Teaching Math

Students Don’t Like Math? Ask the Right Question.

A short article written in a 2006 issue of NCTM’s mathematics journal, Teaching in the Middle School, caught my eye. It was entitled “Some Students Do Not Like Mathematics”. The reasons stated were the same as we have heard for years: “We don’t engage our students,” “Parents are not involved,” “Students don’t know how to

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Monty Python and the Quadratic Shrubbery

If you have taught your math students about perimeter and area, if you are ready to present them with an application challenge, and if they are into Pythonesque comedy (Do you know many middle schoolers who are not into the absurd?), consider showing this clip from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. After watching the clip, distribute

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Our Favorite Blog Posts of 2011

2011 will forever be significant in Elevated Math history.  Our iPad app was launched along our website and blog.   In Barbara Walters’ fashion, we decided to list the TEN MOST FASCINATING POSTS in 2011.  Oh, ok.  Fascinating is probably not the most accurate adjective, so how about if we list our ten favorites? Angry Birds

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The Pursuit of Place Value Understanding, Part III

On May 23, 2010 in my very first blog, Teaching Math; It’s All in the Balance, I shared my view that both the traditional and reform camps have something to offer math educators. Basically, traditionalists believe skills should be taught based on algorithms, formulas and step-by-step procedures; reformists support a more inquiry-based approach that emphasizes developing

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Use Angry Birds to Teach Math, Pt. 2

In the previous blog Use Angry Birds to Teach Math (see below) we shared a plan to introduce students to parabolas. Students can follow Bruner’s CRA teaching method from tossed-beanbags to the parabolas in Angry Birds to graphing-quadratic-equations in Elevated Math. The popularity of our blog post has inspired us to include an excerpt from the Elevated Math lesson.

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Whole Number Division with Semi-Concrete Base Ten Blocks

Helping children develop conceptual understandings, making math learning relevant, and integrating discovery and skills-based learning are all important. In the blog post The First Steps in Developing Conceptual Understanding of Place Value I shared my 2nd grade grandson’s experience in learning two and three digit addition and subtraction.  He had been learning to add and subtract digits

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