Brain Ninjas

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Math

How to Change Math With Interactive Notebooks

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Are you avoiding interactive math notebooks because they seem like too much work? Are you struggling to teach math because you worry about your own knowledge base? Never fear! We have the solutions! Let's get you teaching math today!

When a colleague told us we should try interactive notebooks in math, we agreed and then went on our merry ways and did math the same old way for another year.

At the end of that school year, she approached us again and DEMANDED we buy an Interactive Math Journal lesson plan set. We took a look, bought it and then went on summer vacation, never to think about math for a whole two months.

Near the end of the summer, we opened it up and it CHANGED OUR WORLD. We will never teach math the same way again. That being said, there are a few things we learned about the process and we wanted to share these tips with you so you don’t have to spend so much time figuring things out yourself.

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The Truth About New Math

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What is new math and why does everyone keep talking about it? Here is what we tell parents about new math (spoiler alert-math isn't new). Get some practical tips for debunking the math myths.

New math is ruining education. Or at least this is what we keep hearing people (like parents, the media, and politicians) say.

What is this “new math” of which you speak?  I see the memes on Facebook and wonder, have I been teaching mathematics wrong? Has it changed? Did I miss an email about this?

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Conquer Math With These Proven Multiplication Strategies

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Are you struggling with teaching multiplication because students just don't know their times tables? Check out these ways we practice and build math fact fluency without the pressure ot timed drills.

We have taught students in grades four and five for so long and one trend we’ve noticed is that students cannot retain their multiplication times tables. What is happening to those little brains? Or is it because we teach these facts differently? We’ve been thinking about the different multiplication strategies we use in our classroom.

When we went to school, math drills were all the rage. But to be honest, the stress of answering sixty multiplication questions in less than a minute was horrible. And, I was lucky because I knew my times tables, but I just couldn’t write fast enough no matter how hard I tried. Those drills weren’t an assessment of my math skills. They were an assessment of how quickly I could write.

And don’t even get me started about the time I wrote a zero, but it was messy and looked like a six. Ugh! So, I knew I couldn’t give my students math drills. Here’s what we do instead.

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