It's a new year, and the school year is in full swing again. Two major projects are uppermost in my mind.First, our district technology plan for school years 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15 is due in February. That is a huge but important undertaking. January is a good time to be working on it, as we take stock of where we are and look towards where we hope to head. Second, the month of January, for me, is the month to kick off our pilot project math blog with four second grade teachers. It's titled "Math Talk 2" and its goal is to get students and teachers dialoguing about math processes, strategies and concepts. To get "into their head" and find out what they're thinking and seeing and understanding and even struggling with. Research shows that students who can conjure up mental imagery do better in math in the long run. It's even better if they can do so in color! Moving from concrete to abstract can involve manipulatives, to paper picture/doodles, to mental imagery as understanding as well as solutions take place. I'm "taking" January to post myself and set the stage for the second grade teachers to begin posting with their classes. When a staff member posts, all classes will use that post, then their teacher will post comments/reply for them as a class. Thus, everyone will weigh in - and get a chance to get others views as well.It's a private blog for now, but below are my two posts for January - to give you a hint of what we're about!______________________________________________________________________________________________________
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I really enjoyed visiting your class! I visited four second grade classes, actually – Mrs. Stenger, Mrs. Masters and Miss Sollberger at Armstrong plus Mrs. Howell and Mrs. Dowell at Wilson. Your hard work got me thinking about math. I plan to visit your classroom again, but in the meantime, I’d like to use this blog to have a conversation with all of you about math.
Today I want to talk about pictures. Yes, pictures! They are a tool or strategy I use when given a math problem I have to think about to solve. Sometimes I actually draw the math problem on paper and sometimes I just do it in my mind or imagination. Can you see pictures in your mind? What about numbers? Sometimes it helps me to close my eyes so I can concentrate better. Let’s try something together!
Mind_Pictures.mp3
Talk a little about what you were able to see in your mind, what was hard to see and anything you couldn’t see. Have your teacher share about that when she posts a blog comment!
Next, look at the images below one at a time. Are they pictures? Are they math problems? Have a discussion about each one. After your class talks about them, have your teacher post a comment below to tell me what you think! You don’t have to all agree. She can describe different ideas that you might have.
Thanks for spending some time with me today! Be sure to have your teacher comment about this post telling us about the pictures you made in your minds and what you thought about the images on this blog post.
Mrs. Olivito
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I hope you enjoyed my first blog post as much as I enjoyed reading your comments! Great thinking about math!!
Let's start with an activity today.
Click these words to try this: Five Frame
Now click to try this: Ten Frame
When asked how many circles or empties are there, did you count them one by one to find the answer?
If you answered no, describe how you knew the answer.
Next I want to do something a little different.
Ask three friends what their favorite food is.
Now ask those same three friends what 2+2 equals.
Did you get different answers for their favorite food? Share.
Did you get different answers for what 2+2 equals? Share.
Do the results make sense to you? Why or why not?
Is thinking about math different than thinking about favorite foods?
Be sure to talk it over before listening to find out what I think!
Mrs. Olivito's Thoughts.mp3
Because there are so many different ways to think about math, it's really good to know some math so well that it's just like adding 2+2. In an instant, you just KNOW the answer! Below are several links to fun song videos about some of those important facts. Just click, sit back, and enjoy... or sing along! We've talked about most of them: doubles, skip counting, making tens and fact families.
Doubles, Doubles (one to five)
Doubles, Doubles (six to ten)
Whatcha' gonna' do? (skip count 2's, 5's, 10's)
What Makes Ten
Fact Family Video
Hope you enjoyed them as much as I did!
Don't forget to comment and let me know what you're thinking and talking about in math!
Mrs. Olivito