I've been swimming through boards on Pinterest with ideas for teachers, and this drastic difference between elementary pins and high school pins struck me...
Elementary:
"Great for Pond Unit!"
"Thanksgiving Pilgrim Fun!"
"Snowman Math"
"Bald Eagles"
"Ivy and Bean Break the Fossil Record"
"Groundhog Unit"
"Community Helpers Unit"
High School:
"Unit Circle"
"Using Mileage Problems to Teach Ratios"
"Deductive Reasoning Game: Fun Activity for Geometry Class"
"Common Core Activities"
"Geometry"
I found a few things that looked like fun. Upon further reading I discovered they were middle school or elementary school lessons... It would be so different to spend two weeks learning about planets. I wish we could just spend two weeks learning about a topic without having to learn these two formulas on Monday, these two more formulas on Tuesday, these combinations on Wednesday, circles on Thursday... I wish we could read stories and build models. I want to do research and experiment and fail and then try something new. I feel like I was more of an independent learned during my 5th grade project on Guatamala than many of my students are now when it comes to any math topic. Then you look at the topics we're expected to cover and I guess it's no wonder why : ) I once again will say that I wish math could be taught as total discovery with different expectations of what each students should know and be able to do by the end of the year. I wish we taught skills because a problem arose where they were necessary and not because that skill will be on their unit test.
Elementary:
"Great for Pond Unit!"
"Thanksgiving Pilgrim Fun!"
"Snowman Math"
"Bald Eagles"
"Ivy and Bean Break the Fossil Record"
"Groundhog Unit"
"Community Helpers Unit"
High School:
"Unit Circle"
"Using Mileage Problems to Teach Ratios"
"Deductive Reasoning Game: Fun Activity for Geometry Class"
"Common Core Activities"
"Geometry"
I found a few things that looked like fun. Upon further reading I discovered they were middle school or elementary school lessons... It would be so different to spend two weeks learning about planets. I wish we could just spend two weeks learning about a topic without having to learn these two formulas on Monday, these two more formulas on Tuesday, these combinations on Wednesday, circles on Thursday... I wish we could read stories and build models. I want to do research and experiment and fail and then try something new. I feel like I was more of an independent learned during my 5th grade project on Guatamala than many of my students are now when it comes to any math topic. Then you look at the topics we're expected to cover and I guess it's no wonder why : ) I once again will say that I wish math could be taught as total discovery with different expectations of what each students should know and be able to do by the end of the year. I wish we taught skills because a problem arose where they were necessary and not because that skill will be on their unit test.
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