Areas of Interest

Tools to Enhance Your Math Lessons, Activities, Assessments, and Presentation

Clipart, ETC

Here's the resource math teachers have been waiting for! Finally, the images and drawings we need to teach mathematics effectively. For those of you that have spent hours trying to create 3-dimensional geometric figures, conic sections, grids, graphs, number lines, currency, clocks, angles, flashcards, and more, this site is for you! There is a wealth of mathematical images that you can use in your presentations, tests, lessons, and activities.

All Math Clipart


Presentations, ETC

This site not only allows you to download different backgrounds for your Keynote or PowerPoint presentations, but also provides links to other resources that will enable you to enhance your lesson presentations.

Professional Development: Help With Instructional Methods, Assessments, and Classroom Concerns

Podcasts

"Make Math Matter" is a series of professional development podcasts for middle school and high school mathematics teachers. The podcasts are created by certified teachers James Welsh & Colleen Beaudoin, both of whom have experience teaching mathematics; James in elementary and Colleen in middle and high school. You will enjoy listening to real teachers talk about real topics! Listen on-line or download to your Mp3 player. The segments cover a wide range of topics including creating a positive learning environment, graphing lines, solving equations with manipulatives, ways to teach conic sections, methods for teaching students about integers, technology tips, resources, and much more!

Classroom Assessments

Assessments cover a wide range of options. We math teachers often limit ourselves to giving our students written tests. Check out this course on classroom assessments to get other ideas of ways to assess student learning. Try assigning projects to address the different learning styles. This site will teach you about different types of performance assessments and how to create rubrics for grading.

Using Data to Make Decisions

Data analysis is a mathematics standard that must be addressed. Here you can take a self-directed course to learn about techniques for collecting and analyzing data that does not require complex mathematics. You will get lesson plans, practice exercises, links to relevant articles, and case studies of teachers who are using data in their classrooms.

ESOL TAPESTRY

Use this site to discover strategies that you can use with your students whose first language is not English. View the lecture on "Sheltered Content Instruction Model: SIOP Model" to hear about specific strategies you can use in the mathematics classroom.

Cross-Curricular Activities

Lit2Go

Lit2Go is a collection of literature than can be viewed on-line, printed out, or listened to in MP3 (audiobook) format. There are great resources here to assist you with cross-curricular planning. Activities ranging from simple counting and patterning through topics in Trigonometry and Statistics are available. In addition to the reading level, the Sunshine State Standards are listed for both Language Arts and Mathematics.

Click here for all Lit2Go Math Activities.

Exploring Florida: Social Studies Resources for Students and Teachers

The pages on Florida Maps and Maps ETC contain an abundance of maps that can be used for mathematics activities involving scale drawings, proportions, ratios, measurement, percents, and application problems. They can also be used to calculate land mass and area. Students can study changes over time and make comparisons. This is a great resource for writing cross-curricular activities and real-world application problems.

A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust

Although there are certainly ways to use this information in mathematical contexts, it is considered inappropriate by most educators. We believe that the people involved in this tragedy should not be reduced to numbers.

See Technology Integration Matrix for more cross-curricular activities.

Technology in the Mathematics Classroom

Educational Technology Clearing House

Links to mathematics educational resources are found here. There are lessons, tutorials, activities, and more. This site contains wonderful resources not only to use in the classroom, but to pass along to students and parents as well.

Tech-Ease for Macintosh & Windows

Links to mathematics educational resources are found here. There are lessons, tutorials, activities, and more. This site contains wonderful resources not only to use in the classroom, but to pass along to students and parents as well.

Here you will find quick answers to real classroom technology questions. There are sections that cover hardware, Internet, file sharing, classroom practice, and more! You can read directions or even watch videos to help you learn something new! When you get frustrated with a technology issue, this is the place to which you should come! Check out the step-by-step podcasting video tutorial. You will learn how to find educational podcasts and create your own. You could have your students watch the tutorial and have them create podcasts. You could assign a project where students must create a podcast on a given topic. For example, they could give instructions on graphing a line in slope-intercept form or demonstrate a construction in a geometry class.

Whether you are looking to learn something new or solve a problem, Tech-Ease will become a great resource for you.

Multimedia in the Classroom: Engaging Students

This site focuses on using multimedia as tools to help students in your classroom. You will find explanations regarding what multimedia is, ways to help you plan your lessons, ideas to handle classroom management issues, delivery suggestions, and thoughts on assessments. The segment on classroom management issues is especially important. We often group students in our mathematics classrooms. The ideas presented here are relevant whether you are incorporating multimedia or not.

No Strings Attached

Here you will find several math activities that will allow you to integrate technology into the mathematics classroom with the use of wireless laptops. The site includes videos of teachers implementing the lessons in a classroom setting. There are an abundance of activities, organized by grade level, that use various programs and accommodate many learning styles. Each lesson includes objectives, materials, procedures, and a list of the sunshine state standards that are addressed.

Technology Integration Matrix

The matrix illustrates how teachers can use technology to enhance learning. The five interdependent characteristics of meaningful learning environments are matched with the five levels of technology integration, making 25 cells. The lessons include detailed plans and videos of teachers implementing the lesson in a real classroom.

In the Math Class - Using FCIT Resources

Conic Sections Lesson Presentations

These presentations can be used to teach the topic of Conic Sections: Parabolas, Circles, Ellipses, and Hyperbolas. The lessons are ready to use and include teacher notes on the slides. You will find step-by-step instructions for graphing the conics, examples to work out, higher-order questions, and reviews. They may be taught in any order, but they were written with the idea of teaching parabolas and circles first (in either order). Ellipses would be taught next, followed by hyperbolas. Many of the illustrations come from the Trigonometry and Analytic Geometry page on Clipart ETC.

Cross-curricular Activities: Social Studies and Mathematics

These activity sheets can be used to conduct cross-curricular lessons utilizing maps found on the Exploring Florida Maps page on the FCIT website. The activities are ready to print and the Sunshine State Standards for Mathematics are referenced.

Elementary Math: Counting Activity Sheets

These activity sheets are for students to practice counting by fives and tens using dominoes, bundles of sticks, and currency. The activities are ready to print. Additional sheets can be made by accessing all possible domino combinations, bundles of sticks, and currency on Clipart ETC: Math website.

Professional Organizations

American Mathematical Society (AMS)
The American Mathematical Society was founded in 1888 to further the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its meetings, publications, advocacy, and other programs.
Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE)
The AMTE is a non-profit organization created to promote the improvement of mathematics teacher education in all its aspects.
Florida Council of Teachers of Mathematics (FCTM)
FCTM promotes communication and cooperation amongst math teachers in the state of Florida.
Mu Alpha Theta
Mu Alpha Theta is a National Mathematics Honor Society that is dedicated to inspiring keen interest in mathematics, developing strong scholarship in the subject, and promoting the enjoyment of mathematics in high school and two-year college students.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)
The mission of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics is to provide the vision and leadership necessary to ensure a mathematics education of the highest quality for all students.
More professional organizations