Lessons With Coffee

Even good math students enter my room with a misunderstanding of place value. I honestly have still not found out what ALL the misconseptions are.  Often times I find that the littlest explaination is all they need. "hey the numbers to the right of the decimal represent the parts, to the left you will find the whole" Sometimes students need for it to connect to thier own understanding of the place values... "Hey, having $0.34 is a lot different than having $3.40 right?" Students may be able to correctly name the place-value columns, but they often do not understand the significance the name, the value or the operation that is done to get to that value.  For-example, they can not give amathematical explanatino fo why regrouping works....or why we "add the zero" when multiplying larger numbers.  Unfortunently with the MANY standards we are all faced with, when I start talking about conversions of rational numbers, or manipulating the...

Hey all!  I know this is totally late but I wanted to give you a re-cap of the event...with stolen pictures from everyones blog since I COMPLETLY forgot to take pictures the entire time that I was there. I brought my good friend Kirsten...Who we made make a blog (www.confessionsofacrazycatteacher.blogspot.com)  Let's see if she keeps it up. We left at about 2 pm on Friday night.  I was freaking out that I forgot something...Turns out I did.  The wood for the Pencil Mini Glyph we did.  So we stopped at Jo-Ann Fabrics on the way out...which was good because Kirsten forgot her favorite things!  Oops. Then we were on the road again.  We got into Shaumburg IL about 10:30 with all the one lane traffic that there was.  We were hoping to get in at about 8 but...not happening. I WAS SO STINKING EXCITED TO MEET LINDSEY!  Like for real yall.  She is just as nice in person as she seams.  I can not belive that I am lu...

Lindsey from Thriving In Third and I are SOOOOOO stinking excited to announce that we FINALLY locked down a location for the Midwest Teacher Blogger Meet Up.  While I would like to formally apologize for the delay in letting out information I will be completely transparent with you. Because we had so many drop outs and adds, then drop outs then adds, it was very difficult to find a space that would accommodate 15 people, then 56, then 20, then 26, then 35 people. Please understand that while I (Jameson) tried my hardest to find a location IN Shaumburg as we had initially planned, We had to move the meet up just 15 minutes north.  I am Staying in Shaumburg and willing to drive anyone with out a ride.  Ok Here it is! I am very excited to announce that we are hosting our event at Lakeshore Learning in Palatine Il.  What better place to host a teacher blogger event than in a teacher store!  Lindsey and I have got some great donations lined up for g...

The October theme and detailed rules for the exchange can be found  HERE .   Please read this blog entry THOROUGHLY before you email me with any questions.  Matches are found in a link at the end of this post. (I have also emailed you the link to the email you signed up with.) Instructions now that you are paired! 1) Below you will find a link to a Google Doc where I have created all of your matches.  Please download the file before asking questions about it.  Here are some things to know about the Google Doc: There are 4 tabs along the bottom. The first is a list of all of the participants in alphabetical order by email.  Like I said in the email.  You are divided into bloggers and non-bloggers.  As months go on you are more than welcome to switch groups, just let me know by indicating that you now have a blog on the next sign up! The next two are the matches based on blog ownership or not.  You need to find BOTH ...

Ok It is wednesday and I forgot to link up with  Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for A Peek At My Week! AND...Success IN Secondary with  4mula Fun! So here it goes!  Week FIVE.  I am already having a desperate need for our MEA break.  FIRST OF ALL because we are doing a Midwest Blogger Meet-up.  I am trying to nail down the location as we speak...one of the reasons that I have not posted in a while.  With that, school, LWCcreates and OH having a life....I got caught up. This week we are done with our instruction of the main concepts behind LCM, GCF and Factor Trees (OK actually I taught factor trees on Monday...we are POST testing on Friday so this week is a lot Monday-Factor Trees Tuesday -Choiceboard/Flex Group Wednesday-Choice Board/ Flex Groups Thrusday - Choice Board/Flexgroup Friday - POST learning quiz As a team we have decided if we do not have 80% of our learners at proficient or exceeding we are going to spend another w...