Math Enrichment

I wanted to share a great resource called Why U. This is a series of videos that offers true math enrichment for students. These videos explore mathematical concepts with meaning and historical context. This series encourages students to view math as a ever developing science, rather than a set of skills they must master. By adding a human side to the math equation for students, this series can open interest in this sometimes unpopular subject. I like to give guided questions when I watch these with my class, just to make sure we all find them as interesting as I do, but in general students find them very engaging.

Hope you are having a great summer! 

Now that I'm sitting in a group...what do I do?

My current mission is to improve how my students work in groups. One thing that I'm adding is cards that will remind students of their role in the group. Here's how it works...

I took a deck of cards and got rid of the aces, jacks, queens, and kings. This left me with nine values and four suits, perfect for my nine groups of four desks. I taped a playing card to each desk so that each group all had the same value but each student had a different suit. During Monday's group work each suit was assigned a role from the cards, on Tuesday the role changed, and so on. Now, as I circulate to monitor student progress, I can redirect student work using the cards, for example, "Johnny, I see that you are the Reporter today, do you feel like you are ready to share? What could you be doing right now to prepare for that job?"

So I thought I would share as I continue working on my improvements. I hope you enjoy it! Group Role Cards