Multiplication of Decimals- Damage Control

So I came to class last night guilty because I had tried to direct teach multiplication of decimals. This was the next thing on our "list" of topics to get covered. Our scope and sequence needs to be updated, but it will have to wait for next year.... all of us have agreed, but the overhaul is to overwhelming for now.

Anyhow, I had not read in detail our assignment until last night before class... I was inspired to try the discovery approach by using an activity that came out of the article that was part of our assignment. I did the activity - Multiplying Decimals, close to zero, close to half and close to 1, ( I think it is on the 2nd or 3rd page of the article.) The article is at school and I am at home....

So, back to the point... I went in with guns blazin', showed the activity to my GT teacher and the other math teacher and guess what - we used it today-- a quick, easy excel spreadsheet, (I even got two to a page - for those who want to save paper)... I will put this on the WIKI in case you want to use it someday. ....(tomorrow - cuz it is at school too)

It worked... the kids who wanted to know why were able to make some good conjectures about what was going on and understand the concept that you are multiplying by a number less than a whole.... I had kids saying - "Look Mrs. Fields, multiplication doesn't always make it bigger, but I get it" and stuff like that.

We decided to call the activity "Decimal Damage Control" because we had really confused our kids more yesterday by trying to teach an algorithm and steps to multiplication without any concept.... Really the algorithm was more confusing than just letting them use a calculator and figure out what was going on. We branched off from only whole numbers to decimal times a decimal too, I know the activity starts with whole numbers...in fact I found out that if you start by multiplying by 1 - yes 1, the kids can begin to see it even then... Funny because the kids really were plugging in 1 times .005 and 1 times .05 to the calculator to get the Answer... but for some reason their eyes opened even with that when they realized what they were doing... It made for a very light hearted - interesting lesson without the stress of "Follow these rules" Following rules was more stressful yesterday.

Oh we did start with .005 instead of just .05 because we are focused in 6th grade on getting smaller than just a hundredth.

Last my GT teacher had them do a "Dear Math Diary Entry" about what they had come to understand... I will do the journal entry to the activity tomorrow.... Journaling - a good thing and I like her Dear Diary approach - she taught Language Arts last year - so she brings those ideas to the table too.


Of course Calculators = "cheating", thus fun and engaging. The kids did make lots of words with the calculators too.... which was fun for a second. :-)


Good evening to all.... If you get a chance to explore this lesson/activity - I think you will all like the results.

First Day Of School

I don't know about you all, but I am a bit nervous, but super excited about another new year. I hope everyone has a wonderful first day... I found this and thought is was very sweet...hope some of you like it.

Whose Child Is This?

Author Unknown

"Whose child is this?"

I asked one day

Seeing a little one out at play

"Mine", said the parent with a tender smile

"Mine to keep a little while

To bathe his hands and comb his hair

To tell him what he is to wear

To prepare him that he may always be good

And each day do the things he should"

"Whose child is this?" I asked again

As the door opened and someone came in

"Mine", said the teacher with the same tender smile"

"Mine, to keep just for a little while

To teach him how to be gentle and kind

To train and direct his dear little mind

To help him live by every rule

And get the best he can from school"

"Whose child is this?" I ask once more

Just as the little one entered the door

"Ours" said the parent and the teacher as they smiled

And each took the hand of the little child"

Ours to love and train together

Ours this blessed task forever."

Journaling

What do you do with regards to journaling in your classroom?

Summer

I don't know about all of you but I am having a terrific summer. We went to Disney World and had a great time. However, that is not the real reason for the entry. We had our 1st Academy Day today and I feel confident about the next year already. We have a new team of math teachers and I am thrilled that they are both so willing to try new things and have similar beliefs about math teaching as I do. We seem to already be working well together. I also feel that I have a lot to gain about class management from one of the teachers because she is a bit more structured and willing to share her ideas with me on that area that I am so weak in. I know I have a lot to learn in the area of management, so if any of you take or learn any great ideas that work well to manage a Discovery Education type classroom, please send them on.... that is my biggest concern for the next year. I want to conduct the activities with more structure and more confidence this next year... I am looking forward to seeing you all again soon....

Mel

Interesting Article

I wanted to share this article that I found this weekend over math learning trajectories. It is basically promoting teaching the "big ideas" in math in the younger grades. I thought it was interesting. http://proxy.tamu-commerce.edu:8007/pqdweb?index=0&sid=1&srchmode=2&vinst=PROD&fmt=6&startpage=-1&clientid=3613&vname=PQD&RQT=309&did=1673585191&scaling=FULL&ts=1240879992&vtype=PQD&rqt=309&TS=1240880002&clientId=3613

New Job

I just wanted to let everyone know that Jerry and I have accepted teaching positions in Henderson, TX (deep East Texas). I will be teaching 4th grade science and social studies. I am really excited about the change but very nervous about working with 4th graders! I am a little bummed about not teaching math, but I think it will be nice to have a break from the TAKS test! I don't plan on leaving math forever, and I know that I can incorporate a lot of my math skills into my science classroom as I feel any good teacher should. Of course, there is always the possibility that we will receive a better offer from another school before we head to East Texas, so I will keep you all posted on the situation. Hope you all are not stressing out too much about our upcoming test...just breath! See you all soon.

Patterns, Algebraic Reasoning Idea/ Objective 2

So, I have been struggling with Objective 2. I taught that "unit" before the Practice TAKS by direct teach and I really didn't help my kids. It was my worst area on the tests. I don't do so well if there isn't anything interesting to help show the kids patterns and such. So I wanted to do better. I am now reteaching that objective. I didn't have time to stay with Dr. F on Saturday so I stayed late and looked in my resources that the grant provided. I searched in SuperSource and found a lot of really neat ideas, I picked one that I thought I could use. It is called "Greek Cross" the kids use snap cubes to build a greek cross and then we use a table to find the patterns. I created a table and asked questions at the bottom. I will put that on the WIKI tomorrow from school since I don't have access to my files from here. It is an easy table to create in excel. I just modeled the one on the activity pages from Super Source. I have another idea from the Super Source CD I am going to use for proportions this week, can't remember the name of it, but if it goes well, I will post about it.

Anyhow - this Greek Cross worked so great. There is symmetry in the cross, you can talk about proportions, and ratios. So much in one activity. The kids loved it and the table they created shows several different patterns. I was so excited about the results of this activity. The kids really understand how to look at a table and analyze it since doing this.

I extended it just a bit by giving the kids a piece of centimeter graph paper and allowing them to recreate - color in their own Greek cross - it will give me something to put up for open house.

Thanks Eileen for Super Source - I couldn't have done a good re-teach without this.

Hope this might help anyone else that needs help with Objective 2
Melanie