Methods of Math Teaching and Learning

  Welcome back! The sun is shining bright. The weather is about to change and before it does let's have our last tea session outside. We are set up under the tree in the shade and as always be sure to grab your cup, and fill it with ice and sweet tea. We got a little fancy and decided to give you some options for your sweet tea; you can pick between a strawberry or lemon to go on the top. Please don’t forget to grab your straw and make sure you're comfortable because we have some tea to spill. As always we do our NT on our projector but this week we decided to do NT on a paddle to make the session extra fun and engaging. As always, we start with our fist to our heart because we are ready to start. Don’t be afraid to comment! I'm depending on you to answer! Starting off can you believe we have some defending going on already? Well, guess what? Take a minute and decide if you would pick 15 or 14. If you decided to choose 15 then you’re correct! While I explain how PST came...

  Sorry we missed each other last week with this good ole sweet tea, but we promise to make it up this week. We already have you set up under the shade tree so before sitting down be sure to pick up your cup, fill it up with ice and sweet tea and don’t forget your straw. This week we are coming at you with something new and best believe it's some good ole tea we are about to spill.  Have you ever thought of doing Number Talks with tens of frames with your students? If not, it's ok once we finish spilling the tea of the many answers our Pre-service teachers gave us. Maybe we could encourage you to try it with your students. So this week we started with ten frames, and as always we start with our fist to our heart because we are ready to start.  Starting off we already had a debate going on for two answers after the image was shown for five seconds 16 and 14. Take the time out and guess which one students decided to defend, as always you're more than welcome to comment belo...

  Welcome back to another spill on The Hill!!! As you come in, please be sure to pick up your straw. This week we have stepped our game up a little bit from last week. Instead of doing two Number Talks, we did three. Before we get started be sure to put some ice in your cup and make sure it’s full. As you already know we always start with our “fist” to our heart because we are ready to start. Student’s were shown dot images for three seconds. Students were asked, “” how many did you see?” “How did you see it?” This time around everyone agreed on “12” but they had many ways of seeing 12 dot images. We had three students to participate which goes as follows: Student one: 4,4,4 which interpreted as 4 X 3= 12 Student two: I saw the first row of six and automatically knew the second row is six and wrote it as 6 + 6= 12 Student three: I counted by 2’s such as 2,4,6,8,10,12.  While you take a moment to sip, think of a way you would have seen 12 using dot images.  I know our cu...

  Well, Well, prepared to be sick of us! We’ve been gone for a minute, and I know you guys miss this good old “Tea”. We couldn’t stay gone too long because we knew your mouth was getting a little dry. As you know we have a fresh set of students who are juniors and seniors, so you know it’s time to make some “Tea”. Today, we started off with dot images where the image was shown for five seconds. Students were asked to put their fists to their hearts because they were ready to start. After the image was shown students were told how many dots they saw which was “9”. We asked did anyone had any other answers besides “9”? Students replied no; they all agreed on 9. Since everyone agreed on 9, we ask how did you see it? Three students replied which goes as follows:        ·        Student one said I saw 4+4 +1=9 to get her answer. ·        Student two said she saw 4 + 5= 9. ·     ...

         Welcome back once again to the Tea on the Hill! I must admit this Tea has been delicious lately. I brought some lemon to put on our cup as we sat back in the shade and enjoyed this ice-cold Arnold Palmer. While we gossip more about The Hill because we are doing Place Values this week. Once again, we have two students presenting again, and this time you're going to be a little shocked when I tell you who presented. Ms. Arianna Fletcher, Miss Alabama Agriculture & Mechanical University is an elementary education major, Pre-service Teacher, and a Senior here on campus. I know that Tea was good and cold going down because you weren't expecting that. I know you weren't. It’s okay; she presented today on place values which was her first time presenting. The problem she presented to the class today was 360 + 275, which is 635. She asked who would like to defend the answer, but before she asked, another student said, “ my answer is 615” then the student ca...

More Tea on the Hill!!! Doubles/ Near Double   Welcome back to more Tea on the Hill!! As you all know, we have been working on Number Talks for a while now, but it gets better every week. This week we are working on Doubles/ Near- Doubles. You probably wonder what it is while you sip the Arnold Palmer. Take a good sip while I tell you how these Number Talks were mastered by two Pre-Service Teachers, not just one. We have Ms. Davonna a senior here at A&M, and Ms. Cassidy, a Junior here also at A&M. Ms. Davonna sounded a little nervous, but she mastered her part in getting the class to give her the answer to the problem. And, of course, you know we always start off with our fists to the chest because we are ready to start! The problem that was given was 998 + 999, which is 1,997. During this session, everyone agreed, and two ways to get the answer were defined. One of the ways is rounding 998 and 999 and subtracting two from one side and 1 from the other to get the answer. An...

  Welcome back to the Tea on the Hill!  I’m pretty sure you have been waiting on this post. So let’s start this week's tea. We have a brand new preservice teacher, Ms. Cassidy who is also a member of SGA. This is also her first time teaching Number Talks to other seniors and juniors' preservice teachers. She followed the rules for Number Talk, in which students had to put their fists to their chests because they were ready to start. The image was shown for 3 to 5 seconds to determine how many dots they saw. After the image is displayed, students were asked, “How many did you see?”, “How do you see it?”. Now this time, we didn't have a challenge going on to defend the answer. Everyone agreed on “12,” but we did have a lot of students respond to the many ways how they saw “12”. Students responded with two different answers: Multiplication and Addition. Now don’t go too far because the tea is getting good. Come back next week because we are mixing some lemonade with this tea a...