3 Tips for Starting a Unit on Time

How well do your students really understand time?

Even after giving my students a pre-test  on telling time and solving elapsed time word problems, I greatly misjudged their ability to tell time on an analog clock as well as to think about how long before the next hour.

After crashing and burning with several elapsed time number line lessons, I decided to rethink my approach and to consult the Common Core State Standards prerequisite  understandings for time. From here I came up with three tips to help my students with their conceptual understand of the analog clock and telling time.

Tip #1: Make sure students know the hour time zones

Start your time unit with by giving students a common understanding of the "hour zones" on an analog clock. Use their schema about an "AB" pattern and divide the clock into 12 parts.  

Tip #2: Give students resources to help them find the 

                         minutes on the clock

Sometimes part of the trouble for telling time is knowing how to move CLOCKWISE on a clock and how to figure out where specific minutes on the clock are when given a problem. 

Give students this page to use as a resource when working with time! The "clock facts" used for skip counting by fives even have a thicker border to help them stand out.



                                   Tip #3: Practice, Practice, Practice!

Give random times and have students shade in the number of minutes on the clock. This will help them start to recognize the concept of moving clockwise as well as the total area a number of minutes takes on the clock.

Also, relating time to fractions of 60 minutes can help students estimate times while they are learning how to be very precise

Starting our unit over and focusing on these three tips has greatly improved the understanding of time in my classroom.

All of these sheets and more are included in my

Winter Elapsed Time Pack!

  Click on the picture to grab it now while the price is only $3.00!! 

Also try out the  Spring Activity Pack!

Try out the pages specifically for these three tips for free 

by clicking on the link below...

       

Leave a comment about how your are helping your students understand time!

Minute Math Sessions for Parents

I have been thinking of how to better reach the families of my students and help them with using math strategies at home. There never seems to be enough time, but if someone is really worth it, then I just need to make the time for it.

With that in mind, I came up with the idea of a
 "Minute Math Session" for Parents 

This is a lightning speed, 15 minute tip session for parents. I am doing it during my lunch hour, and I hope that if this is successful, that I can turn over the strategy "showings" and have them as leadership opportunities for my students.

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Here's my idea:

1. Parents RSVP for the event.

2. Parents will come to my room at the start of my lunch period on the day of the event.

3.I spend 2-4 minutes introducing to one or two math strategies we are using in the classroom.

4. Parents get a copy of the supplies/materials needed and get some hands-on practice time with me.

5. Ask Questions!

6. Parent take materials and leave.

The first one is this Friday - here is the one of the tips. 

You can click on the image too to grab the freebies!

 I'll post how it goes!

How are you reaching out to your families to help with math strategies?

My Life as a Mathematician

What is your math story? 

Over the summer I received the book, The Impact of Identity in K-8 Mathematics: Rethinking Equity-Based Practices by Julia Aguirre, Karen Mayfield-Ingram, and Danny Bernard Martin. 


It has been a really eye opening read where I am starting to think more deeply about my own math identity and how my past experiences have shaped how I teach math today.

If you stepped into my classroom today, you will see math talk posters, anchor charts, fancy math displays, and an array of math targets and goals for my 3rd grade students.  Math is a constant and a welcome necessity in my classroom and I am known by my students and other teachers as a person who loves math. I am even the Vice-president for elementary of an NCTM affiliate here in Michigan and love talking math on Twitter each week. 

My actions and thoughts today, however, are almost the complete opposite of how I felt about and approached math in middle school and high school. I always knew it was a necessity, but I just didn't get it. I didn't understand the "why". I did have all sorts of questions floating in my mind during a math lecture:

No one had ever told me that it was okay to ask these types of questions in math and since I was the type of student that did exactly as she was told, I never asked my questions. I always got decent grades in math, but because I never developed any true conceptual understanding I still always felt as if I was struggling.

My love for the subject began when I had to start teaching it to others. I felt the urgency to develop my understanding and really dig deeply into the concepts so that I would be able to help my students. When I started answering the questions I had been asking in my mind for years, math became a subject of beauty to me. The connections, patterns, specific vocabulary, and amazing reality of math in nature is fascinating to me. Understanding math at a deeper level has changed how I view my world. 

I work so tirelessly with the subject and continue to read about it and go back to school to increase my knowledge to understand multiple ways to help my students make math connections with their worlds. I want students to understand that math is about problem solving and question asking and pattern noticing- I also want them to embrace these aspects in order to truly become empowered.

I would not have written about my math identity without this book nor would I have started to think about math equity in the classroom. I loved this process so much that I would like to share it with others. I thought one easy way to get this started would be to start a Twitter chat!

Join me for the new #mathequity chat starting January 24, 2016 @8pm EDT. You do not need to have the book read in order to participate! Everyone has experience to share and I look forward to hearing your perspectives.

What is your math story? 

Making the Standards Come to Life!

Meet the 3rd Grade Operations and Algebraic Thinking Standards Players!

Collect them all!

I am a big fan of the common core math standards in general, but let's be honest, they are not written for students. Sometimes the language involved is confusing for teachers as well! 

 I have been thinking about how to make these standards more accessible to my 3rd graders, and decided to help make the standards come to life by changing the wording of each one.

I found some super cute sports-themed clipart (thank you Scrappin' Doodles!), gave each sports player a name, and worked on translating each Operations and Algebraic Thinking standard into relatable statements. 

I then connected each player to a particular standard.

For example, here is the Kid's Math Talk version of 3.OA.A.1-

Now, every time my students are working with word problems or groups of objects that relate to multiplication, I introduce this poster.

We talk about Alex and what we know about Alex and what we still need to work on in order to master Alex.

Talking about a name (and having the picture as a visual) instead of an abstract string of numbers and letters (3.OA.A.1) feels more comfortable, is more kid-friendly and accessible, and is frankly easier to remember.

Along with each poster, I have created mastery tracking sheets for student and teacher accountability.

Click here to download the preview that includes a freebie!

 I am going to make each of my students a binder that holds all of the mastery tracking sheets for the Operations and Algebraic Thinking Standards. This way pages can be added as the year moves forward. 

At the end of each marking period this will serve as a great reflection tool and at the end of the year students will have a reliable record of learning.

This is by no means the end of the journey to make the standards truly come to life for my students. I am still relying on productive struggles and strong math discourse as well as small group instruction and real world problem solving within math workshop.

Having player names, and characters to "collect" through the school year has, however, created an added layer of interest for my students.


Check out the pack below for all 9 Operations and Algebraic Thinking Standards for 3rd grade. (And a bonus NBT Standard!)

What are your thoughts about this approach? How are you making the standards come to life in your room?

Reconceptualizing the Math Curriculum

Is curriculum a noun or a verb? When I first started my career as a middle school science teacher ten years ago in 2005, I would have undoubtedly answered that curriculum is a noun even though it is something that is “done” each day. To my former self, the definition of curriculum was simply the three binders and extensive teacher’s edition science textbook handed to me at the beginning of the school year. I would have defined curriculum as the unit test at the end of chapter one, the text box on page 52 defining key words; curriculum in my naive mind was static, time-bound, and easily accessible and visible.

I feel that part of the naivety was not from being a new teacher, but instead was because of how I was implicitly taught to define curriculum during my pre-service years as an undergraduate student. I remember learning how to develop a unit and about applying a specific design and theme to each unit that fit in with the curriculum standards (and usually within a set time period), but never do I remember rich discussions breaking down the word curriculum itself.

Currently in 2015, my view of curriculum is evolving and I am unable to define the concept itself; I can only give characteristics such as ever-changing, culturally relevant, timely, and historically accurate.  When I hear an educator say to follow the curriculum, a sense of confusion immediately sets in my mind. First of all, how is it even possible to “follow” the curriculum when this curriculum is always changing? Every minute of every day there is an opportunity to learn something new, which would technically mean to me that curriculum is everywhere and in everything, down to the colors, signs, and lighting that are in school hallways. This implicit understand might be one reason why educators at times get so overwhelmed. Everything is important, but it is impossible to teach everything to everyone.

In my mind, if one is going to plan curriculum, it makes more sense to think about what to implicitly omit from a classroom and from instruction. For example, I purposely have removed all desks, including the teacher’s desk, from my room in order to omit the theme of individualism. We instead have tables to implicitly state that everyone in this room is a part of a team; we share things and work together to take care of our space. I have had parents question this philosophy, as they are concerned about other students using their child’s materials and about their student not having personal space. My response back is always that we are a community in this room and that we respect each other’s belongings and that I as the teacher will always provide students with all of the tools they need in order to be successful.

With this in mind, how can we as educators make to begin the reconceptualization of the math curriculum? 
In my mind, this reconceptualization begins with a shift in language-

Hidden in the language of saying that there are things that "good" mathematicians do, is the fact that if you are not doing these things, then you must be "bad". Being good or bad at something implies a fixed mindset. Instead of implicitly telling students what they are - bad or good- indicate to students what they are capable of becoming. Replacing the word good with strong implies that these skills are something that you can improve upon over time- a growth mindset with the realization that curriculum truly is a series of actions. A student might be the opposite of strong right now (weak), but just as in sports and other aspects of life, practice, determination, and perseverance will allow for the possibility of improvement and strength in skills.

Each of the skills listed above are teachable throughout the year and students should be able to sight evidence for how they know they are improving in these areas.

How are you reconceptualizing your math curriculum?