Currently July 2015!

I am so excited to linking up with Oh' Boy 4th Grade to share what I have been up to lately!

After a wonderful weekend with our friends at the beach I am wishing I had more pictures to show you! I was too nervous to bring my phone out to the beach because I am NOT good with phones.. so that explains the lack of pictures!

But back to the point of this blog post…

Those of you who follow me on instagram know I have been attending a massive, intense math workshop put on my the Math and Science Partnership. The instructors were mostly from LSU and East Baton Rouge Parish, but the focus was on implementing best practices, knowing the standards, and making math meaningful for students. Long gone are the days where we teach an algorithm, do a hundred practice problems, and that is "learning math". 

We did a lot of work with models mentioned in the CCSS Progression Documents. This was my first time to study these documents and it really solidified that teaching math is so clearly laid out. If we teach our students math through concrete manipulatives and pictorial representations the gaps will not be as large! I plan on making a whole post on math models, but for now lets just say it was soooo enlightening and I feel like a math all star. 

Here is just one example of using concrete, pictorial, and abstract models to teach the distributive property.

1. Students should have lots of practice actually splitting arrays using counters to build and split the arrays. They can see how the facts come apart and fit back together, giving them a visual and tactile reminder of exactly how this property works. 
2. Then, students can build pictorial models using graph paper. This allows students who still need to count to have the ability to use that reinforcement. 
3. Finally, students can use white or patty paper to draw area models and write equations. 

  I also learned more about using an area model and place value chart to divide. {More to come on that later}

Well my mouse has been freaking out this whole post, so let me go fix this issue…. UGHHHGHGH! I am not a computer all star today!

Happy Teaching