Pi Day in the Upper Elementary Math Classroom
Pi Day is coming soon! Did I make a delicious typo? No we're not talking about pie--we're talking about pi--the irrational number the represents the ratio between a circle's circumference and its diameter. Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th each year because the...
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Tips to LOVE Teaching, Even During Test Prep Season
When state testing is around the corner, two things seem to happen: stress levels rise, but student and teacher happiness falls. Some of this is inevitable. High stakes testing is by definition stressful because it is a quantitative measure of things that are near...
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Long division, a long battle
The dreaded words that send chills down the backs of students and teachers alike... Long Division! There are so many barriers to students effectively learning how to do long division, and each grade level that has to teach this skill has its own set of difficulties....
read moreExpanded Form or Expanded Notation?
Before Texas adopted its new TEKS and before the common core became common across the US, place value instruction was generally presented differently that it is today. Teachers all around the country have had to adjust to their new standards. One place where the...
read morePersonalizing Interactive Student Notebooks
Interactive notebooks are a great way to have your students keep a record of everything studied in your class throughout the year, and a fun way to begin them is to personalize the covers! It is a great activity for those first days of school when you want the...
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Base 10 Blocks in the Middle Grades
You may be familiar with base ten blocks as a tool for young learners to discover place value relationships, but did you know that there are uses for them with older students as well? One way that students in fourth and fifth grade can use base ten blocks is...
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