Websites I can use as a math teacher

This week in classes we talked about teachers' dispositions and attitudes towards their students. We also evaluated our individual learning preferences. And we also touched a bit on assessments. I've been looking at a lot of sites online and have found a bunch that look promising as references for me as I begin to formulate my own teaching persona.

This one has a huge amount of information. There are video "classes" for educators for many subject areas, for specific age ranges. I've been looking at Math for high school level. Today I have been looking at the video classes relating to classroom assessments. I am happy to see that they are speaking about teaching math more as a way of thinking, of learning to problem solve and consider alternatives, not just to memorize formulas and retain factual information.  I will look to this site for idea on presenting opportunities to my math students to learn in a variety of ways- written exercises and reading text (independent, verbal and visual), watching videos or demonstrations on the board or smartboard (verbal, aural, visual), working in collaborative groups (social, oral), using manipulatives or models (kinesthetic, independent or social). This site also offers a variety of methods to assess a student's demonstration of their knowledge.There are many ideas I can use to gauge my students grasp of concepts through different approaches- observation, questioning, discussion, building models, explaining to others and more.
http://www.learner.org/



This site belongs to a math teacher who offers on line courses and tutorials in algebra and math fundamentals (for fees). However, she also has some online content which is free. And a few of the sections are very interesting to me, dealing with helping students with math anxiety, and with recognizing and working with different learning styles. I'll want to find more detailed information, and will continue to seek it online and in other media, but this site is a good starting point. I like her "poster" of Math Student's Pledge. It is a succinct way to convey to students best practices to help them be successful engaged students. It tells students to pay attention, to re-frame explanations in their own words and to ask questions in class. They should seek extra help if they need it and would benefit from working with a "study buddy". These are all good ideas to help student learn in a variety of ways- independent, collaboratively, using their own words, to test their understanding. They should actively participate in class, questioning anything they don't understand.
Her "Math teachers' 10 Commandments" provides the same sort of best practices for TEACHERS. This list provides reminders to respect all the students as individuals and recognize their differences in learning style. It points out that a teacher must gauge each student's understanding and provide support as needed, not to treat the class as a single entity. And it stresses the importance of fostering a classroom environment full of active participating students, taking on leading roles in their own learning experience.
Good reminders.
http://www.mathpower.com/



This blog isn't about lesson plans, assessments or styles, but I was pleased to find it. It tells about ways in which math plays a role in everyday life. THAT is a questions student always ask, and if they aren't asking it they are thinking it! If we want students to be thinking about problems and situations and formulating strategies and solutions, we need to provide them some context and real world connections. This site will be very helpful to me to frame my lessons so that the problems and concepts connect to things that the students can understand and have an interest in. It also will give me ideas to design lessons and problems using realistic scenarios which will help the students visualize the problems. Using these ideas I can present to my students ways in which math will be part of their lives for the years beyond school and report cards.
http://www.learner.org/interactives/dailymath/