Blog Posts I Love

I spent time this weekend to find more math blogs to read. In the process, I have run across some great ideas that I want to use in the classroom and I would like to share them. Some of them are older, but still awesome. This is why I love blogs! I love reading about great ideas from other teachers.

I found these through the MTBoS Directory.  I only discovered this network of math teachers a few months ago and I am still trying to figure it all out, but I love it so far.

This post by Everybody is a Genius is exactly what I want to do when I get to solving equations. I started last year's lesson with balanced and unbalanced scales, but I like what thinking this makes students do.

I can't tell you how many times I've gone over tests with students just to hear them say "I didn't see the NOT" or "I wasn't paying attention to the picture" or something silly that would be easy to fix. This post by Reflections in the Plane helps students focus on those little hints in a problem that would help them solve the problem. We have a common assessment this week and I will be using this.

Here is another post from Reflections in the Plane about solving and balancing equations. Similar to the Everybody is a Genius post, it makes the students think about what balanced sides look like.

In Tales from Outside the Classroom, she used arrays to introduce the distributive property. I did use this in my classroom and the students understood a little bit more of what the distributive property was.

Finally from i is a number, she gives instructions for using card sort activities. I used card sorts all the time when I taught science and I love the idea of using one in math. In fact, I am going to plan one for tomorrow.

Again, I love math bloggers. Anyone who you think I should follow?