Memorization--Yes or No????

This week has been great in Math class.  Watching my little explorers work with shapes is fascinating.  We are working on composing and decomposing shapes.  Next week we will be partitioning, which is a new common core word.  It is great to see how teaching my first graders these essential skills will prepare them to actually understand fractions!  Can you imagine that?  Often I reflect on how to do certain math skills especially when helping my daughters with their math.  I can hear myself saying these rhymes that help me solve problems but have NO IDEA why they work.  I think these rhymes are great for memorization, but we must ask ourselves is that our goal for our students--memorization.  Yes, it is important but for understanding math concepts.  I would have to say no.

I've added a word cloud to sum up the topics of this blog.  This is another way to use technology to create interest.  Let's remember technology is a great tool to teach our standards, but all in all we are teaching standards!!

Aimee

Our link in the chain and Tagxedo

This week in Math we have continued our study of Geometry.  As I study our new standards, I have realized  how important my "link in the chain" is.  Conceptual knowledge is imperative in math instruction.  We have a tendency to simply want to teach what we were taught or what is in our textbook.  Instead we have to study our "link in the chain."  What I mean by that phrase is to teach our grade level standard to mastery for all students.  We must make sure the conceptual knowledge is developed so that our "link" doesn't break.  In first grade one of our Geometry standards is to partition shapes into halves and fourths.  Most of us want to begin to teach symbolic notation.  However, what happens when we do that is our students never develop the conceptual knowledge behind the notation.

In addition to my weekly thoughts, I would like to introduce to you a website entitled www.tagxedo.com.  This site allows you to create word clouds.  There are numerous ways to use this tool in the classroom.  One way I would use the word cloud is to create a shape with geometric terms included to introduce or to review the vocabulary within the unit.  Another way might be to include a word cloud in parent communication with information about the subject that I was discussing.  This would be eye catching, which would possibly encourage parents to read the information.  A third way to use word clouds in the classroom would be to allow my students to create their own, possibly as a gift for a parent or to summarize their learning for the day or the week.  This tool seems like a great way to engage your audience.


Try it out for yourself by clicking on the link below!
Word Clouds
Aimee