After a week of working on my GAME plan, I am a little farther than I was a week ago. One of my goals involved incorporating more real-world applications in my math classroom and using the computer lab to complete these activities on a weekly basis. I have found some resources that have ideas on ways to incorporate real world activities, but I am still having trouble finding some really good ways of bringing the real-world into my classroom. Does anyone have some resources or ideas to find usable lessons in a middle school math classroom? I have spoken with my peer group and they all seem bogged down by testing and the pressures that come with the preparation to try anything new or develop new ideas to bring into the classroom. I will need to continue to do some more research to find some good resources… I would purchase some books that have developed lessons, but always hesitate because they seem better than they really are.
The other part of the GAME plan involved updating my lessons to include the citations for the resources that I used to develop them. I want to model writing citations for my students and I have begun to update the lessons that I have used this week. Each night before I leave my classroom, I bring up the smartbaord lesson and change the slides that I need to in order to show the sites and resources that I used to create the lesson. I do not need any additional resources to complete this part of my plan; I just need to constantly remind myself to do so. If I continue to make these changes, then it will become a habit and be second nature soon.
Jamie,
ReplyDeleteIt is so sad that we are so focused and worried about standardized testing. I feel your pain there. As far as new resources go, have you ever looked at IXL.com or internerforclassrooms.com? I have found them very useful in my classroom. I teach elementary, but I know both sites extend to middle school material. Let me know what you think of them.
Dawn
Jamie,
ReplyDeleteSo sorry. I seemed to have missed the fact that I mangled the one websites name...
It is internetforclassrooms.com.
Sorry,
Dawn
Thank you Dawn, I have had experience with both of those sites in the past. I really like them too. I link many of the IXL quiz activities to my Edmodo site for the students to have some extra practice on the topics we are working on. I am still just not sure where to find some real-world activities though. I will keep searching and they are bound to be out there.
ReplyDeleteJamie,
ReplyDeleteI find myself in the same situation as you are in. I am constantly looking for resources that incorporate real-world applications for the concepts I am teaching in my middle school math class. My goal is to use authentic instruction in my classroom and it is difficult to find examples of how other math teachers have been successful in doing this. I noticed that Dawn recommended www.IXL.com as a resource. The chairperson for our schools math department just recently recommended the same website and raved about how great it is. I personally have not had the chance to review it in depth but at quick glance it does look valuable.