10-Day Countdown to 2021 Math Event!

Happy New Year, Math Teachers! 

Congratulations to Kristina B., Samantha H., and Susan L. for winning the December 31 teacher supply and Visa gift card giveaway! Tyra from Algebra and Beyond will be contacting you soon for your addresses. Congratulations!!

Thursday December 31, 2020!

Can you believe the day is finally here? The end of 2020 is in clear sight! What a year this has been! 

So here we are at our very last event of Countdown to 2021 with another giveaway-- this one for a package of teacher supplies and a $50 Visa gift card. 

Happy 2021!!

Also, I updated this "My New Year Matholution" pennant to now include this digital version on Google Slides. It's a fun way for students to set goals for themselves in the new year. The file includes both print and digital versions now and is still free.

We're almost there, folks! 2021 is knocking on the door!

Shana McKay

Scaffolded Math and Science

How to send a digital word wall to students

I realized today while putting groceries away that I had never written a dedicated post explaining how to send digital word walls to students. (Facepalm) So that's what this post will cover.

You can send a digital word wall just as you would any other Google Slides file, but I like the method outlined in this post better. Here's a short video tutorial:

What I like about this method is that students cannot edit the digital word wall but you can. This makes the word wall a great reference for students and a way for you to deliver information. When you edit your version of the word wall, the edits magically show up on the word wall you shared with students. Cool!

Steps to send your digital word wall to students:

1: Open your digital word wall

2: Go to file>share and make sure its set to "anyone with the link can view"

3: Copy the share link

4: Paste the share link somewhere to edit it. I use Word but you can paste it anywhere. 

5: At the end of the URL, change /edit?usp=sharing to /present

6: Copy and share the entire URL (ending in /present) with students. That's it!

Now, whenever you add to your digital word wall (notes, video links, etc.) students will see your edits on their digital word wall! 

See all math word walls - print and digital.

Download a free 3-D shapes math word wall.

How-to Guide to Attacking Word Problems

Word problems confessional: I dread teaching them. They're one of those things I have had a hard time teaching. My personal word problem solving technique, if you can even call it that, goes something like: "Read it over and over and over again until it makes sense, cross out words I don't like because they're unnecessary and I don't like that they were added as a distraction, read it again, imagine myself in the problem, pull out the numbers, make them into an equation, does the equation make sense?, solve it, does the solution make sense?" How could I ever teach this? It's a heaping disaster!

Word problems don't all fit into the same neat little box. There is no one graphic organizer that works well for all word problems. Each word problem is completely unique. This has always felt so incredibly messy to me when it comes to teaching word problems. 

But this all changed when I came across this paper on George Pólya's Problem Solving Techniques. There are no graphic organizers, there is no overarching goal to fit everything into neat little boxes on a 1-pager. The messiness is expected and embraced and a welcomed part of it all. If you haven't heard of George Pólya's problem solving technique, here is a partial summary:

Activities for Teaching Unit Rate

Unit rate is one of my favorite topics to teach in Consumer Math. There are endless examples of unit prices gone wrong, and they all give me a giggle. But as funny as they can be, it's important for kids to know how to calculate unit rates so that they can determine the best deals. Sometimes, or maybe a lot of the time, the best deal isn't always obvious.

In this post are some of the photos I have taken of unit price fails as well as some unit price activities I have made for students. Here are some photos I have taken over the years of unit prices gone wrong:

Mathematicians look like all of us project

Like so many awesome math teachers, I met Megan McLean through social media at some point over the last few years. Megan is a teacher all the way on the other side of the US, and with the help of Instagram, I get to feel like she is my colleague next door. Over the last few months, Megan has been researching mathematicians from all over the world and collecting their stories into her Instagram account @mathematicianslooklikeallofus. This post highlights a small sliver of the mathematicians she has found and also links to where we can learn more. Here is Megan's guest post on the work she has done so far on this important project.

Guest post by Megan McLean

@mathematicianslooklikeallofus

Digital Math Escape Rooms

Wowza, what a school year. Whether your students are working independently in your classroom or distance learning from home, I wanted to make some super-engaging digital math activities to get students excited about practicing their math. These new digital math escape rooms have been built in Google Forms with no outside links. The directions are simple -- enter a 4-letter code to advance to the next puzzle -- so students can focus all of their energy on their math.

Because the sudden, widespread need for digital math activities, I updated many of my printable math materials to also include digital versions. You can see those here. I have also recently been creating some digital-only math activities to work in Google Slides and Google Forms. One of the newest activity types I've been making in Google Forms are these digital math escape rooms.

I have been getting some great feedback on these digital math escape rooms: