{"id":2312,"date":"2019-03-12T07:30:56","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T11:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teachersfirst.com\/blog\/?p=2312"},"modified":"2019-04-05T18:58:12","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T22:58:12","slug":"spring-into-math-awareness-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/2019\/03\/spring-into-math-awareness-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring into Math Awareness Month"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/teachersfirst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/2019-MAR-Spring-into-Math-Awareness-Month.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2406\" src=\"http:\/\/teachersfirst.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/2019-MAR-Spring-into-Math-Awareness-Month-200x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/2019-MAR-Spring-into-Math-Awareness-Month-200x300.png 200w, https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/2019-MAR-Spring-into-Math-Awareness-Month-683x1024.png 683w, https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/2019-MAR-Spring-into-Math-Awareness-Month.png 735w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>April is Math Awareness Month, a celebration of the study of math and its relevance to modern life. It provides a perfect opportunity to reflect on your math teaching practices and resources and give them a good spring cleaning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Think about lessons and units you use that are stale, assessments that need refreshing, and your overall approach to teaching math. What can you do to improve your math teaching? Does it need a makeover or just a little cleaning up?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In observance of Math Awareness Month, I\u2019d like to share some of my favorite math resources to help add some \u201cspring\u201d to your math lessons:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During my years as an elementary teacher, I participated in many math professional development opportunities. Few had as much impact on my teaching as those offered by<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mathsolutions.com\"> <b>Math Solutions<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.teachersfirst.com\/single.cfm?id=11809\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TeachersFirst review<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">). Founded by the well-known and loved math guru, Marilyn Burns, this site stresses four goals essential to providing quality math instruction. Primary to their belief is the recognition that high-quality teaching is the most critical factor in student math instruction. Even if you don\u2019t have the opportunity to participate in a Math Solutions training session, there are many free resources available on this website.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mathsolutions.com\/classroom-lessons\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Classroom lessons<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; choose from many lessons for grades K-8 in all concepts. Many of these lessons include sample conversations with students that demonstrate the technique of math talks and also share methods for guiding students toward discovering learning on their own.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Math Solutions also provides a<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mathreasoninginventory.com\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Math Reasoning Inventory (MRI)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to help you find out what your students <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">understand<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> about math procedures. One key component of the inventory is listening to students<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> explain <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">their strategies and reasoning when solving problems. Upon completion, the MRI provides you with four different reports with analysis of results.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sign up to receive notifications of the latest blog postings from Math Solutions and Marilyn Burns. Blogs include lesson ideas, videos, and recent articles. Many of the posts share classroom conversations and model excellent techniques for assessing student knowledge and misconceptions and guiding student learning.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nrich.maths.org\/frontpage\"><b>NRICH Maths<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.teachersfirst.com\/single.cfm?id=5207\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TeachersFirst review<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) is another resource that is home to a variety of high-quality math lessons. It contains lessons for all grade levels and embeds professional development into many of the activities through the \u201cWhy Do This Problem?\u201d section in the lesson.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the primary and secondary student homepage, take a look at the Thinking Mathematically portion of the page. Each includes collections on how to be a mathematician and how to be a good thinker. These collections include activities and challenges that encourage students to think about and share math discussions in a variety of methods.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NRICH Maths also has a wide variety of learning games that incorporate easily into math centers or work well as homework to supplement classroom instruction.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.teachersfirst.com\/spectopics\/mathallgrades.cfm\"><b>TeachersFirst Special Topics for math<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is also an excellent resource for finding the best of the best math resources. Our editors have narrowed down the thousands of free math resources on TeachersFirst into special topics pages sorted by grade level bands and NCTM standards. Speaking of <\/span><b>NCTM<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, don\u2019t forget to take advantage of all the free resources found on<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nctm.org\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">their web site<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. For more in-depth information on the resources offered there, take a look at my<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/teachersfirst.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/set-a-solid-foundation-for-math-instruction\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">September 2016 blog<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> sharing many ideas and information about this resource for all math teachers.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Remember to <\/span><b>incorporate technology<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> into your math lessons. Not only does technology motivate students, but it also provides opportunities to visualize and share math content that isn\u2019t available through textbooks and worksheets.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/flipgrid.com\/\"> <b>Flipgrid<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.teachersfirst.com\/single.cfm?id=17677\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TeachersFirst review<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) to create video math discussions. Pose a problem to your students and have them share their thinking process through a short video response.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/learningpaths.symbaloo.com\/\"> <b>Symbaloo Learning Paths<\/b><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.teachersfirst.com\/single.cfm?id=17347\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TeachersFirst review<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) to create and differentiate math lessons for your students. Learn more about the features of learning paths at my<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/teachersfirst.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/gamify-learning-with-symbaloo-lesson-plans\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">blog from September 2016<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When working with older students, try this<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/roomescapemaker.com\/games\/\"> <b>Room Escape Maker<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.teachersfirst.com\/single.cfm?id=18160\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TeachersFirst review<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">). Use the escape maker to add a series of puzzles for students to solve and escape from the room.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goosechase.com\/edu\/\"><b>GooseChase<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.teachersfirst.com\/single.cfm?id=17259\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TeachersFirst review<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) is perfect for all students, even very young children. GooseChase helps you create a digital scavenger hunt for teams. Use this to create scavenger hunts for finding shapes, locate items by size, or locate and solve math problems in your school building or outdoors.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Create and share digital books for math using<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bookcreator.com\/\"> <b>Book Creator<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.teachersfirst.com\/single.cfm?id=17988\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TeachersFirst review<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">). Share videos with students discussing math problems, include images with student work and embed YouTube videos teaching math concepts.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take the time to dust off your math lessons and techniques and try something new this spring. It is time for those math lessons to bloom into life! <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you have ideas for freshening up your math lessons&#8230; We would love to hear your suggestions below.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>April is Math Awareness Month, a celebration of the study of math and its relevance to modern life. It provides a perfect opportunity to reflect on your math teaching practices and resources and give them a good spring cleaning. Think about lessons and units you use that are stale, assessments that need refreshing, and your &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/2019\/03\/spring-into-math-awareness-month\/\" class=\"more-link\">read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[46,45,22,70],"class_list":["post-2312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-classroom-application","tag-lesson-ideas","tag-math","tag-stem","tag-tech-tools"],"modified_by":"Karen Streeter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2312"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2404,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312\/revisions\/2404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}