The Metric System

The metric system is not probably a difficult concept but we tend to do it really boring. Why don't we make a connection with real life situations? A nice project should be to find three pictures of objects of different dimensions and put them in order in the classroom.

You can take some of this pictures from the website:

http://htwins.net/scale2/

Students love to make connections and touch things!!!!

Make your class a microscope or a telescope!!!

Why don't we exercise our minds?

How many of you think you are not good at math?

Have you ever thought that you are not born intelligent enough to understand maths or science?

That's so FALSE!!!!

However they have made you feel in that way and you have given up on trying and you have become bad at maths!!!!

But you are still in time. Let's give another chance and you will see how your brain grows!!!!

It is about time to show the world that you are AWESOME and INTELLIGENT !!!!

Are you ready to start?

It is the beginning of the school year and we are all excited about what we are going to do, how our students are going to react... But we don't have to forget motivation, specially at the beginning of the year. We need to tell our students that they are allowed to fail, to make a mistake... Actually it is the only way to learn. You should tell them that their future is not written, that they can be good at math, they can develop their brains!!!!
You can use that video to do that:

Have a wonderful school year!!!! Enjoy learning!!!!!

Another way of looking at math... Really interesting video!!!

Some days… it's better just laugh!!!

Have you ever lived a situation like that?

we live in exponential times...

so prepare our students for that!!!!!

the enemy of pencils...

This video made me think…

What do you think?

Are you preparing your students for the future or are they just memorizing?

Are we adapting the methodology to the new century?

Are we just reproducing the way they teach to us? Are we living in the same era?

the quadratic formula

We all know… the quadratic formula is hard to memorize.

But there is a tale that can help you to memorize it:

"Once upon a time… a negative (-)  boy who couldn't decide (+ -) whether to go to a radical party. The boy was squared so he missed out (-) on 4 awesome chicks. The party was over at 2 a.m."

Try that with your students… and also have a look to this funny video:

What do you think of this lesson?

Working with stations

We want to do so many things in the class: working visual, hearing, kinesthetic… we want to make a project, we want to work with new technologies, we would love our students throwing conclusions, reading articles, writing, analyzing…
However, we don't have time or it seems we don't have enough time. Or we don't have enough calculators, or enough computer… or enough patience.
Have you tried to work with STATIONS?
"What's that?"
Create different spaces in your class, let say around 5 or 6. In every space you are going to create a different activity. Let's see an example.
Let's say we are working with equations:
Station 1: Solving equations using algebra tiles and modeling some equations
Station 2: Solving equations using a calculator
Station 3: Solving real world problems using an equation
Station 4: Explaining in a wiki using their own words how to solve equations.
Station 5: Watching videos on how to solve equation or some inter actives activities.

The students should move around the room discovering the different stations and completing some assignments.

HINT: Duplicate some stations so the students don't have to wait to move from one to the other.

Try it and tell me your experience!!!

The art of questioning

I know… There is nothing new. Plato used the "Maieutics" long time ago. The method seems really basic, just keep asking questions until the students discover by their own answer the knowledge. It could see also old fashion, but it works!!!!
After attending a Professional Development I started to apply this technique. Your first impulse is going to be to grab the pencil of the students and scream: "I will do it, it is so easy, just add those two terms and you will get the answer…" However, if you cool your jets, if you achieve to be patient enough… and you have the ability to ask the right question you will be really surprise.
It is not easy to come up with the right question. When a student says "x+x is equal x or 1 or 0 or I don't know". You shouldn't ask: "Are you sure it is not just 2x?". You need to develop the ability to keep asking question kind of: "Ok, so how much is 2 + 2?" "and 3 + 3?" "Could you express that just in general?" What's the meaning of the x?"
You also discover where your student got lost, what misconception he or she had… and you can treat the problem from the root!!!
I know, it takes time and we don't have time…
But What's the real purpose of Education?

Students and Wiki

It is important the students create, their write with their own words, they express themselves!!! It is really important they connect knowledge, they look for information, videos, use internet to investigate!!!
For that purpose I have created a wiki. My AWESOME students of this year they are doing an AWESOME work. Have a look for ideas:
http://mathswithmrcarrero.wikispaces.com