Video Review - Workshop 1. Following Children's Ideas in Mathematics

After reviewing the video it made me realize how much more kids are capable of then we give them credit for sometimes. Unfortunately too many times we get caught up in the amount of content we need to cover to meet curricular demands and testing demands. It's easy to follow the textbook and work lesson by lesson and chapter test by chapter test. When kids are given the opportunity to explore it opens up a whole new way of thinking for them.

I have been teaching for 13 years and for many of those first years I found myself stressing out over not covering all the material that was written in the curriculum. At this point in my career I realize that although the curriculum and the NJCCCS standards are the guiding force in what you teach, it is my job to present my students with challenges and opportunities to meet these needs in creative, inquiry-based ways. I feel very fortunate that my district has had a strong push for inquiry-based instruction and PLC's in and out of the classrooms. We have received training from Paul Lawrence and utilize the Communicator Math programs. These experiences allow all students to explore more complex topics and ideas and develop their mathematical thinking.

Virtual Manipulatives Review 1

The virtual manipulative I chose to take a closer look at was Base Block Subtraction. It can be found in Grades 3-5 Number & Operations. Being a fourth grade teacher with students on varying levels (inclusion class) I found this manipulative to be very useful. I start our review of subtraction using the base 10 blocks and this is a great reinforcement activity. Students can create their own problems or there are some created for them. It models for them the process of subtraction with the bae 10 blocks. I have found that even though many of my students know the steps to subtract on paper, they have a difficult time using the hands on materials and an even harder time explaining what subtraction means and the actual process.

Having access to laptops and an interactive whiteboard in my classroom makes these virtual manipulatives an excellent resource for both reinforcement and enrichment.

4-story Towers

After finising up a math test in class, I posed the tower question to my group of fourth graders. I asked the students to predict how many four-story towers could be built using fifty of each of two colors of connecting cubes. Students recorded their predicitons on a lab sheet. Once the predictions were recorded, I instructed them to use the connecting cubes to build as many uniques four story towers as possible. As I walked around to see what the students were doing to solve this problems I witnessed many different things. Two groups split the towers of ten into towers of four of all the same color and one group seperated every cube and spread them out all over the desks. Another group I observed made two 4-story towers of the same color and then made 3-story one color towers and added the other colors to make the fourth story. They continued to take away the first color until they felt they had none left to change. The last group had over twenty towers, that of course were all the same color. I directed the students attention to the Promethean Board and revisited the original task. I reminded them that the towers needed to all be different. At that time the groups who were building many towers realized what was happening and started to pair up the towers they had built.
At the end of the lesson I asked each group how many towers they had. Many of the groups had 16 towers. Students recorded their towers onto the lab sheet and were given an opportunity to write why they think there were only 16 possible tower combinations. Students were very engaged and excited and asked if we could figure out how many towers they could build that are 5-stories tall. I assured them that we would continue the investigation this week in math centers.