A Fun Math Website

Looking for a new way to have your students practice some mathematical thinking?

Check out Hooda Math!

I found this website today while surfing around on Edmodo in the Math community.  What a great find for elementary age students - lots of great games!  I especially liked some of the logic games...could have played Factory Balls 4 forever!  This will be one you definitely want to add to you list of websites for centers!

A New Favorite App!

If you are a fourth or fifth grade teacher you have GOT to check out Factor Samurai!  Oh.My.Goodness!!!  It is loads of fun.  Many of your students will be familiar with Fruit Ninja...this is similar but with a twist of math, of course.  I found it to be super addicting!!!

To play, you have to swipe the composite numbers...and that includes factors that are composite.  For example, if 24 floats across the screen, you would swipe it.  But then you also have to swipe the 4 & 6 that appear because they, too, are composite.  And kudos to the developers of this app...you lose points for incorrect swipes...which means that students will be less likely to just start swiping whatever is on their screen (a.k.a. guessing).

At the moment, this app is FREE and it's available for both the iTouch and the iPad.  Go...quickly...and grab it!

Time to Catch Up!

Wow!  It's been a while since I've visited my little blog here.  Life...it happens...at least we hope that it does!

I thought I'd share with you some of my recent favorite finds.

First, Steve Jobs has, of course, been in the news lateley.  I'm sure you've seen or read his commencement speech to the Stanford class of 2005.  If you haven't, you can view both the text & the video here.
But these are my favorite two paragraphs:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Second, and related to the first, is the iPad!  I found this great list of resources related to the iPad.  From lists of apps for various groups of students to digital storytelling to free books to a really fun video of an iPad band...you'll find it at this LINK!

Third, YouTube recently released YouTube for Teachers!  You can find a nice little introduction to this new resources HERE.  Create your own channel  with playlists and favorite content for easy access for students!  You might even want to try out a FLIPPED LEARNING EXPERIENCE!!

Finally, the New York Times recently featured a really interesting article titled What if the Secret to Success is Failure?  I will warn you that it is quite lengthy...but it is well worth your time.  The author delves into some recent research about character traits that help students be successful and the efforts of leaders at two very different schools in New York to help students develop these character traits.  No math...no technology...but some excellent food for thought none-the-less!

Enjoy...and let me know what you think!
Kristen