Math Wire

As a teacher, I rely heavily on material I find on the internet.  I don't usually have a library available to visit for material, I don't have other high school math teachers to collaborate, and I seldom get professional development I can use so I go to the internet.

The other day I came across the Mathwire website. This site had tons of activities, links, and information to make a teachers job easier.

The site allows people to go through material either by alphabetical order, standards, or a inactive blog.

Before I go any further, I'm going to let you know that much of the material is dated back  around the early 21st century with comments about putting the templates in a plastic sleeve so students can use dry erase markers to fill out the templates.  When done, they can be cleared up.  These templetes can be digitized and opened in a variety of apps which allow students to annotate them.

One blank templet is the triangle used to show how multiplication or addition facts relate to division or subtraction.  There are frequency tables, spinners, grids, function machines, and all sorts of other templates that can be used in a classroom.

Another suggestion is to have students use white boards but those are becoming a thing of the past because they are being replaced with apps.  You can still do white board activities on either a white board app or a doodling app.  The nice thing about using mobile devices is that you do not use a ton of dry erase markers.

There are pages devoted to specific topics such as coordinate Geometry.  Although many of the activities are actually designed for elementary students, with a bit of adjustment, they can be used in middle school or high school.  There is a penguins game which uses letters and numbers in the first quadrant but with a minor adjustment, make it both numbers on the X and Y axis.

Basically, two people fill a grid with penguins.  They then roll two dice and based on the results of the roll, the student will remove a penguin from that location.  A player gets 10 points if they remove their own penguin, 20 if they remove the other person's penguin, and the first person to reach 100 points win.

Another activity is called Who Has?  The examples are set up to use multiplication tables such as "I have 0, Who has 5 x 7?"  and the person who has the answer speaks up and reads their Who Has question.  This means all students are involved and it gives them a chance to practice their multiplication but this game could easily be extended to practicing division,

 The site has a "Who has" which uses expressions in written and verbal form.  It might go like "I have 3x, Who has two times a number? but it would be quite easy to make one for solving one, two, or multi step equations. This might go as "I have  x = 3, who has 2x + 1 = 13" to give students actual practice.  If I do something requiring more thought, I give students time to work the problem read out so they get practice but only one person is going to have the answer.

I like sites like this because it sometimes has activities I can easily use or made adjustments to or it reminds me about activities I've done before but let slip to the side.  Later in the summer I"m going to make some Who Has decks for my algebra classes.

As stated earlier, many activities are for elementary students but if your students are well below grade level, you can utilize many of these activities in class.  Most students like playing games or doing things that allow them to stand up and move around. Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.