Fostering a true love and excitement for math in my students is well, not an easy task.  Luckily I love a good challenge!

Every year I look for new ways to peak student interest in math. Whether it is teaching geometry through art, or hyping up the great Pi Day, I strive to make learning fun.

In the last couple of years, I have been piecing together weekly activities to get kids thinking about math in different ways. Math truly is everywhere, and often there are multiple ways to approach a problem. I created these Math Curiosities and Wonders to get kids really thinking and talking about math.

Once a week, we take a look at one of these and spend 10-20 minutes (usually 10) discussing and looking at the problem in as many ways as possible. Students are able to build those Mathematical Practice muscles, discuss, defend their thinking, and come up with different observations and answers. I love seeing and hearing what each class comes up with!

I use a variety of resources to engage my students in deep mathematical thinking. For quick math talks, I use my Curiosities and Wonders resource every Friday. 

I highly recommend visiting youcubed.org for their Week of Inspirational Math series. These activities tend to be a bit more involved but are absolutely worth it for building a positive mindset and stretching mathematical thinking.

Happy Tax Day!

In my class, kids pay taxes. It is all part of the classroom economy system.

Year after year, the kids are super excited to do this. (?!?!?) Go figure.

Anyway, while I continue to be baffled by the excitement of paying taxes, below you can find the kid friendly tax form I created!

I tried to make it as realistic as possible. Just like its real life counterpart, it definitely can be confusing to some. However, this is modified for kids and most kids do figure it out independently. Depending on the class I have and their needs, I sometimes walk through the form step by step with them.

This form is definitely molded to fit my own classroom economy system. I still tweak it a bit every year depending on what my class needs.

I spent the summer of 2009 volunteering in an orphanage in Tamil Nadu, India. The experience is one I will always hold dear to my heart. The experiences I gain through travels like these add a richness to my teaching that no professional development can.

Creating Indian Kolam is a fun activity I share with students while introducing geometry. It is a great way to merge art, culture and math and the product is beautiful.

The complete lesson can be downloaded here.

To start, I briefly discuss symmetry. After reviewing simple examples of symmetry (in circles, squares, alphabet letters) I introduce kolam. We look at several pictures and discuss kolam's orgin.

Using graph paper, I model how to start a simple kolam explaining how to use the graph paper to guide my drawing. Find a center point to begin, all loops and lines must mirror each other starting from the origin. This works best with 1-inch grid paper but anything will work.

Check out student samples here!
Below you will find the story of kolam, complete with pictures from my stay in India!

Early every morning, before dawn, the woman of Tamil Nadu draw kolams on the ground using rice or chalk powder. Throughout the day, the drawings get walked on, smeared, or blown away by wind. Every morning, before a new one is drawn, the floor outside of the home is carefully swept and wet with water, creating an even and slightly muddy surface.