MORE Winter Holiday Educational Activities…

Lee Ann Lacy, Multimedia Outreach Educator for the Austin Children’s Museum, has compiled some fun pages of educational winter holiday games — math, puzzle, interactive stories, word searches, art, etc. There are some great CPS Chalkboard activities on here, especially in the Math Games section. Check it out!

Enlighten, November 2007

Our latest issue of our monthly newsletter, Enlighten, is now posted on our website. Check out a great mental math program with ready-to-go clicker lessons, get some ExamView/Learning Series tips, view CPS in the news, see our upcoming calendar, and more. Feel free to check out our back issues while you’re there! If you would like to have Enlighten delivered directly to your e-mail, you can SUBSCRIBE HERE!

Mathcasts and More!

We received this idea submission from Patty O’Flynn, a math teacher from Woodland, Washington yesterday.

In my math classroom, CPS is a great way to launch a discussion about different approaches to solve a math problem. We often record these discussions as mathcasts; you’ll find one example here: Sample Mathcast

Patty’s mathcast is a terrific example of using the verbal questioning mode in CPS along with your CPS chalkboard. I got a kick out of the giggles as the kids were writing with the chalkboard. It does take a little practice!

Patty and a colleague received a 2007 Qwest Foundation Learning Technology Grant and are currently setting up 16 student mathcasting stations with hardware and Camtasia. You can find links to her mathcasts at her blog, Patty Papers, in the Mathcasts section or at Mathematics with Mrs. O’Flynn under “Mathcasts”.

Last year, Patty also played around with having her tech department host her Examview quizzes and practice tests online, and she plans to get this up and running in full force this year. You can find them at Mathematics with Mrs. O’Flynn under “Quizzes”. Patty says her students (and parents) love it, and she thought it might be something that other teachers might consider doing.

Thanks Patty for your willingness to share your ideas and successes with other teachers!

Teaching Area and Perimeter Using Google Earth

Wow math teachers! Check out this great way to expose your students to Google Earth (which can be quite an addictive kind of fun!) and teach area and perimeter at the same time! It sure beats doing those boring problems on a piece of paper!