Month: June 2011

Slip-sliding Away: A Summer Math Dilemma

Summer Slide. Brain Drain. Learning Leak. While it may sound like I’m describing a decaying water park, in reality these are terms used to explain the effect summer vacation has on young students and scholastic retention. If those terms don’t incite fear, they should. Students can lose more than two months of previous year math …

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The First Steps in Developing Conceptual Understanding of Place Value

In an earlier blog I shared my concern about my eight year-old grandson knowing how to calculate the correct answer when adding two-digit numbers without knowing the value of the digits in the addends or sum.  But helping children understand place value is more than telling them which number is in the ones place and …

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Using Multimedia to Redefine a Word Problem

Traditionally, math problems have been posed on the static page of a textbook with all the data provided.  If students correctly plug the data into a given formula, TA-DA!  The correct answer appears.  But does this type of math instruction encourage a student’s intuition and teach the patience needed when faced with an actual life …

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Calculators in the Math Classroom: In Memory of a Friend and Obstinate Student

Today I found out I lost a contemporary, a friend.  This friend, who once was a highly successful investment banker with a lucrative business, left an affluent lifestyle to pursue a degree in middle level education.  He wanted to make a difference.  He wanted to make an impact on kids’ lives.   He wanted to teach …

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