Math mazes are a great way to engage students. They’ve become my go-to strategy for starting math class and getting students engaged in independent practice. Students are working on math but it doesn’t look like a classic worksheet. Instead, it looks like a game or puzzle and many students will let down their defenses and work on math in a fun way. They work great as a warm-up, a review, or as independent practice. (We’ve talked at length about how awesome math mazes are here and here.) But how can you use them in distance learning?
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5 Ways Math Games Motivate Students
As math teachers we experience highs and lows. It can become easy to focus on the lows and become discouraged. Many students come into our classrooms with years of negative math experiences and we’re expected to get them to learn. Sometimes it seems like an uphill battle, and it can feel like the more we struggle the less progress we make.
Just the other day our 6-year old son came home from school and told us how his music teacher was jumping around the room with the kids and crawling on the floor. This is a new teacher who has been struggling with classroom management. I was a little startled and then Theresa said, “Well, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, I guess.”
[Read more…] about 5 Ways Math Games Motivate StudentsMotivating Math Students by Building on Successes
Success is the foundation of motivation
Every math teacher wants to increase their students’ motivation to learn math. Sometimes it can seem like the teacher cares more about learning than the students. This can be very disheartening for any teacher. So, the big question is this- how can we as teachers increase motivation in our students?
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Why I use math mazes almost every day in my classroom
I use a math maze in my class almost every single day. But, it wasn’t always like that. I didn’t understand the value of mazes until I actually used them in my classroom. Initially, I made one maze for a colleague who thought it would be a good activity to try in class. Sure- no problem, I thought. Even though I thought mazes seemed a little strange, I would gladly help a friend out.
Then, she asked me to make another one.
[Read more…] about How to Use Math Mazes to Increase Student Engagement9 Activities to Practice Rational versus Irrational Numbers
Since students were in kindergarten they’ve been taught about numbers being a certain way. Then they hit middle school, and BOOM! in walks irrational numbers. Everything was concrete, but in that moment that certainty goes by the wayside. As students start to wrap their heads around these new classes of numbers, we start simply. At first, we just want students to see two categories of numbers: rational and irrational. That’s where these nine activities come in.
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