Pre K and K Sharing Blog

I was excited when my blogger friend, Debbie Clement, invited me to guest-blog over at the Pre K and K Sharing blog!  It is a phenomenal blog and has quite a large following.  Many veteran bloggers contribute to its success.  It's a great place for teachers to find ideas and inspiration to use in their classrooms. 

I hope you will take the time to hop over and read my post.  It is about using the ten-frame to teach number sense; a critical focus area for students striving to reach mathematical proficiency.  I even created a set of ten-frames that you can download to use in your classroom.  It's FREE!

You will have to visit the blog to get the freebie, so be sure to head on over and check it out.  See you over at Pre K and K Sharing!

Bloggers Best Math Freebies!

My First Blog Award!

I am tickled pink to be nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award by Michelle over at nomonkeybusinessmichelle.blogspot.com!  What an honor...thanks Michelle.  Michelle's blog is fabulous! You should check it out!  She has some great freebies you will not want to miss.  And in celebration of reaching 100 followers, she is running a contest.  Two lucky winners will get to choose 10 items from her TPT or TN Stores - FREE!  You should sign up!  I did!

Now back to the the Lovely Blog award.  There were a few simple rules to recieving this award:

1) Follow the person that gave you the award.  Check  

2) Link back to the person that gave you the award.  Check 

3) Pass the award on to 15 of my favorite bloggers.  Check...well.

The problem with the third requirement is that most of my favorite blogs have already received the Lovely Blog award.  But that's okay, they may be new to you so I decided to feature them anyway.  They indeed are LOVELY!  Here are the blogs I chose...

And the award goes to:

Kathleen at Growing Kinders

Donna at Math Coach's Corner

Amber, LuAnn, Amy, & Chrissa at Kindergarten Rocks

Anna at Crazy for First Grade

April at Chalk Talk

Deanna at Mrs. Jump's Class

Michelle at Fabulous in First

Rachelle at What the Teacher Wants

Ms. Lies at Love 2 Teach 2 Blogspot

Cheryl at Primary Graffiti 

Michelle at Teach 123

Lynda at Curls and a Smile

Christi at Ms. Fultz's Corner

Casey at Second Grade Math Maniac

Michelle at Creative Classroom

I hope you enjoy a little blog-stalking today and thanks for stopping by mine!  Be sure to drop by again. I have lots of freebies lined up to feature soon. 

Great Math Resources

A teacher friend recently asked me about my favorite math professional resources.  He was thrilled to be selected to teach all of the math for his grade level for next year (1st grade) and he wanted some advice about books to read over the summer to help him prepare.  But not just any books.  He wanted books which were filled with hands-on, inquiry based ideas!  My kind of books!  

It occurred to me, as I was contemplating my reply, that others may also be looking for the same thing.

Now typically, my favorite book is whichever one I may be currently reading. :)  And this year has been a big one for Professional Development books of the Math variety.  I will give you a couple of examples of great books you may want to add to your summer reading list.  Perhaps later I can go into greater details about their unique content.  You may have others that you think are worthy of mention.  Jot me a note if you do.  I am always looking for new resources to share with my teachers.

Here are two of my current favorites:

Number Talks by Sherrie Parrish

       Math Exchanges by Kassia Wedekind                 

You can see these books featured on my side bar bookshelf.  Click the link to check them out.

All about AMSTI

I love my job! Read about how The Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative is changing the landscape of Alabama Schools! Schools who participate in the initiative show significant gains in Math, Science, AND Reading! Way to go AMSTI.  Click the link below to go to the article.

AMSTI: Money holds up progress - WSFA.com: News Weather and Sports for Montgomery, AL.

Mother's Day Treasure!

So this is not math related, but since Mother's Day is right around the corner, I wanted to share this in case some of you want to try it with your class.  This is a picture of my son, Paul, when he was in 2nd grade. 

His teacher, Mrs. Sanders, had a great idea for a Mother's Day gift.  It was such a simple idea and I simply treasure it!

She framed the picture in popsicle sticks and attached magnets to the back.

It took a prominent place on my refrigerator where it remains to this day. 

How long is that, you ask?

Well, here is another picture of Paul taken just last week...

before his Senior Prom!

Hope this provides a little inspiration for an easy but memorable Mother's Day gift!

Common Core App

I added a Common Core App to the blog as a useful tool when you need to reference the standards.  It is very user friendly.  You can find it along the far edge of your screen beyond the sidebar.  Give it a try. ----------->


In fact, you can even download the app to your smart phone.  For iPhone users, click here. Android users can click here.  It may not be your most frequently used app, but it does come in handy when you need a quick on-the-go reference.  

Welcome!

Welcome to the Teach The Math blog!

This will be a place where teachers can collaborate with each other to share great ideas, math resources, and best practices for the classroom.  I plan to have lots of free resources for the taking and will link up with some real teacher-superstars and have them share their secrets to success.   

Teachers are pros when it comes to creative and innovative ways to enhance student learning.  And when it comes right down to it, we can all learn from each other.  There are many times in my teaching career that other great teachers came to my rescue with timely suggestions.  In fact, that's the nature of my job as a Math Specialist.  And I love learning alongside my teachers and their students. 

Be sure to leave comments, share ideas, like the FB Fan Page and share the blog with your teacher friends.  If you have ideas for things to post, or if you would consider being a guest blogger, please email me.