Math

BIG NEWS!!!! We have done away with Everyday Math at our school/district! The program served a purpose for a while, but it simply comes down to the fact that it doesn't cover half of the new standards and it's not very rigorous in regards to process vs. product. After kicking off summer with  a week of math conceptual understanding professional development we have started to piece together our own curriculum (math workshop) that has rich math tasks! Here are the various websites I am going to live by this next year and I'll be sure to update you on how our new workshop model is going... 

1. Illustrative Math: very open ended math questions! 

This is where I will get my math question for the day. The way our workshop model will work is that the kids will work on the ONE problem for 5 min. on their own, they will then partner up and work with a peer for 5 -10 min., and at the end I will have 3-4 students share their work to the class and their peers will analyze it and ask questions to each student. That's it! My whole math block! Here's the kicker, NO equations are allowed! Everything must be conceptual and if they can't explain their thinking with manipulatives or drawings then they have not met the learning goal. What does that mean for me as the teacher? No traditional teaching of algorithms, taking notes from the teacher's notebook, or repetition on the white board. That also means I just blew half of my budget on a *** ton of new math manipulatives. This is a bit scary for me to step down from the role of teaching vs. guiding and truly having the kids teach one another. Sound nice, right? But there is DEFINITELY a lot of teacher work going on. I need to try and solve each problem 4-5 ways that will lead to the learning target I want the kids to learn for the day, then I need to have a predetermined order of which ones should be presented first/last... all before I pass out the question of the day. Meaning there is a TON of observation that will take place during the work time... I mean I don't magically have 3-4 kids whose answers magically scaffold thinking until we get to our learning target for the day : )

2. Howard County: meaningful homework! 
This district has created 1-3 open ended math questions for EACH common core standard! Not only that, but it has rubrics for each homework, recording sheets so you can track their progress for each standard, as well as a pacing guide. I will mainly use this as homework but I could easily see myself using some questions for our main lessons or to help small groups during our math WIN time to help them reach the learning target.

3. Engage NY: step by step lessons for each common core standard! 

This is a great place to start if you as the teacher have a conceptual misunderstanding (or if you only know how to get to the correct answer by using an equation... but have not clue why/how it always works). I'll use their worksheets to help supplement during math WIN time for my lower kids, their "sprints" as unit based timed tests, and their templates to help the kids use their manipulatives correctly during individual and partner work time.

4. Georgia Common Core: engaging math games & real world extensions! 

The state of Georgia has paid someone lots of mulah to create unique math games and challenging extensions for each standard. This is good news for the rest of us out there who's state/district hasn't had the brilliant idea to go through all of that work. These activities are wonderful for extensions during math WIN time, good challenges before a test, and most of them have two levels so that everyone can access the math (not just GT kiddos). We supplemented Everyday Math with these activities last year and it's worth the time it takes to navigate their ginormous documents.


*If you know of any other amazing websites to help drive workshop model learning please share!!!*