and are successful. In a perfect world, this would be easy. We teach our class a skill or topic and all of those smiling faces are able to comprehend and apply it to their daily lives. However, we don’t live in a perfect world, and unfortunately all of our students don’t learn at the same rate and level. Students struggle for various rea ... View Post
Working to Build Multiplication Fact Fluency
In my most recent newsletter I asked for people to reply to me and let me know the areas of weaknesses of their students to help you the most when creating items for intervention. While I am working on that I wanted to also create a round-up of resources so that you had other ideas to grab for use in your classroom. One of the first things that teachers were telling me, and I remember ... View Post
Filling Students Gaps while at Home
When students leave out your classroom door for the day you as a teacher have little control over what they do until they come back to your classroom the next day. How can we help guide students (and parents) to use that time wisely to help fill in gaps that students have in their math learning? Over the past few years in my classroom I have kept a separate class blog. With this blog I took time ... View Post
Ready for a Pythagorarean Theorem Funny?
This past weekend I was contacted about creating a Pythagorean Theorem Solve and Snip. It was on my list of many but was probably a lot further down that any time soon so I decided that I would take time this weekend to create it and get it up. As I was going through making the activity, it reminded me of a story that I am NOW able to say is funny. When it happened, not so much. So roll back to ... View Post
