Media 4 Math: Math in the News

What it is: Media 4 Math: Math in the News helps students view current events through the “prism of mathematics.”  Every week features a new story that makes headlines and the underlying mathematical story gets extracted.  The Math in the News site is a little bit confusing to navigate at first (it isn’t really clear where to find each issue of Math in the News).  Scroll down to see an archive of stories.  Each entry has a Slideshare version of the presentation, a YouTube version or the Math in the News app version.  These presentations are full lessons with embedded background knowledge articles and videos, data  sets, current event explanations and a walk through of how to solve.

In addition to Math in the News, Media 4 Math also has Math Tutorials, Promethean Flipcharts, Powerpoint slideshows, Math Labs, Print Resources, a Video Gallery, Math Solvers and more.  I really like the Math Solvers, students can choose a problem type, input their own data and see a breakdown of how to solve the problem.  The Math Labs include PDF worksheets and YouTube Videos that lead them through real-math problem sets.

How to integrate Media 4 Math: Math in the News into the classroom: Media 4 Math: Math in the News is a fantastic way to help your students make the connection between the upper-level math they are learning and life. I’m fairly certain that every math teacher in history has heard “what are we ever going to use this for?”  This site helps students not only see that math is everywhere, but also walks them through how to think mathematically.  There are plenty of resources that walk students through common mathematical functions.  This site is a great supplement to any math curriculum!

With new content weekly, your curriculum will be fresh and relevant!  Share Math in the News using an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer, as a math center on classroom computers, individually with laptops or iPads, etc.   Flip your math class and have students explore a Math Tutorial to prepare them for the next day of learning.  Then they can test a few scenarios in Math Solvers and come up with their own explanation of the concept.  In class, students can work with you to solidify and practice the learning.

Tips: Sign up for the free weekly newsletter to have Math in the News delivered right to your inbox.  Do you have a classroom iPad?  Math in the News now has an app!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using  Math in the News in your classroom.

Print What You Like

What it is: I don’t know about you, but printers can be a mixed blessing.  On the one hand, if you have one, your students are able to print out their work and finished projects; on the other, printers also make for a lot of wasted pages and ink when students (or teachers) are printing from the Internet. Print What You Like solves this problem by letting you format any web page for printing.  No more pages of ads, empty space, and the extras that you didn’t want.  Print What You Like works in three easy steps: 1. Go to Print What You Like and paste the URL of the page you want to print, 2. Edit the page, 3. Print it!  Very easy and a great way to cut down on paper waste!  I like that there is nothing to download with Print What You Like, it runs directly from your browser.  You can make the page you are printing more readable by changing font size and typeface and removing the background.   Print What You Like gives you the ability to combine multiple web pages by editing them and printing them as one document.  You can even save your modified page as a PDF or HTML document…so cool!  If you sign up for the service, you can even save the changes you make to a page so that other pages from the same site are automatically formatted the same (I’m thinking this would be great for recipe sites!).

How to integrate Print What You Like into your curriculum: Introduce students and other teachers to Print What You Like for printing web pages.  Post instructions for using Print What You Like next to classroom computers, printers, and in the computer lab (I have attached the instructions card that I created for Print What You Like below.  Feel free to print it out and use it in your classroom or computer lab).  Make it even easier to use Print What You Like and add it to the bookmark bar in your favorite browser or add the bookmarklet editor directly to your browser.

Tips: If you have a website that students are constantly printing from, consider adding a printer friendly button that creates a printer friendly version of your website with the click of a button.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Print What You Like in your classroom!

I have, Who has Contraction Game

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What it is: Today I was looking for fun interactive games for students to play to practice “not” contractions.  I have used iKnow That: Alien Word Mine to practice the not contraction, but was looking for another opportunity for students to practice.  I searched for some fun activities and came up blank.  I decided to make an offline game that students could play as a class called “I have, who has?”.  In this card game, each student chooses a game card.  Each game card starts with the separate words (for example: can not) and has a contraction (for example: aren’t).  Students stand in a circle holding there game card.  Choose one student to begin by reading their card: “I have can not, who has aren’t?”  The student holding the card with “are not” responds: “I have are not, who has don’t?”.  Play continues until all matches have been made.


How to integrate I Have, Who Has Contraction Game into the classroom: There are several ways to play the I have, Who has Contraction Game.  The first way is to play as a class, with students reading the cards aloud and creating matches.  The game could also be played more like a dominoes game where students match up all the cards end to end with the correct contraction match.  I have, Who has can be played for multiple subjects.  For math facts the cards could read “I have 5+5 who has 12?”  The student holding “5+7” would respond “I have 5+7, Who has 9?” and so on.  This game can be adapted for matching states and capitals, math facts, parts of speech, vocabulary practice, etc.  Students have a great time playing “I have, Who has?” as a class.  It is a fabulous listening game and helps practice a variety of learning.


Tips: I have attached my Contraction Game here. Download and play with your students!


Leave a comment if you have found other contraction games that your students enjoy or your adaptations of “I have, Who has?”

Block Poster

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What it is: Block Poster is a neat site that I learned about on Twitter. Block Poster lets you choose any image, choose how many sheets of paper wide you would like your poster to be, and then creates a pdf file of your new image that is blown up.  The result is a massive pixel poster to hang on a bulletin board or the walls of your classroom.


How to integrate Block Poster into the classroom: It can be difficult to find good technology posters that relate to my classroom.  I was thrilled when I learned about Block Poster.  Any image can be turned into a poster that can be printed on any printer!  So cool!  Create posters with unique messages for your classroom, posters that include the names of your students, or motivational posters.  I am currently creating a Wordle message for my classroom that will be made into a poster using Block Poster…I’m pretty excited about it!


Tips: The smaller the image is to begin with, the more pixellated the full size poster will be.  This can be a neat look!


Leave a comment and share how you are using Block Poster in your classroom.

My Award Maker

 

What it is:   It is that time of year again, time for end of the year award ceremonies where we remind our students of how far they have come this year and celebrate their achievements.  My Award Maker is a site I learned about from Kevin Jarrett’s blog NCS Tech.  He found this site just in time for it to be useful for me so I thought I would pass it on so you could benefit as well!  My Award Maker is a free, very easy to use award/certificate creator.  Choose from one of hundreds of great awards, fill in the information that best fits your needs, and print.  It couldn’t be easier and the results are fantastic!  This is going to save me from going to Lakeshore or US Toy to hunt for awards for this year, they are as good if not better quality than those you can purchase.

How to integrate My Award Maker into the classroom:   At my school, we have a formal end of the year award assembly where students are recogized and celebrated for their hard work throughout the year.  This is the perfect place to find an award or certificate for any occasion.  Don’t wait for a formal award ceremony, tell your students how proud you are of their achievements and effort year long with class awards and certificates.  

 

Tips: My Award Maker has a special section of Tips and Tricks for making special occasions memorable.  Check it out!

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using My Award Maker  in your classroom.

Toy Maker

 

What it is: Toy Maker is a website full of free paper toy downloads.  While it isn’t directly using technology in the classroom, this is a great site to visit for the free downloads.  Toy Maker has everything from paper animals (origami type), to awesome math and learning toys, to toys that move, and gift boxes.  This site offers really amazing downloads and teaches students how to follow step by step instructions to create their toy. 

 

How to integrate Toy Maker into the classroom:   The math and learning toys on the Toy Maker site are perfect for integrating into your existing curriculum.  Living in Colorado means a lot of indoor recess days in the winter months, these toys offer excellent activities for those indoor days!  The gift boxes are perfect for holiday gifts home (Christmas, Mother’s day, Father’s day, etc.) or for exchanging with learning buddies.   Younger students will enjoy creating one of the animals and writing a story to accompany it.

 

Tips: Share this site with parents, they will love these printables for rainy days at home!

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Toy Maker  in your classroom.