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Teachers increasingly make use of technology to enhance delivery of their mathematics lessons. Computers and active board technology have made it possible to provide dazzling and engaging math lessons for all levels of math students. Each month, Mister Goodmath will try to provide you with a variety of new links and things worth exploring.
Very helpful, are the Sunshine State Standard's for individual grade levels http://www.floridastandards.org/Standards/FLStandardSearch.aspx which tell you what your students are expected to learn in mathematics during their current year in school. Once on this page, make certain that the “Browser” tab is highlighted. You will see a drop down menu button asking you to select a subject. Select “Mathematics”. In the subsequent steps, select “Grade Level”, followed by “Supporting/Big Idea”, and then “Benchmark”. What you’ll have access to are Benchmark Descriptions, Examples, Curriculum Resources including lesson plans, and Activities. All may be printed or exported to Microsoft Word or Excel documents.
http://thefutureschannel.com
The Futures Channel and their Digital Video Resource Library (DVRL) does just that. I’ve been a fan of this material since the late 90’s when the VRL required the use of a rather clunky piece of hardware that hooked up to a TV monitor. Shortly after, a much improved Digital Video Resource Library on DVD appeared, and now a web based subscription service not only offering access to the entire DVRL but also a collection of resource videos going back to when the Futures Channel was part of an organization called F.A.S.E. The subscription is a mere thirty-five dollars a year and a great bargain.
Site features that I regard as favorites include:
• The Kay Toliver and Jaime Escalante material is inspiring.
• Navigating the site required no more than 3 clicks of the mouse to get to where I wanted to go, an important issue with a class of students in front of you.
• There’s a high impact video snippet to introduce virtually any lesson that you’d teach in math, science, technology, or arts and design, and they are accompanied by an abundance of printable lesson plans in PDF format.
I used The Futures Channel material on a Promethean Active Board and inexpensive speaker system. Wish I had a dollar for every ‘ooh’ and ‘ah’ I’ve heard in past years.
Summed up ----- can’t wait to see what the team is up to next.
Math123xyz http://Math123xyz.com
Math123xyz offers free interactive multimedia math resources, including math lessons, interactive tutorials, learning tools, enrichment and extra practice.
PrimaryResources http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/maths.htm
Primary Resources provides lesson plans, worksheets, and other supplemental materials for teachers to download.
There are two incredible sites for virtual manipulatives that you must visit. Plan on having lots of time because you'll want to play for several hours at each site. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics hosts a site called Illuminations http://illuminations.nctm.org/ offering virtual manipulatives that parallel the manipulatives your child's teacher uses every day in school. You'll find everything from money to clocks, geoboards, pattern blocks, math balances, and tons more. Utah State University hosts another interactive math activities site called the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html that allows students to explore and visualize abstract math concepts. You'll have loads of fun with these two sites.
Harcourt Math Glossary http://www.hbschool.com/glossary/math2/index.html
Harcourt Math Glossary is an interactive math glossary for students in kindergarten through grade 6. The site provides a searchable database of math terms, accompanied by illustrations and animated examples.
Arcademic skill builders include online educational games for learning math, language arts, vocabulary, and thinking skills. Simply click on http://arcademicskillbuilders.com/ and have loads of fun.
Shodor
Shodor Interactive offers interactive activities with coordinated handouts, tables, worksheets, and lessons, as well as written background material to introduce students to mathematics concepts, vocabulary, and formulas. Log onto http://shodor.org/interactive .
A Maths Dictionary for Kids 2008
by Jenny Eather
Math dictionary for kids provides more than 600 interactive mathematical definitions for elementary school students. Find this awesome site at
http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jeather/maths/dictionary.html .
To give students practice at writing about math descriptions, explanations, procedures, and topics for discussion, Jenny has a terrific web site called “Writing Fun”. Those of you who have students writing in math journals would do well to check out, http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jeather/writingfun/writingfun.html .
Thinkfinity, http://www.thinkfinity.org/ brought to you by the Verizon Foundation, is an interactive web site for teachers, parents and students. Mister Goodmath recommends this site because of its broad applications. Lesson plans for teachers and activities for students and parents are plentiful in the following subject areas: Mathematics, Arts integration, Economics, Foreign Language, Geography, History, Family and Adult Literacy, Literature, Philosophy, Reading and Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies
This site, http://www.t2tweb.us/digital/NMPVideo.asp for teachers of mathematics and parents stresses among other things the importance student memory of basic facts and proficiency with whole numbers and fractions at the elementary level. Visitors are able to view videos related to 45 recommendations made by the National Mathematics Advisory Panel. Most important to parents is the video on the National Math Panel Findings.
Time Monsters http://timemonsters.com/
Many teachers ask Mister Goodmath for great ways to teach time. Time monsters is a site that does just that and is especially suited to teachers using Smart Boards or Promethean Active Boards. Exploration of this site will reveal a large number of lessons and quizzes that will insure student mastery of telling time.
Mathematical Moments of the American Mathematical Society http://ams.org/mathmoments promotes an appreciation and understanding of the role of mathematics in the fields of science, nature, technology, and human culture. The site includes downloadable posters, podcasts, and translated versions for your ESOL students.
Interactive Mathematics where you learn math by playing with it.
Even though this site http://www.intmath.com provides free online explanations and examples for topics ranging from basic algebra to advanced calculus, there are a number of categories that have upper elementary applications. When at this site, visit Numbers, Money, Data, and Probability.