"I am Malala" Podcast

Resource Blog #2: Cross Curricular

Cool Math Games Cool Math Games is a website designed to allow students to play games that help them with their understanding in various math concepts: strategy, skill, numbers, and logic. Students can learn these concepts through a nontraditional format of a game. Rather than using word problems to induce critical thinking, students are immersed within the problems posed by the different game scenarios. makes this resource especially inviting for students is the format itself. Many students are familiar with video games and play them as part of their everyday lives. By using math concepts in a game format, students can better connect with the content, given it is culturally relevant to them. What’s great about this resource is that it is not limited to math, despite the website’s name. There are hundreds of games to choose from. Other content areas include geography and science. This is a resource that both science and social studies teachers cou...

Subjects Matter: Synthesis Blog on Chapter 2

How Smart Readers Think Daniels and Zemelman's Subjects Matter Chapter 2 discusses how to use appropriate reading strategies to increase reading comprehension. The authors argue that we sometimes struggle as readers, not because we can't read, but because we don't know the right ways to approach the text provided. Not having comprehension strategies established early in our reading careers significantly impacts our overall literacy later in school and in life. To combat this, the authors listed the stages of reading and the goals assigned to each stage to help both students and teachers recognize the steps necessary to approach a reading passage. The authors challenged me and how I personally perceive reading but showing how complex the reading process is. In order to truly comprehend the text in front of us, we use a variety of processes, often unconscious to us as we read. I often skip t...

Measurement Ideas

As a student, I never took the time to consider what measurement actually means. Chapter 14 discusses what measurement means and the implication it has on understanding measurement in math. TCSM defines measurement as "a number that indicates a comparison between an attribute of the object (or situation or event) being measured and the same attribute of a given unit of measure (341). By understanding measurement as a comparison method, students will begin to understand how an object can be measured using different units that describe the objects weight, volume/ capacity, length, or area. With the definition of measurement in mind, one way teachers can help their students gain conceptual knowledge of measurement is by helping them create models that demonstrate the idea of space and units that can be iterated to measure an attribute of an object. I like the idea of revisiting iteration and discussing how it is also used in measurement, which can ultimately reinforce fraction concep...

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