Why I love Blogs!

My student teacher introduced me to blogging several months ago. Since then, I have become a follower of several blogs on teaching mathematics. I have learned so much from these blogs and also have gained so many new ideas that I have tried, and loved, in my classroom.

Elissa, my former student teacher, is doing such an awesome job in her first year of teaching! I have learned so much from her, both during and after her student teaching. Several weeks ago, she posted about having her students create Facebook pages for famous mathematicians. I loved this so much, I had my senior statistics class do this. I told them that they could be creative, and a bit silly, but they had to include factual information in the About Me and include the mathematicians major contributions to mathematics. They also made me a Facebook Profile. Apparently, part of my job is deciding who is cool and who is not. I also am captain of a Murderball team. Whatever that is.

Today, while reading Kate Nowak's blog, she mentioned an article titled, "Building a Better Teacher" that appeared in the New York Times. What a great article! Not only that, the online version included several example videos of other teachers teaching that were fantastic and offered me some great ideas. Kate's blog also has some great ideas for group work, worksheets, and much more on her blog. I read her blog everyday for new ideas. It's great!

I also have been following the blog, I Want to Teach Forever. This blog is also a great resource for any mathematics teacher. In today's "Five for Friday," Mr. D posted a link for 10 Things to Do When You Only Have 5 Minutes Left in Class. So many great ideas in this post! I'm always looking for things to do in those last 5 minutes of class. I especially love the Toilet Paper Game. How fun!