I just attended a wonderful workshop by Intel. It is 80 hours in MATH and in 6 days we knocked out half of it! Wooooooow! It was interesting but going everyday and having tons of homework every night was exhausting! I'm glad I went and I constantly kept thinking, I can't wait to blog this, or I can' wait to blog that...so that was great!
What I want to share with you on this Common Core site is the Eight Standards of Mathematical Practices that math educators should seek to develop in their students of all levels and ages. I'll break it into one standard a day for eight days. I hope you enjoy this "light" reading as we head back to school!
1. Make Sense of Problems and Persevere in Solving Them
Mathematically proficient students start by explaining to themselves the meaning of a problem and then they look for a starting point for solving it. They analyze the items in the problem and the goal of solving that problem. This is true for a Calculus student or a Pre-K student. Internally their brain is wrapping around a way, any way from their previous knowledge of how to solve this new problem! While they work on the problem they evaluate their progress and change directions if needed. An older student may realize that they need a calculator for the long division steps, a young child may start to draw a picture to help solve a tough part of a word problem. As a teacher I felt that I had taught my students to do this all these years, but a few new tips have me excited about teaching again....we must model and really teach our children to ask themselves, "Does this make sense?" Then, the next step is that mathematically proficient students check their answers to problems using a different method. I know I have not always worked on making my elementary students check and double-check, so that is my goal this year!
I'll see you back here tomorrow night with NUMBER TWO!
I'm Fern Smith, my school's Teacher of the Year and 3rd Grade Team Leader.
If you haven't been to my blog, I'd love for you to drop by and follow me!
Thanks, ~Fern
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