TIS & That are: Using digits 0 to 9, only once, make the inequality true.
Volume 6, Issue 8
December 8, 2017
Keeping Students Engaged As We Near Winter Break Visual Patterns, like the
Math Resources By Michelle Weekley
name suggests, supplies hundreds of patterns to
Several math websites offer higher level
analyze. You can have
thinking for math students. Whether you use these for current standards you are working on or for review, each promises to keep students engaged and brains working. Which One Doesn’t Belong This site has groups of four things (graphs, numbers, or equations) and students decide which one doesn’t belong. Students then back up their answer with some sort of reasoning. In most problems, you can justify more than one answer. Open Middle has resources for kindergarten through high school. Questions from this site do not have a direct way of arriving at a right answer (the middle is open) which requires students to really understand concepts rather than just memorizing algorithms. Here’s an example of an Open Middle
problem for 5th grade. The directions
students find the next term, the 10th term, the nth term, or write an equation to represent it. You could also have students look at a few and classify them as linear, quadratic, etc. There are worksheet templates available on the site.
Play With Your Math has some very thought-provoking questions (like the one to the left) that will have students using that brain of theirs. Be careful! No answers are provided!
Yummy Math has worthwhile mathematical tasks that are broken down by grade level and standard. Most, if not all, tasks are related to actual real-life problem situations.
Reading Resources By Lisa Arthur With Christmas Break approaching, we find it hard to keep our students interested in classroom activities. We need to become creative with ways to grab their interests. Some things you might try are: give them choices tap into different learning styles incorporate their interests make the lesson fun through a game use encouraging words have a positive attitude allow them the opportunity to earn breaks to do an activity they enjoy
7 Online Reading Sources for Parents with Struggling Readers Until students become fluent, independent readers in middle or high school, there are four major ways learning coaches and parents can offer reading support: Prevent students from getting discouraged. Help them with reading mechanics such as phonics, grammar, and spelling. Choose books that interest them and fit their reading level. Encourage students to read, and make reading fun for them. Online reading resources make it easy and convenient to help students. Here is a list of websites that offer reading tools, activities, and ideas to help you address any of your child’s needs while you promote Christmas Break reading. Some sites that have been found beneficial are: o AdLit.org o K12 Reader
o Reading Rockets o ReadWriteThink
o Oxford Owl
o Scholastic
http://blog.connectionsacademy.com
Are you looking for a good book to read while curling up on the couch, under a blanket, with a cup of hot chocolate and spending time with your child over Christmas Break? Here are a few options: 1) The Night Before Christmas by Rachel Isadora 2) The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson 3) How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss 4) The Nightmare Before Christmas by Tim Burton 5) Olive the Other Reindeer by Vivian Walsh and J.otto Seibold 6) The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg 7) The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett 8) Olivia helps with Christmas by Ian Falconer 9) Dream Snow by Eric Carle 10) The Berenstein Bears and the Joy of Giving by Jan & Mike Berenstein
Contributors Lisa Arthur, M.Ed. Special Education Special Education/Designee Mountain View Elem & Middle School
Ron Smith Math/TASC Teacher/TSS Tiger Morton Juvenile Center
Michelle Weekley Technology Integration Specialist Wetzel County Schools
The National Hour of Code was this week, December 4-10, 2017. This event started as a way to promote computer science and anyone can learn a little bit of code with just an hour. Some schools do whole-day events, some teachers do individual things in their classrooms, whatever works for your school. The websites www.hourofcode.org and www.code.org both have more information and ideas for activities. There are even some activities that do not require devices or Internet. We want our students to be exposed to computer science because many jobs that will be available to them will depend on it and sadly, it is not part of most of our curriculum. Have fun and spread some coding love.
Utilizing Your SmartBoard 7 Tips for Your Smart Board By Ron Smith As technologically savvy teachers we love our Smartboards. Here are some tips and tricks to maintain the boards and get the most out of the interactivity. Tip 1: When erasing a large amount of “ink” on the board, first make a circle around the area with the eraser then tap in the center. Voila’ the ink is gone!
Tip 2: If someone accidentally marks on the Smartboard with a permanent marker don’t freak out. Write over the permanent marker with a dry erase marker. While the dry erase marker ink is still wet, erase. Repeat until permanent ink is gone. Tip 3: To keep your Smartboard pens working, as they should, keep the trays free from dust. Periodically spray the trays with canned air. If the sensors in the trays become covered in dust, the pens and eraser may not function properly. Tip 4: if a pen is lost or stolen, you can place a post it note over sensor. This will enable you to use the other pens. If you wish to use that color pen, remove the post it and use your finger as the pen.
Tip 5: If the surface of your Smartboard screen needs cleaned, use a damp sponge with a small amount of mild detergent. Never use Windex to clean the Smartboard. Tip 6: Want to make your PowerPoints interactive? You can import your PowerPoints and convert them to notebook files. Open notebook and click file then import. You will probably have to tweak the slides as some graphics and text may need to be adjusted. Tip 7: When creating a lesson in Notebook remember these tips
Try not to use bright or intense backgrounds Use vibrant colors to emphasize individual objects Try to use only one font throughout an activity Titles should be at least 28 points Make sure that the font color contrasts with the background color to make it easy to read
See these and other Smartboard tips and tricks by visiting this video.