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Robin Krosinsky is a City Year New York Corps member serving at PS 154x in New York city. City Year New York corps members provide critically needed services to some of New York’s most underserved children and youth.
| I recently came across a good Web post by her titled A City Education: How One Special Math Problem Each Week Boosts Achievement. |  * |
She and her colleagues decided they wanted to take action themselves to provide entertaining and challenging math activities. In January, one of Robin's teammates, Sam, started a school-wide math initiative called the Problem of the Week.
Every week, each grade (K-5) is given a new math problem to solve. The problems are based on the math curriculum for that grade. They decided to make most of them word problems.
Read Robin's full post here.
I get some of my best ideas when I wake up early and can lie in bed for a time and just let my mind roam freely. I've been this way for as long as I can remember. Are you like this? When do you get your best ideas?
Yesterday, I read a very interesting TIME magazine piece by Annie Murphy Paul, "Why Morning Routines Are Creativity Killers" that explained why this happens. Murphy cites research that suggests "that imaginative insights are most likely to come to us when we’re groggy and unfocused. The mental processes that inhibit distracting or irrelevant thoughts are at their weakest in these moments, allowing unexpected and sometimes inspired connections to be made."
She points out that this research seems to indicate the discursive attentional focus of sleepy people may cause them to subconsciously broaden their search of their personal knowledge base, thus leading to an increase in creative problem solving.
You can, and should, read the entire article here.
I wonder if there are implications here regarding the effect that working with a background distraction, such as music softly playing or the ambient noises of a coffee shop, may stimulate creativity in certain individuals. Personally, I seem to be more creative in circumstances like those than I am when working in a totally quiet environment. And, if so, what does this mean for teaching and learning?
BTW, I have enjoyed many of Annie Murphy Paul's TIME articles and would strongly recommend you consider following her on Twitter at @anniemurphypaul.
Have Fun Teaching is a rich source of supplemental teaching materials such as worksheets, coloring pages, songs, videos, and fun activities.
The mission of Have Fun Teaching is to:
Have Fun Teaching offers songs and videos for kids and teachers on topics like the alphabet, math, phonics, grammar, counting, and character.
In the Get Connected section you can link to Have Fun Teaching on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other sites to get updates, tips, videos, free stuff, and more. The Tools area includes teacher tools, lesson plans, teacher resources, free stuff for teachers, clipart, signs and posters, and more.
You can sign up for the Have Fun Teaching email newsletter for website updates, blog updates, lesson plan ideas, and the latest resources.
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LessonCast is a place where teachers will be able to share and find exemplars of the "what, why, and how of effective teaching." In 2 ½ minutes or less, lessoncasts focus on a single lesson idea or management strategy.
LessonCast content is created by teachers with ideas they want to share. Contributors can use built-in screen capture technology to record what is being displayed on their computer's screen (it can be a presentation, documents, images, web cam, etc) and publish their lessoncast. Contributors may also supplement and support their lessoncasts with downloadable resources.
Lessoncasts are not meant to be lesson plans. They should be short "how-to" pieces designed to support and inspire teachers.
Visitors to LessonCast may view the lessoncasts and download the related materials for free. The goal of LessonCast is to create a mentoring environment where experienced teachers share their knowledge and expertise with colleagues looking for new ideas or methods that are classroom-tested.
LessonCast membership is open only to educators who can then download materials and vote, tag, and share lessoncasts. The LessonCast community collectively determines which ideas are the most effective.
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Wridea is an online idea management and collaboration service which is for anyone who is interested in managing their ideas and sharing them with their friends and colleagues.
Wridea provides you with tools and services for organizing your ideas. With the help of Wridea, you can store and organize all of your ideas. Categorize ideas on different pages according to their topics or content.
Generate and develop better ideas with your friends. You can save unlimited ideas in your Wridea account and share them with your associates. Let others comment on your ideas. Easily create, share, discuss, and evolve better ideas.
Idea Rain is a unique Wridea tool in which your ideas randomly drop down the screen. Seeing related and non-related ideas side by side may help you find new and original ideas.
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Science Buddies provides a free venue where K-12 students, teachers, and parents can find project ideas as well as help in all science topics.
Science Buddies provides fun, intellectually-stimulating, cutting-edge science education resources such as …
If your goal is to find a fun science activity for your kids or to win the state science fair, Science Buddies quickly and easily gives you access to an abundance of tools, tips, and techniques.
Among Science Buddies' rich collection of Teacher Resources you'll find …
It's free to join Science Buddies. With membership, you will receive new project ideas, news about science competitions, science fair tips, and other science-related information.
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Image via Wikipedia Here are three great ideas using a wiki and engaging students in your online classroom. ![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=da59a5db-96d4-4354-ae39-666093e2fc0b)
