Showing posts with label math manipulatives. Show all posts
Showing posts with label math manipulatives. Show all posts

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Teacher Arrested

Originally published here on March 6, 2008.

After several serious posts, I thought I'd share this humorous piece that I received in an email some time back. I enjoyed it. Hope no one is offended...
At New York's Kennedy airport today, an individual, later discovered to be a public school teacher, was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a setsquare, a slide rule, and a calculator.

At a morning press conference, a representative of the US Justice Department said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-Gebra movement. He is being charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction.

"Al-gebra is a fearsome cult," the spokesperson said. "They desire average solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in a search of absolute value.

They use secret code names like 'x' and 'y' and refer to themselves as unknowns, but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country."When asked to comment on the arrest, one politician said, "If God had
wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes.
"

Friday, July 11, 2008

Using Base 10 Blocks

Originally published here on February 29, 2008.

If you teach math to elementary school grades or to special education students, manipulatives are essential. They allow you to take abstract concepts and make them tangible and concrete.

I fumbled around with base 10 blocks a couple of times, but this year I had the opportunity to watch Ms. K. East use them in class and it became much more obvious to me how productive they can be.

If you're looking for help in using base 10 blocks, I have two pieces online:

Hope they help...