The two stories below are meant to serve as an inspiration to us all. I hope to highlight more of these positive stories in future posts. If you have a story to share about how your students have impacted their community or school, please consider leaving a comment below so we can celebrate it with … Read more
A MIND-STRETCHING SET OF CHALLENGES THAT REQUIRES ZERO PREP! How many tasks can be inspired by a simple two-digit number? When I began playing around with this idea, my brain exploded. This is just the kind of task we want for our students, right? mind-blowing and brain-stretching? And the best part? The challenge sets below … Read more
I considered it a compliment when a colleague said to me, “You not only seek out professional development, you always take something you learn, even if it’s only one small thing, and try to incorporate it somehow into what you are already doing with your students.” I guess I’m what you call an “action researcher”- … Read more
A funny thing happened when I was creating a new resource for you. About a year ago, I began working on an idea for vocabulary enrichment that would “sneak” advanced vocabulary into activities students enjoy. I know many students love hidden words, wordplay, and puzzles. I thought it might be fun to create a resource … Read more
I’m a huge fan of Nathan Pyle’s Strange Planet comic series. I see so much potential for its use in the classroom that I had to devote an entire post to it! Who hasn’t pondered the idea of how strange and silly some of our customs and earthly activities would look to extraterrestrial aliens? The … Read more
In The Math Behind the Fun and Games ~ Lessons for Masterminds Who Love Wordle, the focus was on introducing students to combinatorics, the branch of math that is behind many popular daily puzzles. Here I’ll share three different ways to present daily math puzzles so that younger students can join in and older students … Read more
The nine weeks or so between spring break and the end of the year can sail by really fast. A legacy project is one way to inspire students in the final months of school. It can take many forms and be presented at any grade level. Maybe these ideas will inspire you in the last … Read more
If your students enjoy a little friendly competition, this Mini Think-a-Thon is fun to do at the end of the year or when students have been through several days of testing! I have previously shared about it HERE, as part of an all-day event, but thought it might be helpful to create a landing page … Read more
You may have noticed a cultural phenomenon taking place – a guessing game craze. Wordle is everywhere, sparking interest in similar games such as Mastermind, Oodle, and Mathler. If you and your students enjoy any of these games, this would be a great time to introduce them to a branch of mathematics called combinatorics and … Read more
As a society, we are obsessed with ranking. Watch the news, scan social media, or recommend a book or movie to a friend, and – there it is- a list of the top ten in any category, a poll to determine the “GOAT” in any given sport, or a list of celebrities by net worth. … Read more
