Like most math classrooms, I've got a number line. My kids use the hell out of it after we learn about negative numbers, some up to the end of the school year. We've got a week and a half left, and the kids are restless. I didn't like the number line I bought this year, [...]
Also tagged Negative, TeachingMy students sit at tables instead of individual desks. To reduce the incidence of cheating, I create two versions for each test. I've learned in the process that similar looking problems actually can vary quite a bit in their effectiveness. Here's my first example: -4 - 9 = -9 - 4 = Similar problems, same [...]
Also tagged Questions, TeachingThe last time I effectively taught adding & subtracting with negative numbers I was on to a good idea, but there were a couple of faults - only the kids actually walking the number line were engaged, and they lost their positional cues as soon as they went back to their desk. So this time, [...]
Also tagged LessonSo that lesson on multiplying negative and positive numbers still worked great for my algebra kids, understanding wise, even if they looked a little nonplussed at the end of it1. As a recap, it goes through various combinations of video of a student walking forwards, or backwards, and then running the video forwards and backwards. [...]
Also tagged Lesson, TeachingI had one class of students who never got a grasp on how addition and subtraction works with negative numbers. I can't blame them much - that was what I was covering during the period that one of their classmates got shot. I obviously didn't accommodate that as well as I could or should have. [...]
Also tagged Lesson, TeachingI've done a lot of opinionating, and not so much lesson sharing. I've wanted to, but the adding and subtracting of negatives didn't go well, and I had to reteach them focusing on the mechanics, slowly tying those mechanics to the manipulative practice before. It went well, but was just old fashioned grunt work teaching, [...]
Also tagged Lesson, Multiplication, TeachingI stole another idea from my math coach1. After the quiz today, I gave the kids a bit of relief, and used the built in camera on my new laptop to set up a recording area, and had those kids who wanted to show off walk forwards & backwards (with big arrow signs pointing in [...]
Also tagged Lesson, Multiplication, TeachingToday I gave a quiz on adding & subtracting negative numbers. It went quite horribly - I obviously dropped the ball again somewhere. The only time I ever had kids get it easily and quickly was when I likened positive numbers to people, and negative numbers to raptors1. The raptors eat a person, take a [...]
Also tagged Lesson, TeachingIt took a while to dawn on me: I'd obviously missed something. I got frustrated when the kids couldn't cancel pairs. All they had to do was match up a red with a yellow, move them to the side, and count what was left over. They could add more pairs, and the number could stay [...]
Also tagged Lesson, TeachingAbout 1/3 of my kids got got through the subtraction. About 1/3 thought they remembered the rules from 7th grade, and bypassed the algebra tiles, and got most of the questions wrong.1 The final third did pretty well on addition, and then got confused on how to do the subtraction. I can't get frustrated, because [...]
Also tagged Lesson, Teaching
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