General questions about the CCSS-Mathematics standards

Bill McCallum, one of the lead authors of the CCSS-M, has recently started and Questions & Answer post for the content standards at his blog, Tools for the Common Core Standards. He describes the post as follows "If you have general questions about the standards, ask them in a comment on this post. I can’t guarantee being able to answer all of them quickly, but by now there is a fairly large community of readers of this blog, some of whom might be able to answer questions, and I’ll be sure to keep an eye on it."

So, if you're curious about a particular standard and you'd like to receive an answer from a person with authority, this is the place for you!

Check it out now; there are currently 27 posts with replies.

PD Opportunity: Problem solving and Persevering in Middle School Mathematics

• Does your department have a shared understanding of the FIRST Standard for Mathematical Practice: problem solving and perseverance?

• Do you know what to look for and expect from your students when they are engaged in this Practice Standard?
• Do you know how to support your students in learning to problem solve and persevere in mathematics?

If you answered ‘no’ to any of these questions, register to attend this two-day workshop to explore ways to successfully engage students in MAKING SENSE OF PROBLEMS AND PERSEVERING IN SOLVING THEM.

4/18/12 and 5/30/12

The Standards for Mathematical Practice outline the experiences and interactions ALL students should have with mathematics. In these two days, we will explore strategies for problem solving and persevering in depth. After developing a common understanding of what the practice standard LOOKS and SOUNDS like in classrooms, we will explore new resources that have been developed for teachers to assist you in implementing this signpost practice standard.

Each participant will receive 2 books. One relates to problem solving and the other relates to perseverance. We will use the books to explore strategies for supporting students in problem solving and perseverance.

REGISTER NOW. Space is limited to 50.

Worthwhile math tasks focusing on the Practices

One of the biggest challenges teachers now face with implementing the CCSS-M is locating worthwhile mathematical tasks.

To the rescue
The Illustrative Mathematics Project has launched a website that will eventually house multiple tasks for EVERY content standards within the CCSS-M. Currently, there are several standards for each grade level that have completed tasks posted. To view the "illustrated" standards, click on the "show only illustrated standards" in the upper right hand corner.

• K-8 illustrated standards
• High School illustrated standards

Featured task
One of the newly posted tasks on the Illustrative Math website is a task created by Dan Meyer for 8th grade called Graduation [PDF]. It addresses 8.F.4 with a HEAVY focus on the Practice Standards. 8th grade teachers: start using this task in your classes today!

PD opportunity: Problem solving and persevering in High School Mathematics

• Does your department have a shared understanding of the FIRST Standard for Mathematical Practice: problem solving and perseverance?

• Do you know what to look for and expect from your students when they are engaged in this Practice Standard?
• Do you know how to support your students in learning to problem solve and persevere in mathematics?

If you answered ‘no’ to any of these questions, register to attend this two-day workshop to explore ways to successfully engage students in MAKING SENSE OF PROBLEMS AND PERSEVERING IN SOLVING THEM.

March 12 and April 16, 2012

The Standards for Mathematical Practice outline the experiences and interactions ALL students should have with mathematics. In these two days, we will explore strategies for problem solving and persevering in depth. After developing a common understanding of what the practice standard LOOKS and SOUNDS like in classrooms, we will explore new resources that have been developed for teachers to assist you in implementing this signpost practice standard.

Each participant will receive 2 books. One relates to problem solving and the other relates to perseverance. We will use the books to explore strategies for supporting students in problem solving and perseverance.

REGISTER NOW. Space is limited to 40.

Visualizing how a population grows to 7 billion

The U.N. estimates that the world's population will pass the 7 billion mark TODAY. WOW! How do we even begin to visualize the size of the world's population when it gets this big?

Check out this video and supporting story from NPR's Adam Cole that helps us to visualize the size of our current world population.

How might we use this video in math classrooms? The video applies to

• rates of change
• proportional reasoning
• mathematical modeling

For high school students, the video presents several topics of potential study within mathematics. Not to mention that it makes lots of connections to social studies and world history.

Check it out now.

For more information...

As NPR's Adam Cole reports, it was just over two centuries ago that the global population was 1 billion — in 1804. But better medicine and improved agriculture resulted in higher life expectancy for children, dramatically increasing the world population, especially in the West.

As higher standards of living and better health care are reaching more parts of the world, the rates of fertility — and population growth — have started to slow down, though the population will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.

U.N. forecasts suggest the world population could hit a peak of 10.1 billion by 2100 before beginning to decline. But exact numbers are hard to come by — just small variations in fertility rates could mean a population of 15 billion by the end of the century.

Teaching math with technology FREE webinars

Learn dynamic, new ways to teach math—and get a head start on learning specific strategies for incorporating the Common Core State Standards into your classroom—with Key Curriculum Press' complimentary Tech Tuesday webinar series, offered (you guessed it) every Tuesday throughout the school year.

TheTech Tuesday webinars will focus on using Key's The Geometer's Sketchpad, Fathom Dynamic Data, and TinkerPlots Dynamic Data Exploration software to implement the Common Core State Standards. In addition to learning specific Common Core-alignment strategies, all webinar attendees will receive:

• One hour of Professional Development or Continuing Education credit

• New ideas for using technology in your classroom

• Complimentary Sketchpad, TinkerPlots, or Fathom activities to share on your interactive whiteboard

If you don't have a license for your activities' software, you can download trial versions of Sketchpad, Fathom, and TinkerPlots to run the activities and sample the software.

Register now for an upcoming Tech Tuesday webinar and give your students access to the technology they love. Can't attend the live webinar? No problem. Each webinar will be recorded for on-demand viewing and support.

NEW RESOURCE: Common Core Math (and ELA)

Do you have summer curriculum work scheduled for Math or ELA?

Dreading the hours it will take to unpack the new standards into student-friendly "I can..." learning targets?

Help is here!

Align, Assess, Achieve has created The Common Core: Clarifying Expectations for Teachers and Students, a series of clarifying and reference guides which are especially helpful to teachers, administrators, and anyone involved with curriculum.

Each book

• Includes all Mathematics CCSS standards for the grade level/subject in one convenient 8½ x 5½ inches flip book


• Clarifies learning expectations for both teachers and students with suggested




• Enduring Understandings


• Essential Questions


• Learning Targets


• Vocabulary


• Connections to the mathematical practice standards
  


• Fosters quality formative and summative assessment, descriptive feedback, and student involvement.

The Common Core: Clarifying Expectations for Teachers & Students is a cost effective solution. Schools can save the time and money they would have spent unpacking and printing the Common Core State Standards.

ORDER NOW!

What are the NEW Math Practice Standards?

Some of us are in districts that have begun to make the transition to Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSS-M). And, some of us are in districts that are just beginning to think about the upcoming transition. No matter where we're at along the implementation spectrum, one this is for sure: The biggest challenge teachers will have in implementing the CCSS-M will be in focusing mathematics instruction around the new 8 Standards for Mathematical Practice (Practice Standards). This means that students should learn all of their math content with the context of the practice standards.
So, let's start discussing the 8 Practice Standards and build a common vision that describes what they look like, sound like, and how they will affect assessment and grading in ALL of our math classrooms.