Getting Your Math Message Out to Parents


Book Description

Tackle the tricky issue of bridging the communication gap between teachers, students, and their parents. This unique resource explore the various channels--newsletters, back-to-school-night presentations, homework, and more--through which teachers can communicate with parents about their children’s math education.




Partnering With Parents in Elementary School Math


Book Description

How to build productive relationships in math education I wasn’t taught this way. I can’t help my child! These are common refrains from today’s parents and guardians, who are often overwhelmed, confused, worried, and frustrated about how to best support their children with what they see as the "new math." The problem has been compounded by the shift to more distance learning in response to a global pandemic. Partnering With Parents in Elementary School Math provides educators with long overdue guidance on how to productively partner and communicate with families about their children’s mathematics learning. It includes reproducible surveys, letters, and planning documents that can be used to improve the home-school relationship, which in turn helps students, parents, teachers, and education leaders alike. Readers will find guidance on how to: · Understand and empathize with what fuels parents’ anxieties and concerns · Align as a school and set parents’ expectations about what math instruction their children will experience and how it will help them · Communicate clearly and productively with parents about their students’ progress, strengths, and needs in math · Run informative and fun family events · support homework · Coach parents to portray a productive disposition about math in front of their children Educators, families, and students are best served when proactive, productive, and healthy relationships have been developed with each other and with the realities of today′s math education. This guide shows how these relationships can be built.




Math for Grownups


Book Description

Ever wish you'd paid more attention in math class? From third grade to senior year of high school, it went in one ear and out the other, didn't it? But now you're staring at the new washer and dryer, trying to figure out the percentage of sales tax on the purchase price. You multiply something by something, right? Or you're scratching your head, wondering how to compute the odds that your football team will take next Sunday's game. You're pretty sure that involved ratios. The problem is, you can't quite remember. Here you get an adult refresher and real-life context—with examples ranging from how to figure out how many shingles it takes to re-roof the garage to the formula for resizing Mom's tomato sauce recipe for your entire family. Forget higher calculus—you just need an open mind. And with this practical guide, math can stop being scary and start being useful.




Everyone Can Learn Math


Book Description

How do you approach a math problem that challenges you? Do you keep trying until you reach a solution? Or are you like Amy, who gets frustrated easily and gives up? Amy is usually a happy and enthusiastic student in grade five who loves to dance, but she is struggling with a tough math assignment. She doesn’t think she is good at math because her classmates always get the answers faster than she does and sometimes she uses her fingers to help her count. Even though her mom tries to help her, Amy is convinced she just cannot do math. She decides not to do the assignment at all since she thinks she wouldn’t do well anyway. As Amy goes about her day, her experiences at ballet class, the playground, and gym class have her thinking back to how she gave up on her math assignment. She starts to notice that hard-work, practice, and dedication lead to success, thanks to her friends and teachers. She soon comes to understand that learning math is no different than learning any other skill in life. With some extra encouragement from her math teacher, a little help from her mom, and a new attitude, Amy realizes that she can do math!




Enriching Your Math Curriculum


Book Description

"Presents practices and routines designed to support and nourish teachers as they prepare and present a meaningful year of mathematics instruction for fifth-grade mathematicians. Offers activities, lessons, and narration that can be easily adapted or adjusted to fit the particular needs of the students or the requirements of a prescribed curriculum"--




Every Math Learner, Grades K-5


Book Description

Differentiation that shifts your instruction and boosts ALL student learning! Nationally recognized math differentiation expert Nanci Smith debunks the myths surrounding differentiated instruction, revealing a practical approach to real learning differences. Theory-lite and practice-heavy, this book provides a concrete and manageable framework for helping all students know, understand, and even enjoy doing mathematics. Busy K-5 mathematics educators learn to Provide practical structures for assessing how students learn and process mathematical concepts Design, implement, manage, and formatively assess and respond to learning in a standards-aligned differentiated classroom; and Adjust current instructional materials to better meet students' needs Includes classroom videos and a companion website.




Getting Parents on Board


Book Description

Learn how to work more effectively with K–5 parents to increase student achievement in math and literacy. Research shows that parent involvement in schools leads to higher test scores and more engaged and enthusiastic students, but it isn’t always easy for teachers to bridge the gap between the home and the school. This insightful book provides helpful, research-based strategies to foster meaningful home–school partnerships and overcome the challenges teachers often face when trying to build relationships with parents. You’ll learn new ways to: Promote parent involvement at home and school; Share specific math and literacy strategies with parents to reinforce children’s learning; Plan and organize effective parent conferences that foster true dialogue about a child’s education; Communicate with parents about what you’re teaching and how you’re teaching it, so they can actively contribute to their child’s learning at home; Develop family nights and workshops to get parents involved in learning at school; Recommend games, activities, and projects that parents can use at home to help their children practice math and literacy skills; And much more! Each chapter is full of practical tools such as Common Core-aligned strategies, useful resources for parents, and sample parent letters that you can use to increase and improve your home–school communications. Bonus: Additional parent letters on a variety of topics are available on our website, www.routledge.com/ 9781138998698, to help you keep parents connected throughout the year.




Faster Isn't Smarter


Book Description

Nctm Past President Cathy L. Seeley shares her messages on today's most relevant topics and issues in education. Based on Cathy L. Seeley's award-winning nctm President's Messages, and including dozens of new messages, this must-have k-12 resource offers straight talk and common sense about some of today's most important, thought-provoking issues in education. With topics ranging from the impact of rising expectations and the trap of timed tests to the role of technology and the phenomenon of jumping on bandwagons, this book provides a base for lively discussion among elementary, middle, and high school teachers; leaders; policy makers; and families. This book contains 41 messages included in three sections: (1) School Mathematics for the 21st Century: Elementary and Secondary Mathematics in America; (2) Great Ideas Whose Time Has Come (and Gone?): Mathematics Issues Facing Schools and Districts; and (3) Real Students and Real Teachers: Mathematics in Today's Classroom. This book also contains the following: (1) Foreword by Marilyn Burns; (2) Introduction; (3) How to Use This Book; (4) Afterword: The Sum of the Parts Is Greater than Some of the Parts; (5) Acknowledgments; (6) Readings and References; (7) Index; and (8) About the Author.




Adding Parents to the Equation


Book Description

Are you frustrated or confused by the way math is taught to your child today? Are you tired of trying to figure out what your child is doing when they draw visuals in math? Do you want to feel smarter than a 5th grader again? Well, this book is for you. We have taken the major parts of the 21st Century mathematics curriculum and rewritten it in an easy-to-read format. This book breaks down all the educational jargon so you can finally communicate mathematically with your child again. No matter whether your child is 3 months old or 10 years old, this book will give you a stronger understanding of the how, the why, and the what behind the shifts in math education today.




The Schools Our Children Deserve


Book Description

Arguing against the tougher standards rhetoric that marks the current education debate, the author of No Contest and Punished by Rewards writes that such tactics squeeze the pleasure out of learning. Reprint.